BFT #29 Disc 1 Discussion

[catesta]

1. Wow, what joy in the band, and what joy I get from hearing this. I've got no clue on the players, but this really nice stuff.

2. Nice bells. Another 'chock full-a-fun' tune.

3. Some school swing guys in the early days. I wish I knew more.

4. That's got to be Basie with Lester Young, no? Sounds great!

5. Something newer. The trumpet has a sweet sound.

6. Slam Stewart singing with the bass? I've never warmed to that.

I thought maybe Art Tatum on piano, but it's probably not, maybe Hines???

7. Hey I'm guessing the tune, it's “What Am I Here For". That's not Duke in the back is it? I've got no clue on the bass/

8. Ooohh, Ooh, Ooh, anotha tune I know, it most definitely be "Sophisticated Lady".

And this time I'm going to say that I do believe it is Duke on piano, most probably with Blanton.

9. This one really swings. Not Lester, but....

10. This may be Hamp.

11. A wonderful version of "A Night In Tunisia" by none other than Art Blakey and the magnificent comany of Silver, Brown, Donaldson, and Russell.

12. "Nice Work if You can Get It" and it has to be Monk.

13. Not bad, I wish I could say more.

14. It swings, it really does. Not sure of the two trumpets, I thought one may be Kenny Dorham, but I'd say this is old school swing guys.

15. This sounds very familiar. I wish I could place it.

It's not Hampton.

16. I thought I was hearing traces of Phineas Newborn, but that changed. This may be Oscar Peterson, or something by someone more modern day.

17. Nice feel. Is that Urbie Green on trombone?

18. Oh man help me out here. This is another oh so familiar but I can't place.

I like it. Horace on piano? Probably more like Sonny Clark. Oh hell I don't know. Could be Donald Byrd on trumpet.

19. This one was easy to get in to. Something from Mingus? Something from Hutcherson?

A great BFT.

I know the emphasis/theme was to be on the bass but I'm dealing with limited skills on my part.

I'm looking forward to grabbing a few of these.

Thanks for including me.

Edited September 19, 2005 by catesta

[Dan Gould]

Wel, Upright Bill covers all the basses - who'da thunk it, huh?

Nice disc but I didn't have a lot of brainstorms as I listened, cept the gimmes like Slam Stewart on track 6 and the original Messengers on 11. Is 12) Bud Powell? I had 13) as being from one of those PC-led Blue Note dates.

Looking forward to the answers!

[brownie]

Impressive compilation from Upright Bill with some emphasis on bass players, as could have been expected. Very interesting selections with a number of easy-to-find, and several not so easy, choices.

1- New Orleans music at its near best. Took me a while to recognize this. I have that lively side on a French RCA Black & White twofer that has all the RCA sessions by the leader. Love those sides and return to the leader sides pretty often. Never cared much for the trumpet player who always sounded a bit too stiff to my ears. But the bass player is pretty well recorded. Wish the washboard playing brother had been captured that well.

It sounded like Lil Hardin to me on piano but the regular discographies say it ain't her.

This might be considered primitive to contemporary listeners but the level of playing from most of the musicians here is plain outstanding considering the number of decades that have elapsed since it went to wax.

Track 3 from this one:

bull

2 - Wellman Braud and the Ellington crew (Bigard, Hodges, Jenkins)

24th side from this anthology (I remain true to the French CBS twofers). A smashing crew...

Greer even rings the bells

Freeze

3 - The very unique sound of the John Kirby orchestra. In one of their early opus. Track 2 from this Classic:

Kirby

Amazing that barely ten years have elapsed from the primitivenss of the first track to the sophistication of this one!

4 - An easy one for the Basie fan I am. From the crew's first big band session ever wiith a presidential participation. Still incredible after all those years!

Side 8 from this CD:

Shuffle

5 - A revivalist version of 'Peg O' My Heart', a tune I have loved since I listened to the Lester Young-King Cole duo version of it. I drew a near blank on the musicians involved.

6 - Another old favorite from my teen days. The pianist/leader was brilliant and brilliantly underrated.

Track 7 from this album.

Deuces

7 - The tune is Duke's 'What Am I Here For'. For a few seconds, I thought it might be Wendell Marshall on bass but this sounds like a recent record. Good player but who's he??

8 - I have known this duo classic since a family friend brought back from the USA a 45rpm of the four sides Duke Blanton Sophisticated Lady when I was a teenager and these sides were inaccessible.

Track 29 from this anthology:

Duo

9 - Good lively playing all around and had to wait until the Lester-inspired tenor showed up. Father and son sessions.Albert Ammons.

Track 8

Recorded two years after the city referred in the title infamously entered the history books.

10 - The Great Oscar Pettiford! It's got to be! Could not identify the source.

11 - No need to list who's playing what here. Just one of the very best version of this classic. The Blakey-led organisations were some of the more exciting jazz to be caught live with the drummer providing fuel to the solo men who deliver the goods

12 - Nice Work from Monk, another classic with Gene Ramey providing solid backing alongside Bu.

13 - Miles works the blues and sets the blue haze. Another classic where Davis emphasized his very full sound. The Silver intro remains up to the point. Bu proves once again he was a perfect foil for Miles. Heath is his impeccable self again.

14 - Two trumpets enjoying the playing of each other. One of them is Ruby Braff. Thought this might come from two trumpet dates with Buck Clayton and Emmett Berry but this proved to be wrong. Unpretentious and swinging music. Soiunded like Milt Hinton on bass.

15 - Terry Gibbs is aboard here. This might be the crew with Conte Candoli, Frank Socolow, Lou Levy, Chubby Jackson, Denzil Best that traveled to Sweden. I have those sides on a vinyl anthology which was not filed alphabetically.

16 - The bass player's beautiful sound helped track this interpretation of a Basie classic:

Track 7

The pianist appeared on the scene and showed up on a number of pretty interesting releases but seems to have lost his impetus.

17 - The unique sound of the valve trombone player led me to this session which was included in one of the best anthology to come out of the West Coast.

Last tune from this CD (different from the 3CD anthology I am referring to):

Babasin

18 - No problem recognizing the bass player but I had to wait until the trumpet player showed up to realize where this was coming from. Most people have forgotten by now the agressive side of his playing in his early years. The musicians provide a good reading of a pretty difficult chart. One rehearsal day probably provided the difference.

Track 4

19 - The vibraphone and the trumpet players helped to lead in the right direction. An album I had not listened to in a while. The music still sounds fresh even if this came out from the Bergenfield factory half a century ago and there were half a dozen similar - and all individual ones - coming out every month.

Dakar

I'll get to disc 2 in a few days (this stuff is killing!!)

[paul secor]

Apologies to Bill for weighing in late.

To begin, after the answers are posted, I'm going to send these CDs to a friend who is a bassist, and who buys recordings just to hear the bass playing. He'll have a ball with these.

I haven't looked at any previous comments - you can see that from my ignorance.

Track 1 - I knew this simply because I had listened to it fairly recently - a 1928 tune named for a bass - great music.

2 - No idea who this is. A Jelly Roll group? Whoever it is - fine music again.

3 - No idea again - early Ellington ran through my mind, but the soloists don't sound like it at all.

4 - The pianist seems to be the leader, but no idea once again - at least I'm consistent.

5 - I LOVE the trumpet solo. Don't know who it is. I'm assuming it's an older musician, but even if it's a revivalist, I need to know who the trumpeter is. What a beautiful sound and conception! I'll definitely buy this one.

6 - Maybe a gimmee - S.S. w. A.T.?

7 & 8 - Bass features - Don't know either and neither grabbed me.

9 & 10 - ? - Neither left a great impression.

11 - A real gimmee, though I hadn't listened to this in a long while, and had forgotten how raw the altoist's solo is - especially compared to the style he settled into.

12 - Another gimmee - same drummer as 11. T.M. & A.T.

13 - Same drummer again? I'll buy this if I don't already have it. (I have a feeling that I do.) The trumpeter is very thoughtful. Perfect feel to this track.

14 - Interesting - 2 trumpets w. guitar. No idea - not great music, but very good.

I'll be interested to know who this is.

15 - No real idea - wild guess Bags w. Diz? Very good feel to the bass playing.

16 - The pianist sounds like a man in a hurry. Doesn't sound to me like he gets much of anywhere.

17 - This one didn't leave much of an impression on me.

18 - Liked the tenor player a lot. No further comment.

19 - Enjoyed this very much. Don't know who it is, but I'll guess Bobby Hutcherson on a Blue Note date. I might buy this one. Good playing, and a very good attempt to do something different within a postbop context.

Thanks, Bill. You provided some nice listening and showed me that I have to do more listening to early jazz.

And I have to know who the trumpeter on #5 is.

[paul secor]

Ok - I have to do a lot more listening PERIOD!

[MartyJazz]

(snip)

6 - Another old favorite from my teen days. The pianist/leader was brilliant and brilliantly underrated.

Track 7 from this album.

Deuces

(snip)

←

Wow, so that is JG at the piano! Loved his work with Shaw and Pres but never heard him play with that kind of facility. Gotta get those sides with Slam.

[Harold_Z]

(snip)

6 - Another old favorite from my teen days. The pianist/leader was brilliant and brilliantly underrated.

Track 7 from this album.

Deuces

(snip)

←

Wow, so that is JG at the piano! Loved his work with Shaw and Pres but never heard him play with that kind of facility. Gotta get those sides with Slam.

←

I hae an old 45 E.P. on the Royale label that has 4 of the tracks (not this one-however) on the cd Brownie linked too. I've been meaning to order it for some time. Guarnieri sounds wonderful on these 4 tracks, I finally did order the other night at CD universe. The were backordered, but I hope that come in soon.

Edited September 22, 2005 by Harold_Z

[Noj]

First off, many thanks to Upright Bill for his efforts. Discs one and two occupied the boombox for the better part of several days. It occurred to me that I should pay particular attention to the bass player for obvious reasons. As a rhythmically-oriented listener, keeping an ear on the bass is pretty much standard procedure despite the limitations of my equipment. However, pre-planned emphasis on listening to the bass certainly pays off with this BFT!

Blindfold Test #29 Compiled by Upright Bill

Disc One:

1. Piano solo made me smile. Fletcher Henderson?

2. At 1:42 something catches my ear, it sounds like a part of "The Sidewinder." No guess on this one though.

3. Count Basie?

4. Duke Ellington?

5. Is that a baritone sax? Really nice, everyone's really slick. Its melody is instantly infectious.

6. Freakish speed from the piano player, ridiculous skills. Weird humming/buzzing vocalizations remind me of Slam Stewart & Major Holley "Undecided" (RDK BFT#11 Bonus).

7. Ron Carter?

8. The Heath brothers?

9. Any man with a pulse should tap his toe to this one. Jelly Roll Morton?

10. Hutcherson?

11. This one I definitely have. A gimme, with the ending announcement.

12. Early Keith Jarrett? I ask this because of the vocalizations.

13. Love at first listen. Wait, do I own this? Yes, I definitely have this one too.

14. Melody sounds familiar. I'm reminded of Fats Navarro & Tad Dameron in terms of style, though I wouldn't venture them as a guess. I wish the guitar had been recorded better. Tal Farlow?

15. Lionel Hampton?

16. Wild man on the keys. Crikey, he doesn't quit! Art Tatum?

17. Wes Montgomery?

18. Gem after gem on this BFT. Almost half done, and I'm out of guesses...

19. Grachan Moncur w/Hutcherson? I may have this one, it sounds awful familiar.