Highly recommended: Bill Barron, "Tenor Stylings" Savoy

[Bol]

This is a 1961 quintet date with Ted Curson on trumpet and Kenny Barron on piano. Quite unusual playing by both Bill Barron & Ted Curson.

[AndrewHill]

Have Modern Windows Suite that Savoy put out a few years back and like that quite a bit. Never heard Tenor Styings though. Isn't this one pretty hard to find anyway?

[Chas]

Have Modern Windows Suite that Savoy put out a few years back and like that quite a bit. Never heard Tenor Styings though.

If you have Modern Windows Suite , then you have Tenor Stylings .

Modern Windows Suite is a crummy reissue , combining as it does , half a session (Modern Windows) with a full session (Tenor Stylings) that had already been reissued .

[clifford_thornton]

I have Modern Windows on LP but have yet to score a nice copy of Tenor Stylings (tried!).

[Bol]

I got a CD. I don't think it is too hard to find it as a CD. I see a couple on Amazon and eBay right now.

I wonder whether the other 2 Savoy dates were ever released as CDs.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Bol

[Chas]

I wonder whether the other 2 Savoy dates were ever released as CDs.

Hot Line was out in Japan as a mini-lp CD , while I don't think Motivation has ever been reissued in any form . Both are worthwhile .

[brownie]

'Motivation' is an album I have been wanting to listen to for years.

Have never run into a copy of it. No indication that it was ever reissued!

[JohnS]

The Bill Barron Savoys I've heard are excellent. A collection of Barron's Savoys would be a good project for LOnehill.

[brownie]

As soon as the Lonehill people lay hands on a copy of 'Motivation'

[clifford_thornton]

I finally scored Motivation - not cheap though. Very good record.

[Joe]

A few additional words on HOT-LINE... "2 tenors" date with Booker Ervin, another player who, well, let's say was less influenced by Coltrane than he offered a rather personal interpretation of Coltrane's language... very spirited playing, but also very smart, with a bit less stretching out than you might imagine... with a very young Andrew Cyrille in the drum chair

[JSngry]

Motivation is just plain nuts, in the totally best sense of the word.

Hot Line is the one of the stealthiest dance record of the 20th Century.

[Joe]

For those of us not so familiar with MOTIVATION...

Date: ca. 1972

Location: New York City

Label: Savoy

Bill Barron (ldr), Bill Barron (ts), Kenny Barron (p), Chris White (b), Al Hicks (d)

a. a-01 Motivation (Bill Barron)

b. a-02 Land Of Sunshine (Bill Barron)

c. a-03 Blues For R. A. (Bill Barron)

d. b-01 Cosmos (Kenny Barron)

e. b-02 Hold Back Tomorrow (Bill Barron)

f. b-03 Mental Vibrations (Bill Barron)

All titles on: Savoy LP 12": 12303 — Motivation

No date given.

From: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/BarronB/bb-disc.htm

The early 70's may not have been a golden age for Savoy, but they certainly were interesting times.

Also in need of re-issue / re-evaluation: Barron's 70's / 80's output for Muse.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Joe

[clifford_thornton]

I was under the impression that Motivation was recorded in the '60s but not issued until the early '70s.

[JSngry]

Also in need of re-issue / re-evaluation: Barron's 70's / 80's output for Muse.

Word on that. The "playing" might be better (overall) on the Savoys, but the composing on the Muse sides is highly evolved.

Bill Barron was an interesting cat.

[AndrewHill]

Have Modern Windows Suite that Savoy put out a few years back and like that quite a bit. Never heard Tenor Styings though.

If you have Modern Windows Suite , then you have Tenor Stylings .

Modern Windows Suite is a crummy reissue , combining as it does , half a session (Modern Windows) with a full session (Tenor Stylings) that had already been reissued .

Thanks for clearing that up. I agree though that just having a session and a half doesn't make real good sense; I'd really like the other half of Modern Windows.

[JohnS]

I'd certainly like to have the rest of the Modern Windows album. It made no sense when the cd was released not including it.

Now Hear This on Fresh Sound is another nice date from 1964.

Edited February 24, 2010 by JohnS

[brownie]

I was under the impression that Motivation was recorded in the '60s but not issued until the early '70s.

The usually reliable Michael Fitzgerald Jazz Discography also has 1972 as recording date for 'Motivation'.

[Chas]

Now Hear This on Fresh Sound is another nice date from 1964.

I really like the originals on this one , but there's noticeable distortion on the Fresh Sound CD . It's been years since I've heard an original copy , so I don't know if the sound has always been ropey .

[Late]

I think Motivation is Barron's best Savoy side. And it's ludicrous that there's only half of Modern Windows on the U.S. release. It's a flippin' suite for Pete's sake!

Bill Barron is a vastly undervalued tenor player in my opinion. The Muse stuff, what I've heard of it at least, is uniformly excellent.

Great original cover on Modern Windows, though I hate when a photo's negative is reversed for the print.

[Late]

I forgot to add that the only good thing about Orrin Keepnews' butcher job on "Modern Windows Suite" (the U.S. CD reissue) is that it contains a bonus track ("Desolation") from Tenor Stylings that the Japanese mini-LP edition left off. It's not an afterthought, but a very worthwhile ballad, with some Don Cherry-esque scraggly trumpet from Ted Curson.

[clifford_thornton]

Still need that Dragon CD, too.

[DrJ]

I included a track from this one in my BFT #72 line up:

Very fine disc, released on the Joken label (co-founded by brother Kenny Barron). Sadly I think this was Barron's last issued recording (recorded several years before his death).

Edited March 16, 2010 by DrJ

[JohnS]

Barron also appears on Philly Joe Jones' PJ's Beat[/i, Atlantic, 1961. Fine exciting playing all round on several bebop standards. Lord lists an unissued PJJ album by the group but presumably this is one of the "lost" sessions.

[brownie]

That one...

pretty good album. I still have the mono original. Guess that's the going to be the best way to listen to the session!