Jeff Johnson - The Art of Falling This is not likely to be a lot of people's cup of tea. It is unique and original, and it effectively sideslips most attempts at categorization. The music is largely modal, but not always. As a catch-all, post-bop kinda' works. It's often very sparse, like one of the more subdued ECM label albums. But sometimes it gets free, partially shedding tonality and almost completely eschewing identifiable rhythm. Even the faster pieces refuse to fall into a groove. There's rarely anything to sink your groove meter into, but it is wonderful music when in the right mood. It certainly is creative in the manner it gives space to each member of the quartet. While nobody seems inclined to fill the space, overall, the music is full; full of intrigue and wonder. Just don't come here looking for instant gratification. There's no catchy heads to draw you in; you can only be drawn in with patience and a solid attention span, and not have expectations as to where the music should go, but rather relinquish control and let the music take you where it will.
Louis at home. Notice the microphone, used for one of his countless narrated memoirs to the reel-to-reel decks behind him
All the hoopla about whether Armstrong's birthdate was July 4th or August 4th is still in debate. The baptism records may actually be faulty. I believe at some point, the historical research will settle on his true birthdate being July 4th 1901, not 1900 (as he wanted to be 18 a little early, when registering. Read this blog if interested Happy Birthday, Pops! (The Case for July 4, 1901...)
High school band class-we had a substitute one day. So we all swapped instruments, most of us knowing nothing about what we had swapped to. As a trumpeter, I knew nothing about fingerings on a sax. Heck, I couldn't even get a reasonable tone out of the thing. The drummer playing my trumpet was equally clueless, as was the flutist lifting a trombone for the first time! The substitute teacher asked if we had a song we felt we should work on... we made our selection... he opened the score, raised his baton, counted off.... ...and was unceremoniously greeted by the most horrifically cacophonous assault on the aural senses imaginable. Now we were a tiny, rural high school populated by a bunch of inartistic hicks, so I guess he undoubtedly expected us to be pretty bad (and we were), but this was beyond his comprehension. After the third false start, he was so exasperated, he decided to break it down and selected one student to hear play alone to maybe isolate the problem(s). He directed the band to remain silent, all except for me so he could hear the first tenor play the lead melody. He raised his baton, counted off.... and was rudely bombarded with sounds akin to a goose in a vise having the last ounce of life squeezed out of it. He looked at my fingers and noted that my fingering was wrong. Even more exasperated, he said... "You begin on an F. Please finger and F for me. " "Not sure I can do that, boss." "What? Finger an F, please." "I need some help" "What? What are you talking about?" "I don't know how, boss." "What?!?!? How long have you been playing tenor sax?!?!?" "Uh, lets see.... it's about ten minutes after the start of the hour.... so I'd say about 10 minutes." He took it quite well, and we actually had a great rehearsal for the rest of the hour. Which is good as I actually felt kinda' bad about being such a jackass, and talking all my fellow bandmates into being accomplices to my jackassery. A few were pretty resistant and I had to berate or bully them into it. Gawd, I was an ass that day. But then I was able to fall back on "all's well that ends well."
Nice seeing Johnson here Check this if you haven't. (From an earlier post of mine, with some text cut for expediency) Jeff Johnson is an excellent and seemingly unknown player, glad to see him mentioned His live date of his trio with Hans Teuber on sax and Billy Minz on drums comes highly recommended. By me. Great musically and a live to 2-track recording that I'd consider audiophile quality. They also cover Randy Weston's "Hi-Fly:
Very funny! I don't know why, but it reminded me of a time early in my career when I was working for an environmental consulting firm. Our company wanted a big subcontract with Westinghouse. The President of our company called me into a meeting with some Westinghouse executives and introduced me as his "nuclear chemist". I was silent, but I knew I was in deep trouble, as I had only about one week of nuclear physics classes years earlier. Before I knew it, I was shipped off to New Mexico to work on high level radioactive waste issues. I was there only a short while before I handwrote a resume in my motel room to get an honest job. I got an offer pretty quick and got out of the world of lies in the private sector.
Good for you. I really hate when they do that. Sounds like the drums are being played by Mr. Fantastic.
It always amazed me that Louis Armstrong did a version of Sanders' The Creator Has A Master Plan - really a meeting of the old and the new:
NP Lee Morgan - Search For A New Land (Blue Note) Music Matters 45 RPM Pressing Might be my favorite album by Morgan.
As I’ve mentioned before, Jeff played with Jessica Williams when she lived in Oregon and they recorded many cds together. He is as solid as they come. Highly recommended. If you want to hear him in this environment I would pick Inventions by the Jessica Williams Trio on Jazz Focus. It is really well recorded. In fact I used to use it when I took it to shops to evaluate gear. The under appreciated Dick Berk is the drummer.
NP Pete La Roca - Basra (Blue Note) Music Matters 45 RPM Pressing I first heard this album at a guy’s house who had an excellent totally analog system. He had an original pressing and it sounded amazing in his house. At the time it was hard to find and when you did it was $150-200 for a decent sounding copy. I wasn’t willing to spend that amount of money as great as that albums was to my ears. I eventually found a Japanese cd which took care of the immediate need but I still wanted a vinyl copy. Then MM announced they were going to release it and I was over the moon. It was like Christmas if you were 6YO. It seemed to take forever. One day it finally arrived. I’m glad I didn’t spend $200 on a copy as I now have a great sounding copy I paid $50 for which seems fair. It is one of my all time favorite Bluenote albums by anybody. Joe Henderson plays his heart out.
Surprising that this album was not released after its recording (1969) until 2003... Andrew Hill--Passing Ships Hill (p); Woody Shaw, Dizzy Reece (t); Julian Priester (tb); Bob Northern (french horn); Howard Johnson (tuba, bass cl); Joe Farrell (ss, ts, alto fl, bass cl, english horn); Ron Carter (b); Lenny White (d) "Noon Tide," which reminds me of "Catta," the Hill composition from Bobby Hutcherson's Dialogue album...
A through line from "older" to "newer" in jazz history... Air--Air Lore (from the Mosaic set The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings Of Henry Threadgill & Air) Henry Threadgill (as, ts, fl); Fred Hopkins (b); Steve McCall (d, perc) Their version of Jelly Roll Morton's "Buddy Bolden's Blues":
German LP reissue listened to in the last days. To me, the best Return to Forever's work, though credited to Chick Corea. Excellent lineup that sees Flora Purim and Airto Moreira give a distinctive character to the sound of the album. Corea on Fender Rhodes is quite understated and plays with great flavor. Clarke showcases an already mature phrasing. Honorable mention for Joe Farrell simply delightful, mostly on flutes. An ECM title slightly influenced by CTI of the age (Deodato, Jobim).
Russia has good jazz scene. FANCYMUSIC and Rainy Days are Russian labels I follow on Bandcamp and their releases. Don't know how the name "Petrified Drops" was chosen for the band.
