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Everything posted by Shrdlu
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I really agree with that. I don't dislike all the JRVGs and RVGs, but the "Blue Note Works" TOCJs are the benchmark for me, and I don't recall hearing a bad one. I think they should be preserved as the definitive BN CD reissues. It would be great to see them made available again. Meanwhile, like you, I have gratefully picked up a few of them on eBay, several for only about $10 or so. For anyone who does not know this TOCJ series, try to get the 4 albums with Grant Green, Larry Young and Elvin Jones in this format. They are terrific.
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That's a classic Bags date, Brad - mind you, when did he ever sound bad! That opening "Sunray" really has a great mood, and, as the notes say, Horace's sympathetic comping encourages Milt to keep on going. The session is rather short, and a Prestige LP that I had also contained four tracks with a quintet with a trumpeter - can't recall the name, but you can look it up in the usual places.
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I liked that last post, Bill, and can identify with it on several levels. It even reminds me of problems I have as a Baptist minister - the way people come up with excuse after excuse and won't listen to you. My first sax was a Selmer alto that was in really bad shape. (Looking back, possibly a "balanced action" model that had not been looked after well.) It looked bad and it was awkward to play, with worn rods and pads that did not seat well. I never really enjoyed playing it, and made only slow progress. I stuck with it because I really wanted to be a jazz sax player. Finally, after a few years, I gathered together enough money to get a new Mark VI alto. What a difference! It was a joy to play, and it sounded so much better. I don't disagree with the comments about a good player being able to play anything, but it sure is nice to have a reasonably good instrument. By the way, following up on a Blue Note thread about affordable saxes, I was out door-knocking Saturday, and got invited into the home of this real friendly family. I was shown the dog, their family tree, had a talk about cricket, and then the missus trotted out an alto that she had recently acquired for only about $500. It was a Bundy, the first I have ever seen. It said that it was made by Selmer. Anyway, I had a go on it, and it was a very nice horn. It was only a brief test, but I couldn't fault it (it was in mint condition, apart from needing a few minor adjustments, most of which I did on the spot). So, if your young 'uns need a sax, you could do worse than that brand. (I think she got a bargain at $500.)
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The trumpeter, no question. Enjoyable though it is, and I really like it, his singing is of no importance whatsoever if we are talking jazz innovation. But Louis was an entertainer, and entertaining his singing was. And naturally, it was featured more as his chops aged.
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Nice to see Fats being talked about again. Anytime! He's been a favorite of mine since I was about 4. It was a delight, about 5 years ago, to be able to get all of his RCA Victor recordings (in other words, nearly everything that he recorded) after all these years. There are about 13 CDs, and the best ones are all of them! About 2 years ago, a friend sent me some burns of just about every other recording that Fats made, but there was not a lot there to rival the Victor recordings made under his own name. A notable exception is the collection of Muzak recordings and the V disk material made in 1943. If only he had lived for a normal lifespan! I often wonder what he would have thought of later developments in the music, such as the vast improvements in bass playing, and the ability to make records longer than 78s. Sometimes I imagine odd things like him playing with Elvin Jones - I think it would have worked.
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Next on the "re-listen" list was "Mo' Greens, Please". (From the sound of the liner notes, again by Roach, the LPs didn't sell all that well, either, because the cover picture is of a place that sounds a lot like a rescue mission!) I have always felt that there is a mixup with the tracks on the TOCJ. I don't have any other version to cross-check it with. Track one says "Googa Mooga", and track five is listed as the title track. But track five, a medium tempo loping piece, has a repeated phrase that sounds awfully like a "Googa Mooga" riff. If that is the case, then track one on that CD version, a brisker item, would be the title tune. It is evident from the notes that the intention was to have the tracks in the order listed with the CD (and, of course, the TOCJ listings include a facsimile of the LP back cover). I wonder if anyone could find out about this - and I wonder HOW they could find out! Won't be losing much sleep over that one.
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As I already have the TOCJs, I don't really care what Michael Cuscuna thinks, but it's not right that Japan reissues the lot (1501 through 4200, and many others) and the U.S., where these originated, does not. The fault seems to be with the CD buying (or, not buying) public, and I bow to Michael's knowledge of the sales reports. Anyway, I still think that these are very enjoyable dates. I put "Brown Sugar" on again and really had a good time with it. It is very close to being a live recording from a Newark club where Freddie was doing a dance gig. That was the aim of the session, and it has a very evocative atmosphere, helped a lot by Freddie's atmospheric liner notes. I don't think that Joe Henderson sounds the least bit bored. This is no Andrew Hill session, of course. It's all pretty light, but the quality of the playing (by all) is excellent, and Joe does a fine job of playing in a style that was probably a little unusual for him. I might have suggested Stanley Turrentine for the date - the music is right down his street - but Joe did it well. As a tenor player myself, usually playing more complex stuff, I like to get into a good groove (Basie, Zoot Sims, organ trio, etc.) at times, and no doubt Joe did. It is sad that this, and other Roach sessions, are not easily available to all. Well worth 12 bucks each.
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Mike Yeah, pretty much all of Bird's alternates would apply here. And Prez on the alternate of "Shoe Shine Boy" would too. The differences between the two takes makes the stories of him in K.C. jamming endlessly on one tune w/o repeating himself totally believable and cause more than a little "wish I had a time machine" envy. Well said (with the alteration to the Pres title). Bird, Pres and Trane were so inventive that just about all of their alternates are of great value. With others, I am often glad that the CD reissue has no alternates, even if the album is a gem.
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I love that Brass Figures album, too. You beat me to it, Brownie. James Moody always sounds good, and that album, with McIntosh's arrangments, is a beauty. They tried to make James play only tenor on it, but he still managed to sneak in a fine flute feature.
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I thought it was Irving Mills.
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Dark at night, and light during the day.
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I think it's a great idea. I like Freddie a lot. The first four of his BN albums, plus, perhaps, some of his recordings with Ike, would make a very satisfying collection of music. It would be even better if they could get Malcolm Addey, or Larry Walsh to do the engineering. Or, and why not, the Japanese guy who did the Mendeses.
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Everything is still there. It's just very tedious to get the information which used to be all on the one page. For example, I tried Lee Morgan to test the system. There is a discography tab near the top, rather like the tab on a manilla folder. This gives the list of recordings. You then click on the one you want, say, "Candy". The personnel is not immediately given; for that, you have to click the "credits" tab. Exactly what is achieved by making the user log in, I don't know. It is a real pain to have to write down yet another password. (I can no longer use any easy-to-remember passwords anywhere, as I have had to change all of mine because of repeated identity theft. ) The only thing that I could not do was log off successfully to test whether my new password works.
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President Bush Playing in Osama Bin Laden's Band
Shrdlu replied to RainyDay's topic in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
You probably saw it on "The Tonight Show". Remember "Where's Osama Bin Hidin'"? The best one was "as a mall santa in downtown Kabul". There was also a great website with "The Banana Boat Song" melody and lyrics about Bush and Powell coming to get Osama. It may still be up. I remember "Colin Powell gonna bomb your home" as one line. -
It's a great session - very absorbing! For some reason, it was not originally issued. Lon's right, it was not in the so-called Connoisseur series, but it doesn't matter much.
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No method of storing information lasts forever. I share your concerns about this, as I have many CDrs of OOP recordings. (So far, none has died on me.) However, the Lord said "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) The preservation, without any loss, of the Scriptures is further proof that they are the Word of God. He is the one who has kept them in existence. Even the most recent Scriptures (the books of John and Revelation) are still about 1900 years old, and the oldest book is Job, going back about 3000 years. Of course, the original manuscripts no longer exist, but preservation includes perfect copying and translation into other languages. In English, the King James Bible is a perfectly preserved collection of all of the Scriptures. In its context, it leaves far behind any deep groove, ear-in-the-dead-wax vinyl Blue Note LP from Alfred Lion's filing cabinet.
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Nevertheless, I am tired of the continual attacks on Orrin Keepnews. Enough already. Anyone would think that he had flown an airplane into a skyscraper. Whatever his shortcomings (and they are not evident to me from the notes and recordings), he also did a lot for us jazz lovers. His many liner notes are quite interesting and informative. Yes, I have not met the man, but I am happy with the notes and the sessions that he produced. I have no bias either way. These notes, and the recorded music are now all that we have. Let's move on.
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I would say that I'm pretty old - at least, old enough to have been around when Elvin and Stanley first became well-known on records. When I first heard them, I was still heavily into Brubeck, whose music was a lot simpler and lighter, of course. But I immediately liked both of them. My first exposure to Elvin was on the Coltrane Village Vanguard LP, which I mostly liked at once, though Trane's playing (not Elvin's) on "Chasin' The Trane" was a bit much to swallow. (It is still not a big favorite of mine.) I was immediately hooked on Elvin's style. I first heard Stanley on the Duke Jordan LP, though I soon acquired other albums featuring him, notably "Back At The Chicken Shack". His playing was another "love at first hearing". I don't think he has ever done a session better than that Jordan album, though the Smith session is also hard to beat.
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Does anyone have any definite details about which selections, dates and cities would be included? I think it was said that this set would NOT include the material recorded in Paris, Zurich and Newport, all already available. The "problem" with such a set is that it would largely consist of a lot of "alternate takes" of the (by now) very familiar repertoire from the 1960 live dates that we already have. I wonder how much demand there would be for this. The plus side is that the performances and arrangements deliberately left room for on-the-spot variations and riffs, etc., and Mulligan was a very inventive improviser, so that each version of any given piece is different from all others, to some extent or other. Not all of the soloists, however, were as capable as Gerry of coming up with fresh ideas all the time. Quill, and the trumpeters (except for Clark Terry, who wasn't on the tour) repeat themselves a lot. Can't have too much Zoot, though!
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Many of us were appalled by the omissions when the two RVGs came out. They apparently didn't do this to make more money, as the missing tracks have not been issued since that time. Why go to all the trouble to bring out and "cook" the tapes, only to pass over several choice selections, all in the name of replicating two old LPs which were somewhat arbitrarily put together in the 60s, the choices having been made largely because of time limitations rather than quality. You don't need the McMasters to get two of the tracks from the 8/25/57 session if you can find the rare Japanese CD called "Confirmation"; apart from the title track, which is from the 2/25/58 session, it has "What Is This Thing Called Love" and "Cherokee". I know a guy who has that CD, but he stopped trading burns, so that was that. (I don't know what the sound is like on that CD.) But that would still leave out "'S Wonderful" and "Blue Room", though those were on a Japanese LP called "Special Guests". Don't forget that there is also a trio track, "Little Girl Blue", which was included on the domestic CD "Standards". If anyone has the time and energy, I guess Michael Cuscuna would be open to requests for a "top off" CD.
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That quickly became a favorite of mine when I got the CD entitled "Jobim". What a masterpiece. It is hard to play it right, though! The 3 CD set "The Man From Ipanema" includes some rehearsal footage of Jobim and Elis Regina going over it, and it was hard work. A few years ago, a fellow missionary who used to be in Brasil exchanged some emails with me, and I was telling him how much I liked Jobim. He gave me a link to a website where there is a chart of that piece in Jobim's handwriting. For starters, it's in B major (after all, he was a guitarist!). There's quite a collection of chord changes. I stuck the chart in front of my wife, who was an excellent reader and classically trained on the piano, but she was really struggling to play it. Ogermann did a superb job of it. It sounds like the vocals were overdubbed, as there are versions in Portuguese and English. I hear that Tom made his own English lyrics; they are brilliant. Such stuff as "A truckload of bricks in the soft morning light" is awesome!
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Aric, one thing's for sure, that film is a classic, and has been a favorite for many years. The rarety alone makes it precious, for all of its drawbacks and "if onlys". The scene where Fred Katz plays the cello in a dense cloud of smoke used to send our drummer into gales of laughter. My all time favorite jazz movie, of the few that have ever been made, is "Round Midnight", and we even have two CDs of its music (one on BN, one on Columbia).
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I agree with you, Jazzman, about Erroll Buddle. I lived in Australia for awhile, and regularly saw him on TV in a band led by Don Burrows. I used to have a Buddle LP where he played a version of "Love Is A Simple Thing" on the bassoon. He sure is a master of that awkward instrument. His main horn, of course, is the tenor, but he also plays the oboe very well. Aric, an LP on which Lateef plays the bassoon is the Impulse album "Jazz Around The World", not on CD unless the Japanese have briefly put one out. He is pictured with his various horns on the cover. I don't recall ever seeing any other album on which he plays the bassoon. The oboe, yes, but not the bassoon.
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How sad that, with all of the technology available today, there seems to be no way to produce that original sound. Most of the session reels are still in good condition. There ought to be some way to use these to issue that great sound. But, and this is not sour grapes, I am happy with nearly all of my BN CDs.
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Not much more to say, but here's another who really recommends "Filles de Kilimanjaro". I think it's a masterpiece. I could not count how many times I've played it since I got the LP (when first issued). It's a marvellously absorbing suite. Whether or not the instruments are acoustic is irrelevant when you have musicians, compositions and performance at this level. And I'm one who greatly prefers acoustic, pre-1968 jazz. I am not a huge fan of "Bitches' Brew" and Miles' later offerings, but "Filles" is just terrific. Someone well said that you can regard the album as a suite for Tony Williams. The wash of sound that he produces is a superb illustration of how good he was. The old Columbia CD sounded quite good, but I like the original suite so much that I put together a CDr from the box sets, and I imagine that the current CD of the album sounds like that. Be aware that the old CD, and the LP, had errors in the personnel listings. Like others, I also think that "Miles In The Sky" is not the best of the quintet's albums, but we are speaking relatively, and it is still good stuff, well worth a listen. I wouldn't place it at the top of my wants list, though. Buy it when things are quiet (if they ever are!).