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BFT 199 - Link & Discussion


mjzee

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Here are my reactions to this BFT. I have not read any of the comments by others. 

Track 1: This is a pleasant, spritely opener. I do not find it especially memorable, but it is pleasant. No idea who it is. 

Track 2:  The vocalist is very appealing. I do not know who it is. I want to know. 

Track 3:  I really do not know who this is, or even what instruments they are playing. They may be famous musicians. I am not familiar with this at all. 

Track 4: This sounds like Pablo recording artists of the 1970s combining with country music players who are quite good. I like this quite a lot. I look forward to finding out who is playing so well on it. That is a Charlie Parker song. 

Track 5: All the Things You Are. The guitarist is very strong. I am sure that I have never heard this before. 

Track 6: This is really interesting. I hear Ben Webster, and either Juan Tizol or someone trying to play like him. The pianist is not Duke Ellington. It is like an Ellington small group session without the Duke. Very intriguing. I would buy the album that this came from. 

Track 7: This really cooks. Whenever i hear a baritone saxophonist with that much in the way of chops, and a soulful sound, I think of Ronnie Cuber. This is really good. I like this track a lot 

Track 8: This sounds like Chico Hamilton, but sounds like it was recorded much later than the Chico Hamilton small group recordings. Maybe a tribute to Chico Hamilton?

Track 9: A beautiful tenor sax ballad. I can't identify who it is, but I really like it. 

Track 10:  That is Randy Weston. I did not know that he recorded a tenor sax/piano duet. I thought I had heard just about all of Weston's albums. Is that Billy Harper? I know that he recorded with Weston. 

Track 11:  Someone trying to play like McCoy Tyner, but it is clearly not McCoy. Very good technique by the pianist. The bassist is excellent, a lot of chops and a lot of feeling. These are two masterful musicians. I can't guess who they are. The bassist has to be in the upper echelon of bassists historically. 

Track 12: I love this. This is my favorite track on the Blindfold Test so far. Very exciting, fun, and a lot of substance. I need to buy this album. 

Track 13: This is Miles Davis from the "On the Corner" box set. I like that box set a lot. I think that the previously unreleased material is very interesting and strong. This is in the middle of the pack in terms of quality of the previously unreleased material. Thanks for including this. It sounds good on a Blindfold Test. 

Track 14: I have no idea what this is, but I like it a lot. Very tasteful use of strings. The bass player has a lot of soul. He is a master. 

Track 15: Frantic. To me, it never lights in a good place. I can listen to just about any avant garde jazz and I found this track a little irritating, which is really rare for me. The trumpet player is a master. 

Track 16: This is weird. At first I thought it was Paul Desmond, but as the track goes on I am not sure about that. The saxophonist was really good at imitating Paul Desmond at first, before settling into their own style. That sounds a lot like Jimmy Garrison to me on bass. That could be Elvin Jones playing in a restrained way, for him. I do not know who the guitarist is. This is very appealing and I can't wait to find out who this is!

Thanks for an enjoyable, and intriguing, Blindfold Test!

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With apologies, very late to the game this month.  

Track 01 -- This sounds familiar, but the longer it goes on, the less I feel that way.  Sounds like a player whose main horn is the soprano, rather than a doubler.  However, the list of players I can think of who fit that description is very short, particularly in the post-Lacy era.  I like the general feel, but the drummer bores the hell out of me.  Seems like if there was a bit more drive, this would really cook.  Soprano player has a nice sound, but when the improv tries to get too tricky, it loses it's footing to my ear, and ends up being a far less interesting statement.  I don't believe I know these players.  I'd like to hear more, but with a more supportive drummer.  Don't know the song, but it owes much to Lacy and Monk.

Track 02 -- Born to be Blue, representative of what I don't care for about 90% of Jazz vocalists.  She has a nice voice, but just sing the damned song.  There's a Miriam Klein record from the 70s (IIRC) featuring Dexter Gordon.  If you've known me 3 seconds, you know I love Dex.  I find that album almost unlistenable because she just won't shut up.  I'm sure the opinion is not popular, but too many singers have to play star and ruin the music.  The rhythm section is really enjoyable, and I'm even going to go so far as to suggest it's Mal Waldron on piano, because it's that good.  Likewise the bass player.  When the singing comes back in, it's very good at first, but then she gets all vocalist.  Sorry, just my bias, but this one missus and it's all the singers fault.

Track 03 -- This one is odd, but speaks directly to me.  Glad to hear increasingly more exploration of this instrumentation.  It's not desert island material, but it IS sheer enjoyment.  

Track 04 -- Billie's Bounce, my guess is by a blues guitarist, because that is not a Jazz rhythm section.  Guitarist can play, though again, definitely rooted in a different style.  Listened for the guitarist, in spite of the bass/drums.  Almost sounds like a canned backing behind the guitar and the keys.

Track 05 -- All The Things You Are.  This one has all that the last one didn't.  Weird comment, but reminds me of the old Music Minus One series from the 1950s.  Makes me wonder if we're not dealing with Milt Hinton, Barry Galbraith, Osie Johnson, and Tyree Glenn.  Again, not desert island material, but a very enjoyable cut -- mostly because they're just playing the music.  There's great musicianship without competing egos.

Track 06 -- Thought we were going in the direction of Caravan.  Instead, feels more like someone went in that direction and avoided royalties.  Not the level of musicianship of the last cut, but they mean it.  Thinking it's a little newer than it sounds, but not by much.

Track 07 -- Comin' Home Baby.  Not going to lie, I'm a sucker for this feel.  Sure sounds like a younger Ronnie Cuber, but seems too obvious.  Nope.  I take it back -- this guy is more raw than Ronnie (and I mean that in a good way).  No new ground being broken, but I can sit through this all day long.  Insert guitarist here.  Could be Pat Martino, but I don't think this guy is quite there.  Still, I find no fault with any of this -- maybe I'm an easy mark for this genre.  That COULD be Groove Holmes, because the organist is no slouch.  Seems maybe a shade off of Groove, but if it's not him, has definitely done a lot of listening to the man.  I'll take extra helpings of this, please.

Track 08 -- Sounds kind of like a soundtrack.  I like the oddness of the instrumentation, in context.  I'm getting a sense of Peter Sellers in the playful nature of the composition.  I don't think it IS a soundtrack, but it oughta be.  

Track 09 -- Good tune.  That rhythm section sound is perfect.  Almost feels like this song could be done even a tad slower or more rubato.  I really like this a lot, but I've got nothing on the saxophonist.  Wondering if it's one of those local/regional players on one of his rare recorded dates.  Again, could take a lot more of this.  Beautiful song.  Almost has the kind of feel of a Johnny Griffin ballad, but not that level of facility (hell, who DID?).  

Track 10 -- Sure has a Randy Weston feel in the first 20 seconds.  That left hand is filthy, and it surely does sound like Randy.  Wait, that phrasing is Billy Harper, though the sound isn't quite.  This must be that duet of Randy and Billy not too long ago.  Is the tune Blue Moses?  Yeah, that's Billy.  A little sleuthing suggests it's Blues To Senegal from this.

Track 11 -- Not sure who it is, but I'll bet the ranch that's Stanley Clarke on bass.  Sure sounds like McCoy's piano, too.  It's McCoy, but is it Stanley?  I was sure early, now I'm not.  Doesn't walk like Stanley, but that opening piece was very much in the Stanley alley.  I'm sticking with Stanley, but not sure what this is.  Needle drop, so it could be Rites of Strings, but I'm not familiar with the music from that album.

Track 12 -- Busy 70s Jazz?   Reminds me of the Roy Haynes Hip Ensemble.  
"I have no kick against modern Jazz,
Unless they try to play it too darn fast,
And change the beauty of the melody,
Until it sounds just like a symphony"
  - Chuck Berry
Sure sounds like Randy Brecker of that period on trumpet.  

Track 13 -- 70s cheese, but I'm not proud -- I love it.  The electronics bug me, but in the setting has me feeling wistful.  Makes me feel like Donald Fagen on the way to a hangover.  :D Sounds like somebody going for a hit.  To my ear, they should have made it.  That guitar reminds me of the guitar on Pharoah! on India Navigation.  The hornline is very Mangione-influenced.  Man, I'd play this stuff if asked.

Track 14 -- Holy Land!  I've been trying to find a chart that includes this intro.  One of the first tunes my Dad taught me (he no longer owned the record, so I played notes until he heard the right one).  It's not Cedar.  I like the addition of the strings.  Now, that sounds like Billy Higgins' gallop, so what the heck is this?  Sounds like Buster Williams to me on bass.  I take it back; that is either Cedar or somebody doing their best Cedar in tribute.  I can hear Billy's grunt, so there is no more doubt, there.  How do I not have this?  Nice!  A quote of Clifford's The Highest Mountain at the end of the piano solo.  Must have.

Track 15 -- Detest that drum sound (not the player, the recording).  Recognize the song once it gets going around 1:30, but can't give you the title.  I refer back to the Chuck Berry quote.  These are good players, but I'd rather slow it down and hear the message.  This is so fast it lacks a message, to me.  Amazing ability, but the tempo is gratuitous.  Bassist has a great sound (slow down so I can hear it [YOU DAMNED KIDS!!!]).  This would be intense live (minus the crappy engineering).  Curious what it is (particularly because of the instrumentation).  Very much like the bassist.

Track 16 -- Take 5, obviously.  Desmond, and I assume Ed Bickert. Oh, yeah.  I bought this on vinyl in college at a flea market.  Live.  Great quote in Desmond's notes about Bickert:  "He smokes more than me, which is impossible."  The way this tune should have always been done, particularly the bass.

Stuff landed on both sides of me, but my ears appreciated the exercise overall.  I feel like I should have known more of these people so I'm looking forward to the reveal.

 

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BFT 199
1.  Feels like 90's or later neo-bop.  Could have come out on Criss-Cross.  I think of Bobby Watson as more of a featured horn than one choosing to fade back into the ensemble ever so elegantly as happens here.  But I have no better guess.
2.  Fairly clueless again.  Maybe Karryn Allison?
3.  Guitarist is more aligned with South American forms than jazz here.  It could be Bobby Hutcherson on marimba or Dave Samuels.
4.  This is quite happy to let the country in.  First thought was Hank Garland who played well in both genres, but after a few listens I'm saving him for the next track.  Could this be from Hillbilly Jazz by Vassar Clements? 
5.  Nice vibes and guitar version of All The Things You Are.  The opening reminds me of an MJQ track, but that's a guitar, not a piano.  So I'm wondering if this could be Hank Garland with Gary Burton as a sideman.
6.  Caravan, and I'm leaning toward believing it's Duke's band.
7.  Brawny baritone fronting organ and guitar combo.  I can't remeber hearing Pepper Adams or Cecil Payne with organ.  Since he doesn't come in right away, he may not be the leader, but he sure steals the show.  My weird guess is James Carter.
8.  I think Kenny Burrell until the other instruments come in, then that thought ends.  Maybe Harold Alden and Ken Peplowski, but who would be playing the fiddle?
9.  Lots of people can pull off a nice ballad like this here and there.  I haven't found any guesses I like better than later Dexter Gordon.
10.  Has to be Randy Weston, and I'm pretty sure it's Billy Harper he's duetting with.
11.  My guess is McCoy Tyner, sometime from Trident onwards.  So many players soarked his influence up like like a sponge that I'm probably wrong.
12.  Is this from Lee Morgan's last sideman record date, Intensity by Charles Earland?
13.  The first question that hit me was Miles or not Miles.  The playing gets close to late seventies miles with a little wah-wah pedal.  But the arrangement is much more through-composed than what Miles was doing.  I'm going to guess Eddie Henderson.
14.  Piano with strings, quite well done.  McCoy recorded with strings at least twice, but I don't think this is him.  Kenny Barron or Cyrus Chestnut maybe?
15.  I knew I knew this but wasn't finding it because I fixated on Max Roach and tried to remember what Mildama sounded like.  Then I noticed the absence of sax, and figured out that it was one of my favorite obscure seventies dates, The Trio by Ted Curson.  The track is Snake Johnson. Trumpet-bass-drums trios were very rare at that time, I only know of unreleased Don Cherry and Mongezi Feza for sure preceding this one, and the awesome musicianship of Roy Haynes and Ray Drummond are essential to the album's success.
16.  Take Five with guitar and alto.  Paul Desmond with Jim Hall, maybe?

Enjoyable from end to end.  Thanks!
 

Edited by randyhersom
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Wow, Randy, I’m very impressed you were able to ID the Ted Curson track!  You also correctly ID’d the Hank Garland, Weston/Harper, and Paul Desmond.  And Willie Nelson does appear on #4, but he’s not the leader.  The rest will have to wait until the 31st.

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23 minutes ago, danasgoodstuff said:

#4 Herb Ellis from Texas Swings, according to which it's Scrapple from the Apple, featuring Willie, Johnny Gimble on one of the fiddles, didn't I use something from this on my blindfold test many moons ago?

#5 Definitely Hank Garland with Gary Burton.

You are correct that #4 is Billie's Bounce, misidentified on the album as Scrapple.  Also correct about #5.

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