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Shrdlu
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Posts posted by Shrdlu
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Who saw Pops live?
I did. Adelaide, Australia, 1955, with (for me) his best lineup, with Trummy, Ed Hall, Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw and Barrett Deems. I don't remember whether Velma was present.
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I see no point in bothering with the tenor in C. Transposition is dead easy, and the tenor in Bb is not the slightest problem. As far as the sound goes, as my saxophone mentor put it, the C instrument is "neither one nor the other".
It has to be admitted that the Bb tenor has the finest and most versatile saxophone sound. There is a reason why the saxophone family settled quickly into the ones in Eb and Bb.
Why bother with the C tenor or soprano, or the rare F alto (marketed briefly by Conn as a "mezzo-soprano")?
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I agree with Lon that it would be nice to see some reissues of the pre-bop Blue Note material. Those "swingtets", in particular, are delightful.
Not long ago, I found a mint condition copy of the Mosaic Hall/Johnson/De Paris/Dickenson set (vinyl) for a very low price. Considering how old that set is, I was surprised. I hope this encourages others. That set has the superb Ed Hall material and some superb piano solos by James Johnson.
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Yes, it is.
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Yes indeed: Lee with Elvin is a great pairing.
Jackie Mac's "High Frequency" session is superb. It's a quartet, so it makes an excellent showcase for Jackie. He really bares his soul on that. The main four tracks form a nice suite. The "Bullfrog" track is "The Sidewinder #6", but it is nice, too. I don't think there was any decision not to issue it on CD on its own: it's just that no-one got around to it. (For anyone who doesn't know, it has only been released as a mid-70s LP twofer and in the Mosaic McLean set.) Someone might be able to get the Japanese to issue it.
Felser, I assume that the Lou Donaldson albums you are referring to are the mid-60s ones recorded for the Argo company. Of those, I like "Musty Rusty" the most. I regard it as an honorary Blue Note album, because it was recorded by Rudy and the lineup (Grant Green etc.) is Blue Note. Above all, the vibe is electric from the first note.
Stan Turrentine's "In Memory Of" is superb. It did come out in Japan and I had no trouble getting a copy about a year ago.
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Ha ha, I had a summer partly in Toronto and partly in Ottawa, Ted. I well remember the humidity. That fall, I started a new job at Carleton University in Ottawa and we moved there in the summer. At times, we retreated to the basement and ordered takeout pizzas.
Sgcim: Playing outdoors can be a nightmare. If it's not warm, a saxophone goes real flat unless you keep fingering low Bb and puffing through it, to keep it warm. It only takes a few minutes of not being blown for it to go out-of-tune. Just as bad is the clash indoors between a clarinet and a piano in a cold room. A clarinet goes flat if it's cold, even with the mouthpiece and barrel pushed in all the way, while the piano strings tighten and make the piano sharp. It is common to have a quarter-tone gap. I had my clarinet barrel shortened because of that, but, unlike with the saxophone or flute, if you move the clarinet barrel, the intervals between the notes get messed up and you have to do a lot of lipping to keep things in line. You can slide the flute mouthpiece out a long way without serious problems, changing the key by a half-note.
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Thanks for posting that picture.
They look so fresh and healthy there. What a golden era that was, with the tons of small-group recordings made under Billie's and Teddy Wilson's names!
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Mel Lewis, who was on that tour, said that they had to play a complex piece for which a conductor was essential. Benny normally didn't bother with it. On one occasion, Benny did conduct, and Mel shouted "Atta boy" at him.
Meanwhile, one of the guys scored some green and half the band had some spliffs and the clarinet player didn't even notice.
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Still to be issued:
"High Frequency", by Jackie McLean.
A 2 CD set of the previously unissued takes issued in Japan since 2011, except the tracks from the two "Blue John" (Patton) sessions.
A 2 CD set of the contents of the two Patton sessions, including the two tracks, "Extension" and "Davene", that wouldn't fit onto the (one) Japanese CD.
One can already closely approximate that set. "Extension" showed up on a George Braith album and "Davene" is on a Patton album (from a year later) with exactly the same personnel: a trio performance with Patton, Green and Dixon, which makes a good fit.
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I am not "now reading" it. In fact, it's not a book that you read for hours on end. But I recommend "Woodwind Instruments And Their History", by Anthony Baines, originally published in 1956. Yes, that's a long time ago, but the book is still of great value.
That dude had an encyclopedic knowledge (and even briefly mentions some jazz saxophone players).
The book has just about all you would need to know about the different models of instruments, including fingering charts. The section on saxophones (in the Clarinet chapter) is very brief, but there is no shortage of saxophone information elsewhere, so this isn't a drawback.
Eek, the fingering charts for bassoons (French "Buffet" design or German "Heckel" model) are enough to give a person nightmares. 12 keys for the left thumb alone!
I play the Boehm system clarinet and I'm glad I don't have to play the German model, which is the old "simple system" with numerous extra bits and pieces, to correct its many drawbacks (especially bad intonation in the low register). I disagree that the Boehm doesn't sound as good as the other systems.
Well worth getting as a reference.
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Sgcim's post about Benny's behavior is similar to many other accounts. I read the bass player's account of the early 60s trip to Russia. Benny's behavior on that tour, and at many other times, suggests some kind of mental illness. Whatever was going on, I'm glad I never had to work with the man. His lovely sound on the clarinet, and that of all his groups, give no clue about what was, at best, a highly antisocial nature.
One certainly does not have to be a martinet to get a nice-sounding ensemble. Oliver Nelson is a good example.
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Rutger was excellent as Albert Speer in "Inside The Third Reich". The rest of the cast were excellent, too.
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Nelson: Ha ha! Book Club!
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Ted, that's a delightful version of Águas de Março. I've known that for years. For some reason, they sing it in Bb. It was in B originally. I found a copy of Tom's handwritten chart online.
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The notes, by Orrin, specifically state that the mono track on the CD is the item that was on the mono LP, by the way.
Riverside should have used a reliable stereo tape recorder, because it malfunctioned at this Evans date and also at the "Monk's Music" sessions and the sessions with Monk and Gerry Mulligan.
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Getting back to the first post, the "Keepnews Collection" "Portrait In Jazz" CD (2008) has two, not three, previously unissued selections: "Come Rain Or Come Shine", take 4, and "Blue In Green", take 1. It also contains the mono take of "Autumn Leaves", which was on the mono LP.
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I understand and respect your point of view, Lon, but I disagree, especially with the expression "dribs and drabs". The previously unissued Evans and Blue Note tracks are all top quality material.
As far as the amount of "new" Blue Note tracks goes, I already added the playing times, and one could issue a 2 CD set of them without the tracks from the two John Patton sessions, plus one generously filled CD of Patton, consisting of everything not on the original "Blue John" album, including the two tracks that could not be crammed onto the Japanese CD. The vibe on the "new" tracks is quite different from that on the original (which wasn't issued back in the day).
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Too bad that Rudy stopped prescribing in about 1958.
Dan, I also hate those tiny frames. I don't want those early 60s Dave Brubeck frames (which a friend in England calls his N.H.S. frames, lol), but I want a decent surface area.
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During the last few years, there have been about 8 "new" Evans Riverside takes that are not in the old box set, all of them good. This means that there are more tracks that have still never been issued. I can only assume that they didn't want to make the box set too large, which is a reasonable policy.
The same applies to Blue Note. Most readers will know that, since about 2011, a very large amount of tracks have been issued for the first time, in Japan only. Again, there must be even more tracks that are good but have never been issued.
The distinction between "rejected" and "unissued" has been blurred. Rejected by whom? When?
Sadly, the decision to suppress has been left to one person. This is not right, especially considering the fact that the session reels will decompose before long. The inexplicable decision not to issue CDs much outside Japan has not helped. We all owe Michael Cuscuna a massive debt for his toil over 50 years, but if he didn't like a take, then it wasn't going to come out. The high quality of the "new" Riverside and Blue Note tracks shows that both he and Orrin Keepnews were wrong. The main evidence, for me, is the second take of "Mode For Joe".
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Are you after just reading glasses, or do you want comprehensive glasses? In the latter case, you should have a test by an optometrist. Perhaps you have already had one, in which case you will have a proper prescription.
Reading glasses are a much simpler proposition, and you can easily get them online, provided that they are in the range of about 1.5 to 3.5 diopters. I only use reading glasses and mine were purchased online. Earlier, I got some at Costco.
My saxophone mentor was an optometrist, so I am fairly familiar with the subject.
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Lon, I haven't seen that review, but I am very fond of that (last) Pearson album. I already had a copy of it, taken from vinyl, but I recently got a Japanese CD of it.
Duke was working on another album, recorded at two sessions, earlier that year, but two of the tracks have never been issued, and one, "Dialogo", only appeared briefly in a "Mosaic Select" set. The tracks from those sessions that have been issued are excellent. I would love to have all three of the tracks, to make up an album (as Duke intended). We owe Michael Cuscuna an immense debt for his reissue work over many years, but if he disliked a track, then it wasn't coming out, and that was that. The session reels will soon decompose.
We have seen "rejected" tracks eventually issued, so the distinction between "rejected" and "unissued" is muddy.
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Monk and Bud were good friends.
The Baroness wasn't around when Monk took the blame for a spliff, or whatever Bud had, when the redneck N.Y. police harassed them. Monk knew that Bud could not survive another police ordeal, having already been savagely beaten by them, so he took the rap (and then couldn't play in New York until the summer of 1957).
The incident with the Baroness occurred in 1958, when Pannonica drove Monk and Rouse to an engagement in Baltimore. The trouble was in Delaware, and took years to clear up, in spite of Pannonica having access to top attorneys.
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Oooh! Now I can finally hear that Bill Evans album. I always wondered what it was like.
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Thanks for the post. This is very interesting.
"Lillyhammer" is pretty much the best recent TV series. It is a very high quality production. Steven van Zandt (what a typical Italian name, eh?) is a superb all-rounder.
I normally hate to hear post 1970 big bands. They are usually well drilled, and can nail a chart, but the saxophone sections almost always sound thin and generic, and I absolutely hate hearing an electric bass with a big band. But the band that plays the main theme (and appears once on camera in Johnny's club) sounds excellent.
I won't be buying the CDs, though. I can hear the music on the show, and I hate rock music.
Blue Note's TONE POET series.
in The Vinyl Frontier
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I am happy with the Blue Note "LT" LPs (which are easy to find, in good condition - none of that "VG+" Rice Krispie sound, as with 60s vinyl) and the Japanese CD reissues of them from 2011 onward. I have no need for any new fabuloso LPs.
I replayed Wayne's "Et Cetera" session recently (using a 90s U.S. CD) and I felt that that date didn't happen, so I won't be getting any form of sonic upgrade.