So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[EKE BBB]

[cds23]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum and I thought I'd start with a post of detailed pictures I've done of one of my favourite records:

CALVIN KEYS | SHAWN_NEEQ | BLACK JAZZ | 1971 | US FIRST STEREO PRESSING BJ_5 LP

"Shawn-Neeq" is Calvin Keys' debut album and, in my humble opinion, the best album from Black Jazz Records (and then some). It stands out for featuring Owen Marshall, a somewhat obscure but immensely talented musician who released a single album under his own name, "Captain Puff In The Naked Truth" (which is majestic by the way, still trying to get a a copy), on flute and his unique "hose-a-phone". The opener "B.E." and "Gee-Gee" are somewhat reminiscent, at least to me, of Lloyd McNeill's sound on "Washington Suite" (posted pictures of that one last week), maybe a tad more post-boppy but just as funky and groove-oriented. The closer "B.K." must the coolest track in Jazz history (okay, I may be pushing it a bit far, but I really do love this tune), the visceral punch of the drum kit and the electronics are just mind-boggling. I haven't written a single word about Keys's guitar playing, so (in layman words) I will put it like this: his technique is, as far as I am allowed to judge, impeccable, though it certainly won't let your jaw drop like when listening to Wes Montgomery. But, and that is most important to me, he has tremendous ideas and he executes without fault.

 

 

[Dub Modal]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

It's a gem, especially if you enjoy Mr. "T" with Shirley Scott -- and I most certainly do.   

with Jimmy Ponder, Bob Cranshaw, and Idris Muhammad

YT Playlist

Thanks for the link! Turrentine playes with a lot of heart.

After that 'tine mini-marathon I moved to: 

Only my second or third time listening to this recent purchase and I'm floored. If I heard this on a BFT I sure wouldn't guess it was a mid-60s Blue Note date. The deconstruction of a kind of calypso beat on Illusion was badass but then these guys go into Hope where Hill switches to harpsichord while Walter Booker arcos - it's crazy good. I'm thinking this may lead to a mini Andrew Hill marathon...

18 minutes ago, cds23 said:

Hi, this is my first post on this forum and I thought I'd start with a post of detailed pictures I've done of one of my favourite records:

CALVIN KEYS | SHAWN_NEEQ | BLACK JAZZ | 1971 | US FIRST STEREO PRESSING BJ_5 LP

"Shawn-Neeq" is Calvin Keys' debut album and, in my humble opinion, the best album from Black Jazz Records (and then some). It stands out for featuring Owen Marshall, a somewhat obscure but immensely talented musician who released a single album under his own name, "Captain Puff In The Naked Truth" (which is majestic by the way, still trying to get a a copy), on flute and his unique "hose-a-phone". The opener "B.E." and "Gee-Gee" are somewhat reminiscent, at least to me, of Lloyd McNeill's sound on "Washington Suite" (posted pictures of that one last week), maybe a tad more post-boppy but just as funky and groove-oriented. The closer "B.K." must the coolest track in Jazz history (okay, I may be pushing it a bit far, but I really do love this tune), the visceral punch of the drum kit and the electronics are just mind-boggling. I haven't written a single word about Keys's guitar playing, so (in layman words) I will put it like this: his technique is, as far as I am allowed to judge, impeccable, though it certainly won't let your jaw drop like when listening to Wes Montgomery. But, and that is most important to me, he has tremendous ideas and he executes without fault.

 

 

Welcome! And that's a great record. Nice way to start!

[Dub Modal]

1 hour ago, bresna said:

Great music, but for some reason, I've never liked this cover. It looks like something I would've done and I suck at that stuff.

A late-80s spin on classic Reid Miles style. It didnt work.

[Dub Modal]

@HutchFan I'm kind of going back and forth between the Hill and that Common Touch album. It's good. I'd say Living Through It All and Lonely Avenue are highlights. 

[Dub Modal]

And now, as stated, moving to Dance with Death

[Peter Friedman]

Disc 3 - featuring James P. Johnson, Edmond Hall, Sidney De Paris, Art Hodes, Sidney Bechet, Wild Bill Davison, Max Kaminsky, Joe Sullivan, Vic Dickenson

[Dub Modal]

More Hill. So different from the other albums I listened to. Idris on drums, Jimmy Ponder on guitar (who also appear on Turrentine's Common Touch, so there's some intersection between these sessions I didn't expect). 

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, Dub Modal said:

@HutchFan I'm kind of going back and forth between the Hill and that Common Touch album. It's good. I'd say Living Through It All and Lonely Avenue are highlights. 

 

 

I'm now listening to:

Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band - Obatalá (Enja, 1989)

 

[Dub Modal]

Last Hill for the day:

[Chuck Nessa]

[HutchFan]

25 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

Last Hill for the day:

From my perspective, that one's up there with Hill's very best.  

 

[rostasi]

En Este Mundo Y En Esta Tierra

by Conjunto Media Luna

 

 

[Dub Modal]

15 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

From my perspective, that one's up there with Hill's very best.  

 

Just started but had to put it aside for now. After the 3 I listened to this afternoon, my ranking would be the same as listening order: Change, Dance with Death, then Grass Roots in a distant 3rd. It's good, and has some great moments (Ponder shines in spots), but so different from what was on those first 2. 

[Peter Friedman]

[JSngry]

All these years having to run away from Streisand & the like, hell columbia does one record with Joanie Sommers, gets Mort Garson (of Arthur Prysock) and BOOM who cares about that?

A lot of people, obviously, but...Joanie Sommers got skills, is it ok to say that? If it was really that way, everybody would do it, right?

Did everybody do that?

 

[rostasi]

Mort Garson - Mother Earth's Plantasia

Edited June 4, 2021 by rostasi

[BillF]

[JSngry]

The longest journey beginning with a single step (or piano duo), etc.

[jazzbo]

Miles Davis "Someday my Prince will Come" Analogue Productions SACD

Ignore this album for a while and when revisited it really packs a punch of enjoyable listening.

[Dub Modal]

After Passing Ships (interesting album in that it had me wondering if the title referenced some other players that Hill was listening to. For example, the title track sounds a bit like Sun Ra, Plantation Bag seemed to have SGQ influence, and Noon Tide was Horace Silver-ish. Maybe it was just my brain making tenuous connections, but great album regardless). 

Anyway, Herbie doesn't show up on this one until the 3rd track as I think the opener was a trio (or quartet if both Rivers & Shorter were playing) while the second track is a solo. 

[John Tapscott]

[Peter Friedman]

With - Harold Land, Frank Rosolino, Carl Perkins, Leroy Vinnegar, Stan Levey

[jazzbo]

Sean Kahn featuring Hermeto Pascoal "Palmares Fantasy"

[Rabshakeh]

SOUND ADVICE BY PAT PATRICK AND THE BARITONE SAXOPHONE RETINUE (SATURN, 1977)

It's a fun approachable record, behind the murk and incredibly over-recorded percussion. It is an insight into the type of music Patrick was into when he first passed the threshold of the Arkestra: a sort of big band type music that was always at the heart of Sun Ra's own music, even if contorted into quite different forms. 

As is often the case, much as I love Sun Ra, I do wish his musicians had been allowed to record more. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Rabshakeh