Rabshakeh

I don't think that the difficulties with retrospectively getting to know this music are "insurmountable". But the problem is that Gene Ammons and Ramsey Lewis are not located on any of the pathways of exploration laid out for further exploration. People getting into jazz who want to move past the big names have to know how to look. Typically this could be by looking for recommendations for the greatest jazz records, by learning from generalised jazz histories, or, in later stages, looking to find out more about a specific subject: Blue Note, spiritual jazz, free jazz, independent black jazz of the 1970s, jazz vocal records, ECM, soul jazz, great American songbook albums, exotica etc. Ramsey Lewis and Gene Ammons are not located on any of those pathways. They were never really critically acclaimed, so their records don't show up on top 100 lists. But, in contrast to other non-critically acclaimed areas of jazz (which in 2024 might include Stan Kenton's big band records, or smooth jazz), they are not in the history books, and there is not even a name for this genre for people to explore around. To be honest, I identified Ramsey Lewis and Gene Ammons myself only at the point that I had exhausted getting into jazz, and was starting to sniff around the less fashionable records that you see in discount bins. That's ridiculous in retrospect. I second the references to Ahmad Jamal as being in the same category as other artists in discussion here. Jamal of course benefits by the fact that the Miles Davis connection puts his name prominently into every jazz history book (similar to Cannonball Adderleys's outsized prominence in this area of jazz), and from the fact that some of his (circa 2024) most popular records are on Impulse! and have cool covers. Both of those factors do put Jamal on the pathway to discovery in a way that Ramsey Lewis is not. But I think that the pull factors for Jamal do apply equally to the likes of Ammons and Lewis, and the effect of Jamal's rising stature may well hold the key to increasing the prominence of the likes of Ammond, Lewis or Atlantic Ray Charles acolytes.

Clifford Jordan - Bearcat Love the danceable closer "Out-House".

It’s a good record. Electric groove stuff but with lots of variety in there.

I always heard the BYG Silva's (not Seasons, which is a different beast) and Burrells above as quite similar in style to Al-Fatihah. The same dedication to blow out force, without the song structures that underlaid Ayler or e.g. Wright / Howard.

Michal Urbaniak · Tomasz Stanko · Attila Zoller · Urszula Dudziak – We'll Remember Komeda

I never thought about this as a genre. Did he ever lead a date? I know him from Nurnen and that Ted Daniel record only. And by "know him", I mean that when I checked I saw that he was on them.

Pim, counter me as a big Al-Fatihah fan too. It is really one of my favourites. As I see it, Al-Fatihah belongs to the final stage of the Ayler wave of free jazz: sweat soaked high intensity energy music. I think that it sits at the point chronologically where the impetus is running out of that movement a little, and a lot of the other records being produced in that style around the time are perhaps a little underwhelming as a result. I can't think of a record with the same sort of intensity and style that also has the tightness that Al Fatihah has. I would say that the BYGs are the place to look. That period in 1969-71 in Paris seems to have been the final flowering. Some examples, off the top of my head: Kenneth Terroade- Love Rejoice Alan Silva and the Celestial Communication Orchestra - Luna Surface Dave Burrell - Echo Frank Lowe - Black Beings Rashied Ali and Frank Lowe - Duo Exchange To beat everyone else to it, definitely check out Saga of the Outlaw! Not in the same style as Al-Fatihah but its as much as guaranteed.

Looks like a good afternoon.

Joe Williams and Harry Edison This is my first listen to this. It is very good indeed. I wish I'd found it before. I realise that I get Joe Williams and Jos Turner confused. Obviously different vocal delivery but some of Williams' phrasing at times reminds me of Screamin' Jay Hawkins. That mix of drama and irony.

Omen's really fallen hard from its former cultural high spot. It was quite the phenomenon in its time. I doubt most kids even know that the antichrist is called Damien any more.

Nice idea. I'm going to stick that one on too.

Larry Coryell & The Brubeck Brothers – Better Than Live

Phineas Newborn Jr. Plays Harold Arlen's Music from Jamaica Really more of an AK Salim record than a Newborn Jr one. We really don't have enough discussions about this era of jazz here. I wouldn't know where to start with Crosby but I like what I've heard.

An Australian fusion record. Very good. A bit like Nucleus but also a bit like Italian library music in some ways. I think from the 1970s. It is on Bandcamp and streamable.

Wild Bill Davis – At Birdland

Now moving on to this:

Ramsey Lewis Trio – Sound Of Christmas Getting in the mood for Halloween.

I think there is something to be said for the need the CHALLENGE the NARRATIVE. I don’t think there’s been a wholesale top down decision here, more that a culture industry has grown up that highlights certain areas for various reasons, which often reflect either marketing choices, fashion, academic trends or the evolution of later musical tastes. If you were there you were there and you know. Either you enjoyed this stuff at the time or you rolled your eyes at such commercial trash. Perhaps you are ready to re-evaluate. But fundamentally you know who Gene Ammons, Ramsey Lewis and Eddie Harris were, and can make decisions accordingly. But please don’t underestimate how difficult it is to access this stuff if you were not there at the time. For someone getting into jazz retrospectively there are very strong barriers up, that serve to kettle listeners into listening to a tiny portion of what is out there, which is placed under a spotlight. And the likes of Eddie Harris, Gene Ammons and Ramsey Lewis are certainly not in that tiny illuminated portion. They are out there in the darkness. People who were not there at the time do not have access to these records. They don’t show up in jazz histories and they don’t get posted on instagram. Something small like a book or one tastemaker can therefore have an effect and help to widen the area under the spotlight. In the last forty years we have watched electric Miles (journalist), disco fusion / rare groove (DJ), soul jazz organ work (DJs and book), the AACM (book), ‘spiritual jazz’, Strata East and Black Jazz (social movements and aesthetic developments), Japanese postbop and fusion, and British modernist jazz (books) be granted a place in the light. But it takes effort, and it really helps when people do publish books like this. Any push to widen the scope of what people have access to is helpful. Especially if it means that a young person might get to know the name Gene Ammons.

I watched I’m Alright Jack recently for the first time. That’s got one of his best performances.

Elis Regina – Elis Especial

Romano Mussolini & His Friends – Soft & Swing

Charlie Shavers Quartet – Girl Of My Dreams Interesting thought that occured to me whilst listening to Shavers' version of Bye Bye Blackbird: did Miles Davis ever acknowledge a debt to Shavers? There are some similarities in their tones at times, even though Miles Davis was doing something very different, and the similarities are probably played up here by Shavers. I wouldn't be surprised if not, given that Shavers was old guard and hardly a hip name to drop. Equally, there are plenty of ways that a trumpet player might arrive at this sort of silvery and flattened tone, given how rooted it is in blues trumpet history.

What size venues are they playing otherwise? What sort of crowd does the 2024 Tijuana Brass pull in?

Such a great track, even if the record gets a bit much after a track or two. RIP

It's the worst of the three with the best cover of the three.