Tom Storer

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.

I'm glad to know this, Out2. I'll send them an email and see what they have going.

?? Does this mean they'll sell you the booklets for out-of-print sets?

I know this is out of print - I ventured onto ebay for the first time looking for it, miraculously found it up for auction, saw that I wouldn't get it for less than $200, and regretfully slunk away. I have a couple of Thad & Mel albums that I got cheap, on the Laserlight label, about which I know nothing, entitled "The Groove Merchant" (recorded mostly 17-18 June 1969, four tunes from January and May 1970) and "The Second Race" (recorded 15-17 November 1970). Here's my question: does anyone know if any of this material is in the Mosaic set? For all I know there could be overlap between these Laserlight sets and the Solid State recordings that made up the Mosaic box. Thanks!

You mean the original version by Minnie Ripperton? Depends. It's a very catchy 70's pop tune, perhaps a bit cloying, distinguished by a rather startling jump in the melody to a note ridiculously higher than the preceding. It's kind of like she dances along and the next thing you know she reappears at the top of a high cliff, then gracefully comes back down again. Quite a range she had. I like it, but that's probably just because it's a pop hit from my adolescence. Still, that high note is a memorable hook in the annals of pop music history. I only know that song, but I believe she's still highly regarded by fans of soul and pop music, although she died at the end of the 70's.

Yeah, I saw them around the same time, '74 or '75, and remember quite clearly Herbie's snake-charmer number--as I recall he programmed the synth, then got up from his seat and walked around it, waving his arms at it like a magician and seeming to make it do his bidding from afar. Silly, but good clean fun. They rocked the joint, though - Carnegie Hall. The opening act was Minnie Ripperton. Remember her? Hitting that high note on "Lovin' You"--everybody was just waiting for that note, not quite believing it was real. But she sang it, all right. I saw Return to Forever around that time too, and Corea got up from his keyboard and danced for a little while, wiggling his hips. The crowd loved it.

One of my favorite early drummers is Vic Berton, who played with Red Nichols and Miff Mole and that crowd. He was a fantastic drummer and several examples of his work can be heard on the first couple of volumes of the Anthology of Jazz Drumming on Masters of Jazz (an indispensable series for fans of jazz drums, incidentally). Berton's extramusical claim to fame is that he was arrested with Louis Armstrong and Frank Driggs in Culver City, California, in 1930. They had been smoking a joint.

I can't hear a synth bass on this track. Both bass parts sound like Steve Swallow. Yeah, I guessed it was Swallow underdubbed, as it were. But since it was the liner notes that revealed to Jim it was Larry Willis on piano (thereby ruining his steamy fantasy and forcing him to construct a new one!), presumably they also reveal it was CB on synth bass. Which would just mean the spirit of Swallow lives within her when she does a bass part--not surprising!

Wow... that is pretty embarrassing. You listen to a record 30 times a day, think you really know the music... this was one of the only cuts I was sure I had down exactly. I was even ready to tell you the name of the track. You may not have had the name of the track right, chuckyd, but you'd probably have been right in most other particulars. See these sites: the record UK site to order it US site to order it

That's a great review, chuckyd!

Nate, I wanted to comment on your comment. I too was thinking Zappa before the vocal came in! But with the non-ironic vocal the background ends up working fine, I think. My first thought was Sly Stone, and I do think he sounds very Sly-like, but in the end I thought it was someone older but couldn't put a name on him. Others have guessed Percy Mayfield and I'll go along with that, without any particular degree of certainty. But it's the influence I perceive of this singer on Sly Stone that was most interesting for me, since I'd never particularly placed Sly in an inheritance tree before.

Have a gander at this site and scroll down.