Lazaro Vega

I have, and the original is much longer - a wail fest. There's really no comparison. The new one is, what, 9 minutes shorter? yet perhaps further outside the changes -- Von's playing has permutated, but this new album attests to the principles he was working on when Nessa first woke a sleeping world up to the radical individualism that is Von Freeman (that unique synthesis of Bird, Pres and Hawk). CHICAGO, baby! And as far as rhythm sections go, Jimmy Cobb/Wilbur Campbell -- I'll call it a draw, if not leaning to Wilbur's side (he was much younger after all). John Young, especially on the blues/ballad Freeman album on Nessa, has more quirky blue collar funk goin' on than the wonderful Richard Wyands. None-the-less, we should all be so uppity at 80-something! Von Freeman!!!!

Hey, you guys are correct, it was Charles Lloyd. Sorry about that. My bad.

By the way, at the end of the day, Davis was right to hold out for Shorter. Maybe it was Shorter's approximation of Coltrane's sound during that time, or his incredible writing. Haven't you ever had a woman in your life that you just "had to have," that is, be close to? And whenever the chance came around, no matter who you were with, it was an "if only" idea in the back of your head whenever you saw her? Seems like Wayne was that kind of musician to Miles. Just had to have him in his band.

In the new Andrew Hill Jazzpar Octet Cd, Hill mentions Rivers was to have been the saxophonist on "Point of Departure."

While waiting it might be a good time to try and define in words what is meant by "inside" and "outside" playing in the context of the band. Inside the chord changes, or staying near the melody? Swing time, rubato or pulse rhythms? Where does blues expressiveness end and freer expressiveness begin? Since Miles band in this period was also going towards modes as a primary means of organizing the improvisations, may it have been that was too "lean" on musical material for Rivers to fully realize the sounds he was hearing and trying to get out the horn? Miles mid-60's bands were not THAT commercial. 15 minute versions of "My Funny Valentine"? The "time, no changes" feel of that classic rhythm section? Questions for discussion.

"Happy Reunion" from Newport in '58 with Mex and the rhythm section, maybe a chorus and a half...Lovely...I don't think it is the same take as on the double CD of that concert -- the version which came out on the LP "Jazz Critics Choice" is a tighter performance, very succinct interpretation of the melody, just beautiful. David Murray talks about Gonzalves in the new Down Beat and says the D&CinB solo was a starting point for his appreciation of Gonzalves as a rhythmic artist, and someone who could place a ton of information in a phrase and have it come out sounding musical. That's a paraphrase. That long Newport solo is so singable, though, and swinging. Over rated? Well, one could say the whole trip in the 50's was over rated because of Columbia's great promo machine and that it is Duke in the 30's when he was at his height as a composer, and in the 1939-41 period as a bandleader. But really, you have to dig it all -- taking apart Ellington by decades misses the large picture, the way that certain pieces changed over time or were re-interpreted. Such as "our 1938 vintage,..." you know the rest.

Great "Body and Soul." Great crowd, too.

Spoof. Ya think?

I tried, as a non-musician, to articulate the pitch idea on the previous post ("Easy Living").

Yeah Guy, that was the cut I hit hard for the radio.

You mean Robin Eubanks or trombone? Or was his brother, Duane?, playing trumpet?

C-addict wrote: "Holland and Eubanks both are very modern players but they both rely to a degree on licks and patterns..." Dave Holland is a soloist out of the Ornette Coleman tradition of phrase building allowing the solo to shape itself. Hear any of his solo albums and particularly the tunes "Jumpin' In" or "Homecoming" and the idea that he's a pattern player is hard to back up. He's a melodic bassist as a soloist, and a time conscious composer -- all of those shifting time patterns and metric layers in the new band and big band seem to be the nexus of their excitement and unless you really enjoy the nerd like pleasure of counting through a concert, or if you're a drummer and can really hear that detail and be awed by it, that shit devolves into Philip Glass like tedium. But as a soloist, I don't hear Holland as primarily a pattern player but a very melodic, cell based improviser (meaning, a cell of a melody will appear, develop, be elaborated on and generally guide the direction of the solo's over all form). You're welcome to disagree. When I hear "pattern player" I think of musicians who have studied books of solos by saxophonists in the post Coltrane era and have taken elements of maneuvering through the harmony out of context, divorcing the "pattern" from original intention. Maybe you think of that differently. The quintet of the 1980's, and especially the "Jumpin' In" band had something going in the front-line that I haven't heard too many people talk about: a connection to the sound of Booker Little's recordings. Julian Priester and Booker Little made for a tonally interesting combination on the Bethlehem recording "Booker Little and Friend." The color and character of the heads on that record owe a lot to their manipulation of, especially, minor-key tonality. Kenny Wheeler's main inspiration on trumpet is Booker Little, and, of course, he was with Holland in Anthony Braxton's phenomenal quartet along with Barry Altschul. When Priester and Wheeler found themselves together in Holland's quintet of the 1980's or 90's it gave that band a grounding in jazz tradition, a sort of path not taken with the early death of Little, that allowed them to build on something very unique. Now that was exciting. As for the vibes, as Holland said to me in an interview when the band with Billy Kilson played in Grand Rapids (both a concert and in a dude's house -- hanging out with those guys in this family's music room, books and cds, was big fun) the vibes lend a sense of "transparency" to the group sound. That's cool. Perhaps the "problem" folks might have with a harmony instrument in this band, again, is that the group comes from a tangent of Ornette's music where pianos and guitars have had an on-again, off again role.

It is a swinger.

John wrote some insightful liner notes for the new Von Freeman recording on Premonition. He certainly is a writer I trust and look forward to reading.

"The Great Divide" features the 82 year old Chicago tenor saxophonist Von Freeman -- a one time schoolmate and bandmate of Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin and Clifford Jordan -- with a New York rhythm section including drummer Jimmy Cobb, pianist Richard Wyands and bassist John Webber. The press release claims this is the first time since the 1940's that he surrounded himself with a New York rhythm section, which is too bad as in 1981 he and his son Chico played with Kenny Barron, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette at the Public Theater ("Freeman and Freeman" is the recording on India Navigation) and recorded the justly famous studio album "Fathers and Sons" for Columbia. In any case, on "The Great Divide" the program includes long ballads "Be My Love," "This Is Always" as well as "Violets for Your Furs," a piece called "Blue Pres" (a slow reading of "Blue Lester") and Coleman Hawkins' "Disorder at the Border." He also reprises a hauling ass "I Got Rhythm" variation called "Have No Fear, Soul Is Here" first recorded on Nessa back in the 70's, here retitled "Never Fear, Jazz Is Here." Time, indeed, marches on. www.premonitionandmusic.com

It is cooking. Soulstice is a burning cut. The only trouble I had with the disc is the drum sound. Blanchard uncorks some hot, passionate playing on the latin number -- his Bounce tour and now this are good signs for a trumpeter who seemed more worried about being perfect than letting fly. I'm not a fan of his but have been more open to his playing here and on the Blue Note disc. Gary Bartz is 'Trane on alto, more or less, and fits the setting perfectly. And McCoy -- much rather hear this than his Burt Bacherach record (pee-u-ski). McCoy and Reggie Workman are the last ones from Trane's great modal period.

That interview in the booklet is incredible, especially talking about Chicago before going to New York. The European horn players may have benefitted from more rehearsal time, but by and large they dive into the improvs.

The nuances of each note as they string together shading the phrase are like negative and positively charged molecules, sharp, natural, or flat, giving the inner workings of the line a very subtle tension and release ("Easy Living" ).

Are you thinking this was a reissue of the Croyden concert on Freedom, or a new recording?

Charles made a nice version of "Evenin'" on the Tony Bennett "Sings the Blues" CD.

sidewinder: "Who would have ever guessed that Mingus did a tune named after sleepy Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leicestershire ! " He didn't. Though there was a record of that name, it was not a Mingus disc. Also, the Dolphins of Hollywood label is detailed in the booklet that comes in the CD.

sidewinder: "Who would have ever guessed that Mingus did a tune named after sleepy Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leicestershire ! " He didn't. Though there was a record of that name, it was not a Mingus disc. Also, the Dolphins of Hollywood label is detailed in the booklet that comes in the CD.

I'm high on the Soundtrack to Naked Lunch which seems to more organically meld Ornette's jazz trio with the London Symphony as well as musical textures from Morrocco and North Africa. Of course, this is music of Howard Shore and not completely the compositions of Ornette Coleman. It would seem with all of those instruments on hand in a symphony, Coleman would employ his multi-linear approach to group organization, but the Skies strings seem more employed in unison to create weight, say the same weight as brass instrument or saxophone. That produces a sort of mono chrome, a swinging one, yet I think the world has yet to hear a fully realized Harmolodic Symphony. ???

C Minor Complex is here: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&u...l=Amgeb97ujkrht

http://www.crisscrossjazz.com/artist/BelgraveMarcus.html