Free For All

I love Boulevard Wheat. No fruit, please. I'm less a fan of the Pale Ale.

Ghost, I'm giving my sister June's Got Rhythm for Christmas. Do you have an opinion of it? Her most respected album seems to be Something Cool which I got years ago and enjoy. But I chose this one because Something Cool has her in front of an orchestra, while Rhythm has her with a small group. All of her Capitol albums - at least up to the early 60s - are really solid; but the BEST ones by far are with Pete Rugolo. Well. . . the Rugolos aren't necessarily my favorites. But I really like "Got Rhythm" . . . swings and is short and sweet and directly to the point. I love "Something Cool". I've also been enjoying her Christmas record "This Time Of Year"- it seems to fit my "holiday mood" this year.......

I love Bass ale, especially when it's on tap, like it used to be at the Green Mill in Chicago before the distributor pissed off the owner. They also had Guinness on tap, so you could get a great black-and-tan. Bass is top shelf in my book!

That's what I suspected. These were too clever and creative to have been written by actual "bad writers". It seemed like an intentional effort. Still really funny stuff, though!

Don't forget "The Penis Mightier".

It's missing three tracks which are included on Woody Live East and West (see initial post).

You know, if nothing else is possible, couldn't you just play the message (does your phone have a loud speaker phone?) into a mic and record it that way?

Happy Birthday GOM! Night Lights is outstanding!

I noticed that Woody hadn't been represented in the AOTW, so I thought I'd nominate one of my favorite recordings. This is a document of the band recorded in late June 1965 at San Francisco's Basin Street West. The original release contains eight tracks, but there are eight additional tracks scattered over a couple other releases. Jazz Hoot includes I Can't Get Started, Hallelujah Time, Satin Doll, Jazz Hoot and Watermelon Man, and Woody Live East And West includes I Remember Clifford, The Preacher and Waltz For A Hung-Up Ballet Mistress . All these tracks will be re-united on the upcoming Mosaic Single. I'm looking forward to that one! For the purpose of this AOTW discussion I thought we'd stick to the original release, although feel free to talk about whatever you want. Besides Woody on alto and clarinet, the personnel included Gary Klein, Sal Nistico and Andy McGhee on tenors and Tom Anastas on bari. The trumpet section was Bill Chase, Don Rader, Bobby Shew, Dusko Goykovich and Gerald Lamy. Trombones were Henry Southall, Frank Tesinsky and Donald Doane. Rhythm section was Nat Pierce on piano, Tony Leonardi on bass and Ronnie Zito on drums. So some familiar 60s Herd names combined with some lesser-known players. I got to know the late Tony Leonardi when I taught at Youngstown State for a couple years. He was the head of the jazz studies program, and a terrific guy who was very proud of his time with the Herd. Most people think of Jake Hanna when considering the 60s Herd, but Ronnie Zito takes a back seat to no one (to my ears there's a definite Sam Woodyard influence there). This band swung its MF ass off! Great charts too- one of my favorites is Chase's 23 Red. Other arrangers included Nat Pierce (who contributed the great chart on Opus De Funk), Dusko Goykovich and Don Rader, who wrote the classic Greasy Sack Blues. Woody used to introduce that tune as if the title was referring to the woes of eating fast-food on the road, but the title really referred to the woes of the long bus rides, if you catch my drift. The "Seven Come Eleven" sounding Northwest Passage features a typical great Sal Nistico solo. It was mostly because of Sal's ability to burn at these fast tempos that tunes like this one (as well as Caldonia and Apple Honey) gradually evolved to faster and faster tempos. The Goykovich composition "Woody's Whistle" is great swinging blues chart, gradually building chorus after chorus. The title referred to the whistle Woody used to call the guys back to the bandstand after breaks. A lot of the band's repertoire consisted of arrangements of the pop tunes of the era. Even if you are burned out on Funny Valentine, it's hard to not like Don Rader's great medium-swing version of the tune. Most of these charts were still in the book when I joined the band in 1984, which is a testament to their timeless quality. This band was an interesting amalgam of Basie, Ellington and general bebop/hard bop influences. And the instrumentation really created a different sound. Writing for this band was really different than writing for the usual 5-4-4 instrumentation. Anyway, I'll stop there for now. I hope many of you have this recording- if not I'd highly recommend getting the Mosaic Single when it becomes available. Also, you've got to love that cover! Total 1965!

A-rump-a-bum-bum!

Nothin' like a good ol' fashioned Christmas pillaging.

Jackie McLean Maynard Ferguson Don Alias Don Lusher Arif Mardin

AMG lists the dates as 3/3/60 to 10/10/60. I'm assuming that they were all recorded within that time frame. This is the only version by Duke's band that I'm aware of. Now you can relax.

Just got my copy in the mail today. I also ordered the '87 Chet Baker in Tokyo- I have the CD and have always thought it was some of the best late Chet I've heard. I was pleasantly surprised to see it out on DVD. Looking forward to watching both of these. Thanks for the heads-up! Jazzmatazz is/was great, and I do miss it, but this board really keeps me on top of stuff I never would have known about. It's become my primary source of information- lots of knowledge here.

I'm not sure where the bandleader got them, but they were legitimately published, not record lifts. I did a quick google search and found some things here (check the online store). I don't know if this was the source, but it seems to be available.

I was fortunate to get to play this piece tonight with a local big band in a "holiday" concert. I tend to be a little skeptical about "jazz versions of classical pieces" but I must say that Strayhorn did a GREAT MF job of arranging this for the band. It was interesting to sit in the rehearsals and hear all the pieces assembled. It's not really a difficult piece technically, although the sax section has major doubling duties. What's hard about playing this piece is the challenge of infusing even a tiny bit of the intense soulfulness of the 1960 Ellington band. There is some serious plunger work in this sucker, and playing plunger well is not something to be taken lightly! As far as the writing, playing this piece just increased my admiration of Strayhorn. His ability to distill an orchestral score like this down to minimum instrumentation and still keep the quality of the music intact (yet it sounds like the Ellington band, no question) is amazing. There are some great voicings throughout the piece. Strayhorn was/is a MF! I'm not much into the whole holiday music thing this year, but this was a treat! The rest of the concert was a bunch of the usual holiday crap. Duke, Strayhorn and the band belong on that "best things in life" thread. (edited for a couple clams)

Check it out and discuss Nice to see some old favorites like Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman and Bob Brookmeyer in there. Also glad to see the Trio Beyond "Saudades" in there. That really is a great side. I haven't heard ANY of the "Best Contemporary" nominations.

WTF is that about chewy? Inquiring minds want to know.

You know, like most of the bandleaders, Woody could be a sonofabich at times, but your statement is way over the top. Woody was a great bandleader and most often a generous and caring person. I got to see both sides, and I remember the good stuff way more than the bad. Your "source" is full of it, chewy! And congrats on getting Bird with the Herd. I think you'll enjoy it.

Unity Cape Verdean Blues Mode For Joe Schizophrenia Free For All Speak Like A Child Roll Call Somethin' Else Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 Prayer Meetin'

It's a decently recorded and great document of Bird hanging out with Woody's Herd. You just know the guys in the band were thrilled to have Bird sit in. The most interesting thing IMHO about the recording is Bird's performance on Four Brothers. He plays all the solo spots which are usually portioned out to the saxophones, and we get to basically hear Bird learn the tune as he plays it. He stumbles over a couple changes at first (and the modulation takes him by surprise) but the speed with which he learns the tune on the spot (and these are not your ordinary changes) is stunning. The man had some serious ears! A must-have!

Good call, sal- that is a great one. I remember quite some time ago we had a discussion about the interesting form of the Thad Jones tune "Elusive" which is on this.

Hal Crook has written several excellent books on improvisation. I use one called "How To Improvise" for my own practice as well as my students. Despite the bold title of the free jazz book, I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt until evidence to the contrary presents itself. I'm curious to check this book out, it might be good! And as far as academia goes, I would love to see more attention paid to free jazz/avant garde styles. I think the study of bop is an important part of the jazz curriculum, but too often the road stops there. Students often don't understand the structure, form, rhythm and melody that exist in free jazz styles- I'd like to see them deal with the challenge of thinking about such things more abstractly instead of just running the changes and thinking that's all there is to it.

Thanks for that, TJazz. Note to others: be aware that the code is "D6 capital O 1", not "D6 zero 1".

Pepper had some great moments with Thad & Mel. One recording that is underrated IMHO is the collaboration w/the late Ruth Brown. There are some GREAT arrangements, the band sounds inspired and Pepper plays his @$$ off. I love everything about Lee's The Cooker. Excellent session. I listen to the Byrd/Adams Mosaic frequently. Another great side is Don Friedman's Hot Pepper And Knepper(w/George Mraz and Billy Hart), although I don't know if it is currently in print. The quintet date w/Thad is Mean What You Say w/Mel, Ron Carter and Duke Pearson. Highly recommended. Pepper is da man!