Kirk in Copenhagen (Verve) is unlistenable to me

[sal]

Five years ago I purchased the Verve reissue of Kirk In Copenhagen, gave it one listen, and never touched it again. Today, as I work my way through my entire jazz collection determining which CD's I want to put on my iPod, I gave this one another spin, and my opinion is exactly the same. There is only one reason for that: J.C. Moses.

Does anybody else find his drumming on this recording absolutely horrid? Its the percussive equivalent of metal scratching a chalkboard. He sounds like he must have been high as hell or drunk or something because he's constantly losing the beat and breaking the swing established by the rest of the band. Many of his snare accents sound so absolutely ridiculous in their randomness. Its like he was thinking to himself "Let me accent HERE.......and HERE...because I CAN!" He throws breaks in the middle of the build-up of Kirk's solos and sounds like he's hearing something else completely other than the music being played by his band mates. This is some of the worst drumming I have ever heard on a jazz recording. The strange thing is that I know this guy isn't a bad drummer. He sounds great on some of Eric Dolphy's studio recordings. But something had to be wrong with him evening. A shame really, because as I forced myself to listen to this, Rahsaan is blowing some really incredible stuff here. Too bad. I wish I could find a way to ignore it, but the drums are so loud here, and I'm a drummer myself, so that's pretty much impossible.

[Spontooneous]

Five years ago I purchased the Verve reissue of Kirk In Copenhagen, gave it one listen, and never touched it again. Today, as I work my way through my entire jazz collection determining which CD's I want to put on my iPod, I gave this one another spin, and my opinion is exactly the same. There is only one reason for that: J.C. Moses.

Does anybody else find his drumming on this recording absolutely horrid? Its the percussive equivalent of metal scratching a chalkboard. He sounds like he must have been high as hell or drunk or something because he's constantly losing the beat and breaking the swing established by the rest of the band. Many of his snare accents sound so absolutely ridiculous in their randomness. Its like he was thinking to himself "Let me accent HERE.......and HERE...because I CAN!" He throws breaks in the middle of the build-up of Kirk's solos and sounds like he's hearing something else completely other than the music being played by his band mates. This is some of the worst drumming I have ever heard on a jazz recording. The strange thing is that I know this guy isn't a bad drummer. He sounds great on some of Eric Dolphy's studio recordings. But something had to be wrong with him evening. A shame really, because as I forced myself to listen to this, Rahsaan is blowing some really incredible stuff here. Too bad. I wish I could find a way to ignore it, but the drums are so loud here, and I'm a drummer myself, so that's pretty much impossible.

He's also out of line on some late-career Bud Powell recordings. He wrecks the last Roulette album.

[brownie]

Francis Paudras has pretty harsh words about J.C. Moses in his book 'Dance of the Infidels', his reminiscences of the last years of Bud Powell.

Edited December 7, 2009 by brownie

[DMP]

There's a lot "wrong" with the album - lousy piano, average sound - it seemed to come out of nowhere when it was released. But, like with the other Mercury stuff, it's the strongest Kirk on record. The Mercury box has a lot more from that date, by the wy.