Name some Blue Note cds you find overrated

[JSngry]

Much appreciate that, Karl.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Indeed! Lon played me part of 'Black rhythm happening' when I visited him in Austin and Shawn took me 'End of an Ear' and found the CD and shoved it under my nose. I'm most grateful for having been introduced to it.

It's really good to read that background about him.

MG

Indeed. Nuance is not just what you get when your uncles remarry.

I can't use the smilies because of issues between my browser version and the board software, so I have to guess what the code for rolling on the floor laughing my arse off is - is it

?

MG

Yes, I see it is.

MG

[Scott Dolan]

It was a funny line, and covered both sides beautifully.

Point - JSngry

[paul secor]

Speaking on a total tangent, I'm always really thrilled when the boards erupt into conversation like this. I was walled off with gigging for one day, and all this knowledge got dropped. Organissimo was a huge part of my learning process when first getting into this music (which is odd to say, but I guess that's part of how lore has been communicated since the inception of an affordable public internet), and this makes me feel weirdly nostalgic.

On a completely different note--I worked with Eddie for two or three years. The topic of his Blue Note albums came up constantly--so regularly, in fact, that we wound up re-recording several of the pieces for a "remix/remake"-type deal. It's actually on itunes. That project was very complex, if fulfilling, in no small part because I was only then exposed to Eddie as both a working bandleader and a working conceptualist. I had a number of issues with the regular repertoire in groups, largely due to a language disconnect in terms of "how" the free improvisation was supposed to happen (i.e., it was never clear if the band would play "free" because that was the direction the music needed to go on, or if we were going to play free because we couldn't collectively hold down a given form). It was an uncomfortable experience that had some pretty fucked up bumps, but I came out of it with a really profound understanding of what made his music tick--and a healthy dose of respect for Eddie as a man of musical vision.

Somehow, it was never addressed how Eddie got his Blue Note deal, but it was clear that it was related to the Cecil Taylor/Larry Young association (i.e., Eddie was a label alum). Knowing Eddie's aesthetic and being inside of the Ghetto Music bag, I'm pretty sure that Eddie's signing also had something to do with how his music tapped into both a psychedelic/Age of Aquarius ethos and Black cultural nationalism. Both of the Blue Note albums are heavily centered on community/family themes, and there are doses of new age esoterica ("Look at Teyonda") and protest music ("The Rain"--it's about acid rain) thrown in. Factor in obvious overtures to funk and soul grooves, and you have a unique synergy. It seems clear to me that Blue Note (as Impulse had with Albert Ayler) identified Eddie has having unusual crossover appeal for an AG artist--maybe even tapping into soul jazz markets looking for something left-of-center.

I should also note that the very things that made both Ghetto Music and Black Rhythm Happening work so well are the selfsame characteristics that make Eddie's musical ethos so complex. His desire to embrace popular music endowed his BN albums with a sheen of commercial viability, but this same instinct produced some long term musical output that is, again, very complicated. (We regularly played a tune called "Jazz Rap" that was meant to hold down a backbeat in the A section and go into uptempo swing for the B/improv. This tune is notorious among Eddie sidemen for how difficult it is to finesse the transition--in the dozens of times we played it, we never got the tempo/feel change right--and the whole thing, admittedly, could have worked in uptempo swing.) Eddie's desire to stick to community gives the Blue Note albums a really unique and profound sort of groove, but it also led to some questionable hirings (including a rhythm section that never truly gelled, during my time).

But--Eddie's bag is one of those contexts that is deeply necessary and and positively ecstatic in its realest moments. Eddie has done an intense amount of charity work within his community, and his penchant for assembling unlikely groups collaborators and just letting them go at it is rare and admirable--he has some of that rare Sun Ra juju. And his playing never diminished--he played some insane shit during my tenure in the band. However it happened, I'm glad those Blue Note albums exist, because they capture both a very relevant facet of American life and the sort of music that I would wager no post-Wolff iteration of the label would ever be brave enough to champion.

I heard Eddie Gale playing in a Cecil group - must have been not long after Unit Structures was released - obviously very different music from Gale's own BN releases. Ghetto Music and Black Rhythm Happening seemed to have been made as crossover records (at the very least, crossover from the usual hardcore jazz audience - although that audience was already splintering by that time). I wonder how well those records sold in relation to, say, Ornette's and Cecil's Blue Note releases. I remember seeing them in record stores, but for only a short time.

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, they weren't around long I don't think - pretty hard to find albums, totally unique and definitely crossing over to Aquarian Age psychedelic soul (which is why a lot of the desirability factor has come from the DJ set rather than the AG set). I'm particularly fond of Ghetto Music.

Apropos of Alan Shorter, my copy of Parabolic came from Finland I think, bought in the late 1990s. I'm not entirely sure when/how the Verve/Polydor relationship came about, but the US pressing of the record is pre-PolyGram. Interesting that it went pretty much straight to the promo/cut-out bins, and I'm also rather curious about this 1966 vs 1968 recording date conundrum. Both years are believable (especially since Gato left Don Cherry by summer '66).

[Shawn]

Indeed! Lon played me part of 'Black rhythm happening' when I visited him in Austin and Shawn took me 'End of an Ear' and found the CD and shoved it under my nose. I'm most grateful for having been introduced to it.

Good times!

[Chuck Nessa]

yeah, they weren't around long I don't think - pretty hard to find albums, totally unique and definitely crossing over to Aquarian Age psychedelic soul (which is why a lot of the desirability factor has come from the DJ set rather than the AG set). I'm particularly fond of Ghetto Music.

Apropos of Alan Shorter, my copy of Parabolic came from Finland I think, bought in the late 1990s. I'm not entirely sure when/how the Verve/Polydor relationship came about, but the US pressing of the record is pre-PolyGram. Interesting that it went pretty much straight to the promo/cut-out bins, and I'm also rather curious about this 1966 vs 1968 recording date conundrum. Both years are believable (especially since Gato left Don Cherry by summer '66).

Don't know about the year thing (I believe 1968) but the record was never officially released at the time - only promos were pressed and semi-distributed. They were pressed at the Chess plant in Chicago and I saw them there while pressing the first edition of Roscoe's Congliptious.

[sidewinder]

Fascinating !

[AndrewHill]

I find trouble squabbling over these classic dates; just to show myself there can be a discrempesy I put on kind of blue n something else n the sidewinder n I'm confused if ur not moved; but subjectivity wins. But the ones that don't move me: ruff n tumble; with the 3 sounds or any 3 sounds n greens am I blue n lous work from lush life on n byrds work from 66 on just sayin

Edited September 30, 2014 by Holy Ghost