Tom Storer

Wow - having just seen Percy Heath and his brothers play a club date a couple of nights ago, I had to laugh at this story! At 80, Percy is pretty damn spry. Who knows what he gets up to, even today?

I would add "in the long term." There are many who are doing it at any given time, but a lack of career and money-earning possibilities means that the majority, as they grow older and take on family obligations, or become frustrated by toiling in obscurity for zero money, eventually feel obliged to give up the muse thing. Or maybe find a new muse who's easier to live with.

Well, I did suspect they had some connection to Chicago. But isn't it when they were in Paris that they hooked up with Don Moye, took the name Art Ensemble of Chicago, and began their career as a quintet?

The Sangrey Blindfold looks like it will be an epic experience. We'll probably tell our grandchildren about it. I've been thinking about what to put in my own blindfold, whenever that happens, and it's true that the 1-CD limit makes for difficult choices. I've looked at lots of albums and realized that the interesting tracks are 10 minutes or longer, which would make for fewer tracks. A 2-CD blindfold would be more fun, but quite a challenge to make every track a memorable one. And, of course, more expensive to ship. But hey, if you can afford it, go for it. I see that others have volunteered for non-US distribution, and I'm just as happy to sit this one out, distribution-wise. It's probably a good idea for us European etc. residents to take turns at it. I'll be glad to burn and forward a copy or two, though, if desired - just let me know. Looking forward to the Sangrey experience!

I was lucky, I saw them many times. But I have to say that when I saw them earlier this year - Mitchell, Jarman, Favors and Moye - it was kind of discouraging. They themselves seemed depressed, and the concert seemed kind of rote. Maybe it was being back in Paris (where they started, I believe) without Bowie. That said, it was a hell of lot better than the opening act, a group doing an ossified version of 70's free jazz that just flat out sucked. Even on an off night and lacking Lester, the AEC was clearly the real deal whereas the others just didn't cut the mustard. So one Cory Wilkes joined them on trumpet recently? That ought to be interesting. Never heard of the guy - I'll have to Google him... Google reveals that his first name is spelled "Corey," he's from Chicago, and he's on "Song For My Sister" by Roscoe Mitchell & the Note Factory. AMG says: "Corey Wilkes grew up immersed in the sounds of Blues, R&B, Soul, Funk and Jazz. At the age of 10, he picked up the trumpet for the first time. Starting with the school band, Corey's natural talent immediately began to shine. He dominated his peers in both group and solo competitions, always taking first place. To make a very very long story short, Corey is currently one of the hottest trumpeters in the country. In August 2003 Corey appeared on all 3 stages at the 25th Annual Chicago Jazz Fest in Grant Park, including the Petrillo Bandshell. In the same month, Wilkes made news at the 24th Annual Ford Detroit Trumpet Summit on 2 stages. He's recorded numerous CDs, from Jazz to Hip Hop. Corey has shared the stage with numerous jazz heavyweights including Roscoe Mitchell, Marcus Belgrave, Roy Hargrove, Mulgrew Miller, and Wynton Marsalis just to name a few. In the year ahead, look forward to hearing Corey's sinewy notes at more fests, concerts, and clubs around the midwest. In addition to that, Corey will be touring in France in January 2004 with the legendary reedist Ernest Dawkins." And his site is here.

That's a great description of an AEC concert, Jim. Especially "Individual timbres of any and all types were luxuriated in for hedonistically long intervals, and silence was made love to as if it was the key to life itself." Beautifully said. As a young jazz fan, they taught me a great deal about the primacy of sound - tone and timbre, the mixing of tones and timbres in a group, and also, very importantly, dynamics. The visual thing was important - the huge array of instruments, the bright colors, the clothes and gestures - but as your eye was fascinated by their deliberate, graceful movements on stage, your ear was slowly but surely seduced by the sounds. Soft and luxurious at first, those sounds covered the whole spectrum from high-pitched clicks, taps, whistles and pings to low-pitched rattles, hums, whooshes, thumps and booms, with all manners of glimmers, gleams, shimmers, shivers and glows in and around the sides. All of this with all the air and space needed to make it breathe and roll and snake and begin to dance. Gradually the dynamic range would grow and grooves would be introduced (and subsequently unsprung). Before you knew it 90 minutes or 2 hours had passed, you had gone from quiet meditation through roaring, screaming excitement and back, and you felt like the concert had just begun. They were a life-changing group. I saw them in Paris on the 25th anniversary of Bird's death. The concert was especially charged. At one point, at the height of musical tension, Lester turned his back on the audience and suddenly turned and there was a pistol in his hand. He pointed it out over the crowd and fired it, and that was the loudest, most shocking thing, I thought my heart would stop. It was a starter's pistol of course, but goddamn, what an effect. And of course they could also be hilariously funny, with parodies of swing or bop that were such a mixture of affection and cynicism and fun and mockery that you found yourself both laughing and the laughed at because you were enjoying it so much despite its exaggeration. I took a girl to see the Art Ensemble not long after we started seeing each other. She was interested but hadn't listened to much jazz at all until she met me. I had her listening to Bird and Billie Holiday and she liked that well enough, but I didn't know if the AEC would intrigue her or make her flee screaming. After the concert she turned to me with a look of consternation on her face, and I thought "Oh hell, she hated it." But she said, "WHY haven't you taken me to anything like this before?" She was thrilled by it. I married her. That was the AEC for you. I miss Lester.

I used to have a cat named Miles (because he was a mean little black cat). At one point we thought he was lonely, so we got another cat to keep him company, a female. I named her Juliette Greco. The vet thought I was weird.

I saw Louis Stewart play once, in a pub in Dublin. It was magic. When I closed my eyes I felt like I was in New York. Then after the set, as Stewart was leaving the stage, he said to the bass player, in a broad Dublin accent, "Are ye goin' fer a pint?" Mind you, that could have been New York too! I'm not much of a guitar aficionado in general, but this is making me want to revisit those I enjoy, including Bickert, Breakstone, Peter Leitch and Adam Rogers whom I recently discovered. I love Metheny, too, particularly in his non-PMG settings, and Scofield when he's playing relatively straight-ahead (such as a recent concert I saw of his trio with Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart). Abercrombie I'm less familiar with. Usually my preferences are for a more straight-ahead guitar sound (can't stand Bill Frisell, for instance).

I like Wilen a lot, although perhaps not as unconditionally as many of you Barneyophiles! I discovered him when "La Note Bleue" came out and saw him a few times in the Paris clubs. Beautiful sound, very cool and swinging player, but at some point I noticed that, at least in concert, he never seemed to play up-tempo numbers. Ballads or comfortable mid-tempo tunes seemed to be it. As good as he was, I found this frustrating. He did a duo CD with Alain Jean-Marie at one point that's very nice.

Although I don't share Jim S's sense of moral outrage over Harry Allen's doing a spot-on Getz imitation, I would probably react with some kind of disapproval if he hadn't come right out and said here I am, Harry Allen, playing just like Getz in a tribute to Getz. I think what Jim is getting at in general is the difference between emulation and forgery. But forgery is dishonest because you're hiding the fact of imitation. If Allen sounded like Getz all the time and didn't acknowledge it, you could say that people unfamiliar with Getz would be the victims of some kind of fraud if they loved Allen and bought all his records. But that doesn't seem to be the case; he made his Getz tribute for people who do love Getz, or wish to learn about him. If he's a copycat on this record, at least he's up front about it. For my money he'll only spend a short time in limbo and not go directly to hell for all eternity.

I'll add another vote for Brignola, the most ferocious bebop baritone - well, along with Pepper Adams. Brignola had chops of steel, and could kick along at ridiculously high speed while making it all look easy. Clarity, precision, grace and swing - the man just burned. He stuck to upstate New York most of the time but went down to the city to record with the best. He used Dave Holland a lot, and enjoyed playing Holland's "Four Winds," from "Conference of the Birds," in concert. I went to school in Albany and often saw Brignola at his regular weekly gig at a place called the Lark Tavern, which also featured J.R. Monterose fairly often. Once I saw the two of them jamming (on one number Brignola played tenor like it was his main horn) - that night Howard Johnson was in the pub and Brignola introduced him and gave him a big hug, but he didn't play. Too bad, Johnson is another nice voice on baritone. Among the current guys I like Gary Smulyan and Scott Robinson a lot - Smulyan is mighty with Holland's big band, and Robinson was recently featured on a Bob Brookmeyer big band record.

Only ten years old but already obscure, I fear: Sheila Jordan's "Heart Strings" on Muse. Out of print. Jordan is accompanied by Alan Broadbent, Harvie Swartz and Marvin "Smitty" Smith, with a string quartet playing Broadbent's arrangements, which are fantastic. Beautiful singing and playing, and a great selection of songs, including "Haunted Heart," "Out to Sea," which is Tom Harrell's "Sail Away" with lyrics, and her best performance of "Inch Worm."

Very perceptive comments, as usual. I was a teenager getting into jazz during the mid-70's, and electric Miles was like nothing else I was hearing. I saw the band with Dominique Gaumont, Pete Cosey, Michael Henderson et al. at Carnegie Hall a year or less before Miles's 1975 drop-out, and was both mystified and completely fascinated. I listened to "Bitches Brew" and "Big Fun" a lot, but like Bev it was "He Loved Him Madly" that struck me most. I liked a lot of the nascent fusion music - Headhunters, Return to Forever, Weather Report and so on - but as fun and funky as it was, it didn't have the same depth. New technology notwithstanding, it was still about neat arrangements, catchy rhythms and melodies, and the cult of the heroic soloist. The Miles of those years was another world altogether. The post-1980 Miles, of course, was something else again. I'm glad he came out of retirement and got back to work, but I confess I think the post-1980 part of his career is the least interesting.

Jim S, Wow. Fundamentally offensive? Obscenely wrong? Purely and simply EVIL? Because he's a copycat saxophone player? Man, you set the bar way high! But hey, that's your right. Far be it from me etc. Tolerance and all that. Peace, brother!

I saw Charlap with the Washingtons a couple of years ago at the Village Vanguard and they were exceptional. All three of them were absolutely top-notch - in this kind of music, I don't think you'll find better than Peter and Kenny Washington, and Charlap was playing beautifully. Ballads as sweet as you like, blues and mid-tempo tunes that swung like crazy, and I think they hit the upper limit of fast tempos that can still be controlled: when they were flying at such high speed I kept expecting things to fall apart from the sheer momentum, but they never lost their grip on that beat. It was exhilarating. So if you get a chance to see them live, don't miss it!

Is it the very idea of organ transplants you criticize, or something about the way it's done?

Purchase? Well, in a way. I'm an emusic subscriber, and after Blindfold 2 I downloaded *many* albums by Jack McDuff, Don Patterson, Red Holloway, Gene Ammons, etc. - greasy tenors and organists. I probably downloaded 40 albums along those lines! Nothing, I think, from the actual albums represented in the test, but very much based on the general style, which I had previous not favored as much. *And* I'm listening to them!

This one pretty much had me stumped all the way through, but the selections are top-notch! Thanks for a great listen, Jim. Here goes with my comments and guesses (when I even bother guessing): 1. Swinging! Pianist is awfully familiar, makes me think of Ahmad Jamal with his shifts to very soft dynamics. Bright, full... great stuff. 2. Sounds like Milt Jackson. I'd guess the MJQ but the piano doesn't sound like John Lewis. Is this "Taking a Chance On Love"? 3. Brisk rhythm; nice, puckish trumpet solo. Reminiscent of early 60's Miles but I think it's more recent. 4. Gently swaying Braziliany thing with two guitars. Tasty. Won't even bother guessing. 5. Great tenor player. Great quartet! Can't identify any of them, except the rough-and-ready arco bass solo could point to Paul Chambers. 6. The pianist seems tantalizingly familiar. Fancy, flutter-style upper-register bass solo. Nice. 7. This is my preferred kind of guitar sound. No clue who it is. Peter Leitch? Adam Rogers? Joshua Breakstone? Wild guesses. As usual I recognize the tune but can't think of the name of it. 8. I'd guess Stan Getz and one of his Brazilian records. 9. Nice arrangement. The dashing bebop alto player is probably the leader but the baritone has the best solo. I'd swear I recognize the alto player, but naming him is another matter. 10. Solo guitar, Brazilian rhythm. No idea. 11. Piano/bass duo. Another tune I recognize but can't think of the name of. Tommy Flanagan? 12. Very nice. Similar to number 8. No clue. 13. "I Mean You" (at last a name I remember). No idea. I like this guitar sound too - close to Jim Hall, but not his phrasing. 14. At last an easy one! Sarah Vaughan, Jobim's "Double Rainbow." This is a gorgeous tune. 15. The soprano sound often reminds me strongly of Steve Lacy, but this isn't his style of music. Another great tune! I'll be looking for this once I find out what it is. Odd that it fades away during the piano solo - I guess it was too long and only the relevant blindfold portion was included? 16. "The Good Life"? Once again, no idea who it is.

This morning I sent out the six "rest-of-the-world" CDs of Blindfold Test 3, to: couw White Lightning mikeweil Gary Gray Daniel A mmilovan That's two Germanies, a UK, a Sweden, a Serbia-Montenegro and an Israel. Depending on the postal system, they should arrive over the next few days!

European residents, take heart. The zero-second intro strategy has worked, enabling me to copy Blindfold Test 3 successfully. I'll be sending them out on Friday.

Monk's music is pretty much sui generis, and Rouse fit that unique rhythm-melody space perfectly. Coltrane used that special Monkness to blast off towards outer limits, Griffin as a springboard for his spirited displays of virtuosity. Rollins was Rollins, perfectly compatible with the Monk universe but of comparable individual distinction. Rouse was the one who mined the groove in an easy but perfectly pitched way, his melodies spinning along with relaxed swing and just the right flavor. Listening to "Live at the It Club" is like a Zen experience for me, such a source of serene energy. But Rouse didn't end with Monk. Don't forget Sphere! That was a beautiful, beautiful quartet.

Thanks for your input, guys. Daniel, I did try to burn a copy - that's when I realized it was no go. The software (Nero) said "Sorry, not enough room" and aborted the burn. I'll try mmilovan's overburn strategy - maybe that'll do the trick... If that doesn't work, I'll try eliminating the 2-second lead-ins, that might just do it.

Slight hitch on the European side: I bought a pack of blank CDs to make my copies, but I didn't think to check the size of the CD Jim sent me first. Turns out Blindfold Test 3 is 702 MB, and my blanks are 700 MB! So I'll have to get in some bigger CDs to make my copies. With a little luck I'll be able to do this tomorrow. Watch this space! (Lesson to future copiers: first check the size of the Blindfold Test CD, *then* buy the appropriate blanks!)

I received BT3 in the mail this morning! I've listened to a little bit of it and it sounds like a great set of tunes. I'll start burning this evening and I'll probably be ready to post them off to the non-North-America list on Wednesday. I'll post to confirm when they've been dispatched.

So far I have six requests on this side of the world: couw White Lightning mikeweil Gary Gray Daniel A mmilovan If you're not on the North American side of the Atlantic, just send me a PM with your postal address and I'll see that a copy of Blindfold 3 gets to you.