As I said: There's another section of the Forums dedicated to that stuff: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/forums/off-topic-general-discussions.7/
NP McCoy Tyner - Inception (Impulse) 1997 cd Can’t sleep so I got up and decided some music might work although this is a pretty lively set. At this point I don’t really care.
I've been listening to Focal Point by McCoy Tyner a fair bit. A great set with the wonderful Eric Gravatt on drums. I really wish his (Gravatt's) discography was more dense.
Gravatt’s work with Lloyd Neil is excellent. It was Weather Report that brought my attention to him back in the 70s.
NP Walt Dickerson - Divine Gemini (SteepleChase) I used to go to sleep to this disc back in my working days. Maybe it will work its magic again.
ART PEPPER | LIVE IN THE USA (Storyville) 2CD CD 1: ART PEPPER - alto sax / TOMMY GUMINA - poly chord / FRED ATWOOD - bass / JIMMIE SMITH - drums Recorded live at Foothill College, Los Altos, California, February 14, 1975. CD 2: ART PEPPER - alto sax / SMITH DOBSON - piano / JIM NICHOLS - bass / BRAD BILHORN - drums Recorded live at Bach Dynamite & Dancing Society, Half Moon Bay, January 23, 1977. * I ordered a copy of Art Pepper Live In Japan last year but when the package arrived I discovered it contained Art Pepper Live In The USA instead - packaged inside an Art Pepper Live In Japan sleeve. The CDs also had Art Pepper Live In Japan printed on both discs.
Any particular albums you would recommend? I've never heard any Lloyd McNeil stuff. Edit - I've found the two albums the quartet made so looking forward to checking them out, thanks.
"Black Nationalism in Jazz: The Forerunners Resist Establishment Repression, 1958-1963" by Frank Kofsky Journal of Ethnic Studies, v10 n2 p1-27 Sum 1982 Recounts efforts of four Black jazz musicians (Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Abbey Lincoln) to take and hold positions on the political and social role of Black people and Black artists that went beyond what was politically acceptable to the jazz Establishment and "Down Beat" magazine. Describes attempts to discredit these artists. I had saved a series of Down Beat magazines (all about jazz) from the late 1950's and early 1960's, where the principal writers for the magazine stated in articles and reviews that "Black Nationalism has absolutely no place in jazz." In the mid 1970's, perhaps in reaction to various social movements and an attempt to try to retain readership, Down Beat published a retraction and apology, and revised the ratings it had given albums by the artists from one star to five stars. Those issues are buried in a box somewhere. I never heard Sonny say it, but I wouldn't be surprised if those efforts to discredit him were part of the reason he left the jazz scene for a number of years. I had not seen the original cover art in this way earlier, but the artist may have been trying to depict the vertical bars as prison bars and Sonny as a prisoner: The essay itself on the back cover and statement by Sonny was perhaps controversial enough that the pressings and distribution of this album were fairly limited. Sonny's statement (in the box) was explosive. After Riverside Records closure, due to the discovery of fixed financial books, ABC Records bought the label. In the height of the Civil Rights unrest in the USA (1968), ABC reissued the album with a new cover. The original liner notes were replaced in 1968 by new liner notes written by Frank Kofsky, the author of the journal article from 1982 that I cited at the beginning of this post.
Giving these two records a spin. Both of these Dolphy albums seemed appropriate for the coming Halloween weekend.
Do you have this one: Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington - The Great Summit Complete Sessions (Roulette). Great session.
Eric Gravatt appearances: Eric Gravatt I have a copy of that double LP on Andrew's Music from the 70's. Andrew White is a legendary saxophonist who played bass on the Sweetnighter album. Gravatt is also great on that Eddie Henderson album Inside Out. My understanding is that he left music to work in the prison system somewhere in the midwest for years and returned to playing music a couple of years ago.
Eric Kamau Gravatt worked for 20 years as a prison guard. "My career started with a telephone call. McCoy called me to play," Gravatt said. "My career stopped just as easily when the telephone didn't ring anymore." Gravatt's tale is symbolic of many musicians who aren't financially rewarded for their outstanding talent. The result: a day job. As Gravatt recalls, he failed to fly to New York for a performance with Tyner in 1976 because of what he says was a misunderstanding about a missing plane ticket at an airport. The ticket was under a wrong name, but he thought it wasn't there. Tyner didn't exactly struggle to find a replacement. "He was in New York. There were plenty of drummers he could call" To support his wife and two children, he worked for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, where he was promoted to lieutenant. He retired in 2001. Tyner rehired him as his drummer in 2004. (Cut from the www)
For Gravatt’s drumming I would say Washington Suite for sure. Sweetnighter is my favorite WR album these days. Eric is great on that one.
As I have mentioned before, I am friends with cover designer Paul Bacon's niece Gina, who lives here in Nashville. If her uncle were still living (he died in 2015) I could probably get her to ask him about the thought behind the design, but I'm pretty sure you are correct in comparing the vertical pattern to prison bars. Paul Bacon became a fan of "hot jazz" while in high school in the 30s. He wrote reviews for The Record Changer, a magazine edited by Bill Grauer & Orrin Keepnews, who started Riverside Records & used Bacon to design many of their album covers. He also played the comb & sang in various "hot music" combos for many years. Gina Bacon has continued the family interest in music by DJing on two shows on WFMU radio.
