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JSngry

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Posts posted by JSngry

  1. Tony Williams Lifetime - EMERGENCY

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    I too experienced a lot of "fusion" before getting a copy Emergency (and just the first volume at that), and, yeah, I was a bit befuddled. This was NOT Mahavishnu!!!

    But it's a lot later now. So many things that I didn't know then I know now, and the chronological gaps no longer exist for me that once did.

    So revisiting it today (and with Schapp's mix to assist), just clicked in a way that hadn't happened before. There's a group "howl" (for lack of a better term) that I hadn't picked up on before that just thrills the hell out of me, the rawness of discovery and of leaping headfirst into the more-or-less unknown.

    Too bad about the truly unfortunate recording, but at this point, if I can get thrilled by some really craickly Bird bootlegs, the I can get thrilled by this.

    I have heard the one real-time live recording of a club date, and it's....I'm not ready for THAT rough a recordding just yet. But you know, time marches on, so never say never.

  18. Burt Bacharach RIP

    in Artists

    Posted

    1 minute ago, mjazzg said:

    That is a great album

    I find a lot of it a bit "detached", but that song just jumps out at me every time I hear it (as befits the lyrics). It's a mean song, an angry song. Webb could do that!

    And it's very Bachrach-y in its way, the displacement of the lyrics in a way that lengthens the phrases, the use of that major 7th opening chord (played in a country way!), it's just a marvelously crafted song and arrangement (country guitars and pop-sawing cellos, all with Glen Campbell soaring over it all in just the right ways at just the right times.

    "Three chords and the truth" emo-manipulative crap will always have a market, but craft, skills, knowledge of both humanity and its mechanics, that will always stand after the rest of the world crumbles (until it too crumbles, in which case, hey, game over anyway).

  19. BFT 227

    in Blindfold Test

    Posted

    Ok, here we go then!

    TRACK ONE - Familiar in all ways except specific name LOL. It's good, I like it. Very well-seasoned, players who are not just in a bag, but in a life.

    TRACK TWO - Piano, yes! Scatting, uh, respectfully no. I see Jimmy Rowles has already been identified, and yeah, for the piano, that's apparent-ish. He's got a kind of slashing touch, but he's very specific about it, I enjoy him much. But that scatting...he scats like he's playing a bass solo, if that's any consideration. But then he goes into "All Too Soon"? wtf????? was it this all along? No, it was not.

    TRACK THREE - Yeah, this is a mindfuck. Upon further thinking, I was once told a story that comes back that makes this cut have some sense to it. More upon the reveal.

    TRACK FOUR - How I feel about this depends on what I think it is I'm hearing. It almost feels like a "classical" ensemble, only they're using American root-jazz as their basis. That's totally cool with me, and as such, I enjoy it. If they're supposed to be actually playing American rooty-jazz, then...no thanks, it doesn't feel particularly rooty. So through one lens, pretty much totally successful, through another, pretty damn much jivey, But the orchestration is really well executed, no matter what.

    TRACK FIVE - "Cubano Chant", but by who? Pretty easily sleuthed, and I'm kinda surprised that it's Gato. He sounds older and more tired than I would have liked, only giving himself away at the end of the solo. Andy Gonzalez on bass is always a good thing! And Bob James!

    TRACK SIX - Oh my! That's a goofy intro, in the best possible way! "Desafinado", surely one of the earliest versions, Brazilian record? Only not with that bass sound...this is beautiful. There's a place for making things happen, but there is also a place for letting things happen, which is what is happening here.. Just SO damn beautiful. The Portuguese lyrics flow so much more musically than do the English ones...can I marry this record?

    TRACK SEVEN - Interesting vocal style, a bit of Flamenco flavor? I can say that I am appreciative, but not particularly moved. My problem, not theirs.

    TRACK EIGHT - hmmm....it's a "Footprints"..."homage", I suppose...but it's got that early digital hollowness to the sound and nobody really does anything to elevate it past the homage level. But that's Kenny Burrell, maybe. The problem with these type things is that people have gotten so good at re-creating the original voices that it stops mattering if it's real or if it's a re-creation. That kind of pisses me off, not this record in particular, just the whole trend, the replicability of originality. It's devaluing and only brings on the Borg. Id do kinda like that trumpet solo, though, sounds like some thinking is going on.

    TRACK NINE - HA! Not sure what or who, but that's totally on it.

    TRACK TEN - Red/Rowles, I like it.

    TRACK ELEVEN - Nice, intimately played. But I personally don't get a strong feel for it right away. It is very empathetic between the players, that I can feel. Definitely sounds like people wo niether mean nor do harm to and in the world, so kudos for that, for sure.

    TRACK TWELVE - Ok, THAT sounds like Gato, and very nicely so, from the same album as #5, and a lot more meaningful performance, imo. Gato was really one of the great melodists of the tenor, imo.

    TRACK THIRTEEN - That's really nice. Your hint leads me both to the record as well as to a recognition of this Herbie Nichols composition. Just wonderful.

    TRACK FOURTEEN - As much as I truly do like the instrumental arrangement, I dislike the vocal. Intensely dislike, in fact. I suppose it's all part of a piece, but so is liver and onions.

    Pretty nice compilation, Mike, and thanks for highlighting the HipBop Essence label. There were some interesting records done there, ones that I had forgotten. Good to be reminded!

     

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