paul secor

Ray Charles & Milt Jackson: Soul Meeting (Atlantic/Germany)

Chuck (or anyone else): Can you recommend an in print CD that would be a good intro to Cyrus St. Clair's playing?

I should have qualified the "hit or miss" comment by saying that I've only heard a few non-Air Threadgills (three, to be exact). I enjoyed the one I wrote about in the Black Saint/Soul Note thread - Song Out of My Trees - and was somewhat indifferent to the two others - on Arista Novus and Columbia. After hearing Trees, I wonder if I dismissed (and sold) those too soon. I hope that this thread will engender some interesting discussion about Henry Threadgill.

Henry Threadgill's gotten a fair number of mentions on this Board (tho not enough), but even though Air had a thread, I couldn't find a thread devoted entirely to Mr. Threadgill. So unless I overlooked something, this is it. I recently purchased Song Out of My Trees on Black Saint, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not familiar with much of Henry Threadgill's post Air work, so I'd like to know about that. I'm sure that many of you (I imagine that Mssrs. Sangry and Nessa will be in the forefront) have much to write about Mr. Threadgill's work - with Air, pre-Air, and post Air - so fire away.

Don't think that Andrew Cyrille's X-Man has been mentioned, so I'll do that. It's a quartet record, with James Newton, Alex Tit Pascal, Anthony Cox, and Cyrille. I like Cyrille's Good To Go, also with Newton, a bit more, but they're both good listens. Also want to mention a Black Saint recording I just picked up, Henry Threadgill's Song Out of My Trees. I've only listened to it twice, so I haven't lived with it much. Threadgill is sort of hit and miss with me, but I'd put this one under the hit category. Eclectic might be one of the words I'd use to describe his recordings, and this one is even more eclectic than the other Threadgills I've heard. It almost seems as if he decided to make this a set of compositions/performances - and they are as much compositions as performances - in fact, Threadgill plays on only three of the five cuts - with as many types of musics/sounds as he could muster. There's a kind of jazz/rock/funk piece; an Ayleresque piece with Threadgill's alto, strings, harpsichord, accordian, and voice; a piece for piano, three guitars, and bass guitar; a composition with Ted Daniel on hunting horns, along with three guitars, and bass guitar; and an organ quartet with Threadgill, Amina Claudine Myers, guitar, and drums. Song Out of My Trees is a Black Saint that's been unfairly overlooked - it's probably not a record that will appeal to someone with mainstream tastes - but if you're looking for something different and good, you might want to give it a try.

I wondered about this too. I figured it was just another instance of Lloyd's involvement with non jazz musicians, like when he started his career with B.B. King & Bobby Bland or having the Beach Boys involved with a 70's LP. Went to the Mosaic Web site and found the probable answer to my question. The extra cuts from early 1965, including "Sun Dance", were produced by John Simon, who later produced the first two Band LPs.

Ray Charles/Cleo Laine: Porgy and Bess (RCA)

To me, MVP awards are hype for the league, and I couldn't care less who wins. The only thing that counts is the championship. That said - If your criterion is who makes their team better (who helps their team win), LeBron and Kobe definitely deserve consideration. Without them, the Cavs and Lakes might be in Knick territory - especially the Lakers. On the other hand, Billups has had a great year, but the Pistons would still be a very good team (tho probably not a championship team) without him. Whoever is chosen is chosen. I don't believe it's that important. Basketball, more than most sports, is a team game, and I'd like to see the MVP award abolished. As I said, tho, it's a publicity gimmick for the NBA, so it will remain.

Does anyone know what the story is with Robbie Robertson playing on "Sun Dance", an added track on Charles Lloyd's Of Course, Of Course?

Happy birthday to you, Mr. Ubu.

Don't have much Richard Tee or Stuff in my collection- only the Carla Bley Dinner Music LP - but I ran into Richard Tee once, strictly by accident, and he seemed like a truly nice guy. I remember he told me that he had moved to Cold Spring, N.Y. (in my general area) because he had had attended a wedding in Cold Spring, and liked the town well enough to make his home there.

Bill Lewis/Khan Jamal: The River (Philly Jazz)

Once you put that hat on, it's unlikely that you take it off. Just ask Donald Byrd or George Benson.

My wife and I are off to the Good Friday Service at our church. It's going to be my job to snuff out candles at various points in the service. I don't enjoy being any sort of center of attention, so I hope I don't blow it - pun intended.

Yes! And if you want to daydream (tangentially): Eric Dolphy with Monk. Just to hear the madness unfold. Yeah. That would have been something. On a related note - I was recently listening the the ICP Orchestra playing some Herbie Nichols, and one of the saxophonists played a good solo that was very Dolphyesque. Made me think about what Eric Dolphy might have sounded like playing Herbie Nichols' music.

I've ordered directly from Yazoo, and have always had good service - orders have consistently arrived within a week. edited for spelling.

Man that cover is classic Crumb! For my money, as good as any of the Weirdo or early American Splendor covers. Anybody have his Yazoo jazz trading cards? I have all three sets - Blues, Jazz, & Country. It's fun to get them out occasionally and just enjoy the drawings and the commentary on the back of the cards. I especially dig some of the names of the country bands - Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, Mumford Bean and his Itawambians, Hoyt Ming and his Pep Steppers, just to list a few. The Crumb comic strip on record collecting in the CD booklet is a classic too. I saw more of myself in it than I wanted to.

Lester Young, perhaps? Yes - Pres. There was an interview with someone from the Smithsonian on PBS a couple of nights ago. The recording is supposedly from a club and done in the very early 40's, sometime after he left Basie and before he entered the army. There was no information given as to whether it will become commercially available.

I have both volumes. My first impression - some time ago - wasn't all that positive. I felt that the music was a bit rough and that a fuller band would have made a difference for the better. Listens (a couple) since then have changed my opinion. I've come to listen to what is there rather than what might have been. What I hear is three musicians "having fun" as ep1strOphy well put it, listening to each other, and perhaps most importantly, playing previously unrecorded versions of Herbie Nichols' compositions. I think that if you like Herbie Nichols and Roswell Rudd, you'll find some good listening on these two recordings. BUT - as I found out, you have to give this music the time and patience it needs. P.S. - Set your volume level higher than you would for most other CDs - a necessity with all the CIMP CDs I've heard. There have been complaints about the "CIMP sound" here and elsewhere, and I agree to an extent, but this one sounds good to me.

In an interview (Kofsky?), Trane was talking about "Chasin' the Trane" and mentioned that he'd been listening to Gilmore at the time. Guy Yeah - I'd remembered that Trane mentioned somewhere that he'd listened to Gilmore at some point - thanks for the reminder that it was the Kofsky interview. I think that I've tried to forget Kofsky completely. Anyway, all I was saying was that Coltrane may have picked up something from Gilmore (as he may have from J.S. and others), but when it came out of his horns it was all Coltrane.

Mine's a non promo copy, but I like the music and don't want to part with it.

brownie - I didn't post at the time, but I remember listening to Pres' 1949 Savoy sides with Roy Haynes over a year ago, and being amazed at Haynes' playing. I'm sure that your post was somewhere in the recesses of my mind at that time, and led me to listen to his drumming. So - a belated thanks.

A thought: All of us worry too much about about sound and upgrading reissues. I know that I'd be better off buying some newly recorded/released music and enjoying that, rather than buying another version of a reissue that I already have. I say this as I'm thinking about getting the RVG Hawk Relaxes, even though the OJC version sounds fine to me. I hope that I don't succumb.

Getting back to the Jimmy Smith/Trane thing. Trane may have heard J.S., just as he may have heard John Gilmore play some things and been influenced by him (Sun Ra's claim - actually, I believe Sun Ra claimed that Trane stole his whole way of playing from John Gilmore, which is ridiculous, to my mind). There was probably a lot of music that John Coltrane heard and that influenced his music, but it all came out as John Coltrane, not anything else.

Guess I'm old fashioned. I just use a few 3x5 cards & update them periodically - crossing off things I've picked up or things I've decided I don't want, and making additions. I find the cards to be a good thing when I'm out with my wife and she's shopping and I'm bored. When I'm not reading, I can pass the time looking at my lists and fantasize about what the music will sound like when I hear it.