JSngry

Found at this incredible Dolphy site (which has an extensive discography, btw, as well as video and audio clips): http://farcry.neurobio.pitt.edu/Discograph...es/EDIntro.HTML

Dolphy's all over this baby:

Found this one at Dusty Groove a few weeks ago, and must say that I'd never heard of it at all, which considering that it's a live trio date w/Smith, Donald Bailey, and GEORGE BENSON (Nathan Page on one tune), seems odd. Seems to be a late 60s/very early 70s thing, released after FURTHER ADVENTURES OF JIMMY AND WES. Said to have been recorded at Paschal's La Carousel in Atlanta, Georgia and produced by Esmond Edwards. Benson, it says "appears through the courtesy of A&M Records" so this seems to date it in the days when CTI was an A&M thing. Some questions: Was Benson just sitting in on this gig? The appearance of Page suggests that possibility. But what the heck was Verve doing in ATLANTA to record a live Smith date? That suggests the possibility that Benson was touring with Smith, if only for a limited time, and that somebody wanted an album out of the collaboration. Anybody know? Why is this album so unfamilar to me? Is it something that all hardcore Smith buffs know about and are familiar with? I'm surprised as well that it's not been reissued at least once, what with the marquis draw of George Benson. It's a really nice record - the crowd is really noisy (assuming that the noise is real), and the music is mellow yet involved, the kind of thing that makes perfect hip background music. Until you start listening to it, that is... And on a side note, the LP back shows the album before FURTHER ADVENTURES as LIVIN' IT UP, another bib band date arranged by Oliver Nelson and anothe Smith Verve I was totally unaware of. Anybody ever hear it? Opinions? As always, thanks in advance!

I can't stop listening to this album. It gets deeper with every listen. There's so much to ponder in Edwards' playing here, but for me it all comes down to one core point - the man is telling us the story of his life, and telling it masterfully. I keep hearing echos of other times, other players. But it's not some contrived "retro" approach, nor is it a conceptual POV thing like Raasahn or Shepp (and BTW, there are a LOT of things Edwards plays here that could easily be off a late 60s/early 70s Shepp record. But it's not imitative (in either direction), it's just the vocabulary of a certain time and a certain instrument, the lingua franca of a certain breed of musician). It's nothing more than Teddy Edwards playing his life. For just one example, check out how his opening notes on "It's The Talk Of The Town" somehow conjure up Hawk & Prez simultaneously(!), but still sound like nobody else but Edwards. You can't get there just from listening to records or reading books, you have to LIVE it, and Teddy Edwards spent his life living it, spent his life not just playing jazz but BEING jazz. He might have lived that life in (semi)obscurity, but it was a life that was all about music, the music of his world, his time, his people. This kind of jazz is about to be dead, if it isn't already. Oh sure, the "style" will live on, but it will be played by people who came to/by it after the fact, after it was a part of the fiber of everyday life for a community. For me, that's a subtle yet very real difference, the difference between lovingly reading Grampa's memoirs aloud and actually hearing Grampa talk to you himself. And if the people of today spend all their time obsessing over Grandpa, what's THEIR story going to be when THEY get to be Grandpa? The musical and social scene(s) that bred Teddy Edwards is/are all but dead, and now, so too is Teddy. That's just the way life goes - it goes... Actually, as a thriving, vital, community-based scene, it has probably been dead for quite a while now. But there's always survivors, and Teddy Edwards WAS a survivor, one of the type that remained true to who he was up until the very end, one who got to be "who he was", simply by being who he was, nothing more, nothing less, through good times and bad. How many people in any walk of life can you say that about, especially today, when it seems that "creating" yourself has somehow displaced BEING yourself as the preferred way of living? As fine as the other work of his that I've heard has been, Edward seems to reach a rarified peak here, almost as if he was finally at the mountaintop's highest and final peak, that level of total self-awareness and flawless execution that a lot of musicians would gladly die today for if they could just get there one time. He's 100% flawless AND 100% naturally human on this date, and there is a word for those rare artisitc achievements that accomplish this. That word is "masterpiece". I'll go on record here and now and say that in my opinon, SMOOTH SAILING is just such a work, an album that over time will surely be recognized as the precious treasure it is, and one that will only grow in stature as the years pass and those who care about such things realize what a total musical and human triumph it is. What a beautiful album this is.

Taking a cue from the Mavericks & Dirk Nowitsky, Spurs management took to the phones last night, frantically calling all over Germany in search of a certain Coach Heimlich...

Recently released:

Cover story in this month's JAZZ TIMES is Osby & this album.

When it comes to the Music Business And All Things Related, musicians are (usually) a necessary evil at best. Once the music gets made, they have served their purpose. Breeders, that's what musicians are, professional baby-makers for "the industry". Why would you want to interview THAT when there are obviously more qualifed people to speak with?

Say man, I picked up a ciopy of that album a few weeks ago, and whoever one of the previous owners had covereved up the word "bitch" with a piece of masking tape and had written the word "women" on it. WHO IS THIS WOMEN ANYWAY? has a nive ring to it, like ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

Ok, you know how the First Herd's "Caledonia" was probably the RUDEST record ever made by a bunch of popular white guys, at least in its time? How the opening trumpet plunger riff sounds like a group of hopped up speedfreak sons slapping their momma? How Flip Phillips' solo is like a man with a 13" schlong who ain't gotten any for a cuppla weeks walking up to EVERY chick he sees with his fly open and saying, "C'mon baby.Now!", and how the trumpets just egg him on, like they know that once Flip scores, EVERYBODY scores? How the ending shout chorus has Dave Tough pounding the SHIT out of his cymbals like nobody's really done before or since? How Chubby Jackson pushes the band with a drive that can only be described as hormones-without-restraint? How Woody's vocal is just so "FUCK YOU" in the most agreeable manner possible? How when the record's over your adrenaline is pumped up 20-30 higher than it was before? And how while at the same time there's all this crazed testosterone-driven horndoggy sociopathy going on, actual music of not a little substance is geting made? Well, that's the spirit of every great band that Woody ever had, and the mid-60s band was one of his greatest. It's a "big band" - not a "jazz orchestra", "improvisational ensemble" or anything else like that. They had charts and they played the charts like everytime was gonna be their last. It was definitely a "road" band. Not really interested in anything more esoteric than playing their ass off between bus rides and blurred-together one-nighters in anoymous towns for often clueless audiences who just wanted to dance to "Laura" one more time. Sal Nistico - one of the all time great big-band tenorists, a genre unto itself. That motherfucker could play. Bill Chase - higher and louder? No problem? You need it to SWING? Even LESS of a problem, then. Phil Wilson - a certified character as both trombonist and writer. Tricky Sam lives, and with the emphasis on Tricky. Nat Pierce - too damn old to have been out on the road at this point of his life, but there he was, and writing a bunch of charts that don't do anything more demanding than sound freakin' great. Jake Hanna - a drummer I elsewise have little or no use for, but the perfect drummer for THIS band. He played tight on the beat, could handle any insane uptempo, keep a ballad from dragging, and put just the right touch (and nothing more) exactly where and when it needed to be put. If Jo Jones ever got his chocolate in Max Roach's peanut butter, the resulting Reese's Cup would be Jake Hanna in his Herman years. And Woody? Woody? Woody Herman is proof that if you give a bunch of nuts enough rope, they'll build you a castle before they hang themselves in it. Woody was a bandleader like they don't much make anymore, somebody who was at once corny and hip, and who ALWAYS knew when to be which and to what degree. Anybody else sings those lyrics to "Camel Walk", and I'm reachin' for some heat. With Woody, it's a surrealistic cornball moment that you just GOT to laugh at. Because, like the 3 Stooges, it may be DUMBER tahn hell, but it's also FUNNIER than hell too. And oh yeah - it SWINGS like a M-U-T-T-H-A-F-U-K-K-A-H too. So yeah, if you want music of probing intellectual or spiritual qualities, or some other worthy qualities, look elsewhere than the 60s Herd. But if you want a quality "Boys' Night Out", one that will make you feel like a man sometimes likes, no, NEEDS to feel every so often when the shit gets a little TOO thick, but is top-shelf in every regard, then dive in headfirst and stay as long as you like. Nobody gets pissed when you leave, because they KNOW you'll be back. Oh yes you will. I guarantee it.

Ooops, wrong Blue Note...

My dad's dead, but just his body. His spirit lives on in me, be it the things I picked up from him or the things I made a conscious effort NOT to do like him. Or even when the latter ends up as the former... I suppose in the grand scheme of things he was just another guy, like most of us are. But in MY scheme of things, he's the most important man who has ever lived. Maybe that IS the grand sceme of things....

I thought that satire was supposed to be fictitious.

Hmmm... a long lasting Dick and cream in a twink... Isn't this the sort of thing that got the BN Board shut down?

Oh HELL yeah!!!!

As is the chance to hear Sam Rivers play a solo that I'm guessing appoximated the way he played with T-Bone Walker. Fascinating. All told, a worthy purchase, I think. No "lost masterpieces" or anything like tha, but some good stuff and a fun listen.

For a chage of pace, howzabout... Helen Merrill, Steve Lacy, Paul Bley, Gary Peacock, and Daniel Humair. All ballads and waltzes, of course. Ran Blake can sub when Bley's unavailable.

I sometimes play with the keyboardist, Kim Corbett, one of the great unfettered minds of our time. What you get one time will most assuredly what you do NOT get the next. The other guy was an electronic drummer, actually, and unfortunately he's gotten waaaay tied down w/domestic responsibilities. Haven't played with him in over a year now. The night you heard us was one of our first times playing together, and, yeah, it was a challenge. Not because the cat was a drag or anything like that, but just because it was not what I normally play with. At ALL. Before we kinda lost touch though, we did a series of casual private recordings. Kim & I went into the project eager to get Chad out of his constant "groove" style of playing, but naturally - no ultimatums, laying down of the law, or any such thing. We just figured we'd overwhelm him by the sheer force of our charm and musical personality. :D The first time it worked, Chad was really taken aback - he felt as if he weren't "contributing" or actually "playing". When he heard the results, though, it clicked, and he realized that he didn't have to play time and groove ALL the time, that sometimes color and texture were just what the music called for. We did 3-4 more sessions of what would probably be called "Electro-Accoustic Improvisation", I suppose, and none are at all similar to the other. Some of the results are "purely" musical, others are very comedy-oriented, others are cinematic/soundtrack-like, but all are different, and nothing was preplanned. Nothing. That's what makes playing with certain people fun - the serendipity aspect. And to stay on topic, I've met Lon, Cary, Al, and the aforementioned Shawn & Joe Two Man Collector's Mafia. Got a phone call from Kevin B once, and feel as if I know may of you really well through e-mails and such. And summer being what it is, any invitations issued still stand, recent domestic discombulations notwithstanding, so keep your plans intact! I MIGHT have seen Harold Vick somewhere too, but it's too soon to tell.

I picked up the last thing by Braith w/the Family Singers. It's definitely "homemade", definitely "eccentric", and definitely Braithily WACK. If that sounds like I didn't dig it, well, that's wrong - I dig the SHIT out of it! But it ain't gonna be everybody's cup of tea, which no doubt explains the omnipresence of Lipton. What's up w/the website anyway? Last I looked (last year...), it was down. Is it back up? Long live the independent (TRULY independent) freaks like George Braith!

I want my Dexter/Stitt. Reactivate Manhattan if need be!

All right then. Blue Notes I don't like... From the Lion Wolff era, I can honestly say that there are none. Not in the "oh geez, take that off NOW" way of not liking something. There's always something there, a good soloist, a good solo, a good tune, or just the enjoyment from a "document" standpoint (a POV not to be underestimated, btw). BUT... There are albums that I like LESS than others, ones that for me just don't quite gel or otherwise don't showcase the talent involved as well as others. They aren't "bad" albums, and are emminently likeable as part of a broader historical overview, but are not ones that I listen to recreationally. Actually there's a LOT of these, but let's not go THERE - time is short... Some of these which might surprise, given my stated tastes, are PAGE ONE, MODE FOR JOE, TROMPETTA TOCATTA, SONNY ROLLINS VOLUME 1, GRASS ROOTS, and any number of the more "blowing session" type dates from the 50s (the Griffin/Trane/Mobley & Gilmore/Jordan NOTABLY excepted). I'd quite often rather hear something like ACCENT ON THE BLUES, where maybe "lesser" players in the historical pantheon make more engaging (well, egaged, actually) music than a date by a heavyweight that doesn't reach full potential for whatever reason (and it's no shame when that happens). Also, in general, I think the label's output in the 60s paid greater attention to nuances of tempo and instrumental texture than did that of the 50s. Some of that might be the Silver influence blossoming out into a broader sphere, some of that might be the Englewood Cliffs studio and the sonic potentials it afforded, some of that might be the subtle-but-real influence of Duke Pearson, and some of that might be, and probably is, the confluence of the maturations of Lion as a producer with the musical maturation of many of his key artists (and a miraculous crop of new talent from within those artists' orbs). Whatever the reason, if I find CLIFF JORDAN and MODE FOR JOE ultimately equivalent in the "good, but not great, rather listen to something else by these guys" category, the difference in the production values and musical variety of the 2 records speaks volumes about the developements (dare I say "progress"?) made by both the music and the label. That's just for recreational listening though, and I've got two (at least) listening modes - recreational and historical, and both are vital to my enjoyment and understanding of music - ALL music. The two modes sometimes overlap. and sometimes one will morph into the other when nobody's looking. Besides, I've got way too much respect for the craftsmanship/professionalism of the musicians involved and too much humility (accquired by numerous personal failures) about the whole act of improvisation and to dare say that anybody made an actual "bad" record for BN, at least in the "golden era". Some were definitely/obviously more successful than others, but to call any of them out and out "bad" takes more nerve than I can muster. Now that Ron Carter Bach album - THAT'S a bad record!

Wallace Roney married to Geri Allen - the luckiest man alive if you ask me.

Paul, I have responded.

How's about that "Guitar Album", the live thing with that absolutely insane, hardcore blindfold test material, Tiny Grimes stuff?