Rabshakeh

Thanks!

From Richmix Records in Brixham. First time I'd visited it. The owner, Roger, is a fan of 70s rare groove type jazz and, oddly, collects Mainstream. I'd recommend it to anyone finding himself/herself in South Devon.

Matthew Shipp – Symbol Systems (No More, 1995)

There's some great clarinet out there, but it always feels like an isolated novelty I think.

Sad to hear it, although I was not aware he was still living. A unique voice. You immediately could hear that a composition was his. And a great player. I was listening to 'Bout Soul by Jackie McLean yesterday and just thinking how much I loved Moncur's playing.

Bright Moments – Return Of The Lost Tribe (Delmark, 1998)

The clarinet just went out of fashion. Not sure if there's ever been a bumper crop of good clarinetists since the swing era. Trumpet just seems to come and go. Every ten years or so there's a crop of players and in between periods with very few good trumpet players.

Not a purchase, but I've just found a massive box if my late father in law's records. Some great stuff in there, that will be finding its way to a new home. As someone who grew up with no music in the house I can't really imagine what it would have been like to have been surrounded by it.

Once the early swing era had passed, trumpet appears to go in and out of fashion in quite an extreme way.

Lalo Schifrin – Black Widow (CTI)

Good sleuthing. Did Ferrara study with Tristano too?

For the record, I like Donald Byrd's Blue Note records a lot. They are consistently interesting all the way through to his funk era. No offence meant to Bill Hardman, but I've never seen him as being a player of Kenny Dorham's or Art Farmer's stature.

Tristano-school trumpeters or trombonists. Do any exist? Is such a thing possible?

I think that Young Bloods is taken at a bop tempo, so it is much clearer how much Byrd struggles. The explanation makes some sense. Bill Hardman? Nat Adderley? They're neither of them much better than Byrd, and they recorded a lot. Kenny Dorham, Thad Jones and Art Farmer are the names that jump to mind for high quality mid 1950s East Coast trumpet, which I guess leaves room for a fourth. Still, a surprise that he was given so much space in his pre-Blue Note period, in a scene that was still very competitive and intolerant of poor playing. Maybe people just liked him personally or he was more punctual/reliable than the average 1950s jazz musician. Same is probably true of the early Free Jazz era. How else to explain Freddie Hubbard appearing on both Ascension and Free Jazz (the album)?

I was listening yesterday to The Young Bloods, the record that Byrd did with Phil Woods in 1956, and I found it striking how weak Byrd sounds next to Woods on that record. Woods isn't even a player I like, but the gap seems to my ears to be huge. Given the early bop tempo of most of that record, Byrd just sounds like he's desperately catching up. Many of his solos are just repeated sections of two notes from the main melody. I like Byrd's Blue Note records a lot, but find it strange that he was given so many opportunities to record in this early pre-Blue Note period, and that, when he did, it was often in top notch bop quality company, rather than anything that the critics of the time might have considered more 'commercial' (i.e., more swing or blues influenced material).

Chet Baker & Art Pepper – The Route I’m not sure that don’t prefer this one to Playboys.

Ramon Lopez, Percy Pursglove, Rafał Mazur – Threefold (Not Two, 2018)

Odean Pope – Odeans List

EAI. I enjoyed it a lot more than I normally enjoy such things. It had a lot going on, even though it's just the two of them.

Will Guthrie, Jean-Luc Guionnet – Electric Rag (2021)

Interesting liners. I wonder what post bop and neo bop meant in 1958?

Oh. I own both of those (great stuff). A good chance to revisit them.

Johnny Dyani Quartet – Angolian Cry (Steeplechase, 1985)

Richie Kamuca And Bill Holman – Jazz Erotica (HiFi, 1957) AKA West Coast Jazz in Hifi.

Three classics going up today from your friend Dan. I have to say that, whilst nice to see the classics, I enjoy the unexpected comeback records and lesser known albums that pop up most.