Tom Storer

It's fascinating what these blindfolds reveal about how differently we all hear things. My least favorites turn out to be someone else's most favorites; things I think are delightful someone else will coldly dismiss. I read some people's guesses and think "Oh, come on, it couldn't possibly be that," and I'm sure others think the same when they read my guesses (and we're probably all wrong!). The more I listen to 2-11, the more I revise my initial reservations. What I heard as disjointed I'm now hearing as kind of funkily loose. And I'm sure I know those horn players from somewhere!

Well, I started the AAJ thread because I couldn't get in at all at the office today and the message said the domain didn't exist! I now find that from home all is well. I'll see tomorrow morning if I have the same problem at work. I think it's pretty cool that when we have problems with one jazz board, we can communicate about that on the others.

Just ordered the Blue Mitchell set. Is there any way of knowing when sets are going to time out? Shouldn't Mosaic make that clear on their website? I think I'll tell them that.

I'm going to see the Mehldau trio in March, first time. They're playing a small club here in Paris, which is charging one and a half times their normal cover, plus you have to mail in your check with a self-addressed stamped envelope to get your tickets mailed to you beforehand! What the hell, I figure the chance to see them in a little club is worth it. Let us know how you liked the Mehldau/Frisell double bill!

That looks like it, all right. This performance is certainly open to the criticism of being a loose jam, poorly miked, with the singer's voice kind of rough and unpolished. But I can overlook all that, it grabs me. The singing--not so much the solos.

Preliminary remarks: Randy, thanks for a superb collection! There are a couple of things that don't thrill me and one that really makes me flee in horror, but they're more than made up for by the excellent quality of the rest. I'll be looking to buy a few of the things represented here. As these blindfold tests keep coming, I find I care less and less about guessing who's who. I find them most valuable in letting me really listen and, if you follow me, listen to how I'm listening. If I don't like something and it turns out to be by someone I think I should like, or vice-versa, so be it. They're helping me learn to really trust my own tastes and rely on my ears more completely. When the music is as diverse and exciting as it is on this BFT, it's a wonderful activity. On to my stabs in the dark. I didn't go searching on the web and I haven't read anyone else's guesses--all this is my own immediate reactions, supported by memory. CD1 Track 1: An early bebop big band, and the presence of congas makes me think it's Dizzy's. We're off to a racing start! Track 2: More modern big band. I like it, but it's not something I'd play very often. No idea who it is. Track 3: Love this one! Because of the vibes I thought of the new Mulgrew Miller, but that's not a fit. The trumpet could be Terell Stafford; the sound of the vibes makes me think of Joe Locke. I suspect it's quite recent. Track 4: I like the vocal stuff. I dig the saxophonist's tone, but the solo doesn't kill me - the kind of thing that would be loads of fun live, but on record it wears on me. The drums and percussion end up being a little monotonous, IMHO. I wonder if this isn't a Leon Parker thing. Track 5: Randy, I'm trying to guess what attracted you to this appallingly monotonous performance, but I'm failing. For me this is the only ringer in the test. The pianist should be shot for the sequence that starts at 0:39 and goes on for half a minute or so. And it appears again at the end. I guess it's the melody! No prizes for composition here. Or improvisation either. Or swing. Or anything. Track 6: Whoa! I have this song by singer 1 on her own album, but was unaware of this beautiful version in collaboration with singer 2. There are some moments where they don't seem to be on quite the same page pitch-wise, but so what. I love them. I don't know where this one comes from - I'm sure they didn't make a whole album together. Track 7: I think this is a song called "Soft and Furry" - I know an Eddie Jefferson version. The saxophonist is extremely familiar, too, someone I've heard so many times, but the name won't come. Frustrating! Track 8: Sounds late 60's/early 70's but could be more recent emulators of that era. Again, very familiar, and I feel I should know it, but I don't. The more I listen to it the more I like it. The theme has an Ornettish quality. Beautiful playing all around, beautiful development of the piece and integration of improvising with the theme. Track 9: So classic it's almost Shakespearian. Appears to be a live version. This is just untoppable. Track 10: "Body and Soul," as performed by God in person. Well, I exaggerate. But not by much. Track 11: Beautiful! I was surprised when the vocal began; it sounded a little rough, but what passion, what an edge. I want this! I think it's Joe Lee Wilson, whom I listened to a little bit decades ago. Could be from one of those records he made in the loft-jazz years when he was part of that Studio Rivbea, Ali's Alley crowd. Or it could be more recent: I think he lives in Europe now, since he shows up around Paris occasionally even now. If this is he, I'll definitely make it a point to see him the next time he's around. CD2: Track 1: I like the brooding, bottom-heavy presence of this one. Something proud and Spanish about it too. No idea who it is. Track 2: Rudy Vallee! Randy, you've got some great singers on this blindfold test! Actually, this isn't Rudy Vallee, although it's a Rudy Vallee song. I believe the leader of this record was "The Audience." Track 3: More singers! Excellent! This is killer stuff, so soulful! This is another one I have to have. Track 4: No idea what this is, but to my ears it harks back to some of the more cerebral, mid-to-late 60's Blue Note things: alert, nervous, dynamic, moving carefully, even deliberately, through the piece but with lots of energy and gesture on the surface. I could see Bobby Hutcherson doing this. It seems to fade before the end, or perhaps it's a Part 1. Track 5: Stanley Clarke? George Duke? Al Dimeola? Makes me think of the salad days of fusion. No longer my kind of thing. Track 6: Still not my kind of thing. Sounds kind of clumsy to me, plodding. Don't like that bass sound. The soloists never really build up any steam. Track 7: I thought the flute solo would never end. This would probably have been cool to see live, but I find it pretty dull on record. Track 8: I think this is Jarrett with the American quartet (Redman/Haden/Motian), plus himself overdubbed on soprano, and a percussionist. I used to listen to his stuff all the time back then, but I'm not sure what album this would have been on. Track 9: Know the tune but can't name it. I think I may have this, but for the life of me I can't place it right now. Impressive for its sheer athleticism, but this kind of fast and furious playing doesn't do it for me the way it once did. It makes me tired (unlike track 1 of CD1 of this blindfold test, equally athletic and considerably older). Track 10: A bit of a respite after the last one. Talk about a contrast. Saxophone and electronics, with an ECM kind of sound. I'll guess John Surman. The ideas seem kind of obvious--"I'll play here and then it'll all echo and repeat." BWTFDIK? Track 11: "Exactly Like You," don't know who's playing although yet again it rings lots of bells. Like many of the things on this blindfold, with repeated listenings I like it more and more. My only quibble is with the rhythm section, which sounds curiously disjointed. The bass guitar doesn't seem to be feeling the same rhythms as the other guys.

That's pretty funny. Dexter Gordon used to introduce it as "Les Jours du Vin Rosé."

Stan Getz - can get a nice poker game going all by himself, no need for anyone else (cf. Zoot Sims' famous comment, "Stan's a great bunch of guys").

Thanks for your illuminating comments and the blindfold test in general, John. I haven't changed my mind about #9 and #11, but kudos to that Sangrey guy for #5. I mean, playing that well is great, and recording that playing is even better, but being selected for an Organissimo blindfold test--now that's prestige!

I recall reading that Montgomery was Martino's idol and they used to get together and jam when Martino was young. Another story a guitarist friend told me: apparently when George Benson came to New York intent on making it as a jazz instrumentalist (without the singing part), he went around to the clubs to check out the competition. Time after time he heard guitar players of whom he thought, "OK, he's doing some stuff I don't - but I can cop that. No problem." He was feeling confident. Then he heard Martino, and that's when he got scared.

After my post wondering about Michael Pedicin, the excellent and previously unknown to me tenor player I saw Monday night with Pat Martino, I looked for a Pat Martino thread and find that he's hardly been talked about at all here. I'm not a guitaroholic by any means, but Martino is one of my guitar heroes. His mid-70's albums "Consciousness" and "Impressions" blew me away, and I liked his collaboration with Gil Goldstein later in the decade; but then he had his stroke, lost his memory, and spent a decade or so learning to play the guitar all over again. I hadn't listened to much of the "new" Pat Martino but jumped at the chance to see him live, as I had never seen him play before. Lo and behold, the "new" Pat Martino is the old Pat Martino - in other words, simply amazing. With his current band he's playing in much the same style as he did 25 years ago - fiercely swinging soloing in a modern bop or modal context, very lyrical even with his staccato delivery and a sound that is dark in tone but bright in the clarity of his phrasing. His drive and his rigorous concentration give the music a powerful momentum, and his improvisations, which spin out cells of inventive variation seemingly effortlessly, are mesmerizing. OK, what the hell, I'll come right out and say it: I like him. Any other Martino fans in the house? Or, heaven forfend, detractors?

Jim, I know you're talking from a player's perspective here, but from a listener's perspective you could turn it the other way: when the music played is supposed to swing, if there's no comping chordal instrument, the musicians REALLY have to be able to do it rhythmically without that support! I've heard many a band go the no-chordal-instrument route, apparently for harmonic reasons, that end up either not swinging at all or swinging kind of mechanically because there's no one feeding in beat reinforcements or the kinds of pushes, tweaks and responses that can inspire a soloist or drummer to dance more creatively. Then again, WTFDIK?

No doubt an error of youth.

Eberhard Weber plays ordinary acoustic bass on "Intercontinental," a 1970 Joe Pass album that's one of my desert island discs. He sounds great, but IMO nothing like the bassist on #4 (or for that matter, anything like he himself sounds on his electrified stand-up bass).

Found him: click here. He has a three-layer career: music educator, psychotherapist, performer. Pretty impressive!

I just saw the Pat Martino Quintet last night--damn. He's better than ever and his band is hot! Two and a half hours of ass-kicking music. Anyway, he had a tenor player, a shaved-head white guy dressed in black, maybe 50 years old (an estimate, it was hard to tell) who was just wailing. Guy's name was Michael Pedicin and he was roaring, playing with a full, gutsy tone, fine chops and above all the intensity, concentration and burning lyricism that fits right in with Martino's music. All this devoid of cliché and mannerisms. How come I've never heard of this guy? Google indicates that he also goes by the name Michael Pedicin Jr. (unless he has a son who's also a tenor saxophonist). There was a reference to "Michael Pedicin of Brubeck and Ferguson fame," which sounds like a fit, but also to a Michael Pedicin "the smooth jazz saxophonist," which doesn't sound like a fit. Anybody know him? P.S. If this Martino band comes to a club near you, DON'T MISS THEM!

It's funny, two posters so far have seen the soprano player (if it's a soprano) on #9 as sounding like Steve Lacy, but to me they're nothing at all alike - Lacy is warm and calm with a fat tone, not a man to play fast flurries of notes, and this guy sounds nothing like that and his fingers are in a flurry all the time!

Oops, I forgot: 15. "Lover Man." Love the alto player's warm, bluesy sound. Don't know who it is, but he does sound familiar.

Blindfold Test #5 Here are my first impressions. I haven't read any other posts, haven't gone searching on the net, nothing. Ears alone. Embarassing but honest! One thing I know: it's the same pianist throughout. Some of it I really enjoyed, some I only liked, some I didn't really go for, and some I hated: a nice mix! Thanks, John - I look forward to your comments when it's all over. 1. Nice, if not terribly exciting. No idea, but I'll guess it's Chico Hamilton: the tympani make me think it's the drummer's date, Hamilton often had no piano and somebody on flute, and the arrangement sounds West Coast-ish. 2. I'll guess a Max Roach group. It's good and boppish, sounds like Max, and he was another drummer who liked piano-less ensembles. 3. Ah, more modern. Despite the nice conga/drums/bass groove, this leaves me pretty cold. I hear it as primarily a technical exercise for the saxophonists - they're impressive, but my reaction is "so what?" Despite all the chops I don't get much feeling or melodic juice out of it. It's all expertise and nothing memorable or personal. IMHO. No idea who it is. 4. I like the lovely, pastoral trombone introduction. The feel of the piece is very 60's and it sounds like Charlie Haden on bass. That's as far as I'll go with my guesses. I like it, especially in small doses. 5. A modern two-tenor thing... my first thought was of the album Joe Lovano and Joshua Redman made together, but I dunno. I like it better than number 3, but to be honest I wish they'd hired a piano player! 6. Now there's a tenor player who would kick the ass of just about anybody alive today if he were still playing. Love it. And because I know precisely who and what it is, I'll say no more. 7. Huh. Starts with a bebop standard whose name I don't remember, then goes to Monk. Spunky arrangement, good playing, especially the trombonist, but who is it? And more to the point, why not have a pianist? The more this piano-less blindfold test goes on the more I miss piano! 8. OK. The tenor player's tone is so gorgeous that the lack of piano only sets it off. I love this saxophonist and this tune, which I have two versions of him playing--including this one, so mum's the word. 9. Now here's a piece I really don't like. For one thing, the bassist has such an unpleasant, rubbery sound; for another, that pounding rhythm is so lame. That's enough to make me dislike it. Is that a soprano saxophone or an oboe? Whoever it is can really play whatever it is well, and I guess the contrast between the quick, articulate flood of notes from the reed instrument and the dumb-ass thudding from the bass and drums is supposed to be striking. Yuck. 10. I'm going to guess this is the Art Ensemble of Chicago backing Fontella Bass, the gospel/soul singer who was Lester Bowie's wife. It just seems to fit - the singer's evident experience in the genre, the avant-gardiste horns, the whistles and percussion in the background, the reference to the Champs-Elysées, and the sound of the bass. But I don't really remember what Fontella Bass sounds like, so I could be off base. 11. Another one I can live without. I don't like the playing, the rhythm, or the composition, such as it is. I'm glad it doesn't go on any longer. 12. In this one the virtuoso trombonist steals the show. I like this, but wouldn't necessarily search it out. There's a similar bounciness from the bass and drums in many of the tunes on this test - I don't know if they tend to concentrate on that when there's no piano, or if one just doesn't notice it as much when a piano is playing. 13. Very pretty. I like the way the flute shadows the soprano sax so closely - makes it all the more effective when it bursts out a little more forcefully. Once again, no idea who it could be. 14. Monk's "Ask Me Now." Could this be Pee Wee Russell in the early 60's, when he ventured into some modern jazz? Beautifully done. So relaxed and elegant.

As I recall--I have it on vinyl but haven't had a turntable in years--there's also at least one beautiful Mingus solo performance.

Bonne chance, Bertrand. I just tried a Google search and got ZERO hits for "Princess Orelia Benskina," for "Princess Orelia" AND for "Benskina" by itself. If anyone would know, it would be Christiern. Chris?

Thanks, vibes. I'm going to have to start saving my pennies for one of these things. Currently I have a CD/MP3 walkman which I like because I can listen to CDs directly on it, but I guess the inconvenience of having to convert audio CDs to MP3s is compensated by not having to put MP3s on CD-Rs. Another question: I can plug my CD/MP3 walkman into the stereo and play MP3s that way. Can you do the same with an iPod?

A pedantic aside... is there any difference between a "price point" and a "price"? But pedantry aside... how does this thing work? You plug it into your computer and download huge quantities of MP3s onto it, then listen to it like any portable audio device? To do this you need software that is sold with it (for Apple) or a free download (for Windows)?

Hey now. That was uncalled for.

Huh. Does that mean when the time's up they can't sell any more? If so they should have a "Time's Almost Up" page as well as a "Running Low" page.