Teasing the Korean

Ms. TTK and I have been together for nearly 27 years. She is a music lover/obsessive like I am, but is not a trained musician. Over the decades that we have been together, I have noticed that she is very adept at listening to an improvised solo and being able to identify the tune based on the chord progression under the solo. I wonder how common or not this ability is in non-musicians who listen to jazz. If you were to create a blindfold test with only the improvised solos over changes from well-known standards, would many people be able to identify the tunes? I'm guessing this ability would vary greatly, depending on the ear of the listener. As most of us know, there are listeners with no formal musical training who have very good ears.

Chuck, I recommended to the management that you be promoted to collaborator. I'm glad they listened to my advice. I would love to tell you that this distinction comes with a pay raise, but sadly, it does not.

How did Cannonball's Capitol albums sell? Judging by the numbers of copies of Mercy Mercy I've stumbled across over the years, I would assume they sold well, by jazz standards, at least.

Thanks. Post-JCS is not a dealbreaker, but it seems like something in the collective consciousness crystalized at the time.

They made a third album? I know of only two.

I agree, but that is where you get into the distinction between capitol-M "Minimalism" as a formal style or school, and minimalism as a descriptor. I would say that a piece of music could be described as "minimalist" if it uses few notes, lots of open spaces, minimal harmony, sparse arrangements, or any combination of those. So I think that the style we tend to associate with Minimalism does not capture all the ways that a composition can be descriptively minimalist. Maybe I should describe Feldman as a "minimumist" to distinguish between the two.

I'll buy that. As we all know, the lines between genres are blurry. I think that Feldman could be a gateway into or out of minimalism. However we describe him, I love his music either way.

I'm not necessarily going for lyrical meaning as much as overall musical and lyrical vibe. "Mass of the Holy Bomb" from Beneath the Planet of the Apes similarly fits the overall mood, as does Axelrod's Earth Rot album, though neither of them reflect anything in the Abrahamic texts, to my knowledge. (I was raised with no religion and am not at all religious.) Similarly, "We Could Be Flying" and "Born Again" are not religious per se, but they are about new beginnings. This project is much more about a particular early 70s aesthetic that I remember as a kid.

"Slow Change" by Bobby Hutcherson and Eugene McDaniels nicely fits this aesthetic. Here is what I have compiled so far. I was limited to tracks I have digitally. The tunes are in no order. I just hit "shuffle." 2 hours and 24 minutes. I plan to add some of the suggestions from this thread if I can find them digitally.

I am obsessed with Cannonball's between-tune banter on his live albums. I would love a whole album of nothing but this, assuming there is enough. In the meantime, there is this:

That depends on whether you are using "minimalism" technically or descriptively.

I will add that when it comes to minimalism, Phillip Glass's music does not at all appeal to me, but I love Morton Feldman's style of minimalism.

I adore Morton Feldman. This may sound weird, but I really love listening to him when I am coming down with the flu or something, and I am having half-asleep, half-awake fevered dreams. He is the perfect soundtrack for that state. I listen to him when I am healthy also.

That is a great set. The Free Design inhabit such a weird place. They are simultaneously poppy and accessible, yet experimental. They sound like no one else.

Oh, yeah, a staple on my 70s Christmas comps!

Do we really not have a thread on the Free Design? Well, if not, here it is. Happy to hear them on a TV commercial.

This is great. Thanks all for the recommendations!

Thank you!

In January and February, I like listening to post-Jesus Christ Superstar religious "jazz-rock" concept albums. Closely related to this exclusive sub-genre would be early '70s concept albums about the environment/ecology, and concept albums about breaking loose and "finding yourself." Back-to-nature, back-to-basics, eschew-commercial-culture, live-simply-by-Christ's-example kind of stuff. Funny, but I'm not religious at all, nor was I raised with any religion. Some albums that fit these aesthetics include lots of David Axelrod and Axelrod-produced stuff (The Bible, the Messiah, Mass in F Minor, Release of an Oath, Earth Rot, and to a a degree Songs of Innocence/Experience); Lalo Schifrin's Rock Requiem, and while it predates this period, the Lalo/Paul Horn Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts; Gary McFarland's America the Beautiful: An Account of Her Disappearance; Gershon Kingsley's Sabbath for Today; and Michel Columbier's Wings, which included "We Could Be Flying." Individual tracks may include Leonard Rosenman's "Hymn to the Bomb" from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Little Marcy's "God is Alive Within You," which features a "rock" backing; The Ralph Carmichael/Pat Boone "The Addict's Psalm" from The Cross and the Switchblade; and some select tunes by Singers Unlimited and the Free Design. You can also find the occasional money cut on early-70s Up with People albums. All of this has a distinctly early-70s vibe which, for me, goes nicely the bleakness of January and February. This is all very subjective, so assuming you have any idea of what I'm talking about, can you think of other examples of this kind of thing?

Miles's hair during this period is a real stumbling block for me.

I can't help you, but I am a big fan of the Blossom/Dorough/Frishberg rat pack.

No, but I have regrets there are not more records like it. There is "Clara's Jerk" by Jacques Loussier.

He died, like Fontella Bass did. Sadly.

Pierre Henry

I highly recommend Herbie Mann's Impressions of the Middle East, circa 1966 or 67, on Atlantic. This album is a longtime favorite of mine, and when I used to DJ, it was perpetually in the DJ crate!