scott's occasional swinging old jazz thread (moldy figs to 1980)

often think about the Purdie anecdote (as retold by Donald Fagen in the Aja doc) that when Bernard was hired for a session he would put up a sign on each side of his drum set, one reading “You done it" and the other reading: “You done hired the hit-maker, Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie”

I love those early 60s organ-drums-guitar records. This Jack McDuff set is about as classic as it gets for that sort of thing. Wasn't Purdie the one who claimed to have played (uncredited) on some early Beatles stuff?

Do you guys like Ahmed Abdul-Malik? He was Monk's bassist for a bit, but on his sessions as a leader, he played oud and went off into some really unique eastern textures. Still retains a strong jazz foundation, but check his rendition of "Summertime" from 1963 for a good example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebru71tMvzw

The earlier ones almost recall similar vibes to some of the Ethiopiques stuff. Very highly recommended.

"Captain" Jack spent his final years in my city, Minneapolis, and used to play clubs here regularly. I saw him a number of times, but wish I would have gone to many more.

Yes it was Purdie who made those (afaik unsubstantiated) claims.

I recently bought a cheapo set of (all?) four of Ahmed Abdul-Malik's albums. Good stuff.

I remember seeing Jack McDuff at a Milwaukee jazz festival many years ago, it was great. I think it was on the same bill as Kevin Eubanks, where he freaked out all the Tonight Show fans by only playing crazy M-base fusion?

I totally believe that Purdie played on Beatles sessions btw, but who's to say if they ended up using those tracks on the final records or not.

Purdie’s drums were overdubbed onto some pre-Ringo Hamburg-era Beatles recordings that Atco pushed out as a cash-in in 1964:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_She_Sweet_(album)#/media/File%3ABeatlesatco.jpg

That’s not remotely close to Purdie’s claims though.

absolutely cannot believe i'm linking this place BUT, here's an okay and very vintage pedantic steve hoff thread about it. they've got the most details over there, i'm told.

This is a pretty good dissection: http://www.jimvallance.com/03-projects-folder/purdie-project-folder/pg-purdie.html

Weinberg: Everyone knows the Monkees were a fabricated band, but The Beatles?

Purdie: Ringo never played on anything.

Weinberg: Ringo never played on anything?

Purdie: Not the early Beatles stuff.

lol

but anyway, ahmed abdul-malik is rad. here's one of his oud jams:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IluGjySRBs0

"farah' alaiyna" (1958)

the rest of the album has johnny griffin on tenor.

or if that's not your flavor, you can get down with some slick 70s yusef lateef.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmRKJo4XLaU

"mystique" (1976)

the band holy smokes. whole album is excellent. unexpected turn into straight up phasered out synth funk. very solid.

I've been liking this one a lot lately, a compilation of Willis Jackson cuts from his early 60s albums Bossa Nova Plus, Neapolitan Nights, and a few other stray tracks. Stellar backing cast, as you can see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSeKMwdQ_bc

Excellent, Dan! He's a player whose records I've seen around a lot but have never checked out — that one's piqued me! Also I'm convinced that Roy Haynes played on every non-Blue Note session from about 1958 until 64 or 65. Geez, that guy was everywhere!

I'm jamming a soul jazz classic this Sunday morning. This cover photo has got to be one of my alltime favs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUIIzQ4P9Yk

Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones — "Right On!" (1970)

Here's one I heard for the first time a few Saturday nights ago, after American Routes' replay of their excellent Freddie Hubbard interview x music:
Lou Donaldson, "Blues Walk"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liy9tw03p1I

Which reminded me of the Night Lights interview x music with Bob Porter, re his book Soul Jazz, which unperson says is not all it could be, but still a valuable resource for learning more about music that hasn't gotten much fair (if any) comment from critics. They play a lot of good selections that he talks about here and in the book: https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/bob-porters-portraits-soul-jazz.php
(Night Lights could be catnip for you, Austin! I've learned sooo much from their fun music docs, which are mostly music.)

And here's the American Routes Freddie Hubbard segment, at the beginning of Hour 2---whole show is well worth hearing: American Routes indeed!
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1278/Sounds-of-Freedom-Fontella-Bass-and-Freddie-Hubbard

Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones — "Right On!"

This is very nice. The great Bernard Purdie (well known to Steely Dan fans) on drums!

(Night Lights could be catnip for you, Austin! I've learned sooo much from their fun music docs, which are mostly music.)

Noted and appreciated! Into the bookmarks it goes — thank you!

~UNLESS I AM BAD AT USING THE SEARCH FUNCTION, AM I TO UNDERSTAND THERE IS NO CANNONBALL ADDERLEY TOPIC?~

anyway, music contains wormholes. or rather: it contains the concept of how wormholes work.

(or maybe some of it actually *does* and we haven't decoded it yet - i mean "as slow as possible" exists and who knows wtf stockhausen and coltrane were actually doing sometimes? it's a group effort is all i'm saying.)

anyway. phenix from 1975 by cannonball adderley is one of his best, even though it hardly gets mentioned. pretty much his final statement, as he was gone less than a year later. basically cannonball plays the hits, except it's all mid-70s studio funk'd out. has that very distinct FANTASY RECORDS 1975™ sound, so you get the feeling that he really was trying to make these the definitive recordings of the songs in some cases. and it sounds fantastic. i've listened to the drumbreak on "domination" on loop so many times and for so long that i know there's a part where you can hear cannonball off mic coaching roy mcurdy on how exactly he wants his funk shuffled. of course, some of the electronics sound 'wacky' or maybe a little too vintage in moments, but it's not like any disrespect was present. intentions feel genuine and good here. he made extremely happy music and it's one of the best examples of that.

it's been pretty frequently reissued and available on most formats for a long time. i bought a used vinyl copy mail order for around $20 (probably from dusty groove) in 2002 because i couldn't find one around where i lived and i had not the gas money nor the courage for such lengthy road trips. it was snowing when the mailman tried to deliver it and i was supposed to fly out the next day to meet a person whom i had never met before. i was extremely nervous and pacing in a dark room, figuring how did i get myself into this and how was i going to get myself out. i guess the mailman had attempted during this time. my pattern must have been disturbed by something, because when i went to see what was going on out the window, there was one of those "missed delivery" things on the box.

fuck. my album.

went and stood out in the biggest fucking april downpour snowstorm i've ever seen i mean honestly how is this even happening and met the mailman as he was going up the opposite side of the street. immediately ran inside and threw it on the turntable super loud. all really good versions, like i said. always a ton of soul in his playing and he's really chewing the scenery here in the best way. whole band changes throughout, but it's mostly all the guys who played on the original recordings, so you know the deal: very solid (only person they didn't get was joe zawinul; other obligations at the time iirc). it calmed me down, so i started to realize i'm still here, and made an attempt at packing my bags.

then the last track came on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLT6SkZ2TE8

("walk talk/mercy mercy mercy")

both acknowledged classics in their own right, but when medley'd together like this, something else ignites. it's that real tight, real big funk sound that he helped create, but rolled into all of the high fidelity mojo that fantasy studios at the time allowed for. it was already my favorite track on the album the moment the refrain hit, but then the second section began and it threw me off — we're slowin it down???

it was shortly after that moment, friends, that i can safely say i entered a wormhole. that moment hit me so hard that it felt like something had flashed inside my brain — like a different area had just been newly accessed. i kept it to myself. i had no clue that's where the sample was from and when i finally submitted that to whosampled around 7 years ago, it easily earned the tag _Sample Discovered More Than 10 Years Later_

which is still just wild to me. it's not even a rare album. whatever, the trip went great, i made a lifelong friend, it's one of my favorite records of all time. highly recommended, especially if you like wah wah sounds in your soulful funky jazz.

wow. fantastic post thank you Austin

yeah wonderful, what a jam

Yeah, I need to check out more of him---the only album I have is

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTIb4fKCEAevQGcDKFIXdimOXsMK4uVNv

and that one because Miles, but I do still hear CA tracks on local station, and this recently surfaced

Flora Purim bootleg @ Terminal Island 1975, which “Purim persuaded the prison authorities to let her stage.” Feat. Airto, Cannonball Adderley, George Duke, Miroslaw Vitous, Raoul de Souza, & Ndugu Chanclerhttps://t.co/Ur2xHc41CG

— jeff (@jazyjef) July 12, 2022

what the hell, youtube---anyway it's all of Somethin' Else:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTIb4fKCEAevQGcDKFIXdimOXsMK4uVNv

somethin' else is a very classic album. one of those records that always sounds good.

diggin on mary osborne this afternoon—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t6SJBV0Gzs

"you're gonna get my letter in the morning" (1947)

a girl and her guitar is the rare yawnsomely literal title/art that is also undeniably cool.

Ha ha, thanks! She's one of the many artists I first heard on xpost Night Lights---here's their doc: https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/mary-osborne-queen-jazz-guitar.php Last time I checked, there didn't seem to be many reissues.

oh tyvm for that! there's only a girl and her guitar on spotify, but it seems to be the reissue from a few years ago as it's 25 tracks and over an hour in length.

—(kind of frustrating the lack of info on provenance of stuff on spotify)—

always going back to gary burton (someone else who does not have their own topic) in some way or another and this time it's because i'm wanting to hear solo vibraphone. his 1971 album of solo performances is quite lovely and highly recommended if you like magical glassy tones.

trying to search out more albums of solo vibraphone, i discovered one jay hoggard, who has not only been around since the 70s, but who also has several albums of just exactly what i was looking for — and they're wonderful. very mellow stuff, though not strictly ballads. soothing as heck.

also post script— though not strictly solo vibes, side one of bobby hutcherson's 1982 album solo/quartet is highly recommended for all appreciators and enjoyers of music. have posted this one elsewhere, but it's such a quality jam i'm gonna put it here too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAJqCPDVePU

bobby hutcherson — "gotcha" (1982)

you would probably like the bill lewis / kham jamal LP "the river" if you haven't heard it already

i have not, tyvm for the word!

also not much to say about it, but solo harp is where it's at. dorothy ashby did a couple of japan-only solo albums in the 80s. they're on youtube-

concierto de aranjuez from 83 and django/misty from the following year. kinda sorta music of the gods.

yesss that jay hoggard solo vibraphone album is wonderful.

Austin you know Walt Dickerson, right? He completely rules

i like the few things i've heard, but he's a guy i admittedly have neglected. that said, his album with sun ra is fun.

Oh speaking of Randy Weston, and his club:

Tangier, 1972, by Mary Jo Schwalbach. My parents spent about a month in Morocco the year before I was born, spending a lot of time at Randy Weston’s club. Morocco is where my dad was given his hand of Fatima medallion, which he wore every day for over 40 years. pic.twitter.com/siNM6HRIHX

— Fitz Gitler (@techdef) August 13, 2022

late night selections from john klemmer this evening as i revisit magic and movement from 1974. haven't heard it in about a decade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x_OTDytDoM

all about the vibes with klemmer and this one's got a really funky sexual one — is that a peak into another universe on his pelvis there? oh my. and yeah, up front: could do without the grunty vocalisms where they show up. but they're low(-ish) in the mix and the band(s) completely smokes. \ED NOTE: eddie marshall of interest\ it's got some goofy wildness — because hey man, did you hear what i said?! basically two bands split between the sides of the album, did anyone ever really consider john klemmer cool? i never have and i really like him. same kinda thing with like gerry mulligan or mike oldfield — just never seemed that cool, but could play. anyway, the effects are out in force here, so if you like vintage echo units, phasers, and wahs combining over shufflely post-grooves to suggest 70s whiteboy coltrane, it's hard to beat. at times he was still kind of skronky and ... uhm, weird and boppy. definitely one of his best. still really like solo echoplex sax stuff. he plays these arpeggios — man! no idea the technical aspects of what he's actually doing there, but some of it really colors his music with that unique dreamy vibe. no idea who this music was for in 1974, but because of the upright jazzy echoplex vibe, my mind immediately went to whatever john martyn was doing around the time — and his two previous were solid air and inside out in 73, so yeah. martyn much more blues-oriented, klemmer much more jazz but a lot of cross-polynation i'd say. "RIYL"

ps— i first heard it after going through all of his later (much cheesier*) material. i wanted to know more about his "wild period", but finding the impulse stuff in the shops was not very common round my way so it was genuine anticipation for the package from ebay. and this was back in the pre-paypal days so i had to send a money order for the fucking thing. it's really good and i would also recommend waterfalls from 1972 if you like it. a lot of the same band shows up and it has a very similar overall vibe. probably my two favorite klemmer albums and some seriously good "weird overly serious hippie guy" music. check out utopia, man (seriously tho — easy to make fun of, but wilton holding down a very solid groove).

thanks for reading,
your neighborhood john klemmer fan👋

*holy shit i can't believe this is a true statement

if there's one thing i've learned from all the hours i've spent listening to david axelrod, it's this: vibes always sound good. always. so for some sunday soul jazz, i'm revisiting the great johnny lytle. a peer of players like milt jackson and bobby hutcherson, he never really broke out past the middle tier of notoriety during his life and passed away in the mid 90s after slowing down significantly in the early 80s. he was able to keep working until the end and he did show up for some pretty significant sample fodder in the early 90s, which is how i first learned about him. on the west coast, copies of his albums have just never been that easy to come by and reissues have always been scarce, even now. which is just too bad, because his 1973 album people & love is about as warm and consoling as it can get for a soul jazz fan: early 70s, milestone/orrin keepnews scene, harp, rhodes, vibes ... all of it, just simmering for you. it's funked out at times, but always staying soulful and always staying focused on the mood. can't quite call it smooth jazz, but it's definitely mellow. check out "family" — another famous sample source and my album highlight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4U9qxqrrck

it's been reissued as part of a 2fer along with the previous year's soulful rebel, which is much wilder and definitely closer to the funky soul bop that blue note was doing at the time. shuffle beats as big as the horn and organ charts and and ron carter laying down a thick foundation; you know the deal. check out the title track for a representative groove. recommended all around.

(also people & love closes with an epic rendition of "people make the world go round." great and worth sticking around for — but can you believe that wasn't the only extended reimagining by a jazz vibist that year?)

this sounds great

i know this is the Milt Jackson S/D thread, but if you like the song "family" posted above, throw on "enchanted lady" right after:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfHAsV1jA78

milt jackson with the ray brown big band — "enchanted lady" (1969)

is=isn't

Have you all heard Funky Skull by Melvin Jackson from 1969? He plays his bass through a bunch of effects and gets some very Arthur Russell-esque sounds over some serious business backbeats by Billy Hart. Pete Cosey's on it, there's a choir of wordless chants showing up occasionally; it just rules excessively. Definite testament to the awesomeness of the Chicago music scene of the time. Here's the cover; perhaps you can surmise what it sounds like just based on this?

https://i.imgur.com/VZ4eUFp.jpg

(Is that an OG Echoplex?!?! Rad.)

If that's not enough, here's "Bold and Black"—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHv3GjTPwlE

Very highly recommended.

Yeah, I remember hearing that record about 15 years ago when Dusty Groove reissued it on CD. Good stuff.

Hadn't heard of that, thanks! A fair amount of Burton content on the main ECM thread, and do you know his pre-ECM albums? The first was in '61; the earliest I've heard is from several years later:Tennessee Firebird. where he and Steve Marcus and Roy Haynes play with Nashville cats, some of whom were recently involved in Blonde on Blonde, and this includes "Just Like A Woman" and "I Want You," though most of the starting points are country chestnuts. Then there are the albums by his first (?) Quartet, with Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow, and Bob Moses: not jazz-rock per se, but you can tell that they know rock and country and folk as part of their roots and ongoing listening. Barefoot and a tad shroomy at times, with a Spanish-tinged excursion through Ellington's "Warm Valley." Later he jumps to A Genuine Tong Funeral, written for him by Carla Bley.

nothing to ramble about this morning, just wanted to give a shoutout to that one guy who shows up on about 80% of live albums quietly going, "yeah!" at the end of a song in that split second right after the band stops but before the rest of the audience starts applauding. you're my kind of people, man. keep living your best life.

Listening to Leo Wright's 'Soul Talk' today and it's sick. I was looking for non-Monk records with Frankie Dunlop, and it's an organ quartet with sax, Gloria Coleman on organ, Dunlop, and Kenny Burrell.

nice. frankie is so underrated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJvaGpU5gZY

forgot he played on mingus's "tijuana moods". also seeing he was on an early joe zawinul date from '61. plenty to look into! any other favs so far?

i don't know much of frankie dunlop outside of those higher profile sideman gigs - thanks for the word!

as for me, i'm on my friday night smooth bullschitt again and i have to send this one with a special dedication to the good people of ilx. ya'll may have saved my life this year with all of your healthy distractions, cleverness, and just plain old good vibes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lK6457F1iQ

ronnie laws - "friends + strangers" (1977)

bonus track for my acid jazzers-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-LWEgv-0U

ronnie laws - "friends + strangers (the l.g. experience remix)" (1996)

if you've never heard the whole album that's from, i highly recommend it. lots of heavy hitters dipping into some blue note (+capitol) classics, including an early appearance from a "j. yancey" ummah production.

the happiest of new year's to all of you. let's do it again soon, yeah?

Happy New Year, moldy figs!

Patti Bown is a new name to me. I discovered her album Plays Big Piano when I took note of the keys on a Gene Ammons record and did some digging. I'm not normally a big fan of piano trio records, but this one is really swingin', kind of gospelly in places, and reminds me a bit of Bobby Timmons (another fave.) Nice production job too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSzqhXJb-dA

I stumbled upon Beverly Kinney, fell down a youtube rabbit hole, and fell in love. I saw her voice described as being between Blossom Dearie and Marilyn Monroe, and that's pretty accurate. She's quite young sounding (she was only 28 when she took her own life in 1960) and her approach is intimate and not at all showy. Her version of "A Lovely Day" was used in a car commercial a few years back, and although I didn't know who she was at the time it caught my attention. I'm currently three albums into her discography and they're all excellent, ranging from a guitar-led combo to more orchestrated 50s pop.

scott's occasional swinging old jazz thread (moldy figs to 1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLzC6z5bL-g

Misspelled her name AND messed up the link. More coffee needed...

Really nice overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2cAIUhbE8