jazzbo

Your groggy head enjoys the rolling sound of the synth as your left hand lazily picks a walking line and your right hits those odd Milesian Oberheim chords that you had been fooling around with to use in "Lou's Dues are Blues," the composition you are going to lay on the man himself soon as a feature. You can't remember if you've done with the j, but there it is cold and crisply dead in the black onyx ashtray. . . you want to relight it but you know you shouldn't. Now you find yourself at the window again with the breeze and though you want it to, it doesn't clear your head. Suddenly you hear a voice as if it were right behind you but you spin and no one is there, no one at all. You then see the image on the vidscreen on the wall in front of you. Your Host, Master G. Ugly as sin. "Aric," the voice was even more deep than before, and the bevy of babes were surrounding him, and smiling your way. "Do you know Malcolm Merryweather?" At first the name meant nothing, then a memory came floating up to the fore of your cranium and you said, "Yeah. He's an asshole." The babes tittered and G giggled. "Maybe so," he finally said, "but he's right now HOT, just won a big contest, and I want him in my band!"

Man, I hope I got out of there FAST ENOUGH!

Yeah there were some that were I think. I wrote that T. S. Eliot one and they published it. (It's in the issue with the humongously obese Elvis on the cover.) And I wrote an even better one as if it were from William Faulkner, that I don't think they DID publish, but I quit reading the mag around the period they may have published it and am not sure. . . . It was a doozy, he was bemoaning the fact he was facing jail time for tax evasion for the taxes of the entire fictitious county he had created. . . . Well, I and my dad at least thought it was pretty darned funny!

I've had some luck. Had letters published in Rolling Stone, "Conan the Barbarian" Marvel Comic, a "Doctor Strange" Marvel too I think, and in the National Lampoon (as T. S. Eliot though!) I've had a few articles published in the e-zine "doobop" which is no more, and one was an interview with Michael Cuscuna which has been moved to the All About Jazz website. It came to me as a surpise that my interview was referrenced twice in Michael Cook's "Blue Note Records: The Biography." Also, some comments that I have made about the RVG series appeared in Jazziz magazine about a year ago. That one was also a surprise. A nice little beginning!

Not an improvement as far as I'm concerned! I miss the old one already!

Have to thank Jim again for selecting this blast from my past. This was the first Armstrong lp I ever owned, and it was a real eyeopener, a MILESTONE in my jazz listening in many ways. I had come back from Swaziland with the sound of the British Blues bands in my head, and the sound of that South African music that is so distinctive, and most of what was playing on the airwaves I had no referrence point to, though I learned to later. . . . A copy of Filles De Kilamanjaro somehow planted for me to find in the Burton, Ohio public library knocked me for a loop. . . here was a fusion of a lot of the sound and feel I had been longing for, and I found that Miles at Fillmore was out there for me to grab in the Coventry area of Cleveland, and I became an electric Miles fanatic, and then on to Weather Report, Return to Forever, and more. . . and an exploration of the urban blues greats of the forties and fifties began as well, simultaneously. Then I went to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago and I finally met people who were into the electric Miles and the fusion stuff (which I saw as two separate categories) and was exposed to Coltrane and earlier Miles too (I had gotten a copy of ESP and one of the Blackhawks at the same time in a hip little record shop that was a long walk from my dorm.) And I found that you could ride a subway and spend all your money for the week and see John Lee Hooker at a bar for a few sets, and so I started seeing some of the Chicago greats in clubs, and even helped arrange to have J. B. Hutto come to a dance at the University. Heady times for me, this musical discovery! So one time at the record store I stood transfixed with a copy of Plays W.C. Handy in my hand. I don't know what drew me to this lp, but I had it in my hands, and I couldn't put it back in the bin. I'd heard some Pops, and read of how important he was, and really liked some of the big band sides like "I'm Cofessin' that I Love You". . . but this was different, an older Pops, one I really didn't know anything of, it wasn't Hello Dolly, but what was it? I bought it. I got back to the dorm, I put the needle into the groove. . . and was really surprised at what I heard. First voice I hear is Velma Middleton! And then that fat and juicy trumpet, and t hat booming bass and then that happy and joshing Armstrong voice. I was fascinated. I listened to that lp over and over. The way that Barrett Deems hardly played and then was swinging the band away and then hardly played and still was swinging the band away. The way that Trummy Young just forced excitement into the grooves. The way that Velma and Louis were flirting and cooing and laughing. This seemed so ADULT. It wasn't like the Clapton or Jagger of Winwood or Santanna vocals I'd heard over and over. They were adult, they were in a way reckless in the clarity of the feeling they were singing out. . . . I kept listening to this lp and driving a rather not appreciative roommate to the library. And it seemed to bridge the Chicago blues I was drinking in and the jazz that I was moving towards. . . . AND I made a link in my mind and heart between the playing of trumpet on this album and Miles' Blackhawk lp. The Blackhawk lp had floored me too and showed me a different Miles indeed, hardly at first even recognizable as the Miles of Live/Evil. But the more I listened, the more I focused on the swing in the sound and the way that Wynton Kelly played that brief solo piano piece that closed a side. . . the more I dug this. That Blackhawk volume brought me into a new world of music. And so did the Armstrong, because within six months I had several other Columbias from the fifties, and a Decca with Teagarden, and over theyaers I kept going to Pops and getting that reality dose. Real feeling, real swing and drive. . . . One other interesting thing about this lp that I'll tell you about. (I feel like an old man spinning some yarn of youth, but you don't have to read it after all. You can click to the next post. . .) About three months after I got this Pops lp, a "prospective student" came to stay with the "House Master" of our dorm and his wife, to see if she liked the University. She was from Houston, she was dark and desirable and I ws wondering if I should make some sort of play because she seemed to be okay with talking with me a bit. There was a little party in the common area for her, and they were playing the usual stuff, which actually in those days included some bozo playing "Hooked on a Feeling" at eleven on the volume dial, which is an agony that I still remember. At one point she came over to me and said "Isn't there some different music to play?" I was in a tizzy as I slipped back to my dorm and my meager, weird collection of jazz, blues, Ravi Shankar, Crazy Horse. . . etc. I pulled out a few, and Plays W. C. Handy was one of them. Given the mandate by Lavinia, I commandeered the turntable, I put that one on, it certainly was different. . . . SHE LOVED IT. She came and sat with me and read the back of the album cover. We were pretty inseparable for the next few days. It was grand. . . . Ultimately she never came to UC, which is something I certainly don't blame her for, and we exchanged some letters for a while and then stopped, and I wonder what has happened to her. . . . And ironically six years later, I was in Texas and have been here ever since. I really think it was POPS that wooed her for me. So, this is a sentimental favorite, but it's solid, it needs no nostalgia or sentiment to prop it up. The way that the sound booms in that Chicago studio, and the voices and the horns are so prominent and full and rich. The way that the band does its little riffy arranged heads and the way that the singing is so fantastically swinging and joyful and the way that the music seems to be just flowing out with no effort . . . . This is a milestone recording in so many musical ways. I want this one with me always!

It's pretty good. I guess I don't quite like it as much as you do. I love the Mainstream albums of his that I have found though; those really really need to be on cd!

Sal, I just sent you an email. This is a great set! I really like the sound, very natural and clear remastering. And the playing. . . Dex is great here of course, but it's NHOP I keep listening for. That guy was playing amazingly with Dex! They had a rapport that I think brought out the best of each.

Well, I didn't really mean to mispell "Trumpet Guy!"

Got a good listen on Saturday to Phil Grenadier's "Playful Intentions" on Fresh Sounds New Talent. MAN, this is a good cd. The sound is great and the exploratory but grounded writing and playing is just right. I can recommend this one. Must have been fun to record with your brother, Phil---and you both have reason to be proud.

I hope so too, this is going to be a great set. The advance copies sound great!

Brad, not a dumb question at all! Probably they have shipped it and you should receive it tomorrow or Wednesday or so. If you log in on the site and check your orders, you should be able to see the details. In my case they haven't shipped mine because I combined my order with the latest Duke Ellington Treasury Show volume, and that is not yet in, so it is holding up the process! But in the past when I've preordered like this they generally seem to ship the Saturday or Monday before the Tuesday new release date. . . .

For me it's either Aretha or Marvin. Both of them just reach out of the speakers and HIT ME. And both of them are such master technicians and all around master musicians. And they have the spirit, or the spiritual conflict, or something. . . . You know, when I lived in M'Babane, Swaziland at the close of the 'sixties, Percy Sledge was THE MAN there. He was the American soul artist they knew most and loved, because I believe he had come through there on a tour and just knocked them dead! This was the big one:

All the Philips material I've heard has been knockyoursocksoff burnin' fantastic, so a box would be somethin'!

As far as I can tell, he's been referred to by both names, but "Bennie" is the one that is most often used.

I really like Duke Pearson, he was a very important part of the last years of the sort of original company, and I really dig his playing, and his writing of compositions and arrangements, and his production as well (when I can isolate elements that I think are his production). The problem that has been prevalent for a long time is that a lot of his work as a leader was not in print or went out of print quickly, and "Duke Pearson doesn't sell." The Mosaic Select will be a big fix for many of us. I really like two of the projected albums, "The Phantom" and "How Insensitive." It will be good to see them come into print! Also the two trio albums that appeared as JRVGs are great showcases of his wonderful touch and swing on the keys.

Congratulations Late! Thanks for the info grey.

I certainly agree with your words Jim. Also agree that the Stash cd, or the Master of Jazz first three or four volumes of Charlie Parker, should be available in JRG remasterings of the source material using DigitalK2 in perpetuity!

You know it's funny, I've seen that "half of my heartbeat" quote attributed to Bird re: Diz, and Dix re: Bird!

Monk was certainly WEIRD, but I don't think he had enough exposure to be much of an influence on public perception outside of the fanatical followers of the movement and the musicians (when these weren't one and the same!)

Well then as to whether Bird or Diz was more important. . . I think Bird was a bit more important for the musical content. . . he'd soaked up the KC innovations of Pres and he'd also soaked up the harmonic inventiveness of Tatum and others. . . he was all about the music, and his dedication to his art and the virtuosity that both came from that and was a deep part of him regardless were a very important force in the new music. Not that Diz didn't contribute musically as well (and he was also a virtuoso, and both he and Bird helped to introduce important--different---rhythmic changes, among other musical matters), but most important was Diz's contribution as a showman, as a catalyst, as a spokesperson and trendmonger in my opinion. He visually became bebop to the masses, and he had the big band and the film shorts and the jive to promote the music as "the hip new thing."

In some ways I think Tatum should be allowed some parentage as well! (If for no reason other than Bird soaked him up and learned, but for other reasons as well.)

I think there were many fathers to the bebop litter. Pres should be mentioned, I'm not sure I could articulate specifically why, but he's in there. Dameron and McGhee. Byas. Coulson OP. . . . Maybe I'm stretching the term "father" here, maybe not. . . ?

Were they the "non Blue Note" RVGs from Cannon, Miles Davis Nonet, Watkins, etc?

Of these, the only one that I have heard is the Fontanna. . . which sounds FANTASTIC.