Is Ricky Ford Mental?

[Late]

Those are cool photos! I was trying to attach a jpeg of Ford's Shorter Ideas, and then noticed you'd posted in the meantime. (The jpeg file was too large to attach. )

[marcello]

Here ya go:

[tkeith]

The first time I heard Ricky was on a Mingus recording that didn't include Mingus. It didn't strike me much, but I picked up one of his own records from the same period, and that was a bit better, but didn't stay in the pool that long. But when I heard him on Abdullah Ibrahim's NO FEAR, NO DIE, I was blown away. His work on the ballad (track 4?) is nothing shy of beautiful. It's raw, but beautiful. But the one that really blew me away leads me to empathize with Jim's initial post -- Mal Waldron's CROWD SCENE. There's MUCH going on there, and if you'll permit me a moment of crassness, I like it. It's everything that this music should be -- raw emotion expressed with a subtext of technical prowess. While I wish Ricky no ill will, if he *is* working through something and doing it this way, I applaud him for it; more musicians should do it this way.

And... gotta admit, that is a bitchin' jacket.

[king ubu]

Ford pops up on the european scene now and then. In January 2006 he appeared in Paris (one night was broadcasted on French radio) with the following band: Rasul Siddik (t), Ricky Ford (ts), Tom McClung (p), James Lewis (b), Doug Sides (d), and before that, in May 2005 he played an Austrian festival with a co-led band with Kirk Lightsey (Tibor Elekes on bass, Sides on drums)

The most recent thing I have is from July 2006 with Rhoda Scott (and Lucien Dobat, who's on some of Scott's CDs, too), from the French Vienne jazz festival, and an October 2006 appearance with Bennie Wallace and Joey De Francsesco at the Leipziger Jazztage in Germany. No idea what he's been up to in 2007, but 2006 seems to have been quite a busy year! And his playing on these shows is marvellous!

[Guest Bill Barton]

It's been awhile since I've heard him in performance, but I can "see" the curve Jim was referring to in the original post on this thread.

One of the most memorable concerts was years ago at the Montreal festival in duo with Ran Blake. As you might imagine, it was a subtle couple of sets, but there was always that underlying intensity.

Then, a few years later, two separate dates with Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya. Some of Ford's tenor playing on the second of these shows, again in Montreal, was heartbreakingly gorgeous - such emotion!

With his own quartet at Le Spectrum as part of the fest near the turn of the 2000s it was strictly pedal-to-the-metal. He and Hilton Ruiz were prolix to the nth degree. This same year he took part in the famous after-hours jam session and locked horns with James Carter in a slugfest that hearkened back to the JATP of yore. Talk about freaking testosterone! It was great fun but about as subtle as a sledgehammer upside yo head. There was one point where Ford decided to walk around the complete perimeter of the hotel "ballroom" holding one very loud note. When he got back to the stage, Carter, not to be outdone, proceeded on the same course, wending his way through the crowd, adding a few curliques and loop-the-loops for good measure, varying the tone and "dirtiness" of the note he was holding, going on about twice as long as Ford had, finally climbing back onstage and - without a pause - exploding in a wild fusillade of split-tones, yelps, shrieks and banshee wails that - again without breath or pause - morphed into one of the greasiest tenor solos I've ever heard, Gene Ammons by way of James Brown and The Famous Flames. Some sweaty shit... The crowd loved it, of course. A few musicians and critics milling about were doing the eye-rolling thing.

[AllenLowe]

I heard Ricky Ford first with Jaki Byard's big band, middle 1970s - than with Mingus, when he started to get a big head ("always missing planes - he thinks he's a star" was the way a friend of mine in that last Mingus band put it)

I gotta say that I heard him on numerous occasions and his playing did absolutely nothing for me -

[Late]

I usually don't care for iTunes, but they have the Lateef/Ford album. I've only listened to part of it so far, but it's nice in a wooly way.

By the way, for those that do eMusic, all the Ford Candids are there.

I forgot I had some Ford with Ran Blake — the Barbara Monk tribute (I'm spacing on the title). Very nice album.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The most recent thing I have is from July 2006 with Rhoda Scott (and Lucien Dobat, who's on some of Scott's CDs, too), from the French Vienne jazz festival, and an October 2006 appearance with Bennie Wallace and Joey De Francsesco at the Leipziger Jazztage in Germany. No idea what he's been up to in 2007, but 2006 seems to have been quite a busy year! And his playing on these shows is marvellous!

Is that on Rhoda's album "Very saxy"?

MG

[king ubu]

The most recent thing I have is from July 2006 with Rhoda Scott (and Lucien Dobat, who's on some of Scott's CDs, too), from the French Vienne jazz festival, and an October 2006 appearance with Bennie Wallace and Joey De Francsesco at the Leipziger Jazztage in Germany. No idea what he's been up to in 2007, but 2006 seems to have been quite a busy year! And his playing on these shows is marvellous!

Is that on Rhoda's album "Very saxy"?

MG

Not quite sure what you refer to, but "Very Saxy" has Ricky Ford on one disc, Houston Person on the other, and Lucien Dobat (drums) and Melvin Sparks (guitar) on both. It's from 2005, though.

And just in case, though not related to Ricky Ford, there's another recent and mighty fine Scott disc out, "From C to Shining C" (available on cdbaby.com), with Red Holloway and Plas Johnson on tenors, plus Carl Lockett (g) and Lucien Dobat.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The most recent thing I have is from July 2006 with Rhoda Scott (and Lucien Dobat, who's on some of Scott's CDs, too), from the French Vienne jazz festival, and an October 2006 appearance with Bennie Wallace and Joey De Francsesco at the Leipziger Jazztage in Germany. No idea what he's been up to in 2007, but 2006 seems to have been quite a busy year! And his playing on these shows is marvellous!

Is that on Rhoda's album "Very saxy"?

MG

Not quite sure what you refer to, but "Very Saxy" has Ricky Ford on one disc, Houston Person on the other, and Lucien Dobat (drums) and Melvin Sparks (guitar) on both. It's from 2005, though.

Oh, so what album does it come from? Ricky & Rhoda went so well together on "Very saxy".

MG

[king ubu]

The other things I mentioned are all radio broadcasts that I've collected (partly I heard them live on the air myself) - good stuff, in my opinion!

[Rabshakeh]

Slightly random question, but does anyone know the recording details (players, recording date, label etc) for Songs for My Mother? It has almost no internet presence. I would normally get that stuff off Discogs, but Discogs swears that the record does not exist.

[JSngry]

Amazon truths where Discogs lies...

[Rabshakeh]

6 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Amazon truths where Discogs lies...

Thanks! Who would have thought it. It didn't occur to me.