Spontooneous

I don't buy it. Many misgivings about the way the study was done. They'll have to pry my SACD player out of my cold, dead fingers.

Great to see you back, Randy. I missed the wonderful clippings and the gentle good humor. Stick around!

Download for me, please!

The only honorable thing Wynton could do on this issue now is to offer Larry Ochs' band a gig at JALC. Several nights.

I'll repeat the Shirley Scott Blue Seven recommendation, because Joe Newman plays his very best in this unexpected context.

In the fine print, the "Dolly" LP cover says "Previously issued MR 5055." It bears a publishing date of 1974 and a copyright date of 1987.

Okay, I didn’t peek. The only one I can positively ID is 6, and someone should have nailed that one already. 1 It’s a prettified version of one of those vamps from “In a Silent Way.” OK, I’m suitably impressed with the bass player’s nice bow sound and good intonation. Bassist must be the leader, because the rest of the trio sure is deferential to him. Short and slick. Tickles my brain but not my heart. A McBride thing? 2. Nice theme. Nice piano. Nice trumpet or cornet. It’s all so nice. Horn player might have had me, but lost me with the unnecessary quote from “ESP” near the end of his solo. Then the piano player quotes “Emily” and the horn quotes “I Love You” and we’re all showing how smart we are. The ending mostly recovers. But I’m not feelin’ it anymore. 3. I’ll guess Venuti because Grappelli’s intonation was better. Piano doesn’t do much for me. Then, holy crap, is that the real Django or a good imitator? 4. The head sounds like Blood, Sweat & Tears “Spinning Wheel” for a few bars, and then it doesn’t. Which is worse, the tenor’s time or his intonation? And he doesn’t know when to stop. The piano might be enjoyable if the tenor would shut up. Is that an accordion in there? Drummer thinks he’s doing Elvin, but he ain’t. 5. “Nuages” on basses. First solo has too many notes! Make him stop! This is not a few too many, this is waaaay too many! Second solo is better by having some breathing room. 6. Ahh, the antidote. Don Byas and Slam Stewart play “I Got Rhythm,” the recording from Town Hall in ’44 or ‘45. Familiar to a lot of us from the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. And now I realize how much the tenor solo echoes in the work of others. 7. Love for Sale on guitar and piano, with a few beats disappearing here and there, which I kinda like. Russell Malone & Benny Green? I like the guitar solo’s last bridge. Pianist needs to stop hitting all those notes just because he can. 8. The Flintstones on mallets. The one on the right is a marimba, no? Nice woody ping to it. Cute. 9. Aha, it’s the bass BFT. Here’s somebody showing off his bow prowess and playing a bunch of figures copped from the Bach Cello Suites. A hint of “Night and Day” in the chord changes. Did he really have to keep up the same figuration all the way through? Then the piano comes in and it’s more than a hint of “Night & Day.” 10. It’s like an ‘80s pop song that I’m too square or apathetic to recognize. OK, more technically fine bass playing, but I’m left wanting something besides technique. The electronic percussion leaves me cold. Sounds like something from one of the Brian Bromberg records. 11. I’m thinking some kind of Paquito clarinet project. The cello player is eating this up. This feels good. 12. “Our Delight.” This is that Tommy Flanagan/Hank Jones duet date, isn’t it? I don't seem to have the record anymore. 13. “Crazeology” on tenor and bass. A nice hot edge to the tenor tone. Maybe Junior Cook? Lovely. 14. Two pianos; theme sounds Spanish and vaguely familiar. This could have turned into a festival of banging at the keys, but it didn’t. 15. It certainly is fast. Michael Brecker and Chick Corea? I confess, I don’t like this kind of tenor sound. Thanks for a couple of hours of head-scratching fun, Durium!

He's also out of line on some late-career Bud Powell recordings. He wrecks the last Roulette album.

Actually, Drab Zeen was a gift from a friend -- who probably saw the mention in the Star. Shidler, OK, is a strange, haunted place. Just driving through, you get the sense that it must have been a real hub of activity decades ago. There were some huge oil fields nearby, but the boom is long past. I had no idea there was a dance hall. I imagine it's ruins now, like much of the town. The surrounding countryside, like much of Oklahoma's Osage County, is stunningly beautiful. A little research suggests that Big Beaver is a nearby creek or river. There's a Little Beaver creek too. And apparently there was a Big Beaver School. Oh, the mockery its students must have endured!

Sly dog. I thought I was the only guy in Johnson County with a copy of Drab Zeen. Shouda paid more attention to it and nailed that one. Also shoulda nailed the cut from Weird Nightmare, which I reviewed for a certain local publication when it was new. Somebody else said it already, but it bears repeating: Thanks for truly bringing the spirit of the BFT to life here. And I've actually been to Shidler, Okla., this year. Didn't see any beavers, though.

The publication I work for once won some sort of public-service award from a construction trade group. The plaque is still on the wall. It features, prominently, a silver hammer. So I'm reminded of that song several times a day at work. Make it stop.

Yeah, but you'll never get that on the radio in the USA.

OK, here's a patch for the Ipanema bridge: Each day as she walks to the ocean She looks straight ahead, not at Allen.

A download for me, please. Any BFT by somebody who knows his 78s is bound to be a gas.

This thread is almost 24 hours old and no one's posted a Billy Taylor cover yet. I'm touched by the restraint you've all shown.

HP, can you clarify this, please. Decca wasn't started until 1934. MG My mistake. The 1930 recordings were on Brunswick. But a lot of us in the USA first heard the session on Decca or MCA LPs.

Gotta be Richard Davis. Just gotta be. It's the taste, the tremendous control of the instrument, and the willingness to take more than a few chances. Not to mention the beautiful bow sound.

After a slight delay because of computer failure, time to finish Disc 2. 12. “Tico Tico” is one of my favorite “corny” songs. And this one really works. The two-minute-plus closing vamp really catches fire. Sounds like James Booker, but I see somebody's already nailed it down. 13. It’s a symbol of the times when people put this much effort into synthesizing a New Orleans-style performance in the studio. Too bad they didn’t have the guts to try it live, because the overall concept of rapper plus brass band seems like a good idea. At least the producer had the sense to let it swing naturally for a few moments starting about 1:53. But then it snaps back into the automated groove. Coulda been so much better. 14. Do as I say and everyone will have a happy holiday! Creeeeepy. Was there a “Christmas in Jonestown” album? “Is this not a Christmas tree? / Isn’t all the candy free? / If you think that you want out, / A sip of punch will ease your doubt.” But seriously. I can’t tell if this is a cynical commercial contrivance (maybe a quick piece of hack work for a celebrity TV special) or a parody of same. Maybe it’s both. I should recognize that guy's voice. Sounds like it could have come out of the Stan Freberg laboratory. It's been a mind-bender, HP. And it's gonna cost me some money to round up some of these discs. Many thanks.

At the original session, Alfred Lion shouted "Eins mehr!" The voice you hear on the record was inserted later.

Thank you, Seeline, for bringing my obsessive quest to nail Disc 2 Track 5 to a successful end!

OK, onward into Disc Two... 1 First there are some cliches from post-WWII serious music. Then a piano solo that sounds like Ramsey Lewis, over an uncommonly interesting arrangement. Then the brass episode raises the weirdness quotient. Some excited tenor. Then the last couple of minutes are surprisingly cool. Somebody explain this one to me. 2 Quick recognition of the tune itself and the tenor solo by its composer. But I haven’t heard this version before. In fact, if I had a band, we’d play this tune, but not like this. Sounds like the rhythm section hasn’t grown into the concept yet. So often in Caribbean grooves, rhythm sections seem to turn on the cruise control. 3 Maybe this is from that afternoon Hubert Laws spent over at Deodato’s house. Then again, maybe the Lew Tabackin suggestion is correct (it’s that big vibrato). 4 Well, it sure sounds like Teddy. Exactly like Teddy. So I go to my Teddy records to nail down this “Ghost of a Chance,” and I can’t. Grrr. 5 HP, I hate you! This is one of those tunes that I’ve been carrying around in my head for years that I can’t identify! Quit reading my brain like this! I’ve heard this record, I own this record -- but I can’t trace it. Probably Don Byron on clarinet, Ralph Peterson or maybe Tain on drums. Please help me get this one out of my head! 6 Something from a Frisell-Byron collaboration, I think. But I’m probably walking into your trap here. 7 It’s klezmerific. Lots of writing here, and not much improvisation. Something Paul Schoenfeld cooked up? Or something Zorn cooked up on a day when he wished he was Paul Schoenfeld? I envy the clarinetist’s control, and the violinist and tubist ain’t to be sneezed at either. The writing is in the shadow of Stravinsky’s “Histoire du Soldat.” 10:15 8 OK, I’ll mambo. Great stuff from the Land of Extreme Stereo Separation. As someone said, “Mono was like the sound escaping from a closet. Early stereo was two closets.” No guesses other than the usual Tito P., Machito, Tito Rodriguez. 9 Electronically re-processed for stereo. And that sucks some life out of it. I should know the tune but I don’t. Every one of the solos escapes the feeling of routine. I’ll guess Fletcher, because the trumpet reminds me of Red Allen, and the tenor does a fine Ben Webster. 10 Do not adjust your set. Some really, deeply, profoundly beautiful drumming in there – I hope it isn’t a sample. A nice tenor burst. The tenorist keeps reminding me of Sam Rivers, no kidding. I have no idea what it is. I kinda like. 11 After about three minutes, it settles loosely into “Summertime.” Maybe a certain Badger bassist whom you sometimes talk about, HP? More to come. I haven’t listened to those last three tunes yet.

This is probably the CD Issued in UK on Ace. http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?pa...amp;release=897 The blurb on site suggests that this might, indeed, be the Basie band. MG There's a full personnel on the Crown LP. I counted nine guys from the Basie band, incl. Foster and Wess and Payne but not Freddie Green. Other chairs filled by studio people.

OK, here goes for Disc One: 1 The bottom-heavy reed sound and splattery brass make me think this is the Ellington band, maybe on Reprise. Then again, the chart doesn’t sound like him. I’m mystified. 2 The rhythm track sounds like a sample, not live. Some of the horn backdrops might be samples too. There’s a weird tension between improvising, smart ensemble writing and slick studio playing. The “out” climax seems engineered instead of achieved, if ya know what I mean. Goes on longer than it oughta. The suggestion that this is the Kenny Garrett record where Miles plays was good, but incorrect. I don’t have the correct suggestion. 3 It’s so modernistic! Jeff beat me to the ID for this unforgetable record. JPJ meant to be tongue-in-cheek, I’m thinking, but ended up being prescient. Where did you get this great transfer from the 78? 4 Yeah, I thought it was Django and Steff until I checked my collection. My original notes said “Steff in peak early form here.” But Eddie is even better. Thanks for reminding me of this one. 5 They didn’t make ‘em like this by the time this was made. So very few people playing this way in the stereo era, so I’ll make some guesses: Willie the Lion, Claude Hopkins, Joe Turner. Whoever it is, I want the record. Now. 6 Seems like some things slammed together in a studio rather than things that came together on their own. When in doubt, slap on some phasing effects. I thought I heard an oud, and then, about 4 minutes in, sounds like banjo -- so I’ll guess it’s some Bela Fleck project. A nice try. 7 Quick recognition of this performance, but somebody else ID’d it first, so I’ll just say I love this smart and sensitive improvisation on the piece that the composer never improvised on. MRA’s contribution to this CD set is my favorite part. 8 Rickety waltz. I could do without the sound effects. Then again, that long ensemble might get tedious without them. Tenor solo doesn’t accomplish much, but I like the Rouse-like tone. I hear little bits of plucking that might be a cello. Threadgill? Or someone who wants to be Threadgill? 9 Sounds like something Joel Forrester is involved with. I wasn’t expecting that slide-guitar sound. But I was the world’s biggest Duane Allman fan when I was 15, so it’s fine with me. I want this record. 10 I had a bet with myself that you wouldn’t leave Sun Ra off this BFT. I’m guessing this is it. High Space Fidelity! Really a lovely trumpet solo. I think I’ll play this again right now. 11 No blues or bebop in the pianist’s language, but it’s none the worse for that. I’ll guess Lynne Arriale, though I can’t pin the performance down. 12 Jeff got it already, of course. And I didn’t. Another VERY good 78 transfer. 13 Trumpeter ventures into Lester Bowie territory, but maybe it isn’t him. Tenor reminded me of George Adams for a minute, then didn’t. More bashing and gesturing than ideas in the piano solo – I thought Don Pullen briefly, but I expect better from him. Respect but not love for this one. 14 The Mariachi Brass on mescaline? Tack-eee, but fun. 15 Reminds me of Cab Calloway and Bob Wills at the same time. Someone does a good job of playing tenor like Chu. The rhythm section is pretty wooden. 16 I’ve loved this on a Crown LP for years. I’ll take it over the “original” any day because B.B. blows Joe Williams away without even trying. The sound and feel are right for Basie, because nine guys in the band are from the Basie organization, according to the album cover. Maxwell Davis was the leader. A few propers for the Bihari brothers, please. I’m fascinated by the world of cheap knockoff albums, especially when they result in wonderful music like this. Where did you get such a great-sounding copy of this music? I wasn’t aware this had been on CD.

My mother insists on calling me by my full name. As for the tribute album, better "And His Mother Called Him Spon" than "He Loved Him Badly."

Maybe an allergy? Y'know what makes me cough? That darned hand sanitizer stuff that everybody is using. Seriously. Every time. I'm allergic as heck to the active ingredient.