James Brown: SOUL ON TOP (w/Oliver Nelson)

[billyboy]

This disc is now available at Yourmusic.com for 5.99. It's in my queue!

[Soul Stream]

I got this and didn't really take to it....maybe someday.

[Dr. Rat]

It's worth keeping. Personally, I think it suffers from some of the same kind of mix-and-match juxtaposition and conflict as the Paul Anka record (totally different sets of juxtaposition and conflict, but same kind of uncomfortable tension is developed at times).

Interesting, sometimes hititng on all cylenders, sometimes just not working.

Davis gestures toward this, but doesn't really give us much of a handle on why the tension's there. (I'd call his talk of jazz time and funk time . . . impressionistic)

He's more at a level of saying "this project is an intereting oddity, why did it happen?" much like someone might try to expalin the Anka record.

I'd be interested in seeing the McBride notes, but I have a feeling he might like it a little too well to write productively of the album's significant defects.

--eric

[jazzbo]

I liked it. I just listened to it casually a few times so far with one sit down and really listen session that I enjoyed. I felt James was totally within the elements of the whole session.

I didn't read the liner notes. I'm so bored reading liner notes. I rarely read them with attention except on the most historical of releases. . . . I mean so few are as good as Chri A's for the Mosaic Verve set, the notes to almost any Jazz Oracle, or the notes to Bix Restored Vol. 5 or a handful of others.

[Dr. Rat]

I liked it.  I just listened to it casually a few times so far with one sit down and really listen session that I enjoyed.  I felt James was totally within the elements of the whole session.

Really? That obviously wasn't my impression at all. Back to the listening woodshed for me!

I didn't read the liner notes.  I'm so bored reading liner notes.  I rarely read them with attention except on the most historical of releases. . . . I mean so few are as good as Chri A's for the Mosaic Verve set, the notes to almost any Jazz Oracle, or the notes to Bix Restored Vol. 5 or a handful of others.

←

Liner notes have really gotten to be a tired custom, I think. I like to know the basic circumstances of a session, but beyond that it seems very few records inspire good essays. I know I have a tough time writing record reviews anymore--I feel like most of the time I'm just churning up a vast pool of cliches.

That's the point I think behind Joel Dorn's goofy notes.

--eric

[jazzbo]

That's how I heard it. There is very little in any style of American music that James Brown then could not pull off.

[JSngry]

It's worth keeping. Personally, I think it suffers from some of the same kind of mix-and-match juxtaposition and conflict as the Paul Anka record (totally different sets of juxtaposition and conflict, but same kind of uncomfortable tension is developed at times).

I'd be interested in seeing the McBride notes, but I have a feeling he might like it a little too well to write productively of the album's significant defects.

"Uncomfortable tension"? Uncomfortable for who? And why? Hmmmmm...

"Significant defects"? Brown is Brown, Bellson is Bellson, & Nelson is Nelson. Nobody budges, and nobody sounds uncomfortable (hell, Brown sounds every bit as rambling and semi-conscious doing the obviously pre-scripted rap on "I Need Your Key" as he does on the equally obviously spur-of-the-moment "Escape-ism"). That might be a"defect" for some, but I think it's a gas, one of those off-the-wall collaborations that works just because nobody's trying to do anything other than what they do, and because everybody's digging on everybody else's vibe.

No, not every song "works". "What Kind Of Fool Am I" in particular is kind of a farce. But that song's gonna be a farce no matter who does it, and I'd just as soon hear a farce by James Brown, Louis Bellson, & Oliver Nelson as I would by anybody. More than most, actually.

Geez, you kids today, everything's gotta be so damn "contextual" and shit. No wonder jazz is dead!

[Dr. Rat]

It's worth keeping. Personally, I think it suffers from some of the same kind of mix-and-match juxtaposition and conflict as the Paul Anka record (totally different sets of juxtaposition and conflict, but same kind of uncomfortable tension is developed at times).

I'd be interested in seeing the McBride notes, but I have a feeling he might like it a little too well to write productively of the album's significant defects.

"Uncomfortable tension"? Uncomfortable for who? And why? Hmmmmm...

"Significant defects"? Brown is Brown, Bellson is Bellson, & Nelson is Nelson. Nobody budges, and nobody sounds uncomfortable (hell, Brown sounds every bit as rambling and semi-conscious doing the obviously pre-scripted rap on "I Need Your Key" as he does on the equally obviously spur-of-the-moment "Escape-ism"). That might be a"defect" for some, but I think it's a gas, one of those off-the-wall collaborations that works just because nobody's trying to do anything other than what they do, and because everybody's digging on everybody else's vibe.

No, not every song "works". "What Kind Of Fool Am I" in particular is kind of a farce. But that song's gonna be a farce no matter who does it, and I'd just as soon hear a farce by James Brown, Louis Bellson, & Oliver Nelson as I would by anybody. More than most, actually.

Geez, you kids today, everything's gotta be so damn "contextual" and shit. No wonder jazz is dead!

←

Well I can only speak directly for my own uncomfortable tension. I can say, too, that it isn't my reaction alone--some of the other folk around here--some more casual listeners, but some fairly serious about music--reacted to the record in a similar fashion to me.

I'll say this--it's a similar sort of uncomfortable that I feel listening to Mark Murphy sometimes. Though Murphy's deal doesn't always work out, either, I get a feeling he's an experienced surfer on these big band seas of troubles and conflicts.

On the context thing: I love deep context, but not so much so as to obliterate direct experience. Just that the experience I have with parts of this record needs explaining!

--eric

Edited August 12, 2005 by Dr. Rat

[Free For All]

No, not every song "works". "What Kind Of Fool Am I" in particular is kind of a farce. But that song's gonna be a farce no matter who does it, and I'd just as soon hear a farce by James Brown, Louis Bellson, & Oliver Nelson as I would by anybody. More than most, actually.

←

Although there is a very nice version of this tune on a Bill Evans solo recording.

Agreed, though, that it has great potential for corniness.

Edited August 13, 2005 by Free For All

[AllenLowe]

well, James Brown did say in his first aubiography that he does not like the blues, and that his favorite singer was Bing Crosby -

[JSngry]

Well I can only speak directly for my own uncomfortable tension. I can say, too, that it isn't my reaction alone--some of the other folk around here--some more casual listeners, but some fairly serious about music--reacted to the record in a similar fashion to me.

Well, hey, yeah, um, er. yeah.

I know people like that too. But only casually, if you get my drift. Life's too short!

[Dr. Rat]

Well I can only speak directly for my own uncomfortable tension. I can say, too, that it isn't my reaction alone--some of the other folk around here--some more casual listeners, but some fairly serious about music--reacted to the record in a similar fashion to me.

Well, hey, yeah, um, er. yeah.

I know people like that too. But only casually, if you get my drift. Life's too short!

←

Life's too short: now there's a phrase I think ought to be sent to the old dust bin of history.

Life's too short to think, life's too short to drive anything smaller than a UPS truck, life's too short not to spend $30 on a bottle of wine. It's like the blanket excuse to live life like a sucker. Every time I hear this phrase now I mentally append "to actually live it."

I'm more of a Whitman man myself. Life may be too short, bit there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it except live it, and there's no point in trying to repress the multitudes, cause they're in you.

--eric

[Peter Johnson]

Life's too short: now there's a phrase I think ought to be sent to the old dust bin of history.

Life's too short to think, life's too short to drive anything smaller than a UPS truck, life's too short not to spend $30 on a bottle of wine. It's like the blanket excuse to live life like a sucker. Every time I hear this phrase now I mentally append "to actually live it."

I'm more of a Whitman man myself. Life may be too short, bit there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it except live it, and there's no point in trying to repress the multitudes, cause they're in you.

--eric

Life's too short to pontificate.

[Dr. Rat]

Life's too short: now there's a phrase I think ought to be sent to the old dust bin of history.

Life's too short to think, life's too short to drive anything smaller than a UPS truck, life's too short not to spend $30 on a bottle of wine. It's like the blanket excuse to live life like a sucker. Every time I hear this phrase now I mentally append "to actually live it."

I'm more of a Whitman man myself. Life may be too short, bit there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it except live it, and there's no point in trying to repress the multitudes, cause they're in you.

--eric

Life's too short to pontificate.

←

More a rant, no? Perhaps I flatter myself!

--eric

[JSngry]

I like Whitman too. Good candy. Life's too short not to eat some.

[Dr. Rat]

I like Whitman too. Good candy. Life's too short not to eat some.

←

Too chewy. Maybe if you could get someone to do the chewing for you.

--eric

[Joe G]

For some things, life is too short. For others, it's too long.

[Dr. Rat]

For some things, life is too short. For others, it's too long.

←

No just right stuff, Goldilocks?

--eric

[Joe G]

Won't know that until it's over.

[Kari S]

Just noticed this:

http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tix/performan...ail.cfm?id=2683

James Brown: Soul On Top

Jazz at the Bowl JZ1-HB

Wednesday, September 6, 2006, 8:00 PM

Hollywood Bowl

2301 N. Highland Avenue

Hollywood, CA

(323) 850-2000

Artists:

James Brown

Angie Stone

Program:

In a one-of-a-kind concert, the Godfather of Funk revisits his 1969 jazz big band album Soul On Top. Backed by a big band, with original arrangements by Oliver Nelson, Brown sings standards and vamps up one or two of his classics with swinging style. R&B queen Angie Stone opens the show.

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I know it isn't until September, but I'm already intrigued by this...