Joe

Raise your fists for... King Diamond!

I guess I was the first to arrive. [Howl.]

I would stump for DANCING IN YOUR HEAD, though I personally prefer BODY META. But DIYH has a bit more polish and is a little easier to appraoch than the BODY META performances, which are, after all, rehearsals / work sessions. And a final word for a session that been much too hard to come by on CD, even though it contains some of Coleman's finest soloing on record: James Blood Ulmer, TALES OF CAPTAIN BLACK I think it also worth remembering that Ornette's first "true" harmolodic composition is SKIES OF AMERICA. Not electrified, maybe, but really, really, really fascinating music that should not be overlooked if you're having difficulty "getting" his more recent music.

Defintely tone. Initially, I thought the guitarist on #7 was picking his notes a little more robustly than Jim Hall does. Though Raney often sounds a little "sharper" to me than Bickert. Also, some of the little forays into harmonic ambiguity made me think of Raney. I have DAYS GONE BY, the Sackville Ed Bickert / Sonny Greenwich quartet date, and he sounds there much less like a guy filling in for Jim Hall in the Paul Desmond Quartet. But, hey, I mistook Dexter Gordon for Jane Ira Bloom, so best consider the source from here on in!

I can hardly believe I actually was right re: the pianist on #11. And, FWIW, Bickert still sounds much more like Raney than Hall to me.

Harry Allen, Getz, or Zoot, that track is perhaps my least favorite on this disc. As to the current controversy, it's Nietzsche who tells us: "One repays a teacher poorly by remaining a disciple."

I may be wrong, but I think the two Red dates EVENING WITH JOE HENDERSON, with Charlie haden and Al Foster; THE STANDARD JOE with Rufus Reid and Foster -- have somehow slipped out of print. Art Farmer's YAMA?

You all have mentioned many of my favorites -- Glenn Wilson, Carney, Pepper, Charles Davis, Sahib Shihab, John Surman, Chaloff, Gil Melle... -- but how about these players? Leroy "Hog" Cooper He played with Ray Charles and can be heard to fine advantage on THE LEGENDARY BUSTER SMITH sessions. Ernie Caceres Baritone was not his primary horn -- though neither was clarinet, come to think of it -- but he was an important early soloist on the big sax. Check out his work with Sidney Bechet, Eddie Condon, Brad Gowans (on an late 40's RCA 10-inch LP, NEW YORK NINE, that has been issued on CD in Germany), and Bobby Hackett. Carlo Actis Dato Again, a multiple reed player who makes extensive use of baritone. Check out BLUE CAIRO or the solo recital URATU.

Having read Jim's comments re: tracks 5 and 12... I have to agree. 5 especially, frm a record called TURNING POINT that was on Mercury being my guess (check the rhythm section...). For 12 I offer no excuses; I just never thought of Eddie for some reason. Still not sure how I failed to recognize "The Dolphin" either -- in fact, I'm still not sure. The original Tamba 3 arrangement is lodged too deep in my brain.

1) A fast samba. Nice drum effect on the intro. I'm guessing Vince Guaraldi based on the way he crushes / elides certain notes for a bluesy effect. Really light touch on the comping, like Horace Silver with 75% fewer calories... The articulation screams "Guaraldi" to me, but watch it turn ou to be Andre previn in a particularly funky mood! Swinging stuff, though. 2) The way the vibes ring -- a distinctive ring -- and the use of what sound to me like octave runs on the solo make me think this is Lem Winchester. Lovely performance. If it's Lem, then that's probably Richard Wyands on the piano. Can't place the tune, but it sounds like one of those originals that coulda / shouldda been a standard. 3) In the ensembles, the tenor players sounds remarkably like Tina Brooks, but I know for a fact this is not some previously unheard Brooks session. In the solos, the players sounds lke it must be a young Cliff Jordan -- distinctive phrases and cries -- to me, but it could be another Chicago tenor, more obscure. Nicky Hill? No, I think its still Jordan. The muted trumpet sounds like Lee Morgan not so much in terms of timbre, but in terms of the vocal effects and tricky stuff. Vee-Jay material? The tune has nice changes; I particualrly like the suspensions on the bridge. 4) Ah, a twin-guitar track. The dark-toned melody player almost could be Howard Roberts, so I'm going to guess its him overdubbing himself over his own rhythm part. But the recording quality makes it sound like a 70's or 80's recording, so I gotta wonder. Wait a minute... Surely this is Joe Pass with John Pisano. Whatever the case, sunny music with a tinge of melancholy. Dig-able. 5) This one is killing me. I KNOW this tenor player. That tone, really tangy. The way he's pushing the beat in the best Hawk-inspired way. His solo is Lockjaw-esque, somewhat, in its convolutions, but its not Lockjaw. The pianist could be Red Garland, but I think not... Sounds like an early 60's Prestige date to me, but then there's that arco bass solo. This one has got me stumped, but I feel like I should know what it is. Perhpas Jimmy Forrest -- but the tone is too dark-sounding to me... with Joe Zawinul. Arrrgghhhh! 6) The intro reminded me a little of something that Roland Hanna might play. But then in the pianist's more folrid moments, and because of his ability to really do the montno thing, I'm guessing its a Cuban player able to jazz it up, not a jazz player conversant with Cuban music. The chops mean it could be Gonzalo Rubalcaba or Chucho Valdes, but that "Work Song" quote really throws me off! A little corny, too, I have to say... Danilo Perez is a faint possibility. This bassist is going to hurt himself. I see Rubalcaba has recorded with John Pattituci, so I'll stick with him as my guess; I just don't know his work that well. 7) To me, this almost has to be the great Jimmy Raney. The guitar sound says Raney to me, as does the harmonic sophistication. Jimmy Raney is one of my heroes, and, reagrdless of whether its him or not, this is my favorite performance on this disc so far. If I'm wrong, I can't wait to learn how this is. Don't recognize the pianist, though... 8) Sounds like Zoot Sims to me. Man, that acoustic guitar is pretty well buried in the mix. 9) This one has me mystified. I'm baritone sax sounds like Charles Davis to me, but the theme itself sounds so "West Coast" to me, especially the sax voicings. A Lennie Niehaus track? No, the writing is complex, but the solo has too much funk / Jackie McLean in it... You know what! Its Frank Strozier with George Coleman and Pat Patrick on an early 60's Jazzland date, LONG NIGHT. Excellent. This fist time I heard this session I was kind of underwhelmed. But I really like this performance. Thanks for giving me a new appreciation for this, Jim -- assuming that's what it is. 10) This is "Brazil". The great Barney Kessel from his 1981 solo album on Concord. One of my favorite solo guitar records. 11) I half-recognize both the tune and the player, but again I draw a blank. I want to say its Hampton Hawes with Charlie Haden, but it isn't. I still think it's Hamp Hawes however. 12) Another tenor player I should know. Kind of logy rhythmically, which is a nice effect with all the percussion. Illinois Jacquet goes Latin? 13) This one I know. "I Mean You" by Joshua Breakstone from his Monk tribute record with Dennis Irwin and [insert a "Hell Yeah!"] Mickey Roker. Another of my favorite guitar recordings. Breakstone really understands this music, which I think it pretty impressive given his choice of instrument. 14) Another mystery. I know it's Jobim's "Double Rainbow" -- a great tune, though I prefer it without lyrics -- which you don't hear all that often, especially int eh era from which I think this recording dates (late 70's / early 80's). Mostly because its from his later song-book, correct? Wow, the way she sings "You belong to no one..." Yeah! That I like. 15) Hmmm... a soprano sax track that 's got me stumped. Very plaintive; sounds like soprano might not be this player's primary horn. Wait, a trombone, then a trumpet... Could this be Jane Ira Bloom with Julian Priester and Kenny Wheeler? If so, that's probably Fred Hersch on piano. She had an album with instrumentation like that on Arabesque, right? Whoever it is, I kind of like the use of space / hesitancy in the soprano solo, though the player's tone kind of bugs me a little as I listen further. Lacy-esque, with a further twist, but a less atrractive tone. Interesting. 16) "The Good Life". But I don't know the pianist. Sounds almost like Freddie Redd to me in the arpeggios and clusters and even in some of the comping decisions. But Freddie never had chops like these. Nice, not my favorite version. I come up empty on the personnel.

As to the question of influence... Television was playing gigs in NYC as far back as 1973. And I always heard a strong Television influence on... Dire Straits (!). My understanding is also that Brian Eno produced some of their early demos. Another Heads connection.

Get THE BLOW-UP. Bootleg sound quality, but the version of "Little Johnny Jewel" finally lays bare just how deeply affected this band was by Coltrane. And Billy Ficaa is one of the best rawk drummers I've ever heard. Television was a great guitar band, but they would have been nothing without Ficca. The somewhat lackluster Verlaine solo albums demonstrate as much.

The expansiveness of Hill's solo piano music is what really impresses me. He is one of the great pianists when it comes to interacting with drummers, and yet his solo recitals seem to inhabit a very different, if parallel, rhythmic universe. Unlike, say, Monk and [bud] Powell, two of his great influences. Its in the solo piano recitals that I really hear what Hill emant when he told A. B. Spellman how much he admired Debussy and Ravel in the liner notes to BLACK FIRE.

The two releases in the JAZZ IN PARIS by Rhoda Scott fit the bill, IMHO. Duets with Kenny Clarke Regular Quartet (with Joe Thomas) I also really, really dig the Leon Spencer LEGENDS OF ACID JAZZ compilation.

The minute I heard BLACK FIRE I knew I had found a new favorite artist. Can we talk a little more about Hill's solo recitals? I think, in the main, his solo work is terribly, terribly interesting, and somewhat neglected in the context of his overall recorded output. These solo recitals, however, have been and continue to be (for me, anyway) a major component of Hill's overall musical contribution, especially since his tenure with Blue Note ended in the early 70's. From California With Love

Though slightly butchered, I'm still looking forward to this one...

The first 2 on David's list, for sure. Especially that Eldridge box!

It seems to me that, in order to have his music most fully relaized, Monk -- like Ellington and, less so, like Mingus -- required players like Rouse who, while identifiable and often unique -- especially in terms of TONE -- were not great individual "thinkers" as he was. I mean, Rollins and Trane and Griffin all apprenticed with Monk after a fashion. When we hear those players with Monk, we hear them on their way to something grander -- on their way to themselves, you could say. Think about this, though... what if Lucky Thompson, who plays so knowlingly and so creatively on Monk's final Blue Note session (1952?), had remained a regualr member of Monk's band? If Rouse was most like another other tenor player that had worked with Monk, it was Thompson, who, like Rouse, crafted his instrumental voice from equal parts bebop and "swing".

Anyone have any more info on the Bechet?

An incredibly fleet player. Patterson for me is the most convincing expoenent of Powell-inspired bebop on organ. And, in support of this claim I refer to you all... With Pat Martino, Howard McGhee, Charles McPherson, and Billy James. I just wonder how differently Patterson might be thought of today had he recorded for Blue Note and not Prestige.

I still have never quite warmed all the way up to 2 discs that are generally considered indisputable BN classics: Wayne Shorter, SPEAK NO EVIL Herbie Hancock, MAIDEN VOYAGE These two have just never engaged me as much as, say, EMPYREAN ISLES and THE SOOTHSAYER or ETCETERA. Discs I admire, but do not *love*. Not even the new RVG masterings have helped my appreciation of these discs. MAIDEN VOYAGE in particular still sounds cloudy and slightly pallid to me. I have the same feeling about Bobby Hutcherson's OBLIQUE and HAPPENINGS, but I'm slowly coming around to them. Hmmmm, Herbie Hancock seems the common denominator here. I'm not sure my MY POINT OF VIEW was given the RVG treatment. An album that for me never quite gels, depsite the presence of some great players. I think it's let down by Herbie material. Yet I love his work on Tony Williams' SPRING, MOncur's SOME OTHER STUFF, Green's FEELIN' THE SPIRIT and Donald Byrd's ROYAL FLUSH, among other BN sessions.

Andrew Cyrille pretty much salvaged the recent Shepp / Rudd / Moncur reunion disc on Verve for this listener. Not to mention the many fine dates his led under his own name... The man needs a thread (but not necessarily some threads) of his own!

Me too. Also "The Griots" from ANDREW!!!

And Young did begin his musical career as a pianist. Time for me to revisit Woody Shaw's CASSANDRANITE and Nathan Davis' HAPPY GIRL, which probably feature the best documentary evidence of what he sounded like as a piano player during this period. I have to say Young does not sound all that Jimmy Smith-like to me. Maybe a little bit on TESTIFYIN', but certainly not on YOUNG BLUES. I'm thinking speicifically of the version of "Nica's Dream" on that record, which has led me to believe that Young had listened quite a bit to another pianist / organist... Shirley Scott.