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BFT 218 - May 2022


Dmitry

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Track 2: Barry Harris playing Parker's "Moose the Mooche"

Track 4: "Take the A Train", but not Ellington.

Track 5: Tune very familiar indeed, but of course I can't put a name to it.:(

Track 7: "Someday My Prince Will Come"

Edited by BillF
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Well, here was are in May already!

TRACK ONE -Bobby Jones, the opening track of his Cobblestone record. I bought and sold that thing twice before buying it a third time and deciding to keep it once and for all. I think you hear both the strenghts and weakness of his playing here. He did get a lot of press during his time with Mingus, and it seems that he knew how to work that. But he had a history, so..I don't know how much him and Mingus were really cut out for each other, but there it was. And they're both dead now, so there it will always be. But as for Jones, iirc, he's on a Bobby Pierce Cobblestone record where he really fits in in with he vibe. But you know, who's going to give you press for playing on a Bobby Pierce record, right? This life if funny that way.

TRACK TWO - There ya' go.

TRACK THREE - Why? 4& Bobbadabbaboobadabbaetc, every damn one of them. The second trumpeter does it less, but he's wanting to, and eventually does.

TRACK FOUR - I like this a lot. That's a real piano player, independence of not just hands, but fingers, of mind. Like Earl Hines, almost, that kind of deviousness,. All the stars in the world, Leonard!

TRACK FIVE - Lenny Breau at the Manne Hole, on RCA. I used to have that record, found it in a cutout bin ca. 1972. Never made up my mind about it and finally used it to pay rent to a guitar player who let me crash on his sofa for a while. I don't miss it, but it's good to hear one cut off it. The guy was amazing, but kind of a "bag of tricks" player if you know what I mean.

TRACK SIX - That's a lot of math, but it works! Alot vibes Oliver Lake or Arthur Blythe for a quick minute. I like it there's a plan, a form. Like I said, a lot of math, and math is not for everybody, but math is a fundamental part of life. Oh my, is that Ray Anderson on trombone? Chico Freeman? No idea, really. Kinda reminds me of a Barry Altschul thing, but if it is, it's one I don't know? If I don't, though, I should.

TRACK SEVEN - Yeah, I like this one a lot too. There's a homemade quality to it, the feel, and the sideways approach to the changes, like, yeah, they're there and they'll still be there when I get back to them, I love people who play like that. It almost sounds like Larry Coryell. I don't usually like him that much, but I like this a LOT.

TRACK EIGHT - Reggie with Sam, Andrew, and Julian. and Phaeeron of course (since we're on a first-name basis here...This is one of those great records that kinda came and went...but people keep finding it anew, as well they should. Postcards had a limited output as a label, but they did mighty fine for themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcards_Records I just graze for them and when I find one (which isn't often, to be honest), I carpe diem.

Ok, Very enjoyable comp, and not too long a listen. Appreciated on all counts!

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On 01/05/2022 at 2:05 PM, BillF said:

Track 2: Barry Harris playing Parker's "Moose the Mooche"

Track 4: "Take the A Train", but not Ellington.

Track 5: Tune very familiar indeed, but of course I can't put a name to it.:(

Track 7: "Someday My Prince Will Come"

P.S. Clues from Jim's post lead me to say the tune on Track 5 is "Bluesette" by Toots Thielemans. Of course!

Edited by BillF
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1. Familiar composition, played faster than I remember.  Johnny Griffin comes to mind.
2. Yardbird Suite by a piano trio, Hampton Hawes, I think.
3. Sure sounds like Art Farmer.  One of the many times I said that, I was actually right.
4. This is Roland Hanna playing a Duke Ellington composition from the album Perugia, recorded live at Montreux.  I think it's Take the A Train, which may be Strayhorn.  Recorded just after Duke's passing.
5. Jim Hall?
6. Charles Mingus?  Quite possibly with Dolphy.
7. Someday My Prince Will Come on guitar, introduced by long bass solo.  NHOP, maybe with Philip Catherine? 
8. Expressive trombone intro, with Trane aware sax coming in later.  The sax makes me lean away from J. J. Johnson and Slide Hampton, and I don't think it's Grachan Moncur.  Steve Turre?
 

Edited by randyhersom
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1 - Love the tempo and energy. Total concentration from that bass player. Super clean production. Pretty sure I've heard this one before but can't name it. 

2 - Nice trio, live recording. Haynes on drums? Sounds like a standard but I can't tell which. 

3 - This reminds me of a Freddie Hubbard CTI date. Pretty sure this is a standard too. 

4 - Take the A Train...

Will have to come back for the rest later...

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37 minutes ago, randyhersom said:

4. This is Roland Hanna playing a Duke Ellington composition from the album Perugia, recorded live at Montreux.  I think it's Take the A Train, which may be Strayhorn.  Recorded just after Duke's passing.

DOH!

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1 – Bam, sounds great to me.  Thinking I have this.  1970’s vintage by experienced players?  Bass seems to be the Stanley Clark-influenced  “butterfly” style, though the solo seems to harken back to an earlier walking style, just very sped up.  Love the tenor solo.   I’m wanting to say Junior Cook?

2 – “Moose the Mooche”.  Well done trio.

3 – Very pleasant, but fades into the background for me. 

4 – “Take the A Train”.  Too ornate to be Duke.  Loses interest for me.
5 – Very tastefully done.  Fades into the background for me.  Joe Pass?

6 – Not nearly as “tasteful” but certainly more interesting IMO.  Not sure who it is. 

7 – “Someday My Prince Will Come”. Nice enough.  I’m wanting to say someone like Ed Bickhart on this, definitely someone influenced by Jim Hall.

8 – Good cut.  Like the bass player with the double stops in his solo!  Trombonist’s album?

 

Thanks for putting this together, short and sweet!  Every cut is nice, and I love #1.  Look forward especially to ID’s of it and #6!

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Track 01 - Sounds a lot like Booker Ervin's Scoochie, but it's not that.  Burning tempo, and a player not overly beholden Coltrane.  Not a player I'm overly familiar with, but definitely not a slouch.  Awfully fast track to open the BFT -- I'm intrigued.  Bassist is the least interesting of the first three soloists, pianist and saxophonists both aquitting themselves very well at this break-neck pace.   A good cut, but I can't help but wonder where this test is going.

Track 02 - Moose The Mooch.  And that's gotta be Barry Harris.  Yeah, it's from this, which was one of the first dozen-or-so Jazz albums I ever bought.  Love this record, particularly side 1, track 2.  I saw Clifford Jordan explain meeting Moose.  "I was playing with Barry Harris, and he said, 'Hey Cliff, Moose the Mooch is in the house!' and I said, 'Say what?'  I met him, he's a real guy."  To me, this is one of those albums that NEEDS to be in a Jazz collection.

Track 03 - Man, nice, warm sound.  Facility, as well.  Okay, that's Kenny Barron, and definitely Buster Williams now that I can hear the bass better, so this is a Steeplechase date.  Could be Billy Hart, but he's keeping it pretty controlled.  Yeah, there's the toms.  Hold on, now, that's a different voice, isn't it?  Okay, put the headphones on, and yes, different channel, so two trumpets.  I can sleuth this one out, for sure.  I'm assuming it's John McNeil, so it's got to be this.  Oh, man, so glad I put the phones on -- Buster!  And Billy is unmistakable, now.  A tune I frequently overlook -- I'm glad they didn't.  Beautiful.

Track 04 - Needle drop says what?  Ah, that intro changing octaves is a gimme.  This is from this.  Love that stride feel he gets going.  There's really not a lacking track on this.  

Track 05 - Bluesette.  I've heard this version, but I don't have it.  Nice, patient, lyrical approach.  Like somebody gave Pat Martino a cup of chamomile tea.  Oh, nevermind.  Suddenly we're into bop line land, but I don't recognize the phrasing -- kind of on the front side of the beat.  Drummer is kind of pushing the tempo to my ear.  These guys can play, just not sure this is the tune to take in this direction (just my preference).  Something about that bass doesn't sit right -- is it electric?  It's not a miss, but the rest of this test has set a pretty high bar, and I'm not sure this met that standard.

Track 06 - Dense arrangement.  That alto is mighty familiar.  Almost Dolphy-esque, but later.  We're straddling the tradition and the avant garde here.  Definitely a gritty listen.  Tenor player doesn't seem quite up to the level of the first two.  It's good, I mean, it's honest and they're all working and listening, but tenor's execution is just a tick off from the first two.  This works because the bass/drums hold it together (sometimes one at a time) regardless of what else is going on.  Piano is off on his own trip, and they're holding it down for him until he comes back.  This is really good.  Very intrigued.  Don't break my heart and tell me it's Braxton.

Track 07 - Someday My Prince.  Don't know that guitar sound.  Very raw.  Love the bass on this.  Drums aren't making a huge impression, but that bass!  Something is... how to put this... the "swing" in the guitar isn't quite right.  Again, like he's playing toward the edges of the beat.  This track is all about the bass for me.  Approach reminds me of Barney Kessel, but doesn't have his feel.  Man, I could listen to this bassist alone.  Drummer comes along a bit on the fours, but still not quite sold on his feel.

Track 08 - I was thinking this was I Got It Bad at first.  This is REALLY familiar.  Oh!  That's Sam Rivers.  Got it.  That's Reggie Workman, so this is from this (man, Sam is KILLING it on this!).   

Man, helluva test!  Great stuff throughout.  Thanks for the listen.

 

 

 

On 5/2/2022 at 0:36 PM, JSngry said:

DOH!

As you said, man, ALL the stars.

 

Edited by tkeith
Misspelled Kessel as "Kessler" [typing fast and not proofreading; shame on me]
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Nice selection of tunes. Should have noticed Roland Hanna, but I don't have Perugia. Others got there first on Barry Harris.

I thought of Julius Hemphill for #6 and did some research last night, but couldn't find any likely albums (incl. Raw Materials and Residuals) that include a trombonist.

Edited by T.D.
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Well done, gentlemen! Collectively you've got them all solved, save for the SIX (will be a tough nut to crack. Hint - the players are all American), and the SEVEN has proven to be a sleeper. I thought EIGHT would be a gotcha, but Sangrey made it out fast.

Only one of you got the THREE right...surprisingly.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Jumping in at the last minute here... busy couple of months, and I was sorry to miss last month's BFT but wasn't going to miss another if it killed me. 

I haven't read the above posts yet, just pasting my impressions here, which I wrote as I listened... I look forward to going back and seeing people's guesses & comments...

Track 1 - Wow... now that's a tempo. Burning! First thing it reminds me of is the Booker Ervin quartet from the mid 60s with Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, and Alan Dawson. And it does kinda sound like Book to me. I'm not confident in that guess though. But I like this a lot, great overall feeling and some very free improvising, in the non-literal sense of the word. Nice track.

Track 2 - Honest to god... I used to know the names of all those Bird tunes but I'm blanking on this one. This is a tight trio. Really loving the drummer especially. Tasty, tasty stuff. Louis Hayes? Some really interesting lines in the piano solo. Is this the Barry Harris Trio? BH is someone I'm no expert on, need to listen to more. This could be Sam Jones on bass then. This is excellent.

Track 3 - Sounds like we're jumping to the 70s now, and that's no bad thing! Beautiful trumpet sound! Or fluegelhorn? I'll note that I am not listening on a great sounding device unfortunately. The bass player sounds a bit Buster Williams-esque. Nice solo! Another winner for me.

Track 4 - "A" Train of course... solo piano? Damn solid, beautiful feel and total command of the instrument. Whoo! That ascending bit around 1:38. This is killer. Huh... there are definitely bits here that sound like OP to me, but it couldn't be him... could it? This is so damn good. Whoever it is, they're absolutely swingin their ass off. Outstanding!

Track 5 - Arg... having another memory lapse in trying to remember the name of this tune. That sure sounds like Jim Hall on guitar. No, wait a minute... I don't think so. It gets a bit less interesting to me once the guitarist gets into the continuous fast lines. Whoever this is has certainly listened to JH though. Overall I do like this but it maybe gets a little too clever for me. And I feel conflicted about the drummer...probably need to listen again to absorb all that's going on.

Track 6 - This is cool! It's landing somewhere between Mingus, Muhal, and Roscoe Mitchell for me... those are just initial impressions, people who are jumping to mind, not actual guesses though. This is wild! First solo is fantastic, hearing a lot of Dolphy influence there. OK, now that trombone player has THE SOUND. This is one I'll need to hear again to really process what the rhythm section is doing. This is a very happening track. I'm sure I know who these folks are but it's not coming to me at the moment. 

Track 7 - Bass player sounds very Scott LaFaro to me. "Someday My Prince Will Come." Interesting guitar player. This is kind of fascinating... I'm having trouble placing it historically because of the recording. But the guitarist has my attention. Definitely some unpredictable twists and turns. It's funny, there are some bits here that sound like Jim Hall to me too. Maybe every guitar player sounds like Jim Hall to me? (No, not really...) Definitely curious about the reveal for this one!

Track 8 - This one is kind of a puzzle... it's the first track that doesn't really speak to me. The players are all clearly good, and style-wise it appeals to me, but to my ears, nobody is really saying anything. I'm probably gonna regret saying that, but that's how I'm hearing it right now.

As I mentioned above, I did not have a great listening device at my disposal when listening to this-- I listened through a TV. No, I don't normally listen on a TV. Long story, not very interesting. But I hope to go back and check it out again on some decent headphones.

Thanks for your efforts Dmitry, a very enjoyable BFT!! 
 

EDIT: See? I told you I'd regret my comments on #8! :D:D:D

Edited by webbcity
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