robertoart

It's information taken from the interview with Ruth Lion from the Andrews-Green book. She (RL) makes special mention of the song Am I Blue from this session. Interestingly Kenny Burrell says that Alfred Lion had Midnight Blue placed with him in his coffin when he was interned. So we know that Alfred was listening to Am I Blue at the death knell and then was forever attached to Midnight Blue after the knell, so to speak. I'm hoping to give this one a good listen in the car cd player on my long lonely drive to my night shift job tomorrow night. Long stretches of dark brooding freeways and liminal lighting etc... the hard part is taking one of my prized Toshiba mini lps out of the archive and 'into the wild' of the car. Like Georghe says, those mini lps were a bit of a boon back in the day, 'cause Toshiba was the only one with a comprehensive re-issue schedule back then, before the days of ebay etc. Am I Blue was one of those that wouldn't have been heard otherwise. I used to get them via International phone call to a store in California (I think), that specialised in imported releases from Japan into the States.

the etc. etc. of course is the redoubtable Johnny Coles and the treasure that is Ben Dixon.

re- Clunkys mention of Am I Blue in another thread. What is the verdict on this session. The reason I ask is because I have devoured virtually every Grant Green recording like a starving man at a feast. Except for possibly this one. I first heard it through a Toshiba RVG cd release in the early 90's, and despite subsequently finding and buying every recording on original vinyl release, this one remains the orphan of my collection. I recently wondered if it's because of the fact that the cover might freak me out somewhat. It doesn't look like Grant Green at all. And i've even wondered if it's actually Elvin Jones with a guitar in hand (he was known to play guitar). Or is it just a strange Alfred Lion photo edit. Could this be an unconscious reason that this session is a stranger to me, or is it actually the music? All the ducks are in line otherwise. GG, John Patton. the monolith that is Joe Henderson. etc etc.

You gotta get that 'stupid phone' sorted I feel like I'm Foreman in the 8th at Zaire. BTW have I missed that Eddie Diehl celebration on line at Smalls?

George Foreman has just spoken, and says it all really. http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36451573

They probably don't even know they're missing. They probably didn't even know they had em in the first place.

Odyssey got reissued a couple of times, first in Japan of course, but also by Sony US. The US release has great liner notes by Bill Mikowski (?) that is a really great read. He writes at some point 'this kind of Jazz guitar playing is not about arpeggio running the changes of Stella By Starlight" Odyssey is an exceptional album. I love the tune Swing And Things, there is one short pithy phrase Ulmer pulls out of the hat that has stayed in my head for years and years. A kinda supernatural Country Blues line that is just so sweet and unreal. Odyssey has also recently been released on Vinyl in a two LP 45rpm edition. That must sound heavenly. It's not just the wonderful Charles Burnham that makes this album so very special. Only the great James Blood Ulmer could have envisaged this music.

One Of The Greatest Men In History. I hope he is mourned in this way and young people get to understand his true significance. RIP.

Mmmm...six tunes to represent 65 through the whole of The Seventies. Maybe it is about 'uncompromising expression', and they will release the juke box favourites later. Did they ever realise any Ornette or Don Cherry '45's

So she's got a job and she still can't pay the rent on time? Somethings fishy. It won't get better. Maybe go through a Real Estate agent and be more assured of a reliable tenant.

Blessed are the ubiquitipocket compers You've still got that dumb phone.

Well there you go. how very interesting. She ain't no Tina Brooks, but still pretty as a button.

About Sly Stone, and if he was still active in the later Seventies with all his faculties intact, well who would know. But maybe like many others the essence of what he achieved was already 'fully formed' and may have already solidified and stayed that way 'more or less'. Who knows what Hendrix would have also made. But something essential to these discussions that hasn't been touched upon... and the big overarching thing in regard to Black Popular Song from the time immediately proceeding Prince was DISCO. So... how Sly Stone would have proceeded??? We know how James Brown proceeded. And thats the thing about the emergence of Prince and Michael (as a solo visionary). They were the first Post-Disco groundbreakers in Black Song. Michael was coming of age with The Jacksons 'End of Disco' Disco, with Blame It On The Boogie, and then Whammo....BILLIE JEAN, kinda like, well...This is where I'm at now People!!! Same with Prince in a more low-key visionary way with Controversy etc. Then there was the first post-Disco albums of the other masters of Black Popular Song, Marvin Gaye, Sexual Healing and Stevie Wonder, Master Blaster. then there is Blood Ulmer's post-disco funk, but he called his vocal ones 'harmolodic Pop Songs. ...ooooohhhh aaahhhh, ooh, Don't Control My Pleasure you people...just don't!!! I don't think Harmolodics moved as many units though

That's a classy and beautiful song for sure. It scared me at first when I clicked on the link 'cause i thought it was Diamanda Galas Wonder what Madonna thinks of Diamanda Galas?

The mention of Peter Brotzmann on another thread brought back a memory I had forgotten about. Around 1990ish it was I think. Anyway, I was barely 20, and still a boy, but immersed in Meditations, Ornette and Last Exit. A German Cultural institute brought out Brotzmann and the unbelievably brilliant bassist Peter Kowald. They did a 'recital' in a smallish room attached to the local high-brow College Of The Arts. A small audience.... and Brotzmann blew our heads off. Just supreme. Afterwards, 'a select few' hightailed it to 'the jazz bar' with 'the two Peter's'......where incongruously after what we had just heard, we all had to put up with the insufferable chord/scale pianisms of Paul Grabowsky. The more we all drank, the more insufferable and incongruous it all seemed. It 'culminated', with an upper class vocalist doing a lyric version of Round Midnight......rounnnDDT,,,MIDniiIGGHhtttttttt.....Anyway, Peter Kowald spoke to us with such graciousness and sincerity and for quite a while too. Beautiful man. All this while two dirty rich Post-Punk girls were making their play for the two Peter's. I believe they both decamped back to Germany with the Free Jazz maestros, and may still be there to this day somewhere. I was very sad to hear of the passing of Peter Kowald.

This is a fascinating read. It got me thinking about Hendrix as a gateway to a lifelong love of Black Music. Your experience though is so unique!!! to have been around and open to Indigenous African music at the same time. It's amazing how music is like a life force to many, whether we are professionals or not. Apart from radio which was always by my ear, I also had the ubiquitous influence of 'music on television' in the days before the MTV concept became a standard. Many homegrown Aussie Tv shows were devoted to Pop music, as well as some late night shows that were more open about the kinds of music they showed, although it was usually always Rock and Pop related. But in thinking about Hendrix, I came to him after being a Beatle Kid in the late 70's and then absorbing a series of cassettes from my mates Aunty - consisting of all the kinds of Classic Rock that you mention as well. However when I heard Hendrix and Band Of Gypsies, I realised I must have developed an ear for extended improvisation and I had the instinct and concentration for that. And I also wonder, if the essence of his music lead my ears (or spirit), towards an essential attraction to Black American Music overall, because nothing much else ever really stuck with me at heart very much after that time. (I also heard Wes Montgomery's Organ album with Mel Rhyne around the same time, I was 15ish by then). I was also often just paying lip service to the people and interests of the culture of listening around me after this time as well. Which included cohorts at various times into Rock and then came the Post-Punk people. The Post-Punk people I had to navigate as a musician for various reasons. But the other thing I was thinking about your post was ....your lack of elitism in your listening. That's one of the things I am glad I have also, and never succumbed to the mindset of categorisation between the worthy and beauty (and integrity) of the Popular..... and the worthy and beauty and integrity of the so called 'higher path'. Because I have found the vacuous, the pretentious and the pointless to exist just as much in all camps. And often whichever 'so called' higher paths people take as creative musicians or creative listeners - are often just as ignorant and blinkered by socio-cultural upbringing and socio economic privilege as are the so-called lo-brow paths of lesser music mortals. Hey, that just reminded me of a Brotzmann album title 'Low Life' But yeah....stuff elitism wherever you find it!!!

Yes. I wasn't being fair to her achievements in that regard. i was being biased towards Michael and Prince, probably because I'm more from that side of the fence musically. She changed things as you say. It's true. And I remember Ray Of Light to, or the title song anyway, which is my favourite Madonna also. It had a real sunny vibe to it. It was uplifting.

I bought a Sony Japan cd of this in the mid 90's I think I paid a Kings ransom at the time on export mark up. Glad these lp's are getting some love. I don't think they have dated.

They're all special. Very Special. That Monk record is a big favourite of mine. I remember reading somewhere (probably Downbeat) that one of the NYC venues had started a label to release in house recordings , circa early 2000's I think. They recorded a set of Arthur Blythe gigs with Lonnie Smith and Blood Ulmer in the band. I was looking forward to it but it never eventuated sadly.

Jimmy Smith?

I know Prince is great Lon. I loved those first albums too. I remember seeing the clips for Controversy and Sexuality etc before he really hit it big with Little Red Corvette etc. I will look forward to the many listening suggestions of everyone. I really will. I think I was just taking things back to the context of when Prince first emerged and how it was around the same time as Madonna, who I will never need to pay the time of day too as a listener or anything really. I expect that her music will eventually fade and she will be remembered as an ephemeral Pop Culture footnote more or less. I'm sure Michael and Prince will be around a much much longer time. I suppose the point I was getting at was when Prince first hit public consciousness, Michael was in the middle of those albums Off The Wall, Thriller and maybe Bad, which were like a game changing moment in Popular music, based on his lifetime of apprenticeship, they culminated in his defining move and contribution. I think those songs and production carry the weight of that too. They sound monumental in this regard to me. Prince was only beginning his vision then, and I guess he never eventually got to pack the definitive wallop that Michael delivered. But I agree with the general tenor that Prince's music became ultimately more expansive and nuanced in many ways further away from the masses of Popular consumption. And that he did this by his own ways and means. It's sad that he is lost to the world so young. Immensely sad. That Stevie Wonder interview says it all really. It's heartbreaking to watch. This is a great thread by the way.

yeah anybody that reckons Hendrix wasn't a game changer for Black American Music and musicians is completely ignorant. Blood Ulmer talks about the fact nobody wanted to hire guitar players before Hendrix and afterwards how everybody wanted a guitar in 'rarefied' music circles. And that's just talking about improvised music. He always speaks respectfully of Hendrix and refers to him as 'that brother'. And just to further back up what you say, I recently had the privilege to spend a few days with a young African American guitar player (young to me anyway), he is from Mississippi and from a family of longstanding Hill Country Blues People. He wore his Hendrix hat and has a Hendrix persona on stage (in a laconic way). I made a bit of a jibe about his Hendrix thing...he let me know in no uncertain terms that HE had learnt and mastered Hendrix's music 'by the time he was 13" and devoted many schoolwork essays to the man himself. Was one of the happiest times of my life those few days!