Joe

Glad for this spoiler!

Much grass!

All those Lightnin' Hopkins dates are pretty essential. Wasn't there a box set of them back on the OJC/OBC glory days? My fave is SOUL BLUES, which can be heard/had on this 2fer.

True Widow (2008). From Dallas.

Also excellent (if maybe a bit obscure):

I've always loved this OBC.

A contemporary player or someone more "vintage"?

Bent Fabric? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/arts/music/bent-fabric-dead.html

Surprising!

So, now you're going to make me do math!

This record felt very fin de siècle when it came out in 1998. Now it sounds post-apocalyptic. Maybe it always already was.

It was the first Raney LP I heard. And it's a good one!

My pleasure. How could I not guess that was Amiri Baraka with the NY Art Quartet!? Sheesh. And I just listened to that Gil Melle record. Oh well, I guess I didn't imprint on it like I thought. I figured 5 was an archival recording, but now I'm wondering just how old it is!

1 = The curtain is parting! The party is starting! Something very familiar and "show tune"-like about this head. Some of the phrases in the tenor solo are less conventional than they might sound at first listen. (Something about the note values, or internal cadence of phrases... the syntax). Also, not as gutbucket as you might expect. And I do like a false ending. 2 = Clever. And maybe more swinging than the tune it's based on. The organ is very electronic sounding, too, making it hard to date this (for me anyway). 3 = The "island feel" and sax timbre(s) tell me this must be George Braith. But one of his records, or a tune from the date he did with Big John Patton (BLUE JOHN)? Either way... the party is still going! 4 = Is that sample Mulligan and Brookmeyer? The horn counterpoint sure seems Mulligan-esque. Can't place the tune though. Some interesting looping going on here. 5 = Toru Takemitsu? Lovely, whatever it is. And that includes the veil of noise. 6 = Also lovely, but I am stumped. Like the colors of the ensemble very much. Why did it take me this long to realize there's a synth on this track? Makes we wonder if this is one of Muhal Richard Abrams' 70s ensembles. It does not sound like Sun Ra to me. 7 = Amiri Baraka for sure. But with accompaniment from ... and alto and trombone I don't know. Eager to find out! 8 = Earl Coleman, no question. And that has to be Sonny Rollins, whose solo is arguably more "singing" than Coleman's recitation (not that there's anything wrong at all with what Coleman's doing here)... I mean, that's a hell of a Sonny solo, which is saying something. I often forget about this Prestige date, though.

Secretly a bit "out there" (Cf. Yusef Lateef's entrance on "Judyful").

Very cool! I hope a recording of this performance eventually emerges.

Jimmy Fox Dale Peters Joe Walsh

Awesome news; congrats!

Lem Winchester WITH FEELING, with Richard Wyands. Add Oliver Nelson to this same line-up and you get the equally lovely NOCTURNE.

Oil Can Boyd The Tin Man Dewey Bunnell