TTK's First Concert by a Major Artist - Buddy Rich, 1980

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

I dunno... I fully recognize "groovy/now sound" as a thing, and often a good thing, but in my mind, it's a thing that always contains at least some elements (real or pretend) of weed/drugs, 'luded foreplay, and/or staring into the void in awe and/or confusion.

You get none of that - and I mean NONE of that. In a Buddy Rich Big Band album. Absolutely zero. 

The one possible exception might be the RCA disco record Speak No Evil  but I have my doubts that he actually even plays on that one. Seriously. 

But yes, definitely, file then where you can find them! 😂

We may be defining groovy/now sound differently.  Either way, those Buddy Rich albums provide me with something different than the albums that I file in the jazz section.  I say this recognizing the limitations of categorization.  

[mhatta]

Too young to hear Buddy Rich live, the first time I heard him was Wham! from Joel Dorn's Label M. I still think that was Rich's best in the 70's. There was talk of a sequel, but it never came out.

 

[JSngry]

I went to a church youth retreat ca. 1969 where our cabin blared Chambers Brothers every free minute, I met a kid named Malcolm whose folks kicked him out because he grew long hair AND a moustache, and the nightly rap session was hosted by a guest clergy from Dallas who stated point blank that he saw absolutely nothing wrong with social use of Marijuana.

This was East Texas and I was 14 or so. I also got to see rednecks wearing bell bottoms, Moms in miniskirts, and way too much overtly hostile reactionary pushback to all of if. And church girls always bring up "going all the way" in youth group, like wanting to get a retroactive permission structure they knew they weren't going to get, but at least they were asking for it. They should have saved that for the retreat guy, maybe. If pot was cool, maybe fucking was too! Talk about anything, they said! 

Also, a stereo FM easy-listening station awash in reverb-drenched pizzicato strings, only some of which was Hollyridge Strings.

So that's what "groovy/now-sound" means to me, realtime real-life experiences of a LOT of people wanting to get high and/or just feel that peace, man. Not seeing a place for Buddy Rich in there...Buddy was definitely not that.

Woody Herman, otoh...two Richard Evans albums... there's a case to be made there.. 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

Also, a stereo FM easy-listening station awash in reverb-drenched pizzicato strings, only some of which was Hollyridge Strings.

So that's what "groovy/now-sound" means to me, realtime real-life experiences of a LOT of people wanting to get high and/or just feel that peace, man. Not seeing a place for Buddy Rich in there...Buddy was definitely not that.

Woody Herman, otoh...two Richard Evans albums... there's a case to be made there.. 

"Now Sound" to me is a very broad category, roughly mid-'60s to mid-'70s, that essentially involves artists from pre-rock genres (including jazz, easy listening, mood music) getting hip to youth culture.  These explorations may be sincere (Gary McFarland, Gabor Szabo) or they may be contrived (Hollyridge Strings Beatles Songbook albums).  This trend for me continues into the '70s - George Shearing doing "The World is a Ghetto," Maynard Ferguson doing "Chala Nata" and "El Dopo,"  Buddy Rich doing "Chameleon."  I choose to file electric albums by Miles and Herbie in the Now Sound section. Filing something in the Now Sound section does mean the albums are of lesser musical merit; they just communicate to me something different than what may be described as straight-ahead jazz.  It is completely subjective, but it works for me. 

 

 

12 hours ago, JSngry said:

All these hi-prike big band schools, their real function wasn't to encourage creativity and stuff like that, it was to make you into a badass section player with multiple skill sets.

Back then, there was a market for that! 

Buddy and Maynard must have contributed, even if accidentally, to whole "the big bands are coming back" hype, and they must have profited from it too.