Spontooneous

I really, really shoulda got Eight Bold Souls. I'm a Wilkerson admirer. Sometimes on record, Bill McHenry has sounded rigid and squarish to me. He sounds just great here. What a hoot, that I thought Paul Motian was Shelly Manne. Was just listening to Billy Mitchell "De Lawd's Blues" the other day.

I'm late. Download, please.

I'm thinking Gregg Field on drums.

I can't believe that this has been up for 24 hours and there isn't yet a corresponding Famous Jazz Musicians That Sound Like Inanimate Objects thread. Y'all are slippin'. Honestly, do I have to do all the work around here?

Is this any way to market doors?

The last half... 7. This is fun. "My Melancholy Baby" by a tenor who's letting the Rollins influence hang out. It's a beautifully constructed solo that sustains its length. It makes me think of Lew Tabackin. Nice trumpet, nice alto. The drumming reminds me of nobody as much as Shelly Manne. 8. Fascinating contrast between the reasonably well rehearsed ensembles and the free blowing. The alto player must be the leader. Is this perhaps an early ECM record, maybe Marion Brown? Otherwise, no guess. 9. Boppin' the blues. For me as well as Bill, the alto stood out. I second his guess. The format where the other horns can join in freely is a kick that some other bands could stand to copy. 10. Nice hot edge to the tenor sound. Oh, dear, here I go guessing Junior Cook again. Maybe a Muse record? 11. Boppin' the blues again. The tenor reminds me of David Newman, a lot. 12. Already weighed in on this one, an old friend. A perfectly delightful BFT here. Many thanks!

Here goes with the first half... 1. Calypso! For the first solo, another round of the age-old BFT question, is it a bass or a cello? I'll bite -- it's a cello, nice solo too. Nice tenor, somebody with a Paul Gonsalves influence – Ricky Ford, Toby Delius? The straight-four swing part of this tune's bridge is borrowed from the bridge of "Well You Needn't." This is a fun way to start. 2. "Lonely Woman" of course, played with reverence. The violin has me thinking Billy Bang. A Google search leads me to think it's from this album. The timing and instrumentation seem to match. I don't have the record. Wish I did, especially if this cut is on there. 3. Lotsa brass, and another bowed instrument that sounds more and more like a cello as it goes on. Are we going to have bowed instruments on every tune of this BFT? OK with me! I don't have a guess, though it keeps nudging at me as if we were familiar... 4. A "location" recording, from a seat closer to the drums than to the piano. Nice piano, nice arrangement. I'll cop to not liking the alto solo, which tries too hard to build climaxes and just sounds forced. Is that Gary Bartz? The tenor solo has a much nicer flow. The drum solo, rare at this tempo, really works. 5. For some reason I can't put my finger on, I'm thinking Larry Willis. And older recording on a piano that's a little creaky. But still worth hearing. 6 Oh, why do they bury singers in instrumental doublings like this? I heard the same thing happen in a live setting not long ago. The singer had taken pains to write words to Joe Henderson's "Inner Urge," but two saxes insisted on playing along, and you can't make out a single word. The tenor here has gotta be Clifford Jordan, absolutely gotta be. I have almost all the Jordan records but can't turn up this tune in my collection. Must be from "Inward Fire," one of the few I'm lacking.

My cats (now gone, alas) just LOVED the harmon sound. One of them seemed to think it was the voice of his long-lost Mom.

I'll be investigating. A four-hand or two-piano version of the Variations could overcome a lot of orchestral balance problems.

I just want to be first for a change. The last track of the BFT is the first track here. (Another composition from this disc figured in my BFT 84.) That's the only ID I've got so far. More comments and silliness later. I just wanted to be the annoying first guy.

I'll just listen to that track 7.2246 times. It'll have the same effect, right?

I feel cheated! I paid for the 65-minute version!

Download for me, please!

OK, last installment. 9. I really like that busy groove at the beginning. The composition sounds Corea-influenced., but it isn't him. Fun. 10. I feel like I should recognize the song. Maybe it's from Broadway, maybe it's from Sesame Street, I don't remember. Then comes the pleasant sensation of realizing I'm probably hearing the real Pepper Adams. Nice trombone, too – maybe Carl Fontana? Makes me think of that Don Friedman album with Pepper and Knepper, but this isn't there. A beautiful cut. 11. At first I really like this. Then that banal drum break screws it up. It gets going pretty well again, and then the damn drum break screws it up all over again. And so on. The moral of our story is, never write out the drum break! Without it, I'd really like this. I was thinking Joe Farrell on CTI, but CTI wouldn't let that drum break get released, would they? 12. For a half-minute or so I thought it was Skies of America. Then when the trumpet came in, I thought it was the Olivier Messiaen composition that Jack Walrath used on his Gut Feelings album. (There's an eerie similarity.) The guitar freakout isn't for everybody, but I enjoyed it. I wish the string parts spent more time moving and less time droning. But this one still gets a "yes" vote from me. 13. Intriguing. Maybe I like the tune more than I like the performance. For a few bars starting at 45 seconds there's a teasing similarity to "If I Should Lose You," but that isn't the tune. The pianist is good, but could stand to arpeggiate less often. 14. Nice "Giant Steps," even if the organist gets stuck on beginning phrases with the same three-note figure again and again for a while. The tune does that to people. Thanks, DrJ, for a proper centennial celebration!

Here goes with the first half. I haven't peeked. 1 "It Ain't Necessarily So," stretched out in a long, loping groove. The groove leaves big spaces in the melody, and the the pianist fills them so beautifully. At first I thought it might be Ahmad Jamal, but obviously it isn't. The sound quality makes me think of Chess-Argo, which leads me to think this might be John Young. I just love this track. 2 "E.S.P." is the tune. The guitar solo could use some rests. I'm thinking Larry Coryell. The bass-drums dialogue is not bad, though. But overall leaves me cold. Sorry. These days I hear too many academic-sounding exercises by people who spent too much time listening to E.S.P. and Miles Smiles and Nefertiti. 3 Nice composition. The alto goes first, but that might be a curveball. I'm thinking the flugel player is the leader. I'm thinking Tom Harrell. And that's a nice thing to think. Lovely track, good solos all around. 4 Well, OK. I've never liked "The More I See You" much. The groove seems a little stereotypical. The vibes player isn't doing it for me. I'll shut up now. 5 Ohh, the Boswells! I love it. Connee is still one of the hippest singers ever. The backing band is really fine. 6 The composition is "Double Talk" from that Howard McGhee-Fats Navarro Blue Note session. Obviously a different performance. And a really nice arrangement – four or five horns? Trumpet is OK, but the tenor is superb. That first bridge of the tenor solo is the best moment of my day. Bill Perkins? After the solos, the arrangement is even better – the arranger didn't miss a trick. Sounds like a flat soundboard recording -- maybe not a commercial release? (I'm a Grateful Dead collector – we live among flat unreleased soundboard recordings.) 7 The guitar is interesting. But the drummer's part wears me out real fast. There's just too much of it, and it's played with such rigidity. 8 A very nice pianoless quartet blues. No guess, but I like.

Kim Kierkegaardashian

Kellers are revelatory, my favorite set.

Do snap up the Schiff/Fischer. It will change how you hear some aspects of the concerti.

Four pages and nobody's mentioned Howdy Quicksell yet? Cladys "Jabbo" Smith -- or anyone else named Jabbo Gene "Honeybear" Sedric Omer Simeon Barney Bigard Andres "Fats Ford" Merenguito

Lino's Pad Drunken Mary Sandy and Niles (one for the Horace Tapscott fans)

Romualdo is right. Definitely a needle drop, with crackle. Some strange hollowness in the sound makes me wonder if there's MP3 in the lineage. A major disappointment.

Saddened to read this. "Spelunke" is one of my favorite tunes. Last week I was enjoying his work on an Ed Neumeister disc.

Download, please. Shouldn't we have a centennial parade or something? I'll call the Shriners.

Just logged in to post the remaining guesses, and noticed that the reveal was up, so I shall be publicly humiliated. Here goes anyway... 9. The flute-and-muted-trumpet combination gets overused in classical music and jazz, and here it is again. The melody doesn't stretch across the 5/4 barlines as gracefully as it could, and the ensemble playing needs polishing. Flute is probably the best soloist here, though there are probably too many notes. Trumpet is even more notey. The trombone provides some relief. Nice, but doesn't quite do it for me. 10. I like the big tenor sound, even if the intonation is a little off at times. It's the drumming that bugs me. Two bars into the first solo and the drummer is off in his own private world, which is a very loud place. That forces the piano player to pound out basics with the left hand, just to have something to keep himself and the band oriented. The pianist relaxes a little during the tenor solo, but the drummer doesn't. I don't mind drummers taking chances, but you've got to play with the group, and this drumming is about ego, not about the group or the music. That drummer isn't Tommy Crane, is it? I've heard him play much better than this. 11. Nice tune, but the theme chorus is slow going because the violinist is having trouble with tone and intonation. But the violinist gets it together after the piano solo, and it's almost like a different musician. An upset victory. 12. It's a trick! The trumpet and tenor are played by the same person, right? Must be Joe McPhee. 13. Heavy foot on the bass drum. But a very fine groove -- is that Jack De? Soprano solo is OK; piano solo a little better; Hubbardish trumpet, but I've never heard Freddie shout through the instrument as happens at 7:18. Accompanied drum solo (a good idea that should be used more) comes off very well. The two-horn improv after that is very exciting. 14. Maybe a CTI record? No, CTI would have used a better-sounding organ than the cheesy electronic thing on here. I'll guess it's Europeans trying to make something that sounds like a CTI record and succeeding. 15. Tablas, thumb pianos, stringed instruments that aren't known to me. Some warm and subtle electric guitar behind the voice. Yeah! Eagerly awaiting the reveal. I'm going to learn a few things from this! Thanks, Stefan.

I'm a big Ursula fan. Good work, Allen! Hope to hear it soon.