Yes he and Kevin Grey were on a panel last night. This was posted at the Music Matters Jazz Facebook Page.
Yep (most likely), it's a type of Afro-Cuban style percussion instrument, that normally does not sound like that live so to speak. It seems the way it got recorded makes it sound a bit odd and sticks out more than blending in. Again, maybe just me, but it just comes out in the wrong way, where as the rest of the percussion sounds just fine. Maybe I just need a couple more listens to get use to it...or maybe I don't know what the heck I'm talking about, would not be the first time...
It was just me. Just listened to it again, as all I had was a CD of this title before. Never heard that song sound like this. I had to focus more on the type of percussion instrument that it is, and realize if mastered properly, it is going to come across quite different than the CD of course. Not one of my favorite sounding percussion instruments, but I can enjoy this song much better now. I was able to turn it up more on this listen and that helped! Hope I did not make a fool of myself with this...
It's on this page. Not sure if you can view if you are not in the group: Music Matters Jazz - Blue Note Reissues Lovers It just a moment from the MMJ PR Guy who is the admin of the MMJ site. He works for MMJ and quoted what Joe announced last night.
Which reminds me of the line from Woody Allen's Annie Hall. I'm paraphrasing : John dark in French means the light is out in the bathroom.
I dig your excitement @scotti! These recent Blue Note releases put a spell on a guy and, in my case (and yours!), I want more of this amazing music. I get that it’s not new to everyone, but it is to me. Anyways, my big news of the day of record store visits was stumbling upon a few Jazz originals that I’d been seeking out for a while. But in the process I also obtained my first blue note OG! A near mint of Donald Byrd’s Byrd in Flight for double figures, in mono. I’m currently feeling the force of Byrd and Mobley and McLean firing at me. I immediately understood what all the fuss is about. Next up is my other Blue Note find, a late 60’s press of Newk’s Time. I am pumped! To make it all even better, I picked up an original 6-eye of Blakey’s Drum Suite and enjoyed using that beast to warm the system up. I’ve been smiling all afternoon. To relate this all to this thread, my intent was to find Chick Corea’s Crystal Silence, Oregon’s Winter Light, Di Meola’s Casino AND the two of the three BN80’s I didn’t pick up initially, in n out and hub tones. No luck on the BN80’s but everything else was rolling in my favor. In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day.
There seems to be more interest than information about the shekere instrument featured on "Succotash," the opening track of Herbie Hancock's Inventions and Dimensions. Hear ye, hear ye, read all about it. Shekere - Wikipedia Here is the tune, "Succotash, with which we are now concerned. As indicated by @scotti this is an Afro-Cuban rhythm. There are several well known Afro-Cuban rhythms: Mambo, Cubop (made popular by Max Roach and Art Blakey), Cha-cha-cha, Songo, Bembe, Bolero, Rhumba, Mozambique, Merengue, perhaps among others. These are not to be confused or otherwise mixed with Brazilian patterns such as the Bossa Nova or Samba. When you get into "latin" music, things are cut and dried, black or white, either Afro-Cuban or Brazilian. The particular pattern being played in "Succotash" would be the Bembe. Following the intro, you can hear Willie Bobo on the drum set holding down the basic clave of this Bembe pattern with brushes on the snare drum. More typically, this pattern would be played with a stick on the cowbell or simply the bell of the cymbal, depending on the desired effect and/or what's available on the bandstand. One thing that's interesting to me is that I think of Willie Bobo as primarily a percussionist: typically timbales. Yet here he is on the drum set! So great! Bobo made ten (10) records for Blue Note, one as a leader. Spring of 1962, his first contribution was on Grant Green's The Latin Bit, followed up less than a month later on the Don Wilkerson Elder Don (with Grant Green), and he was back at Englewood Cliffs later that year with Green on some tunes that were only released much later on a Mosaic Records compilation. In October of 1962 he did the Ike Quebec Bossa Nova Soul Samba. Previously, Carlos "Patato" Valdez had accompanied him on congas during these recording sessions; however, Garvin Masseaux joins him on shekere on Bossa Nova Soul Samba, which I'm guessing (I don't see how to reference it) is the first appearance of the shekere on a Blue Note record. Fall of 1962, he recorded the Charlie Rouse favorite Bossa Nova Bacchanal, with both Carlos "Patato" Valdes on congas and Garvin Masseaux on Shekere. Herbie Hanock's Inventions and Dimensions, recorded August 30, 1963, was his fifth record for Blue Note (his sixth to include the later released Mosaic sessions). By the way, Bobo did a great record that was just remastered AAA by Vinyl Me Please called Uno, Dos, Tres 1-2-3 on the Verve label. That record is where I would start with Willie Bobo. Search — Vinyl Me, Please
I’ve been missing some MisterBritt brain food. Thank you once again sir. I mentioned initially that I thought my left speaker was blown, but once I realized it was an instrument my brain settled right in and I absolutely dig the tune and love the record. Now thanks to Mister Britt my brain is going to crave this sound. Thank you for the info. Amazingly helpful!
An awesome post once again from @MisterBritt! I was so blown away by the Jutta Hipp record, not sure I was focused clearly with this, and such a unique sound from it, so I'm just going to blame it on Mr. Kevin Gray for making this sound so realistic, I thought I was hearing something not quite right. Love this BN 80th thread (Tone Poet one as well) because of all of the great reviews/education we all get. Knew this was a percussion instrument after I heard it, but was the way it sounded that though me a big curve. Now I will even enjoy this album even more! And yes, I finished off the day once more with BN 1530, and might I say, I think I'm addicted to it, with no end in sight!
I think that bloom is typical of all the MMJ and TP releases as sets them apart from the BN80s; I’m guessing that’s JH’s input. To me the BN80 sound somewhat dryer and a tad thin at times by comparison, still great but distinguishable.
It's pressed in Germany so I guess that's half right since the mastering and plating was done in the USA.
The liner notes had me confused: "The scraping sound in the percussion section on “Succotash” is Osvaldo “Chihuahua” Martinez on guiro, a gourd-like instrument." Nat Hentoff must have been mistaken. I thought it sounded more like a shekere than a guiro: It also sounded more like an instrument and less like surface noise when I traded my conical stylus for a line-contact.
