BFT 97 discussion

[king ubu]

Chiming in late, but better than never - here's my two cents on BFT 97:

# 1 - Very nice waltz - 1960's? I probably know these players, but never heard that track before. More, please ...

Thanks for joining, Mike! Don't think there's much more to be found easily by this band, alas...

# 2 - Organ and clarinet? Wow ... I like the clarinettist's sound in the lower register, but not his squeaky sound in the upper ranges. Is this a German band? Nice organ chorus. Again: more, please ...

Geographically correct... which should make it easy for you to pin down

# 4 - starts as a nice big band track, but the alto soloist's intonation and tone is awful. I shudder ... but the trombonist is nice. Another trombonist? If so, nice contrast. Baritone with similar but less obstrusive intonation problems, playing too forceful, like the alto. Those trombonist were more fluent, too. I wonder who they are ... The trumpet solo convinces me that the brass in that band are more competent than the reeds. Drummer 's nice, too.

Gee, rough words for the man on alto... only one 'bone soloist as far as I know. The trumpet player was the leader, and drummers, there's indeed two of them!

# 5 - Do I know this ballad? That player sounds a bit fragile ... or as if he is hampered by too much of some substance. Not as sure of himself as he should be. Nice ideas, but the execution does not quite convince me.

Don't think you know this tune... it's an original penned by the baritone man with someone else unknown to me.

I love this one, never thought the exectution was faulty in any way.

# 6 - Oh yeah, nice drummer! Band of swing veterans? Would have to hear more to guess any of them.

Kind of veterans, maybe... but not really. There's some more around by them, though. I'm sure you know them

# 7 - Caravan! Do I hear two bass players? Sounds like a fusion of the Africa/Brass approach with a more standard repertoire. Nice, but would have to hear more to really give a judgement. Saxist playing the theme sounds a bit too careless for me stating that melody, like the flutist much more.

Two bass players, soprano is the leader's. Thought you might easily get this one!

# 8 - Again I find the brass more competent than the reeds, whose intonation is a bit sloppy and not together in the section. Overall, good ballad performance.

The trumpet player has just been identified

# 9 - Sounds like an aged veteran trombone player with slight .... oh, my critical ear for sloppy intonation is terrible today. But I get the message. Judging from the bass sound, a 1970's recording.

1972

# 10 - More balladistic trombone, this time like a softened Coltrane follower. Just when I thought they started losing the tension they pick up the pace. Saxist doesn't do much for me. But this leaves me untouched, somehow.

Two sax players... guess Coltrane was indeed their reference.

Many thanks for your feedback!

[Spontooneous]

Woo-hoo! I got one sorta right! It just proves that if you guess Benny Bailey enough times, eventually you'll be right once.

And now, the second half:

9 Oh, snap, I've heard this tune before and I should know what it is. Is this an Abdullah Ibrahim track? He likes that trombone-flute combination. Trombonist is wonderful and flutist is even better. (Carlos Ward?)

10 Beautiful trombone intro, first four notes in common with "September in the Rain" but obviously that ain't the theme. Because you just had me thinking of Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya, now the tenor here sounds like Ricky Ford for a minute, but it probably isn't him. Impressive bass solo. Apparently my brain is stuck, because the strong alto sounds like Carlos Ward again. Another great track that I'll have to add to my collection somehow.

11 Almost a klezmer boogaloo, with a theme that quotes "Afro Blue." Some very impressive moments in the clarinet solo. A pianist with a muttering problem, but presumably not Mr. Jarrett. This BFT is on a roll here.

12 Nice theme. Again presumably not Mr. Jarrett, but someone who has paid close attention. And a drummer who's paid close attention to Jack De. I like the friskiness.

13 A blast of a real-live pipe organ; there's nothing like it. I guess that's Jan Garbarek on soprano? I'm probably in the minority, but I like this kind of thing.

14 An ambitiously composed piece – I'm thinking Graham Collier – but it shows the soloists to good advantage.

15 Music made of interlocking minimalist pieces. The French horn theme nice, and so is the abrupt change at 1:30. It's like a brass band from space. My hat's off to the tuba player.

16 It's Ayleresque/folky, it sounds Eastern European and it sounds New Orleans. I love it. There's an impressive trombone player in there. Just before the fade, tenor sounds like David Murray.

Thanks again, Flurin!

[king ubu]

Woo-hoo! I got one sorta right! It just proves that if you guess Benny Bailey enough times, eventually you'll be right once.

And now, the second half:

9 Oh, snap, I've heard this tune before and I should know what it is. Is this an Abdullah Ibrahim track? He likes that trombone-flute combination. Trombonist is wonderful and flutist is even better. (Carlos Ward?)

Would be amazed if you'd indeed heard it!

10 Beautiful trombone intro, first four notes in common with "September in the Rain" but obviously that ain't the theme. Because you just had me thinking of Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya, now the tenor here sounds like Ricky Ford for a minute, but it probably isn't him. Impressive bass solo. Apparently my brain is stuck, because the strong alto sounds like Carlos Ward again. Another great track that I'll have to add to my collection somehow.

The tune's original... Ekaya came several years later... tenor reminds me more of Trane, really! And I do love that alto very much!

11 Almost a klezmer boogaloo, with a theme that quotes "Afro Blue." Some very impressive moments in the clarinet solo. A pianist with a muttering problem, but presumably not Mr. Jarrett. This BFT is on a roll here.

Not Jarrett indeed... Somehow the "Afro Blue" (and Hancock) rip-off escaped me before, but you're the second to mention it after Thom Keith!

12 Nice theme. Again presumably not Mr. Jarrett, but someone who has paid close attention. And a drummer who's paid close attention to Jack De. I like the friskiness.

The rhythm section helped kicking off... oh well... there's the Jarrett parallel. I love the sound here - on ECM this wouldn't sound half as warm.

13 A blast of a real-live pipe organ; there's nothing like it. I guess that's Jan Garbarek on soprano? I'm probably in the minority, but I like this kind of thing.

That makes two of us

Not Garbarek though. The guy here's kind of the secret star of this BFT

14 An ambitiously composed piece – I'm thinking Graham Collier – but it shows the soloists to good advantage.

Not Collier...

15 Music made of interlocking minimalist pieces. The French horn theme nice, and so is the abrupt change at 1:30. It's like a brass band from space. My hat's off to the tuba player.

The composer is Мосолов

16 It's Ayleresque/folky, it sounds Eastern European and it sounds New Orleans. I love it. There's an impressive trombone player in there. Just before the fade, tenor sounds like David Murray.

Yeah, that's the mix there, though geographically correct it's Central Europe, or thusly centralyuropean... the Ayler connection is there, clearly... too bad it's just an excerpt (I don't even know, really... just have this one cut from this).

Thanks again, Flurin!

Thanks to you for not being put off by the oddities in there - enjoyed your comments a lot!

[jeffcrom]

I'm really late to the party! I listened to half of the tracks last week, and the rest today. This was an odd BFT for me - somehow I expected to love every one of Ubu's selections, but several of them left me cold, even though there was nothing "wrong" with them - they just didn't get to me. On the other hand, there were several I found very intriguing - I'm looking forward to finding out more about them.

And usually I recognize some of the music on a BFT. But I didn't know any of this, and only made on feeble guess.

1-3: All of these tracks were just fine, but none of them “grabbed” me, and I find that I have nothing much to say about them.

4. Excellent big band; interesting that there’s no chordal instrument in the rhythm section. I particularly like the “vocal” saxophone solo and excellent trumpet; the trombone and bari were okay.

5. This bari player has a personal sound and style, but to my ears/brain/heart, this piece fails because he or she keeps using the same licks over and over. Didn’t work for me.

6. Sounds like West Coast cool bop crossed with freer tendencies. Could the alto player beJoe Harriott? In any case, I like it.

7. If you’re going to do “Caravan” one more time, you’d better have something pretty interesting, or at least different, to say with it. And these guys do. Unusual sound from the soprano sax – or that an instrument like the saxello? Nice work from the two basses.

8. Very, nice – moody in a Mingusian kind of way. Good solos all around – the alto player seemed at least aware of Dolphy.

9. Good, but I don’t feel compelled to hear it again.

10. This, on the other hand, caught my attention right away. Compositionally, it’s simple, but interesting. Good, individual playing all around.

11. I like the clarinet player’s big sound, and I like the track, too, although I wish the rhythm section had loosened up a little more.

12. I got bored long before this track was finished. Sorry.

13. Wow – pretty interesting weirdness going on here. Sun Ra is the only free-jazz pipe organist I know, but it doesn’t sound like him or his associates, although the indifferent recording quality is like something he would put out.

14. Nice! Cool composition with nice dissonances, good improvising, lots of personality, and enough variety. I like.

15. More cool weirdness. A little bombastic, but still fun. Nice to hear some good French horn playing.

16. Another odd and interesting track. I liked it more each time I heard it.

Thanks for the interesting BFT, even though it made me feel a little stupid. Not only do I not recognize anyone, I didn't have a lot to say about the music, for some reason.

[Spontooneous]

A late thought: Would 15 perhaps be the Vienna Art Orchestra?

[king ubu]

Thanks for your thoughts, Jeff!

I'm well aware that no one would like all tunes here (well, unless that someone would be me, I guess, but as I'm me already, who else could possibly be me? ). The whole thing was kind of an experiment...

It's a soprano on "Caravan", and there's no Harriott nor Blount on here.

No VAO either, Spontooneous!