Rabshakeh

Nice!

I have to say that I really enjoy DTM. It's a great resource. One of the best features of the writing, along with the musical insight, is the readiness to hand out off-the-beaten-track recommendations. I've learnt a lot from it, as I am sure have many others, so thanks. And Ira Sullivan's records aren't going anywhere.

Daily New Paradox by the Friedemann Graef Group (FMP, 1977). Some good earthy European free jazz.

My Dad’s favourite jazz record. The only album that he ever recommended to me.

J.R. Mitchell Bayard Lancaster Experience - Live at Mac Alester College 72 (Dogtown, 1972). Fiery Stuff in a classic free jazz vein. It’s pretty impressive to have a live album that misspells the names of both the artist and the venue.

There’s a thread on this site about it somewhere. I’m trying to find it. It was something interesting, if I recall.

Thanks to both of you for this. I have tried to Google this in the past but never found the information.

Thanks! Is Snurdy McGurdy a nickname or something?

Weirdly, it seems almost the other way. By far the majority of what I knew beforehand from your excellent blog has been towards the avant garde and freebopish side, along with the ECM and fusion/CTI type entries. That "underground" stuff is pretty well loved and easily accessed to those who are looking for it, even if it is not to the tastes of much of the public. There are plenty of recommendations out on the web for those wanting to look into that world. I think it's precisely the Cedar Waltons and Barry Harrises that seem to get the least attention from the period.

It isn't even really the "jazz" canon, per se. The view of the "top ten fusion" records has changed pretty heavily in the last twenty years, I think. There's more disco and funk oriented albums at the expense of the rock and new age stuff than you used to see (e.g., more Byrds, less Pontys). Perhaps it's just a bop thing.

I dunno. I've watched the rock canon refresh itself a couple of times now in my life. I don't get why the jazz canon seems so resistant. At the end of the day, there's money to be made in selling "new" re-discoveries as much as selling the same old albums. The same two or three companies own it all anyway. And these are hardly niche artists or albums.

Willis & Von - Lockin’ Horns (Savoy, 1978) Inspired by some of the posts above. Fun to hear two saxophonists with such a different approach to barroom jazz come together.

I'm not blaming ECM. It's just that ECM-signed artists like Jarrett and Garbarek are the only ones who I can think of who do have much name recognition from that period. Perhaps being on ECM is a defence to the crime of coming of age musically at the very end of the sixties!

There’s a whole school of great musicians who have no general recognition because they committed the heinous crimes of coming of age musically at the very end of the sixties and not being on ECM.

Oh yeah...

I wanted to get the new release of The Flam too, which I see Juno is stocking. To make matters worse, Juno's insanely invasive advertising approach is ensuring that those two LPs are being pushed on me by every website I visit.

Ah. Ho, and, indeed, hum.

Mine's still stuck in Cleveland's USPS processing area. I'm trying to ignore the "glowing" reviews the USPS has been getting on this site.

I have a real soft spot for Kwanza. It just strikes me as being really joyous, even if it is quite silly. I find it does a good job of transforming a bad mood into a good one. For Losers seems to me to be the weakest of the albums, although it has its moments - very uneven, as you say.

Time Berne's Snakeoil - You've Been Watching Me (2018, ECM) Ferreira's guitar really makes this one, but it's a very good showing all round. I never get why this one isn't considered one of the basic top ten introductory jazz albums. It's got everything a 60s hard bop album needs, and Wynton Kelly in particular is absolutely fantastic.

Having relistened, I do definitely agree, but only really for that one short (brilliant) track. The other three tracks seem to me to be good examples of the quite different direction that he had been taking up to that point: that sort of New Thing-type skronk meets more traditional jazz orchestration. Perhaps it could be said that The Way Ahead developed the focus of the title track, and opened up "Avant-Grease" (or whatever it should be called) as an area for development. Shepp then mined that seam for a while (my favourite era of his) before moving on to his grand genre fusions of the early 70s. Either way, I am with Late on his assessment.

It was a mix. There were drop-down lists with suggestions, and space to enter your own choices - a bit like entering what state or country you live in when filling out an online form. What that meant of course is that readers must have slanted heavily towards the suggestions, particularly the earlier ones. The suggestions themselves were not too bad and certainly included more interesting fare than the bleakly predictable results.

I think it is interesting! Mama is my favourite of the earlier ones. Perhaps that’s why. I haven’t listened to it for while so I will give it a go.

I always felt that this album was the key to Shepp's whole catalogue. It is the point at which he develops from his New Thing stage towards a new, much greasier sound. It was hearing this one that made Shepp really click for me, and opened up his other mid period albums like Yasmina and Kwanza.

I wasn't aware of this one. I am a big fan of Schweizer + Favre (their intakt duo is great) so this looks pretty enticing. I see it is available to buy digitally, so I may give that go.