JSngry

Limited time here, so here's what I've glommed from Ornette's music from a theoretic standpoint: Take a note, say a "C". That C can be the root of a C chord, the 3rd of an Ab Major chord, the 5th of an F chord, the 7th of a D chord, etc. This mutability of any note's harmonic function opens up the door for the spontaneous creation of non-predictable harmonic movement throughout the course of improvisation rather than a cyclical, recurrent form. THAT part of Ornette's music has been around since the early (earliest?) days. The rest of the Harmolodic Theory, I suspect, is a philosphical extension of that basic precept - that any note can "mean" any thing at any given time. Two more things - there was a Down Beat Workshop column or two in the late 70s where Ornette expounded on the Harmolodic Theory. It's nothing if not"theoretical", if you get my drift... Also, if you can find the old Artists House TALES OF CAPTAIN BLACK LP, the booklet includes "James Blood's Harmolodic Guitar Clef", which seems to show 3 distinct ("Natural", "Flat", & "Sharp") juxtapositions of Harmolodic scales over Concert scales. There's no READILY apparent logic to it, and I've had neither the time nor the inclination to pick this thing apart over the years, but it does suggest that Ulmer, at least, has come up with something a bit more "formal", "fixed", "specific", "rigid", take your pick, than Ornette's original notions of absolute harmonic equanimity.

What's the story with the Dauntless label? Who, what, when, where, etc.?

Is Freddie Jenkins the cat who wore gloves as part of his "uniform"? Not heavy gloves, but lightweight, "dressy" gloves? The reason I ask is because a few years ago I was hanging with some cats in Johnny Taylor's road band, and part of their uniform was women's gloves with the fingers cut off/out. I saw this and immediately thought of Jenkins (I think?). When I asked them why/how they came to this addition to their on-stage apparel, the trumpet player said, with typical chitlin'-circuit directness, "B*tches love 'em". So much for elegance...

Yeah, I read that, and I still remember Zawinul saying they're synthisized all the way. I go with Zawinul - a close listen reveals no actual words being spoken, merely the SOUNDS of voices. Listen REALLY closely, and the "artificiality" makes itself heard, but only then. Acuna also says, "You recall the song 'Elegant People?' [Wayne] wrote that because of the way I play. He didn't tell me that, but I knew it, because he is like a tailor--he makes the suit to fit the person. So it was because I was in the band." Notice that in both cases, "(They) never told (him) that. I think that perhaps Mr. Acuna might be feeling the fire just a bit too warmly.

Dusty Groove (the bastards!) have this guy's stuff out the wazzoo. I had no real idea who he was, but he sure seems to have been prolific!

Musta changed the water...

For those who make the Monk/Brubeck parallel, though, it's worth noting that BRUBECK and Mingus recorded together. One track - "Non-Sectarian Blues", for Columbia.

It might seem like Jurassic-Era lore to the younger folk, but the impact that the introduction of polyphonic synthesizers made on Zawinul can not be understated. They gave him the liberty to create textures that were orchestral in density yet had timbres unlike any orchestra was capable of producing (although there's a few years later, on WR's version of "Rockin' In Rhythm", where, just for a moment, you SWEAR you're hearing the Ellington brass section doing a sustained trill). Zawinul, always one to think big, took this ball and ran like hell with it in a way that very few others did. You here this liberated imagination all over BLACK MARKET, as what was once an already exploratory quintet suddenly blossoms into a Technicolor Electric Orchestra of seemingly unlimited range. Maybe the impact is lost on those who come to the album after the fact, but as one who heard it when it was new, I can tell you that the textures and colors were very refreshing, startling even. "Newness" aside, though, the point is that much of BLACK MARKET (and beyond) could easily be transcribed for traditional big band/orchestra, but the results would pale in comparison. Just the other day I heard some new big band doing a chart on "Teen Town" (as a TUBA feature no less!), and the arranger got the voicings right, but it sounded old and tired. Zawinul's and Shorter's pieces for Weather Report from BLACK MARKET on were indeed frequently orchestral in intent, but it's worth noting that the synths were not used to mimic a traditional orchestra in any form or fashion - they WERE the orchestra, and that is no small point (or feat). Along those lines, and to pick a nit, I've read several references to the "train sound" on the opening cut. Well, that train sound was/is indeed memorable (and was reproduced live to even greater effect), but it's on "Barbary Coast", track 6. The album itself opens with the sounds of a crowd, the main voice vaugely reminiscent of the wacky female who shouts out "Perfidia" on one of the old Panart "Cuban Jam Session" albums from the 50s (sorry if that reference is Dennis Miller-esque in its obscurity). The thing is, though, that's NOT human speech - it's entirely synthisized, as are, I believe, all the other "sound effects" on the album. Zawinul was very enthusiastic about the potential of all this this in a Down Beat interview of the time, as he was about the whole possibilities of the then-fairly-new polyphonic (and, I think, FM) technology. I'm not enough of a synth geek to give you the chronology, but I seem to remember that BLACK MARKET followed in the footsteps of the introduction of a major synth breakthrough - the Oberheim perhaps? Whatever, the album to me is full of the beautifully wacky imagination of a man (a band for that matter) in the first thrall of FINALLY being able to get the sounds that he/they had been hearing but souldn't quite heretofore get a handle on, and that giddy rush remains contageous to this day. But then again, maybe you had to be there...

Just in case it's not clear (and if it matters), Sonny is only on the first side of the album, the tunes w/Cleveland. But it's all good.

Yeah, I'm reminded of a quote by George Harrison somewhere in the last 15 years or so - "How do you explain Gene Pitney?" That's one I don't think will EVER be answered!

I've mentioned this several times before in several different places, but it bears repeating - "Up, Up & Away" is a VERY good song. The changes move in a most non-diatonic fashion and the song has a "long form" similar to some of Cole Porter's more winding pieces. It's a song that should have been covered much more than it has, I think. I called it at a session one time and nobody wanted to play it but the drummer, so I told him to "give me some Elvin", and off we went. By the third chorus, the other guys heard what was REALLY up with the song and joined in, and a blast was had by all. It ain't an "easy" song - the movement of the changes and the long form make it a bit tought than most of your typical "sacred" standards (many of which, truth be told, are formulaic in the extreme from a harmonic standpoint); and, as is so often the case, people, including musicians, have a hard time differentiating between the record and the song itself. But I'm telling you, it's a DAMN good song and makes an excellent vehicle for improvisation.

Not a typo at all, really. The "meat" references were all intended to be subtle commentary on the realities of being an original jazz band in a city that really has no use for such. Let it stand! Otherwise, thanks for the kind words. We still have quantities available, so yes, contact me at musicaconcarne@yahoo.com for ordering information.

This, then, might be a case where a penny spent is a penny learned.

Hey, I'm alive. Still dealing with the various matters, but today is providing intervals of free time, something that's been lacking the last month or so. Bottom line - we (as in my wife and I) have had a variety of disruptive financial, material, and personal issues hit all at once, all unexpectedly, and all from without. We're dealing with all of them, and no animals are being harmed in the process. Things are still far from settled, but that which can be fixed inmmediately has been (or is being), and everything else is being worked on, with all indicators pointing towards eventual success. More than that there's no need to go into. Thanks for the concern - it's nice to be missed. But it's even nicer to come back, if only for a little while.

Makes sense. Thanks. Little by little the puzzles of the years are being solved. What happens when there are no more questions?

Is Don Brown around? He was actually AT the concert, and posted a most interesting series of recollections on the BN board.

Somewhere on that site there's a drawing of MO' ROCK that I think I like better than the real deal.

Congrats to the cyberspace's ultimate "After Hours Joint", a true triumph of ".org" over ".com".

Thanks Chuck. Any idea why/how the 10000 series numberings of Panther and TJB came to be reversed from actual release sequence? (God I miss relentlessly pursuing such epehmera....)

This is a GREAT record, and, with the exception of the solo sections on "Herandu", "fusion" only in the sense that "Tone Parallel To Harlem" is "jazz" - by the default of not having anything better to call it. It might be in the same ballpark, but it's definitely playing a different game, and by different rules at that. In fact, the comparison to Ellington is not at all far-fetched for this album, I believe. There is an attention to things like color, texture, integration of improvisation w/composed material/backgrounds, the emphasizing of INDIVIDUAL tonal pallates, and the creation of "sound portraits" that is very, VERY Eliingtonian. Plus, in "Elegant People", we get served one of Wayne Shorter's most evocative compositions ever (and if all you remember is the "main theme", you're missing more than half the piece!). There's not a dull or cliched moment on the entire disc. (Whatever "cliches" one might hear today are a result of numerous borrowings and trivializations by lesser talents over the years, not unlike the hearing of 20s jazz today as "cartoon music"). To me, this album is a landmark of how the spirit and feel of "jazz" (and to me, it is the spirit and feel of ANY music that ultimately define it moreso than any specific musical "devices") can be organically used in an environment of electronic instruments and "contemporary" rhythms, not by artificial grafting or pseudo-intellectual compositional/conceptual techniques, but rather by having an intuitive, natural FEEL for contemporary times and the people who make those times, and the instincts and skills to translate all that into a music that at once reflects and defines those people and their times. I've been very, VERY hardened and turned off by "fusion" for a very, VERY long time now, but WR is one of the handful of groups whose work continues to reveal new layers of substance and implications as the years go by, and this is probably my favorite of their many albums (and I like ALL of them in some form or fashion). Look for albums of "electric jazz", "fusion", or any other similar "category" that SWING as much as this one does, that has such uniquely personal and readily identifiable lead voices, that blend the cerebial and the physical so effortlessly and so wholly, and that have such subtly well-crafted and DISTINCTIVE compositions, and it will most likely result in an incredibly short list. If BLACK MARKET does not top the list, it will surely be on it, and towards the top at that. For that matter, I'd rate it as one of the major albums of the 70s, period, categories be damned, such is its breadth of scope and success in doing what it sets out to do. Weather Report was always interesting, but not always consistent or successful, especially in the Jaco-and-beyond years. On this album, however, it all came together, fully and spectacularly,and the passage of time has done nothing to dissuade me of this.

Thanks! I hope to be back a bit more regularly, if only slightly.

Don't ask, don't tell....

I got a few minutes free, finally. It's good to be here.

Imported from another thread: 2 things - 1) Re: THE PANTHER: That's the same photo as my old LP copy, but a different title layout. What gives? 2) I remember reading in an old Prestige discography that THE JUMPIN' BLUES was briefly issued with a 7600 series #, (or something like that - the point being that it once had a different number than the 10000 series). Anybody know any more about this, and if the earlier issue had a different cover? Well, ok 3 things then - my copies of THE PANTHER and THE JUMPIN' BLUES are PR-10030 and PR-10020, respectively, yet THE PANTHER saw release first. Widespread release, anyway, as evidenced by reviews, poll results, and such. What's the story there, and does it relate the TJB's earlier release w/a 7600 #? Seems like a shift in the Prestige regime (or at least Don Schlitten's role in it) occured somewhere around that time. As always, thanks in advance!

2 things - 1) Re: THE PANTHER: That's the same photo as my old LP copy, but a different title layout. What gives? 2) I remember reading in an old Prestige discography that THE JUMPIN' BLUES was briefly issued with a 7600 series #, (or something like that - the point being that it once had a different number than the 10000 series). Anybody know any more about this, and if the earlier issue had a different cover? Well, ok 3 things then - my copies of THE PANTHER and THE JUMPIN' BLUES are PR-10030 and PR-10020, respectively, yet THE PANTHER saw release first. Widespread release, anyway, as evidenced by reviews, poll results, and such. What's the story there, and does it relate the TJB's earlier release w/a 7600 #? Seems like a shift in the Prestige regime (or at least Don Schlitten's role in it) occured somewhere around that time. Maybe this belongs in the discographical forum...