james moody

[JohnS]

Somehow I always preferred his early stuff.

[Peter Friedman]

he liked jersey guys...

"never again" is one of my favorite organ albums.

I've got very little Moody, but that piques my attention. What is it?

MG

MG,

This album was originally on a Xanadu LP. I have a CD re-issue titled :

James Moody And The Hip Organ Trio - Xanadu/EPM FDC 5176

It has Mickey Tucker(organ, Roland Wilson(Fender Bass), Eddie Gladden(drums)

Recorded in NYC, 06/08/1972

It's a very nice session, and one I believe would appeal to you.

[analogak]

sorry i haven't responded yet but mg, it is a cobblestone (or maybe muse) album, not xanadu. though obviously the LPs all look the same for those companies so i can see the confusion. the title refers to moody putting down the alto for good. didn't know it was out on CD! interesting.

[JSngry]

Never Again! is a great album!

If you don't believe me, ask Dan Morgenstern:

[DukeCity]

Well, he said "Never Again" and then here he is playing some alto with Jimmy Smith and Grady Tate.

For those who might want to bypass the Jon Faddis solo, Moody starts blowing at 3:04.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ah, it's one of those French Xanadu CDs, is it?

Don Schlitten was producing LPs for Joe Fields in the early days, then opened Xanadu. This is the first time I've heard of a Muse being reissued on Xanadu but I guess Don must have retained ownership of those masters.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to my knowledge on this.

MG

[mrjazzman]

Saw Moody at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA a couple of years ago. Still plays great and is a very witty story teller.............

[DMP]

I'll never forget taking my parents to hear the Moody group with Tucker and Gladden at a club in Pittsburgh's Hill District - we were probably the only white people in the place, and when we went to leave, he walked us to our car, opened the door for my mom, and locked the door!

[Christiern]

Ah, it's one of those French Xanadu CDs, is it?

Don Schlitten was producing LPs for Joe Fields in the early days, then opened Xanadu. This is the first time I've heard of a Muse being reissued on Xanadu but I guess Don must have retained ownership of those masters.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to my knowledge on this.

MG

The relationship became a nasty mess and I think some kind of settlement was finally reached, but the personal differences remained beyond fixing.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ah, it's one of those French Xanadu CDs, is it?

Don Schlitten was producing LPs for Joe Fields in the early days, then opened Xanadu. This is the first time I've heard of a Muse being reissued on Xanadu but I guess Don must have retained ownership of those masters.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to my knowledge on this.

MG

The relationship became a nasty mess and I think some kind of settlement was finally reached, but the personal differences remained beyond fixing.

Is Don Schlitten still around?

MG

[sidewinder]

Saw him with the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band three years ago. He was still playing fairly well, singing and smiling. It boggles one's mind to think that he was there back in 1946 with the revolutionary Dizzy Gillespie big band. He's a rare survivor from the almost mythical early days of modern jazz.

Northsea Fest?

and belated congrats to the Great Mr Moody !

Edited March 30, 2008 by sidewinder

[Christiern]

Is Don Schlitten still around?

MG

Yes, but somewhat of a recluse.

[AllenLowe]

Don lives up in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx - I worked for him in the middle 1970s and have great respect for him, but he kinda let the music business pass him by through what I would call a misguided sense of principle - what is significant is that he set up Xanadu in an equitable way, in which the full costs of the recordings did NOT have to be re-couped before the musicians saw sales royalties.

he has a sense of "if I can't sell it I'll sit on it" in terms of the masters he owns and did tell me about 10 years ago that the French CD deal went bad. Unfortunately he views the jazz world as having gone irretrievably bad and he is in some danger of becoming the Howard Hughes of jazz-

Edited March 30, 2008 by AllenLowe

[Christiern]

I'm sure the Joe Fields experience was major, but events in Don's personal life also contributed to his withdrawal. I remember Don fondly from the late 1960s, when he was a witty, active member of a hang-out group that also included Ira Gitler, Dan Morgenstern and David Himmelstein. Days beyond recall, I'm afraid

[AllenLowe]

he also took a lot of important photos, as I recall -

[Larry Kart]

I spent some time with Dan (my boss then at Down Beat) and Ira in the late '60s (though not with Schlitten and Himmelstein). Ira in the right social setting is one of the great joy-spreaders, and he certainly had that effect on Dan (and me). Also, I had the feeling that by that time the connection between them and Schlitten and Himmelstein was a bit frayed, though I'm not sure why.

[Christiern]

Sure did. I wish I could get a couple of them from my sessions. Guess I'll give Don a call.

[paul secor]

Are we talking about the alto player or the tenor player.

Two different people for me.

No comments on this? I'm not qualified to do so, but I'm sure someone here must be.

[papsrus]

Are we talking about the alto player or the tenor player.

Two different people for me.

No comments on this? I'm not qualified to do so, but I'm sure someone here must be.

I assumed he meant Moody is much better on tenor than alto, which I'm not familiar enough to know if Moody played alto, but ... that's how I took the comment.

[Chuck Nessa]

Are we talking about the alto player or the tenor player.

Two different people for me.

No comments on this? I'm not qualified to do so, but I'm sure someone here must be.

I assumed he meant Moody is much better on tenor than alto, which I'm not familiar enough to know if Moody played alto, but ... that's how I took the comment.

I meant his approach seemed different for the two instruments.

[Chuck Nessa]

I spent some time with Dan (my boss then at Down Beat) and Ira in the late '60s (though not with Schlitten and Himmelstein). Ira in the right social setting is one of the great joy-spreaders, and he certainly had that effect on Dan (and me). Also, I had the feeling that by that time the connection between them and Schlitten and Himmelstein was a bit frayed, though I'm not sure why.

Had some personal relationships with all four. Liked all of them individually but have reservations about the gang. The self imposed nicknames ( Baron, Spy, etc) really bothered me. Seemed like playground stuff.

[Larry Kart]

There's at least one Moody tenor solo with Dizzy from the late '40s , maybe from the Pasadena concert, that I felt pretty sure had some influence on Ornette. It's like Moody shifts an entire slab of the changes free from its moorings in pursuit of a momentarily compelling melodic and/or rhythmic impulse.

[AllenLowe]

in the right setting, Moody is one of the hippest players around - about 15 years ago I booked him for the New Haven Jazz Festival; not long before this he had done a blindfold test, probably for DownBeat, in which he put down everybody who wasn't playing bebop from the "right" perspective, from the Young Lions to Ornette (or maybe Dolphy); so here he is (one of the nicest musicians I ever met, btw) playing the most convincing inside/outside tenor I ever heard - tons of chromatic chord substitutions, strange but logical arpeggios - always perfectly resolved and beautifully executed - I remember talking to John Szwed, who was at the same concert, about it - he too had read the Blindfold test and was shaking his head at how Moody, who put down all the "outside" players, had, from a technical standpoint, accepted so many of the musical principles they espoused -

Edited March 31, 2008 by AllenLowe