So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[JSngry]

Did not know that about elder Don Not Elder Don. Very unfortunate.

[jazzbo]

New cd from Solid Records (Japan)

Followed by

[Peter Friedman]

[duaneiac]

6 hours ago, soulpope said:

!!!  I love this one and the video version of it as well.  Did it ever have an official DVD release here in the USA?  I only have the VHS version put out by Rhino/Atlantic which I transferred to a DVD-R.

Now playing:

[JSngry]

 

[JSngry]

 

You know, I think that "blowing" is not something that everybody should aspire to. It's really a very specific esthetic, particular to a maybe only slightly less specific cultural continuum, and god knows, how many people really need to do that? A lot of less-than-essential life energy is spent on pursuing some illusory ideal, like dreaming will make it so, and, uh....no.

But you take some crap like Bud Shank and Oliver Nelson making an easy listening record, that's got a clearly defined purpose, expertly executed, and respectful on all fronts. All it asks you to believe is that here's a convenient record of pop songs for more general audiences and we're not going to bullshit you into thinking that it's anything else, but we're also not going to give you grounds for saying that any of it was half-assed.

Truthfully, if I'm going to spend a few minutes listening to anything, I'd rather spend it with the principled expert bullshit than the self-yanking chains of so may people pulling yesterday's reality out of their ass expecting me to be impressed or something, like you're deserving of my time jsut becuase you can play. Respect, yeah, always. But time? MY time? No. I ain't getting any younger. so I will listen to all kinds of bullshit, but not any kind of bullshit.

 

Inspired!

 

[JSngry]

Details!

 

So much happening...

 

[mikeweil]

[Peter Friedman]

This one features outstanding playing from Pete Christlieb and Bob Cooper. Mike Wofford is also in top form. I consider this one of the very best two tenor sessions out there. 

[duaneiac]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Details!

 

So much happening...

 

One thing I have felt is kind of odd/unfair is that in most record stores I've seen Dionne Warwick classified in the "Vocals" section alongside Sinatra, Streisand, Crosby, etc, while her sister Dee Dee is classified in the "Soul/R&B' section.  To my mind Dionne Warwick was/is a soul singer -- maybe not a let-it-all-out, funky soul singer (there are/were plenty of those in the world as it is), but certainly a soul singer nonetheless.

 

Now playing:

Kind of like "The Gentle Side of Betty Carter".  Tracks 1, 5, 9, 12, & 13 were recorded 55 years ago today, Aug. 10, 1962.  Gotta respect the longevity of guitar players; of all the personnel listed for that recording session, only Kenny Burrell and John "Bucky" Pizzarelli are still with us.

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by duaneiac

[duaneiac]

Johnny Lytle!!!

I've long loved this gorgeous Johnny Lytle penned ballad (not something one might expect to find on an album bearing this title).  I don't know if there are/were any lyrics to it, but if not, some talented lyricist should get to work on that.  This is a tune which deserves to be covered by other instrumentalists and singers.

 

 

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, duaneiac said:

One thing I have felt is kind of odd/unfair is that in most record stores I've seen Dionne Warwick classified in the "Vocals" section alongside Sinatra, Streisand, Crosby, etc, hile her sister Dee Dee is classified in the "Soul/R&B' section.  To my mind Dionne Warwick was/is a soul singer -- maybe not a let-it-all-out, funky soul singer (there are/were plenty of those in the world as it is), but certainly a soul singer nonetheless.

All of the above! And more!

You know, when I was a kid, I thought all of "that" was kind of dull/whitebread/etc. Then I read a really good appreciation of Burt Bachrach in Jazz and Pop magazine that started me to slowly re-listening and reconsidering (also in the issue was a deeeeep interview with Rahsann, where he talked about shit like how Wes Montgomery put his life-soul into his sound and now you can push a button and sound like Wes Montgomery, so yeah good insights from Rahsaan and good insight into Bachrach all in one skinny magazine, it was so easy to learn about different shit at the same time then...oh well).

When I was in my teens, I hated this. Now, I get it. It's not about cum, and it's not about Fuck The Man, and it's not about anything that a kid, hip or nerd, would be instinctually drawn to. What it is about is really boring stuff like metric/harmonic displacements, tension and release, and creating a melody line the just keeeeeeeeps on going. And going. And going. It's sexual in a most cerebral way, and cerebral in a most sexual way. Don't expect a kid to know what that means, a kid won't know, a kid can't know, a kid, perhaps, shouldn't know.

I mean, once you calm down and start hearing details, once you learn enough to get an awareness of how harmony has a shape, rhythm has a shape, orchestration has a shape, damn near everything has a shape, ok, then you hear all the details on this record and realize that everything that is happening happened intentionally, and yet Dionne is just in the zone with it, it's all intentional but there is still soul and energy, humanity out the ass, full humanity, yin and yang, it is humbling. Listen to the bass line, listen to the little background touches that didn't have to be there to sell the record, listen to that goddamn trumpet player just bringing it home and putting it to bed (dynamics, too have a shape, and list to the dynamics of that, what, two bars? JUST two bars!), there is so much motion, contrary and complimentary all at once, this is just one hell of a human achievement, and it's all in a fucking pop record. I'm not going settle for less than that in any music, not as an ongoing investment. It's not about anything except fully realizing the spiritual potential of what it means to be alive, in whatever body you are in at the time. It can be little or it can be huge. But what it's not about is settling, even settling for "excellence", that's ultimately the devil's game. Life is a series of contractions and expansions. And. Not or. When you settle, that's not life.

Betty Carter would eat you ass live right in front of your face and you would take it because she was always right. Lockjaw Davis will slit your throat and drink you blood (film at 11!). Dionne Warwick could take more Burt Bachrach psychodramas than any one human should have probably healthily had inside them and create a very adult, suburban soul that is at lease as so covertly subversive as to be paradigm-changing.

Life is short, humans are eternal, and at some point in life, details matter. It is only in real life that a girl has to cry.

If there's such a thing as American Pop Songs As Lieder, "art songs" not just consumptional warmfuzzies, this type of thing gets in on the first ballot, at least if I get a vote.

There, I feel better now.

[duaneiac]

[JSngry]

 

[kinuta]

[paul secor]

18 Classic Blues Songs from the 1920's Vol. 7 (Blues Images)

[soulpope]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Soulful horn section ....

[BillF]

[soulpope]

[JSngry]

 

[JohnS]

This morning

[paul secor]

4 hours ago, BillF said:

Good one, Bill!

2 hours ago, JohnS said:

This morning

 

[John Tapscott]

[soulpope]

Feel good music and some fine solo work by John Stubblefield ....

 

[HutchFan]

The Jazz Tribe - The Next Step (Red, 1999)
Excellent.