Out of character recordings.

[gmonahan]

Thanks for the quick reply Jim. The things I learn on this forum!

 

 

gregmo

[sidewinder]

How about Tubby Hayes with John Stevens and Trevor Watts in the 'Splinters' group?

[JSngry]

Speaking of Kenton...hard to call anything that any commercially viable big band leader did in response to market trends/record company pressures "out of character", and Kenton had always made overtly "commercial" records, that was part of his trip almost from the beginning, but this one caught all kinds of heat...it's pretty much a Ralph Carmichael record with Kenton's name and only some of whatever band he had at the time on it I.e. - mostly a studio assemblage, although by definition that would include some Familiar Kenton Names), and when it's not busy sucking really hard (which is often), it's actually a somewhat interesting example of newer recording technologies & post-psychedelic Technicolor MOR.

Music aside, hey, sexy album cover.

Tony Scott in a Trad-ish setting. He's fine. The setting, maybe not so much.

[rostasi]

[duaneiac]

2 hours ago, gmonahan said:

Whoa. Now THAT'S one I've never heard of before!  Do you actually have it?  How IS it?  "Enquiring" minds want to know!

 

 

gregmo

I am a Stan Kenton fan and this is one album I do not, nor ever will, own.  Supposedly it was "suggested" by the higher-ups at Capitol to pair these two recording artists.  Also supposedly, neither performer was at all thrilled with the idea of the results.

How is it?  Well, samples can be found on YouTube.  Here's one (and it is probably sufficient).

 

[Scott Dolan]

2 hours ago, mjzee said:

Holy moly.

Having not heard this, I believe we have a winner! 

Bailey is still one player I can't quite wrap my head around. But imagining him playing ballads is even harder to wrap my head around. 

What's next?! Peter Brötzmann plays Captain and Tennille? 

1 hour ago, duaneiac said:

I am a Stan Kenton fan and this is one album I do not, nor ever will, own.  Supposedly it was "suggested" by the higher-ups at Capitol to pair these two recording artists.  Also supposedly, neither performer was at all thrilled with the idea of the results.

How is it?  Well, samples can be found on YouTube.  Here's one (and it is probably sufficient).

 

Not that it really qualifies for this discussion, but I've always been intrigued to hear what the Lady Gaga/Tony Bennett album sounds like. I read some very positive reviews of it. Reading of pairings such as this, and the earlier Lawrence Welk made me think of that album. 

[Big Beat Steve]

3 hours ago, BillF said:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/537073-Boots-Brown-And-His-Blockbusters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atbFoQIQKc8

From the moment I saw this thread I thought of this particular record but was not sure if recordings made under pseudonyms would qualify too.

However, (as so often) Discogs is incredibly superficial. This recording has MANY more artists for whom this might have been "out of character":

In addition to Shorty Rogers, the Boots Brown group had Bud Shank, Dave Pell, Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Cooper, Frank Patchen, Howard Rumsey and Shelly Manne in one line-up and Milt Bernhart, Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan, Marty Paich, Jimmy Wyble, Howard Rumsey and Roy Harte in the other.

And the "other" group of that LP - Dan Drew & His Daredevils, had the East Coast match: Al Cohn, Nick Travis, Eddie Bert, Elliott Lawrence and Osie Johnson among the better-known ones.

"Out of character" for most of them.

Or maybe not??

Remember those "Big Boy", "More Big Boy" "M.B.B.", "Big Girl" honkin' sax excursions recorded by various incarnations of the Lighthouse All Stars (including several of the above West Coast line-up) on Skylark and Contemporary. Sounds like this sort of R&B outings was part of their on-stage set for a time.

 

 

2 hours ago, duaneiac said:

I am a Stan Kenton fan and this is one album I do not, nor ever will, own.  Supposedly it was "suggested" by the higher-ups at Capitol to pair these two recording artists.  Also supposedly, neither performer was at all thrilled with the idea of the results.

How is it?  Well, samples can be found on YouTube.  Here's one (and it is probably sufficient).

 

Same here. For as long as I have known  of the existence of this record I have never been tempted one bit to add it to the close to 50 Kenton LPs I have. One reason being that I have never liked Tex Ritter in his "normal" setting either.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Big Beat Steve

[BillF]

An out of character recording for Barney Kessel:

https://www.discogs.com/Kid-Ory-And-His-Creole-Jazz-Band-1955/release/3831447

[paul secor]

Two drummers in unusual contexts, but sounding just fine:

Sam Woodyard on "Virgin Jungle with Steve Lacy's band:

Ed Thigpen with John Lindberg, Dave Douglas, and Larry Ochs:

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, paul secor said:

Two drummers in unusual contexts, but sounding just fine:

Sam Woodyard on "Virgin Jungle with Steve Lacy's band:

Agreed .... and an impressive Lacy outing for Novus overall .....

[duaneiac]

I didn't think this album was as bad as most critical reviews made it out to be.  It's not my favorite McCoy Tyner recording -- by far -- but I didn't find it at all unlistenable.  It is definitely uncharacteristic of his usual musical style.

[paul secor]

Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones playing with Dolphy and Mingus on:

Bobby Bradford playing with a somewhat mainstream trio:

[BillF]

3 hours ago, paul secor said:

Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones playing with Dolphy and Mingus on:

 

 

Yes, agree. And with great results. 

[clifford_thornton]

22 hours ago, Bill Nelson said:

Perhaps it was not terribly 'out of character' for Blue Mitchell to join John Mayall's band in 1971-72 to tour and record two albums ('Jazz Blues Fusion' and Moving On').

However, it was out of character for Joe Henderson to join Blood, Sweat, and Tears briefly in 1972* (post-Fred Lipsius and pre-Lou Marini Jr.) 

For both of these cats, it was a relief from managing their own groups and the money was exceptionally good.

* Joe didn't record with the band   

Speaking of Joe, his brother, tenor saxophonist Leon Henderson, recorded with the MC5 on High Time, as did trumpeter Charles Moore.

For what it's worth I don't think of Ballads (or Standards, the posthumously released follow-up) as out-of-character for Bailey. He played many, many ballads over his long career and certainly knew his way around a melody inside and out. Stranger are the discs with Ruins or with Jamaladeen Tacuma and Calvin Weston!

[jazztrain]

This one comes to mind:

 

[JSngry]

[paul secor]

5 hours ago, paul secor said:

Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones playing with Dolphy and Mingus on:

 

 

Sometimes, for some musicians, music is music. Often, walls are erected by non-musicians.

[Scott Dolan]

Why would you refer to them as walls? 

[clifford_thornton]

Seems to me like the divide between mainstream and vanguard musicians was not as present as the critical establishment of the time made it out to be. Sure, it was there in some cases, but that didn't stop someone like Philly Joe from playing with Shepp or Sam Woodyard from recording duets with Dave Burrell (unissued Horo, apparently great). Allen Lowe worked with Doc Cheatham -- has a few stories about that association (I think Doc was both open and closed on playing avant-garde music).

[Big Beat Steve]

6 hours ago, paul secor said:

Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones playing with Dolphy and Mingus on:

 

Actually, that "pairing" reminds me of Pee Wee Russell's appearance on stage with Thelonious Monk and his "Ask Me Now" LP on Impulse. 

 

[Scott Dolan]

1 hour ago, clifford_thornton said:

Seems to me like the divide between mainstream and vanguard musicians was not as present as the critical establishment of the time made it out to be. Sure, it was there in some cases, but that didn't stop someone like Philly Joe from playing with Shepp or Sam Woodyard from recording duets with Dave Burrell (unissued Horo, apparently great). Allen Lowe worked with Doc Cheatham -- has a few stories about that association (I think Doc was both open and closed on playing avant-garde music).

Not to mention that using Dolphy as an example doesn't work that well because while he himself was WAY out there (for the time), he usually played over a fairly "straight" rhythm section. Out To Lunch would actually be considered an out of character recording for him, no? 

[Justin V]

On 12/5/2016 at 11:33 AM, JSngry said:

That Tommy Flanagan thing where he plays Rhodes...not out of character musically, but sonically...

Also, the art Pepeer fusion record he made with Hersh Hamel...that one actually turned out pretty good, who knew?

 Wait, what album has Tommy Flanagan on Rhodes?  I'd like to hear that.

[JSngry]

It's on Galaxy...hold on...

 

here:

GXY-5110   Tommy Flanagan - Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Tommy Flanagan (piano, electric piano) Keter Betts (bass) Jimmie Smith (drums)

Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA, January 30, 1978

	Bird Song
	Good Bait
	Peace
	Friday The 13th
	Something Borrowed, Something Blue
	West Coast Blues
	Groovin' High

** also issued on Original Jazz Classics OJC-473, OJCCD-473-2

This got AM airplay here a lot when it was released:

 

[Simon8]

On 05/12/2016 at 11:11 AM, clifford_thornton said:

I'm not sure about "out of character" but at the very least Art Taylor's appearance on a session led by Frank Wright for America Records in 1970 is pretty intriguing. The date produced Wright's "Uhuru Na Umoja" and Noah Howard's "Space Dimension." Taylor acquits himself very well in this context and the music is quite free.

 

From Ethan Iverson's blog: 

"Another rarity: Frank Wright’s Uhura Na Umoja with Noah Howard, Bobby Few, and…Art Taylor!

A.T. plays the New Black Music! He sounds amazing. Now I have to get all those circa 1970 Paris free jazz records too. While I’m pretty sure the drumming community generally sleeps on this transgressive moment, some people already know. When I told Billy Hart that Art Taylor was a great free player he said, “Of course.”

[B. Clugston]

Another fine example of an out of character recording is Albert Ayler's New Grass.

On 12/5/2016 at 11:08 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

From the moment I saw this thread I thought of this particular record but was not sure if recordings made under pseudonyms would qualify too.

However, (as so often) Discogs is incredibly superficial. This recording has MANY more artists for whom this might have been "out of character":

In addition to Shorty Rogers, the Boots Brown group had Bud Shank, Dave Pell, Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Cooper, Frank Patchen, Howard Rumsey and Shelly Manne in one line-up and Milt Bernhart, Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan, Marty Paich, Jimmy Wyble, Howard Rumsey and Roy Harte in the other.

 

That Boots Brown date with Giuffre is a gas!