Tom Storer

Thanks for the link, François. Now if only someone would resurrect the Masters of Jazz label... Their fabulous "Anthology of Jazz Drumming" series got up to Vol. 4 (of a planned 7) before they ground to a halt. A damn shame.

All 19 packages went out in the mail this afternoon! Please post here when you've received yours, and once several have been received I'll start the discussion thread.

Oops! Make that 19.

We have 18 participants for BFT 41. I'm now at the envelope-stuffing stage and will get these mailed tomorrow. But it's not too late to sign up! Step right up!

It does sound interesting. And it sounds an awful lot, in concept, like an album James Newton did about twenty years ago, his own arrangements of Ellington tunes with an ensemble including Olu Dara and Arthur Blythe, if I remember correctly. I have that on vinyl in the basement. I wonder if that's been reissued?

That's kind of close to blasphemy, there! I mean, not everything Carter has done since has been immortal, but that Miles quintet without him? Not that I don't love Gomez, but they have such radically different sounds. I'm trying to imagine the Miles Quintet with Gomez... Damn. I wish I could shunt into an alternative universe and hear what that sounded like!

Wow. I guess the moral is that there is definitely a jazz zeitgeist--lots of people around the world exploring the same kinds of things at the same time. A very good and interesting pair of CDs, Luca, and refreshingly non-US-centric. Thank you!

Well said indeed! This is a very absorbing and insightful dialogue Mike and Jim just engaged in. Many thanks to both of you.

16 and counting! I'll probably send the packages this weekend.

Up again.

Fair enough, it's clear this is something you've thought deeply about. But regardless, Jim, it's time to sign up for BFT 41. If you don't, I'll find your address and send it to you anyway, so you may as well just surrender now.

What I don't understand, and find creepy to the point of perversity (literally) is whatever it is that drives an individual to seemingly want to literally become somebody else, not in "spirit" but in exact detail. Maybe this is a semantic quibble, but regarding your reluctance to be on the same side of the street as Harry Allen: his apparent desire is not to "become somebody else" but to "sound like somebody else sounds." Is your musical identity the sum total of your identity? Allen might be able to sound just like Stan Getz in exact detail, but that ability/ambition/desire is only one aspect of himself, as indeed Stan Getz's sound--something he could do--was one aspect of Stan Getz the man.

Thanks, your Majesty! I'll try live up to your absurdly high expectations.

UP!

Discussion of BFT 40 has been open for over a week and hasn't been active in the last 48 hours or so, so I guess it's not too soon to launch the signup for number forty-one. I've got two CDs ready to burn. Please PM me with your postal address if you're interested! I'll edit this post to list everyone who's in on it, so you'll know you're officially signed up. Signed up => sent to all on Monday, Sept. 25: Bright Moments (received) Stereojack (received) Eloe Omoe (received) Nate Dorward (received) relyles (received) The Magnificent Goldberg (received) mikeweil (received) Steven (received) king ubu (received) Stefan Wood MartyJazz paul secor JSngry (received) fent99 (received) Jim R (received) Big Al (received) dutchmanx Durium (received) gnhrtg (received) brownie (received) Thanks, Tom

Thanks, John. I'll order it.

Is this a book for musicians, or is it one a lay person could get into?

You mean the guitarist born on Jan. 29, 1930 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England??

Much older? Damn. Humair is 68 years old!

I'm more of a Betty Carter/Sheila Jordan man myself, but Rosemary Clooney has made some lovely records on Concord.

That some people like it?

I don't know, I suspect that as a player you're a lot more invested in this than those of us who aren't. Not knowing what the hell it was, I enjoyed it a lot. Now I can go back and say they've missed the point, but if they have, that's their problem, except they apparently don't feel it is one. Some people spend their lifetimes playing as if they were in Chicago in the 30's, others do Hawk or Stan Getz, others pretend they're Coltrane, and so on. It's what the French call an exercise de style, a harmless demonstration that one has thoroughly understood the mechanics of a particular style. It's academic, literally. No one is going to be fooled into thinking these guys are offering anything other than that.

Actually, someone mentioned this CD and that looks to be it, all right. You and Jim had better reach for the air sickness bags. I was just guessing. The tenor player, like many others, is in the same general ball park as Lovano and Eskelin but I wouldn't swear to anything. However, the tenor-guitar-bass-drums combination makes that band Humair had an obvious guess.

Here go my best guesses for CD2: 1. A little slick, but I like the arrangement and mood. The alto player doesn't convince me, though. Here you'd need a Kenny Garrett, a fat and soulful tone. The alto sound here is too thin, and the player sounds a little quick and nervous--there are flurries and hiccups that don't match the mood. The trumpeter (flugel?) hits the right feeling for me. Could this be a Terence Blanchard thing with Donald Harrison? 2. "Star Eyes." They could have taken it down a peg in tempo. The alto doesn't give the impression he's all the way focused. The pianist sounds like someone used to more modern material than this. No idea who they could be. 3. Gorgeous! A great example of the fusion of jazz with, uh, something. Lyrical, grooving, sincere. An appropriately sensual contribution from the tenor. I want it! 4. Curious. The pianist keeps it so simple you wonder if he's a full-time pianist or somebody moonlighting from his main instrument. 5. Not unpleasant to listen to but nothing much happens. If you're looking for something to happen, you'll be disappointed. Otherwise it all depends on how much you like the textures. For me this isn't very memorable, but do you want wallpaper to be memorable? 6. This seems to be an "old-time" thing played by non-old-timers--someone's idea of a fun thing to do, and maybe something that gets a good response in concert. The pianist seems to be the most involved, playing around with the expectations of "old-time" jazz by goofing around in a more modern style. The whole thing sounds pretty perfunctory to me, though. 7. This kind of po-faced thing with soprano and flute(s) noodling over bowed bass and sporadically thrashing drums may once have sounded fresh, but it sure is dated now. Sounds like "Part 1" of something. Maybe we'd need the rest to see what it was leading up to. 8. I like the Ellington/Mingus feel. It's a nice composition. The needle seems to jump into distortion on the treble end, unfortunately for the tenor player. I would have liked to hear a tenor solo, but hey. The ending is a bit intemperate--I think it would have been easier to judge that if the sound had been better. 9. OK, but nothing thrilling. Could it be Peter Bernstein on guitar? If so, probably a Criss-Cross date. 10. Definitely Ornette-inspired. At first I was thinking Joe Lovano with Ed Blackwell, but in fact I don't think it's either of them. I like that drummer, though. 11. Sounds to me like Branford's quartet with Tain Watts. Except... maybe not. Tain is being unusually well-behaved if it is he. Still, I'll go with the guess. I like this a lot. 12. Good and rollicking after the piano introduction. Could it be a Randy Weston group? Talib Kibwe on alto? 13. I like the gruff tenor sound. The bass vamp sounds like the kind of thing Stanley Clarke used to do in the 70's--backing Joe Farrell for example. But this isn't Farrell, nor is it Stanley Clarke, whose soloing style was not this. This bassist is better at vamping than soloing. Hey--nice drums! I'll be interested to see what this is. 14. I'm going to guess this is from one of Wycliffe Gordon's Criss Cross releases. Nothing earthshaking but well done. I like it. 15. Nice party feel to this. As soon as I heard the theme I had the feeling I had always known it, which is a good definition of "catchy." It would make a good theme for a jazz radio show. I don't know if I could listen to it all that often, because there's something a little cloying about it when all is said and done. The soloists do a good job with it, however. A good closing piece for BFT 40, as it no doubt is at concerts by this group. Thanks, Luca, for a worthy collection of tunes in a broad mix of styles. I look forward to getting the key! Some of these I'm going to want to pick up.

Here goes, my fresh-off-the-CD comments, no Googling or any of that. CD1 has some good stuff on it and I look forward to CD2! BFT 40 CD1 1. Not bad, I guess, but I feel the tenor player didn't do much with his solo--just coasting. And I wish the drummer had done a little more playing instead of rote time-keeping. No idea who they are. 2. Beautiful! Four tenors of the old school. Is Hawkins the first? I'm thinking Hawk, Byas... I love the heavy-lidded atmosphere, the poise with which they all step up to say their piece. 3. Love that chabada beat! René Thomas/Bobby Jaspar? The LaFaro-influenced bassist has personality. 4. Hot stuff, but the frenetic quality and what sounds like weird trafficking of the trombone sound makes it seem almost like a put-on. And does somebody cry "Hey, Big Bird!" in the middle of it? Odd. 5. Very nice indeed. I'm glad they play in sequence rather than together. The tenor player has some obvious jazz phrasing, with the others it's not so clear. I especially like the violinist, who reminds me of Carlos Zingaro with Joëlle Léandre. Otherwise, could this be a gang of French players? Louis Sclavis, Sylvie Courvoisier, that sort of thing? I also like the way this echoes the round-robin method of the four-tenors piece (#2). 6. I liked it until the singer came in. Other than her, it's enjoyable enough. 7. Very cool. Beautiful soprano sax solo--I could name a bunch of people it's not, but it's a lot harder to say who it is! Love the band, too, very much at ease. 8. Innocent fun. No clue who it is. 9. Sounds like Joe Lovano in a trio--wait a minute. What's that? Electrically distorted guitar? Hmmm. I'm thinking--Ellery Eskelin with Daniel Humair, Marc Ducret and Bruno Chevillon? 10. Lots of good tenors on this blindfold test! 11. I'll guess it's David Murray playing this version of "Round Midnight." Not my favorite, but whoever it is is playing a beautiful song on a beautiful instrument, so it's easy on the ears. 12. Organ jazz is not what I know best, shameful though it is to admit, so I won't offer any guesses. Love the tenor. The guitar solo is curiously limited rhythmically. 13. Love it. I'll guess Bucky Pizarelli just for the hell of it, because I don't think it sounds like Gene Bertoncini, and they're the only ones I can think of off the top of my head who are likely to record solo guitar jazz pieces in this style. 14. Ornette. I don't know of any duets with clarinet but that doesn't mean there aren't any. I look forward to seeing what this one is. 15. For me this bogs down quickly. I think if you're going to have that kind of drumming you need drama, whereas the piano here sort of broods and gestures and tinkles but doesn't do anything to really grab your attention. And then it's as if the atmosphere in the recording studio was, "Uh... does anyone know when this is supposed to end?" 16. Oh, I like this one. Classicism has its rewards. The rhythm section knows its business--love those bebop drums. 17. Oops. The skipping makes it hard to listen to.