Personnel on Morris Grants Presents JUNK Corner

[JSngry]

Finally found a copy of this underground treasure, and I'm laughing my funkin azzoff!

Anybody know or suspect who the players are?

No reasonable response refused!

Edited January 29, 2005 by JSngry

[couw]

a quick google query reveiled there is a piece on it by John Corbett in Downbeat of January 2002.

Maybe he knows?

[JSngry]

I read that Corbett piece, and he has no knowledge of personnel, iirc.

[Steve Gray]

I believe the ring-leader on this was Marlowe Morris.

I would love to hear it, Theloneliest Plunk and all ...

[Bill Fenohr]

Jim,

Im thinking these were NY guys seeing that the engineer was Morris Nola a.k.a. Tommy Nola of Nola Sound. And it looks like it was produced by Jack Tracy.

I wonder if Morris Levy found the album funny? He must have since i dont remember Nola or Tracy getting bumped off.

[Bill Fenohr]

Listened to the lp today. Im just guessing, but some of the trumpet work reminded me in tone and the way some of the notes were bent of Clark Terry.

I also got the feeling that who ever was doing the Jelligan solos, Baritone was not his regular horn. Just sounded like he was unsure of himself.

[JSngry]

You think that this might have been another one of Don Elliot's pranks?

[Don Brown]

I remember reading somewhere that the album was recorded in Chicago with local musicians. I'm pretty sure the alto player is Bunky Green. Can't remember who else was involved.

[Don Brown]

Does no one here know who any of the other players might have been?

[JSngry]

Jordan Ramin? Who?

[Joe]

Jordan Ramin -- according to IMDB, he was, perhaps among other things, a composer of film music. Not only that, but the only film he is credited with having worked on is SCENT OF MYSTERY, the (in)famous Michael Todd "Smell-O-Vision" vehicle.

Curioser and curioser.

[JSngry]

That's the only reference I can find of him, is in connection to that one film.

[Larry Kart]

That's the only reference I can find of him, is in connection to that one film.

He also seems to have played some minor administrative role in the Todd menage at the time of "Around the World in 80 Days":

http://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/2005/70/glenda/index.htm

[JSngry]

[Larry Kart]

BTW, given how Chicago-centric a label Argo was by and large, I'd still put my money on the personnel being Chicago studio and jazz guys rather than Doc Severinsen et al.

I've never seen the album, but I assume that there's not a producer's credit on it that isn't a joke name. In any case, I'm guessing that the whole jape was conceived by and executed under the guidance of someone at that level. One wouldn't think that a guy as little known otherwise as Jordan Ramin apparently is could be responsible. And why would a guy apparently so obscure (especially jazz-wise) think that a jape like this was worth the trouble to assemble? It was, after all, a pretty "inside" bit of goofing-around.

Don't know if Jack Tracy, former DB editor and (by 1963) Chicago-based A&R man at Mercury (where he was responsible for Woody Herman's Phillips recordings), was connected to Argo before that (other than as a writer of liner notes, which I know he did), but the project suggests to me that Tracy's sensibility (or that of someone like him) was behind it.

[Chuck Nessa]

Jack Tracy was head of Argo productions for two years before going to Mercury around 1962.

[Larry Kart]

Jack Tracy was head of Argo productions for two years before going to Mercury around 1962.

Tracy is still around -- I think he posted here a few times, and he posts fairly often, and often quite acerbically, on the Jazz West Coast list -- but if I know the man and it was his joke, probably it will be his joke forever. If so, I can see his point.

[Mark Stryker]

Man, I've never even heard of this record! What does it actually sound like?

Also, from the Eric Larrabee review in Harper's that Jim posted: "The normal emotional atmosphere of the jazz world is one of ferocity slightly tempered by paranoia ..."

First thought: I wish I had written that.

Second thought: Ouch, cutting kinda close to the bone ...

Third thought: I might remove the word "slightly."

Of course, to borrow an old line, just 'cause we're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get us.

Edited August 22, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[jeffcrom]

Man, I've never even heard of this record! What does it actually sound like?

When I was 12 and had just taken up the saxophone, my sweet mom got me my first jazz album, which I still love: Ya! Ya! by Budd Johnson on Argo. The inner sleeve had pictures of dozens of Argo jazz albums, and I spent hours poring over it, trying to figure out this jazz stuff. One of the albums pictured was the JUNK album, and I eventually figured out that it was some sort of joke. It took me years to track down a copy.

It's a parody of a JATP - type concert. All I can say is that it's a mixed bag in terms of humor. Some of it is over-the-top slapstick, like "Morris Ferguson's" trumpet, which is speeded up, Chipmunk-style. The Brubeck parody is pretty deadly, and "Sol Desmond" makes me laugh out loud.

A comic masterpiece it's not, but I spin it a couple of time a year, and I always laugh a few times. That ain't bad.

Edited August 22, 2010 by jeffcrom

[Chas]

Man, I've never even heard of this record! What does it actually sound like?

It's a parody of a JATP - type concert. All I can say is that it's a mixed bag in terms of humor. Some of it is over-the-top slapstick, like "Morris Ferguson's" trumpet, which is speeded up, Chipmunk-style. The Brubeck parody is pretty deadly, and "Sol Desmond" makes me laugh out loud.

Not that it changes the gist of the jest, but he's actually listed as 'Sol Desman' on the sleeve.

Other Offbeat Poll Winners of note: Can-E-Ball Naturally and Ornette Morris and Mon Cherie.

Sample drollery: During the intro to Theloneliest Plunk's 'Round Lunchtime' the MC says, "Ladies and gentleman, I'm sorry for all this jazz..."

[JohnS]

I posted this in another topic a while ago.

Doc Severinsen(t), Jordan Ramin(as,ts,bar,p), Bernie Leighton(p), Trigger Alpert(b), Don Lamond(d). Ramin conceived and produced the LP.

Looking at the label Ramin gets composer credits for all the non standard pieces.

[JSngry]

But who the hell was Jordan Ramin?

[JohnS]

Ah! The scent of mystery!

[bob rusch]

morris ramin might well be ira sullivan

he is alive someone could ask him

cheers bob rusch

[Chuck Nessa]

Nice to see you here Bob.