question for those alive in the 70s...

[PHILLYQ]

well it's a personal thing...i wasn't listening to music back then since i wasn't born until the late 70s.

that's why i was wondering-so much of the music turned into faceless session guys (and formerly non-session guys were thrown into the recesses with pat rebillot) i was wondering how much interest/thought/etc went through your tender brain when looking at an LP cover back then.

did you think-jimmy maelin on percussion?!?!?! awesome!

for me, faddis seems kind of cheesy. he always does his same high note tricks and quotes songs at annoying times also. just not someone i want to hear. in session work i am sure he's fine but on something like charles earland's "kharma" album-he ruins it because he is given more freedom to be himself and he has no personality to be. just my opinion. not looking to argue about faddis.

will lee just seemed like the jivest of a jive crew to my ears. i dunno. i guess he probably wasn't any worse than a bob babbitt or a gary king (well i think king is pretty dope-one of the best). this is why i am asking.

or seeing like richard tee was on an album...how did these things make you feel? i imagine richard tee would make one excited. but would eric gale? gordon edwards? any feelings at all?

I was born in '56 and so I was a teenager then, I got seriously into jazz in '72. My sister's boyfriend at the time worked for CTI(mailroom), so he would send me new releases like crazy. Usually if I saw Richard Tee, Ralph McDonald, Hugh McCracken, Earl Klugh, Bob James and a host of other names I could count on competent but ultimately not exciting music. It was a sort of music by numbers on many releases, and those guys must have recorded an album a day, or so it seemed. Certainly there were rather restricted in what they could play as they were mostly session players, but the output on CTI was largely forgettable.

I saw Faddis in the '70s once, the concert that(partially) became 'Mingus at Carnegie Hall', and he did the whole shtick with straospheric high notes, etc. but he was entertaining and perhaps playing with Mingus helped to lessen some of his excesses.

Will Lee largely played with the Brecker Bros, Don Grolnick,and some other names I don't recall offhand. The Brecker Brothers were a good live band, but Lee mostly stayed in a small circle of folks and thus didn't infect the larger scene. Lee was one of those guys who did tons of session work but you didn't generally seek him out.

I could go on about more and more names that were 'must to avoid' in those days, but I have limited computer time...

[JSngry]

What part of the 70s?

[Chuck Nessa]

Since I arrived at the '70s from the '60s, I don't remember.

[medjuck]

I think I avoided all jazz recorded in the '70s ( except a couple of Gil Evans records). I had bought contemporary jazz in the '60s but by the '70s I as buying older jazz and contemporary rock.

[mjzee]

One thing which may differ from now--there were just a certain number of those lite funk albums released. One knew which ones they were, and didn't buy them. The musicians on them did not seem to spread out into numerous albums on small labels, where you had to scour the liner notes to see if the bassist for Spyro Gyra was on an album by Dexter Gordon, for example. That kind of thing did not happen, for the most part.

I also did not buy Chuck Mangione, who was very popular there for awhile. Again, Chuck was not on countless sessions, where you had to turn over the album to see if he was there. He would not just pop up on a Chico Freeman session, for example.

While you're largely correct, I can think of some odd exceptions.

1) There was a series of funk jazz albums on Inner City that involved graduates of Miles Davis's '70 bands: Mtume playing with Hubert Eaves (? I think that was the name)...there were others, too, if I remember the names, I will amend here. They were very bland funk albums.

2) There was an odd album, also on Inner City, called "The Three", a trio of Joe Sample, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne (well, they are all West Coast guys). Now on eMusic: The Three

3) Alphonse Mouzon was in Weather Report, then made many fusion/dance albums on MPS.

4) Idris Muhammad seems like a guy who went the other direction: from a dance/fusion focus to becoming a respected Jazz drummer.

[Kalo]

I was alive in the 70's, but can't say I was really into jazz yet.

And you call that being alive?

At least you were listening to classical music back then.

[Chuck Nessa]

One thing which may differ from now--there were just a certain number of those lite funk albums released. One knew which ones they were, and didn't buy them. The musicians on them did not seem to spread out into numerous albums on small labels, where you had to scour the liner notes to see if the bassist for Spyro Gyra was on an album by Dexter Gordon, for example. That kind of thing did not happen, for the most part.

I also did not buy Chuck Mangione, who was very popular there for awhile. Again, Chuck was not on countless sessions, where you had to turn over the album to see if he was there. He would not just pop up on a Chico Freeman session, for example.

While you're largely correct, I can think of some odd exceptions.

1) There was a series of funk jazz albums on Inner City that involved graduates of Miles Davis's '70 bands: Mtume playing with Hubert Eaves (? I think that was the name)...there were others, too, if I remember the names, I will amend here. They were very bland funk albums.

2) There was an odd album, also on Inner City, called "The Three", a trio of Joe Sample, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne (well, they are all West Coast guys). Now on eMusic: The Three

3) Alphonse Mouzon was in Weather Report, then made many fusion/dance albums on MPS.

4) Idris Muhammad seems like a guy who went the other direction: from a dance/fusion focus to becoming a respected Jazz drummer.

One thing you don't seem to know. Most (not all) Inner City releases were licensed from companies outside the US. Others were licensed from "producers" in the US. They made choices by imagined "sales potential" and that's the truff.

Edited July 13, 2007 by Chuck Nessa

[mjzee]

One thing you don't seem to know. Most (not all) Inner City releases were licensed from companies outside the US. Others were licensed from "producers" in the US. They made choices by imagined "sales potential" and that's the truff.

I do know that (Enja, Steeplechase, West Wind, Black and White, etc). But I knew these releases on Inner City. And some of their own titles, like the Jeff Lorber, sold respectably.

[Chuck Nessa]

I do know that (Enja, Steeplechase, West Wind, Black and White, etc). But I knew these releases on Inner City. And some of their own titles, like the Jeff Lorber, sold respectably.

Boy, there's a legacy to build on.

[Kalo]

To respond to the topic of this thread, I did actually start buying jazz records in the late '70s, which coincided with the end of high school and beginning of college for me. And apart from the AEC, Arthur Blythe, "Blood" Ulmer and a few others, I mostly bought older stuff, because I was trying to catch up with the music's history, so anything that looked too contemporary I tended to avoid, including older recordings that had been repackaged to be more commercially up-to-date.

Oddly, the 1970s is still one of the least well-represented eras in my collection, as far as jazz goes, even though those were my "coming of age" years.

[Chuck Nessa]

Oddly, the 1970s is still one of the least well-represented eras in my collection, as far as jazz goes, even though those were my "coming of age" years.

Possibly because you can still hear the music in your head.

[Kalo]

Oddly, the 1970s is still one of the least well-represented eras in my collection, as far as jazz goes, even though those were my "coming of age" years.

Possibly because you can still hear the music in your head.

Also because, though I like some rock, most fusion did and still does leave me cold. Also, the way much acoustic jazz was recorded in the '70s -- direct bass, too much isolation, etc. -- rubs me the wrong way.

[sidewinder]

2) There was an odd album, also on Inner City, called "The Three", a trio of Joe Sample, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne (well, they are all West Coast guys). Now on eMusic: The Three

Originally on Japanese East Wind (direct cut). Very nice album !

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Gary Wright fuckin totally fuckin rules i have every album he ever recorded

[clifford_thornton]

Gary Wright fuckin totally fuckin rules i have every album he ever recorded

Even Bananamoon?

[clifford_thornton]

Oddly, the 1970s is still one of the least well-represented eras in my collection, as far as jazz goes, even though those were my "coming of age" years.

Too bad - lotta great stuff from those years.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Except for 1970 & 1971, I was pretty poor during the '70s - married, child, where's the money gone? - so I bought pretty conservatively - mostly people I knew I liked, and didn't care who was with them much, if at all.

But in terms of buying people I didn't know, I'd be more guided by the artwork than by the personnel list. If an album had what I considered "over-elaborate" artwork, I wouldn't even pick it up in the shop, equating this with hype and over-production. I'd prefer, and still do, a sleeve with a pic of the musician, or perhaps a lightly clad young lady (as per Muse - but I'd have bought all those Muses anyway, whatever was on the sleeve), and a bit of lettering. But this attitude, and short pockets, meant I missed the joys of George Clinton in the '70s.

MG

[sheldonm]

Gary Wright fuckin totally fuckin rules i have every album he ever recorded

YOU BOUGHT ALL THIS STUFF???? OMG!

1971 Extraction A&M

1972 Footprint A&M

1972 Ring of Changes (Wonderwheel) A&M

1975 The Dream Weaver Warner Bros.

AMG Track Picks

Love Is Alive, Made to Love You, Dream Weaver

1976 That Was Only Yesterday A&M

1977 Light of Smiles Warner Bros.

1977 Touch and Gone Warner Bros.

1979 Headin' Home Warner Bros.

1981 The Right Place Warner Bros.

1988 Who I Am Cypress

1995 First Signs of Life Worldly/Triloka

2000 Human Love High Wave Music

2004 Down This Road Gary Wright & Leah Weiss

[DMP]

Anybody on Blue Note.

[clifford_thornton]

Anybody on Blue Note.

[paul secor]

I think I avoided all jazz recorded in the '70s ( except a couple of Gil Evans records). I had bought contemporary jazz in the '60s but by the '70s I as buying older jazz and contemporary rock.

You missed a lot of good music when it was happening. Hope you picked up on it later.