Obscure Albums You've Heard and Think Everyone Else Should

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

The Potts album was, I believe, the only one on which the full NYC top-drawer studio sax section of the time appeared: Woods, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Sol Schlinger; trombones:  Bob Brookmeyer, Earl Swope, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Rod Levitt; trumpets: Art Farmer, Bernie Glow, Charlie Shavers, Harry Edison, Marky Markowitz; Evans, George Duvivier,  Charlie Persip, Herbie Powell (guitar).

 

Not the same section exactly or the same band, but close enough is Manny Albam's West Side Story album, which seems to be obscure these days? I bought it early on, loved it, then grew away from it as my need to hear "that type of playing" diminished. Pulled it out again a few years ago, just because, and was more or less delighted not just by how the band played, but how well the whole thing was recorded.

I got the "later" LP on Decca, the one with the "hoodlum" and a brick wall. Somebody's since sent be a Japanese CD copy that is absolutely perfect as far as transfer goes, those parts, you can hear then all at once, together and separate. Delightful!

https://www.discogs.com/Manny-Albam-And-His-Jazz-Greats-Play-Music-From-West-Side-Story/release/6259918

[clifford_thornton]

Speaking of West Side Story... the Arista-Freedom twofer reissue adds some alternate takes and extra music as well.

A

Speaking of West Side Story... the Arista-Freedom twofer reissue adds some alternate takes and extra music as well.

also love this one, which is somewhat reminiscent of an expanded, freer George Russell date:

[medjuck]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Not the same section exactly or the same band, but close enough is Manny Albam's West Side Story album, which seems to be obscure these days? I bought it early on, loved it, then grew away from it as my need to hear "that type of playing" diminished. Pulled it out again a few years ago, just because, and was more or less delighted not just by how the band played, but how well the whole thing was recorded.

I got the "later" LP on Decca, the one with the "hoodlum" and a brick wall. Somebody's since sent be a Japanese CD copy that is absolutely perfect as far as transfer goes, those parts, you can hear then all at once, together and separate. Delightful!

https://www.discogs.com/Manny-Albam-And-His-Jazz-Greats-Play-Music-From-West-Side-Story/release/6259918

Love that record. I had it on a Decca discount label then got the Lp you refer to.  I'll have to check if there's a cd or download available. 

[Larry Kart]

Before you couldn't have GIVEN these Fred Katz albums to me. "Pretentious twaddle," I thought. I was wrong.

Some lovely playing from the late clarinetist Frank Chace. And it has the beautifully named Tut Soper on piano.

A date where everything worked out perfectly. The Blakey-esque drumming of Nick Stabulas makes a nice difference. And like that Manny Albam "West Side Story" on Coral that Jim rightly extolled, it's very well recorded.

[GA Russell]

My favorite album is not very well known - Mike Nock's In, Out & Around (with Michael Brecker, George Mraz and Al Foster).

I also like a Sam Rivers impulse! date called Sizzle which I don't think has ever been issued on CD.

[clifford_thornton]

Jeez, you are right: Sizzle has no CD issue.

[mjazzg]

8 hours ago, GA Russell said:

My favorite album is not very well known - Mike Nock's In, Out & Around (with Michael Brecker, George Mraz and Al Foster).

I also like a Sam Rivers impulse! date called Sizzle which I don't think has ever been issued on CD.

Mike Nock's ECM piano trio, Ondas, deserves to be a lot better known too

[HutchFan]

On 10/17/2017 at 9:54 AM, Larry Kart said:

Maybe not THAT obscure, but not to be missed.

And this one too!

 

 

 

9 hours ago, GA Russell said:

My favorite album is not very well known - Mike Nock's In, Out & Around (with Michael Brecker, George Mraz and Al Foster).

Yes!   

Edited October 18, 2017 by HutchFan

[felser]

3 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Jeez, you are right: Sizzle has no CD issue.

Available for listening on youtube.

[JSngry]

Can knowledgeable sources confirm that the incomplete take posted here has never been released commercially (legit or otherwise)? Is this truly a "collector's specialty"?

[clifford_thornton]

2 hours ago, felser said:

Available for listening on youtube.

indeed, but it's just surprising to me that this didn't come out on disc, even in Japan. Really good record I might add!

[jazzbo]

This one took a while to get a hold on me, but since it has it has not relented. I really like it and feel it deserves better than "cut-out and obscure" status.

https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/209/MI0001209401.jpg?partner=allrovi.com[/img]

http://www.popmatters.com/review/various-secretellington/

[Big Beat Steve]

On 17.10.2017 at 8:48 PM, Larry Kart said:

Before you couldn't have GIVEN these Fred Katz albums to me. "Pretentious twaddle," I thought. I was wrong.

 

 

Interesting ... May I solicit your expert opinion for a moment?

I have a German jazz catalog of 1960/61 here that I was given by my mother in my early jazz collecting days in the mid-70s. In this catalog she had pencil-marked the World Pacific PJ1231 LP by Fred Katz and underlined the "Pluck It" track with a fat pencil stroke some time long ago. However, she never bought that LP (or else I would have usurped it long ago ... )

I never saw this LP nor heard it anywhere.
Now ... can you tell me what a casual jazz listener inclined toward "Third Stream" (my mother's record buying in those 50s/60s never extended beyond the MJQ, George Gruntz and Jacques Loussier, except for 2 or 3 "party jazz" EPs) would find in Fred Katz and that particular LP? I understand Katz was classically trained but I have no idea how his works compare with the others named above so I am just curious ...

(BTW, the Goldmine Jazz album price guide did not find this album worthy of inclusion ...)

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Big Beat Steve

[sgcim]

On 10/17/2017 at 9:40 PM, Larry Kart said:

Tatro's writing is in the "Birth of the Cool" class, though it has its own rather dour flavor.

Lovely solo work by Don Joseph on "String Fever," one of his best outings on record.

Joe Puma takes a wonderful solo on "Body and Soul" on "Interactions."

Alto is Lennie Niehaus, trumpet Stu Williamson, drummer is Shelly Manne -- natch.
 

Wayne take the first solo, Puma's is the second.

Most of the musicians on String Fever were local Staten Island musicians, including Wayne and Joseph. Costa got on the ferry to join them.

[felser]

4 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

indeed, but it's just surprising to me that this didn't come out on disc, even in Japan. Really good record I might add!

Yes it is, and pretty unique entry in the Rivers canon.

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Interesting ... May I solicit your expert opinion for a moment?

I have a German jazz catalog of 1960/61 here that I was given by my mother in my early jazz collecting days in the mid-70s. In this catalog she had pencil-marked the World Pacific PJ1231 LP by Fred Katz and underlined the "Pluck It" track with a fat pencil stroke some time long ago. However, she never bought that LP (or else I would have usurped it long ago ... )

I never saw this LP nor heard it anywhere.
Now ... can you tell me what a casual jazz listener inclined toward "Third Stream" (my mother's record buying in those 50s/60s never extended beyond the MJQ, George Gruntz and Jacques Loussier, except for 2 or 3 "party jazz" EPs) would find in Fred Katz and that particular LP? I understand Katz was classically trained but I have no idea how his works compare with the others named above so I am just curious ...

(BTW, the Goldmine Jazz album price guide did not find this album worthy of inclusion ...)

 

 

 

Actually, I made a mistake -- I don't have the second Katz album depicted in my post but "Folk Songs for Far Out Folk" and this one (see below). I'd have to listen again to be sure, but my memory is that the versions of African folk songs on the "Folk Songs" album are among the most striking and effective Stravinsky- and Bartok-influenced jazz pieces I've ever heard -- intense, spiky, and not at all fey, as one might have expected they would be from Katz's Hamilton Quintet background.

Just ordered the Katz CD with "Pluck It." We shall see.

 

[JSngry]

Pluck It is on two different LPs, one on Crown https://www.discogs.com/Chico-Hamilton-With-Paul-Horn-Chico-Hamilton-With-Paul-Horn/release/2227108 , another on PJ https://www.discogs.com/Fred-Katz-With-Paul-Horn-And-Chico-Hamilton-Quartet-Zen-The-Music-Of-Fred-Katz/release/4515378

Looks like Boplicity has it now, in the Crown version:

Boplicity is Ace, and Ace by all accounts is legit, so I have no idea what happened between Richard Bock & the Bihari brothers, only that Crown would often (enough) release cuts leased(?) from other labels. But maybe Chico cut a deal years later, he had resources, I believe.

Either way, the Crown record is not a complete copy of the PJ record. Anybody surprised?

[Larry Kart]

Just picked up and began to listen to this. It's certainly obscure (I'd never heard of it), and so far I'm very impressed. Pieces date from the N.O. modern scene of the early '60s, several of them by the late drummer James Black, and what I've heard is intriguingly individual and complex -- nothing neo-con here. Branford (the only horn) and his father are in fine form. Delfayo's portion of the liner notes (he's also the producer) is reminiscent of Wynton's hectoring/lecturing b.s., but who cares?

[JSngry]

Oh, Ellis Marsalis, almost forgot about this one. Duets, unfiltered.

 

[HutchFan]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Oh, Ellis Marsalis, almost forgot about this one. Duets, unfiltered.

 

Eddie Harris has never been one of my favorites -- but I really like that LP.

I like the label name too: Spindletop Records.

[Big Beat Steve]

9 hours ago, JSngry said:

Pluck It is on two different LPs, one on Crown https://www.discogs.com/Chico-Hamilton-With-Paul-Horn-Chico-Hamilton-With-Paul-Horn/release/2227108 , another on PJ https://www.discogs.com/Fred-Katz-With-Paul-Horn-And-Chico-Hamilton-Quartet-Zen-The-Music-Of-Fred-Katz/release/4515378

Boplicity is Ace, and Ace by all accounts is legit, so I have no idea what happened between Richard Bock & the Bihari brothers, only that Crown would often (enough) release cuts leased(?) from other labels. But maybe Chico cut a deal years later, he had resources, I believe.

Either way, the Crown record is not a complete copy of the PJ record. Anybody surprised?

Thanks - the second Discogs link is the LP listed in the catalog, and I may in fact have seen it in the jazz section of our #1 local used record store (but may have been frightened away by the "Zen" tag on the cover as this has quite didfferent connotations for me). Am listening to "Pluck it" now on that Discogs site and think I can see what my mother heard in it. Though to me it sounds less like typical Third Stream than like some of the more ethereal WCJ recordings of the time. Other tracks on the LP have more classical music-like overtones.

[soulpope]

Obviously not obscure in my house, I`m using this thread for a plug regarding this excellent Austrian pianist .... these three albums come highly recommended to (not only) Piano Trio buffs ....

[JSngry]

12 hours ago, HutchFan said:

I like the label name too: Spindletop Records.

For people who may not be familiar with the derivation of the name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spindletop

https://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/spindletop/spindletop.html

[Mark Stryker]

15 hours ago, JSngry said:

Oh, Ellis Marsalis, almost forgot about this one. Duets, unfiltered.

 

 

"Darn That Dream"!!

On 10/17/2017 at 9:57 AM, Larry Kart said:

"The Big Challenge" -- an all-star date (Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Freeman, J.C. Higginbotham, Lawrence Brown, Hank Jones, Bill Bauer, Milt Hinton, Gus Johnson) that worked like gangbusters. Both Singer and Shavers are in great form on "Blue Stompin'."

Probably the best iteration of the NYC studio denizens of the late '50s band. Excellent Bill Potts charts, terrific Charlie Persip.

Try this one; you'll be surprised. Scott had his own thing, and it was good.

Perhaps the best Scott LaFaro on record.

""The Big Challenge" was one of the records my late father had that were absorbed into my collection. (Coda -- he also had 78s of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit/Fine & Mellow"; Bird and Dizzy's "Satl Peanuts/Hot House; Hawkins/Eldridge's, "Smack" and others by Goodman, Kenton, Cole and -- wait for it -- Dodo Mamarosa on Atomic. I I treasure them now. )

[paul secor]

2 hours ago, Mark Stryker said:

 

"Darn That Dream"!!

""The Big Challenge" was one of the records my late father had that were absorbed into my collection. (Coda -- he also had 78s of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit/Fine & Mellow"; Bird and Dizzy's "Satl Peanuts/Hot House; Hawkins/Eldridge's, "Smack" and others by Goodman, Kenton, Cole and -- wait for it -- Dodo Mamarosa on Atomic. I I treasure them now. )

Your father was evidently a hip guy.