BFT #17 - Discussion - Disc 1

[Dan Gould]

I thought that was the "wryly ribbing your amigo" smilie. My bad!

Well, for future reference, now I'll know!

Maybe you should have grabbed that dancing dude icon Brad is so fond of.

[brownie]

Coming in late and moreover will have to relisten to this disc 1 for more identifications but before all this I must mention I did realise that Tom Storer was an interesting character but I had not realized how hip he really was. Picking up tracks 5 and 10 are proof that the man knows the real values in jazz.

And what can be hipper for an American than to be living in Paris...

And now my early (even if late) impressions:

1- 'My Favorite Things' by an inspired pianist. Have been unable to identify him.

2- the classic 'High Society'. And a great one! Was not really sure of who the musicians were until the clarinet player came in.

I have the OOP Mosaic 6LPs box that does not show on the Mosaic site anymore.

It is track 1 of this album:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:27ri28or052a

3- The tune sounded familiar, nice BN music. All was revealed when the tenor player came in. The trumpet player helped pin the album. The later ensembles made the name of the tuned evident. Track 5:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:pg47gjvr86i9

4- A very nice interpretation of the Vernon Duke classic 'Taking a Chance on Love'. I am still trying to identify this trio.

5- A very favorite (and very maligned) trombone player. I have loved that album for ages. Great players all around. The one negative thing I could say about this tune is that the tenor player is left out on it. The tune would have been a natural for him too!

Track 1 from:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:5sq8g44btvoz

6- Andy Bey singing from the Duke repertoire. Never heard that one! A very Ducal interpretation. Duke and Strayhorn would have loved this.

Had trouble with Bey vocalizing before but am digging the man more and more.

7- A hit tune from a couple of decades ago: Killing Me Softly with the Blues.

The players are unknown to me!

8- the tune and the players are unidentifiable, as far as I am concerned. Not sure I am impressed. Will need to relisten.

9- a tranish quartet. This is getting a bit better.

10- for a couple of seconds I heard Zoot but the truth emerged right after. The sound was unmistakable.

Take 1 from another very favorite album:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:w9s9kebtjq7v

11- One of the Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins collaborations. Just don't have time to locate the album but I would say this is a tune from that unit:

http://www.redhotjazz.com/varsity7.html

12- another favorite album. Which was a different output - a very welcome one -from the leader.

Title track (OK, almost!) from this one:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:88jleay14xu7

13- could not identify the sax player who leapt in. Will look for the answer to this!

Edited September 28, 2004 by brownie

[mikeweil]

2- the classic 'High Society'. And a great one! Was not really sure of who the musicians were until the clarinet player came in.

I have the OOP Mosaic 6LPs box that does not show on the Mosaic site anymore.

It is track 1 of this album:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:27ri28or052a

arghh ... another one I have and didn't regognize. Too much music and too little time! As an excuse: I enjoy listening to these older recordings much more on my new speakers -_-

Congrats, brownie, for nailing this one!

[EKE BBB]

2.- This is an old jazz standard composed by Armand Piron and Clarence Williams (hey, the latter is credited as composer for tons of songs from the 20´s and 30´s…. though this is very doubtful according to Chris Albertson´s “Bessie Smith” revised book): “High society”

On the players: I´d say the clarinetist is Edmond Hall, so this could be included in

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:pyc8b5p4msqf

or in the Mosaic. This would bring Vic Dickenson, Sidney DeParis and James P., if I remember correctly (I should check my CDs).

[mikeweil]

Sorry Agustín, the score is yours - must have overread this post. -_-

[JSngry]

You're telling me I DID miss Hawk? Yikes...

[brownie]

Sorry Agustín, the score is yours - must have overread this post. -_-

Have read through the various replies now and Agustin pinned this one way before I did. But just because I was invading Spain at the time the BFT 17 reached me

[brownie]

You're telling me I DID miss Hawk? Yikes...

You're still safe for the time being. My Varsity Seven suggestion was off track. Got hold of the Savoy reissue LP 'The Varsity Session vol. 1' and that track remains not identified.

But I'm sure about Benny Carter and almost sure about Hawk!

Bet you that Tom Storer must be laughing in his corner...

[brownie]

I have now identified 11.

It's track 15 from that reissue:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:aly67uq080j0

Sorry about this, Jim.

Carter and Hawk. The trumpet player gave it away for me.

Should also have recognised the piano player. Also the clarinet player.

[JSngry]

Oh well...

[neveronfriday]

Tom,

one of my fave pieces by Bertholt Brecht is "Es war einmal ein Fisch mit Namen Fasch". It's basically a poem about a fish whose name rhymes with "ass" (shortened by Brecht, for convenience's sake, to "Asch") and he's just a lazy sod, too dumb (being a fish) to work, but not too dumb to flop after everyone once work is done to plunk himself down next to the warm fireplace and shovel in the food the others have worked so hard for.

The only thing he can bring to the table is his white ass (... he did bring along a huge spoon as well which, in context of his described inabilities, doesn't really make all that much sense, but hell, it's a parable) and people laugh about that for a while.

Of course, when famine strikes, his white ass is neither funny nor sufficient anymore and he gets it kicked.

That's Bert Brecht for you, one of our greatest writers.

Well, these past BFT's I've been presenting my white ass all over the place without contributing a bit (work, trips, bla, bla, bla). I'm sorry about that, but I've been enjoying the music very much.

I hope I don't get my ass kicked before payback time with my own BFT (which, I'm afraid, might not be liked by all that many members of this esteemed board ).

Thanks again, Tom.

Cheers!

Es war einmal ein FISCH mit Namen Fasch

Edited September 29, 2004 by deus62

[EKE BBB]

Sorry Agustín, the score is yours - must have overread this post.  -_- 

Have read through the various replies now and Agustin pinned this one way before I did. But just because I was invading Spain at the time the BFT 17 reached me

No need to invade us, now that our French-Spanish relations have been improved by our new Government!

Sorry, no politics here!

[mikeweil]

I hope I don't get my ass kicked before payback time with my own BFT (which, I'm afraid, might not be liked by all that many members of this esteemed board ).

If anybody kicks your ass, I'll get on him - I'm very much looking forward to your BT, expecting it will have drums all over the place .

Life kicks all our asses, that's sufficient!

We share the music, that's important - and I wish I would have been more daring - maybe the second time around - didn't want to spoil my reputation right away ....

[Nate Dorward]

At last got this this morning. So I'll post responses & then rewind & see what you guys said: I imagine by now that the bones have been more or less scraped clean.

*

1: elegant opening. Oh, “My Favorite Things”. Nice to hear that done NOT in the Coltrane style. Very nice, thoughtful stuff; no idea who it is, though.

2: “At the Jazz Band Ball”. I’m always spotty on early jazz; probably I should recognize these guys, but I don’t. The trumpeter (or should that be cornetist) is particularly striking here. 1950s or 1960s traditional jazz revival; I’m not sure if it’s old guys or younger revivalists or a mix. A nice track.

3: OK, a strutting piano blues. Horns come in & they sound very familiar, hm. Hm, the tenor: Stanley Turrentine? He has some of the sound I associate with Clifford Jordan. Yeah I think it’s Jordan, especially because the bridge sounds like something he might write. Lee Morgan on trumpet surely. The rhythm section all sound familiar. Tyner on piano? Or someone like Harold Mabern using Tyner licks maybe? Jones on drums: I could only confirm that with the final barrage. Now the track’s over & I haven’t guessed the bassist... oh well, let’s move on. Good track, surely Blue Note in the 1960s, probably a Morgan album.

4: Nice opening. “It’s Only a Paper Moon”. Hm, only piano + drums? Maybe it’s that Bill Carrothers disc? Nice to hear the pianist really take advantage of the absent of the bass by freeing up the harmony a bit. Good track. No idea who it is: the drummer sounds more familiar than the pianist.

5: “It Might as Well Be Spring”. Strange tight vocalized sound on the horn – is it french horn? 1950s or early 1960s. I wish that the recording engineer has made it sound less like horn + rhythm: the piano in particular is WAY back. I’m not wild about the solo, but that’s in part because I find the exclusive focus on the horn oppressive: couldn’t the pianist have got a half-chorus? Maybe Hank Jones on piano; it’s impossible to tell the bassist & drummer from this. Eeeh, this is the first track on the compilation I don’t like much, though it’s alright.

6: Don’t recognize the singer or the verse. Jeez, what’s the last time you heard “whom” in the lyrics of a song? OK, “Something to Live For”. Nice to hear the singer doing this quietly & with a lot of understatement, letting the vibrato & pacing & a few extra touches do the work. Don’t know the singer; the pianist sounds more familiar but I can’t place him.

7: Kenny Garrett. The tune sounds kinda familiar. Boring opening. It remains pretty boring for the duration of the tune. I liked his Triology but this is just dull, with all the musicians given a pretty soporific remit (the guitarist probably is someone famous but how could you tell from this?). People have warned me away from his softer-edged recent work & if this is at all typical I’ll consider myself warned.

8: Greg Osby surely. Not sure who the pianist is though: the natural guess would be Jason Moran but it’s DEFINITELY not him. The tone is a little more intimate, less biting & impassive, than I associate with Osby, maybe this is a little earlier than his Blue Note work, or maybe it’s just miked differently. No idea who the pianist is, but I have a hunch it’s probably someone a little older. It’s an OK track, nothing that grabs me. A few phrases at the end suggest “Isfahan”.

9: The tenor sounds vaguely familiar, other than that I don’t know. He does some unexpected things that keep me interested even though it’s not the kind of jazz that speaks to me strongly. The tune has a Shorterish vibe. No guess as to any of these guys.

10: Solo “Them There Eyes”! Nice way to open. Whoever he is he’s completely memorized Lester Young’s solo on this tune. Hm, maybe those Getz/Barron duets from late in his life? Um, nah, once the pianist gets to solo then it’s clear it can’t be Barron. No idea really who it is, but it’s nice. Two veterans, surely.

11: Yikes that clarinet really leaps out of the speakers: ouch! The alto sax is interestingly scatterbrained. The track seems to speed up at the trumpet solo (splice?). Piano’s OK. The tenor – hm, I think it’s the Hawk, not just a Hawkins imitator. 1930s or 1940s. Too full of caffeine, I wish they’d slowed down a touch & had the chance to stretch out, but I guess this was before LPs.

12: “All the Things” with an odd bashing piano introduction. God, the period sound is wretched on this, esp the too-loud drums, ugly piano sound & ugly bass. Konitz in the 1970s. Not one of his better solos. Not sure who the pianist is, maybe Lou Levy. Bach quotes, eh? Don’t really like his solo either. Ohmigod, Anthony Braxton’s here too. You know: he sounds BETTER than everyone else here. Take that, Lee (Lee’s repeatedly said ugly things about Mr Braxton in public). The double solos plus trading with drums is a bit messy. Just awful. Maybe I’d have a fractionally better response if the track were remixed. This is probably that Dave Brubeck album on Atlantic: the pianist is certainly heavyhanded enough to suggest Brubeck. Anthony takes the honours here: the 1970s WERE his decade.

13: More Prez stuff! No idea who it is but I always like solo sax. A little too much reverb: is this a studio or a friggin’ church? Some young gun. A little too inyerface for my taste. It’s an OK track, but showoffy.

Edited September 30, 2004 by Nate Dorward

[Tom Storer]

Thanks for all your contributions, guys. I'm really enjoying your comments. I'll give a few more days to those, like Nate, to whom I had to send an emergency duplicate package when the first one didn't arrive, then post the answers Tuesday morning.

On disc 1, all tracks have now been either nailed or correctly guessed except track 9.

[catesta]

The cds arrived on Saturday.

I am really enjoying them, thanks Tom. Sorry you had to send them twice.

1. Tune is "My Favorite Things". Solo piano, hmmmm., no idea.

I'm sure it's not, but I'm going to say George Shearing.

2. Lot's of fun, but no clue.

3. Stanley Turrentine, maybe Lee Morgan or brother Tommy Turrentine, Art Blakey on drums? I think the piano is Horace Parlan.

4. Sounds like Bill Evans to me, but I'm not so sure.

5. "It Might As Well Be Spring" Real nice, and I mean real nice bone. Too bad I can't name the player.

6. No idea.

7. "Killing Me Softly!" Nice alto, don't know the player.

8. No clue, but I liked it.

9. Nice sounds, but I don't know.

10. Sounds like Zoot Sims doing "Them There Eyes". The problem is I could not find a paino duo session with Zoot. I did however find Al Cohn doing one with Jimmy Rowles, so that be my new guess.

11. A swinging Basie small group, I dunno.

12. "All The Things You Are" Is Sonny Criss on there somewhere?

13. "Lester Leaps In" Don't know who's leaping in his place.

A fine job indeed, Tom.