jazzbo

S, I've given up on the "scene" here. I used to be out in it briefly (not in jazz) and it gave me little pleasure and taught me a real disdain for drunken frat boys et al! I rarely venture out, my wife is happy with that situation for the most part (i. e. she doesn't mind not going where I would want to go!) and I do miss the occasional great event. . .but ultimately the way the city is biased towards alternative rock bands etc. I don't miss out on too much. . . .

Thanks to Harold for getting me to listen to this cd! Chacaito is the bass player for the Buena Vista Social Club, and here he has his own album. Very interesting music, contemporary as well as traditional, excellent sound (the bass violin on this sounds the way a bass violin should sound on a cd!) Nice use of a few violins, the Hammond organ, and some pseudo-psychedelic guitar. . . and a great use of one of the most recongnizable of Mingus riffs!

Well, I would suggest the JSP set with J. R. T. Davies transfers. That will have a mass of important recordings by him, and is a great place to start and for many to just stand pat! Really, it's cheap, the sound is very good, and the music is Jelly delux!

Oh gosh yes Brian, Derek: AMAZING. I watched him over and over with Lou Ann Barton here and there and at Antones over and over and over. What a great player!

But yeah, Harrell is a very interesting player; I've liked some of his recordings quite a bit. Would have been something to see him in action. Glad you got to experience that!

Well, I sure didn't make it. I didn't even know it was happening! I really don't get out much as my life isn't geared for it. Last time I was at the Elephant Room was a get together for the return to town of an acquaintance of mine, Mel Winters, who is an amazing composer/pianist and a great but reluctant trumpeter/flugelhornist. I was very disappointed that the P A system was even on and that it kept being made louder and louder. . . . The musicians were the ones responsible; I wanted to hear just the instruments in that nice small space, but no!

Jim, we've sort of discussed this a bit before outside the board, and we've made some tentative stabs at it on boards, what I'm talking about I guess is music as a vehicle for the spirit, or spirituality, or some such. I totally believe that Rollins experience. It falls in line with what I've started to believe about music as a method of rising and advancing the spirt, or communication of human essentials in a unique manner, or something along those lines. I'm not sure I can put words to what I feel music is and is capable of. It's as old as our two-legged-walking psyches and it is one of the few universal things in human culture. I think it has always had a hand in our civilizations, and a hand in bettering the human condition. And it will be with us to the bitter end, or the better end. Look how Miles and his employees and two nights in a not so posh club in San Francisco communicated with all those persons, and through the magic of technology has communicated with so many many others for over forty years. One day maybe man will understand all there is to understand about this. . . but I doubt it. I continue to marvel more than struggle to understand in a clinical way any longer. I marvel at the music and the beings that create and disseminate and are reached by the music. I need it as a part of my world; I know you need it as a part of yours. I think all reading this thread need it as well. Music has actually been a method by which fraternity came into my life. And I think fraternity is needed now, more than ever, or perhaps it is always needed desperately for the advancement of the human spirit. Anyway, thanks for sharing that experience Jim.

Jim, I think I know what you mean, and I also think that partly you feel that way because you are a tenor saxophonist with decades of experience and Newk hit you in a way that perhaps he would not have hit nearly every other member of the audience that night? I say that because I have seen Texan drummer George Rains many times here in town in the eighties, and I saw him one night in a small club with Angela Strehli's band and he was playing on a level he never had before. I had been studying him from fifteen feet away for a few years, week after week, literally, and all of a sudden I was watching him and he was just playing in a manner that I never had imagined he could play, or really that anyone could play: every bit of time was at his disposal and he could make the band crawl or dive, soar or sprawl, he was a part of every note and every nuance. Guitarist Denny Freeman was fully aware of it, and he would look back at George in wonder now and then. After the second set I tried to talk to George and compliment him but I didn't get a chance to. I've wondered if there was some special ingredient to his evening that made him suddenly this supernatural drummer. I'll never really know. BUT the gal I was dancing with that night, who I had been traveling with from Antones to the Continental Club and all over town following Lou Ann Barton's and Angela Strehli's bands for about a year, didn't notice anything different about George that night. She just danced her dance and drank her vodka, as she always did. But it was a night of drumming that floored me. It both inspired me after that to work harder, and also undermined me because when I faltered I felt I'd never be able to come close to such a performance/talent. I've never witnessed another such supernatural performance from a drummer since. However, I think a large part of the experience, the identification of the experience itself, hinged on my knowning his work pretty intimately and serially, and on my knowledge of drumming itself. . . .

I was thinking of how awful some bass from the seventies up has been recorded when listening to the cd by Cachaito . . . the bass on this cd is so nicely recorded, rich and yet not muddy. Great cd too!

Dan has the right idea about this movie! How about just one angel if the budget will only allow it. . . .

As Stefan mentioned elsewhere I too haven't had a problem with these new Verve digipaks in removing the cds. . . I sort of spin them out of there rather easily. I haven't bought any of these new batches yet, but the Impulses et al from the last batch are great releases as far as music goes!

John, the Chile con Soul lp is a good one. Hubert Laws is featured; he had played with the basic Crusaders personnel BEFORE they became Jazz Crusaders, and then had gone on to a Latin Jazz experience in NYC with Mongo Santamaria et al, and here is reunited with old Texas confreres and playing very well in the front line. Al McKibbon and Valdes are great additions to the group, and the material has a mellow groove to it that is fitting to the nature of the spirit of this group. Felder does some really nice fat sounding solos, it's a nice sounding lp too, warm and groovy. I think it will be a good cd! I'm interested in the Torres and the Costanza, and probably will try out the Hutcherson.

Yeah---screw all the smart critics too!

I voted for the Bennett. An interesting list!

I'd say that the swing feel (the use of dynamics, that pulse that Chico has and the fact that he is either never soloing or always soloing) and the general exploratory direction of these groups in the Hamilton Mosaic is really his leadership signature. All his groups forward had a "fusion" aspect to them---not necessarily of rock music alone, but of classical chamber music, etc. I truly like his groups, and usually I found that another musician in the group gave the music a direction, for example in the PJ material the cellist, in the Columbia and Impulse Charles Lloyd as music director, in his most recent groups I think the guitarist, etc. This is not unlike the way that Golson and Shorter and Walton and others shaped the direction and signature of the Blakey groups.

Okay, I'll play devil's advocate. . .get the Capitol Classic Jazz Sessions box. It's 100 dollars off this way!

Hey, the Stitt Mosaic is really fantastic, marred only by the fact that it has a sameness running throughout it. . .much the same instrumentation over and over, and the same sort of "Sonny's in the studio blowing" feel to the sessions. Still tons of masterful Stitt and piano work too from great pianists. . . .The larger ensemble sessions are excellent as well and make you wish for more. It's a set to consider strongly indeed. I got it and played it through a few times and then recently played much of it again. . . . It definitely gives you your Stitt "fix" and then some!

Yes, I have the material in the Pres series, and find it pretty fascinating. I really love that Lee and Lester Band!

Thanks Dan for nominating me. I'll try to think of a nice selection that would invite a lot of participation. Good suggestion Joe, actually. . . .

I have this on lp somewhere and haven't heard it in a long time. After going through the Stitt Mosaic a few times I kindof couldn't pick up a Stitt session for a spell! Jimmy Jones. . . anything with Jimmy is worth picking up. I remember this as being good; glad that Verve is putting out some nice cheap reissues again.

I hadn't heard of these either, but makes sense that they would be short bad-sounding bits probably from Jimmy Rowles' holdings. Always something to find!

Barak, you are SCARILY right!

Hmm. . . I've had the Adams cd from Fresh Sounds (or is it Cool and Blue? same difference) for years. Killer session. So is the Geller. Good that it's becoming more available.

The thing that most chaffs my hide is THIS is the stuff they slap the "American" monicker on! I mean wouldn't some nice buttery white "Brick" cheese be the more appropriate choice?

Interesting choice. This is a good session. I'm going to enjoy digging it out and listening to it again. After all, maybe it will help me realize why I "get" Hank!