Jazz Beat (Part 37)

If you want to investigate a genre that is mostly unknown to you, I certainly applaud that. I and other members here would only be too happy to point you in a direction which would help you do that with respect to jazz. However (and I will go to my grave believing this), the best way to investigate any music is to seek out the MUSIC you enjoy first, and the SOUND you enjoy second. Common sense is to avoid spending loads of money on music which you do not enjoy.

 

What a band, and what a performance, even with the horribly out of tune Five Spot piano

 

I must say, as someone who listens to a lot of pre-war country and gospel music, great sound, or even good sound isn't always a choice -- I mean, I'm still dreaming of a day when the Soul Stirrers great sides for Bronze and Aladdin show up in something better then a handful of tracks on old anthologies, or the one out of print P-Vine complete edition with mostly horrible transfers (I supposed I could buy a turntable that will play 78s and start collecting the singles -- a couple of which I did buy against the chance of that day coming), and that's mostly post-war stuff. But if the only versions of, say, Charlie Poole or Arizona Dranes or Jimmie Rodgers' records were poorly mastered versions, I'd gladly choose the poorly poorly mastered ones over missing out on some of the greatest, most important and some of my favorite music ever made.

 

If you want relatively good sounding Charlie Poole discs, get the County CDs; they're better than the Sony 2CD-set. Just thought I'd mention it

[edit]

Forgot to mention that the County CDs were mastered by Richard Nevins, who also mastered his Yazoo and John Tefteller's Blues Images CDs.

 

Melvin Rhyne - "Boss Organ" I discovered Peter Bernstein from this album so it's special to me.

 

I appreciate that and I learn something every day on this forum about music (and also off-topic stuff). My listening time is greater than some, yet much less than others, and there is another lifetime of recorded music for me to discover (not including classical, which will have to come in the lifetime after the next). I pick and choose using a combination of factors which are important to me. I'll never be a forum music expert, but at the same time I'd still wager that I'm in the tiny minority of the total active membership who will spend time spinning even Robert Johnson recordings (Centennial mastering!!!), much less King Oliver, The Wolverines or Jelly Roll Morton.

 

I've made no comparison of the various disks out there....I have a couple of different things lying around and I don't even know what the editions are, I think I have the Country label "Old Time Songs" anths on Poole, or at least one of 'em, but I also think the Hank Sapoznik-curated Poole box, which assembles a bunch of Poole recordings and contemporaneous recordings that were either direct influences or otherwise shed light on Poole's output, is so brilliantly thought through, annotated and assembled, though obviously not a comprehensive overview of Poole's work, that I kind of view the audio quality as secondary to the scholarship and curation. That's an example of something that may or may not be the best available audio on the material, but is a great package nevertheless (one I've given as gifts to friends curious about early country music). Heretical as it may be to say on an audiophile board, sometimes the best available sound isn't the difference maker for me.

 

In case people are looking for their CDs: the label's name is County, no r.
http://www.countysales.com/

 

My bad on the label name, we're talking about the same disks though.....

 

Lee Morgan – Sonic Boom (Blue Note Connoisseur Edition)
— With David "Fathead" Newman, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, Billy Higgins (4/69)
— Julian Priester, George Coleman, Harold Mabern, Walter Booker, Mickey Roker (9-10/69, issued as part of the double-LP of The Procratinator)

 

I think I have an album with him as a sideman. Maybe a tenor player or guitarist was the leader. Solid player.

NP Art Pepper - Surf Ride (Savoy) Japanese mono cd.
Early Art from 1952 and '53. I prefer his later work but it is interesting hearing him here with other musicians.

 

In a perfect world, yes, all art should be presented in its best light. It's not reality.

 

Rhyne's best-known work was with Wes Montgomery.

 

Rhyne was a sideman on a few Wes Montgomery Riverside albums.

 

I heard Vincent Giordano's band once on Prairie Home Companion. I don't know if that show ever had Marty Grosz. Should have had.

 

I'm a big fan of Marty's, I love his albums! Great spirit in his playing and singing.

 

I really like Mel Rhyne's "Organ-izing" on JazzLand.

 

There's quite a bit of old-timey instrumental breaks on this record, more improv I would say than on some of Jobim's albums. Some Django-ish guitar breaks and fills on some cuts. Overall, not a bad listen. I just don't care for Leon when he does the slow crooning songs. It just doesn't suit him.

 

I only discovered Grosz about a year ago. Interestingly, the album he recorded in 1956 or '57 that I have is virtually the same (apart from a slight difference in miking and recording technology) in spirit and sound as the one I just posted, recorded around 2006-2007. I'm still exploring his oeuvre -- all the stuff in between those two albums.

 

You'll have a lot of fun exploring his work. I don't have all his work but have about ten as a leader and have him as a sideman on others. I see him in a way as a modern Fats Waller in his approach to music. (And from me that's a big compliment). He has perhaps one of my favorite titles for an album: Songs I Learned at My Mother's Knee and Other Low Down Joints. Good album too.

 

Herbie Hancock - The Piano

 

Ah yes, I think he is on my Alternative Wes album.

 

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Boogie Woogie String Along For Real

 

Miles Davis & Gil Evans The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (6 CD set)

Perfect for a rainy day.