Look here.....

.....Just discovered that the Vandermark review is up: http://www.jazztimes.com/reviews/concert_reviews/detail.cfm

Shanley reviews online

Playing right now: Paul Chambers - Go
(It's actually the Mosaic box set that compiles everything Chambers and Wynton Kelly did on Vee Jay. I was looking through the Mosaic catalog recently, wondering if I should get the Mosaic Select box of Chambers' Blue Note albums. I think I was piqued by the fact that Coltrane plays on a lot of it, so I figured it must be good......Rather than buying it, I figured I'd pull this out. The main problem with it is that nearly every song has an alternate take, which dilutes the strength of the whole album.)

I spent the day writing. Both Harp and JazzTimes took me up on concert reviews for their websites. For Harp, I reviewed Savage Republic's performance from last Friday. AND IT'S ALREADY UP ON THE SITE! Go to http://harpmagazine.com/reviews/concert_reviews/detail.cfm to check it out.

Since last weekend was the big double-shot of music, I went to the Warhol Museum for the Vandermark 5 show the night after Savage Republic. I'd tell you about it, but I'd rather you read it too. Not sure when that will be up on the JT website, but you can go to http://www.jazztimes.com to see.

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Greg Norton from Husker Du is a band again. Or at least he's recorded a new studio project that includes the drummer of the Bad Plus Dave King, keyboardist Craig Taborn (plays with Tim Berne) and guitarist Eric Fratzke (who plays in Happy Apple w/King). It's kind of proggy and little like Beefheart at times. I'm hoping to interview Mr. Norton. Keep your fingers crossed.

New Wave Cabaret; Brian Allen CD

Playing right now: Judy Henske - Little Bit of Sunshine...Little Bit of Rain



Last night was the New Wave Cabaret; the first one in 5 years. The 31st Street Pub was packed, which made me glad. When we got there at a little after 9, it was still fairly empty, but I guess that's because most folks didn't believe it would really start that early. It did and not only that, it ended early because everyone was good about getting on and off the stage so things were ahead of schedule.

The Yes Darlings' set went over really really really well. We played the B-52's "Strobe Light," with me doing the Fred Schneider part and Hille and Aimee doing the Cindy and Kate parts. Then we did the Human League's "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" with Hille moving onto drums and Mike switching to French horn and singing. He looked really good standing with the mike and singing, and the French horn was a great idea.

Amoeba Knievel was up next, which made things easy for me. Since we didn't get a chance to practice last week as a 4-piece, we were sort of winging it. Mike, Tommy & I got together last Monday and the two of them got together with Bob yesterday. Things were a little slippery but it held together pretty well, for the most part. We did Ian Dury's "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" which has an absolutely crazy bass line. Man, who played that - Jaco Pastorius? Steve Swallow? It's in F, and it's hard to maneuver on the neck.

But that one held together pretty well. PiL's "Rise" was a little fast to begin with and then some of the cues were a little sloppy. At the same time, we were the only ones who could pick up on that. It went over really well with the crowd. And it was the perfect song for Tommy to sing.



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Dadgum, it's cold. I brought a space heater up here to the office for extra warmth and blew out a fuse. So I'm going without it. And actually in here, it's not too bad.



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BRIAN ALLEN WITH TONY MALABY AND TOM RAINEY

Synapse (Braintone) www.braintone.com





Among the legions of musicians that play in a style often called free jazz, very few of them are trombonists. AACM vet George Lewis is probably the first one that comes to mind, with Albert Mangelsdorf and Steve Swell being uncovered after further brainracking.

So Brian Allen is one of the few, with five releases to his name, and a backlog of performances with people like Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin and Roswell Rudd (another 'bone man, though not someone who still takes things out.)

On Synapse, tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby (Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band, among others) and drummer Tom Rainey (almost everyone, most recently with Tim Berne and Mark Feldman) join him for eight tracks that presumably were totally improvised. All three players receive writing credits and most of the albums sounds like two- and three-way conversations where moods are expressed rather than musical structures. The whole album (which lasts 50 minutes) could very well have been one continuous performance banded into separate tracks.

Allen doesn't get caught up exploring his instrument's flatulent possibilities (one personal turn-off with free brass players), instead concentrating on the mid-range, with which he displays a brawny tone and a strong melodic sense even in the freer moments. Without any chordal instruments to ground them, Allen and Malaby could have easily opted for stratospheric blowing. But that doesn't come until the second half of the 12-minute closer "Espancino." Before that, they engage in a pointed dialogue ("Tageshif"), egg each other on ("Briesrock") and keep things spare to create suspense ("Tenrayle"). Rainey again proves himself to be a drummer who can both support a band and build ideas around them as they play.

Steven Byram, who has designed many an a CD cover for Tim Berne, has done the same for the cover of Synapse. His unhinged style, which captures the essense of the music inside, is highly distinctive, and hopefully free fans who recognize it will be compelled grab Allen's work off the rack and check it out.

Hamilton, Joe Frank, Reynolds, Dewey, Cheatham & Howe

Playing right now: Nothing, but I was playing Duke Ellington's Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack a little earlier.

I've been away from this blog for too long.

For a week or so I thought that maybe I should only buy new releases. That way I could get caught up in what's happening now instead of just rehashing the past. I also thought, after getting a series of reviews done for both Harp and JazzTimes, as well as an article for a new local magazine, that I should stop buying anything and just listen to what I have here.

Well, that lasted..........maybe.............a week. Maybe 2 weeks. But today I traded in a pile of things at Jerry's and got three new albums. One is the Duke album above, then Johnny Griffin Live in Tokyo (Pittsburgh native Horace Parlan is on it, so I couldn't pass it up) and Judy Henske's Little Bit of Sunshine, Little Bit of Rain, which I wasn't too keen on at first. This sounds crazy but she sounded like she was oversinging and it really clashed with the string arrangements. By side two I was warming up to it, so maybe it just takes some getting used to.

A couple weeks ago at an estate sale, there was a copy of the Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds album with "Don't Pull Your Love Out" on it. I had that album when I was in second grade. My folks got it for me for my birthday and I really liked it. My theory is that Dunhill Records saw them as a cross between the Grass Roots and Three Dog Night. I think I wore out the album and put it in the free box at a record store during high school. So when I saw it at the sale, I thought about getting it. The group came up in conversation at work a few weeks prior, so things were pointing in favor of buying it. Then I remembered some of the sappy songs on it..........looked at the record.........I think it had a warp..........naw, put it back, I thought.

So today I decided to look for a 45 of the song that I really like from the album, which is "Goin' Down." Fat horn arrangement, soul lick, gravelly vocal (I think it's Joe Frank, but I'm not sure), had to get it. And I've played that sucker a couple times today and have enjoyed it every time. Now I imagine myself fruitlessly trying to explain to people that they had other and better songs than "Don't Pull Your Love."

One thing: I still can't understand the chorus line. "I can't see/ turn around...." then I always thought it was "....gonna be/goin' dowwwwwwwwwwwn," but it always sounded like "gonna we," which my 8-year old mind never questioned. Maybe I should listen to it again.

Losing two giants

Playing right now: Nothing

Woke up this morning and read that Alice Coltrane died on Friday. She was only 69 years old. She seemed like a really cool lady, really spiritual in a way that was genuine and not flaky. And she made some pretty great music. That was a really big surprise.

And if that wasn't bad enough, a few minutes later, I heard that Michael Brecker died. He had been sick for a while with a rare strain of a bone marrow disorder. A lot of musicians and non-musicians tried to help him when he needed marrow donations and it seemed like he was on the road to recovery. Maybe that's a naive thought, but I was hopeful. Just read that he recorded one final album too.

It's said that these things happen in threes................

Tell me about Mabel Mercer

Playing right now: Mabel Mercer - Midnight at Mabel Mercer's
A few years ago, Mabel passed away and there was an article about her in the New York Times. She was a really popular dinner club singer, a contemporary of Bobby Short (with whom she recorded at least one album). The article said that a lot of people hated her singing voice, including - I think - Cole Porter. He couldn't stand her, and told her so.
I'm not sure why, but after reading the article, I started to wonder if she was on Mr. Rogers when I was a kid. I remembered seeing a lady singing for King Friday, and one of the songs she did was "Lazy Afternoon." For a couple years, I've come across her albums at Jerry's and every time I'd look at them and think that some day I had to get one. I bought this one back around November.
I'm still not sure if she was the woman on Mr. Rogers, but she does sing "Lazy Afternoon" here. That song occupies a weird space in my head because as a kid, I used to listen to a record by a folk group called the Serendipity Singers (you know the New Main Street Singers in A Mighty Wind? Same idea. A million members, too many guitars, too many big, toothy smiles.) and they covered "Lazy Afternoon." So did - at the other end of the musical spectrum - Cecil Taylor in his early days. And Grant Green, who played it in 5/4. (I have the latter 2 versions on their Mosaic boxset collections.)
Anyway, it still very well might have been Mabel on the show.
As far as the album goes, it's funny because sometimes I listen to it and she sounds like a matronly lady with a warbly voice. She's not a jazz singer, certainly not like Billie Holiday who used any technical shortcomings to her advantage. This is music from a different era, when people would go to supper clubs and listen with rapt attention to singers. (The liner notes talk about Joe DiMaggio "and his former bride" once being in the audience.) No one has the attention span for that anymore. Or the scratch to spend a night out on the town that way. And no one wants to shut up for that long.
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This morning I finally finished what seemed like a marathon of CD reviews that have been hanging over me for a couple weeks. Four for JazzTimes (filed on Monday), two for Harp (finished this morning). Yes, I got a few more things in Harp! Ed Masley isn't stealing everything from me. (Just kidding, Ed.)
I also had do an interview on Saturday for an article that was due Monday morning. It's for a new magazine called Table. It's a local, really nice looking quarterly about food.

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Since I had yesterday off from work and the Harp reviews were short, I didn't do any writing during the day. Instead I spent the morning cleaning a batch of 45s that I picked up a couple weeks ago at a flea market. While that was going on, I listened to the Decemberists' The Crane Wife CD which I picked up last week. In all that time, I hadn't had a chence to listen to it. It sat on the kitchen table for a week!

At first it sounded kind of ...................normal. I was expecting and hoping for something a little weirder. But with each song it started sounding a little better. This is a typical thing for me. It takes me a while to get used to it. Several albums didn't grab me until I hit side two, at which point I started reevaluting side one. Have to spin this CD again. Maybe there will even be time to sit and follow along with the lyric sheet.
Yesterday's listening also including Judy Henske's High Flying Bird, which I bought the same day as Mabel. I love Judy. She has such a great voice; a real belter.

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On Saturday, I went to my first estate sale in a while. There were a bunch of 45s. (What is it with people in Squirrel Hill getting all these promo 45s?) I walked out with 23 of them, some as curiousities, some as genuine "finds." The biggest surprise was a record by Michael Blessing. If the name doesn't sound familiar, it's Mike Nesmith's pre-Monkees stage name. According to the Goldmine book, a near mint copy of it is worth $150. And this one isn't too too far removed from that.
Not that I expect to get three figures for it. But I should be able to make back the $5.75 I paid for all 23 discs.
It's time like that that I remember, yes, sometimes it's worth it to get up at 7 on a Saturday.

addendum

Playing right now: Duke Ellington - Money Jungle

Followup to previous post: I was sitting on New Year's Eve, listening to a mix CD made from a few years earlier and "My Little Red Book" came on, making me realize that I didn't mention Arthur Lee in the list of folks we lost in 20-ought-6. Didn't list Syd Barrett either. D'oh.

Then a spirit from the dead snuck up behind me and whacked me upside the head and yelled, "HEY!" in a raspy voice.

It was James Brown.

I'm not only about jazz, peoples. One of my resolutions was to get back into more of the rock saddle.

Last entry of the year

Playing right now: Marty Krystall - Plays Herbie Nichols

Looking back on 2006, we lost a lot of good music folks. Locally, WDUQ personalities Ken Crawford and Len Hendry, and pianist Walt Harper passed on. D.C. Fitzgerald. On a national level, the year had barely started before Jackie McLean died. Maynard Ferguson, Dewey Redman.......I know I'm forgetting a lot of important folks. These are all coming off the top of my head. And I know remember several times this year saying "Oh no," or "damn" everytime I turned around and saw that someone else had died. At this point, I can't recall if Jimmy Smith died in 2006 or at the end of 2005.

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Last night Amoeba Knievel played at the Brillobox. We tore the joint up, but unfortunately, by the time we started tearing, the crowd had thinned to just a few devoted and loyal listeners, so there were only a few select minds left to tear at.

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Tonight at midnight, I'm hoping to crank up the old victrola and blast (there's only one volume and "blast" is a pretty accurate description) Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne." Hopefully that mickey mouse arrangement of it won't put us to sleep. It's pretty doggy.

Be safe out there tonight, folks. Or if you're reading this in 2007, it means you were safe, so good going.

Catching up, with a look back....

Playing right now: Charles Tolliver - With Love
(It's a new album that Blue Note is releasing, but it's not out for a few more weeks.)

So the holidaze kept me away from here for a while, so I'm going to catch up by posting some old reviews. I wrote these three reviews in 2004 for a magazine that never published them. A couple weeks ago, I came across them on my hard drive and thought it couldn't hurt to bring them back now. They're three far-flung albums deserving of more attention. And I always felt like Azita's cheerleader anyway.

CRAIG TABORN
Junk Magic
Thirsty Ear/Blue Series

Keyboardist Craig Taborn’s musical experiences include time with straight-blowing saxophonist James Carter, Detroit techno whiz Carl Craig and avant-garde saxophonist Tim Berne, so Junk Magic brings a lot of expectation to the table. The intrigue gets raised even further with a glance at Taborn’s band: drummer David King of the Bad Plus, violist Mat Maneri – an equally experimental microtonal jazz improviser - and tenor saxophonist Aaron Stewart, who has worked with Anthony Braxton and Steve Coleman. Like recent discs in Thirsty Ear’s Blue Series, the album Junk Magic strikes a balance between groovy textures and heady improvisation. The opening title track is something of a misfire; an off-center groove, with a programmed beat that sounds like a CD skip, quickly gets under the skin since no soloist jumps in for contrast. But “Mystero” quickly changes the scene. Taborn’s keyboards create a sea of texture over which Maneri and Stewart add dark solos. The drums initially sound looped, but by the end King definitely sounds live as he alternately holds the pulse together and breaks it apart for fun. Later on “Prismatica,” roles change when Taborn takes a solo and Maneri and Stewart hold down the fort. Sometimes the album’s sea of sounds is hard to penetrate, but the closing 11-minute “The Golden Age” indicates that Taborn’s crew is on to something when they have a chance to stretch out. (www.thirstyear.com)




DAVE BURRELL FULL-BLOWN TRIO
Expansion
High Two

For its first release, the Philadelphia imprint High Two chose to spotlight a musician whose all-encompassing approach to the piano has probably been heard in supporting roles more than as a leader. Dave Burrell has appeared on albums with Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and David Murray and while he has led sessions, none have appeared domestically since 1966. Accompanied by bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille - both prolific heavyweights in the world of avant-garde jazz - Burrell turns in seven challenging, diverse tracks that put this gifted solos and compositions in the spotlight. In “Double Heartbeat” the group sets up an interesting dynamic with Cyrille exclusively playing toms and bass drum while Parker plucks away and Burrell adds splashes of notes that evolve into clusters. Cyrille shifts exclusively to cymbals for “In the Balance,” a meditative piece that also has Parker switching to kora, a West African harp, to add to the texture. “Cryin’ Out Loud” is a piano and bass duet, in which Parker’s skilled bowing technique creates emotional wails and scrapes. It contrasts with the following track, a bright solo reading of Irving Berlin’s “They Say It’s Wonderful,” with Burrell showing of his stride technique. “Coup D’etat” closes the album with a jaunty theme that evokes both Thelonious Monk and “Giant Steps,” although Cyrille ensures the trio puts their own stamp on the sound with the way he drives them. Hopefully more people will discover Burrell with Expansion. (http://www.hightwo.com/)


AZITA
Life on the Fly
Drag City

From its clunky title to the obtuse mouthful-of-marbles vocals, Azita’s 2003 album Enantiodromia was an intriguing listen, and one that made listeners either love or revile the pianist and songwriter. At this point, I still haven’t found a kindred spirit who shares my fascination with Azita Youssefi, who once led the Chicago no wave band Scissor Girls. While her previous album sounded more like a pianist who enlisted friends to flesh out her songs, Life on the Fly sounds more like a band effort. Drummer John McEntire and bassist Matt Lux, of the bands Tortoise and Isotope 217, again play on all the tracks, with guitarist Jeff Parker and cornetist Rob Mazurek dropping in on a few to add to the texture. The sound shifts away from the noirish approach of its predecessor, but it in no way merits the Steely Dan comparison Azita has already garnered, in both the pejorative and positive sense, ironically. Granted her vocal delivery can be a challenge; when she sings off-key it sounds more like missed notes than intentional dissonance. The shifting rhythms and clipped quality to some of the musical phrases make standard verse-chorus hard to ascertain. But that again makes this music worth the challenge, from the catchy “Wasn’t in the Bargain” to the suspended “Antarctica.”
(http://www.dragcity.com/)

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So many people are flooding the atmosphere with year-end lists. I submitted one to
JazzTimes a few weeks ago, but I haven't done a rock one yet. I'm not sure how many new rock albums I heard this year anyway. A lot of what I bought at the start of the year came from 2005. Plus some friends were swapping lists to Best ofs and I never replied to them. So I think I should reply to them first. But we'll see.

Sing a Kris Kringle Jingle

Playing right now: Some anonymous Christmas Brass record that I had when I was a kid.

This is a cassette I made of the album a few years ago. The original record is in no shape to be played, so putting it on tape was the only solution back then. Maybe someday soon I'll put it on disc.
This isn't chamber brass Christmas songs. This record probably came out in the late '60s and has a very pop-rock backbeat feel to it, along with brassy arrangements that sort of bring Herb Alpert to mind, in tone not in feeling. Plus there's a lot of marimba and xylophone. I've been thinking of this record all week at work. The tape just happened to be sitting here next to the computer, probably having sat there for the last 11 months, so playing it was a natural.

The version of "Jingle Bells" has a solid beat, a walking bass line and more of that great marimba. Along with the classics (a Floyd Cramer/Roger Williams-style version of "Silent Night" in 4/4) there are originals with titles like "Sing a Kris Kringle Jingle" and "Mama Santa's Surprise," the latter including some great trombone-plunger mute action.

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If I could stay at home and do nothing but listen to CDs for, oh.....a week, I'd be happy. I have too much I want to listen to. And I don't mean put-on-while-I-do-the-dishes listening, I mean really listen to: get to know, start music to memory. Between things people have lent to me, promo releases and stuff I've bought, there's too much. Charles Tolliver and Steve Kuhn both have new things out on Blue Note and I haven't gotten to either one yet. I finally listened this week to a CD I got from trombonist Brian Allen that he did with Tony Malaby (tenor) and Tom Rainey (drums), which is pretty free and pretty interesting. And I'd like to post a review of it here sometime soon. Which, again, requires that I get to know it.

But then Tim Berne's new double CD with Big Satan just showed up this week. JazzTimes also sent me a package of stuff they want me to review.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Andrew Hill's A Beautiful Day which I've been meaning to get for a while. It was a session with a larger group and it was also the disc that seemed to really stir up renewed interest in him.

Plus I want to get back to that Odean Pope disc from a few months ago. Oh yeah, in case you thought I've totally forsaken all non-jazz music, I have a copy of the latest Pernice Brothers album waiting for me at Paul's. And I'd like to check out the Naysayer's new album again. I reviewed it for Harp and it's now on the "stuff I reviewed" pile, most of which I don't get back to, out of time and an ongoing quest for new music.

I don't like to think of this music as disposable. But there is this quest when writing about music to say, "Next!" as soon as you're done with one release, knowing that another one is sure to be on the way or is sure to be discovered in a used bin somewhere near you. When I worked at Pulp, opening the mail was always the most exciting part of the day because I never knew what musical excitement was waiting in the morning's pile. What would join the pile on my desk or the upcoming shows box, and what would wind up in the pile of CDs that would languish in the corner?

So much music, so little time. It's too bad more people don't release albums like this Christmas Brass album (I think they were called the Monterey Brass, I'm not sure): at about 35 minutes long at the very most, I could easily spin another disc after this is over adn still get to bed by two.

But it's off to bed soon.

Mysterious Mann song

Playing right now: Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet - Here & Now

While I was compiling the CDs last week for my parents' party, I wanted to pick a song from one of their albums by Pete Rugolo. He was an arranger for Stan Kenton who started his own group. When I dropped the needle down on the first song, the melody sounded kind of familiar to me. Then I realized it was a song that Herbie Mann played on a cassette by that my dad had by the flutist (or "flautist"). I used to play the tape all the time when I was a little kid, but I never knew the name of the song because I didn't know how to read yet. (I was probably about three or four at the time.) 30+ years of mystery solved. The name of the tune is "Here's Pete."
I looked it up on allmusic.com and found out it came from an album called Hi Flutin' that Herbie did with Buddy Collette, where they both switched off on a number of reeds. And then some of the titles looked familiar. Most notably there is one called "Theme From 'Theme From.'" They also do "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" which really perplexed this young reader way back when.
I went to Jerry's Records on my day off to see if I could find it. There is a BIG Herbie Mann section there, in part because he did a lot of albums and also because a lot of people resold them. There were at least half a dozen copies of the late '70s album Super Mann (cover has him emerging from a phone booth pulling off his shirt to reveal a Superman outfit), along with other bad-pun titles (Our Man Flute, Family of Mann, Et tu Flute).
Among them I found just one copy of Hi-Flutin'. It's a little beat up, but I had to buy it, regardless. I know I would've gone home craving it if I hadn't. It's a pretty straight ahead session, but they mix it up by switching instruments. In "Herbie's Buddy," they play a chorus each on one flute, let a member of the rhythm section take a chorus, then they come back on sax and then clarinet. I thought it was a pretty clever way to approach the blues. And the rhythm section consists of Mel Lewis (drums), Jimmy Rowles (piano) and Buddy Clark (bass), who are all pretty solid.

And there ain't NOTHING I can do.....

Playing right now: Paul Bley - Copenhagen and Haarlem
I've always wanted to check out more stuff by Paul Bley, because he's always seemed like someone I'd like. This album collects two trio sessions that were released in Europe, and compiled here in the '70s by Arista-Freedom. A number of the songs are written by Annette Peacock, and I have a CD by pianist Marilyn Crispell where she interprets them too.
This album is something that I need to listen to a lot before I'll fully grasp it. So far, it's pretty interesting. Not as harsh as Cecil Taylor but definitely open.

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Last night while I was doing dishes, I was listening to the first album by the Vanilla Fudge (I have a thing about reattaching "the" to some bands who jettisoned it: the Sweet, um.......maybe that's it. I don't normally say "the Pink Floyd," or "the Cream.")
Anyhow, side 2 of that album is kind of interesting. mainly because their version of "You Just Keep Me Hangin' On" is on it and it has some great, foundation-rocking moments.
Then I put on Side 1. I forgot how awful it is. REALLY awful. "People Get Ready" is over the top, white boys trying to sound like soulful choir boys (which kind of reveals the implication of their name). "She's Not There" is warbly.
There was a time, in fact right around this time of the year, during 9th grade that I was really into Vanilla Fudge. I had The Beat Goes On on cassette; I found In the Beginning with its side-long jam (in which each member got a solo [ugh] and Tim Bogert played fuzz bass, [yeah!] and they did a slammin' version of "Shotgun," which I wouldn't mind hearing again someday soon; and I got a copy of Renaissance, which includes their 10-minute version of "Season of the Witch" which seems to channel the movie The Fly, with the "help meeeee" plea after each chorus. (Anyone know if there's some bigger reference I'm missing?) Other than that, that record sucked and I started to realize these guys weren't as good as I thought. Surprisingly, I never bought their landmark debut. This copy came from an estate sale over the summer.
So before the Fudge plodded into "Bang Bang" I decided I needed to hear something that was a little more bearable.
Call me crazy, but I threw on Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first album.
True story.
(Someday I'll explain why I still have a soft spot for that album.)

Music for a 50th Anniversary

Playing right now: Art Ensemble of Chicago - Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City (Disc 2)

Last night was my parents' 50th anniversary shindig. It went really well; all of my siblings were there, with significant others and kids, along with many guests. In the context of this blog, I have to say that my music choices went over well. I made 2 discs, almost a total of two hours, from the albums that I borrowed from them. There were also CD-Rs for all the guests, which had 12 songs that had some connection to the folks. The cover had a picture of Mum and Pop leaving the Arlington (corner of South Aiken and Center - still there!) where their wedding reception took place.

Here are the tracks on the giveaway CDs:
Chet Baker - Imagination (their song)
Bud Shank - Shank's Pranks
Shorty Rogers - Popo
Dave Pell Octet - Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee
Laurindo Almeida - Blue Baiao
John Haas- Egypt
Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Bernie's Tune
Chet Baker With Strings - I Married an Angel (see the last entryfor an explanation)
Stan Kenton - The Peanut Vendor
Sauter-Finegan - Finegan's Wake
George Shearing - September in the Rain
Chet Baker - There Will Never Be Another You

In looking at all the albums I borrowed from them, the West Coast jazz cats were like indie rockers: Everybody shows up on everybody else's albums. Saxophonist Bob Cooper especially. He played with everyone. I guess it was because they all came out of the Stan Kenton band, but damn: Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Russ Freeman, Shelly Manne, they're everywhere.......It was all pretty good stuff, but some of it started to sound the same after awhile. Lotta similarities to "Birth of the Cool."

But it made the folks really happy. They had a good time and I'm glad the soundtrack fit with that.

The songs of my parents' courtin' days

Next weekend there's going to a party for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I'm in charge of programming the music, so I borrowed an armful of their albums this week. They're all old jazz albums from the '50s, some of them on rare labels like X and Brunswick and Coral. A copy of Chet Baker With Strings is allegedly THE album that got them together. My mum borrowed it from Pop, who had to marry her to get it back.

They even have a 10" copy of the music from the Brando movie The Wild One. That one hasn't been played in years because there was crayon or something on the grooves. (I didn't do it.) I cleaned it off and, while it's still pretty scratched, it plays okay. Too bad it's beat up. I've seen copies of the 12" version go for three figures. I can only imagine what this would go for. Not I want to sell my parents' records and memories.

I'm just saying.

PS: No music playing right now.

Estate Sale Booty

Playing right now: Vandermark 5 - A Discontinuous Line
I bought this and the new Art Ensemble of Chicago album last week. I haven't gotten through the whole V5 disc yet, so it's kind of out of character for me to put it on as background music while I'm writing, but I figured it's so rare to have time to just sit and listen to it with no distractions, so I might as well spin it now to get a feel for it.

Upon perusing some old entries, I realized that it's been awhile since I listed my finds from the weekend's estate sales. The past two weekends yielded some interesting discoveries. Last weekend I drove all over hell's half acre to a total of three different estate sales. The final stop on the morning's excursion brought me to a house that had boxes of reel-to-reel tapes in the basement along with 78s. I usually ignore the 78s because it's always the same things: Guy Lombardo, Tommy Dorsey, "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" by the Ames Bros. (come to think of it, my copy of that song is busted last time I looked, so if I see this one, maybe I should pick it up), and worse.....but since the morning had been disappointed, I decided to check out the small stack. First I came across some Jazz at the Philharmonic 78s. One tune typically stretched over at least two and maybe three records because there were so many solos. Unfortunately, all these records were cracked.

But then I started finding all these homemade 78s made, presumably, with a record cutter. They all featured a pianist who I'm assuming was the owner of the house, and he was sitting in with bands or playing with what looks like an army or navy band. (Honestly I haven't played them yet.) And there were a few with labels from George Heid Studios with "Transcription" being the only information on them. George Heid owned a studio downtown in the '40s and '50s (I think my timing is right) and I know his son, who has a studio with all of the antiquated equipment needed to play these records (he's also a good jazz drummer). I bought about seven or eight of these records. Maybe tomorrow during my day off, I'll try to play a few on my victrola.

The big find came after I paid for the records and a few reel-to-reel tapes that I fished out of a box. The seller pointed to three more boxes of reel to reel tapes and I decided to check them out. The ones I sort through consisted mainly of 78s transferred onto tapes, but now I was finding recordings of the Silhouettes (a local jazz group that put out an album on Segue Records) playing on WQED-TV; there was also a tape of Walt Harper playing on WQED. The seller told me I could take everything for $10 and I went back and forth in my mind about five times before I finally decided to just go with a total of five tapes instead of stacks of tapes that I'll never listen to.

On my day off last week, I listened to the Silhouettes tape. The sound is really good. I thought it might have come from a microphone stuck in front of a tv set, but it sounds like a direct copy from the original tapes. They hadn't been joined by the female vocalist who's on their album. It was just vibes/flute or sax/bass/drums. They sounded good, playing Charlie Parker's "Au Privave" and some tunes that might have been originals. The other side had a pretty good Woody Herman big band performance. The writing on the box says it came from WQED, but it had to be a national show since Ralph Gleason was the host.

So nothing for resale, but some nice treasures nonetheless.

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This past Saturday, I finally got back in the Estate Sale Booty Saddle. It's been quite a while since I've come home with either an armload of records or one wild find.

Jimmy Smith - Respect
Jimmy Smith - Got My Mojo Workin'
The Impressions - People Get Ready
The Impressions - The Never Ending
The Modern Jazz Quartet - Blues at Carnegie Hall
Modern Jazz Quartet- Jazz Dialogue
Temptations - Temptin' Temptations
Drifters - I'll Take You Where the Music's Playing
Drifters- Up On the Roof
Brother Jack McDuff- Walk On By
Ahmad Jamal - Heat Wave
Ahmad Jamal - Standard-Eyes
Ahmad Jamal - Rhapsody
Carla Thomas- Comfort Me
Carla Thomas - s/t
Gerry Mulligan- Gerry's Time
Cannonball Adderley - Mercy Mercy Mercy
Fontella Bass- The New Look

All for $1 each. Some, or maybe most, of the covers have some water damage, but a lot of the vinyl is in really good shape. All the albums on Atlantic are original pressings, I think. No mono albums, but I thnk these are the types of albums where stereo albums are the more rare of the two. The Cannonball album is a UK pressing, as is the Jimmy Smith Mojo album. I told myself about three years ago that I didn't need any more Jimmy Smith albums, but for $1 each, I would've been a fool to pass them by. Besides I don't have any of his stuff on Verve, which released both of these albums.

There was more Ahmad Jamal too, but they were too beat. Plus there was a Jackie Wilson album with the wrong record in it. FIE!

The Yeh-Yeh Girl's second phase.

Playing right now: Francoise Hardy - Loving
I won this album in an auction several weeks ago and it finally arrived earlier this week. Francoise's Reprise albums have been described to me as having more questionable quality when compared to the ones that came out on 4 Corners (on Vogue in Europe). Over the summer I won her self-titled Reprise album, but it was pretty good. A little more orchestrated, but still pretty catchy. And the cover had the lyrics translated into English, which revealed how much angst factored into her writing.
So I figured Loving couldn't be all that bad, especially since she's singing in English and covering other people's songs. Well, it's not as if she went the Claudine Longet route and got all fluffy and poppy on us, but there is definitely a middle-of-the-road quality to the album. "Let It Be Me," Tim Hardin's "Hang On To A Dream," Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town,".....heck even Phil Ochs' "There But For Fortune" is done in a sweetened-up manner.
And then there's the French enunciation coming and going: "There's a town where lover's go/ to kwy their twoubles away"; "Show me a pwison...." But "That'll Be the Day" is fine. It'd be a good song if the rhythm section wasn't so stiff. They sound like they're playing a bump-and-grind stripper routine.
It's not an awful album though. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" is played with an upbeat kind of boogaloo rhythm. And she covers the Kinks' "Who'll Be the Next In Line," which, if Reprise had exercised their PR department, could have been as big a hit as "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'."
I swear that one of my French Francoise albums has a version of the song "Never Learn to Cry" on it. The opening organ riff sounds so familiar. But I've gone through almost all of my albums and couldn't find it. I have one more to go, but my hopes are high for it. Maybe I'm crazy.
Francoise's career is strange because she started out playing breezy '60s pop, then she got more easy listening with this stuff (not sure exactly when it came out). In the late '90s/early '00s she released Le Danger, which had some rocking moments, along with some stuff that was kind of like Suzanne Vega (a good thing in my book). But the more recent Clair-Obscure was more MOR despite a duet with Iggy Pop ("I'll Be Seeing You," in which Ig sounded terrible). Now I read that Julio Iglesias is her latest duet partner. I want to hear it, and yet I don't.

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By now, every one probably knows that the Dave Clark Five are nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Whoopee!

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The new Fiery Furnaces album, Bitter Tea, which is not quite so new now, is really good. Still weird as hell, but I'm glad I got it on vinyl. Having a break every three songs help to me to retain them better. I actually got one of their melodies stuck in my head this week.

Dispatch on the Fiery Furnaces

Playing right now: Silence, which is good because I just had my ears blown out by the Fiery Furnaces.

Luckily I found out before it was too late that the Pernice Brothers show is tomorrow, so I didn't have to choose between them and Fiery Furnaces. (The bad news is that I work the closing shift tomorrow at work, so I can't see Joe and Co. FIE!!)

On the other hand, I made it to Mr. Small's to see the Furnaces. Now, the last time they were here, they were a RAWK band. Matthew played guitar, as did Eleanor on a couple songs, and a rhythm section rounded things out. [Matt had some cool stereo effect going where his guitar sound was bouncing between the left and right speakers too.] Tonight, Matthew stuck with a keyboard that looked like some old Vox or Acetone organ. They had both a drummer and percussionist; and ex-Sebadoh member Jason Loewenstein (the bassist on the last tour) was handling guitar duties.

Man, were they tight. The FF's songs have all sorts of twisty-turny melodies to begin with, and to hear a full band play them can be pretty astounding. Everyone was on the same page, making every change together. Not only that, they seemed to segue one song into the next for about 40 minutes straight. My friend Brendan compared it to seeing a rock opera, which is true: There were individual parts, but it kind of seemed like one whole piece. Until they took a breather after the 40-minute mark, the set was all from their latest album Bitter Tea, which I haven't heard yet, so it was all new to me. The only problem was you couldn't discern what Eleanor was singing, but as a person who's been going to shows and dealing with that situation for years, I was fine with it.

Afterwards, Matthew and Eleanor were hovering around the merchandisc table. Actually I was hovering, they were just standing there. They were both really nice and chatty, which I think says a lot for them after such an intense set. (I think they played at least an hour.) One would think they'd need more downtime. Eleanor had been to Whole Foods today and bought some club soda that Matt was drinking. I wonder if we passed each other in the aisle today at all.

The vinyl copy of Bitter Tea was $20, but I couldn't resist. I know I want it. And it has a beautiful cover. So I bought it.

Then I asked Eleanor if Jason was going to come out to talk to people. She brought him out and I had to tell him about my fond Sebadoh memories (see previous installments). He said they're getting back together early next year (WOO HOO!). He was really nice and down to earth, though he still looks like he has a wild gleam in his eyes. His solo album Sixes and Sevens, came out a few years ago and it really should've gotten more attention. It's really heavy and raw, but it has a great sense of melody without sacrificing what's good about either hooks or noise. And he played everything himself. It's not often that you come across an album where one person handles everything and it sounds like a band, with fully realized arrangements. Usually one-person solo = doodle fest.

I gave him the url to this site. I wonder if he'll check it out. Hi, Jason. Make another solo album. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd dig it.

Flip a coin?

These days, it takes a lot to get me out to see a show, unless it's at Gooski's, which is right around the corner from me.

So today I realized that not one but two indie bands that I really like are in town on the same night (tomorrow) at opposite venues: in this corner, the Fiery Furnaces at Mr. Small's.














In this corner, the Pernice Brothers, at Club Cafe. (That's Joe Pernice below).









I'd get off my duff for either of these bands........and now they're playing on the same night? What ever will I do?

music...........it makes me happy

Playing right now: Odean Pope - Locked and Loaded

Tenor saxophonist Odean Pope has shown up in my house twice recently, in the form of this CD and also as a support player on Max Roach's early '80s album, Chattahoochee Red. My friend Rob told me a couple years ago that if I ever saw a copy of that album to immediately pick it up. So a few months ago, I found a vinyl copy of it at Jerry's. (It probably hasn't been reissued on CD yet, as it was released by Columbia. If it was, probably only appeared in Japan.)

This was a pianoless quartet (except for one song which addsa 88s). And it is the kind of album that, at times, might make you say, "That's Max Roach?!" because it gets a little wild. It starts off with Max playing a solo over excerpts from Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. This is the kind of thing that only someone with Max's vision and taste could pull off. There's a version of "'Round Midnight" that takes some liberties with the melodic structure and makes it rise above all the other versions of the Monk classic.

Some jazz musicians have been around forever and we kind of take them for granted, not realizing how tremendous they are. Max is one of them. Clark Terry is another. Listen to either of those guys and you will be have to pull yourself up off the floor and say "Goddam" several times. Because these guys play with the kind of excitement and passion that makes you feel glad you're alive to hear this music. And really that's what it's all about: hearing something exciting that makes you glad you're hear to take the time to listen to it. And Max & Clark did an album together about three years ago that proves both are still capable of blowing minds as they reach the eighth decade of their lives.

But I started out talking about Odean Pope. He's truly a tremendous saxophone player. Last year he played on an album by saxophonist Prince Lasha that I reviewed for JazzTimes magazine. This year, JT did a profile on him that coincided with the release of an album by his saxophone choir: three altos, five tenors (not counting guests Michael Brecker, James Carter and Joe Lovano), one baritone and a rhythm section.

The album is called Locked & Loaded on HalfNote and I hope to see it on numerous Best Of Lists this year. I mean, the sound of all those horns together is powerful enough, but you get Lovano, Carter and Brecker tearing up the scenery along with Pope (who's a monster), and you have a pretty good time.

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I recently came into a copy of the Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat (which I REALLY wanted for Christmas in 1981, but quickly forgot about soon after) and I decided I LOVE LOVE LOVE the song "Our Lips Are Sealed."

Up until that point I thought it was a catchy little number but a few Sundays ago, I decided it's one of those pieces of pop music bliss. And even though I'm not too keen on the rest of the album, that one song is reason to hold onto it. The same way I'm holding onto the second Fun Boy 3 album because it includes their version of the same song.

Truth is Marching In

Playing right now: Albert Ayler - Holy Ghost (disc 6)

I often look at the beautiful Ayler box and think, "I need to listen to that more often. I've only gotten through most of it about two times. But not now. I need to listen to something else now."

So now I'm on it. I wish the violin player wasn't on so much of it. There are so many pieces where he saws away and sounds like he's playing between C# and D while the rest of the band is blowing in C.

Last night, Amoeba Knievel played a show at Quiet Storm. Sunday night shows can be a little weird and this was the fourth show in as many nights that celebrated the release of a local compilation of bands doing Halloween songs. Weird Paul was also on the bill, along with Marvin Dioxide and an out of town band.

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Last Tuesday, Petra Haden performed at the Andy Warhol Museum, bringing her a cappella tribute to The Who Sell Out to life. She had 6 other female vocalists with her. It was a really great time. I always thought the opening seconds of "Armenia City in the Sky" were some of the best sonic moments in rock history............the whining guitar chord that leads into the thumping bass line, which sounds especially crisp and clear for such an early recording. Petra and crew replicated that bliss, even though it was done in a different manner. And "I Can See For Miles" was another level of bliss.

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This morning, we had an 8:00 meeting at work. Then I'm done until 1 p.m. So there were 7 record boxes that I needed to mail at the post office. And they have to go to the Sq Hill post office because -- no I'm not making this up -- the people at the one closer to my house always insist on charging more to send records airmail. They claim they have to go parcel instead of letter.
So I get up to the Sq Hill post office, only to find that they're closed due to a power failure. Grrrr. Hopefully they'll be back up and running before I go to work.

If anyone reading this has a copy of the Nirvana/Melvins split single on Communion, in which both bands cover the Velvets, hang onto it. Especially if it's on purple vinyl. I just auctioned a copy for an insane amount of money. INSANE, I tell you.