NIS

I'm really not very good at IDing musicians but I will say that, if the earlier comments on 5 are correct, at least I recognized that I liked a favorite sax player.

Thanks for the BFT, Joe. I'm certainly not done listening but I wanted to babble a few things and start following the comments. I wanted to try to figure out the vibes on 12; we will see. Track 1 – Too soft. Nothing really wrong, just not my normal listening. Track 2 – Too hard. I actually kind of like this one and have a feeling of familiarity but at eight minutes, it's a little overwhelming for me. Probably just my mood at the time. It's kind of relentless (for lack of a better word), especially the drummer. He certainly got a good workout. Track 3 – This one is just right. I like this a whole lot but then I also think that I own a copy of the CD and actually thought about using a track from this album on last months' BFT. If I am right that is. I think this is Wadada Leo Smith and Ed Blackwell. I don't have a lot of music by either but everything I do have is 5 star. Ed Blackwell is toward the top of my list. Track 5 - Again, I have the feeling I should know something about this but sadly I do not. I can say that the saxophone playing really works for me. Track 7 – Nothing really earth shattering but a really nice well played tune. I suppose it's something well known but not by me. The horn player has a really wonderful clean (wish I could think of a better description) sound. Track 11 – Another familiar sound. I need to listen to this a whole lot more. Track 12 – I first noticed how much I liked the sound of the vibes. After listening a few time I just liked the whole thing. Back to the vibe player, I have a couple of things with Jason Adasiewicz and I think that is who is playing on this track. Outside of three, this is certainly my favorite track. Thanks again for some interesting music to listen to.

Thanks for being part of the BFT. I thought you might like the Boeren group. On another subject, I read your Reptet piece in the Star online, good job. Might you have a CD recommedation for this group?

I have this now out-of-print Yazoo collection, but they have a newer collection. And I see that JSP has put out all of his sides here. Thank you very much.

I guess I'll just keep an eye out for your next CD.

Any chance you make it to the Midwest of the USA sometime?

Thanks for this thread. I have "Open To Love" and "Annette" but have never check into Paul Bley any further and I don't know why. Maybe this will inspire me.

Thanks for joining in and you kind comments. I like these things for the same reason you do. I rarely know anything but I also never come away without finding at least one thing that I need to check into further. Keep 'em coming, I say. Nick

I appreciate your being part of the BFT and for adding some really great information. This was big fun for me. Most of all thanks for a great album. Nick I haven't heard that one yet either but a different drummer, Lovens I think, should make it a little different.

Thanks again for being part of this and for your comments. I just downloaded BFT 87 and am looking forward to listening. Nick Thanks for your kind comments and for being part of the BFT. Going back to your comments on Ditty Wa Ditty, can you recommend a good place to start with some Arthur Blake? I,m a little slow but it never occured to me to check out the source of the song. Nick

11) Aki Takase – Way Down South Where The Blues Began (W.C. Handy) from St. Louis Blues – ENJA (2001) Takase – piano; Rudi Mahall – bass clarinet; Fred Firth – guitar; Nils Wogram – trombone; Paul Lovens – drums. I was happy this drew some positive responses, a real favorite. About half of the cuts on this album are by W.C. Handy, one cut is the Harry Warren song Lulu and the rest originals by different group members. To me the originals fit right in with the Handy tracks. Individual tracks range from duos to the full group, with of coarse Takase's wonderful playing as the constant. Everyone though gets to shine somewhere along the line. Again, I really like the album cover. To me it kind of conveys an attitude similar to the music. 12) Ry Cooder – Ditty Wa Ditty (Arthur Blake) from Paradise & Lunch; Reprise (1974) Cooder – guitar, vocal; Earl Hines – piano. I used this one just because it was fun. Earl Hines does add some jazz content, too. 13) Tom Varner – Happy Trails (Dale Evans) from Covert Action – New Note (1987) Varner – French horn; Mike Richmond – bass; Bobby Previte – drums. I don't know every jazz French horn player but Tom Varner has to be one of the best. Richmond and Previte make this a really nice trio album. As to the song, I grew up in the 1950s watching Saturday morning westerns on the tube. One of them was Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans. I probably even wanted to be a cowboy when I grew up. It was a simpler time. Anyway, if you don't know, “Happy Trails” was the sign off song at the end of each episode of the TV show. Happy Trails To You, Till We Meet Again. Makes me smile every time. Maybe it's still a simpler time, for me anyway. I really had a great time doing this, so thank you again for allowing me to present some of my favorite music.

7) Thomas Heberer/Dieter Manderscheid – Buddy Bolden Blues (Jelly Roll Morton) from Chicago Breakdown (The Music Of Jelly Roll Morton) – Jazz Haus Musik (1989). Heberer – trumpet; Manderscheid – bass. Again, I sort of wish I would have included a longer track from this CD but there is only so much room on a CDR. Review: http://allmusic.com/album/chicago-breakdown-the-music-of-jelly-roll-morton-r166328/review I kind of went on an ECM tangent here. I started listening to “jazz” in the early 1970s. The first two albums I bought were an ECM by Burton/Corea and something by the Art Ensemble (a big range of music under the heading “jazz”, no?). I think that ECM in that time frame released some really terrific music. 8) Bennie Maupin – The Jewel In The Lotus (Maupin) from The Jewel In The Lotus – ECM (1974) Maupin – reeds, voice, glockenspiel; Herbie Hancock – piano, e-piano; Charles “Buster” Williams – bass; Frederick Waits – drums, marimba (left channel); Billy Hart – drums (right channel); Bill Summers – percussion, waterfilledgarbagecan. With the exception of a couple of Walt Dickerson things, this is probably my most played album over the years. Still fresh for me after many, many years of listening. Mikeweil linked a nice review for this one. 9) Collin Walcott – Jewel Ornament (Don Cherry, John Abercrombie,Collin Walcott) from Grazing Dreams – ECM (1977) Walcott – sitar, tabla; John Abercrombie – electric and acoustic guitars, electric mandolin; Don Cherry – trumpet, wood flute, doussn' gouni; Palle Danielsson – bass; Dom Um Romao – berimbau, chica, tambourine, percussion. John Abercrombie was kind of a “house” guitarist on a lot of ECM 1970s albums and contributed greatly to all of them. I used this track partially because it reflects his playing on those albums. At the time this album was like nothing I'd ever heard and with the exception of the Codona stuff, maybe still is. 10) Paul Motian – Victoria (Motian) from Tribute – ECM (1975) Motian – drums; Carlos Ward – alto saxophone; Charlie Haden – bass; Sam Brown – acoustic, electric guitars; Paul Metzke – electric guitars. Opening track of, for me, a really nice album. I think Sam Brown is the guitarist on this track. The second guitar is added on the rest of the album and Carlos Ward only plays on one other track. The last track of the album has a similar feel to this one but a couple of others remind me a little of the Gateway album by Abercrombie, Holland and DeJohnette.

That seemed to work, so on I go. 3) Walt Dickerson Devine Gemini (Dickerson) from Tenderness SteepleChase - (1977) Dickerson vibraphone; Richard Davis bass. Again, Walt Dickerson is my favorite musician. I don't have a good enough command of the language to explain why, but his music moves me on many levels. The next grouping is a nod to music coming from Holland, with Michael Moore and Han Bennink being the common denominators for all three. 4) Eric Boeren 4Tet For Rosa (Boeren) from Soft Nose BVHaast (2001) Boeren cornet; Michael Moore - alto saxophone, Eb clarinet, alto clarinet, contralto clarinet; Wilbert de Joode bass; Han Bennink drums. Reviewers bring up the connection to Ornette Coleman's classic quartet and while true (almost half of the songs on Soft Nose are Coleman covers after all), just thinking in that way sells this group short in my opinion. The. communication and interaction between these guys is amazing. Case in point is an eighteen minute medley of two Ornettes, the Eubie Blake song Memories of You(an absolutely beautiful tune by the way) and an original that flows effortlessly from one part to the next. For me the Boeren originals are really interesting. I also really like the cover art, which is by Han Bennink. 5) Sean Bergin and M.O.B. Monkey Woman (Bergin) from Kids Mysteries Nimbus (1988) Bergin alto, tenor; Michael Moore alto, clarinet; Jan Wilem Van Der Ham alto, bassoon; Alex Maguire piano; Ernst Reijseger cello; Tristan Honsinger cello; Wolter Wierbos trombone; Eric Boeren trumpet; Ernst Glerum bass; Han Bennink drums. Kid Mysteries was one of the first CDs I bought when I finally admitted to myself that new stuff wasn't coming out on LP anymore. I hated it and put it back on the shelf for 5 years or so. When I played it again, it really worked for me. I started looking into the Dutch Scene and now some of my favorite albums come from that locale. 6) Clusone Trio Duck (Steve Lacy) from Rara Avis hatology (1999 edition) Michael Moore alto saxophone, clarinet, melodica; Ernst Reijseger cello; Han Bennink drums. The Clusone Trio and this album are the best is about all I can say.

This will take me awhile to complete, please bear with me. Thanks Jeffcrom for setting up the download links for me. I have no clue how to do that. I also want to thank everyone for being part of this BFT. The comments were fantastic and most of the musicians have been identified. I am always amazed by the depth of musical knowledge the folks on this board have. The first two tracks are a Clean Feed Records section. In the last several years they have released a whole lot of interesting music for my taste. I think these two are particularly good. 1) The Convergence Quartet - Kudala (traditional song from South Africa) from Song/Dance – Clean Feed (2010) Taylor Ho Bynum – cornet, flugelhorn; Harris Eisenstadt – drums; Alexander Hawkins – piano; Dominic Lash – bass. I was a big fan of Harris Eisenstadt when I bought this. Now I'm a fan of all these guys. I think I like the CD more each time I hear it. I'm not sure any one track does the album justice, because each is pretty different than the next. All are worth hearing. Here are a couple of reviews: http://jazzandblues.blogspot.com/2010/06/convergence-quartet-songdance-clean.html http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=38166 2) Denman Maroney Quintet – Udentity VII (Maroney) from Udentity – Clean Feed (2009) Maroney – hyperpiano; Ned Rothenberg – alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet; Dave Ballou – trumpet; Reuben Radding – bass; Michael Sarin – drums. This has pretty much everything I like in an album; Interesting compositions with a more adventureous (freer) bent but still staying in touch with the idiom (The start of track 2, for instance has the feel of a 1960s Blue Note); Great ensemble inneraction with shifting combinations; A unique (to me) voice of the leader. That actually makes sense in my head. ) According to the liner notes, what Maroney calls hyperpiano is a set of performance techniques that involve playing the keys with one hand and the strings with the other using slides and bows of metal, plastic and rubber, specifically copper bars, brass bowls, CD jewel cases, tape cassette boxes and rubber sheets. It isn't until about the third track of the album that I can hear anything that sounds like a piano. Nice review: http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2009/02/denman-maroney-quintet-udentity.html

You got it all right except Eugene Chadbourne. He was on the other CD I alluded to. You are pretty good at this game though.

Django Bates? No Django Bates. I fear that I didn't give you much to go on, sorry Joe. On the other hand, I kind of thought somebody would pick up on Alexander Hawkins' hint for track 1. Atleast for the piano player. FWIW (not terribly much, I suspect) - I think Django is based in Copenhagen This is bugging me now - the English guitarist...I can't think who it could be...I'm going to kick myself...and I feel like the horn players should be a bit more obvious too...where is the pianist from? This should really narrow it down, but since I'm posting answers tomorrow, the pianist is originally from Japan.

Django Bates? No Django Bates. I fear that I didn't give you much to go on, sorry Joe. On the other hand, I kind of thought somebody would pick up on Alexander Hawkins' hint for track 1. Atleast for the piano player.

About time to cut bait on this one. I am working on identifications and will try to post them by Sunday. Thanks to all of you.

So, I've been trying to think of some good hints for track #11. Since I can't seem to do that, here are some less than good hints. It is the piano players album. The horn players and drummer are German, the piano player's home base Germany and the guitarist is English. About half of the cuts were composed by an early jazz/blues great. This group with a different guitar player and adding the trumpeter from track #7 have a another album of music by another early great. How is that for a bunch of convoluted crap. My wife has to deal with this lodgic on a daily basis.

Thanks for some more great comments. I know the drummer's albums that you mention, I almost used a cut from one of them on the BFT. For my taste, the most current of them and the albums that the first two tracks of this BFT represent are the best new releases I've heard in the last 4 or 5 years.

You are not in way over your head with some of the guys on the forum. Me, for instance. I couldn't begin to identify anything, except the Earl Hines/Ry Cooder song. Well, you knew "Happy Trails" also, even if it was from Quicksilver Messenger Service. I am probably older than most of you guys, so the song brings back some childhood memories of Saturday mornings for me.

Thanks for the recommendation. I don't know that one, but what a group of musicians. Digressing again, I almost included a track from a CD titled "Goodnight Songs" on the BFT. Tchicai with Charlie Kohlhase and Garrison Fewell. Nice free improvs from a couple of concerts. Mr. Tchicai is in good form on this one too, even vocalizes a little. I will have to check out "Letter to South Africa".

My Divine Gemini LP is pretty noisy, too. She's going to her 30th high school reunion in Crete next month - without me! I'm a little bummed out; I wanted to eat a couple of runzas. Well, thank you, but I didn't feel like I had a whole lot interesting to say. But I enjoyed the BFT, and I hope you have enjoyed presenting it. I have enjoyed this "excercise in self-indulgence" on many different levels. I've found out some things about my record collection, like I'm apparently a fan of the brass instruments and a large percentage of my albums are on European labels. Most of all, I have confirmed that I am in way over my head with you guys on the forum. The comments have been really great. They used to sell those runzas frozen, by the way. Maybe she can figure a way to get some back to you. Correct ID. Love that CD. I may have overdone the Dutch thing (and Michael Moore/Han Bennink) a little but I am really attracted to the music they make and projects they are involved with.

That's weird, it should be five minutes, something. At the risk of asking the obvious, did you try the other download link?