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Everything posted by DrJ
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FREE SLAVE was out in 32Jazz's reissue series. Probably officially OOP now but I doubt it will be hard to track down (find a Borders with slow movement of its jazz stock and it's probably gathering dust there!).
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MOODSWING, good stuff.
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Wow, with this build up, you must be feelin' some pressure! Seriously, welcome!
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Warm here most of the summer in Sacramento - and this year has been one of the hottest on record, with weeks at a time over 100. This week has been wonderful, 80's day with lows in 50's overnight. Then again, having lived in both St. Louis and Augusta, GA for 4 year stints and now being back in California, I can at least say (to the great annoyance of many, I'm sure) "yeah, but it's a DRY heat."
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It's on my radar screen, since I've yet to hear anything by Blanchard that's truly bad or disappointing. Really looking forward to hearing him in the context of organ. In a quiet, unassuming way, I think that Blanchard has developed into the most interesting and consistent of the mainstream trumpeters of the era. Been playing JAZZ IN FILM to death lately, seldom leaves the multi-disc changer.
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I don't have any of these, don't really know this era too well. I'm sure the music is dated in some ways, but it would still probably be worth checking these out. I will say that I absolutely love Coryell's work on Gary Burton's album DUSTER (RCA, last reissued in the U.S. by Koch). That one was recorded in 1967, just a couple years before the ones you list. It has one killer line-up: Burton in his early explorative days, Steve Swallow, the great Roy Haynes, and Coryell. The music lives up to the promise. A very early (one of the earliest?) rock-influenced jazz albums, "fusion" for lack of a less pejorative word. It still sounds fresh and exciting, I never tire of hearing it. I have yet to explore the rest of Burton's albums for RCA from around that period, like COUNTRY ROADS AND OTHER PLACES (by which I think Coryell had been replaced by Jerry Hahn), LOFTY FAKE ANAGRAM, and GENUINE TONG FUNERAL, but it's only a matter of time. I also enjoy what I've heard of Coryell's later albums for Muse in the 80's too, especially SHINING HOUR with Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith.
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I guess I'm a true fan then! Seriously, I really enjoy Chambers' work overall. His leader dates for BN were refreshingly varied and often quite different from the more typical BN sound (witness QUINTET and BASS ON TOP especially). As far as bassists for in the pocket, mainstream hard bop of the 50's/early 60's, hard to better Mr. P.C., although I do prefer some others above him personally (Watkins and Wilbur Ware right off the bat). I tend to agree with Dave James though about his arco playing - listen to his arco work alongside that of someone like Richard Davis and you will realize pretty clearly he had some technique problems in that area.
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I agree with you - Vanguard box is my favorite, for many of the same reasons that I voted for the Plugged Nickel box as my favorite Miles Columbia box in a recent poll. The sound of a group evolving and discovering, growing from track to track.
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Agree 100%.
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CJ, what I'm hearing is beyond the normal slightly overdriven sound of McDuff's organ (for example, the sound heard throughout the rest of the session). It sounds like the recording level was set just a little too hot. It's not a particularly pleasant sound, but only a minor distraction, and it seems to not be a problem throughout the session, just on the first track. It's a very minor problem, though. GRANTSTAND is indeed a wonderful session and it is all the better for having Lateef on board, one of my favorites (been grooving to his earliest Savoy material after picking up the old 2 LP set MORNING).
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I'm with Rooster Ties, SOLID is my favorite Green - I sure wish he would have played in that bag and in that kind of company (and on those types of tunes) more often. After that, TALKIN' ABOUT and the other dates with Larry Young are next on my list - a match made in heaven, with Elvin on TALKIN' giving that one just a little more edge ("I'm an Old Cowhand" - ah, give me that one on the proverbial desert island). And then next for me are the dates with Sonny Clark, and then IDLE MOMENTS, MATADOR, and GOIN' WEST. All this is desert island material for me. The rest are all great - GREEN STREET, STANDARDS, GRANTSTAND, SUNDAY MORNIN', FEELIN' THE SPIRIT, BLUES FOR LOU, and his later years material - but not at quite the level of the "first grouping" for me. I enjoy GREEN STREET, very fine stuff, but honestly it's a little TOO open and spare for my liking, to the point of being a little on the boring side. Green has great ideas and plays well, but the accompaniment borders on the metronomic, and because Green is so much into the single-note style, I long for a little more filling in with some well-placed chords. STANDARDS lacks even the edge GREEN STREET has - again enjoyable, I listen to it quite often, but it's not up to the same standard as GREEN STREET and neither would top my personal fave list. Prediction: when GOIN' WEST comes out in a remastered version, that one is gonna move toward the top of a lot of lists. Superb. Like an even better execution of the type of thing they went for on FEELIN' THE SPIRIT (with Country in place of spirituals). But then again, to me Green never made a truly bad album. I even enjoy the later BNs (with GREEN IS BEAUTIFUL a personal fave).
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In A/B'ing the late 80's U.S. BN CD of GRANTSTAND and the new RVG, the grungy organ sound on peaks in the music is there on both versions. It's no more prominent to me on the RVG, and otherwise there is no comparison - the RVG has a much fatter bass, natural high end, and greater presence and depth. A really nice improvement. While it's true the music has always stood on its own, I find myself warming to this session even more now that it has been given a proper treatment on CD. My guess is that on the original recording, Rudy captured McDuff's organ a little too "hot" at the start of that track and then backed the levels down, but that's speculative since I haven't ever heard, say, the original vinyl - it could be a problem that came up later with tape degradation or a transfer problem.
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Add another - bay area multi-reedist Harvey Wainapel's THE HANG (Spirit Nectar), with Kenny Barron on piano and the Organissimo forums' own TrumpetGuy, Phil Grenadier, on trumpet, has a smokin' version that is titled simply "Wilpan's," but it's the very same McBee tune. BTW, THE HANG is a truly GREAT album, probably little known to most outside Northern California. Really should not be missed.
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Yes, that was my intention on starting this discussion by posting the idea. One person chooses each time it is done (however often we do the blindfold test). I will look at the poll re: MP3 vs CD with interest. To be honest, as a new father, if we can find a way to do this without requiring CD-R's to be sent all over the world, and it's not illegal, I'd welcome it. I just don't have the time right now to make a lot of burns and more importantly to mail them, and I'm not even back at work full time yet - wish I did, but babies are a full time (albeit fun) occupation!.
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Love McBee's playing. In addition to ETCETERA being a favorite spot, he's absolutely on fire throughout Chico Freeman's DESTINY'S DANCE. Also check out Horace Tapscott's DARK TREE VOLS. 1 & 2 - one of the essential jazz recordings of all time. McBee is central to the drama there.
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Do not miss it. I initially hesitated based on the concern about all that piano trio music, but couldn't be happier that I took the plunge. I think you said it yourself - it's hard for me to imagine anyone could have too much of Teddy's sublime playing. It is true that I tend to listen to this box a little at a time because there is a certain sameness in general feel, but that is true of much of my collection. It's also true that by this point Teddy was mostly about honing and polishing the diamond of a style he had created rather than exploring new vistas, but hey, that's OK too when you're starting from such a high level. So grab it, and savor it over time. Another thought: it's very unlikely that Verve will get around to issuing even the majority (let alone all) of this material in their reissue program, so would be a drag to miss out now. Sound quality is excellent on most of the box - with a slight decrement to merely good quality for one of the sessions with Jo Jones at the drums (sad it had to be this one, as Wilson and Jones together was truly a thing of beauty) for which the original session tapes couldn't be located and so they had to dub from an LP. Still, that one is readily listenable.
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I agree with you, they're wonderful, some of the best rock albums ever made. But still, I find the Velvet Underground to be ridiculously overpraised these days, like they never did anything mundane or less than other-wordly. I have and DO listen to these albums frequently, and while they are wonderful, I honestly don't think everything has held up all that well (LOADED in particular, which despite having a few killers sounds suspciously like some of the magic was wearing off already), certainly not well enough to merit the essentially universal positive reviews. What, there's not a SINGLE critic anywhere who doesn't care for the VU? Why is it that we have critics who say straight-faced that the Who, Stones, Beatles, and Beach Boys were overrated but you NEVER see a single one say that about the Velvet Underground? When I see that happening, I smell groupthink at its worst, and it bothers me. VU was certainly not flawless, and they were no better than the aforementioned bands in my view - just different. I also think that VU breaking up so early will of course mean their consistency quotient is higher than for the other groups who carried on. But when you look at the solo track record of the VU artists, you realize they went through much of the same "wilderness years" problem as the other aging rockers did, they just did it individually rather than collectively. It's a truism that aging gracefully on record in rock is difficult at best, and generally a hit-and-miss proposition.
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See, and I have really never had even a moment's time for Cream - bloated, "supergroup" mentality white boy blues. "Crossroads" is the best soporific I know of, totally mystifies me that anyone thinks they were "the stuff." Clapton as a guitarist is probably the most overrated rock musician ever. Wonderful voice, I'll give him that, but totally boring and repetitive blues lick stealing on the guitar. Why listen to Clapton when you can go back to the source? Maybe it was cool and new in 1967, when most white people hadn't ever heard of Albert or BB King, Muddy Waters, etc, but I'm not going to waste my time with that pap now when I know from whence it came, in undiluted form. The other bands you list - Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles, etc - OK, they had influences, but they transcended them. But listening to Clapton is like listening to a blues guitar lick library all strung together. He ain't God; hell, he ain't even Jimmy Page.
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jazzypaul's assessment of Who, Sabbath, and the Stones comes right out of the "rock critic textbook," pretty much the "party line" on these bands (as is his endorsement of Velvet Underground, an admittedly great group but also ridiculously overpraised, "untouchable" critic's darlings - must be the American, NYC chauvinism thing - well come to think of it, where were all the CRITICS from in that era? ), and so I bristle and take exception immediately because "party line = disengage brain, engage mouth" plus I personally think the later work of these groups is due for some re-evaluation. "Hole in the Sky" from SABOTAGE (indeed, just about everything on the album) makes the young hard rock posers of the 80's, 90's, and current scene look pitifully limp and ineffectual. I agree with Greg (rarely that happens) that period of Sabbath was killer, and personally my favorite. "Iron Man," "War Pigs," etc are fun and all but ultimately cartoonish and tame with 30 years' hindsight. SABOTAGE still sounds razor sharp and just plain scary at times. Only Motorhead has been able to approach that kind of sinister, barely contained fury on record. Tony Iommi's guitar sound has never been adequately replicated by the imitators. The Stones have by and large thrown in the towel over the past 20 years or so, but they made at least a couple great albums after EXILE - SOME GIRLS (which sounds better and more prophetic every year, full of songs that are holding up much better than once-classics like, say, "Paint It, Black" which frankly now just sounds kind of lame and faux-exotic) and TATTOO YOU - albums that I would much rather have than not. And another personal post-EXILE favorite is BLACK AND BLUE, a very unjustly neglected little gem IMHO although admittedly not to all tastes. I agree their batting average sucks after that, though (I'd have sent 'em to the minors long ago) and think jazzypaul's comments are most on-target about the Stones of all these groups. To call Pete Townshend an "ineffectual" guitarist is to beg a series of questions (followed by full audiologic examinations) regarding the integrity of one's hearing. If nothing else, Townshend's skills as a driving, instantly recognizable rock guitarist have never abandonded him. What a joy to hear a guitarist from that bombastic, 20 minute solo era NOT wank around trying in vain to emulate Chet Atkins and Les Paul. Hands down the greatest hard rock rhythm guitarist. Not to mention that WHO BY NUMBERS is easily the band's most mature, intelligent, and heart wrenching album, and that was fully 3 years AFTER the admittedly splendid WHO'S NEXT. Townshend finally sounds like a real live adult person, talking about personal emotions and experiences candidly and articulately (and with nary a whine) rather than spraypainting arena rock slogans on the wall. Sure, "Won't Get Fooled Again" gets my rocks off occasionally, but how many times can one jump around playing air guitar every time it comes on the radio? Tracks like "Dreaming from the Waist" on NUMBERS wear a WHOLE lot better as one approaches 40. If it seems the "consistency quotient" of classic rock bands inevitably gets smaller as they age, it's also a truism that nearly all of them have thrown up (the pun is intended) a few late masterpieces that people miss out on by dismissing those later years out of hand. Time to put aside the rock album guide and LISTEN.
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Funny Soul Stream, I picked up the same two at Tower, and for the very same reason..well, that and the fact that those were the only two my Tower had in stock! (Weird, huh?) Have only listened to GRANTSTAND so far, but it sounds WAY better than the old U.S. version. Hello, mama!
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Preacher Pays Whites to Attend Mostly Black Church
DrJ replied to Rooster_Ties's topic in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
jazzypaul said: Exactly my point, my good man. Thus, the whole effort is an embarrassing and insulting waste of time. The latter part of your assertion, which says that the publicity stunt somehow convinced some white person to attend a black church all of a sudden one day, is the part that seems to me a huge leap of faith (pardon the pun). I don't buy it. Your other points are also all highly speculative. For example, we simply don't know about the racial makeup of this community. However, we do know there are very few communities left in the U.S. that are simply black/white. And those that are simply black/white certainly won't be staying that way for much longer given current demographic trends in the U.S. (something I'm very familiar with from grant-writing). You may somehow find my views "PC," but frankly I find that to be an uncalled-for value judgement about my views that I think is out of line in what was up until now a dispassionate, intelligent discussion. As only one example of your ludicrous jumping to conclusions about my beliefs and political orientation - who ever said "the government should create some new program" to bring white and black people together? Uh....not me, dude. Glasses might be in order, or perhaps anti-psychotics - those words are nowhere to be found in ANYTHING I posted. If you knew even the FIRST thing about me, you'd know I view that type of thing as largely nonesense, just as I do what this well-meaning but ultimately wrongheaded preacher is doing. So, while I would never have said it in these terms without being baited, since you played the "let's make this a personal attack" card first: I in turn find your viewpoints naive, uninformed, and unnecessarily blunt...just as this preacher's strategies are. You're also the cynic, my friend - thinking such bullshit, arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic approaches will solve deep-seated problems this country hasn't been able to satisfactorily deal with for literally centuries. Talk about putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound... Thanks for the fascinating dialogue. I'll be moving on now. -
I have a nice 2 LP set entitled EXORCISING GHOSTS, from 1984 (UK import, Virgin Records). Material from 1979-83, the "moody years." Here's what All Music Guide says: "It's not a true career overview, and given that the band only released two albums during its stint on Virgin, a collection that includes at least half of each of those efforts is ultimately a strange exercise in superfluity. That all said, though, if one needs to have a useful enough starting point for what made Japan so great, Exorcising Ghosts is a reasonable way to start. The emphasis is entirely on the moody, melancholic but energetic phase of Japan's career — there's nothing earlier than a couple of cuts from Quiet Life, and any hint of the band's trash glam rock start is carefully and quietly ignored. Tasteful is the word here instead, and, to be sure, the album cover and design, a beautifully striking effort from regular Sylvian artistic partner Russell Mills, is one of the best ever done. Sylvian himself oversaw the compilation, which leads to an important note: if there's a version of the album to get, appropriately enough it's the Japanese one. As the collection was apparently meant to be geared towards the band's namesake country first and foremost, that version includes a slew of extra tracks that create not only a better picture of the band's work, but provides more rarities of interest to fans. Besides such wonderful album cuts as "Swing" and "Sons of Pioneers," other Japanese-only songs include the single version of "Taking Islands in Africa," which features co-writer Ryuchi Sakomoto actually performing on the track, and which has otherwise not yet appeared on an album. Still, the stripped down U.K. edition does have a couple of less familiar takes: the 12" version of "The Art of Parties" and a take on "Talking Drum" which has different opening drums. — Ned Raggett" Incidentally, the UK version I have DOES have all those extras, so I don't know exactly what Raggett is talking about. Maybe this was some initial-run special in the UK, I don't know. Anyway, I would highly recommend this - honestly I think this would be about all the Japan you'd need. They're wonderfully evocative and inventive, but after a while it all sort of starts to sound the same, and you long for something a little more edgy and in your face.
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Preacher Pays Whites to Attend Mostly Black Church
DrJ replied to Rooster_Ties's topic in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
No, I actually think we disagree more than we agree - not to quibble, but fundamentally, I believe what this guy is trying to do will lead to far more harm than good - helping to entrench racial divides and in particular playing into a false "black/white" racial dichotomy that not only is misleading (since racial "purity" is mostly a thing of the past) but also ignores a huge segment of the population in the U.S. that doesn't self identify with EITHER of these categories. Black/Asian relations, for example, are often highly contentious (witness the violence against Korean business owners in the LA riots post Rodney King), yet this black/white polarization approach completely ignores that history (and others, such as Black/Hispanic conflict) and says, basically, "the race problem in the U.S. is black/white." By contrast, you seem to believe the opposite, that he's doing more good than harm. Don't know who's "right" or "wrong" but that is a pretty fundamental and major difference of opinion, so I don't think it's accurate to say we agree more than we disagree. Again, though, that's cool with me that we disagree, but it has to be acknowledged for what it is, a root diffference. The issue undergoing debate here was not the importance of race relations - which we both appear to agree is an important one - but whether what boils down basically to a publicity stunt is going to do sh*t in helping to deal with it on a meaningful level. The alternative (charity donation) you propose would bother me just as much as his proposed plan - it's unnecessary and cheapens the whole issue and dialogue as far as I'm concerned. And again, why is this guy focusing exclusively on white people? What about people of Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, etc descent? And how do we define these categories anyway on a social, every day basis (relating to Swinging Swede's excellent point)? Do they matter? Are we going to start counting the number of light-skinned blacks in the pews, and in which category? It's all just silly in the extreme. In my view, he should simply make an effort to reach out to ALL the people in his community - regardless of self-identified race - with invitations and events that cut across racial and other divides. So far more harm than good for me in this effort - can't be any clearer than that, and point made I'll move on! B) -
Thanks for the further comments, folks. Thing is, I've really enjoyed Evans' playing on just about everything I've heard him on (including a lot of sideman dates less herlded than with Miles - Michel Legrand's LEGRAND JAZZ, George Russell's NEW YORK, NEW YORK, etc). But despite having over 1600 jazz CDs I've lagged WAY behind in picking up his leader sessions. I have just 4 - WALTZ FOR DEBBY, SUNDAY AT THE VANGUARD, EVERYBODY DIGS, and THE TOKYO CONCERT (plus UNDERCURRENT, a shared leader date). Not an intentional slight, but I do find that in the past I've had other priority buys and Evans gets nosed out. I'm now ready to turn my full attention to his work. Despite the Riverside box probably being consensus "more essential" music, I'm concerned about the age of the remastering (and Fantasy now issuing his work in 20 bit newer remasterings seems another way to get the music). Have heard raves about the sound quality on the Verve box. Also, the variety in the Verve box really appeals to me - so many different settings, and stuff that is hard or impossible to get elsewhere. So that's my reasoning for going there first, although I will gradually be gathering the Riversides and post-Verve recordings (I absolutely love the TOKYO CONCERT from 1974; despite its being from a period less heralded in Evans' output, it's actually my favorite of the leader dates I own so far - there's a zest and pure joy I find sometimes missing from the "great trio" work).
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Hell yeah! I bought a copy of this reissue at Jim Sangrey's recommendation, and it is truly one of the best jazz ballad vocal recordings I've yet to hear. To quote Mr. Scott himself on the title track, it's "WONNN-DER-FUL!"