Dan Gould

You got the theme? Do share! Edit to say: Oh, a theme as in WWFL? That wasn't the theme, just the guiding principle on certain selections, within the confines of the actual theme which is .....?

Many interesting guesses Randy but no hits. 13 is fender not electric piano. When I first listened I thought 3 could be interpreted as Mogie but while he has that air of aggression the articulation is too clean to be Lee (and it's not Wynton). Does Willis Jackson play alto? I don't know I've ever heard of him on anything other than tenor. I guess you enjoyed a few at least? Thanks for sharing your guesses.

I don't know ... $50 a pop per digital transfer of a cassette from the Smithsonian? I did just pay $30 with shipping for a copy of the Messengers 45 of the music from that traffic-safety animation, but at this time of year with bonus and Christmas cash flowing it felt like the right time, high price per minute of music but not something I'll notice as having been spent.

It's sad in this day and age that one can't be sure its a reasonable expectation. BTW how is Iverson a "historian" at this point? I mean he's good at interviews, sometimes his blog is good but .... historian? Does he need to be an historian to have taken on this project?

I haven't seen any that express deep spiritual meaning but there's really only one that I've checked out with any regularity - Jamel/Jamal whose decent character comes thru very strong. https://www.youtube.com/user/jayglol/videos

A message was sent? Now that you know it you should tell the group - Jim got it only thru some app on his phone and isn't going to take credit that way. The dates of these recordings seem awfully close together and must say something about how quickly the Wilkerson on BN came out after the recording session. But you'll understand when you learn the theme. #4 is CD-sourced, but I don't know how common it is. I would guess limited distribution and no chance of a second batch being processed. The issuing company's main line of business is not music. OTOH when I found about it and went looking I had sourced a copy within minutes.

Not Clifford on #13 (and for Felser, not Cedar on Fender Rhodes either) but yes, electric bass ... tenor is best known in this group. So #9 got a hit on this Shazam thing? I consider that the most obscure recording (#4 may be tied), and there's never been a CD release. In fact 8 of 12 are vinyl only issues. With the help you've gotten on 1, 3, 9 and 10 you might puzzle out the theme just in terms of those folks.

Actually no, it seemed too long to bother but it allowed us to go off on the relative worth of Krispy Kreme and other options. Maybe I'll go back and listen.

Well that was painful to read and apparently it was so painful for you, you managed to invent a 15th track. You were my main hope to identify #1, and with help from Sangrey covering others, then the theme was going to fall. That's all gone by the boards. Sorry we didn't hook up and I will just say that your hatred of the tenor on #11 and 12 makes me question my understanding of your preferences, or wonder whether those preferences have changed. Must be the former.

OK well good idea on the tune then. Maybe MG can take it from here if he favors me with a listen and post.

It's been a fascinating ride and I thank you for the effort put into this ... I can also say I ended up on what, an oh for 25 at the end? The end definitely had the longest streak of "I don't know these recordings at all" response by me. As for the "other records" list I think it should be presented in trimmed down form to what could have made your list - because you didn't include anything in the past year you don't own, right? So I would be more interested in however many of those that you do own and have heard. Not almost 1000 records that only fit the construct.

Thanks John for all your comments and your willingness to go thru all of my tracks, since clearly not all were expected to receive the coveted Felser Likes seal of approval.

Do you want to stick with that bit of uncertainty? I did say there's a Don Wilkerson connection.

The idea of "did nothing wrong" is in my opinion ludicrous. Mask use isn't something that perfectly prevents spread and no one should think that it will. It's the right thing to do in the aggregate. And no one can avoid contact with others at all times and all locations. What scares me is that you can be careful, get infected, and barely suffer. You can also get it, and end up at death's door, or with horrible long-term impacts, or die. The odds of that happening is still known to be small. Let's say the death rate is 4%. That's bad. That's still 96 people surviving out of 100 infected. Your odds of survival are good. I just don't want to end up getting it and drawing the short straw.

So what do you think now?

I'm not saying there are developments that must be followed. I am just describing how I see these musicians. I land on the "you can be a creative and valuable musician playing a style that was being supplanted around the time you were born" side of the fence. A lot of that is because I was discovering this music at the same time these "young lion" neo-boppers were getting their initial push. So a Brian Lynch record that sounded like a mid-60s BN reissue sounded great to my ears. And still does. I would probably list a lot of musicians from this era that I still listen to ... if I were making an effort to delve back in the stacks to pull them out. Jim Rotondi is one name that comes to mind. I have a lot of his Sharp Nine recordings, haven't listened though in ages. I am sure I'd enjoy them though.

My 2 cents: Neo-bop was the style played by the "young lions" which was more of a marketing term. Neo-bop can also easily be used to describe the music recorded by artists on the earlier list of "slightly later" folks (Eric Alexander, Mike LeDonne, Rotundi et.al.) Just because the battles over what was jazz and what wasn't probably weren't quite so intense, they were still (mostly) all playing an earlier style that ignored most musical developments from the 60s on. Now I'm curious if that "Uptown Ruler" track is the Marsalis composition from one of those "Soul Gestures" volumes.

Glad so many tunes appealed! Thanks for your comments, though none of the specific thoughts as to personnel, tune, age of recording were accurate.

Glad it had appeal.

1. Not Don Wilkerson but a Don Wilkerson connection. 6. DING DING DING - do you know Bootsie so well that you recognized or do you have the recording? Not Pepper, Vi Redd, Fathead, Shepp, Zoot, or Nistico. And neither Chet nor Ben were parties to that attempted drug order. The Fathead, Shepp and Zoot ID's are interesting to me. Can't hear the first Willow as Fathead-like. I'll reserve comment on the Shepp and Zoot thoughts. Thanks SW!

Unfortunately true ... Chuck has as wide a set of ears - figuratively - as anyone possibly can. KH said he's testy in this pandemic situation - and I know I get that way too - so hopefully everyone just moves on.

I harbor no illusions that my effort will spark the discussion that Felser's did this month, but hey, hope springs eternal. This BFT contains 14 tracks and is just over 80 minutes long. There is a theme to selections 1-13, which, if enough tracks are identified, I think will be correctly guessed. Track 14 is purely for the listening pleasure and sheer WTF-ness of it. Guesses are encouraged. I do wish to add that, within the limits of my chosen theme, tracks 1-13 were also chosen according to one question: WWFL? What Would Felser Like? Yes, on quite a few cases I made conscious decisions in favor of options that I thought would appeal to my friend, from my knowledge of his preferences in terms of era as well as prior tunes he has approved of (and avoiding purely pre-bop style performances). We'll see if I done good. If I failed, well, when we pass each other in the halls I hope we can just nod politely and move on. Oh, yeah. You know where it is: http://thomkeith.net/index.php/blindfold-tests/

Decisions, decisions ... had never seen this but a visit to discogs told me its an MJR LP originally and a stroll to the stacks showed me I do own it (thank god for their red/black spines and the fact that I was buying a lot of those so I put them on the shelf together). But now I see three unissued tracks. I should probably spring for this, just wish it were free shipping on Amazon.

Sad news, and I have to mention that my wife gave the news to me yesterday and I did not hear her clearly. I said "Don Was passed away? Did I ever tell you his current gig?!"

Absolutely ... and a Marsalis "discovery" IIRC.