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garthsj
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Posts posted by garthsj
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Here is a very neglected album of "Tristano Music.' It gives you a chance to hear three Tristanoites play some great swinging music and some wonderful improvisations. Pity that Ronnie Ball, Willie Dennis and Ted Brown (who is still alive AFAIK) did not make more music ... Dennis is the real surprise here. This is well worth acquiring.
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This recent compilation album contains a collection of Lee's early recordings. These are essential recordings, and contain some of the greatest improvisations you will ever hear. These recordings established Konitz as a unique voice in modern jazz. The two early albums he recorded for George Wein"s Storyville label are also essential to following his development. -
After several years away, I am back!
Here is a favorite Eddie Harris album, with Kenny Barron, Cecil McBee and Ben Riley. Straight ahead and swinging all the way.
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On 3/14/2017 at 9:57 AM, Larry Kart said:After listening to "Mal-1" I put on a Coral album from 1957 led by trombonist Tommy Shephard, “Shephard’s Flock,” with charts by Manny Albam, Al Cohn, and Nat Pierce (mini-big band personnel: Nick Travis, Sam Marowitz, Hal McKusick, Cohn, Charlie O’Kane, Pierce. Barry Galbraith, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson). In some respects a rather tame affair, built around Shephard’s Dorsey-like horn, but the charts are not fobbed off stuff, and all the solos by the other players (not that there’s anything wrong with Shephard's balladeering ) are quite committed, especially Cohn's — he has a gem on bass clarinet. In any case, ’55-’56 was when I first began to listen, and sometimes when I run across something from that era, particularly when, as in this case, I haven't heard it in years, it speaks to me with such a peculiar oblique intensity — speaks to me OF that era, perhaps, of how a good deal of music was being felt and made back then — that I find myself full of emotion.By the same token, I recall what it was like as a child (in the early 1950s) to read the Chicago Tribune comics on Sunday. (We didn't get the Trib, so I saw their elaborate comics section only when we visited a family that did get the paper.) In any case, virtually every strip in the Trib (Little Orphan Annie, Prince Valiant, Dick Tracy, many more) while they still were being drawn in the present, originated in the early 1930s and still were drawn in that era's style. Thus, even though, this wasn't spelled out for me, I was being brought into direct contact with The Flavor (virtually The Smell) of The Past, and felt and knew this. A tremendously important experience I think this was -- to grasp not only that the way things were in the then present (e.g. the way they were, speaking only of comics, in L'il Abner, which was in the paper we got, the Chicago Daily News)) was not the way things always were, but also to detect and attempt to decode all the various implicit messages from the past (social, political, Lord knows what else) that, say, Little Orphan Annie still reeked of in 1952. BTW, one of strongest odd examples of this was the old but futuristic strip Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. What could date more decisively than a c 1930 style strip about the future? It was like watching an old Flash Gordon serial with Buster Crabbe as Flash. (p.s. I recall finding "The Teenie-Weenies" [see below] to be especially weird in its past-ness -- the way those women were drawn!)Back to the music. The next thing I put on after Mal-1 was a Don Sickler album of Kenny Dorham music from 1978 on Uptown, and while these were all good players (Jmmy Heath, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, Billy Higgins) I found myself during a too closely recorded (no doubt at his own request) egomanical Carter bass solo so utterly repelled by the whole thing and the era that represented/spoke of to some degree that I turned it right off. Responses of these sorts to eras and their characteristic habits, especially in relation to one’s own history, are no small matter perhaps.
Larry, I am sorry it has taken me two and a half years to respond to this very interesting post. I totally identify with you ... I am always aware of the past experiences in my young life and how they compare with the present. I enjoyed your examples of the comic strips. I teach film history, and I look at these older films, particularly ones that I saw in the fifties and how they contrast with images today. Anyway, thanks for your most stimulating post.
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I am a little late replying to this .... just getting back to this great site after a long hiatus. I once took a 10-week course on jazz history with Oscar Peterson at his "college" in Toronto. (This is a story for another time). The P&B album had just been released a few days before, and Oscar played it for us after class. He especially focused on "Gone" playing it several times pointing out how difficult the orchestrations by Gil Evans were, and how the sax section was all at sea. In particular he pointed out that baritonist Danny Bank was just not making it. Oscar suggested that Columbia was so eager to get the album made and released to cash in on the release of the film, that they had rushed the rehearsals. I am not sure he was right, but whenever I listen to that album, I remember that little bit of information. It is true that later takes from that session get much better.
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Thanks Joe. Unfortunately it is NOT my birthday today (actually March 2nd), but I will accept your belated wishes from an old comrade from the trenches of academe. I’m glad to see you so active on this list. How’s Hollywood doing?
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ITS AMAZING! I have not been very active on this list for several years, (a long story ... other writing projects kept me busy) and here I discover all these warm birthday wishes over the years that I did not answer. I apologize for that. I am a little grayer, but the same guy .... and now that the 7th edition of the propaganda book is put to bed, I hope to be more active again.
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Hi Larry ... You bring back a great memory for me. I was 15, growing up in Cape Town, and I clearly remember buying this album with a week's worth of pocket money. It was originally issued as a 10" album called "Hollywood Party" and I played that album on an inexpensive red plastic Swedish portable machine with a needle and cartridge that must have weighed at least a pound! Like you I have the Fresh Sound copy now, and I still thrill to the interplay between Bob Cooper, Bud Shank, and the underrated Bob Gordon on baritone. (Maynard just gets in the way!) There is still a lot of great "West Coast Jazz" waiting to be appreciated.
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Sadly, I am rather late to this topic. As many of you know over the years I have been a great champion of Buddy DeFRanco, and a self-proclaimed "number one fan." His death was a very personall loss for me. That said, I want to respond to this question about his MGM period. I first "discovered" Buddy's music in far-off Cape Town when I was twelve years old, after taking up the clarinet. I was in a music store when the clerk (Bernie .. he became a trusted advisor) recommended that I try listening to DeFranco rather than Goodman, or Shaw, and he sold me a 10" 78 of "Carioca"backed by "Just One Of Those Things" ... I was never the same after that ... it also somewhat demoralized me in that I realized that I could never ever hope to play like that. I acquired every MGM DeFranco I could find and this was the true start of my life-long relationship with jazz. The very first LP I ever purchased was a 10" of DeFranco's "KIng Of The Clarinet" -- which now sits in a glass frame on the wall of my study. These MGM singles have been reissued over the years, the best collection being on the Hep label ... Many of the quartet sides feature Art Blakey and Kenny Drew, and they are consummate "bop" interpretations. I still marvel at DeFranco's advanced harmonic explorations, and it is no wonder that Charlie Parker considered DeFranco so highly. So ... I do not consider these to be tentative explorations, but high;y confident and mature interpretations in the bop idiom. They are essential for any DeFranco fan.
Point taken about Jimmy Giuffre if you (and/or Dan Morgenstern) refer specifically to bop (I was more thinking of modern jazz in the general sense of "post-swing"). I agree about Tony Scott (his pre-Asian recordings, of course, in this context) being an acquired taste but at any rate he had a voice of his own. The Most brothers were on my mind when I wrote "Who else" and my fault I did not think of Sachs, Wickman and Kühn.
(BTW, how about Hank d'Amico for another first-generation bop clarinetist who rose in the 40s?)I agree that Buddy De Franco was a calibre all of his own but at any rate, there WERE other modern/bop clarinetists who were no slouches either.
Getting back to Buddy DeFranco's recordings, a question to those more familiar with his recorded output: What's the general story behind his MGM period? I have some of his 78s as well as a 10" LP and some of the reissued tracks on Classics and generally like them but wonder a bit about where to site them. A bit ballad-heavy for some tastes and some of his playing does seem a bit .. shall we say ... "straight" to me. Did he try to go for a share of the pop market there?
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No.
The Tentette sides are not on the PJ set. The PJ set includes Annie Ross stuff and the reunion session not included in the Mosaic set.
Some jazz musicians, like the great and woefully under-appreciated Art Farmer, remained immaculately dressed throughout their careers. The last time I saw Miles Davis live, he was wearing a bright red leather jump suit, and looked ridiculous ...
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I "discovered" Aaron Sachs back in the fifties when I was fascinated by bebop clarinet. Despite his great reputation with other musicians he made very few albums under his own name. There is a set on the Dawn label that has been reissued, another on the Rama label that has been reissued by Fresh Sound, and the previoulsy mentioned Xanadu material. eMusic, the download site that offers an adventure in jazz every day with their eclectic mixture, recently made available this early Bethlehem 10" album:
http://www.emusic.com/album/aaron-sachs/aaron-sachs-quintette/14652673/
Sachs actually did a lot of composing and arranging of Latin jazz, and worked with Latin greats like Machito and Perez Prado.
What a pity he did not leave behind more recodingds .... R.I.P. Aaron Sachs.
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Where have you been?
There's lots of talk about this sale in this thread.I am sorry to have revisited this topic ... Because I am working on a publishing deadline I cannot visit here as often as I used to ... so I do tend to miss things ... and my search skills are not very finely honed ... but my intentions were good (like the road to Hell!). :blush2:
Garth.
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I am not sure if anyone else has posted this information. I received a catalog from Oldies.Com yesterday which has a massive load of Fantasy material, at $4.98 and $5.98 (The Sonny Stiitt 3-CD set "Stitt's Bits" is $4.98!!) ... I guess that Concord is offloading stock. This is a good chance to fill some OJC gaps, and the prices, with the low postage, makes this a little cheaper than used copies from Amazon dealers ...
WWW.Oldies.com
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Is this for real .... ? Anyone have any further information on this book ...
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That's very interesting! I had no idea that there was even a possibility to make a living out of that... studio work of all kinds, yes, but that commercials were such a big field, I had no clue!
Hi Ubu ..
I used to make my (very good) living in the "ad biz" in the early 1960's (shades of the tv show "Mad Men")... Jingles were a major musical art form for a long period in the history of commercial radio ... for an interesting perspective see this:
http://www.amazon.com/Killed-Jingle-Unique...0708&sr=1-4
BTW, I am returning to Cape Town, to live there permanently sometime in the next two years
Garth.
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You may also be missing one side of Odalisque.I thought the B.D.F. Mosaic included all the Sonny Clark recordings. I know that Verve title wasn't listed. What am I missing?
Buddy made many albums for Norgran/Clef/Verve that did NOT include Sonny Clark. Some of his earliest, and greatest sets used Kenny Drew on piano ... and he did two wonderful albums with Oscar Peterson.
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Amazon.com just cancelled my order for Ashley Kahn's Blue Note book, which was due out about now. The reason they gave me is that "it is not available from any of their sources at this time." It still seems to be available for pre-order at Amazon U.K.
Does anyone have any further information about when this book will actually be published? It seems to have mysteriously disappeared from several bookseller sites.
Garth.
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WOW! I am just getting back to this site after several weeks of grading and I find a "jazz flute" thread that does not mention Frank Wess!! It is just my opinion, of course, but his classic album with Milt Jackson on Savoy, "Opus De Jazz" has to be the most swinging jazz flute found anywhere .... and also no mention of Jeremy Steig's seminal album (which he never really ever duplicated) "Flute Fever", with Denny Zeitlen. Both worth a listen to ...
Garth.
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Dusty Groove has been carrying these. . . .Not too expensive! I don't think these are remastered in any way.
I don't have a car. . .
.... and you live in Texas .. call yourself a REAL man!
Thanks .. I should have checked U.S. sources .. I see that Caiman, through Amazon, are selling these for about $20.00 ... a good deal ...
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For those of you who like sets of classic albums to keep in the car, here is a series of Sony boxed sets I found on French Amazon ... The price is very good given the decline of the Euro vs. the $$ right now ... Have these been remastered in any way, I wonder?
This is the Miles Davis set; the info for the other sets is also found on this page:
http://www.amazon.fr/Original-Album-Classi.../ref=pd_sbs_m_1
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Thanks for the note, Cliff (and in the other Getz thread as well). I try to avoid Definitive releases when possible, and it looks like I can pick up the Classics issue instead, and get most (some?) of the same tracks.
I don't have access to my CDs right now to check, but didn't the Blue Moon label cover all of these Getz/Brookmeyer early Verve albums about 8 years ago in their Stan Getz series?
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That Gryce half-session with Monk is a masterpiece. Three of the four tracks were new Monk tunes that he almost never played again.
Bertrand.
Absolutely. This session deserves to be better known and appreciated.
I am just re-reading this whole thread. One of my great joys as a teenager was the somewhat accidental acquisition of the original 12" Signal label version of this album, with its beautiful hard board sleeve. I knew virtually nothing of the musicians involved but it set me on the path of my great love of the music of Monk, Gryce, and particularly Art Farmer ... This is truly a classic album (both sessions) and deserves to receive much more attention than it has.
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First let me confess that I have never been able to understand or master the search function on this list, so forgive me if this information has been provided recently.
The good news is that Dusty Groove (The Bastards!) have reissued this wonderful album on their own label (It was formerly on Argo LPS-707) ... It is a gem from a legendary musician who made far too few recordings ..
Garth.
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I am not sure that anyone has mentioned William (Bill) Russo yet .... clearly one the "greatest" in my book ...
Garth.
What else is similar/related to the Tristano/Konitz/Marsh Atlantic Mosaic? (1960's or earlier)
in Artists
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Thanks for this recommendation, Larry. I am just coming out of covid-19/researcher/author hibernation (I got both of my shots)
and missed this one. I can now resume my life as a full-time jazz fan until my editors start demanding yet another edition. I need to retire - so much jazz to listen to, so little time left!