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Obscure, In Print Gems In Your Collection


paul secor

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I'd like to add something that I listened to last night for the first time in a while. Two discs actually.

Bob Moses .:. Nishoma

Quite a few cameos on this disc maintain a variety of sounds and Moses' composing/arranging just amazes me. Here I go recommending another drummer that composes music like a pianist! Moses and tap dancer, Jimmy Slyde trio on "Ask Me Now" with trumpeter, Rossen Zahariev to great effect. Complex and multilayered compositions make up most of the disc. I know Moses' ideology isn't that popular with most, but his drumming is second to none. What a sense of swing.

Bill Stewart .:. Think Before You Think

This is on Evidence. A definite sleeper in my collection. If you ever see this in a used bin, give it a listen. You will most likely end up taking it home with you.

This is a great thread. I am going to look for many of these in the near future!

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Not jazz, but if you know and love Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan), check out an album by Mary Lee's Corvette titled ... Blood on the Tracks. Her band plays it live, straight through. Very nice ... and probably better to have a woman do it than a man ... no aping of the vocals. I am usually not impressed by covers of pop material, but this is definitely an exception.

Eric

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Glad to see someone else digs Serge Gainsbourg here! I think this one is his most jazz-inflected session. Superb (and cleverly lounge-y) arrangements by Alain Goraguer.

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This one is available for $7.99 at Dusty Groove. Austin Powers would be jealous!

Some of you probably already have this one:

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... but I think it's a great Shorty Rogers' session that deserves wider recognition. One of my favorite "West Coast" discs. (Jimmy Giuffre's listed as playing baritone on this, by the way, but he doesn't; he does play some excellent clarinet and tenor, however.)

Lastly, I think this album was mentioned in a bass clarinet thread some time ago ...

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Bass clarinet, cello, and either zarb or berimbau (which are, to the best of my knowledge, Middle Eastern percussion instruments). Wonderful interplay here, and Colin is perhaps the perfect foil to the Eric Dolphy school of bass clarinet playing. Colin plays the bass clarinet as his main horn (in fact I think he only plays the bass clarinet), and has mastered some of this horn's finer nuances in sound and overtone production. Warmly recommended.

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Three Tenors:

Fred Anderson: The Missing Link (Nessa). This wasn't the first Fred Anderson record, but it was the first one I heard that got his music across to me. I still have the lp, but plan to add the cd (with an extra track) shortly. There are a fair number of Fred Anderson recordings out there, but Nessa Records was a good ten years ahead of most of the rest of them. Check out "The Bull".

Lin Halliday: Airegin (Delmark). A fine, fine tenor man - influenced by Sonny Rollins - though when I hear him play, I end up hearing him and not Sonny. On Airegin, he tears through "Cherokee" in thoroughly relaxed fashion; gives "Love Letters" a wonderful reading, and plays Sonny's title tune in a fashion that its author hasn't done (on record) in at least 30 years. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but if the best of this cd had been released as a Blue Note lp in the mid to late 50's, folks would be clamoring for a RvG remastering.

Arthur Rhames Trio: Live from Soundscape (DIW). A musician who died at a very young age, and who left only two commercially released recordings, one track on an Albert Dailey Muse lp, and this live recording from 1981, released in 1995, six years after his death. Listening to him play here, I find myself thinking that he had everything a young musician could hope to have at age 24 - great chops, tone, and seemingly unlimited passion and energy. He comes off as everything that the young lions were supposed to be. I can imagine him playing with Cecil Taylor and doing it right - that's one of the highest compliments I can pay. Unfortunately, there's only what is, and not what might have been. What is, is this cd, a spectacular blowing session, and to my ears, some of the best Trane-influenced playing I've heard. The liner notes allude to the existence of private tapes. Perhaps they'll become available to the general public in time. Until then, there's this to hear.

Didn't realize until after posting that this was my 100th post. Took me a while to get there, but it's great to be a groover.

Edited by paul secor
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Terry Reid, RIVER (Atlantic, 1972; Water 2002)

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From the "California period" of this British vocalist / guitarist / songwriter, RIVER features superb contributions from David Lindley on his standard variety of stringed instruments. Reid was the guy who turned down Jimmy Page's offer to sing in The New Yardbirds, later to become Led Zeppelin (of course!). This particular album has a really strong Van Morrison / Tim Buckley vibe to it, though I have to say Reid reminds me most of the late, great Steve Marriott, albeit Marriott with a greater sense of flexibility and interest in risk-taking. The final three tracks, which are acoustic song-improvisations (I don't know what else to call them? reveries?) that may at first sound rather formless, become more and more engrossing the more you hear them.

Not "jazz" per se, rather one of those quintessentially unclassifiable 70's fusions of jazz, folk, blues, country, rock and even funk (the tracks with Lindely and a full electric band really groove in their laid-back way) that wins wheelbarrows full of Grammies these days. A subtly distinctive record, maybe not timeless, but definitely original, and certainly honest.

Edited by Joe
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  • 5 weeks later...

Well, since Dr. J's avatar is Roland Kirk, one of my all time favorites, i figured that his recommendation of the Jon Jang cd had to be worth checking out.

Boy was I disappointed!! Please somebody explain to me what I am missing! The cd was in many parts completely unlistenable. Just NOISE.

Maybe I am not listening correctly? Suggestions on how (if at all) this cd can be appreciated would be most welcome. :(:wacko:

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Another very nice one I recently got is the Italian Instabile Festival 2CD (Leo) - cover down below.

It has various line-ups, from duo, trio and quartets to the full beloved Italian Instabile Orchestra.

Players include Mario Schiano, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Gianluigi Trovesi, Enrico Rava, Sebi Tramontana and many others.

You can get it for 9£ from amazon.co.uk (just need a little patience...)

ubu

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This one's pretty obscure (available directly from the label in Ireland, but I got mine from Hiroshi Tanno):

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"GIFT" (Ashbrowne label) a quartet featuring:

LOUIS STEWART (guitar)

BILL CHARLAP (piano)

MARK HODGSON (bass)

STEPHEN KEOGH (drums)

Tracks:

1. LINE FOR LYONS

2. STAIRWAY TO THE STARS

3. CURTAINS

4. YARDBIRD SUITE

5. BLUE LIGHTS

6. WHAT'S NEW

7. YESTERDAY

8. THE SONG IS YOU

I would also highly recommend any of the Venus (Japan) CD's by Eddie Higgins.

Edited by Jim R
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A very minor point here, but there's something which strikes me as odd. "Jessica Williams / Leroy Vinnegar Trio"... ? Seems unusual to label it that way. Sort of like saying "Milt Jackson / John Lewis / Percy Heath Quartet"... :blink: Is it just me?

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Concert billing OR CD labeling, it's still odd. I suppose it's logical that they wanted to get Leroy Vinnegar's name on the cover/in the title... but it still seems like an unusual way of labeling a recording. If I were the drummer (Mel Brown, in this case), I don't think I'd be real thrilled. :rolleyes:

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Maybe he was thrilled to be playing with Vinnegar and WIlliams?

I see you like the word "maybe" today, Dave. ;) I'm sure he would have been thrilled to be playing with them... but I'm not sure you're getting my point.

Well, I think I'll go listen to the Bill Evans / Scott Lofaro Trio... and maybe follow that with some Miles Davis / John Coltrane / Red Garland / Paul Chambers Quintet. :rolleyes:

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I'm not sure how obscure these are, but I've been enjoying them both recently, and thought they fit the bill in terms of this thread...

Kenny Wheeler - A Long Time Ago (ECM, 1999) - scored for Wheeler on flugelhorn, plus John Taylor (piano), and John Parricelli (guitar), along with a full brass band (4 other trumpets, two trombones, and two bass trombones). Quite beautiful, and lush - but still not sappy, at least not to my ears.

and something similar, and probably more obscure...

Florian Ross Brass Project - Lilacs & Laughter (Naxos, 2000) - scored for a similar sized group, all brass, plus piano and drums. Really outstanding, in a sort of "Gil Evans"-ish way at times. (It's on Naxos, so you can pick this up, brand new, for only like $7 or at most $8 - so there's no excuses to not getting this one, if you're at all interested.)

Anybody already have and like these???

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For those who have not read Randi Hultin's book 'Born Under the Sign of Jazz', I would

recommend buying it. Not an essential book. Readable, with lots of anecdotes about

musicians. But what makes the purchase interesting is that the book comes with an accompanying CD which mixes comments from the author with glimpses of music she

taped at her home in Norway.

Heard on the CD are people like Sonny Clark, members of the 1954 Count Basie band

with Anthony Ortega, Stuff Smith, Zoot Sims, Hampton Hawes, Phil Woods singing and

playing, Kenny Dorham singing and playing, Jan Johansson, Jaki Byard and others.

Only the Sonny Clark jam (Jeepers Creepers) appeared elsewhere on the Xanadu

Sonny Clark Memorial album.

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