What vinyl are you spinning right now??

[Leeway]

Braxton (as, ss, cl), George Lewis (tb), John Lindberg (b), Gerry Hemingway (d).

[Leeway]

CONSERVING NRG - Hal Russell and the NRG Ensemble (Hal Russell, Steve Hunt, Chuck Burdelik, Brian Sandstrom, Curt Bley). Principally Jazz LP.

Picked this up yesterday, gave it a spin, and really enjoyed it.

[Leeway]

JAZZ PA SVENSKA - Swedish Azz - Mats Gustafsson, Dieb13, Kjell Nordeson, Per-Ake Holmlander, Erik Carlsson. Not Two.

[JSngry]

Out Of The Cool is a totally different record with "Sister Sadie" leading off Side One. Who knew? Will get to the McFarland half tomorrow, it's been decades since I heard it, I think...

Out Of The Cool is also a totally different record with "Where Flamingos Fly" following "Bilbao" on Side Two...I'd recommend that all serious Evans enthusiasts check this set out simply to enjoy the effect of the different programming, it's...significant, at least to me it was.

The McFarland stuff...a little disappointing. Great writing, but a little moth-bally emotionally (again, to me). Richard Davis, though, hey...

Also on the table today (a low impact work day, time to get up every 15-20 minutes and pay attention while listening, Perfect LP Storm!).

Forget all about today's "Shecky" synonym-cliches about old-school Vegas hacks, this motherfucker was SHARP. Old-school sharp, yes, but the voice heard here is that of a man who sees and hears everything and is ready for it before it comes at him. The assumption that it all will come at him, hey, that's another discussion, but not this one.

PSA - If you have kids who like to music-shop, Skype with them while they do. My daughter & her boyfriend (on premises) & I (Skype-ing with them) found this in the basement of Dusty Groove for a buck, and it's nowhere near as plowed as I expected it to be, being in that place at that price. And the presence, jeez, this sucker pops out of the speakers, POWWWWwwww, Plus, although there's no such thing as THE perfect jazz record, I don't know what that means,, I'll express a personal opinion and say that this is certainly A perfect jazz record. Some people say big bands, why? Well, THIS, that's why.

The DG basement inventory is not listed online, so...Skype Diem!

Went into this not expecting much...the kid looks like Gary Lewis, it's on Coral, and the liner notes by NFL Hall-Of-Famer Lenny Moore just reek of opportunistic tax-break Presenting-ism, but...it's not a bad record, at times it's a little surprising, actually, when the kid plays like a kid and not an eager-to-please lick-licker. Not sure that Eric Gale was the right guy at this time, he was still green himself, at least relative to what he would become, but overall, I've heard beter by worse. Plus, the back cover shows two wild bill Davis & one Lionel Hampton w/Charlie Teagarden records on Coral which, as with this one, I've never even dreamed about possibly existing even in theory. WTF?

UBER plus, though, is Moore's liner essay, which is, on the whole, pretty amazing, if wholly counter to any jazz-hype conventionality. He starts out painting a picture of a kid who literally couldn't even make it through the Star Spangled Banner but who sat in anyway and showed...something, and then Moore took him in under his wing, let him move in with him, took him around to meet all the cats, groomed him until he began to get a rep as "a white cat with soul", and now, here he is, y'all, here he is.

But the MEGA-UBER plus is this passage:

I remember when I saw "Coltrane" yeas back, here in Baltimore; after each set, "Trane" would go in the back with his horn and begin practicing different scale runs, all with tremendous rapidity. As far as my layman's ear was concerned, it was "over, around, and through the scale". It sort of reminded me of a man trying to walk in the front door and back out at the same time.

Hello NFL Hall-Of-Famer Lenny Moore, unwitting catcher of Trane's quantum-ness in action. bravo, sir, BRAVO!

Spoonful of HOOT! is more like it..otoh, blatantly commercial/etc/blahblahbla. OTOH, whatever false notes are palyed are played no differently than they are on any pop-record-for-hire, and, most pleasantly, none are played by Shank. Shank plays this shit really nicely, actually. As far as personal investment potential here, none, negative, in fact. But as far as objective appreciation of task accomplished relative to task intended...not a failure, not even. Carol Kay on bass helps this a lot, and Shorty Rogers...Short was doing session with the Monkees too, so let's just say that the lack of condescension and the presence of a real-world sensitivity to what this stuff was supposed to sound like instead of some "jazz interpretation" way of sending a stealth message of fuquitousness from all to all is noted here with respect and a small degree of genuine pleasure.

If "Forgotten Genius" is inaccurate, I'll withdraw it. But you gotta prove it first, and this won't be what you'll use as evidence.

I'm just now/finally getting around to Carter, and geez, what took me so long, my bad. Comparisons between this and the Arditti are instructive, as well as being the only comparisons I can make at this point. That will change as time goes by, assuming that I'm here to go with it. Anyway, there's an inherent playfulness to this music, not silliness or goofiness...joyousness might be a better word, joy in just bouncing all that shit around, bobbing and weaving it in and out back and forth, that I find completely irresistible. It's melodious as hell, really, full-bore melody. Not "lyrical" but melodic. Melody means a lot of different things, if you ask me.

[B. Clugston]

I'm just now/finally getting around to Carter, and geez, what took me so long, my bad. Comparisons between this and the Arditti are instructive, as well as being the only comparisons I can make at this point. That will change as time goes by, assuming that I'm here to go with it. Anyway, there's an inherent playfulness to this music, not silliness or goofiness...joyousness might be a better word, joy in just bouncing all that shit around, bobbing and weaving it in and out back and forth, that I find completely irresistible. It's melodious as hell, really, full-bore melody. Not "lyrical" but melodic. Melody means a lot of different things, if you ask me.

Both those string quartets are endlessly fascinating music. A reminder that I need to check out his three other string quartets.

[His Boy Elroy]

A little something different. Swings like mad

[Leeway]

AZZ APPEAL - Swedish Azz

Mats Gustafsson: Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Electronics [Live]
Erik Carlsson: Drums
Per-Åke Holmlander: Tuba, Trombone [Cimbasso], Mixed By
Dieb13 (Tjuv13): Turntables, Electronics [Live]
Kjell Nordeson: Vibraphone

[JSngry]

A little something different. Swings like mad

I don't think a year will pass that I don't find out about some Verve record that I've never even heard rumors about, musical or spoken word, Granz or MGM. That label is like a bottomless pit of Who Knew?.

[jeffcrom]

J.J. Johnson - Pinnacles (Milestone). A Joe Henderson appearance I was not aware of until this afternoon, when I came across this LP. The music is excellent, but there are some cheesy 1979 keyboard sounds (from Tommy Flanagan!), and an even worse use of signal processing on Ron Carter's bass on a couple of tunes - they put chorusing and an envelope filter on it.

Edited December 6, 2014 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

J.J. Johnson - Pinnacles (Milestone). A Joe Henderson appearance I was not aware of until this afternoon, when I came across this LP. The music is excellent, but there are some cheesy 1979 keyboard sounds (from Tommy Flanagan!), and an even worse use of signal processing on Ron Carter's bass on a couple of tunes - they put chorusing and an envelope filter on it.

I'll never forget when some non-playing serious fan told me about this album within a few weeks of its release - "Say man, you got that new JJ album where him and Joe are playin' them slickass heads?"

No, I didn't have it, yet, but to this day, I see that cover and immediately think, yeah, that's the album where JJ & Joe are playin' them slickass heads. Just can't help it.

Me, I don't mind the "period" production...kinda enjoy it, actually. Sometimes "timeless" devolves into "coulda been anybody at any time", and some chronological specificity makes it realer than it might otherwise be. This was not Flanagan's only Rhodes outing in Keepnews-Land, there was this one, which actually got good airplay here. Sounded real good on an AM car radio during afternoon drive time, I kid you not. Or maybe I was just in the mood, who knows, who cares?

Rhodes sounds like night to me. Club-type night, people just hanging out type night, not serious let's all sit still be quiet and LISTEN type night. At least this type of Rhodes does.

[jeffcrom]

Me, I don't mind the "period" production...kinda enjoy it, actually. Sometimes "timeless" devolves into "coulda been anybody at any time", and some chronological specificity makes it realer than it might otherwise be. This was not Flanagan's only Rhodes outing in Keepnews-Land,....

Rhodes sounds like night to me. Club-type night, people just hanging out type night, not serious let's all sit still be quiet and LISTEN type night. At least this type of Rhodes does.

I have a pretty high tolerance for "period" production, too. And I loves me some Rhodes. But Tommy Flanagan on Rhodes with chorus and phase-shift starts to be a bit much, and the Yamaha "electric grand" doesn't work for me at all. Neither does the bass sound on the two tracks where they sucked the life out of it.

But I'm still glad I got this album. J.J. and Joe Henderson....

Edited December 6, 2014 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

Playin' them slickass heads!

[jeffcrom]

Duke Pearson - Merry Ole Soul (BN)

[His Boy Elroy]

I don't think a year will pass that I don't find out about some Verve record that I've never even heard rumors about, musical or spoken word, Granz or MGM. That label is like a bottomless pit of Who Knew?.

Yeah, that was sort of my reaction when I saw this one -- i.e., "huh . . . who knew?" I may need to seek out a few more in this genre. It was kind of cool to hear Parker in her own voice . . .

Now playing: another somewhat obscure Henderson sideman appearance. Recorded in '71, including Walter Bishop and Ernie Watts, among others. A pretty solid mostly straightahead date, with the notable exception of one track ("Unseen Sounds"), where Henderson plays flute while Watts plays piccolo, and Susaye Greene floats wordless vocals over the top. It's the kind of track you'd only hear around the late '60's, early '70's, although it actually holds up pretty well to my ears. Greene adds more wordless vocals over a couple other tunes, although they're more standard in their approach, musically. Anyway, one I like to break out every once in a blue moon, and I'm usually glad when I do.

[kh1958]

Mose Allison, Autumn Song (Prestige, blue label mono), and

Jelly Roll Morton, Classic Piano Solos (Riverside).

[jeffcrom]

Mose Allison, Autumn Song (Prestige, blue label mono), and

Jelly Roll Morton, Classic Piano Solos (Riverside).

What a nice hour and a half of piano music!

[kh1958]

Mose Allison, Autumn Song (Prestige, blue label mono), and

Jelly Roll Morton, Classic Piano Solos (Riverside).

What a nice hour and a half of piano music!

Yes it was! I was pleasantly surprised by Riverside's transfers of Jelly Roll Morton's Gennett recordings on this LP--credited to Reeves Sound Studios in 1957--the best sounding version of this material I've heard.

[Clunky]

Duke Pearson - Merry Ole Soul (BN)

I love this part of the Duke Select at this time of year.

[clifford_thornton]

Byard Lancaster & Keno Speller - Exactement - (Palm, FR)

[His Boy Elroy]

Keeping it early-70's:

[Clunky]

Rita Reys-----Jazz Pictures at an exhibition-------(Philips)

Rita's voice is perhaps a touch saccharine with occasional troubling vibrato but her timing is good and this is a nice band , well recorded. It sounds quite dated. Don't think i'd make space for many Reys in my collection but this one is just fine.

[jeffcrom]

Anthony Braxton - The Complete Braxton 1971 (Arista/Freedom)

[Homefromtheforest]

Freddie Hubbard "breaking point" (blue note, 70s blue label issue - the collector in me weeps and sighs). This pressing actually sounds quite good...a great session...gotta love Joe Chambers! If I see his name on a record I usually take notice...

[Homefromtheforest]

Oliver Nelson "blues & the abstract truth" (impulse stereo, div of AMPAR) with metal sculpture on inner gatefold...later issues had a photo of Oliver instead... I don't have a ton of original 1st press impulses in my collection, but this one is and it sounds superb...it's being cranked right now

[sidewinder]

Freddie Hubbard "breaking point" (blue note, 70s blue label issue - the collector in me weeps and sighs). This pressing actually sounds quite good...a great session...gotta love Joe Chambers! If I see his name on a record I usually take notice...

That is one damn good Freddie Hubbard/James Spaulding album. I have a NY USA mono of it back in base camp..