JSngry

I never, ever got into "rock", though. Zeppelin was a big, "uh...maybe, maybe not" and then between Zappa/Mothers (the OG Mothers) and Ayer/Trane it was like, no, DEFINITELY not. so I was totally severed from that "rock mentality by, like 15 (and not THAT much into it for a few years before that). Worked/Works for me just fine. The road(s) I got on have been splendid without all those other roadside tourist traps.

David Weiss telling us that it's in stereo...hell, ok, I bought it.

oh hell yeah! I imprinted on that stuff. still find it my "mother tongue" actually. Mama Too Tight was one fo the first 50 or so jass records I bought. Cutout bins are destiny!~ My route into jazz came straight from Hendrix/Zappa/R&B into Ayler/Trane/jazz-rock...which is a bit of an unshouldered road, but a road nevertheless. I think the common factor there was the emotional connection made with "unusual" sounds, then as I got older, "weird" was not enough, I needed it to connect to something I could bond with for the long haul, which is where cultural choices get made. But shepp was in there from the beginning, and has never left. I've recently been looking into his work with Bill Dixon/NY Contemporary 5, that stuff. So I'm definitely down ith him. It's just that, he's like anybody else, "journey" takes you to some unexpected places...not always delightful places. but what was the line from that Franklyn Ajaye record...if you live you gonna HIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Nor Benton.

How are the cows doing? Still hanging in there?

Pharoah actually started out playing changes pretty adeptly. That's what that ESP record is. And for all the controversy his work with Trane caused, it's all actually very fundamentally sound from a saxophone/mechanical standpoint. All those overtones and false fingerings, that was not random, nor was there even a hint of fingerwagglereedbiteoverblow. That was all technique, all of it. Shepp, pre-"fire music", yo could hear that he was learning his "changes", still formative, but he was doing some work. Then, I guess he got caught up in the moment and the exposure, Dude started getting gigs, with a real record contract and shit, so I guess that's where he focused his energies. Can't fault him for that! But at some point, I think he realized he needed/wanted to pick up where he sorta left off. Again, fullest props to him for doing that.

Google shows something about a "digitized 78 at this Amoeba site, but the page isn't loading for me to see what it is: https://www.amoeba.com/jimmie-s-packard-home-run-ray-vasquez/albums/835773/

John, not Buster, and certainly a WTF?!?!?!?! record in many ways, all of them pleasing!

Those Arista Montreux albums distressed me then and just irritate me mow. Solos rambled, same licks got repeated...in retrospect, he was practicing, simple as that. That's not my idea of a good record, but otoh, by that point he was an established act and had to make the gig. For some reason, the Denons were available here. Those things...they looked like they were going to be SO good, but...Sheppard was still getting his changes together. Those records....yeah, they made them, so there they are. Like I said, a bit of a journey. Playing THAT way is a lot of work and takes years to get together. So...years it took!

That's funny, I was just brushing my teeth, literally, within the last half-hour of this writing, and my wife "reminded" me to clean up the toothpaste sploo on the counter before walking away. Don't worry, I told her, no way I'm missing that, let me show you why...and then I went to the shelves and returned to show her this: After that, I shared the high-level overview of my experience seeing Dexter live, and then that was all over, including the toothpaste sploo. It got cleaned up.

This is a really good record.

That's a record (and a player) that seems to be on the verge of a totally undeserved oblivion.

He was always a good ballad player. He became a great one, imo. Great dramatist, great "singer", give him a good ballad on a good day and he will get right to the core of both it and you with it. Which one is it, Blue Ballads? JEEEEEEEEZZZZZZUS, there that is. But as a straight-up "changes" player...it was kind of rough-going for a good long while, imo. He was definitely doing the work, but lord, you can hear the patterns, and the forced thinking to play something other than straight from the gut. And a lot of those 70s records are very much listening to a guy literally getting his changes together. And he was never going to be a coldstonecoldhardbebopper, that's not who he was. But I respect the hell out of him for confronting his instrument and his music in that way. When he did reach the level of facility that allowed him to play that vocabulary with more and more instinct, hey, it was great, that tone never went away. Just saying, you got people from that era who relied on the "fire" more than the "mechanics". Well, that's ok as long as the fire has fuel. But when the fuel runs out, or gets low, or when the fire itself is no longer relevant, then what? Mechanics, that's what. More mechanics gives you more options, and if yours is a non-narcissistic or otherwise non-insulated/isolated creativity, you want to have options for going forth. Options = fuel for that fire. Shepp knew that there was more that he could learn, decided that he should learn it, and went ahead and did the work to learn it. The most major of props to him for that.

Yeah, one of mine too, bought it new - as a promo copy, Stan's in Shreveport. Same place where I rescued a few OG Shepp impulse!s with the laminated covers. Still don't understand why it sounds like it was recorded off a shortwave radio broadcast, or something of that ilk. But that adds to the....ambiance...Shepp was sort of going "into exile" from his "fire music" and was preparing to evolve into a changes player (and wasn't that a bit of a journey....). So this one comes off as a transmission from some other place, better grab it now, it's fading fast...

In this case, it ain't the motion, it's the meat. And I mean that in a positive way.

Not my LP, my CD.

Indeed they are, but one should be at least a little pissed off when that splendid tenor sound is neutered by pulling it waaaaay down in the mix, swarthing it in too much damn reverb, and making it sound like background commentary to the bass player. That's not how he sounded, not even slightly. And that's why "ECM" can still rankle. This mix is more about itself than it is the music. It happens/happened with them sometimes. Oddly enough, his soprano playing on the same record is mixed just fine.

How bout there ain't no Chicos?

Ok, the mix/production does bother me on this one. The music is fine, but the mix calls too damn much attention to itself. Or maybe it's jsut more obvious playing this one on my "best" hi-fistereosoundsystem (which is pretty much a POS 101)...maybe ECMs are actually mixed to sound best on these and a 15 yr old Discman? Because, they do...

Did Alfred Lion have a lot of these type tapes, and did they all go to the same different home??

Yeah YMMV, but sooner or later, in some form or fashion, you do pay for that mileage. A toll road is a freeway until you get to the tollbooth. And yes, there will be a test. Every day is a test really. Somebody tries to get you to bite on some piece of bullshit and/or misdirection and/or false narrative. A true discernment is the result of an ongoingly engaged refinement, revelation, and realization. Putting some dots together to see where the roads really go, both to and from. Like I said, be careful what you think about Sidney Bechet. Him and earl Hines were the only two people who could meet Louis Armstrong on wholly equal terms and stay the course. There are some pretty serious implications there.

Oh, most certainly. Although, also the preconception that a record by that particular trio was going to be a lot more...extroverted was also a factor. I was expecting driving momentumfire, not finely wrought steely icelace. But that was my bad.