DrJ

Here Comes Louis Smith

The JRVG is a noticeable improvement over the old 80's US CD version I had (and probably you have), but not hugely so...I think this recording suffers from the dead-sound and overly reverbed syndrome that I find many of the late 60's BNs suffer from, which leads to a muddy presentation that with years of hindsight just seems so wrong for this otherwise beautiful, acoustic music. I have long suspected this was due to a combination of things, perhaps tape aging (seems I remember Lon or someone confirmed that the types of tapes RVG used changed and that they haven't aged as well) as well as period tastes (influenced by rock and roll). Anyway, it's also possible that the Japanese didn't have access to the original session tapes and made the JRVG from second or third generation copies. So maybe we can hold out hope that a future US RVG (should we ever see one), done from original tapes, would clear away the sonic muck!

I just purchased my second Rhino Handmade issue - Jack Nitzsche's THREE PIECE SUITE. Truly wonderful, wacked music from an eccentric pop genius. The stuff from his never released eponymous album alone is well worth the price of admission, but everything is worthy of many careful listens. The first was Jimmy Scott's FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL which is also, well, wonderful.

I have been eyeing both Vols 1 and 2 for some time, but holding off given that the remastering is now about 14 years old. Now I got an e-mail from BN saying that Vol 2 is going out of print. I passed on Ornette's BNs with Dewey Redman that went OOP recently with the strong feeling BN must be planning remastered versions soon. I suspect the same will probably happen with THREE BLIND MICE. But no way to be sure. What to do, what to do...anyone out there privvy to BN plans on these? And how's the sound quality on the THREE BLIND MICE CDs (I see Malcom Addey's name so probably it sounds as good as it could have for 1990)?

Well, it's not that I think NEWK'S TIME is one of RVG's best original recordings - I think that's what the limiting factors is, not so much the remastering. It is more panned/separated than most of his dates from that era. But musically, it's absolutely top flight, and the sonics are not distracting to me in the least (although I think on headphones it could be kind of obnoxious).

Man, oh man do I envy you getting to hear this one for the first time. Along with INDESTRUCTIBLE!, my favorite of Blakey's recordings, almost unbelievably intense at times without for one minute ever resorting to hammy over the top "we're so hot" playing. Cannot wait for the sonic upgrade. And IN 'N' OUT in there too, my favorite Joe Henderson BN! Plus DESTINATION...OUT! my favorite of Jackie's BNs (along with IT'S TIME!). A banner day, August 10 will be.

His run at BN was pretty damn remarkable. No bad ones to my ears, not even close, and way more than his share of classics (CAPUCHIN SWING, DESTINATION...OUT!, ONE STEP BEYOND, LET FREEDOM RING, IT'S TIME, NEW AND OLD GOSPEL, and DEMON'S DANCE are all personal votes for dates that belong in that category). The range of sounds and approaches in those recordings I've just listed also says volumes about Jackie's restless creativity during that magical time.

I would agree with what's being said here, but only to a point. First, I think you're neglecting to consider the older BNs that have been reissued as RVGs, like the Bud Powells, Monks, and Milt Jackson date. On those, RVG truly worked sonic magic, spinning those after living with what was available before is like really hearing the music for the first time. Second, to my ears there are maybe only 1 or 2 U.S. RVGs that sound worse or no better than prior CD reissues, and those were many batches ago when it seemed there was some type of technical bugaboo. So I think you can feel pretty safe buying an RVG feeling you'll hear improvements over not only late 80's CDs but also earlier 90's Conns.

There's a huge gap in my Holland collection between CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS (anyone calls that one boring needs to have their head examined - Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altshul, and Holland for God's sake!) and POINTS OF VIEW, the first of what I consider the "current" Holland sound (save for the big band, which I haven't heard but supsect sounds like the smaller group but just scaled up) - although arguably DREAM OF THE ELDERS was in the same vein. The difference between these two recordings is instructive. Holland is simply not the overtly renegade type of player he used to be. CONFERENCE is a stone classic, one of the best recordings in my collection, but much of that is down to the other players. Not to take anything away from Holland as a bassist and even as a composer (I think he's great in both categories), but he was in some VERY heavy company at that point. The company is still excellent but inevitably a little lighter on POINTS OF VIEW. Still, I absolutely LOVE that album. Everyone sounds razor sharp and I think anyone who feels there's no passion or fire on this record is listening too much on the surface. To me it gives the lie to the idea that all ECM productions sound cold and dull. The passion is definitely there, simmering below the cool-ish vibes (which I think work tremendously well in this group) and spacious, slightly detached studio sound. Robin Eubanks stakes a major claim to being king of the young trombonists on this recording, absolutely on the job with a huge sound and ideas to spare. I could kick myself for never seeing this configuration live. Thing is, I totally agree with people dissing Holland's current work when we come to the more recent follow-ups on ECM. PRIME DIRECTIVE was a MAJOR disappointment, I bought it but have seldom listened to it, and have NOT sprung for NOT FOR NUTHIN' or the big band date, so stung was I by this comedown. I have to attribute this drop-off largely to Chris Potter, whose playing does very little for me in any context, whereas I am a big fan of Steve Wilson who was on POINTS OF VIEW and takes second honors there to Eubanks. Also, it seems to me that Holland has mined this seam thoroughly already, as the compositions are all starting to sound basically like variations on two or three themes. So time to shake things up again, perhaps, Mr. Holland? BTW, I am looking forward to going back to some of the ECM's in the gap between CONFERENCE and POINTS OF VIEW...I like Steve Coleman and Smitty Smith a lot.

I have been relistening to the Japanese LP repro version of this album since the US reissue peaked my interest in revisiting it. It's better than I remembered, but still a couple solid notches below the best Blakey on BN from around the same time. Much more relaxed, less intense and edgy than some of the sextet configuration albums done for BN. But still highly enjoyable, seems to have been pitched more at popularity and catchiness and less at pushing at hard bop boundaries from firmly within the mainstream. Interesting too how much better RVG captured Blakey's drum sound - here, it sounds almost puny next to the massive yet nuanced sound on the Blue Notes. Of interest: on a couple tracks, Gilmore really sounds a lot to me like he's emulating Shorter's quirky phrasing and rhythmic repetitive fragments...maybe asked to by the producer or leader or bandmates to maintain a greater thread of continuity with the earlier sides that included Shorter, or maybe doing it all on his own, sort of half as a respectful nod and half as a tweak on the nose to Shorter. Probably the latter. Regardless of the motivation, this is unmistakeable to me on relistening. While I haven't heard TONS of Gilmore, I've heard enough to know that he usually didn't play in that fashion.

I don't have a power conditioner, but do think wiring makes a huge difference. First, we lived recently in a 50 year old house with the original wiring. The main breaker blew, at which time we learned that there had been a prior repair where the wires were literally left hanging on by a thread. When we fixed all that and had it done properly, my stereo sounded remarkably better at once, although the other wiring was still 50 years old. Now we recently moved to a brand new house and it sounded even better (this was before I started upgrading to tube stuff, so it's not the upgrades I'm hearing). I don't think it's the room; if anything my current room is a little less favorable for sonics as the back wall is unavoidably close to the listener's ears so you get some reflection whereas in the old room you sat right near the middle. So anyway, I'm a firm believer about the importance of good wiring. Someday I'll start playing with power conditioners to see if I can hear an improvement.

I think the Hal McKusick material compiled (incompletely) on NOW'S THE TIME (Decca/GRP) is SERIOUSLY underrated. I don't know if it's one of the "most" underrated groupings of recordings, but it's certainly unjustly neglected. Not only was McKusick in his prime, playing a very unique and thoughtful alto, but you get prime Art Farmer and Bill Evans too. We need a non-Procrustean reissue of these dates. Zbigniew Namyslowki's work is definitely unjustly obscure in the U.S. LOLA from the 60's is seminal, and WINOBRANIE from the early 70's is quite a ride. Great jazz and saxophone playing from Poland. John Lewis' solo work is also underrated. Not the MJQ or even his classic Atlantic recordings or the justly mentioned Verve date with LT/Getz/et al, but especially for me those solo dates he made right near the end of his life. The history of jazz piano emanates from your speakers when you listen to those EVOLUTION recordings. His capacity to say volumes with just a note or two never ceases to amaze me.

Off topic a bit, but this tempo thing is damned interesting to me. I suspect Jim is right about it being a "different time, different experiences" thing, the ubiquity of rock and other strongly backbeat-oriented music has to have had a huge influence on all the post-rock and roll era drummers. One of the things that bothers me most about a lot of recent jazz is the tempo...I'm not a fogey who hates all things rock, but one thing that DOES often bug the heck out of me is the unmistakeable rock feel that some younger drummers impart in otherwise more "classic" or "straight ahead" jazz sessions. It just don't jibe, folks. Partly it's the emphases and rhythmic displacements they use, but tempo is definitely also an issue. It's either far too slow, in which case the backbeat they're either riding or strongly implying comes WAY too much to the fore and everything sounds lethargic and plodding, or too fast, in which case it sounds like an acoustic jazz group with an inebriated thrash metal drummer sitting in. A good example for me was McCoy Tyner's LAND OF GIANTS on Telarc recently. Tyner and Hutch are all over the job, and Charnett Moffett sounds good, but I just can't warm to Eric Harland's playing on drums...it just never sounds like a cohesive date due to this tension between what he's doing rhythmically and what the songs cry out for, at least to my ears. Anyway, some of the young guys would definitely have trouble with the type of stuff Eldridge did I'm sure, and they also seldom get right that kind of medium up hard bop, lilting, almost "floating" tempo exemplified on a lot of dates led by Sonny Clark, and on dates where the Kelly/Chambers/Cobb axis was involved. There are exceptions of course - real students of the "old school" like Kenny Washington for example. And I'm not saying I don't like rock-influenced jazz, but the thing is EVERYONE has to be playing in that mode for it to sound right.

INNER URGE is indeed a nice upgrade in sound quality (and even cover image - the blue/black mess from the old CD has now become the photo of Joe Henderson I suspected it was all along!). So is BREAKING POINT, my favorite so far of the batch. This is a date I forgot how much I liked - but then again around that time for me Hubbard could do no wrong. Spaulding is hot here too, playing with more creativity than on just about any date from around then. And always good to have more Joe Chambers on record, including a definitive rendition of his great "Mirrors." I also picked up BUHAINA and one from the last batch of RVGs, NEWK'S TIME - neither of which I'd ever heard (was waiting for remasterings). Both are outstanding...but NEWK in particular, wow - that was a date where everything just seemed to have gone right, it has rocketed up into my list of top "classic hard bop" dates of all time. Worth the wait.

Karen Borca's playing is simply awesome on the dates included in the Jimmy Lyons boxed set. That's my only acquaintance with her, but I'm looking forward to more. In that context and with her technique, the bassoon has an arresting sound.

I don't remember names, but there was a good vinyl place down in the "old town" part of town, which is TOTALLY touristy, but it's worth a trip down there just to catch this place. They had some rare stuff - although I will warn you not all pristine, much of it in only fair to good condition. If you can live with that, though, might be fun. I am still kicking myself for passing up a copy of the rare Chico Hamilton trio recording on Pacific Jazz - it wasn't in mint condition but would have been well worth it, still not sure why I didn't take the plunge except that I had already bought a bunch of other stuff. Lots of Blue Notes there - mostly late 60's to early 70's stuff. If you like that period - they had Lou Donaldson, Turrentine, etc titles. There's another vinyl place somewhere near Robson St, it's on the second floor of a building if that helps you find it. I found Kenny Cox's two Blue Notes there. Finally, there was a good vinyl store out in one of the neighborhoods near the downtown area - I'm hopeless with remembering names - it's to the South of downtown I believe. Found a few good things there too and that was the most reasonably priced place, plus they were in good condition. I believe I found all these places either on Web searches or by looking in the phone book once there, they've not hard to locate. Other than a Virgin Megastore in the Robson area, not much great shopping really for CDs I'm afraid to say, unless I missed something.

Hell, good to give Stateside the business anyway, Peter was incredibly friendly despite my pestering him every couple days before it was finally released! I like the music so far, very dense Hill, even more so than the large group recording he did for Palmetto from a couple years back. I like it, it sounds more "dangerous" than anything he's recorded for Palmetto so far (fine as those recordings were) - maybe than anything he's recorded for even a lot longer than that. The proceedings are sometimes more ragged than his U.S. stuff of the past few years, with the horn players sounding a bit less accomplished, but they also seem maybe a little more jazzed just to be there, if you dig, and it comes across appealingly in the sounds.

Great pop artist, Mr. Rundgren, and I agree with the fundamental sweetness of his music at the core. WIZARD is WAY overdue for a decent remastering for CD...the old Bearsville vinyl sounded like crap, or at least pressings I've heard, and that one had so much music on each side that by the time you got toward the middle of the side the distortion from the too-small grooves was really amazing (or maybe it was SUPPOSED to sound that way... ) I'm a big fan of A CAPELLA too, mentioned before, some great tunes there. Let's not also forget some of his Utopia stuff, I love their little pop masterpiece singles too (check out the great compilation TRIVIA that was out on Passport Records, still have my vinyl of that one - "Hammer in My Heart," "Feet Don't Fail Me Now," "Crybaby," and about 10 or so other gems). I even like spottier stuff like HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW and HEALING and NEARLY HUMAN. I saw him on tour with (as I recall) a nine-piece or so group for the NEARLY HUMAN album - horns and backing vocalists and all. It was a great show. He was funny, gracious, and played and sang his ass off, seeming to really have a great time. If only there were more rock musicians still around like him. He totally lost me with the computer nerd stuff of the past decade or so, I have very high hopes for LIARS. Please come back to pop, Todd!

WP - I'm pretty much convinced now it is a slightly later reissue, but it does definitely have all the full track lengths. Which to my knowledge has not been commented on previously, so kind of an addition to the twisted story of this album!

I really like this film overall, there are some absolutely priceless performances like O'Day's justly celebrated one. The Chico Hamilton and Giuffre stuff is amazing, too, really cool and captures a certain vibe well. Louis always great to see, and Monk too, and Mulligan. Hell, there is some great music here. That said I find the film too self-consciously arty, trying too hard with all the cuts away from the performers. There are some amazing musicians that we only hear, never see or see for only a fleeting moment. Not only frustrating personally to me, but it just seems inexcusable with this much hindsight, although I know it may have felt different then. I think the cuts to audience and the sailing etc should have been kept but reduced greatly, with more shots of the action, and the film would have been stronger.

Makes sense, both in terms of its location and also in terms of Hall's sound. Thanks very much for the information Mike.

One question about the cover - I never noticed from the small version of the cover photo on the CD, but on the LP it's more visible - what the heck is the metal hardware Hall has attached to the guitar near the nut? I've never seen anything like it before.

One of the great "undersung" Blue Notes. Not just good, a fantastic date. Everyone shines, including Duke and Johnny.

This is the best of Freddie Hubbard's early Blue Notes, which is really saying something in my book. The RVG is a strong improvement over the old Connoisseur version. Not much to add to what's been said here, except to say that the alternate takes are fabulous, some of the best to be included on a BN CD. Particularly "Arietis," listen to the incredible drumming clinic Elvin Jones puts on behind the soloists, particularly towards the beginning of the track. It doesn't say so in the liners, but my guess is that it's Elvin's work that was the reason Alfred Lion opted to pass over this take...it's not as "clean" or maybe even as cohesive but with 40 years hindsight I think the alternate is by far the more exciting version, much of that due to Elvin letting a little more loose than in most of his appearances on BN hard bop dates. All the soloists sound way more "on the edge" too.

I enjoy all these sessions. Not anyone's greatest day, but some great musicians having perfectly fine days. The Red Allen set is kooky, but it works for me.