Teasing the Korean

I have a bunch of these. They were everywhere for short dough in the 1990s.

The A&M stuff often - not always - had 5 tracks per side, like a Brasil '66 album. The long, introspective, delirious tracks didn't become a thing until post A&M. Hubert Laws' take on "Fire and Rain" encapsulates what I'm talking about. I define "Now Sound" pretty broadly.

Also in the Now Sound section, other than the ones that end up in the Brasilian section. The only CTI albums I would file in the jazz section would be the odd straight-ahead quartet or quintet session. And I really don't like CTI's production on straight-ahead jazz, but I love it on the Now Sound stuff. I don't think I have any label-specific sections, although I do file the KPM albums together under "various." But some of these are in the Now Sound various section, and some are in the Space Age Bachelor Pad various section. And one is in the Crime/Noir various section.

I don't file CTI albums in the jazz section. I file them in the Now Sound section. That is what they are, and that is how they should be evaluated.

I didn't listen to any CTI in the 1980s. I started buying them at a buck a throw in the 1990s. They fit in well with the turn-of-the-millennium vibe.

The tune is in Eb. It sounds like they are going from a Fm7 to a Bm7(?!?), and maybe then to an E7? There are some shifting harmonies resulting from the lines played by the various instruments. But it is pretty bizarre. I need to listen on something better than laptop speakers.

But many of those CTI albums were not smooth jazz. Especially the ones with two long tracks per side that featured introspective, hallucinogenic, delirious grooves.

I like many of the pre-disco CTI records, up until around 1974, if they had either Don Sebesky or Deodato involvement. But I never liked those Bob James CTI records. They are proto-smooth jazz, and I think they led to a CTI stereotype that did not apply to many of those pre-disco CTI albums.

I assume you mean the chord on the word "try." Yeah, that was pretty unexpected.

I generally am obsessed with trains between November and January, and then I try to not think about them too much between February and October.

Does the OP mean moody contemporary piano stylings? The modernist stuff would have been done in the 1940s and 50s.

Well?

And if so, what scale? I would peg him for an HO guy.

Well, this has been going on since the late 1980s. I would argue that the biggest cultural splash that jazz has made since around 1980 occurred via sampling in rap and electronica records.

Respectfully, Cannonball is not sugar, and Bill Evans is not cotton candy. So your analogy is not working for me.

From Mickey: I’m heartbroken. I’ve lost a dear friend and partner. I’m so grateful that we could spend the last couple of months together doing what we loved best – singing, laughing, and doing shtick. I’ll miss it all so much. Especially the shtick. Rest in peace, Nez.

We can't control how people use language. Words evolve, labels evolve. Neighborhoods in cities will shift a few blocks this way or that way depending on property use and values. I don't have time to worry about what other people consider jazz. If someone wants to call Kenny G "jazz," that is fine. It is just a label, after all. Calling Kenny G jazz doesn't make his music any better or worse than it is.

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/michael-nesmith-dead-monkees-1235130849/

You're welcome. After I posted last night, I sat down and the piano and fooled around with "Send in the Clowns" for about a half hour. This must have been the first time I tried to play it in close to 40 years. Even though I am woefully out of practice, I am reversing that opinion I arrived at decades ago. I do think you could do an introspective jazzy version of this tune. I was playing the arpeggios in the left hand and doing some Bill Evans-y modal triads in the right hand. I think it could work. I'm halfway tempted to work up an arrangement.

On the rare occasion I get to hear Bill Evans with another first-rate soloist, I wish that he didn't record so many piano trio albums. I realize that was his thing, but piano trios can get tedious after a while, at least for this former piano player.

I don't know why either, but here's a guess: It saves the staff wear and tear on the vocal cords from having to answer "Where's Herb Alpert?" every time a customer waddles over to the jazz section looking for him. Perception is reality.

My favorite record store in the US has a very knowledgable jazz staff, and their jazz section is amazing. They file Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the jazz section. None of the employees would even remotely consider this music to be jazz. But there he is, right alongside Albert Ayler and Cannonball Adderley. Why do they file Herb in the jazz section?

I will outbid you.

Consumers don't have to be well-informed to exercise their buying power. Perception is reality. If Kenny G fans think they are buying jazz, then they are buying jazz. Same with listeners who think the Star Wars theme is classical. C'est la vie.

Thanks for sharing. I would buy repros of a couple of these.