JSngry

video, w/AT (this was posted here a while back, yes?)

Fair enough, but I don't like the look of this one, looks like an ersatz Blue Note photocoverthing. I ordered it anyway. Helluva DAMN good record.

I wondered what had happened to Mara Gay, I was missing her on TV. Sorry to hear about her bout, and wishing her a full recovery.

In the house as of this PM!

Details, please!

Hell, that one barely made it to LP...

Jesse White go home!

That's a pretty darn good record!

If you're respectably familiar with Age Of Steam, ok, fair enough. but if not, respectfully suggest a relisten/reconsideration. It's a very "70's" sounding music and in all the good ways. Plus, yeah, I know, Mulligan as a player swims in the shallower end of the pool most of the time, but this is not a record to listen to for his playing (except his piano playing, which is very strong here), it's his writing. masterful here, imo, both the germ ideas and the ensemble realizations. Let's put it this way - by the time of this record, Mulligan had lived and played through Nixon as both Vice-President and President. This is his McGovern album.

World Meets Unfiltered Shirley Scott. It's a BEAUTIFUL record!

If I was really forced to bare-bones the Mulligan selection of my collection, I think I would only keep the original quartets with Baker and this one. Sorry, CJB, but I can get "that type of thing" (more or less) in several other places. This right here, not so much. It's a beautiful, inventive, and beautifully inventive record, totally "modern" and totally Mulligan. I forget, did this one make HutchFan's 70s list?

No, his mother was Alice Cooper. His father was John Holmes, who was an LA Cop before seeking employment in a different area of public service.

Hoping that the crust continues to be as fresh as the pie - and vice-versa!

I got it too. Found it enjoyable. That was a good band. Bruno Carr is what you want.

I never hold it against anybody for trying. Nor for those from whom it is being sought for pushing back. What I do hold it against any of then them is when leverage is used as a blunt instrument and somebody goes all Cain & Abel with it.

Did you know that in real life his father was an LA cop and his real-life mom was Alice Cooper?

Dude, that's a fucked up way to celebrate! But seriously, I've always liked the guy, he's actually quite unique, imo.. So many of his "peers" have this rhythmic thing that sounds like there's a level of "blur" lacking. By blur I mean vibrations moving faster than we can "measure". If you let them happen, channel though you, it frees you up, allows you to swing (as opposed to "swing"). And if you resist the blur once you become aware of it, it blocks you. You have to invest some kind of energy into not letting it go through you. It's one thing to not know it's there, but Ayler made records, ok, just like Bird did, just like Louis did, etcetcetc. This shit is not a secret, ok, we all have choices to make, and pleading ignorance is not a reality-based strategy if you want to swing. Or, for that matter if you don't not want to swing (legit choice as well, imo, that's still a freedom borne out of enlightenment, not ignorance). But if making excuses is still a choice (and I suppose it is), it strikes me as the choice of a coward. Ayler totally got that, and it feels to me that Garzone did too, not in an imitative way (which would just be cheapass lip-syncing, really), but in a self-awareness kind of way. He realized that it was there, and he let it in., and let it go through (which is the only real choice after letting it in!). Never mind all his other predilections for traditional harmony and melody and tone and all that stuff, that's not what matters here. What matters here is that he got open to be free within himself, more fully free because he let the blur in. Let me put it this way - my former partner-in-crine Pete Gallio had a few opportunities to hang and talk with him. Garzone gave Pete a tape of Ayler and told him Listen to this. This is where it's at. And Pete didn't understand that right away, what that really meant. He thought it was some quirky eccentrical thing, not a deeper wisdom about the object of the game. But he came to. So yeah, George Garzone. We need more like him, but I doubt they're forthcoming.

Garzone connected with Ayler in a way that I don't know any of his "peers" did (or do). It shows in the esthetic of his playing, there's a freedom of impulse there that sets him apart. He often sounds like the "youngest" guy on a record, even when he's the oldest chronologically. I say that George Garzone needs to be celebrated as the personal voice that he is. Leave the ranking for Roger, let's just do this in and of itself.

Knock him all you want, but Herbie Mann got those gigs, kept getting better gigs, made that money (and that money too!) kept that money, and never had bad bands, no matter what. You show me one other Gold (Platinum?) Record that has Sonny Sharrock on it, ok? And you can hear some pretty nice Fathead over the years by following the Herbie Mann trail. Cat handled his business pretty damn well on and off the stand. Records are one thing, but doing all that (and having genuine HITS along the way), that's not just business, but it's also the art of business, if not always the business of art. Render unto Caesar, as they say.

It's totally in line with the Cannonball we've all come to know and love/not-love(BOO on the haters!) - ambitious in it's overall vision, with a vision that looks to all sides of the Black Music Spectrum, not just some select few. ANY listener who has an appreciation of Cannonball as a Cultural Figure and not just as a "jazz musician"...this is a massive piece of that puzzle, It should be noted that he did not write the book for this show (if in fact it was ever produced as such), It's also pretty interesting lyrically, as the "typical" John Henry myth of man vs. machine on the railroad is only touched in a very brief passing. The rest of it is something else entirely... I feel really dumb now for not giving this one ANY attention for so long. But better late than never? It was like, Cannonball just died, Nat got everything finished for the record, not sure Cannonball even plays on it (it says he does, but there's no solos) and it's a freaking musical about that John Henry guy, yeah, ok, I think I can pass. Wrong. oh, btw, Randy Crawfor & Robert Guillaume, neither "names at the time (this is Crawford's debut, I believe?) are in excellent form as well. But OMG - if this had gone to stage with Joe Williams as John Henry...oh my word...this record two years was before Roots...Joe Williams would have upset the world with this....

Ok, I slept on this one for waaaaaaaaaayyyyy too long. There's a LOT of music going on here, some of it totally what you would expect from a "musical", some of it not...but Joe Williams as the devil come to earth as John Henry who purports to lead his people to "the promised land"...and all that comes with all of that...suffice it to say that there's more meat here than I would have expected, although not a lot (if any) "jazz", which is ok by me, actually. and Joe Williams RULES on this thing.

Definitely more.

There's no bassist on it, and she had a free hand in the personnel and program selection. It's a beautiful record, in every way.

Avenue worth pursuing? Are any of them still alive, the BYG people, or even any of the people they would have known in the film/underground media circles? Don't know if anybody would still remember what appears to be a project that seems to have not gotten too much the pre-production stage, if that. But it does give a better context in which to further investigate Hank's Film Music. And whatever backstory can be established certainly will shine light on whatever happened with it here, once he got back home.