JSngry

And I am another exception in that I do. Of both. Although with Braxton, "large number" is a relative quantity. But I keep adding, behind the curve I inevitably am. Who cares? Music is fun! 👁️

I guess Rotary Connection was making fun of The Rolling Stones. Not everybody should take LSD, and a lot of those who shouldn't do. But those who shouldn't should stay the fuck out of the way of those who should and do. Two different worlds, those are.

There have been very few true improvisors in this or any other music. That's some Romantic bullshit. There have been a lot more great interpreters of their various personal and collective vocabularies (and vocabularies they are, music at its highest level is both math and language, head and heart) and those interpretations do involve spontaneous inspirations. I wish people would stop confusing those two things, we could get rid of a lot of noise. I can listen to Johnny Hodges never play the same thing twice the same way every time and NEVER get tired of it.

I think it was Leonard Feather who in one of his 1950s books posited the idea that technology would soon make it possible to create the perfect jazz record by just rolling tape forever and the picking the best choruses and editing them together to make a perfect take. He got somebody, Zoot Sims maybe? to endorse the idea. Of course, hello Teo Macero, but Teo was a deeply serious and expert composer, not some asshole opportunistic jazz critic. Teo was not playing games and doing a gimmick. And Teo was not splicing choruses, Teo was waaaay beyond that. The more On The Corner I hear...hey. Teo, genius at doing that thing that way. Chuck Nessa made great records by going the opposite route, simply creating a sensitive and comfortable environment and letting thing go right - and ensuring that they kept going right. Chick Nessa also has the gift of knowing who he wanted to record and didn't bother making records he didn't want to make. So artist and producer were on the same page from jump. There might have been an exception or two, but overall, it's mutually gifted and simpatico artists collaborating. When you get that dynamic, it really doesn't matter what type of music it is, you're going to to get a good record. Anything else, hey, business is business.

Serious question - are they actually in Paris or is that just a name? Never traded with them. No reason, just never have

Do people who complain about an over-produced jazz record also complain about an under-produced jazz record? And no, releasing sloppyass takes with poorly executed playing when taking a little time to fix a few things before proceeding is not under-produced. That's poorly produced. Maybe that's what the focus should be - did you get it right or not. Do your clothes fit you right, that's the question. If they do, hey, wear whatever the hell you want. But if they don't...get your ass back in the house and work that shit out before you come back out.

It wasn't even that complicated. He lost his A-Team of talent and didn't have any kind of bench. I saw it happen in real time. One after the other they all got bigger deals with bigger labels. I think Freddie might have been the first, but pretty soon, Stanley, Laws, Benson, Deodato, hell, even Bob James were all gone. I have no idea if the money got funny after that or not, but the guy seemed to let that knock him down to where he couldn't get back up. Spurts here and there, but no traction, and some downright misfires, suck jobs. Am I the only one who doesn't at all get Seawind? I take it that they're supposed to have been amazing, and Jerry Hey certainly has a most impressive resume, but the band itself? Not for me, thank you. The Urbie Green record with the uglyass bumble bee is actually quite nice, a good one. So why weren't there more like that. The dude just lost his mojo.

Ok. I'll bite - what soul records does it sound like? Past the title cut? Do people still listen to the Trouble Man record? The Mizell gang, otoh, actually produced soul records, hit soul records no less. Both before and after Blue Note hit that New Note. Personally, I have more personally-indispensable Marvin Gaye records than I do Donald Byrd records, not even close. Perhaps I am not a serious jazz listener. If this is what that means, then I gladly accept the verdict!

Freddie's records on Columbia were only sometimes uninspired, never awful, and in the case of The Love Connection, sone of his absolutely best playing on record. Truth be told, many "serious jazz listeners" are serious fans, period, and can't hear past the surface. That's why so damn many "jazz records" sound the same. I don't begrudge anybody any of that, but if you can't hear, say, Stanley Turrentine playing brilliantly on a CTI record, then you aren't hearing the music, you're hearing the record. And vice-versa. That's why I rate Creed Taylor as totally legit, he could aim at both targets equally well.

Amber Pistolle - When Laws Are Outlawed Only Outlaws Will Have Laws

The Nutty Squirrels The Nutty Professor Cracker Jack

Do you have factual backup for this, or is this just your impression? I don't get any mockery out of it at all. Inspired wackiness, yes. Mockery, no. The liners of the Dusty Groove (label) reissue posit that Stepney was a HUGE fan of Bacahrach-David (just as he was of The Beatles) and that the album had to be titled as it was because The Dells audience (i.e. Black) would NEVER accept them doing a tribute to Burt Bacarach. The notion was, they say, Stepney claiming his right to expand on this music just as much as he was ANY music, marketplace/racial barriers be damned. Sorry, but absent any first-hand documentation that this was a put-on (and why the hell would it be?), I just can't buy it.

That would be great!

Horns were EVERYWHERE!!!! Whether the needed to be there or not!!!!!

Pepper Adams Ronnie Cuber Miss Cone

If it's all from one TV show and they have the entire broadcast, what I guess I would ask is how long is the entire show? Did they do does in clean 30-60-etc blocks. or were they more open-ended about it? Trying to get a feel for the likelihood of there being more footage and/or more episodes.

I would suggest comparing Lion's output to Wolff's. The latter focused on funky organ jazz that hardly was aimed at these "serious" jazz listeners. Also, Wolff got a sound out of RVG that was a LOT closer to CTI than to Lion's Blue Note. This is the sound of Red Clay, space waiting to be filled. Besides, "serious" jazz listeners, just who the hell is that? The people who bought the Jimmy Smith and Lou Donaldson records or the people who bought the Andrew Hill records? The people who had a grasp of the musical specifics or the people who just dug the vibe and nothing else? It's a mythology, that's what it is. The only people they were making records for were the people they hoped would buy them. Of course they had standards, but if you only bought one jazz record a year and it was a 3 Sounds record, I seriously doubt that they cared if you were a connoisseur of subtle piano trio architecture or just wanted some music that gave off a "hip" feeling to themselves and their friends and family. I think that CTI gets a bad rap, at times a hostile rap, for doing exactly what they set out to do and doing it extremely well and, god forbid, successfully. I'll throw this out there too - a lot of the best CTI/Sebesky stuff was made with the small group recorded first, and then Sebesky wrote the orchestra in and around that. No, that's not a documentation, live theatre approach, but it is a perfectly legitimate approach to making both music and a record. At it's best, it's imaginative and engaging. At it's worst, it's totally disposable. And in between, hey, whatever works for you. In that regard it is no different than anything else in life. Anything.

Or this 1975 one of Duke, months away from his death, a stark reminder that yes, he was gone, and that wow, he really was OLD. Ray Brown looks like a teenager by comparison. The early-mid 70s were not a time of contemplating mortality. It was usually a time in jazz where death was a bit of a shock. And to their credit, whatever else Pablo did, they never shied away from the fact that people got old, sometimes very old, and sometimes so old that death was just around the corner.

On 1974, this was a damn near arresting cover. Nothing about it sought to create the illusion that it was anything other than what it was - a death record.

The biggest difference between Alfred Lion and Creed Taylor is that Lion quit while he was ahead. Taylor didn't.

No, seriously. Lion: 1. Paid rehearsals 2. Schving 3. Tightly controlled studio sound 4. Tightly controlled graphics 5. Personally oversaw the mastering of his records, singlehandedly creating and maintaining "The Blue Note Sound" 6. Better fade out skills than anybody except maybe Brian Wilson 7. Publishing! 8. Indulged artists on their term as long as they were his terms Alfred Lion was extremely slick, and that is nothing but a compliment. And in terms of having a vision for a product and then creating it and maintaining it, him and Creed Taylor were a lot more similar than they were different Some people maybe like records that create the illusion that they're not product. Alfred Lion was a master at making records that created that illusion. Creed Taylor gave that illusion the finger in no uncertain terms. But, at least until things went bad, I feel pretty confident in saying that there was more overall coasting on Lion's Blue Note than on Creed Taylor's records (and there wasn't that much on Lion's). Taylor made movies. Lion directed theatre. But none of it is real. If you think it is, find a club anywhere in the world that sounds like an Alfred Lion record. Or even better, find a piano that soundsike a RVG piano. That sounds does not exist in the natural world.

Sweet Pea Atkinson Billy Strayhorn Olive Oyl

You can never overpay for a record with Hancoal Donuts on it! But good news - you never have to!!!!

The first Pablos weren't even distributed by RCA. It was strictly a Granz thing, and there was a definite aura of conisseur-ness to them. But Granz did what Granz did - flooded the market with more product than all but the most devoted could keep up with. I know that at some point I just stopped caring, you know, Basie Jam 37, who cares? With distance comes a time to catch your breath and co back to catch up at your own pace, and ok, yeah, Basie Jam 56ight have been pretty rote BUT it's got Hancoal Donuts on it and THAT is always a treat! If you think that Alfred Lion was not extremely slick, you have not been paying attention.

Can I get me one of them things at Cabela's? Bass Pro Shop, maybe?