BLINDFOLD TEST #4 - ANSWERS

[JSngry]

My theme was “People You Probably Know In Ways You Might NOT know & People You Don’t Know Who You Might Want To”. Judging by the responses, I’d say that the theme proved successful more often than not, and for that I am sincerely glad. Of course, not everybody was going to like everything, but enough people liked things they didn’t know and had to think quite a while before figuring out, roughly, what other things were that I’m satisfied that the mission was accomplished more often than not. The volume of responses was extremely gratifying, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat, or whenever I recover, whichever comes last...

I had one sequence of selections in mind, one that was more “educational”, but listening to results made me puke – the results sounded forced, and just didn’t flow well at all. So after several attempts to fit the square peg into the round hole, I finally said “Screw it”, and went about playing sides like I would at a listening party. The commentary to follow is roughly the equivalent of what would come before during and after the playing at such a party, minus copious quantities of liquor, nicotine, and whatever is handy to counteract those things. So sit back, pour yourself a double double, and let’s party!

DISC ONE

1 – In honor of the Organissimo Board’s roots in the old Blue Note board, and the classic Blue Note music, I thought it might be neat to start off with the opening tune from the very last “new” Blue Note release before the label shrunk into LT-series-reissue-only-dom, and finally closed shop, seemingly for good. What we have here is "The Search For Direction"/"Direction Discovered" from Horace Silver’s Silver ‘N Strings Play The Music Of The Spheres, recorded in 1978, and released in 1980. The two pieces are thematically related, although a detailed analysis of how is both beyond the scope of this thread and my time to write one. But they’re definitely connected musically. The whole “Silver ‘N....” series is erratic, to be sure, but overall I find it quite rewarding because as can be heard here, Horace continued to deepen as a writer – the full band tune is both intoxicating, catchy, and HIGHLY unusual in the structure of the A-section. That little suspended portion in there ALMOST sounds like an Andrew Hill piece! The entire series of albums is full of nifty tunes like this, and if the soloing is often “70s generic”, the recording distinctly 70s-ish Van Gelder, and the “thematic” trappings sometimes forced (especially on “Silver ‘N Voices”), the tunes remain keepers more often than not, and overall constitute a very meaty body of compositional work that is going largely unheard today. A Mosaic Select of this series would work quite nicely, thank you. Y’all know who to contact...

Soloists are Larry Schneider (who caught my ear on both this session and his work on the Bill Evans/Toots Theilmans WB date, and then fell off my radar screen), Tom Harrell, & Silver, whose playing was no doubt being effected by his arthritis, but still shows that his MIND was growing. He ain’t flashy, but he’s INDSIDE his tunes all the way. No fluff for him. Ron Carter’s on bass, and Al Foster’s on drums.

2 – Of course, the “classic” Silver piano style was aped, scraped, and raped in all sorts of ways. For a while, any fool could play some “funky” clichés with a total lack of understanding and be considered “jazz” by some folks. But who would think that among those fools would be David Seville (aka Ross Bagdasarian) and that you could find some on the B-side of a Christmas classic? That’s right – “Almost Good” was the flip side of The Chipmunk’s “The Christmas Song’! This Liberty (another BN connection!) 45 was a hand-me-down from my dad’s boss’s daughter ca. 1959/60 or so, and was already worn out when I got it. This tune has always fascinated me for several reasons. In particular, the girl grew up, went to college, and as my Mom told it, “started writing poetry, hanging out with beatniks, and smoking dope”. Well, blame this record, because something very similar happened to me!

Beyond that, though, there’s some musical weirdness going on. Whoever the drummer is is copping a simple but SERIOUS groove. FAR OUT, Daddy-O! Then there’s the question of who’s actually playing – the label merely credits “The Music Of David Seville” which means nothing. And then, most wondrously of all, there’s that #11 chord in the 7th & 8th bar of the bridge (and again on the repeat) that is absolutely Monkian in quality, but is played TOTALLY straight, without either irony OR hipness. No “square” songwriter is going to write a chord like that in the first place, and no hip one is going to just put it in there without doing SOMETHING to emphasize it. So what the hell is going on? Damned if I know, but I still pull the thing out every so often and groove on the utterly weird, corny/hip novelty of it all. “Almost Good” indeed!

3 – What better follow-up to something that you’d never guess would be found where it is than more of the same? So why not “To And Fro”, a Mike Abene composition performed by the Maynard Ferguson Sextet (Maynard, Lanny Morgan – as, Willie Maiden – ts, Abene – p, Ron McClure – b, and Tony Inzalaco – d) ? From the 1965 Mainstream album The Maynard Ferguson Sextet, later reissued as Six By Six. Maynard had disbanded his big band (but not before recording, also for Mainstream, the SUPERB “Color Him Wild” aka “Dues”) for reasons that will vary on who’s telling you the story (economics, loss of chops, drugs, all/none of the above, etc.), and formed this really hip little small group with the big band’s cooking rhythm section, it’s “star” alto soloist, and Maynard’s aide-de-camp Maiden. Not a groundbreaking group by any means, but one that had no problem playing thoroughly enjoyable hard bop with just a hint of “progressiveness” to it. These is good stuff, and if anybody tries to sell you on the idea that Maynard is JUST a screechy exhibitionist, play them this cut. It took a bit of guts for him to go in this direction, no matter what the motivation was, and I think he pulled it off rather nicely. Just goes to show you that what a player is known for isn’t always all they can do.

4 – When you think of big bands playing rock/funk grooves with a high-note trumpet solo at the end to cap it all off, of course you think of Maynard. But would you think of Woody Herman? Doing a Sly Stone tune? As was ascertained, this is "Sex Machine” from the 1969 Cadet album Heavy Exposure, and one of the several better cuts NOT included in the Verve CD compilation of Woody’s 3 LP stay at the label. I love this cut, not because it’s super funky, but just because it’s funky enough to feel good, and totally lacks in pretension. Woody’s band began as “The Band That Plays The Blues”, and here they are several decades later doing just that. The key to the groove, I think, lies in the rather unique rhythm section of John Hicks on piano, Donny Hathaway on organ, Phil Upchurch on guitar (THAT’S why that solo sounds so hip in spite of the bizarre fuzz tone!), Gene Perla on bass, Ed Soph on drums, and percussion by Richard Powell & Morris Jennings. Quite a combination of players, that is. Solos are by Bill Chase on trumpet, Bobby Burgess (yeah, the same guy who played w/Kenton in the 50s) on bone, one Alan Gauvin on bari, and Woody his ownself stealing the show afaic on clarinet. It’s just a blues, and Woody doesn’t try to make it any thing else. He sounds great if you ask me!

The thing that bugs me about this record is the sound – it’s dull in comparison to how this band would sound playing this chart live. If you’ve never hear a really GOOD big band live, locking into a groove and getting its volume on and up while swinging its ass off (regarless of the “style”), you’ve missed out on one of the groovier things in life. Believe me on this. Still, when Perla and Soph come in with those triplets, Upchurch lays down that soulful rhythm groove, the unison saxes lay into that line, and the brass play those nice fat, thick chords, I don’t NEED no stinkin’ hi-fi record to tell me what it sounds like – I KNOW! And it sounds GOOD!!!

5 – What else could you follow “Sex Machine” with than a James Brown cut (the brothers in high school looked at the Woody album when I brought it in and said, “Which Sex Machine IS it?”)? As also glommed, this is "That's My Desire" from the King LP Soul On Top, which features JB in front of the Louis Bellson Orchestra with arrangements by Oliver Nelson. The tenor soloist IS Maceo Parker, and Ray Brown kicks ass on bass all through the album. The album dates from around 1970, I think, and is overall a real kick, in spite of one or two misfires. I think it’s every bit as much of a jazz record as something like The Genius Of Ray Charles. This puppy flat out SWINGS far more often than not! Oliver wrote some REALLY hip arrangements for this date, and you could use the same charts and the same band, plug in Stanley Turrentine, and nary an eyebrow would be raised. In fact, the chart on “Your Cheatin’ Heart” borrows quite liberally from the sound and style of the arrangement Oliver did for “River’s Invitation” on Joyride, except that here it’s faster, kicks harder, and grooves more. And I DON’T say that lightly...

6 – And now for something COMLETELY different... Rosemary Clooney, “How Will I Remember You” from the album Love, arrangements by Nelson Riddle. This is an album with a story behind it. Clooney and Riddle had been involved in a multi-year affair that by all accounts was more than just passion, it was true, soul-bonding LOVE, something that neither was finding in their marriages. Divorces and remarriage were seriously contemplated, but there were children involved and times were different then. Finally, the couple decided to break it off and attempt to rededicate themselves to their marriages. It was doomed for both, of course. This album comes from the time when they were coming to grips with the fact that the ultimate happiness they had shared was going to come to an end, and it is as vulnerable and deeply felt “adult pop” music as has been made in the pre-rock genre.

I guess some people hear all string writing the same, and I respect that, but THIS string writing is anything but “syrupy”. Listen to how the voices weave in and out of each other in a constant push and pull of coming together and going away, coming to a climatic unison when the lyrics reach their desperate climax, and then going into a Lydian counterpoint that is damn near heart wrenching, as the tonal ambiguity perfectly reflects the emotional ambiguity of the performance. And don’t NOBODY tell me that the writing on the bridge is cheesy! Dig too, the bass line on the final V chord, where Riddle uses the bII instead of the expected V to create a sense of finality, only to almost completely undermine it with the wistful, seemingly endless, almost tortuously slow ascending harp line over the final chord, a line that lets, not the angelic harp, but the much more “earthbound” sounding glockenspiel get the final, THE final, say.

Also listen to how Clooney invests each and every syllable of each and every word with emotional nuances far beyond what any mere “pop” singer could or should be expected to provide. Same thing with her timing and that of Riddle’s conducting of his arrangement. The time breathes in a natural manner, not at all metronomic. There is MUCH feeling in this music, deep feeling that comes, not from the imagination, or from the dictates of a producer, but from the real lives of those making it. Some might even dare call it “soul”. “Jazz” it may not be in “style” but in emotional impact and depth of feeling, it’s more than good enough for me. If you can handle the idiom, I strongly recommend checking this album out, and not just casually. It’s a dark, DARK record, almost on a par with Only The Lonely. If nothing else, you’ll hear one of the more imaginative harmonizations of “Invitation” on record. But there is definitely more to be gotten out of the record than that, if one is so inclined. And if one has lived a certain kind of life, willingly or not, one can EASILY be so inclined...

7 – “Why don’t we use the melody?” Thelonious Monk was quoted as saying (or something VERY close). Well, after a thorough draining of a melody (and lyric) of all they had to offer, perhaps something a little less “personal” but every bit as musical and melodic-based would be the appropriate thing to go to next. What we have here is “Little Rootie Tootie” played by altoist Steve Duke and pianist Joseph Pinzarrone, from their 1995 Sony CD Monk By 2, a superb disc I’ve never seen discussed here or elsewhere. This isn’t a “jazz” record as much as it is an album of improvisations on Monk’s themes by “classical” musicians who have a good knowledge of jazz and a deep comfort with 20th century “classical” music, and who proceed accordingly. The hardcore Monk devotees I play this for are usually ambivalent about it at best, because of the overt classical flavor to it. But to me, that’s precisely why it works – these guys aren’t trying to play jazz, they’re investigating Monk on purely musical terms. They find much there that is compatible with their own musical esthetic, and explore it enthusiastically and with utter conviction. To me, that speaks yet further as to the depth of Monk’s music – not that it somehow needs “validation” by “classical” players (hell NO!), but that it offers such a breadth and depth that these players can approach it on its both its and their own terms and not come away with a “pseudo” sounding music. This stuff sounds real enough to me, and the melodies inform damn near everything played on this album. I think that a deep sense of melody is key to playing Monk’s pieces with any degree of success, and these two have it in spades. Does it “swing”? No, not in a blatantly “jazz” fashion anyway.. Does it NEED to? That, I suppose, is up to each individual, but I find this to be much more stimulating and rewarding than yet another cliché-ridden run-through of the usual Monkian Songbook Suspects by cats who just want to blow. These two feel the music, and they get deep inside it. If they do it from a perspective that is not finger-poppin’ and toe-snappin’ so be it. Monk was a giant of 20th century MUSIC, not just “jazz”, and as such, he belongs to the world – ALL of the world. I find it heartening that there are at least two musicians who may or may not be “jazzers” (I honestly don’t know enough about the activities of either to say one way or the other) who can take the seriousness of his music at face value and not go “slumming” with it, but treat it as the serious work that it is. Meat’s meat and good’s good!

A personal aside – I went to school at NTSU w/Steve Duke, and frankly, he was a really, REALLY “square” cat, an archetypical suckup who took no chances and did everything he was told was “right” without questioning it, at least not that I ever heard of or saw. As a jazz player, he was a very competent generic lead altoist and an equally competent soloist of equally generic proportions. But, and this is what I slept on then, he was a SUPERB “legit” player. I didn’t want to know about that then, but in retrospect, I can see that that was where his heart REALLY lay, and if I’d have had my head about that anywhere else than up my ass, I’d have dug that aspect of his personality. Years pass, and I see this disc used for dirt cheap. I buy it almost as a joke – “STEVE DUKE playing MONK???? Yeah. RIGHT!” You know... Imagine my surprise when I played this thing and heard such mature and imaginative music! So Steve Duke, wherever you are, hats off to you in a BIG way, and better I learn late than not at all.

And those of you who dug this cut, look for the CD. It’s really, REALLY good. Fresh as you want it to be!

8 – Just as Duke & Pinzarrone are who they are who they are, I am who I am, and I gotta have SOME swing, and many times, the harder the better. The playing of LRT on the previous cut without that pounding triplet in between phrases has me jonesin’ for some syncopation, and the intro on James Moody’s “Secret Love” from the Muse LP Never Again! (w/Mickey Tucker, Roland Wilson, and Eddie Gladden – the sound of Newark!) does the trick just fine. Moody’s a truly great player who has made very few truly great albums, but this one (on which he plays tenor exclusively) and its Muse follow-up Feelin’ It Together certainly qualify. Besides Moody, who’s deep into the music and playing with seeming endless energy AND creativity, the star of this show for me is Eddie Gladden, who’s kicking some world-class ass here. Check out his cymbal work in particular, how there’s always colors being added to the mix by his hitting a certain cymbal a certain way. The variety is damn near infinite, and so is the pleasure I get from listening to this cut. My only beef is that it heads out somewhat arbitrarily, as if producer Don Schlitten saw the time already invested in the cut and had them wrap it up. It could have gone on a lot longer, and live it maybe would have, but if the worst complaint I have about a performance is that 6:33 is WAAAAY too short, I’ve not got TOO big a beef, not for this kind of thing.

9 – That intro and that drumming got me wanting to hear some more drumming, some solo drumming, some good beat drumming. So next up is Ft. Worth’s own Ronald Shannon Jackson’s “Puttin’ On Dog” from Pulse, since reissued, with the tracks resequenced, as Puttin' On Dog (AMG will give you radically different reviews depending on which title you look up). This is a very interesting album by Jackson, the man who put shuffles in Cecil Taylor’s music and played Bird tunes as supersonic Harmolodic skronkfests, and this cut has long been a particular favorite just because it grooves so nicely. But there’s more – the lyrics are a poem by Sterling A. Brown. Here they are:

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Steppin’ like nobody’s business.

With a brandnew silk shirt pink as a sunset,

With a pair of suspenders blue as the sky,

With bulldog brogans red as a clay road –

Pull up mule wagons, let the mail train by.

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Todle-oh-in’ with his Jane.

Rared back at the wheel with his arms around his baby,

Heads his old flivver out of the town,

And Buck’s mad enough to chew a fistful of staples,

And drink Sloan’s liniment to wash ‘em down.

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Down in Pop Silas’ poolroom.

He’s about to use English on the Lonesome eight ball

Stops short when he hears what Buck has said,

Winds up like Babe Ruth aimin’ for a homer

And wraps his cuestick around Buck’s head.

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Bustin’ rock on the county road.

He laughed with his lawyers, and he winked at the judge,

Stuck his fingers up his nose at the jury on the dock,

Waved good-by to the gals when they sent him to the workgang,

And even had his own way of bustin’s up rocks.

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Callin’ for the bad man Buck.

Buck saw him comin’, pulled his thirty-two forty,

Got him once in the arm and twice in the side;

Scrappy swithched his gat, like they do in the Western,

And let the daylight into Buck’s black hide.

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

Look at old Scrappy puttin’ on dog,

Waitin’ for the undertaker’s wagon.

In his box-black coat and his mutt-leg britches,

And a collar high enough to choke an ox;

And the girls stopped cryin’ when they saw how Scrappy

Was a-puttin’ on dog in a pinewood box.

O you rascal, puttin’ on dog,

Puttin’ on dog, puttin’ on dog,

O you rascal, puttin’ on dog,

Great Gawd, but you was a man!

This gives the whole “primitive” vs. “modern” thing (a very interesting line of thought, btw) a whole new slant. Bottom line for me – I laugh out loud when I hear these cats who say that the “avant garde” have no “sense of tradition”. This cut right here is referring, rather convincingly, I think, to a tradition that a lot of the suit wearers know little if anything about, and one that goes back QUITE a way. Jackson no doubt got a lot of exposure to it first-hand in Fort Worth (as did Ornette, Dewey, et. al.), and it shows. He be puttin’ on dog big time!

10 – I NEED MORE DRUMS! So why not go back to the source (or maybe one of the first evolutionary links away from it, as some would have it?), Baby Dodds, with his 1946 “Drum Improvisation No. 1” from the Jazz Archives CD New Orleans Drums 1928/1946, and a thing originally released as one side of a Circle 78. The common feel shared by Jackson and Dodds is readily apparent here – they’re both working off the same pulse, the same root impulses. One could easily be playing on the others’ record!

I’ve been on a Baby Dodds kick for several years now. This guy was a master musician, and a somewhat profound, if homespun, philosopher. Check him out, because the beat indeed DOES go on. Don’t take my word for it, ask Ronald Shannon Jackson.

11 – Of course, this whole style of drumming has its roots in parade music, and wherever there’s a parade, an army has at least 50/50 odds of being nearby. But this is no ordinary army, this is James Reese Europe’s 369th U.S. Infantry Hell Fighters Band “On Patrol In No Man’s Land” (w/vocal by Noble Sissle) from THIS CD, and both him and they make for one helluva story. HERE and HERE make for a good introduction. Here’s the story of this song as told ON THIS SITE (it helps to know that Europe was at the time of WWI a leading African-American bandleader in NYC, and was enjoying no little “crossover” success):

On September 18, 1916, Europe enlisted in the 15th New York Infantry, a Black National Guard regiment formed in Harlem. Noble Sissle, a friend and fellow musician, joined a week later. Pianist Eubie Blake, with slim chances for becoming an officer like Europe and Sissle, took over administration of Europe's music business -- a step which proved invaluable to Europe. Why Europe joined when he did is a little puzzling. War fever played no part. Reid Badger suggests that Europe joined because he believed "a national guard unit in Harlem could become an important organization of benefit to the entire community". Europe evidently felt his enlistment set a good example for others in Harlem.

Still in New York, Europe passed the officer's exam, was commissioned and about to take command of a machine gun company when his Regimental Commander, Colonel William Hayward, induced him to organize a military brass band. Money was allocated so Europe could recruit talented musicians. Within the year, Lieutenant Jim Europe and his regiment, recently redesignated the 369th U.S. Infantry, were in France earning a superb reputation by entertaining countless soldiers, officers, and French civilians.

Assigned by General Pershing to serve with the French 161st Division, the 369th Infantry was soon training at Givry-en-Argonne. Here Europe learned to fire French machine guns prior to moving into the active trenches.

Europe's Regimental Commander later wrote: "... We are proud to think our boys were the first Negro Americans in the trenches. (Lt.) Jim Europe was certainly the first Negro officer in. You can imagine how important he feels!"

But senior officers realized that a top-quality band was invaluable for troop morale, so in August 1918 Lieutenant Europe and his musicians were ordered back from the front. Europe then entertained thousands of soldiers in camps and hospitals -- an extremely important contribution to the Allied cause.

Europe's combat duties had included going out on patrol, and a harrowing experience inspired lyrics for "On Patrol in No Man's Land," which he put on paper while in a hospital after a gas attack. Sissle later wrote that Europe performed it at the piano while the band made "all the sound effects of a bombardment." The speed with which Europe wrote the song after an actual attack is remarkable, and little time was wasted before this was recorded. Nothing is romanticized. Lyrics give listeners some sense of what being in No Man's Land was like. An officer leads men "over the top" of the trenches for patrol, warns them of danger from German weapons, and gives an order to attack.

What the time? Nine?

Fall in line

Alright, boys, now take it slow

Are you ready? Steady!

Very good, Eddie.

Over the top, let's go

Quiet, lie it, else you'll start a riot

Keep your proper distance, follow 'long

Cover, brother, and when you see me hover

Obey my orders and you won't go wrong

There's a Minenwerfer [German mortar] coming --

look out (bang!)

Hear that roar (bang!), there's one more (bang!)

Stand fast, there's a Very light [flare]

Don't gasp or they'll find you all right

Don't start to bombing with those hand grenades (rat-

a-tat-tat-tat)

There's a machine gun, holy spades!

Alert, gas! Put on your mask

Adjust it correctly and hurry up fast

Drop! There's a rocket from the Boche [German]

barrage

Down, hug the ground, close as you can, don't stand

Creep and crawl, follow me, that's all

What do you hear? Nothing near

Don't fear, all is clear

That's the life of a stroll

When you take a patrol

Out in No Man's Land

Ain't it grand?

Out in No Man's Land

Newspapers reported what was happening to soldiers overseas, but here the experience of battle is shaped in artistic form -- in Europe's case, in ragtime. Nothing in American popular song at that time was quite like this. The record label identifies this as a "tenor solo," but that is an understatement. All of Europe's musicians participate in recreating the chaos of battle.

So, this might not be nearly the “propaganda” that is sounds like to today’s ears. It’s entirely possible that the American musical vocabulary of the time was not equipped to handle the complexities of emotion that Europe and his men no doubt felt, and that they used what they had in terms of song structure, and depended on the “extra musical” effects to do the rest of the job.

Here http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/europe/nopatrol.ram is a RealAudio file that is very trebly, but has much greater clarity than the CD transfer I had to use, to the end that all the “effects” can be heard very clearly. To the ears of the time, this record might well have sounded absolutely terrifying! Imagine what would happen if the emotional palate of the music grew to the point where all, ALL, the ambiguities, horrors, and absurdities of war could be expressed through the African-American musical vocabulary!

It too, might sound absolutely horrifying to some listeners. In fact, apparently it does...

12 - Art Ensemble Of Chicago: “Get In Line”/”The Waltz”. From A Jackson In Your House.

Ok, not an expression of the horrors of war, but definitely an absurdist mocking of the forces that bring it (and many other evils of the world) to bear. There’s so much dark humor in these two cuts (to say nothing of the title tune, not included here, which is one of the most blatanty childlike FUNNY - but "serious funny" - things that any "jazz" group has had the guts to release on record) that I’m really puzzled how it could escape any listener, even one who has no affinity whatsoever for the musical devices used in its creation. I suppose we all hear things differently. But I hear a very real narrative transpiring over the course of these two pieces, a Marx Brothers/Bob Clampett-like extreme irreverence that thumbs its nose at any and everything that tries to force unwilling individuals to “get in line”.

The scenario I hear is this (and I’ll just cover the highlights – listen to it with a blank slate as far as “expectations” go, and get your own images! ) – a platoon of “bad soldiers” (clowns perhaps?) is marching along, and come to a halt with a jagged, intentionally ragged precision (sic). The sergeant don’t like that, and tries to create/restore some kind of order, but to no avail – mischief is already sprouting as he impotently barks his “orders”. The soldiers “get in line” the same way they got out of it – dizzily, with no intention of EVER behaving the way that they’re “supposed” to, and march along in a manner that totally mocks regimentation and other forms of mindless conformity, while th sergeant tries to convince somebody, anybody, that, yeah, he’s in charge in spite of all appearances, that all he has to do is crack down. The troops look at each other, exchange glances and a few words (the speech-like quality of the ensemble at 0:40 never ceases to crack me up – you can just hear and see a bunch of wiseasses giving wath other “the look”), and then on cue – ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Remember the boarding scene in “Monkey Business” where Groucho, Harpo, & Chico just go absolutely apeshit during the boarding, causing every possible disruption and showing absolutely ZERO respect for policy and procedure? Well, set that to music, and this is what you got here. You can hear (and in your mind, see) the anarchy unfolding, slowly at first, but rapidly gathering intensity – a listen to each individual instrument reveals distinct courses of action being taken by each player, consistent throughout. For one example, dig how the one altoist’s mock bugle/cavalry calls that begin around 1:09 gradually evolve into full-fledged screaming taunts. This “role-playing” goes on throughout. This is not a random blowfest by any stretch of the imagination!

Things go flying through the air (blackjacks? rockets? tomatoes?), as the breakdown continues. The sergeant keeps thinking that if he just screams “GET IN LINE” loudly and strongly enough that it will work. HAH! The scampering and chasing continues to increase in intensity, until suddenly, at 3:08, the two altoists vanish. Were they defeated, or did they run off? And if they ran off, why?

We get our answer soon enough – at 3:23 we hear the first of several hissing sounds. Fuses to some sort of explosives being lit and thrown perhaps? Very possibly so. The altoists rejoin in time for the bombs to go off in a mass explosion (the bell sounds at 4:55 remind me SO much of the various stars and such that accompany an explosion in some Looney Tunes). We’re ALL going down! (but not “in line”!)

And then, the aftermath - a beautifully woozy portrait of Bugs and Elmer waltzing in each others’ arms. Both battered and bruised, and totally out of it. But you KNOW it’s Bugs who will come back in one piece to wreck yet more havoc, and that it’ll be Elmer who ends up getting the bejeebers knocked out of him. Every time. EVERY time.

You’d think he’d learn. You'd think THEY would learn.

Get in line.

13 – So – are his 4 foot beats a mere counting off of the time or a petulant foot-stomping seeking/demanding total submission? With Benny Goodman, you never knew, and on Titter Pipes, a Tommy Newsom (yeah, THAT Tommy Newsom) composition named after the slang term for saxophones that his old Air Force (MORE military!) band used, and a perfect blowing vehicle combining the A-section changes of “Confirmation” with the bridge changes of “Yardbird Suite”, the answer might well be the latter. This cut is from the RCA album Benny Goodman In Moscow, a superbly swinging document of Goodman’s celebrated 1962 tour of the then-Soviet Union. By all accounts, Goodman was a ROYAL asshole throughout the trip, an egotistical prick who insisted that HE be the sole center of attention at all times, and who treated his sidemen with total disregard and disrespect. Tempers ran high in the band, and potential mutiny was never far from the forefront of possibility. Although how much that differed from any other latter-day Goodman band is not easy to say...

So why did he have this number, a feature for Zoot Sims (btw – Zoot plays superbly throughout the entire album. Definitely some of my favorite Zoot on record, this album is) & Phil Woods (ditto Phil. Although he doesn’t get that many solos, his lead work is outstanding, a reminder of how great a section leader he can be, or was. One of the greatest ever, I think) in the book? God only knows. With this rhythm section (Mel Lewis, Bill Crow, John Bunch, & Turk Van Lake) & those changes, you KNOW that these guys are going to want to blow, and blow they do, very satisfyingly so. But there is a also very real (and very audible) power struggle going on in this cut. It all begins when Zoot ignores the band cues behind his second chorus and goes straight into a third, perhaps spurred on by the anonymous band member who says, “Go on!” in that brief moment of silence/point of no return separating the choruses. The King has been disobeyed! You can tell Benny’s displeasure by the way he noodles in between one of Zoot’s breaths – that was one of his ways to tell you to get out the way, that you’ve had enough. Zoot finishes and hands off to Phil in one of the most seamless such exchanges I’ve ever heard (the lack of audience applause after Zoot finishes suggests a splice, but it’s a darn clean one if it is). Phil takes up where Zoot left off, literally, but he plays by the rules, burning the joint up in the process. You can hear him seething with every note he plays. When Phil finishes his alloted two choruses, more than one member of the band is asking for “one more” out of him. Benny kind of pauses, probably to look back in whatever he looked back in, and carries on. The band, “name brands” all, is on fire for the closing ensembles, playing with a swing and drive that serves as an example of why I love a really good big band (and why I hate all the others).

In view of the battle that has just transpired, Benny’s hitting of the final note a full bar and a half before the rest of the band seems really perverse. He’s going to come out on top at any cost it seems. Get in line. The crowd goes nuts for Zoot & Phil (the reaction goes on long after where I cut it off). Oh well, as Woods reportedly shouted off his hotel balcony one night in a drunken rage, “FUCK YOU, KING OF SWING”.

14 – What happens when nobody needs to be forced into line and they just do it because it feels good? Well, one possibility is that you get an album like Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West (aka Grand Encounter) by the leaderless(!) group of Bill Perkins, Jim Hall, John Lewis, Percy Heath, & Chico Hamilton, a classic Pacific Jazz album now woefully OOP. I love this side, and this tune ("Almost Like Being In Love") in particular. Everybody is totally relaxed, and the “zone factor” of music just coming out effortlessly and perfectly is waaaaay high. I’ve rapsed waxodically over Perk’s playing on this cut elsewhere, but dig everybody else – Hall is playing like the wise old owl he looked like back then, taking everything in and incorporating it into his solo (including a rhythmic reference to Lewis' title tune) without breaking a sweat, commenting and contributing/propelling at the same time, yin and yang simultaneously, all in one prematurely bald package. Lewis, a compulsive “get in liner” if ever there was one (or so it seemed...), here uses his powers for good rather than evil, giving out an accompaniment that is at once telepathic and sympathetic, and playing a solo as mellow, lyrical, and swinging anything he’s ever done. Heath just grooves like a mofo. Heath ALWAYS grooved like a mofo, at least up until he decided to become an elder Ron Carter (who seems to have at on time wanted to be a young Percy Heath). And Chico? Ah, Chico! I have to disagree with Mike about this one – I think that Chico is having a big grin with those first fills of his, kinda saying, “Hey, c’mon guys, this is TOO loose. Let’s tighten up a bit and get in line”, knowing full well that the whole thing is riding on a very rare cloud of relaxed swing. My high school band director used to call this bag of Chico's "swatting flies", and he meant it affectionately. That fill where he just STOPS, leaves a big hole, and then ever so quietly sneaks back in only to end in a big THWACK! still brings an audible smile to my mind, as does his mock soft-shoe later on. This one might be way too relaxed for some tastes, but the bigger the front, the bigger the back, and if I’m going to dig stuff like Ayler and Cecil, I almost HAVE to dig this too, just to maintain a natural balance.

15 – Then there’s the guy who is the biggest wiseguy of ‘em all yet still manages to get by unscathed, and maybe even is viewed as a model citizen. He’s gotten in line alright, but he makes constant mischief all the while he’s there. Yet nobody seems to notice, except Gladys Kravitz. In this case, I’m talking about Earl Hines, whose performance on “I Know That You Know” (from Lionel Hampton Presents Earl Fatha Hines, originally an LP on Hamp’s Who’s Who In Jazz label, but found on CD by me on some semi (at best) legit Euro CD at a Flying J Truck Stop for $2.99) is just plain WACK. Check him out – he starts off with a Monkian whole-tone line, pulls back before any eyebrows get raised, and keep on pulling this bump-and-run stunt for the duration of the piece. His left hand in particular is amazing, going its own way seeming at will, and covering for the right hand when it goes off on a momentary spree of near-abstract splashing. Hamp, also a master of subversion, plays it a bit more straight, but listen closely – there’s some notes in there that just don’t belong! But they’re over with before you know it. The fours are especially radical – Hines at 3:34 just goes all the way outside the lines. The rhythm section (Major Holley, Sam Turner, & Grady Tate) is in on the joke, and keeps it polite enough so as not to arouse suspicion, but also swinging enough to keep it going. Holley’s final deadpan “Who, ME?” slide up to a perfectly in line, er, in TUNE final note nearly blows everybody’s cover, but probably only if you’d be suspicious of this bunch in the first place, which you probably wouldn’t be, right? I mean, does THIS look like a man, a smile, and a toupee who want to be anything or anywhere else other than PERFECTLY in line?

Nah...no way.

[JSngry]

DISC TWO

1 – Hadley Caliman: “Iapetus” (from IAPETUS – 1972 Mainstream LP). Caliman, Bayete Todd Cochrane – elp, James Leary – b, Woody Theus – d

I often refer to this album as “The album Miles could have made after FILLES, but didn’t”. That’s the only way I can describe it. I’ve heard nothing else even remotely similar to the overall concept of what Caliman & Co. (Bobby Hutcherson’s band of the time, btw) are up to on this date, even by Caliman himself. Take away the post-production effects on the sax, and you still have a totally unique approach, one that is a direct offshoot of Miles’ “Lost Quintet” yet still has very little, if any, direct borrowings from it. Caliman’s own playing is deceptively simple, but I marvel at his focus and discipline as he works totally within, instead of on top of, the rhythm section in both the free sections that begin and end the piece, as well as the composed structure in-between (yeah, there IS a form to all that!). The rhythm section itself is simply spellbinding, imo. They have the tune so internalized that they can do anything with it they want, and they do it with one mind. Intuitiveness and extrapolation to this degree is a very rare thing on an individual level, I think, never mind the collective. Vinyl Freak, wither goest thou?

Theus’ ferocious, near-primal rhythm reaches a fever pitch, stops, and then reappears, regally calmed and only slightly modified to begin the next piece:

2 – The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: “Ornette” (from DANCE WITH THE ANCESTORS – 1993 Chameleon CD). Edward Wilkserson, Jr., Joseph Bowie, Kahil El'Zabar.

For my money, Kahil El'Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has been one of the most consistently engaging groups of the last 20 or so years (as has his Ritual Trio), and Ed Wilkerson has been one of the strongest voices on tenor over the same timeframe, to say nothing of him being a most significant bandleader and composer as well. The album this piece comes from is perhaps just a tad more polished and subdued than their others, but not enough to dilute the group’s essence. There is definitely a “ritualistic” element to their music, which ranges from pieces like this one to pastoral, kalimba-based tone poems of delicate beauty to two-horns-and-trap-kit swinging blowouts. Joseph Bowie (Lester’s brother, for those who don’t know), is a STRONG trombonist, one of the strongest on the scene. His early work, such as that on Frank Lowe’s FRESH still blows my mind, and if his years with Defunkt led to a great deal of erraticism, he’s since righted himself, it seems, and seems to be poised to be a significant serious voice for years to come.

Personally, I feel that when Wilkerson left the EHE (to be replaced by Ernest Dawkins), the group became ever so slightly less “essential” to me. But I still try to keep up with them, and have yet to hear them sound uninspired or elsewise lacking. Check’em out, both the band and the individuals. You might find some new music to your liking therein!

3 – Marvin Gaye: “When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You” from HERE, MY DEAR)

Believe it or not, I hear the rhythm of the previous piece alive and well in this one, albeit spread out and sublimated. That was my original impetus for including it. But since its inclusion seems to have sparked a mini-controversy, I might as well say that in my opinion Marvin Gaye was one of the greatest vocal artists of the 20th century, period. He’s had a huge effect on the personal and musical esthetic of a lot of jazz musicians, including myself. More effect, actually, than nearly all “jazz” musicians of the last 20 years have had. Marvin sang with the feel and sensibility of a jazz musician, especially from WHAT’S GOING ON onward. There will no doubt be those who question this, and I’ll not try to change your mind, because I know I’m right, so that’s that.

The story behind this album is a matter of record. If you’re interested, a little bit of Web searching will tell you most or all of what you want to know. Suffice it to say that the lyric content of this song is not fictitious, and Marvin’s singing is not “about” a fictitious or idealized situation, as is so often the case with pop & R&B material. This is a man spilling his guts about his own life (again, do a bit of research if you care to). But he does it so ELEGANTLY, so artistically, that it took a while before the depth of the darkness and profundity of the music on this album really hit me. But when it did, it hit me full force, and I haven’t been the same since. On this cut in particular, the maze-like song structure and the lyrics that never repeat and just keep unfolding, not to a cathartic scream but instead to a fading, resigned question that has no true answer, coupled with truly, TRULY, masterful usages of vocal overdubbing to create a veritable tapestry of vocal textures, one that he then further intertwines with the solo instrumentalists that provide a running commentary throughout the narrative. If nothing else, dig the staggering array of “moods” that Marvin uses for each line of the song – he sings each one totally in character with its content. How many vocalists of any genre could pull that off even slightly, never mind with the totally effortless mastery that Marvin does here? If you know of any, hip me to them, please!

The one part of this album's "story" that might not be readily available is that when it was finished, Marvin invited Anna over to his house to hear it, the album for which she was to receive the royaties form. Anna arrived, found the house open, went in, and sat down. Marvin was nowhere in sight. But the lights dimmed, and HERE, MY DEAR began to play over the stereo, and played straight through in all its naked glory. When it was over, Anna said nothing, and immediately left.

I could go on forever about this one...

Speaking of Marvin’s influence on jazz musicians....

4 – Carla Bley/Steve Swallow: “Rut” (from NIGHT-GLO, 1985 Watt/ECM CD)

Swallow went on a binge there for a while, telling anybody who would listen how obsessed he had gotten with Marvin Gaye’s phrasing and tonal quality, and this cut is perhaps the most blatant demonstration of that. The rhythmic pattern that implicitly formed the foundation for the Gaye cut heard previously forms the explicit foundation for this cut, and Swallow is totally singing with his bass lead. But those changes! Talk about never quite going where you expect them to! Maybe it’s a tribute to Mavin Gaye AND Willie Mitchell...

NIGHT-GLO is a disarmingly “smooth” sounding album as long as you don’t pay attention to the details. In this case, “Rut” might easily be thought of as referring to the repetitive guitar pulse and the slooowww moving drumming (and not necessarily in a good way!). But for me, it refers to “rutting”, because this is one of the most purely erotic pieces of music I own, the soundtrack for those times when you and your partner are all fucked out but keep languidly fucking away anyway just because it’s SO damn good and there’s a constant throbbing going on that wouldn’t let you do anything else even if you wanted to (and you REALLY don’t want to). The unpredictability of the changes feels like the unfolding of new levels of non-orgasmic orgasm, and the luminously sustained horn textures feel like tension building and being released in a never-ending cycle of justkeepgoingdonteverstop. Hell yeah.

Now, confession time – for YEARS I thought that this piece was a duet between Bley and Swallow, and that, given their personal relationship, their interplay was the very essence of sexual give-and-take. But when compiling this disc, I actually too the time to look at the personnel and discovered that it’s Larry Willis playing the piano. Carla, it seems, is playing synth-bass. So what we REALLY have here is Carla setting the rhythm, controlling the pace, and two men are revolving around her, taking turns getting inside that rhythm and doing their thing with it, Swallow going for the long languid hang with a few masterfully placed strokes that are simple but deep and sure to be felt in the heart, Willis going for the more overtly physical tension building maneuvers. Yin and Yang with Carla in the middle. Even kinkier than I had first imagined, but since I’m a monogamoid, I’ll pretend I never noticed that...

No matter. Eventually the ecstasy narcoticizes, and sweet sensual slumber ensues.

WAKE UP!!!

5 – George Wein & The Newport All Stars: “At The Jazz Band Ball” (from the eponymously titled 1962 Impulse LP). Ruby Braff - ct, Pee Wee Russell - cl, Bud Freeman - ts, Marshall Brown –vlv tbn, Wein – p, Bill Takas – b, Marquis Foster –d

Ever heard George Wein play piano? Well you have now. Is your life any better for it? I hope not. But I also hope that it IS better for having heard Braff, Pee Wee, & Freeman play with more than enough vim, vigor, and vitaliky to light a large city for several years. And for having heard Takas & Foster. “modern” players both, give these guys the kind of lively and frisky kind of backing they deserved but didn't always get as the years passed by. Superbly recorded too (geez those bass and drums sound good!), by one Johnny Cue, albeit “rerecorded” and mastered by RVG. I wish I could get a cover photo to post – these guys are just reeking of “personality” on the cover, and it comes through in the music. Gotta love that!

6 – The Clare Fischer Big Band ”Lennie’s Pennies” (from the 1969 Atlantic LP THESAURUS). Soloists: Fischer, Gary Foster, and Warne Marsh.

What also comes through in the Wein piece is a penchant by some of the players for a squiggly little triplet kind of phrasing, Pee Wee beginning his solo with an, “Oh, I’m sorry!” kind of hiccup, and collective improvisation, all of which find their counterpart in this Fischer performance (compare Pee Wee’s solo entrance to Warne’s!). If the Wein piece could be said to be an example of “Chicago Style” jazz, keep in mind that both Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz, 2/3 of the Tristano school’s defining exponents, were born and raised in Chicago, not coming east until various times in the 40s. That squiggly triplet phrasing really comes to the fore in Tristano’s music, and if it was recast by Tristano & Co. in a new, distinctly personal manner, the fact remains that it is what it is, no matter how morphed it gets.

We don’t get Tristano or Konitz here, although Fischer & Foster both play quite nicely. We do, however, get Warne Marsh. This lp was my first exposure to Warne, and this solo stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it. It still does the same to me, even though I’m no longer 16, even though I’ve pretty well got the damn thing internalized long past the point of no return. I notice that this solo had the same effect on very few participants here, so the “Warne Marsh As Genius Cult Figure” phenomenon gets played out yet again. Must be his fate to largely go largely unnoticed (sic). But wait until Chuck reissues “All Music” with all those bonus tracks. You WILL believe a man can float!

Special kudos on this cut to Chuck Domanico & Larry Bunker on bass and drums respectively, guys who too often get lost in the L.A. shuffle, but guys who, as shown here, can keep a groove going and kick a big band along just as well as anybody, a task that is nowhere near as easy as you might think. And kudos to Fischer for a truly brilliant arrangement and some damn good piano playing.

7 – Anthony Braxton – Side One, Track One of CREATIVE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC (1976), Arista LP. Featuring solos by Bruce Johstone – bari, Cecil Bridgewater - tp, and Braxton.

The influence of Tristano on Braxton is overt and freely admitted to, but not always obvious to more “traditionally” oriented listeners. Here, I think, it is quite obvious. In fact, if you can keep the changes to “Lennie’s Pennies” in you head (it’s “Pennies From Heaven” in minor) while listening to that opening 32 bar sax theme, it seems like there’s a match, like Braxton based that line on those changes. Of course, that’s just where the thing takes off from. Where it goes is uniquely Braxtonian, and I for one find it delightful, even if the execution is a bit ragged in spots, no doubt to limited rehearsal time. The band includes such heavyweight section players as Seldon Powell and Jon Faddis, so another day or so of rehearsal could have really tightened things up. But that’s life... The rhythm section of Muhal Richard Abrams, Dave Holland, and the criminally underrated Warren Smith really kicks things along nicely, however, and the soloists all get their groove on real nicely. How about ex-Ferguson baritonist Johnstone? Not too shabby, eh? The only thing I can figure is that his fusion band New York Mary was signed to Arista/Freedom at this time, so he got the call through that connection. But still, the cat blows just like he did with Maynard – hard, serious, and convincingly. A player’s a player, no matter what.

Braxton’s Arista work is crying out for a comprehensive reissue, and this album is a standout amongst a whole slew of standouts. Some day... In the meantime, keep an eye on those vinyl sources!

8 – Count Basie Orchestra – “K.C.Stride” (featuring Lester Young). From HISTORICAL PREZ 1940-1944; Everybody’s 3002 (LP)

Of course, you’d not have Tristano, Bird, or Braxton (or a whole bunch of OTHER shit) without Lester Young, and this 1944 airshot (from the time between when Prez came back to Basie after leaving for a while and the time he joined the Army, a time not captured on “official” recordings) may very well, on any given day, be my favorite Prez solo on record. Here he is stretching out, unencumbered by studio time constraints or formalistic presentations, just blowing three choruses on a riff tune based on “I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me”. He’s in good, no, GREAT humor, and is full of musical surprises and authoritative individuality that bespeak of artistry of the very highest level. Does anything get any better than this? Not for me!

Worth noting though, is that Prez’ style was already changing, giving lie to the claim that it was his time in the Army alone that changed him. His tone has become a lot darker that that of a few years before, he’s playing a bit more heavily on the beat, and his tonal inflections are beginning to become more aggressively “vocal” in nature (some of which, as mmilovan noted, are quite relevant to later generations of “free” playing). Yet, he still is full of those marvelously unexpected stops and starts, and the way he calls the brass backgrounds in before his third chorus is damn near cocky! It’s a master at the very peak of his form, and if he’s earning his keep as a sideman in somebody else’s band, he’s playing like it’s HIS band, and really, given how much he had contributed to that band’s overall sound and concept, it really is.. Basie’s non-stop party-down accompaniment suggests that he has nooooo problem with that whatsoever, and truth be told, why the hell SHOULD he? Totally beautiful music, and pretty darn rare, so Merry Christmas/etc.

9 – Joe Daley Trio – “Dexterity”. From THE JOE DALEY TRIO AT NEWPORT ’63, RCA Victor LP. Joe Daley – ts, Russell Thorne – b, Hal Russell –d

Who the hell WERE these guys? Well, there’s a story there, one that I’m nowhere near equipped to tell as well as Larry Kart, Chuck Nessa, and some other veteran Chicagoans. Suffice it to say that Daley was a somewhat reclusive figure in terms of recording, but he developed quite a reputation as a teacher and a “forward thinker”. Thorne is a tale unto himself, and we all know what happened to Hal Russell.

I dig Daley’s approach here – Rollins through Ornette (he plays “Ramblin’ on this album, as well as a piece called “One Note” that is just that – an extrapolation from just one note, a very Rollins-esque gambit) and more than a touch of a Mid-Western variety of Giuffre-ian “naiveté” (not the best word, but the only one I can think of ). If it’s not particularly “groundbreaking”, it sure as hell is interesting, involving, and personal nevertheless, and that’s good enough for me. Thorne’s playing predates Gary Peacock’s work w/Ayler by several years, and is in no way “experimental – he’s THERE! Russell’s solo fascinates me too, going back and forth as it does between typical boppisms and a more drawn out, spatial approach.

This was not, as I said, a “radical” group in any way, not like Cecil or Ornette, but they still were into some things that set them apart from the hard bop orthodoxy of their day in a pretty significant way. And he even uses one of the exact licks that Lester used on the previous cut, but turns it out his own way, which of course is the object of the game.. Daley, from what I can gather, & Russell both, helped spawn a separate Chicago “avant-garde”, and their story needs to be told. Chuck’s traveling for the holidays, and I don’t know where Larry is, but I’ll start a thread next week soliciting their recollections and feelings about Daley, Thorne, & Russell. They should have some interesting and illuminating things to say.

So what the hell? Baby Dodds leads to Ronald Shannon Jackson sounding more primitive than Dodds himself while all the while having a more “modern” outlook due to his ability to consciously look back on Dodds? A simple triplet figure favored by the Chicagoans gets adapted and expanded by the Tristano-ites, which in turn leads to Anthony Braxton? James Reese Europe does a thing that sounds cornball to many today, but the Art Ensemble Of Chicago tells a story of somewhat the same general milieu using similar basic concepts but with a totally different slant and cause great anger amongst some of the same people who find Europe hopelessly dated? Marvin Gaye gets copped directly by Carla Bley & Steve Swallow, yet some like one but not the other (if either!)? Hal Russell goes from a quirky bebop drummer to being, uh... Hal Russell?

What’s the deal with all this mess anyway?

Percy Mayfield knows...

10 – Percy Mayfield – “Nothing Stays The Same Forever”. From THE COMPLETE TANGERINE/ATLANTIC RECORDINGS, Rhino Handmade CD.

If you’re alive, you change. Simple as that. People change, so music has to change with them. It’s growth, evolution, whatever. Yet just because something changes, sometimes to the point of no longer being recognizable as what it once was, doesn’t mean that what it is that is changing ever stops being anything other than what it is. No matter where you go, there you are.

We are creatures of comfort. We feel great satisfaction when we find something we like, and feel equally great betrayal when that something changes beyond our ability to recognize it. That is basic human nature, of course. But it is crucial to remember, I believe, that change is the nature of life, and if we are not able to appreciate all the changes that the things we love go through along the way, we should at least have the presence of mind to realize that at least the music is still alive. If we demand that it cease to change just so we can keep our attachment to it intact, we might as well be the sergeant yelling at his troops in vain to “GET IN LINE!!!” We all heard what happened to HIM...

Still, the changes can be pretty difficult to take sometimes, and often enough we might feel as if we are going to pass out from the shock and possible outright revulsion the changes stir in us. What to do then?

Well, Henry Threadgill suggests that we...

11 – “Try Some Ammonia”. From TOO MUCH SUGAR FOR A DIME, 1993 Axiom CD.

Lord knows there’s a lot of so-called “avant-gardists” who deal in neuroticism, nihilism, self-flagellation, and other philosophies best practiced at home, away from innocent bystanders. But Henry Threadgill sure as hell ain’t one of them!

Nor is he one to be trapped into a regard for orthodoxy or nostalgia for things past. Take this cut for example – the structure and the melody are song-like, easily assimilated, yet they defy convention in more ways than one. Sure you can sing it (hell, I can’t listen to this cut without wanting to sing AND dance!) but if you don’t leave the narrow hallways of conventional thinking/feeling, you won’t be able to. But as Parliament so eloquently put it, “Free your mind and your ass will follow”. It’s got a good beat and HELL YEAH you can dance to it!

That groove, just what is IT anyway? African? Cuban? Samba? Calypso? Swing? No to all, but never completely so – it’s the result of feeling all of those (and more) and rather than trying to imitate them, assimilating them and making a personal statement using all of them, a truly global approach that revels in all the goodness the world has to offer rather than running from it.

And that instrumentation, whazzup with THAT? A front line of alto and French horn (Mark Taylor, who nails the changes in a thoroughly “traditional” manner, while his solo partners all go off into more “modern” avenues; yet, it all fits because it’s all personal, it’s all aware, and it’s all GOOD!), two electric guitars, and THREE tubas! Tubas go back to New Orleans brass bands of course, but like THIS? Check out the tubas throughout, especially on the intro, the outro, and the interludes – what might sound like sections of relatively static movement if you listen to the top of the music suddenly reveal a slowly but surely development of forward motion en masse when listening to the bottom. And Gene Lake on drums! Let me say it in no uncertain terms – GENE LAKE IS A BAD MOTHER FUCKER!!!!

Is this the future of jazz? Pan-Global grooves with three tubas and no non-brass bassist, a kickass drummer, a French Horn soloist running changes more traditionally than the altoist and the guitarist in the same group, electric instruments used as much for brightly delicate color as for anything, and songs that make you want to dance by defying all traditions of dance structure and make you want to sing by doing the sam to song structures? Good God help us, can THIS be the future of our beloved jazz?

No man, that was 1993, ten years ago. The past will always be good, but it will always be the past. The present is over the second it happens. The future is the only thing we have to look forward to, and forward is the only place we can go without knowing where we'll end up beforehand, and if you already know what the result will be, why play the game? You're dead if all the conclusins are forgeone ones! The past is an invaluable tool, a foundation, but it's to be built upon, not lived in. The past is where live lived, the present is where live is passing through, and the future is where live is going to live. It all ends up int he past anyway, so why get there any sooner than you have too? And more importantly, why make your future somebody else's past? Not much of a future there!

The past is safer, because we know what's there. But we don't know WHY it's there until we experience it ourselves, and OUR lives do not lie in the past, at least not until we live them. So we gotta go ahead and live the future, because if we don't there won't be any new past, and that's just wrong. New can be exciting and revealtory, or it can scare the bejeebers out of you and make you shit your pants. That's the price we pay for being alive. And as long as I'm alive, I want to BE alive, so I'm gonna suck it up, keep my comfort zones of the past handy as combination comfort zone and road map, and keep on moving towards the future, even if it gets really difficult sometimes. And it does. But I'd rather get in my own line than somebody elses'. We've heard what happens in THAT line.

So y'all get in your line, I'll get in mine, and togther we'll get to wherever it is we're supposed to be. Then we can die and become sombody ELSE'S past. But at least we've made the path a little longer instead of a little shorter.

Hope to see ya' there!

[rockefeller center]

Cool descriptions. Thanks!

Some stuff I found re disc 2, track 9: Joe Daley: An appreciation, Organissimo/Recommendations

Video still showing George Wein and Buzzy Drooten (George Wein & The Newport All Stars, Baden Baden, Germany, 1961):

[rockefeller center]

4 – Carla Bley/Steve Swallow: “Rut” (from NIGHT-GLO, 1985 Watt/ECM CD)

Carla, it seems, is playing synth-bass.

I can't hear a synth bass on this track. Both bass parts sound like Steve Swallow.

[Nate Dorward]

Oh crap, I have the Joe Daley on LP & should have got that, though I haven't listened to it for about 7 years (my record player is no longer working & hasn't been fixed for ages). It's indeed a remarkable disc--is it available on CD? My LP is very, very rough. It's a terrible, terrible shame that Daley didn't go on to greatness (at least on disc). -- Actually I think the reason I didn't get this is because it's been so long since I heard the disc I'd remembered Daley as playing baritone not tenor on it.

Yeah, the El'Zabar concert I saw counts as one of my top-ten Awful Concert-Going Experiences, just nudged out of the number-one slot by two Jerry Granelli gigs (hm, both of 'em pleased-with-themselves drummers.....there's a pattern here). Oh well, it happens. It was still nice to see Fred Anderson, though.

[paul secor]

Oh crap, I have the Joe Daley on LP & should have got that

Same deal with me. I guess that I should spend more time listening to my record collection. I bought it used about 5 or 6 years ago, and have only listened to it twice, but that's no excuse. At least I won't end up having to buy it to hear the rest of the music on the record! The same thing happened with blindfold test one (twice, on that one). This is embarrassing.

[Tom Storer]

4 – Carla Bley/Steve Swallow: “Rut” (from NIGHT-GLO, 1985 Watt/ECM CD)

Carla, it seems, is playing synth-bass.

I can't hear a synth bass on this track. Both bass parts sound like Steve Swallow.

Yeah, I guessed it was Swallow underdubbed, as it were. But since it was the liner notes that revealed to Jim it was Larry Willis on piano (thereby ruining his steamy fantasy and forcing him to construct a new one!), presumably they also reveal it was CB on synth bass. Which would just mean the spirit of Swallow lives within her when she does a bass part--not surprising!

[relyles]

The first time I heard and only time I heard Joe Daley was ont he Bee Hive LP, Charlie Parker Memorial Concerts. I think he plays on one or two tracks on that LP. He made an immediate impression. Kind of reminded me of some other distinctive Chicago tenors that I have been listening to recently such as Von Freeman, but with his own approach. I have been wanting to find something else recorded by him and now I will be on a desperate search for this LP. Found one potential source, but can't quite afford $40 for the LP so soon after the holidays. Thanks for pulling my coat to this one.

[mikeweil]

Yeah, I guessed it was Swallow underdubbed, as it were. But since it was the liner notes that revealed to Jim it was Larry Willis on piano (thereby ruining his steamy fantasy and forcing him to construct a new one!), presumably they also reveal it was CB on synth bass. Which would just mean the spirit of Swallow lives within her when she does a bass part--not surprising!

I too hear Swallow overdubbing his bass as a solo voice on top of his electric bass lines; Carla played organ or synth (like an orchestral background), but no synth bass lines. When I saw them playing live they had a guitarist doubling on bass for the pieces when Swallow was the lead voice.

There are no liner notes on the original LPs or CD reissues; just credits always saying that Swallow plays bass, Carla plays organ and synth, and Willis plays piano. Just that.

We know that Jim loves his love stories behind musical stories ..... but it was not the liner notes that laid it on him.

[mikeweil]

Can we please continue the discussion on the other thread as Jim suggested - it gets cumbersome to watch two of them .....

[mmilovan]

8 – Count Basie Orchestra – “K.C.Stride” (featuring Lester Young). From HISTORICAL PREZ 1940-1944; Everybody’s 3002 (LP)

and his tonal inflections are beginning to become more aggressively “vocal” in nature (some of which, as mmilovan noted, are quite relevant to later generations of “free” playing).

Jim, can you hear HIS voice while playing the bridge section of first solo chorus (time 1:30)?

That hip high voice!

I can, clearly!

(BTW, two days ago Santa Claus send me a gift - "Chatterbox" CB Old Testament Band broadcast (1937). Titles like "Tattersfield Stomp" and Pres soloing drives me completly nuts. Similar to J. J. Johnson I became preschoholic!)

Edited December 29, 2003 by mmilovan

[JSngry]

2 – Of course, the “classic” Silver piano style was aped, scraped, and raped in all sorts of ways. For a while, any fool could play some “funky” clichés with a total lack of understanding and be considered “jazz” by some folks. But who would think that among those fools would be David Seville (aka Ross Bagdasarian) and that you could find some on the B-side of a Christmas classic? That’s right – “Almost Good” was the flip side of The Chipmunk’s “The Christmas Song’! This Liberty (another BN connection!) 45 was a hand-me-down from my dad’s boss’s daughter ca. 1959/60 or so, and was already worn out when I got it. This tune has always fascinated me for several reasons. In particular, the girl grew up, went to college, and as my Mom told it, “started writing poetry, hanging out with beatniks, and smoking dope”. Well, blame this record, because something very similar happened to me!

Beyond that, though, there’s some musical weirdness going on. Whoever the drummer is is copping a simple but SERIOUS groove. FAR OUT, Daddy-O! Then there’s the question of who’s actually playing – the label merely credits “The Music Of David Seville” which means nothing. And then, most wondrously of all, there’s that #11 chord in the 7th & 8th bar of the bridge (and again on the repeat) that is absolutely Monkian in quality, but is played TOTALLY straight, without either irony OR hipness. No “square” songwriter is going to write a chord like that in the first place, and no hip one is going to just put it in there without doing SOMETHING to emphasize it. So what the hell is going on? Damned if I know, but I still pull the thing out every so often and groove on the utterly weird, corny/hip novelty of it all. “Almost Good” indeed!

Oh...my...god...