Rabshakeh

A woman I work with sent round a Zappa meme to our team last night. It was a YouTube video of The Torture Never Stops. So it was appropriate at the time. Still, a surprising thing to see. Maybe there's a Zappa resurgence out there among the youth?

On the free-er side, we are all still waiting for Karyobin to get it's re-release too.

Were any of the others "names" at the time? Thinking outside the bop world too. There we are: "Miles, the bandleader". Some hedged wording - not "Miles, the genius" - but maybe it was just that Davis was more together and pushed the thing forward whereas Mulligan did not. Davis' ego was obviously extreme, and he did have form for claiming to invent stuff - fusion being the best example. But clearly the Birth of the Cool sides were really under his name. And not in the sense of e.g. the Konitz sides that became half of Conception. He does seem to have led the thing. Maybe the answer is that it's the retrospective importance of Davis' role in these sides that elevates them above other stuff that that group of musicians were involved in at the time, and makes us focus on them. Perhaps he led them just because he led them; the sound was in the air and was getting established at the jam sessions and elsewhere, and this small set of sides was Davis' part of that wider picture. A bit like his role in fixing hard bop in the period after that sound had emerged. If these dates were under Gerry Mulligan's name and not Davis', would they just be an interesting early comp of Mulligan's stuff, similar to the Pacific sides or Konitz' first records?

Thanks. Reading that is actually what led me to post the above. It does not really explain why Davis took leadership of the group. As I understand it, it was a group of Thornhill people, with Gil Evans apparently the main artistic voice. Davis didn't start the group's meetings or apparently control it, so why did he end up taking the lead? Did e.g. Evans or Mulligan feel strongly about it? Perhaps Davis had the ready cash, or had a better relationship with the club they played? Or maybe he was more in control than the Wikipedia article or his biography (which always seemed a little uncomfortable in it's description of the session) make it sound. It always made sense to me retrospectively because Davis is of course very famous, but query whether that was the case at the time. Maybe he already was more famous than the others? But would he have been a marquee name?

Sorry to ask what might be a rookie question but does anyone know how it came about that Mike's Davis led the Birth of the Cool band? There were a lot of people involved, many of them there before Davis. Was it just that Davis had the idea to turn the jam sessions he was attending into a band?

I have a soft spot for Gordon. I'd have liked to have seen where he'd have gone had he not been so linked with Marsalis / JatLC. From the post fame end of Marsalis' career when, to my ears, he sometimes seemed to be doing pedagogical reenactment rather than playing anything "true", Gordon always stuck out as the guy who was a bit more real within the retro setting than anyone else. Perhaps I am talking drivel. Anyway, how is this one?

One of those players who never really broke through as a leader but who always gets me interested in a line up. RIP.

Thanks for this. Are we aiming for $2,800 before December? I put a decent donation in back in September but will donate again if so.

Well done on the revamp. It is looking and working well! On the thick black stripes, perhaps it might be possible to change the colour theme so that there is a slightly more neutral grey, thereby accomplishing the same thing?

Thank you

What is the Philips one?

Eero Koivistoinen Music Society – Wahoo! (RCA, 1973) Some jazz funk from the Finnish 1970s. I am not sure what Sabu Martinez was doing in Finland at the time, but what ever it was he was certainly doing it. I was a longtime-lurker myself (from the time of the Funny Rat thread), then I finally decided to get involved over lockdown. Welcome!

That looks good This too.

I've really enjoyed the project. Great to see so many recommendations. I have known more of them this time around, in contrast to your 1970s blog - not sure of the reason. Great job to you and to Dan!

Leaf Palm Hand, which I had never actually heard, and Alms - Tiergarten.

I got a couple of the CT '88 Berlin records that they made available temporarily.

Omar Hill and Art Webb – Caribbean Breeze (1986)

Kapingbdi - Don't Escape This is a top notch West African jazz funk / afro beat record. I hadn't heard of it before and my socks are pretty knocked off by it. Any other suggestions in this vein would be very welcome.

Julius Watkins Sextet (Blue Note) It took me a while to discover records like this one: Those mid-50s hard bop records with denser arrangements and some very slight third stream influences by the likes of Golson, Gryce and Pettiford. A bit of a dead end, and slightly lower profile than the more high powered stuff with Philly Joe Jones or Art Blakey, but I find that they dominate my hard bop listening these days. And there we are.

Love this one.

Quinteplus – Quinteplus (Parlophone, 1972)

How are you finding it?

Stephen McCraven – Wooley The Newt (Sweet Earth, 1979)

Nice one.

https://thesmoothjazzcruise.com/ The crowd looks better on this one…