cannonball-addict

If anyone has a lot of money to burn or a major university library at their disposal and wants a rather authoritative discography of Cannonball you can check out Chris Sheridan's "Dis Here: A Biodiscography of Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley" - kind of a biography of Cannon's life via a discography. Sheridan has written one on Monk too. It is available on Amazon UK here. or here for those in the States.

I just saw that album. I was going to play it (LP) on the radio last night but it sounded like the birth of new age. Maybe I listened too quickly. I picked it out of our library because of that cast. Also I love the guy on tenor and he was playing too much flute. Matt

I agree but there are some catchy tunes on here and the rendition of Groovin' High is one I really enjoy.

Do people agree that there's an unfair Chicago bias in Downbeat? It is less severe now than it has been in the past but I think it's still there.

What can I say? I impressed. However, do not limit yourself to Chicago (or NY or Philly or Seattle for that matter). All these places have a scene where ideas are being shared). It seems like everyone who is from Chicago and has written for Downbeat in the past, has a blindfold on when it comes to young guys not from their city. With the net and places like AAJ and JazzReview (though the level of writing may not always be on par with Larry Kart and Dan Morgenstern), its possible to know about these cats and even hear them. But who knows, maybe I spend too much time on it....

The only one who has expressed a "dissenting" opinion is Larry and he's a critic. Y'all gotta remember critics from that generation can be very harsh. They've listened to a lotta shit and seen the best guys play and therefore only the best of the best even get a nod let alone a compliment. That's one problem I have as a writer. I don't feel comfortable calling a guy on his/her shitty playing unless they're an established "player" like Diana Krall. This culture in criticism of bashing a guy thinking perhaps the bashing will help his self-confidence to eventually become a better player is really not cool. Matt P.S. I realize I am leaving myself wide open here for a flame war but I mean what I said.

I think he's not amazing....just really solid. The new jazz piano whore is Bill Charlap....Look over at a calendar for jazz happening in NY. The guy is playing everywhere with everyone. He must have some serious agent on his side!

I'm drank too much....

I haven't heard the whole album, but "74 Miles Away" (the tune) is awesome. Cannonball's solo is intense -- maybe invents Gary Bartz's style. Guy Gary Bartz is an raw and emotional player but doesn't have anywhere as much technique as Cannonball did. Sangrey, back me up here!

All good ones. But I thought they would be too obscure. I'll divulge that my choice was Quintet in Chicago. Have people heard this album????? I can't believe no one else voted for this one. This is Miles group minus Miles. It's got Wabash, Limehouse Blues, Grand Central....a great gem.

Believe me, I would have included many others but I figured these would ring the most bells. And I didn't wanna start getting all obscure. We could take it a step further and all say favorite solos he played on the records you choose. eeeek!!!! So excited to see your replies. Been meaning to do this for a while. Matt

For those of you connected to the more modern jazz avant-garde, you may have seen that Greg Osby has currently implicated himself in an interesting milieu along with 8-stringer Charlie Hunter and drummer/beatboxer Bobby Previte. It is on a label called Thirsty Ear, which pianist Matthew Shipp has a large hand in (he runs the Blue Series) - at least their jazzier stuff. Most would consider this pure electronic mumbo-jumbo, but I think it's worthy of airplay so I play it almost every time I'm on the air - its a new release. Some of you may not know who Hunter is, but don't lose too many "hip" points for that. Previte and Osby, I am expecting everyone knows. Anyways, as I have advertised here before, I am younger and open to a lot of genres - hip hop, electronica, IDM (just kidding), and even some alt. country. Bottom line is - I think people should check out this record. However the problem may arise that its hard to find given the genre.

What is up with this record? I thought I'd enjoy it - far from it . To tell the honest truth I don't really like him unless he's doin the thing with Charlie Haden and even that gets kinda boring after a while. Impressions? Anybody seen him live?

I believe one of the original posts hit it on the head. I recently interviewed John Levy for a forthcoming article on Levy for AAJ and we briefly talked about Wes, whom Levy managed up to Wes' death. He told me that Wes really didn't consider himself a professional musician but just a guy who played guitar and did it to feed his family. He WAS afraid of flying and consequently he rode in a car cross-country several times. He was a very family oriented guy. He coulda had some bigger guys with him when he went on tour but he took his brother(s). Levy has a lot of great stories about Wes. He was managing Wes when he did all those charting records and he said while the press was going wild for Wes, Wes himself couldn't understand all the attention, he didn't consider himself an "artiste" like Miles or others thought of themselves. He never sought celebrity or fame, he just happened to be a guy who had immense talent - entirely self-taught. C-ba

I LOVE this book. This and Straight Life ring so stingingly true. Great reads. My favorite quotation from this one: I knew a lot of strung out dudes who couldn't play shit; they should have just got high and enjoyed themselves and forgot about playing. If you can't swing, you can't swing. You can stuff your stomach with black-eyes peas and chitlins, go out and roll in the mud and say I'm gonna get down, but it ain't going to help if you don't pat your feet right because chitlins have no more to do with soul than mud has to do with music. If you say to Little Lord Fauntleroy, go roll three times over there in that shit, get good anf funky, then come back and play the same tune, se if it helps, you know what would happen? He'd roll over three times, come back and play the same tune, and the only difference would be that he'd be covered with shit. Music's the same as life, there ain't no corners, no outs.

Crusty for me!

Is this Edward Wilkerson related to the eponymous texas tenor, Don? cba (Matt)

Surely you see the irony in this. Yes of course, but there are notes that are hip that fit, and then there are notes that don't fit and consequently are not hip. And I know .........spare me......there's no wrong notes in jazz.

This has to be one of the most ridiculous comments I've ever read on this or any other board. Besides being a vibes player you are biased and probably have so few people to idolize on that instrument that to say anything against him is sacrilege. Everything he plays is mish-mash!!! Very few coherent ideas. He rushes like crazy. And I honestly don't consider him a great player. Often times he hits notes that just don't make sense. With him as with a other vibists like Terry Gibbs, it's all about acrobatics and showiness - never interesting harmonic ideas. I've been very underimpressed by him. The reason he comes to mind easily is because his name is mentioned so often since he was on so many damn recordings in the Blue Note/Fantasy era - not because he was necessarily amazing but he had connections and he could stir up a crowd with showmanship. And he was down with a lotta guys who were recording for BN, so he got the hot ticket there and made a name for himself in historical memory.

Listening again. This is some heavy shit.

I don't get all the hoopla for Cal Tjader around here. The way they recorded him, he sounded like crap to me. Any of you ever heard Victor Feldman play vibes. Now that cat could play some friggin vibes. I really SOME but not most of Gary Burton's stuff. Steve Nelson is virtuosic. Bobby Hutcherson is another dud who everyone automatically proclaims to be the best just cuz he's often the first that comes to mind.

Ok this has been somewhat helpful. Jim, to answer your question he is 39, almost 40. Of course he is a North Texas grad who then inevitably went on to a "fulfill" a self-fulfilling prophesy of being the best tenor player in the Pittsburgh area (of course following a brief period on the road with a ghost band, and a string of cruise ships). I understand where Liebman is coming from with the "Trane" complex. I've heard Brecker has the same problem. He is very self-conscious; often asks the musicians around him if they think he played alright. Interestingly they are both Jewish tenor/soprano players, as am I. I've pondered to myself many a time: How can Michael Brecker not be satisfied with his own playing? He has a sound. He has his own style - even his own vocabulary. I wouldn't run to develop my sound the way he has, but at least he has one which is identifiably his. Perhaps the Miles session will help. But maybe it just wasn't meant to be. I fill like there's nothing to latch onto with Liebman. I have the Beirach duo and the Homage to Coltrane CDs but I'm still unconvinced. I like a guy who is soulful - a guy who occaisonally throws a blues lick into the mix - not just constant substitutions and reharmonizations.

I don't have the album in question. But I disagree with the idea of liking one format more than another. What I mean is that we are bickering over what the goddamn thing actually sounded like - not whether you like one or the other. Which format gets closer to the actual sound the instrument made that day? What was the balance like? Often times things get recorded poorly and its hard to salvage a recording that was recorded poorly to begin with. You can mess with levels all you want but sometimes you're simply starting with an unbalancable bunch of sound. I am only a youngster (yet an avid LP/78 collector) and I very much prefer CDs to vinyl for sound quality. Neither CD or LP is ever gonna be as good as live for a whole number of sensory reasons, too many to list here. But I think it's pretty fair to say generally that CD's get closer. Why do I buy vinyl? It makes me feel badass. P.S. A good/interesting exercise is to buy something on CD recorded by Mapleshade Records (a current small record company based in Maryland) which doesn't record digitally, mix or master as a matter of principle. Go to their website for a better explanation. Mapleshade Records

Ultimate album: Keith Jarrett with Branford. Liner notes written by Bob Blumenthal. (anyone who was at IAJE last year)

Well, if "hip" comes from the alleged "hepi," you must be "keepin' it real."