Blindfold Test .:.23 DISC TWO Answers

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01 “Along The Tiber” (Sun Ra) | SUN RA Other Voices, Other Blues |January 8 & 13, 1978. Sun Ra (piano), Crumar Mainman (keyboards), Michael Ray(trumpet), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone, percussion), Luqman Ali (drum set).

Thanks to a very kind board member, I was able to acquire copies of two of the Horo albums recorded in the late 1970s. I didn’t think too many of you would be familiar with these recordings, due to their relative rarity. They were recently repressed to 180g vinyl by Horo, if I’m not mistaken. I heard these albums a few years ago for the first time.

I really love this “quartet” sound. Yes, it is assumed that Crumar Mainman is playing the bass line on keys which technically makes it a quintet, and yes, Michael Ray can rip! I love the “bassless” sound and the way the two keyboards collide at the low end of the sound spectrum. Classic Sun Ra sound, in my opinion. Michael Ray goes about his choruses in a definite hard bop manner, and very justifiably so. This tune is written to blow on! Here we have our first appearance by Gilmore. Some of you were able to make the connection between this track and track 03, where Andrew Hill features Gilmore prominently, and in a very different setting.

Sun Ra’s discography is so varied, and I thought this would be a nice take to junxtapose against ‘Round Midnight from disc one.

02 “Riot” (Herbie Hancock) | Miles Davis Quintet Private Recording | "Konigin Elizabethzaal", Belgium, October 8, 1967. Miles Davis (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Tony Williams (drums).

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What else is there to say, really? I chose this track as an example of how far this quintet was going in 1967. Riot is a pretty raucous composition, as is, and each soloist proceeds to take the band further away from what most audience members probably considered “pleasant jazz music.” Compare Wayne’s muscular tone to that of John Gilmore on the previous track, and the next. Miles gears up and enters what sounds like a double solo between he and Tony. Tony downshifts into Herbie’s “forensic” improvisation. This word has become the standard descriptor for Wayne’s current fascination, and I think it fits well with what Herbie does with his own tune here. Damn, this was a powerful band.

03 “Symmetry” (Andrew Hill) | ANDREW HILL Andrew!!! | June 25, 1964. Andrew Hill (piano), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone), Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone), Richard Davis (bass), Joe Chambers (drums).

Andrew Hill’s take on symmetry. I think this is a great composition full of Andrew Hill’s idiosyncracy. Unmistakeable. His opening piano solo is so finely crafted, I can’t help but think of Herbie Nichols’ style, riding the melody, staying true to the harmony, and reacting with utmost agility to the rhythm of the band. This album features some of the most resilient musicians that recorded for Blue Note. Bobby Hutcherson basically fits into any situation with confidence and brute grace, as does the ever-flexing Richard Davis. Hutcherson shows up on the disc more times than I had originally planned... hell, I really didn’t have a plan for this discs at all… but I think it worked out.

The next track features Hutch in an entirely different style of improv, and he is right at home. Gilmore really opens up that horn on the head, and tears through his time on this composition, which segues seamlessly back into the head. I also think Joe Chambers is an unsung hero on many Blue Note sessions. I consider him an aggressive drummer, steeped in the traditions of rudimental stroke to the point that he can do no wrong when he’s on. Here he is on, and does push himself out into the fore a few times, reminding us that the drummer doesn’t have to sit behind the rest of the band all the time. Go back to check out how Tony Williams does this during Miles’ time on the previous track. In contrast, I think Joe sees openings to swell out of, rather than fill, whereas Tony will swell to the point where the drumming almost overflows, and washes OVER the underlying music.

04 “Street of Dreams” (V. Young-S. Lewis) | GRANT GREEN Street of Dreams | November 16,1964. Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone), Larry Young (organ), Grant Green (guitar), Elvin Jones (drums).

6:45. I’ve never heard Grant Green’s guitar lash back at him the way it does at the 6:45 mark. That is my favorite part of this track. I chose this one for many reasons, mainly because I think it is an underutilized ensemble. Vibraphone blends so nicely with the b-3 and guitar. I only wish the vibraphone was mixed a little higher, but still below the organ. Elvin is so in the pocket. Another musician that seemingly fits his peg into any slot, regardless of shape. This is a beautiful album featuring four long takes on some of the more obscure standards. I Wish You Love, Lazy Afternoon, Street of Dreams, Somewhere In the Night. Maybe they aren’t all that obscure, but I don’t have many versions of any of them. The first of the Larry Young tracks as well. This guy just gets me. I'll end up buying everything with his name on it.

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05 “Silence” (Charlie Haden) | MATT WILSON Wake Up! To What’s Happening | December 7 & 8, 2003. Terrell Stafford (trumpet, flugelhorn), Larry Goldings (piano, organ), Dennis Irwin (Bass, clarinet), Matt Wilson (drums).

Matt Wilson is another drummer that just seems to get overlooked by most. His compositions usually take a few listens to sink in, for me, but his drumming is phenomenal. I know that he stays very involved in education, which may jeopardize his time “on the scene.” Either way, I’ve been getting a kick out of this album. My favorite track is a Tony Williams composition called “There Comes A Time,” featuring the super hip vocals of Curtis Stigers.

This track didn’t catch on with most, which is a shame. Congrats to Sangrey for identifying the composer. Very impressive. I’m immediately drawn into this beautifully pensive mood and the sound of Larry Goldings’ instrument. I thought it would be nice to hear another side of the B-3, and of Larry Goldings. Compare to the Adam Levy trio on disc one. The patience displayed by these musicians is incredible. This album only features one of Matt Wilson’s original compositions and is split fairly equally between tracks featuring Goldings on piano and tracks featuring him on B-3.

This album comes highly recommended for some burning Terrell Stafford, despite the indifference you show for this track. I think many of you will be pleasantly surprised to hear this entire album. This is just an interlude.

06 “Memories of You” (Blake-Razaf) | CHARLES MINGUS East Coasting | August 1957. Charles Mingus (bass), Jimmy Knepper (trombone), Shafi Hadi (alto & tenor saxophones), Clarence Shaw (trumpet), Dannie Richmond (drums), Bill Evans (piano).

Yeah, Mingus probably would have socked a couple of you. I think this melody is immediately recognizable and Clarence Shaw is very faithful to it in his intro. Sentimental. At a loss. Knepper looks back on what could have been. Evans remembers the romance. Dannie, Mingus, and Bill Evans pick up the swing during Hadi’s solo. They move on briefly, and refrain. I like this take.

The album is great. No rough stuff really. Some good tunes that I don’t have elsewhere. I don’t have anything else with this ensemble. They had a good sound.

07 “Smake It” (Walter Davis Jr.) | WALTER DAVIS JR. Davis Cup | August 2, 1959. Donald Byrd (trumpet), Jackie McLean (alto saxophone), Walter Davis Jr. (piano), Sam Jones (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

That classic Blue Note feel. And a few readily identified the ever-solid Art Taylor. Honestly, I don’t know that I could identify Art Taylor in a blindfold. What is it that you guys heard? I had to include a second Walter Davis Jr. track after “Green Chimneys.”

08 “Three Silver Quarters” (Elmo Hope) | ELMO HOPE ENSEMBLE Hope From Rikers Island | August 19, 1963. Elmo Hope (piano), Ronnie Boykins (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums).

I had originally thought Bud Powell, Elmo Hope, Herbie Nichols. Somehow Bud Powell didn’t make it onto the disc, but then again, a lot of things didn’t… I really wanted to include something with Ronnie Boykins on it as well. He was most likely the bassist on the Sun Ra track from Disc One, but I can’t be sure. The bassist role in that arrangement doesn’t offer much. This is one of two trio tracks from this date and I love the feel these three have for each other. I can’t imagine Boykins recorded often with Philly, but I could be wrong… I’d like to be! Two very different rhythmic personalities. Elmo Hope’s playing is so fresh and inventive to me and I need more. I hope many of you have some of his recordings in your collection. I love his trio playing.

Gilmore actually turns up on this session as well, along with trumpet player Lawrence Jackson, alto and soprano saxophonist Freddie Douglas, and vocalists Earl Coleman and Marcel Daniels. Another good album with a nice variety, and very informative liner notes regarding musicians and drug addiction, including some words from producer Walt Dickerson.

A kind board member was generous enough to share this album with me a couple of years ago. I am very grateful.

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09 “Sunday Stroll” (Herbie Nichols) | HERBIE NICHOLS The Prophetic Herbie Nichols Vol. 1 | August 7, 1955 | Herbie Nichols (piano), Al McKibbon (bass), Max Roach (drums).

Sunday Stroll. You see it? I do. Like House Party Starting. It is incredible how gifted Herbie Nichols was. Setting up a scene the way he does with music. I chose this tune for its imagery.

As far as I know, Herbie Nichols only recorded four leader dates, and only used three drummers: Blakey, Roach, and Richmond. Only three bassists as well: McKibbon, Kotick, and Duvivier. The drummers I am pretty familiar with, and have had an ear for Duvivier for a while now as well, but I know next to nothing about McKibbon and Kotick. Everything I know about Nichols comes from the Blue Note booklet, and the internet. I have yet to read Four Lives in the Bebop Business, but a friend of mine does own a copy. I just looked at Amazon and, apparently, it isn’t all that difficult to track down.

I think Herbie Nichols’ name is synonymous with jazz, genius, and criminal obscurity by now, which at least posthumously brings him out of eternal obscurity. His music is fascinating and his improvisations are just so alive that it makes me want to find the true individual inside myself.

10 “Jumpin’ Jupiter” (Baby Face Willette) | BABY FACE WILLETTE Stop and Listen | May 22, 1961. Baby Face Willette (organ), Grant Green (guitar), Ben Dixon (drums).

Most of you were able to id Baby Face immediately. The dude just swings the blues like nobody’s business. I tried to boost the bass on this track a little bit because the mastering really lacks down low. One of my favorite things about the b-3 is that big bass sound! Baby Face is burning that bassline too. Believe me, Grant Green isn’t on EVERY b-3 record I have, but he sure showed up a lot on these discs! This is the only Baby Face disc I own, and I’m always on the hunt for the others. Just haven’t come across them yet.

I did pick up a copy of Freddie Roach’s Down to Earth last week. Man, what an album! I’ve really gotten into the organ groups through this board, and by listening to Organissimo. You guys’ album really made me a fan of this style and gave me a real appreciation for these trios. Thank you.

11 “The Moontrane” (Woody Shaw) | Bobby Hutcherson Live at Montreux | July 5, 1973. Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone), Woody Shaw (trumpet), Hotep Cecil Bernard (piano), Ray Drummond (bass), Larry Hancock (drums).

This band is on fire, chorus after chorus. I think this is such a great composition as well. The only other version I have ever heard is on Larry Young UNITY. I was surprised to read some of the comments about solos fizzling out. My opinion is quite the contrary! Especially Hutch and pianist Hotep Cecil Bernard! I know nothing about Hotep Cecil Bernard and hear some sort of McCoy Tyner influence in his big comping style. Some of the runs that Hutch pulls off during his choruses are mind-blowing. They just go for miles!

Now, I’m skeptical of Hutch’s post 1968 recordings, with exception. I haven’t even checked out the recently released Now yet… This recording should be up for reissue. Of all of the Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note albums, this is one that starts solid and finishes solid. And its live, which comes along with everything that live jazz implies. Four long tracks (two Hutch compositions, two Woody Shawn compositions) with plenty of solo space, the crowd is huge, and receptive, and the band is on fire. Connoisseur possibly?

12 “Samba De Orpheus” (A.Maria-M.Salvet-L.Bonfa) | GRANT GREEN Iron City | 1967. Grant Green (guitar), Larry Young (organ), Ben Dixon (drums).

This was purely a blindfold pick. Most of us are already familiar with the story behind this disc, crediting Big John Patton as the organist, the dialogue between Soul Stream, Bertrand, Big John Patton, etc. I just wasn’t sure how familiar you guys were with the actual music. Seems like y’all are pretty familiar with this one! Couldn’t put it past you, and I do think it is obvious that Larry Young is behind the console, not Big John Patton. I’m getting better at identifying organists that I am familiar with, whereas when I picked up this album four or five years ago in a bargain basement for $1.99, I had no idea who was who. I just figured, can’t pass this up! So we continue with the organ music, and go from a samba to a bossa influenced chart.

13 “Jobim” (Ken Schaphorst) | KEN SCHAPHORST BIG BAND Purple | January 5 & 6, 1998. Solos: Seamus Blake (tenor saxophone), Jamey Haddad (pandiero), Dane Richardson (berimbau), ??? (flugelhorn).

According to the liner notes of this NAXOS JAZZ release, Schaphorst has directed the Jazz Studies program at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin since 1991, spending much of the previous decade in Boston. As a founding member of the Jazz Composers Alliance, he has worked with and been positively influenced by Sam Rivers and others and their unique approach to big band arrangement. This disc is extremely varied, yet maintains a real cohesive feel, where you get Schaphorst, not a group of musicians playing a chart. The music on this disc feels like someone. Not perfect, but really working to be who they are without causing a stir.

I've put random tracks from this disc onto mix tapes, or bootleg Medeski shows (because a few tracks prominently feature John Medeski in a very different and positive role) over the past years, and it seems everyone is interested in different tracks. I honestly chose this at random, though I did consider the fact that the previous track on the BFT was a samba.

Soloists featured on this disc include the previously mentioned along with Donny McCaslin, Doug Yates, Brad Shepik, Dave Taylor, Uri Caine, Andy Gravish, Josh Roseman, Curtis Hasslebring, Dave Ballou, and Jay Brandford.

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Thanks guys. It was fun! I'll definitely sign up again next go-round. Hope you all enjoyed the music.

[couw]

and thank you Cary for a splendid set of disks and a great write up on the answers! Hotep Cecil Bernard, eh? And I never knew Elmo had so much Ibrahim in him, I need to put more effort in them ivory tinklers!

Have been awfully busy off late and would have wanted to chime in on the after party with the answers at the ready, but all my remarks were already made by others and my questions somehow solved, so I kept silent and did other things instead. Sorry for that.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Harrumph!

Fantastically astute writings on both of these threads, Cary. Some of those cats over in the "jazz in print forum" might be hitting you up for tips.

One of the greatest things about these BFTs is the individual feeling within so much of the compiler's mission. .:. proved it.

Thanks for the great discs and I plan to revisit them with the education now on the wall.

[king ubu]

Thanks a lot Cary for these great discs and write-ups!

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Yeah, thanks guys. This is a cool thing we've got going. Thanks to Mike Weil, Dan Gould, couw, et al for keeping the list together, etc.

I'm looking forward to Ubu and Rooster's upcoming!

[Big Al]

Yup, DEFINITELY gotta dig out that Andrew Hill Mosaic again to refresh my memory about how wonderful the rest of that session is that spawned track 3!

Track 7: I do have that one! DRAT!!! Ah well, at least I got Jackie Mac and A.T. correct!

Track 9: Man, wrong on all counts. The bad thing is, I used to own this set and could never warm up to it.

Track 10: Boy am I embarrassed that I missed Baby Face on this one! Now I gotta start lookin' out for Brother Jack's ghost coming after me as well as Mingus from track 6!

Track 11: Ah hah!!! I should've known that one from Unity! Ah well....

Another great compilation, Cary! Thanks for the fun!

[mikeweil]

Another big thanks for a very thoughtful compilation, and your very personal comments, which I appreciate very much about these BFT discs.

Never had so many things and didn't recognize:

I have the Hope on LP, but rarely listen to it; Have the Mingus even longer and now on CD, but ditto; and have the Baby Face, which I love, and didn't get it .

But I did recognize Jamey Haddad! It's a crazy jazz world, after all.

That Matt Wilson is one of the greatest and coolest drummers to hit the scene in the last decade. I was sent a DVD sampler from one of those drummers conventions, where all the guys hit hard and play as many fills as they can squeeze in and solo all the time, and he brought his regular quartet and sat in front of it with just a snare drum and a pair of brushes! Just like Papa Jo Jones on one Newport Jazz Festival, when he humbled all other cats with just a hi-hat. I will get this.

Didn't know there was a keyboard bass player on the Sun Ra - the original LP didn't credit him.

How to identify Arthur Taylor? He has a certain way of playing his breaks and solos that is different from the rest, rushes the time a little, although he clearly comes out of Max and Philly Joe. Play them side by side and you will get it. And he plays his hi-hat a little harder than the rest, which annoyed Miles, who found it was too loud and obstrusive. The modern close miking technique obscures this aspect about a drummer's set: The balance between cymbals, hi-hat, snare, toms and bass is different with each drummer, but you can hear this only with simple overhead miking. Close miking makes all components sound as loud as the engineer mixes them, not as the drummer plays them. That's why I like the old Contemporary LPs so much: There you can hear their real set sound much better than in Rudy's studio, where they tend to sound all the same.

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Thanks for all of your comments as well Mike! I was listening again to the Matt Wilson disc today. One of the things that continues to amaze me is the fact that when Larry Goldings is playing piano, he doesn't sound at all like an organ player on piano. He has a unique style on both instruments. This is a good group. I want to check out more Larry Goldings for sure.

[RDK]

I didn't participate in Cary's BFT, but I'm having a kick reading some of the responses. I gotta say, ironically, I think I would have done pretty well with this one, at least with disc 2. I have no less than seven of the albums, and I know I would have gotten "Silence," which is one of my favorite Haden compositions.

[Guest akanalog]

this is replying to something ancient, but i somehow ended up here and i see what i think is a factual error regarding the sun ra track.

the crumar is a kind of keyboard-i think it is probably like a bassette. it is not a person.

so it is ra playing those basslines.

unless you think there really is a bassist who is uncredited. but i don't think so.

but definitely not someone named crumar playing a keyboard.

[mikeweil]

this is replying to something ancient, but i somehow ended up here and i see what i think is a factual error regarding the sun ra track.

the crumar is a kind of keyboard-i think it is probably like a bassette. it is not a person.

so it is ra playing those basslines.

unless you think there really is a bassist who is uncredited. but i don't think so.

but definitely not someone named crumar playing a keyboard.

You must be right! When I read the answers I scratched my head and thought "Maybe he has the CD reissue credits which add the bass player" but I couldn't remember one from the LP credits and didn't write him down when I taped it.

It was a quartet, for sure. Now did he overdub the bass lines or play both keyboards simultaneously? I must dig out that cassette tape!

[.:.impossible]

Nice! A little searching tells me that there were only a dozen or so Crumar Mainman instruments made! Apparently this is the first (or one of the first) synths with a drum machine built-in.

Thanks for digging this up Adam! I will have to listen to the Horo music again.

I really had a blast doing this bft. I haven't participated in a while. Maybe I should start again...