Spontooneous

Am I the only one who's dragged by Roger Blank's playing? (Not dragged by anything else on the record, though.)

Probably needs a drink... ← Yes. And yes.

Other thread here. Love the photo, though.

There was a Miles Davis billboard from the same company. That one inspired this screed, published in the Kansas City Star: THAT WOULDN'T FLY IF MILES WERE ALIVE By Joe Klopus By the side of Interstate 70, high above the rooftops, it’s there to catch your eye. It’s a billboard bearing a huge, striking photo of Miles Davis, the trumpeter who was just telling the truth when he said, “I changed music five or six times.” The black-and-white image dates from circa 1970, a time when Davis was changing music again by enriching his jazz with elements from rock, funk and soul. In the photo, he looks like the music he was making at the time: Tough. Uncompromising. Adventurous. And, behind those shades, elusive. Yes, the billboard gets your attention. But what’s it selling? The American Jazz Museum? They could use a little plug on billboards around town. Or maybe they’re selling the idea of Kansas City as a jazz destination? That idea could use some exposure, too. Nope. The billboard is selling cognac. Oh, crud. It’s that old jazz-and-booze equation again — an old piece of baggage, a stereotype that’s helped keep jazz marginalized for generations. Yes, jazz is played in some places where alcohol is served. But remember: These days, jazz is played in concert halls, schools and churches. (Check the “Spirituality and All That Jazz” concert series, another installment of which is described later in this column.) Yes, jazz was born in a rough, alcohol-soaked district of the rowdy city of New Orleans. But it has grown into something far nobler than simply a music to drink by. Liquor isn’t needed to appreciate jazz any more than it’s needed to appreciate any other aspect of life. In the jazz places that serve alcohol around Kansas City, there’s very little pressure to buy drinks. And non-alcoholic drinks are always available. And you’ll see relatively little drinking on the bandstand. In the audiences, there’s not much drunken misbehavior to be observed in Kansas City’s jazz clubs in 2003. Probably less, proportionally, than in other kinds of clubs. Miles Davis stood for progress in jazz. And the use of his image on this billboard, playing to a stereotype, sends all the wrong messages about jazz and about any art form. His ghost ought to be kicking somebody’s butt over this. Oh, and there’s the slogan on that billboard: “Never blend in.” As if you can be a rebel by drinking more?

Are the initials "JM" on the card in post #81 a clue?? (I love this thread.)

Goin' to Rock City on the mountain high Where you can see seven states and a whole lotta sky...

I like that one too. Moncur sounds so relaxed, for once. Also, it's the only case of Moncur being more in tune than the piano.

There was a case in southwest Missouri a few years back of a fella who shared VERY close quarters with his horse, and referred to her as his wife ... and the sheriff couldn't do much about it under state law at the time.

Guess I'm swimming against the current. PM's name came first on the cover, and I have to be in the mood to tolerate the guitar synth before I can play this record, so it's always been filed under M at my place.

"Lee Morgan deals in cardboard lovers..." Now THAT'S some great newspaper ritin'. Now if you'll 'scuse me, the cardboard GF and I are going beddy-bye.

Hey, .:.imp, I'm in on this one. (Sorry I had to leave town when Chuck was here.)

Ain't crazy at all. Might as well end your recording career with an exclamation point.

Lucky was one of the first guys whose records I glommed onto as I was getting into jazz. (See, occasionally I can make good decisions.) I've always felt sorry that he felt he had to leave the scene. Hope he found some peace in those years. (Speaking of wrong photos, as Chuck was: A Lucky CD called "Good Luck in Paris 1956," on JazzTime 827217-2, has a photo of Don Byas, not LT, on the cover.)

IIRC, "School Daze" also had Harold Vick onscreen, playing a tenor solo in Phyllis Hyman's number.

Anybody here live close enough to Gritsville to drop in and check on Clem?

Fun fact: At least one of the individuals pressing in this thread for answers to his BFT discs has not posted any guesses as to what is on those discs.

What about Coleman Hawkins' "Stuffy"? Debatable, I know. Don't forget the Hawkins "I Mean You" cut for Sonora, now reissued on Prestige. And this seems like a good place to reopen the topic: I SWEAR TO YOU ALL that one side of Hawkins' solo "Hawk Variation" is a version of "'Round Midnight."

PLEASE tell me that you got some pictures of that thing! ← Jim S: Last I knew, it was still in the basement of my parents' house. It served me well -- took me all the way from Little Golden Records at 5 to "The Rite of Spring" at 11. Jim R: First listens and note-taking were done "blind."

Dammit. I had prepared dis heah response, but the answers got posted first. Oh well. I'll embarrass myself and post it anyway. 1. The no-brainer still teases my brain. Cannon's solo deserves a few more listens - he's pushing himself to play a different kind of Cannon solo, maybe feeling that the old trick bag didn't work so well by this time. It's from a later and lesser-known Capitol LP; as a DJ in this town used to say, it's "the title track from the album of the same name." Another one from “The Club,” meaning it’s a studio recording doctored with overdubs and applause? 2. I might be in the minority, but here goes: I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE. Love the spikiness of the string and piano writing. No idea who the tenor is; then I realized there were two. Maybe some Peter Phillips-Max Roach project? (With Billy Harper and Odean Pope in tow?) Or something from the makers of "Sing Me a Song of Songmy"? Or Shepp and Romulus? Gimme dat record! 3. The opposite number of Track 2. Soulful alto tries a little tenderness. Heavy vibrato, and some Websterian breathiness at the end. The chart flirts with excessive syrupiness, but never goes too far over the line. Can't ID, but I'd love to have the album too. 4. Quick recognition. It's the singer whose name, when it appeared in a piece I wrote, was "corrected" by a well-meaning editor to "Etta James." She sounds great here. That's Houston Individual on tenor. Recently the radio around here has been playing a lot of late-in-life performances by this singer, in which her chops were in obvious decline; it's good to have a reminder of how she sounded at her peak. 5. The trumpet is unmistakably Freddie. I disliked the tenor even before I followed Nate's link and ID'd the player. Yeah, the drums and bass aren’t clicking. 6. Just two pianos? Maybe three? In 9/8 time? It isn’t the Strata-East Piano Choir album – I checked – but can’t trace it. There’s also a multiple-piano record by Marian McPartland, Roland Hanna, Dick Hyman and somebody else, but I don’t have a copy and I don’t reckon this isn't them anyway. 7. Again I’m gonna guess Oliver Nelson or Gerald Wilson. Wonderful chart on a spiritual-like tune. Assured, beautiful soprano playing by somebody who isn’t just doubling on the instrument because it might bring in more gigs. 8. I know little about pans; how many does it take to get this wide a range? And does the tone always lose its firmness on the lower notes, as these do? The solo is interesting but a little too long. Love the trombone; sounds like Ray Anderson. Good steady, unshakable bass. No idea where this came from. 9. Sounds like late Weather Report; the tenor player's time is pure Wayne. I like the tune (funk in 3!) and the drumming. I'd like it all at least 50 percent better without the phony-baloney vibrato on the synth. 10. The Oliver Nelson track on Disc One made me say it before, and I’ll say it again: I KNOW this is lurking in my collection somewhere, and I love it, but I can't ID it right now. Tenor sounds like George Adams or maybe Carter Jefferson; trumpet sounded like Woody Shaw for a second but doesn’t have his focus. Early Jack Walrath? Love the tune, which has some phrases that teasingly remind me of other tunes; love the arrangement too. (If Brownie's link is correct, no wonder I can't find it in my collection -- I've lent the disc to another board member.) 11. This takes me back. I'm seven years old, on the floor of my bedroom with my red-and-white Westinghouse phonograph. I'm playing with the speed control -- faster, faster, faster! The Donald Duck voices bring me to waves of laughter. Then my father yells, "You play that record right or I'll take that thing away from you!" I made sure to never again play with the speed control while he was in the house. This is too much fun, Jim. Many thanks! EDIT: For #6, last sentence, I typed "is" when I meant "isn't." Or "ain't."

My dear departed cat Cecil always responded to harmon-muted trumpet solos. Open-horn solos seemed to make no impression on him, but when a harmon solo came along, he would look around for the source of the sound. (I always wondered whether he thought the sound was coming from another cat.)

We need a Johnny-Appleseed-in-reverse to travel the countryside snatching up copies of that 1987 reissue of KOB, ridding the world of the hideous sound (and graphics) of that reissue, replacing them with better-sounding copies (which would be ANY other edition). I've bought KOB three times, LP about 1983, hideous CD in 1987, better CD in 1998. I've bought ALS on the dim-sounding early CD, the better-sounding later CD and the boxed set. I've bought Giant Steps on LP in 1984, the early CD circa 1988 and the boxed set. See a pattern here? That's why I didn't feel bad about buying a used copy of the new double-disc "Round About Midnight" the other day.

So nobody's reissued the Blu-Disc and Meritt sides?

How much of that is duplicated in the Mosaic, Chuck?

But I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really don't like the way Butch Miles plays.

Don't judge Carl Allen on the basis of THAT horrible night. Despite the best efforts of Cedar and Bobby, that band couldn't have cohered. No rehearsal, and a coked-up trumpet player, whose name I won't mention in a public forum. Plus a clueless pickup bass player and an even more clueless pickup vocalist. It hurts to think about that night.