king ubu

Well, finally had some time to listen to disc 2: #1 - Great opener! Have the feeling I should know it... Love the way the drummer drives that band! In such a light way. Nice tenor. #2 - Piano sounds familiar. Anotehr very nice score. Love the bari-heavy ensembles on both tracks! Could this be Bobby Timmons? (Only have some of his trio recordings.) Wynton Kelly? #3 - Kansas City swing thing? Freddie-Green-like guitar. Who could this be? No idea. Sounds a bit like Illinois on barisax. Leo Parker? Too lazy to check what tune this is, but I think I have that somewhere in a different version. #4 - Similar, yet a bit more, what, "modern"? Nice sweet clarinet, fat Satchmo-styled trumpet, I suppose I ought to recognize several of these musicians. A Teddy Wilson side with Billie sitting out? Guess not... #5 - Sounds familiar, but after a repeated listen, I can't tell. Like the singer alright (checked the few Helen Humes sides I have, not there, ain't sure it's her). Alto sounds a bit like Hodges (could as well be Willie Smith - if Bud Shank can hear similarity, I might as well mix them up...). Then tehre's that nice, slightly-distorted and too-loud-in-the-"mix" guitar (probably having his amplifier a bit too close to the microphone...). Like it! #6 - Lunceford? Hell, I know this! Jay McShann! Yup, that one I have on some CD, but don't have that with me. Here's that alto solo! Now is this Bird, or is taht the tune the liner notes writer of the Decca CD is not sure who it is? "Swingmatism"? Love this one! Great music! #7 - Forties afro cuban bop? Sounds very familiar. The trombone's a bit rough, the alto a bit sweet... like the percussion solo! (What is this, timbales?) #8 - That's the Kenny Clarke tune turned into "Tenor Madness". Is this the early version with Fats Navarro? Hey, there's a second trumpet? Nice! Hawk on tenor? #9 - Don't know this one. Like it, though. The tune sounds familiar, but I can't name it. Very nice one! #10 - Oscar Pettiford, I assume? Then who's playing the second cello? Or is this overdubbed? Or pre-overdub era? No idea, to be honest. #11 - A nice one! Big sound! Not very early Rollins? Sound a bit like Lateef... don't know. #12 - Finally some doorbells... pre-Bags? No idea. Like the piano. #13 - Now here's some smooth Charlie Christian styled guitar, not the rough r'n'b sound from #5. Is this a Tal Farlow side? Will ahve to get that Mosaic, but not now... #14 - Is this "I'll remember April"? I always mix up the titles of standards. Nice one, but no idea. Lie the samba (?) beat a lot here! #15 - Another nice one. Like the sparse setting with piano out during the guitar solo. Also very nice soft drumming. Great! #16 - Not sure about this one. Second go. Is this a retro thing, or two old guys doing what they did way back in the days when they were young? Not too fond of this screaming tenor... #17 - Strange, I'm not very fond of this, yet I played it three times before continuing with... #18 - ... which also is not my favourite track of the CD. Nice swinging here, though. #19 - More of the screaming stuff. Nice one this time. Not Jacquet? #20 - Nice sequencing. Not the music I listen to, but I like it alright. #21 - Latin doorbells. Maybe a bit too nice, but still I ought to get more of this kind of music. #22 - This one's nice! The trombone is great, has a haunting sound. So has the tenor. West coast? Walter Benton? #23 - Some more vocalese to end. Not Hendricks this time, I suppose. Nice one, groovy! Another good drummer here! A strong ending, two good tracks after a couple ones I wasn't too fond of. ********* Mike, many many thanks for compiling these enjoable discs! ubu

Chaney, I don't have that Kowald disc, so it would be difficult to be fond of it... still very thin on Kowald. When you order that Siemens thing, you certainly get a discount buying two of them and sending one to my address, ok? Could use it... no ironing time this weekend, and not next month, either. David, that Lake concert sounds like a great one, except for Allmond, whom I don't know anyway. Also as I missed both his and Tchicai's concerts in Zurich, I'd love to hear their recording!

no friends, no pic this time, you couldn't appreciate it anyway...

This is real sad news to start the weekend

Please provide a link once that thread is there, for the non-JC-posters among us! JC Ask Anthony Braxton thread thanks, Hans!

Thanks, but that's a bit too steep I think! Will try the cheapo shop here first ("Mediamarkt"). ubu

I've been hearing good things about this disc for a while. I'll have to grab a copy soon. in other news, according to Lois, the admin over at JC, Anthony Braxton has agreed to sign up and start an "Ask Anthony Braxton" thread. Should be interesting, to say the least... Please provide a link once that thread is there, for the non-JC-posters among us! D.D.: taht disc sounds good! The buying-function on the label's site isn't working though (at the moment only?). Which again is a good thing as it keeps me from spending even more money... ubu

Hate to quote myself but I already identified the Sidewinder track a long time ago. no one implied you didn't Indeed not. I was just talking of my own post, nothing else. I don't look at this as a contest, anyway, sure it's fun, but if it ought to be a contest, there would have to be conditions etc... and we wouldn't want that, would we?

I listened to Disc 1 also. Lateef didn't come to mind when I heard this session, but now that you mention it, there may be some similarities in their style at that point in time. I immediately thought of Sonny Rollins. I'll have to listen again. Rollins, yes - there's a quote somewhere at the beginning (I fell asleep shortly after reading the first pages) of Val Wilmer's essai about Ayler and his huge sound - so Rollins must be there, too. But Wilmer writes something like Ayler being sort of bigger, soundwise, and Rollins (and others, don't recall the names) being in awe of Ayler's sound. ubu

John, "Drift" is the only Blake disc I have heard, but I really like it: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pgblake/mblake/drift.html ubu

I have to admit Mike, my comments about the first two tracks may sound a bit more positive on paper (well, on the screen) than what I actually felt, but I strive for the positive, usually, and try to be open for as different music as I can - that's what the BFT thing is about! Now I hope to find time this weekend to really explore disc 2 (although I will be away from my collection, which will keep me from identifying those swing small group tracks - I can't ever manage to keep those titles in memory... but some of the tracks sounded very familiar). ubu

Is this out in Europe? Anyone seen it yet? ubu

Had a listen to the army band and the '62 tracks. While the two former are not more than a nice gesture, the '62 tracks are rather nice! Ayler stretches out on "Sonnymoon", tackles "Summertime" (his version on "My Name is Albert Ayler" is awesome, maybe my favourite recording of this tune!), and his favourite standard, "On Green Dolphin Street" (this too is on "My Name..."). Is this just me or are there, if not traces, at least similarities, in Ayler's style (sound AND lines) to Yusef Lateef's? I am not really strong about it, but I seem to hear ties. Anyone else? ubu

Well, my comments are as meagre as usual... but at least I didn't draw a full blank, if that disc with Hendricks is indeed where "Sidewinder" is coming from.

Uncle Albert? ubu B-)

Glad to see Nat Su mentioned! I got me a burn of that Ellington disc he made in duo with pianist Fredi Luescher for the AltriSuoni label, after hearing a track from another disc with Luescher on Nate Dorwards BFT. The Ellington disc, "Smada", is a real beauty! Steve Coleman is not someone I really have heard many times, yet when I hear some of his work, I usually are rather impressed. Though - that might provoke some controversy - in my opinion, he's a highly able bop player, presenting his art in slightly un-boppish surroundings... and those surroundings I'm not sure I really like them. His current Five Elements has a very able trumpet player in Jonathan Finlayson, as well as the usual tight and grooving rhythm section, yet somehow I am not sure how well it all comes together in the end. It does, somehow (otherwise I'd be bored by the music, and that is not at all the case). Bright Moments: my Zorn with questionmark was rather questioning his greatness (or, as is the topic here, favourite-ness), than age. He's a chameleon, and certainly an able altoist, but I'm not sure he really has something such as his personality on the horn. ubu

Well, I finally got my discs a few days ago, and was able to listen to them once yesterday, so this is real blindfold, no getting to know the music yet, and no learned and knowledgeable things to be expected... #1 - Who'd have thunk it, a doorbellist for starters... Nice and easy swingin' stuff, a bit too far on the light side for my taste. Like the brushes, though. No need to guess, as this is not at all my usual fare. #2 - That beat is a little bit too, shall I say generic? Well, that's my opinion, only. Like the singer alright, but I'm not too fond of teh rest. They sure listened to some Weather Report, the b/d team sounds quite a bit like the Pastorius/Acuña unit to my ears. #3 - This is a bit more like it for my ears. Again no idea, though... #4 - Sounds a bit like Larry Young I'd say. Very very nice! The barisax is good, so is the trumpet, with that brassy sound. Not Young though. Percussion adds to this, too (rather than - as it often seems to do - distracts). #5 - This sounds slightly familiar, like it! #6 - "Lush Life", beautiful! Would like to hear more of this! The good run continues! #7 - "It's Only A Paper Moon". Very nice tune! First time I heard it was on Nat Cole's great "After Midnight" session. Like the bass, love the voice! No idea once more... #8 - Another winner. Love the understated style on guitar. Sound is a bit like Wes, but not the rest of the playing. Should I know this? What-/whoever it is, I do like it! #9 - The good run, well... it does continue! Altough the beat again is a bit too smooth, I like alto and trumpet. #10 - "Sidewinder" - I guess a bit of googling could bring this up. Nice one! Jon Hendricks? Or Bill Henderson (don't know any of Henderson's discs, so this is just to throw in at least some names...) #11 - Will need a few more listens to this one to decide. No comment yet, except it's a strange listen (which has nothing to do with good/bad or like/dislike). #12 - A terrific closer! Mike loves them vocalists, yes? Guess I could learn some from him... Thanks for the enjoyable discs! I did enjoy a first spin to disc 2 even more, but that was just background music, no notes taken, no time to look into my collection trying to identify some familiar sounding ones. ubu

Happy birthday!

Mingus at Antibes!

Happy birthday! Your avatar is one of my favourites around here! ubu

looks good! those guys are the ones Stephan Wittwer was involved with in the seventies as well. Also Grob, of course. Is that a reissue?

(Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/542291.htm) Meanwhile: Dissing the dirt: Slang outruns its iffy past Jan Freeman The Boston Globe Thursday, October 7, 2004 BOSTON In a recent New Yorker magazine profile, Teresa Heinz Kerry got some grief for her grasp of English idiom after she called her detractors "scumbags." "I doubt that she knows the literal meaning of 'scumbag,' wrote the reporter, Judith Thurman, "but perhaps, after 40 years in America ... she should have learned it." Thurman does not, however, enlighten her audience; maybe she assumes that all New Yorker readers know what John Kerry's wife doesn't. If so, I suspect she's wrong: When I wrote about the word in 1998, after a Republican congressman called Bill Clinton a scumbag, dozens of readers told me they'd had no idea of its origins. Though it's now usually just an all-purpose derogation, a cop-show synonym for "dirtbag," "creep" or "lowlife," scumbag originally meant "condom" (to many, "used condom" - scum being slang for semen). But if lots of people don't know this, do we really want to spread the word? Or are we better off letting scumbag enjoy life as a nonspecifically nasty term of abuse? A few slang words, after all, have outrun their unsavory origins. "Bollix" for "mess up" is no longer vulgar, having left "ballocks" in the dust; "nuts" (though it used to be euphemized "nerts") is likewise untainted by its past. "Screw up" is now acceptable, though other uses of "screw" vary in their vulgarity ratings. "Futz around," which may be either a euphemism for you-know-what or a descendant of the Yiddish "arumfarzen" (no translation necessary), is not uncommon in print nowadays, and even "putz around" is gaining ground. (Its resemblance to "putter" may make it seem milder than "futz," though in fact its root is Yiddish slang for penis.) Origins are not, in any case, what make a term taboo; it was cultural consensus, not any secret meaning, that once made "bloody" Britain's worst swear word. These days, though, consensus can be hard to find. Newspapers try to hold a conservative line on language - The New York Times, for instance, will print "crap shoot," but you can't say "crap" unless you're Lyndon Johnson (and dead). But print editors are the Canutes of usage, trying to turn back the usage tide rolling in from TV, pop music and the Internet. For would-be gatekeepers, the speed of slang evolution keeps reviving the essential scumbag question: How dirty can a word be if nobody knows it's dirty? For the past decade, the slang word most delicately balanced on this usage bubble has been "sucks," as in "Mom, these sneakers suck." Seven years ago, when I first wrote about it, I was sure it was headed for respectability: The kids using the term had no sense of any sexual meaning, after all, and (as my then-teenage daughter pointed out) the new usage was intransitive; there was no grammatical object being sucked. Sucks may have been borrowed from the slang for fellating, but innocent employment, I thought, would neutralize its iffy past. It had respectable relatives, too. "Sucks to you!" (origin unknown) had been ordinary British youthspeak since the early 20th century, and "suck up to," though probably of indelicate ancestry, was so thoroughly domesticated that in 1953, C.S. Lewis used it in one of his Narnia books for children. Besides, "suck" has so many standard uses that you can't really quarantine the syllable. "Sucker" meaning "dupe," for instance, is merely a babe in the woods, a still-suckling newborn; and to children in many parts of the country, a sucker is an innocent lollipop. But I didn't reckon with the literalists, who decided kids should know this was a bad word, even if they'd prefer that someone else explained why. We could have told the kids "sucks" was short for "sucks lemons" and left well enough alone, but no: Parents banned it, then Boston Red Sox baseball fans adopted it for their (increasingly pathetic) anti-Yankees slogan, and some of them, just to show that they really meant to be crude, dragged their rivals' star shortstop into it, wearing their "Yankees suck" T-shirts with "Jeter swallows" on the back. This is a shame; though every civilization needs a store of taboo words, "sucks" is a useful slang verb. The finger-waggers say we should use "more descriptive" words - "the Yankees are evil," perhaps- but in fact, "sucks" energetically fills a syntactical role that would otherwise belong to "to be," that essential but uninspiring verb. Strunk and White ("Use the active voice") would have to approve, and so do I. Jan Freeman's column appears regularly in The Boston Globe.

David, here's a thread I started about a show I saw/heard in March. Stubblefield was still there, then, but he remained seated while playing and didn't really look all that well. ubu