JSngry

Now that the avatar's changed, I feel a lot better saying, "Here's looking at'cha!" A LOT better... Happy Birthday.

Norah's country is America, as is her mother's. Her father's country was India, and still in fact is! Did you know that even though he is from India, Ravi Shankar is not Norah's mother's father, nor is he related to Jewel?

Indeed. The thing that has always moved me about this album is just how fully realized and MATURE, to echo Lon's first reaction, a musical statement this is. Art of this caliber, of this degree of perfection, is rare in ANY medium, I think. If we can take as implicit that one of the major motivators in playing jazz, perhaps THE major motivator for some, is the discovery and subsequent assertion of one's unique "self-self", then it is not at all an unreasonable yardstick to use when measuring the "success" of any endeavor just how much of yourself you've found and just how confident you are in asserting it. In this album, we have what surely must be the Gold Standard. Armstrong here is so TOTALLY himself, so TOTALLY in command of every aspect of this performance - not just the technical details, but the intangible elements like vibe and such. The man fully inhabits every element of this music in a way that is as natural as it is absolute, and you know how I know (as opposed to "feel")? Timing. Timing is everything. Timing is what ultimately differentiates between FEELING confident and BEING confident. Timing can destroy even the best people if it's even a microsecond off, if the situation is critical enough. And believe it or not, the stakes in Louis' game ARE that critical. It's a given among musicians that it's harder to play slow than it is fast, REALLY play, and that the same holds true for playing less than more. The reason is simple, really - the slower and simpler anything is, the more room there is for a misfire in timing, and a mistake that at a faster/more busy pace could be glossed over by musician and listener alike suddenly becomes EXTREMELY obvious, unsettling even, because it has no place to hide, nothing forthcoming to immediately cover it with. When listening to this album, I'm constantly struck, no, AWEstruck, at how absolutely freakin' PERFECT Pops' timing is, in both his playing and his singing. It's not just in the placement of the notes either, it's in the falloffs and upwards glisses, it's in the attacks and the cutoffs, it's in the vibrato, it's in the constant shifting of vocal tone (technical term unknown to me), it's so omnipresent as to be the defining factor of this music and this artist. But such a miracle does not come about as a matter of strictly mechanical indoctrination. Practice will only get you so far down this road. After that, it comes down to what you find when you get to yourself - what and who you REALLY are. Well, the revelation that Louis Armstrong was one of the purest, most wholly-formed spirits of this or any other time should come as nothing but a world-class DUH!!! to most jazz folks, but we take that as a given at the risk of glossing over it, of not fully understanding EXACTLY how profound what the man accomplished was in purely HUMAN terms. Music is just the surface - what counts, REALLY counts for me is how one man could be SO self-aware and SO confidently joyous at the same time. There is no cheapness in Armstrong's music. Over the years, there was often a veneer of cheapness in the setting, the material, and/or the presentation, all there as a commercial necessity. The veneer often obscured the essence for many, and probably still does today. But there is none of that on Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy, and we can see the man revealed for the triumph of the human spirit that he truly was, no filters or blockage in place. A pure, unalloyed triumph. This is more than great music - this is a benchmark for humanity. That might be prose of the purple variety, probably is, but I stand behind the sentiment. Once again, genius and its power are rare in this world, but they cannot be denied or glossed over when one is confronted with them if one has any hope at all of living a truly honest life. This album contains just such genius. Just my opinion, of course.

"Blow me some Trane, Brother", calls The Godfather. Robert McCollough is not up to THAT task, but what he delivers instead sets the standard for this kind of thing in my opinion. Reissued on and if you don't have it, well...

Why not be a friend and give her some Ellington overview thing? That's a band that between Bigard, Hamilton, & Procope has enough distinctive varied clarinet stylings to capture the imagination. And there's so, SO very much more. Nobody's recommended Eddie Daniels? COOL! :rsmile: :rsmile: :rsmile: Of course, if you want the kid to be a total failure as a clarinet student but have an awareness of just how heavy a personal expression MUSIC can be, there's the version of "They Can't Take That Away From Me" from this album: But you can say that about MOST jazz clarinet. I was required to take two years of clarinet in college, since saxophone was my first instrument, and every, EVERY teadher I had would rag endlessly about jazz clarinetists. This was before Daniels made the transition from ultra-hip Joe Henderson wannabe tenorist to godawfully squeaky clean jazz clarinet technician supreme. Even Goodman got dissed for being, "Better than most, but still sloppy". His cllassical recordings were regarded as a noble joke by these cats. So tell her to switch to tenor befire it's too late.

In the spirit of "family first", I gotta put in a plug for the Nessa catalog - not "obscure" in terms of GLOBAL recognition or reputation, but not on nearly as many shelves as the music warrants. If Roscoe ain't to your liking, perhaps Von is, or Warne will be. If none of THOSE 3 do anything for you, what the hell are you doing HERE? :D

Very good, very solid. Nowhere near as radical as the Freeman or as miraculous as the Edwards, but mighty fine playing by all concerned. I could live happily enough without it, but will live happier with it. Fathead's ALWAYS a gas for me. Why? Just because. Just my opinion.

Looks like he took his McDonalds jingle literally...

Damn, one minute it's hordes of nubile Indonesian fans, the next it's people arriving from miles around to vomit on me. Wonder if this is kinda how Jesus felt?

Only wrote one letter to a jazz mag, in December of 1971, and it was published: Down Beat, March 2, 1972, in response to a "damning with faint praise" review by Bill Cole of the first Music Inc. Big Band record. Was sneaking a read of the magazine during sophomore biology when I saw the letter and gasped out loud, causing the teacher to, uh, "redirect" his attention my way. He threatened to seize the issue (other issues WERE in fact seized due to a recurring L.P. ad with a breast-baring model, but were always returned. Eventually...) but upon seeing what had caused my disruptive behavior and reading the letter to himself, he then read it aloud to the class and said, "Mr. Sangrey stands up for his convictions", like that was going to be a GOOD thing to the average high school sophomore... I'd like to say that all the jocks gave me a pat on the back after class for defending Tolliver and crew, and that all the babes were clogging my phone line begging me to give it to them Strata-East style, but that would be a lie, and lying is wrong.

Hmmm... The new site looks bigger yet somehow smaller, or vice versa. A miracle of modern science, I suppose... Ah, what the hell. The damn thing's gonna cost me money no matter HOW it looks. :D

Now, let's not be too hasty, P.D. Here's a version with a "very special" vocal by Buddy Rich! Betcha you'll think it's "cute"! http://www2.bitstream.net/~tgg/rafiles/kindacute.ra Adults only!

Aw, c'mon. You guys don't remember "Laugh In"?

Can a duet with Dookie Coleman be too far off?

Does the B.A.G. scene count? And there IS the "St. Louis school" of trumpet players. I've got a good friend who's close to a lifelong St. Louisian, and he claims that the city hit its peak when they hosted the World's Fair back in whenever it was, and that the city began a slow but certain decline shortly thereafter that has left its mark on all aspects of the city. That's just his opinion, though, and he still enjoys living there. Might it be safe to say that with Chicago so nearby, relatively speaking, that it might have been both easier and more alluring to head there and sim big rather than stay home and play small? Just a theory. Oh yeah, Grant Green.

Again, heavy rotation on KNTU (aw hell, if anybody's interested, they do streaming audio http://www.kntu.fm ) has caused a new release to get my attention above the usual drone of clone jazz and jazz golden oldies-but-goodies. This time it's a release by longtime Billy Harper pianist Francesca Tanksley, joined by Harper bandmates Clarence Seay & Newman Taylor Baker. I've always dug Tanksley'swork w/Harper. She's not a startingly "original stylist" (her work w/Harper is steeped in Tyner, but as an influence, not as a source to plunder and plagerize), but I think she has nevertheless asserted a strong personality within a preexisting style. Besides, this album shows her range and depth - there are pieces, STRONG pieces, that are not at all Tyneresque. Her playing has a certain "serenity" for me that provides a dimension that many other players lack. Serenity, but not blandness or "easy" content. As well, I very much like the way that she's always been able to flow naturally within Billy's forms - not as easy a task as you might think. Some of the pieces here have those long and winding forms, but, again, they do not sound imitative. In terms of finding distinctly original substance within existing parameters, a comparison to Bertha Hope may not be totally off base, but that's just my impression. The 2 or 3 cuts I've heard off this new disc all have that same quality of originality within a traditional "style". Tanksley is a musician/composer well past the "look at me!" stage and has been for quite some time (if indeed she was ever there at all). I hear a definite, distinct voice in both the playing and the composing, and that's the first thing I look for in a new release (and often the last thing I find...). I think she's only selling this disc through her website: http://www.dreamcallerproductions.com/dream/music.html Just wondering if anybody was familiar w/the entire album. This might appeal to many on the board here, I think. There's RealPlayer samples on the site, and I'm very much liking what I'm hearing.

Got anything else coming out soon, Phil? (Don't you just love THAT question? :D ) Seriously, I ask because... That Johnson/Nichols date's been getting pretty heavy airplay on KNTU down here, and I enjoy it every time out, your unique contributions in particular, so I'm wondering if you've done any more sideman dates recently that we can look forward to? You got a good thing goin', man!

What a glorious kaleidoscope of a record this is!

Holy shazz-ittski! A cuppla decades late, I finally pick up on Joe's BARCELONA (Enja) Great, GREAT side, although those of you who prefer your Joe on the decidedly "in" side might want to tread lightly. This date shows, to me anyway, why Joe is (I refuse to say "was") beloved by tenor players everywhere - his tone here is just incredibly rich and full, and his command of the horn's "traditional" and "extended" techniques are total and (seemingly ) effortless. If you play the tenor and love the tenor, you just GOT to love Joe Henderson, and this is one of his most "tenor-centric" recordings. Loosely structured (when it's structured at all), the natural interplay between the trio of Joe and the relatively "unknowns" Wayne Darling and Ed Soph is a gas to hear. Soph, btw, is currently on faculty here at UNT and is playing really, REALLY well these days. Attention should be paid... BARCELONA is a side I kinda passed on and over back in the day. I already had lots of Joe, and the choice of rhythm section kinda made me shrug and move on. My bad on all counts, but I will say that one of the joys of leaving things behind for another day is that when that day finally comes, often enough the rewards are SCH-WEEEEEEET, and BARCELONA is sweet indeed.

Phil's on a roll - besides this HIGHLY recommended new release of his (love the title, btw, as it sums up the music in several different ways), his appearances on Eric T. Johnson's new Summit release HERBIE NICHOLS, VOLUME 1 is nothing short of outstanding. The (trumpet) guy's got PERSONALITY in his playing, beaucoups personality, in fact, and there just ain't that much of that around these days. PLAYFUL INTENTIONS is a seriously happy/happily serious work from a musician from whom we'll hopefully be hearing lots more. Check it out!

39 Steps is a sentimental favorite, being the first "earlier" Hitchcock film I ever saw. The scream/train whistle cut still grabs me.

See ya' when you get back, ok? Best wishes!

Oh yeah... Marvin has a special place in my heart, mind and soul. A rather serious place in fact. But to think of him as a "soul singer" is to me somewhat the equivalent of thinking of Ellington as a "jazz piano player". It's a TRUE description, just not neccessarily a COMPLETE one.

"Favorite Soul Singer"? Might as well ask me to pick my favorite finger, or my favorite ventricle, or my favorite eye... Ann Peebles, anybody? Ted Taylor? Johnnie Taylor? Joe Tex? Irma Thomas? Rufus Thomas? Carla Thomas? Tina Turner (those not old enough to remember best go check out those earlier Ike & Tina sides, the ones you had to listen to "certain stations" to hear)? Did somebody say Laura Lee? Betty Wright? Joe Simon? ClarenceCarter? Tyrone Davis? (if you like the beggin'...) The list(s) go(es) on - this is an incredible deep well.

B) B) B) B) B) B) B) B)