BFT253 - April

[Matthew Wade Shapiro]

22 hours ago, JSngry said:

Isaiah Collier?

On #1?

I won't do a full reveal until the end of the month.

[Dan Gould]

7 hours ago, Matthew Wade Shapiro said:

I won't do a full reveal until the end of the month.

The way it works is that specific guesses get responses from the compiler in this thread.

The full reveal is a separate thread in which you give all details you wish to give on every single track, with the option of your own comment on any particular track.

 

[tkeith]

Welp... getting in under the wire, yet, again.

Most of this found a happy spot in my belly.  A couple-or-few did not.  But nothing was an all-out No, and a lot were emphatic YES!

track 01 - Sound is 70s, but the material is certainly newer.  My first thought was James Spaulding, but then I caught the material.  Love the feel of this.  Very Lonnie Liston Smith in the 70s.  Flutist is a bit lick-happy, but that’s where we are, isn’t it?  What’s done here is done to very good effect.  Recording sound is very good — drums aren’t over-mic’d so you hear them as drums (instead of individual parts of the kit).  Not the most worthy of arco bass solos.  Unemployment stick courtesy of the flutist?  Seems to be the same path of ideas.  Nothing that I’m not liking about this, but I AM curious if it would hold up upon repeated listening.  Bitch of a cut, though.  These folks have certainly listened to Pharaoh from the late-60s/early-70s, and I have zero issue with that. 

track 02 - I want this to be Another Earth.  So much so that I’m going to hazard an early guess that one of these guys is Bartz.  Not in love  with the “composition”.  First guy has certainly listened to his Bartz.  Perhaps a student thereof.  About 2:40, s/he seems to run out of steam on the groove.  Keeps blowing, and sort of recovers it, but there’s a definite lull around that time stamp.  Okay, I’m doubling down.  I’ll eat my hat if that’s not Bartz (though, it’s recent, because he’s sounding older).  Only other explanation is it’s TWO Bartz protegés.  Part of me is thinking this cut showed up on another BFT a few years back.  If it IS Bartz (and I think it is), he’s not in top form, here. 

track 03 - In three and a tenor — what’s not to like?  Liking this cut a lot.  The bass is holding down the bottom without being in the way.  Just hit those roots and hold them.  Let it develop on its own.  Reminds me of Chuck Domanico on that Barney Kessel record w/Elvin.  Guitarist is more out of that post-Scofield school.  Tenor has a beefier tone, like he didn’t lock himself in a practice room away from other people masturbating his tone.  This feels like a player I could listen to and enjoy THE MUSIC irrespective of the saxophone.  Yes, please.  No new ground, but man, they’re crushin’ what they’re doing.  Okay, that’s two wins, one maybe, but thus far, this is the class of the test.  Love that bass player.  There are points in the melody where this sound a lot like Tchicai with Curtis Clark (obviously not that, but they match the feel of, say, Letter To South Africa) — a very nice neighborhood, indeed. 

track 04 - My gut tells me Avishai Cohen.  Very pretty melody, but lacks the grunt of the last cut.  Sounds very soundtrack-y.  It’s okay, but didn’t really hold my interest.  Perhaps in context I’d feel differently.  As just music, feels a bit slick. 

track 05 - How I like my Scotch.  Doubler, and one who likes his Stitt (nothing wrong with that).  Weird comp, but RS sounds to me like the band on Groovin’ With Jug, but with better sound (and minus Groove Holmes).  Enjoying it, but no idea who we’ve got.  My guess is these are veterans and not tributary players.  Gosh, could somebody be honing in on Dan’s Gene Harris territory?  Not in love with the guitarist.  Nothing “wrong,” just feels like I’m listening to an omnibook-constructed solo.  I’m not hearing the player.  Flutist doesn’t seem as strong as Frank Wess, but might be someone of that generation (or at least out of that school).  

track 06 - Reminds me of a restaurant we used to go to in a neighboring town.  We always felt we weren’t young enough nor pretty enough to be there, but this was the type of music they’d be playing.  In fact, that’s how I discovered Radio Citizen, but I digress.  This feels like somebody said, “Let’s do a Santana kind of vibe,” and then did it admirably.  I like this a lot, but it feels more background to me.  GREAT background, but background nonetheless.  That restaurant served cornbread with a whipped maple-pork fat “butter”.  This makes me want that, badly.  

track 07 - One of the crossovers that misses for me — Jazz and “hip hop”.  Never seems to fully hit for me.  Better than pop, but not something I’d spin regularly.  And now that the unemployment stick arrives, I’m seeing a glossy cover in the stack of CDs that was not going to make the cut for my show.  I get the draw, a bit, but it just doesn’t hold up for me.  I’m old.  I KNOW how hard you have to work to get that snake-charming stick to sound like that, and to do THIS with it… just seems like a low payoff.  Too smooth for my taste. 

track 08 - This is probably not nearly as technically accomplished as the last cut, but it has that FEEL.  Before the lead came in, it reminded me of one of those older Richie Havens albums that always seemed to have one cut that flirted with the J-word.  Love this feel.  I could sit through a day of this, and would give body parts to play over this.  Yes, please.  I was thinking, guitarist isn’t Grant Green, but then realize s/he has sure as hell listened to a LOT of GG.  Borders on slick, but REALLY works.  

track 09 - Hearing so many things.   Green Onions.  The Hot Spot.  Band has  a great groove.  Tenor is precisely what I don’t like to listen to.  Ah, now I’m hearing the lyric, but not quite.  Dead?  Yes, that’s it.  But I don’t know the actual lyrics.  My cousin did an album (with an involved backstory) of Dead tunes with Chicken lyrics around 1990.  Those are the lyrics I know.  “Cluckin’, cause we’re chickens, man Cluckin’, for the Purdue man, Even, with our heads chopped off, We just keep cluckin’ ooo-ooo-oo-o-oo-on.” I’ll take the groove if you sub out a different tenor player.  Almost has a Robert Stewart vibe, but doesn’t hold up to where he would take this.  Cool cover, though.  Props to the band.

track 10 - What would have happened if Amiri Baraka had linked up with Mike Westbrook.  Low end of that trumpet reminds me of David Weiss, but the mid and upper registers are way more… it’s not that they’re more aggressive, but there seems to be better facility (which is saying something, because DW can PLAY).  Okay, it is live — was thinking it had to be from the tonal variance in the trumpet.  (Mics are the enemy!)  <— [read that “Mikes”]  Like an angry pep band.  Maybe a Fred Ho project?  I’m at a loss.  I know the Chicago guys achieve this feel at times (thinking of Ernest Dawkins), but I don’t think this is that group of musicians.  Didn’t love the feel, but overall liked the tune.  Very curious.

Welcome to the BFT, Matthew!  Glad to have your ears in the mix!

I'll be damned.  I should have trusted my Dawkins radar.

[Matthew Wade Shapiro]

10 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

The way it works is that specific guesses get responses from the compiler in this thread.

The full reveal is a separate thread in which you give all details you wish to give on every single track, with the option of your own comment on any particular track.

 

OK, now that I know how it works, be prepared for an onslaught of posts...

[JSngry]

Just for the record, you don't have to do that, but most people do and everybody's happy when they do. 👁️‍🗨️🤠🤩

[Dan Gould]

What Jim says is true in the sense that what i suggested is not an ironclad rule.

20 years ago I let people "talk amongst themselves" and stayed out of the discussion thread. But that was when participation was a hell of a lot higher than it is today.

[JSngry]

Yeah, interactions with the host are both encouraged and appreciated. It's fun!

[Matthew Wade Shapiro]

On 4/2/2025 at 6:05 PM, felser said:

Track #1 from this. Track #9 on my December BFT!  No wonder it sounded so familiar and so good to me, LOL!  The whole album is strong, but the cuts with the guest artist greatly benefit from his presence.

Bingo. She'll be at the Detroit Jazz Festival this year!

On 4/1/2025 at 11:48 PM, felser said:

5 – “Straight No Chaser”, not familiar with  this version.   First thought was Herbie Mann,  but I don’t think it’s him.  Another pleasant cut, though the bass soloing goes on much too long.

You're right on two counts...it's not Herbie Mann, but it is "Straight, No Chaser".

On 4/2/2025 at 12:07 PM, Dub Modal said:

4. So far all of these sound like recent recordings. Nice. Oh no - strings! And dramatic ones at that. Oof. Sorry, those take some of the fun out of it for me. I thought the piano intro was building into something pretty interesting but the strings and tympanis bring in an orchestral seriousness that falls a little flat for me. YMMV. Soundtrack composition? 

You're right on this one as far as it being a soundtrack composition!

On 4/6/2025 at 11:09 PM, T.D. said:

OK, #3 is the tune Black Diamond written by Milton Sealey, which I know only in the RRK version from Rip, Rig and Panic. The BFT selection is of course another recording.

Bingo on the song! Will reveal the artist at the end of the month.

Bingo. Track #2 has been fully revealed..."Liberia" by Lakecia Benjamin featuring Gary Bartz!

[Matthew Wade Shapiro]

On 4/19/2025 at 10:01 PM, Matthew Wade Shapiro said:

Isaiah Collier?

On #1?

You are correct, sir!