Donald Harrison - Free Style

[Dmitry]

I don't care for Donald Harrison's playing, however dissing Joe Locke because of his endorcement of whatever vibes company is not right. Like JS said, cats have been endorsing stuff since the dawn of days. Miles endorsed AR speakers, among other things.

Check out Joe Locke on his two albums with Frank Kimbrough for the Omnitone label, Saturn's Child and The Willow. Bottom-line is that he's THE premier vibes player these days.

[.:.impossible]

Yeah, it was a mistake on my part. I really haven't even heard his music. The tracks I have heard, and I can't even reference them for you because I don't even know what they were, were not my style. I shouldn't let image influence my impression of a musician. Anyway, I apologize to everyone. Especially Joe Locke, if he cares. P.S. I'm sure he would argue that Gary Burton is STILL THE premier vibist, and I'm not really a fan of that style either. Most vibists do cite Burton as IT.

So, back to Donald Harrison.

And Dmitry, where have you been man?

[Dmitry]

I had the friggin FLU for a week. Now working from 8 to 6-30, so I just crash at night. Just starting to dig into the BFT now.

You've got to buy Saturn's Child. It's a killer date. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

Edited March 6, 2005 by Dmitry

[Dmitry]

ps. Locke and Kimbrough do Charlie Haden's Silence on Saturn's Child. It's a killer tune.

[.:.impossible]

Well I guess you'll recognize at least one tune on Disc Two! Thanks for the recommendation. I will follow up on that.

Hope you're feeling better. Let's get together soon.

p.s. I just realized that I heard a feature on this album on public radio one day maybe over a year ago and wrote the title of this album down on a notecard. Don't know what ever happened to that notecard, but I did like what I heard. Same thing happened to me with Hans Werner Henze. I heard one of his symphonies one night, wrote his name down, and three years later Tom (Rooster) brings him up here on this board. I wonder who finds all of these random notes... it ain't me!

Edited March 7, 2005 by .:.impossible

[JSngry]

Back to FREE STYLE, I really dig the opening tune, "Hand Jive" is an abstaction of the old Johnny Otis tune. They abstracted it enough that they didn't give Otis composer credits, but they ain't foolin' me!

[cannonball-addict]

The liners are weak. they are by frank n-h, the owner of the label. but the session is hot. I've been playing it a bit on my station and encouraging other DJs to spin it too. Its got a hip hop feel to it. Thus the name - free style. It's rather interesting the trajectory of Harrison's career. But I'm happy that he's still able to work even though he hasn't gone into high profile fame like his former musical partner, Terrence.