JSngry

Sonny Fortune on tenor:

Sonny on Lyricon:

Trane on flute:

LOVE LETTERS has been getting heavy play on KNTU, and what I've heard has been a bunch of rambunctious messification of the highest order. Roy's kicking EVERYBODY'S ass on this one. FRIENDSHIP is a different matter altogether, imo. If this album is indicative of Max's current condition, then, as much as it pains me to say this, I hope this is the last record he makes. He's not "off" or anything, but it sounds as if his strength has diminshed and his reflexes have slowed JUST a little bit. His timing is still impeccable, but the execution slips ever so slightly, not ever blatantly, but still... Objectively, it's not too a bad side at all, and Terry continues to defy time. But I've always idolized Max Roach as a Collosus of inextinguishable fire, inexhaustable strength, and neverending drive, both musically and personally. Objectivity is impossible. Hearing this album was a cold splash of reality that I'd really rather not have gotten, not just yet. Max has gotten old, and I'm not ready for that.

If you look at it JUST right, that picket fence looks like a piano keyboard. Perfect.

All I'll say is that everything has its place, sluttiness included. And that my wife's been out of town for 3 weeks and gets back Saturday. Draw your own conclusions....

Great pick, Chuck. It had been way too long. First got this one on the 1978 FIRE WALTZ Dolphy 2-fer on Prestige (w/a nice liner essay/personal reminiscence by Ken McIntyre, btw), and had kinda lapsed on it after a lot of listening early on. I refreshed my memory last night several times over, and it remains fresh and invigorating. Many things struck me while hearing this for the first time in not a few years, not the least of which being how intriguing the compositions are. There's a Mingus flavor to many of the heads, but a flavor is all it is - for a group whose three main solo voices have such a distinct Mingusian pedigree, this album is decidedly NOT a "Mingus without Mingus" project as it could have been fairly easily if Waldron didn't have a strong vision of his own, a vision of how to use many of the same compositional ingredients to create a totally different finished product. As Saint Vitus noted, Waldron definitely deserves greater recognition for his composing as well for his group concept - these tunes would definitely not have the same vibe with another pianist. Waldron gives the group a strong identity by his accompaniments, not unlike Horace Silver or Ellington did. That's no small feat if you ask me, and I think it shows a "wholistic" musical mind at work, something that might have become more commonplace as time passed, but in 1961 it was still a realtively rare concept, I think. So you can sense that this is not just another blowing session or a cursory runthrough of some forward-looking originals stemming from Mingus' influence. It COULD have been, but Waldron's pianistic shading throughout and attention to detail in arrangements sees to it that it's not. It's HIS world, his room with a view to all the currents of the time, and when the curtains are drawn, there's enough to hold your interest right there in that room that you don't really care if the curtains ever get reopened or not. And speaking of "forward looking", does anybody besides me hear more than a few moments that hint at Wayne Shorter's work later in the decade? "Duquility", in both the tune itself and the arrangement (which seems to have taken a lesson in two-horn scoring from Gerry Mulligan, of all people!) keeps reminding me of a Wayne tune or two (and oddly enough, Cecil Taylor's "Enter Evening" from UNIT STRUCTURES in the way the horns fade to quiet before the piano begins again, and Carter's arco cello somehow conjures Alan Silva. Wierd association, I know...), the opening of "Thirteen" prefigures THE ALL SEEING EYE not slightly (and by doing so inadvertantly shines a light on the Dolphy/Spaulding tonal connection that I might otherwise have overlooked), the theme to "We Diddit" has me flashing on Wayne's "Playground", and so on. I have no idea how much, if any, influence Waldron had on Wayne as a writer, but if nothng else, this tells me that Waldron at his most imaginative was indeed one of the more distinctive composers of his time, and not a little ahead of it as well. "Warm Canto" has been duly noted by many posters as an exceptionally beautiful piece, and indeed it is. At once reflecting the relatively underexplored potential of the best of the earliest Chico Hamilton Quintets (rustiness on the clarinet aside, this piece must have provided Dolphy with a chance for a moment of musical looking-back that he seldom got), and, believe it or not, some of the more interesting moments that were going on behind Ken Nordine's Word Jazz, it nevertheless keeps from feeling anything less that totally of the moment, and you can give Charlie Persip's subtle driftings in and out of 12/8 all the credit for that you see fit! And hey - what's up with Waldron's very last chord? THAT's the kind of thing that makes me think of everything that just happened in a totally different context, and the only way to get that context is to go back and listen to the piece again, from the beginning, which I of course do. And do... Chuck noted that this was the last album of Waldron's "first" career, and there could be no better forshadowing of Waldron's upcoming groove/trance work on Max Roach's SPEAK, BROTHER SPEAK! than " Warp and Woof ", but for my tastes, this is the "lull" (but only relatively speaking) of the album. Booker, who normally simultaneously breathes and spits fire on this kind of groove, seems hung for inspiration, Persip, who otherwise spends the album as Waldron's proofreader, making shure that EVERY nuance of the music is properly brought to our attention, makes me want to hear Max's perpetual butt-kicking, and the less said about Ron Carter here, the better (Chuck, I think he's only "safe" on cello when he doesn't bow! ). But the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and this incarnation of "Fire Waltz" is a trip-and-a-half, what the results of the musical coupling of Nino Rota with Mingus may very well have returned. Dark? Yeah. Puckish? HELL yeah. Tailormade for Booker's patented wailing, sequential-induced dissonace through taking the express through the changes rather than the local and Dolphy's seriously wry/wryly serious/dare-you-to-decide-which-it-is way with a melody? HELL YEAH!!! And - The kind of album closer that makes you let the disc loop indefinitely so you can take this ride through this unique world one more time, one more time, one more time, one more time? Damn straight it is.

You know, the various Time recordings that Max Roach played on (and this is one), are uniformly excellent. Collation of some sort would make for a nice set someday. Interesting how Max followed Bob Shad from Mercury/Emarcy to Time, but not to Mainstream, Shad's next label. Wonder what the story there is?

Brad - "Blues In Hoss Flat", the opener of the Basie album, is the piece that Lewis used for his famous pantomine in "The Errand Boy" where he was fantasizing about being, well, Chairman of the Board. You know, the one where he's at the board table by himself w/a big stogie and is barking at the imaginary board in sync w/the music. Pretty clever, actually, at least the first time through. Otherwise, it's a good album, but a little too tightly arranged overall for my tastes, a big step along the way for the criticisms that Basie's band was turning into a "swing machine" and losing any and all spontanety. The only thing that really opens up is "Seque In C", which is REALLY nice. The writing's top-notch throughout, especially Thad's "Speaking Of Sound" & "Mutt & Jeff", but again, more solos and less ensemble would have made it more to my liking. But as I understand it, the album did really well saleswise, so that's that! Besides, it's all history now, The REAL Basie band is long dead, so any document from the "glory days", and this was definitely from the glory days, has merit as a document, I think. But the same band doing the same material live and stretching out some would have probably made for a better album. Just my opinion. Classic cover though:

The Basie is a must-have for Jerry Lewis fans.

Sadness behind the sun? Is that the inverse of the cloud's silver lining? And angular reed notes? Geez, I get a hernia just TRYING to visualize what THOSE must involve. WTF? da'Groove done outdid themselves w/those, and THAT takes some doing... But the cringe-o-meter will revert to "happy" when the music is heard. Those Calliman Cataylst sides are nice.

Just to clarify, it's with Hutch's BAND of the time - Bayete Todd Cochrane, James Leary, & the amazing Woody Theus (aka Sonship), with spot appearances from Victor Pantoja & Luis Gasca. Bobby himself is not on it. But hey, you wanna make some noise, you got my support. The last I heard, Mainstream is in the hands of Sony. In the meantime, be on the lookout for used vinyl.

What's that gooey stuff they put on the cut?

Got this one for Fathers Day, and it's a very good'un indeed. I mean no slight when I say that Mariano's melody statements overshadow his improvisations. His soloing is very, VERY good, an ongoing quirky leap up into the altissimo register notwithstanding. But BOY does he bring a lot to (and out of) those melodies! Recommended, and with not a little enthusiasm. Repeatly being played here.

One word: IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! IAPETUS!!!! On Mainstream, early 70s, not quite like anything else, DESPERATELY needs reissuing. Cheap & inadequate description = the followup to Filles that Miles never made. Made w/ Bobby Hutcherson's early 70s band w/o Bobby, pretty "trippy" but DAMN does it hold up well today to these ears. Hadley's been on the scene since the late 40s, had a long bout w/drug addiction (which he speaks of openly). Those Catalyst sides are good, espescially the one w/Elvin. Hadley had another Mainstream album before IAPETUS that I've not heard, but its reputation ain't so great. IAPETUS, however, is one-of-a-kind in my book, one of those "lost treasures" that time is trying REALLY hard to forget. It ain't "straight ahead jazz", though. Not everybody would share my enthusiasm I'm sure, if for no other reason than I've hyped the damn thing so much that it'll probably seem anti-climatic. But I can't help myself. I really do think it's THAT good. Caliman can also be heard on Santana's CARAVANSERI, playing the saxophonic skronk that opens the album. Chuck Nessa has spoken to Hadley fairly recently for the Uptown Mingus set booklet. Maybe he has current info.

This has beguiled me for a long time. I know Duke's piece was about Congo Square, but that doesn't explain the meaning of the actual word. And what about Bird's reworking of "Cherokee"? Anybody know how it came to be named that? The word seems to pop up occasionally, either straight or varied, in old blues songs, so it must have been in the vernacular. Is it a respelling of "cocoa" or is it a derivation of something African (grasping at straws here...)? Of course, there's Kokomo, Indiana, but I always assumed (incorrectly?) that that was a Native American thing. Anybody have any insight? Thanks in advance.

Chris is visiting outta town for a while, that's all I know.

We are indeed living in interesting times!

I play an old Selmer C* (short neck) that had the bore hollowed out before I got it. Played a metal Berg 120/0 for years before I got tired of being so damn BRIGHT all the time. This C*, believe it or not, can actually play louder than the Berg, but it's got a nice fat dark sound that can be colored to fit the context. Plus, it sounds GREAT when miked, which is most of the time these days, it seems. Not my preference necessarily, but whatcha gonna do bout that? Reeds vary between Vandoren Java 3 1/2, regular Vandoren 3, and LaVoz Medium Hard, whatever seems to be in season at the time. The thing to remember about mouthpieces is that they're facilitators of the tone, not creators of it. Over time, you're going to get your basic sound no matter WHAT you play on, so keep that in mind. A mouthpiece that sounds radically different when you first play it is going to sound a lot more like what you sound now in a few weeks (or less). If you want a totally different sound, you gotta look at embochure, breathing, all that INTERNAL stuff. So when auditioning mouthpieces, think in terms of ease of playing, evenness, degrees of tonal nuance, that sort of thing, NOT getting a totally different sound. I know you're switching from alto, but keep it in mind anyway. Really, if you want a dark sound, don't rule out rubber, especially the older Bergs. Seems like metal is the de facto choice today, but it shouldn't always be so if you ask me. Experiment, and if you got the time and the $$$, look at older pieces, either in pawn shops (less $$$) or online (SIGNIFICANTLY more $$$). I lucked into mine - it came with a horn my folks bought me for High School graduation!

Tiptoe through the trollops, I always say...

I think a Blakey "loose ends" set would be inevitable eventually. His Colpix, Limelight, and Roulette recordings all under one roof. None of it is his very best work by any means, but it needs to be done, I think.

I believe that Metrojazz was the MGM jazz subsidiary before they bought Verve from Norman Granz. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but not a lot of their stuff got transfered to Verve that I'm aware of (Sonny's BRASS/TRIO is a notable exception), and not all that much of it has made it to CD. This sounds like a really good one. Certainly a top-shelf lineup. What are the tunes?

Snoop's got a winner here!

I voted reform, because at it's best, boxing is a fascinating sport to watch for the strategies and the improvisational tactics used by the boxers. It's no mystery why so many jazz musicians have been big boxing buffs. But - the sport has become so corrupt and such a circus run amock that whatever there is to be enjoyed and valued in the sport is on the verge of being lost, if it hasn't been already. Reform of both in-the-ring matters and business/regulatory matters are greatly needed.

Good to see you here, Shrdlu! P.S. I avoid the word "fundamentalist", as it has been used by the media in conection with various religious and political crackpots over the years. Duly noted.