End of the line... The Horace Silver Quintet Doin' the Thing at the Village Gate As you can tell colors get crazy once the lights come on, I swear every light in our house is a different color...
The last side to this consistently excellent "new breed" comp with another Grachan Moncur track followed by Archie Shepp as leader. Five piece horn section (t, as,ts, tb and bs) plus bass and drums. This was the only side not devoted to one leader. Marion Brown plays with Shepp on the track Hambone too which is bonus . Tonight I'm off to see a local group of experimental players at Gold Lion Studio. The leader is an incredible drummer, Jon Bofus who has a fairly unique approach to time keeping. It's more of a constant pulse than counting if that makes sense. Edit: just got back and it was a cathartic performance as expected. Ross on guitar, Tony on keyboards, trumpet and sax and Jon on his custom made drum set. Custom in that he bought the parts and built it to his own specs and ideas. It sounded great but I think he would sound good on a kiddy set. NP I saved this last for the late evening.... Herbie Hancock - The Piano (Sony/Columbia) Direct To Disc Japanese pressing. I've wanted this for a while but not bad enough to search for it. Today was my lucky day. It's in nice shape too. It sounds really great too. Good tone on the piano and ultra quiet surfaces. Jessus my iPad typing is even worse now.
A plug for my man Ross Hammond who just got a 4* review in the new Downbeat for his solo guitar album. If you like Ry Cooder's OST of Paris, Texas you'll like his new album Follow Your Heart. He's on bandcamp and there is a vinyl version which I have and can vouch for. It's solo acoustic guitar/slide style. He has a jazz background as well. I'm pleased that he got a noce review in a prestigious national magazine and it's his second album to get a 4* review from DB so he must have something going on right?
This is one I'm not familiar with unless there's another cover. I'm always seeing covers I've never seen. It's amazing how deep this music goes in any direction. NP Round Midnight OST After seeing it posted here I finally decided to buy it after many years of procrastinating. I knew ot would be good but ot has always been availableso there was always something else more desirable. Today was the day. I came upon a real clean copy for cheap so I have finally completed the deed. The version of The Peacocks is exquisite. How could it not with such supreme musicians? I should watch the movie again.
Now playing (on headphones, of course, because it's obscenely early for a Saturday morning): Buddy Rich in Miami (1958), with Flip Phillips on tenor.
Lately I've been fixated on Black Beauty and princaply Steve Grossman. I must have played the album three times this week. His performance has been negatively criticized when I think it's in keeping with the theme of the program and with what the other players were doing in the performance. For most of the concert he toOK over as lead and drove the proceedings along with Jack Dejohnette's excellent (as always) contributions. I never have any trouble trying to decide what to play even though Miles' reportoir is so extensive.
Buddy Rich on headphones? Seems kinda wrong somehow. .. Good that you're showing consideration for your neighbours though..
I am the most considerate, respectful, and polite woman you'll ever meet, fastskillful. And I am sadly not kidding. A dinosaur. A dying breed. Now playing: but it is absolutely not "hitting the spot." I think I'll have coffee and politely go play outside. (Hampton Hawes, The Green Leaves of Summer (1964).)
This is a healing balm after a miserable, cold and wet Saturday in the Big Mikan. Frank Wess has a lovely, mellifluous tone on his sax. His flute playing is superb. Of Thad nothing more need be said.. Corking solos all round. This may well be my new standby when I need to relax and feel better about things after a trying day. Japanese mono vinyl reissue from 1974.
Yeah, but you showed no love for Long Tall Dexter. I remain unmoved. ..furthermore Hampton Hawes isn't pushing your buttons... Look into your heart.....
I just got a Japanese Cd of Black Beauty a few weeks ago and have only given it one full listen in my car while driving to work so far. I like the performances on it and think Steve Grossman is fine there, not my favorite of his though. I really like some of his performances better that are on the Jack Johnson Sessions box. I think maybe the soprano sax tone captured on Black Beauty is not the most flattering, so that may have something to do with it. The front left speaker in my car hasn't been working for some time now; I've been mostly listening to podcasts for the last few years while driving to work, so it hasn't really been that noticeable. However, when listening to Black Beauty it had me fooled in to thinking the mix was really inconsistent on this album. It seemed like Miles trumpet would be nice and loud for periods but then there were periods, lasting several tracks at a time, where it seemed like Miles had turned around and was playing off mic. Also, through the entire concert it seemed like Steve G was just mixed way low. I was really quite bummed about that because I felt that the overall sound quality was better than the other Miles live albums I've recently gotten in this period (It's About this Time and Bootleg Series Vol. 3). Fotunatlely, I found that, after bringing disc 2 with me for a short drive in my other vehicle with all working speakers this week, Miles trumpet was being mixed some time more to the right (hence a nice loud trumpet in the other car) and sometimes more left (hence a low off mic trumpet) and Steve G was consistently mixed left (hence low soprano sax throughout). So, that was exciting to discover that the inconsistent mix was just a product of the non working speaker and not a part of the actual recording, looking forward to giving this one a proper listen now in the near future.
This photo was taken in Philadelphia on south Broad Street. They were standing in the middle of south Broad Street with City Hall behind them.
New Sound Quartet- Summertime (2005) More vibes.. This time Joe Locke as part of the New Sound Quartet with Geoff Keezer. Eddie Henderson guests on this one. Hybrid SACD from the Japanese Eighty Eight's label really giving my system a workout. Superb sound, 'moody', 'lush', 'atmospheric' are terms that apply here.
Miles' trumpet does briefly start out left stage some times and is quickly panned to the right giving the elusion he's walking across the stage where he plays for a while and then seems to transition ever so smoothly to Steve Grossman taking the lead (sometime I wonder how long I've been listening to saxophone instead of trumpet). I like the way the recording was mixed in that most of the instruments are brightly lit with very distinctive placement within the soundstage. Jack DeJohnette's cymbals and drumming sometime fade back into the mix a little but most of the time are clear and well defined and allways very precise.
Don Friedman Trio - Waltz For Debbie (Eighty Eight's) BSCD2 I came to Friedman late and I'm far from an expert but I've been really enjoying the albums I've heard/bought..
Now playing: the cornet master with that Barbieri cat; late morning avant-garde situation up here Don Cherry, Complete Communion (1965).
I don't have this one but I have several discs from Eighty Eight's and really like them a lot. Superb sound via the BluSpec CD2 format and the mini-lp style covers with protective sleeves for the cds makes them some of the nicest looking and more importantly best sounding discs out there today. They cost a little more but I feel I'm getting something with that money.
