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

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

I wasn't familiar with Gene Shaw (only three records as leader and three with Charles Mingus) but this pseudo Sketches of Spain meets bossa/exotica record is exactly what I'm into right now.

Arranger Richard Evans went on to helm The Soulful Strings.

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

Beverly's new to me, thanks! You might dig another recent discovery:

Carol Sloane, whose voice immediately grabbed via in her early 60s tracks, then gradually changed a bit with age, while continuing the same stylistic flight path, fast and slow, into a live set rec. 2019---she died this January, in her mid-80s---as heard in this doc from the ever-handy, frequently revelatory Afterglow:https://indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow/the-song-styling-of-carol-sloane.php

These guys! Not big eyes over the mic, just for you---na, they may be watching the clock, between shifts, fairly plain voices in several cases, but they know every note and what it's made of---in most cases, although I'm still not that into Chet Baker, and maybe a couple others, but mostly, this is pretty refreshing:

On this episode of Afterglow, I'm highlighting some jazz musicians who made their living playing horn, piano, or drums, but who could also sing when the occasion called for it. It's a look at jazz's part-time, unlikely singers, including trumpeter Chet Baker, drummer Buddy Rich, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Oscar Peterson, clarinetist Benny Goodman, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, guitarist Kenny Burrell, saxophonist Tex Beneke, clarinetist Woody Herman, and trumpeter Clark Terry.

Been going through a bunch of Adderley records after someone (sorry can't remember who) posted 'Electric Eel' from "You, Baby" in a recent thread.

Nat Adderley - You, Baby (CTI '68) - such a cool record. Just texturally it sounds very intimate, and his electronic cornet setup almost sounds like a breathy flute at times. Grady Tate's feel on these tracks is incredible, so laid back.

Nat Adderley - Calling Out Loud (CTI '69) - more conventional than You, Baby but still super solid and enjoyable. Idris Muhammed on drums. Joe Zawinul on Rhodes is a huge part of the appeal of all these records, I love hearing him in the Adderley zone.

Cannonball Adderley - The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free ('70) - has a very distinct time & place vibe, like all of the Adderley live records. Lots of astrology and sex talk in the banter, lol, but you can tell it's a hot crowd. Lots of guest appearances by Nat Adderley's playing guitar and singing in this intimate & soulful folk style, but it all works somehow.

Cannonball Adderley - In Person - I just can't get enough of the quintet with the Adderley Bros, Zawinul, and Roy McCurdy on drums and this is a great dose. Good banter about Zawinul.

Cannonball Adderley - Country Preacher - the banter and crowd are really evocative on this one too, it's possible he made the best live albums of all time? This one is full soul jazz/funk mode, maybe the closest in vibe to the Mercy, Mercy, Mercy record. Great tambourine and crowd handclaps. Roy McCurdy is super underrated, he kills it on all these records, in every style.

Looking forward to going through the '70s records when George Duke replaces Zawinul.

that would've been me!

he's also on sam jones's "the soul society" (1960), which i was listening to earlier this morning. fast becoming one of my very favorite jazz records. it definitely scratches a kind of funk / hard bop itch, but it's much more than that. sam jones killing all over the record on double bass and cello.

i love this so much. so funny. someone should teach a class on this paragraph.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/355117444_10161289158532137_5911693065179377795_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=TV69rAQPU5cAX9wLLEZ&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfD5OJlKj7fwN2IFPpzqg6mdZ0XP9stS8SbDPN98ESVdCQ&oe=6496A376

haha, that's a+ material

Our little Donald, he's part of the younger generation, you know.

this might be interesting to someone other than me. i made a playlist of 200 interviews with jazz musicians.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE1-7P1reTFjNq4XVFWjPJiymJ7--IBJP

Discovered this through one of the Richard Davis remembrances, apparently he said this David Young record was one of his favorite recordings that he had done (I wonder if it's because the bass is super present in the mix, lol). But it has Sonny Fortune, Harold Mabern, and Idris Muhammad on it. Sounds extremely '70s (recorded in '71).

https://david-young.bandcamp.com/album/david-young

Check out the sax solo on "Friday the Fourteenth" that keeps dipping back and forth between hard swinging and free moments, that's really something.

i see its on my discogs wantlist. probably for richard davis. though i like all those guys. my dad loves harold mabern. he used to take me to see harold and harold's boyhood pal george coleman a lot when i was a kid. my dad worships george coleman.

George Coleman is still going strong! Amazing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClJmhumJPNB/

thanks for the DY link. love this line from the bandcamp copy:

Despite his talent, he had one album he recorded as a lead which was released on mainstream Records.

ouch!

Obsessed with Jakob Bro's records with Lee Konitz...Balladeering (w/Bill Frisell and Paul Motian), Time (different bassist and no drums), and December Song (Craig Taborn on piano). Incredible autumn music.

Best jazz vocal I've heard in a while---lots of folks have the chops and spirit, but there's a world in here, for now:
Kate Kortum - Dreamsville

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

Jakob Bro is indeed fantastic, have had the pleasure of seeing him quite a few times, once with Lee Konitz!

his first three ECM albums also great

did you catch Music for Black Pigeons? wonderful footage

Pulling up Michael Brecker - Time Is Of the Essence this morning. I'm not a huge Brecker fan but this is sounding great...the drum chair is either Elvin (!), "Tain" Watts, or Bill Stewart and it's a good exercise in comparison (they all sound amazing). Larry Goldings on organ, no bass player.

And "good Metheny records" is a topic that's come up on a few threads recently, and this might be one of the best. His solo on "Half Past Late" is ridiculous.

I never really think about The Brecker Brothers as music for me, lumping them in with stuff like The Yellowjackets, but I heard this cut on the radio the other night that was beefy enough and had enough twists for me to take notice. Guitarist is great, Barry Finnerty, who I don't know but research shows me has played on a ton of records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUcPJ8Wop5o

Is 'Work Song' on Live in Tokyo widely accepted as the definitive version? If not, it should be, killer band and much better than the studio version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q88M5gwgGPI

can't listen now but will listen later. such a great lineup. i've been so high on nat adderley records for awhile now. he made so much good stuff and i kinda didn't pay attention to them. better late than never. cannonball rules so hard. what a mind.

That's a great album. I just got two live Cannonball albums that will be coming out on Record Store Day — one is from 1969, with almost that same lineup, and the other is from 1972, when George Duke was in the band.

Forgot to mention that I heard the Tokyo recording on some cd comp I had in high school (maybe a Rhino Records thing? I remember a yellow cover). I've never had the full set but it was a great cd-era discovery.

Would love to hear those RSD records.

you can read every issue of nat hentoff's jazz review here. i know i did. i like that he had artists write reviews. one of these days i will find a complete run in real life. i could buy them one at a time when they pop up on ebay but i always forget about ebay.

https://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/content/jazz-review

Wow, thank you, that's fascinating. The first one I clicked on (Feb '59) has a pre-Coltrane article about Elvin Jones, written by a European sax was playing with him in J.J. Johnson's group, that's comes very close to speculatively describing the invention of the Coltrane Quartet. Or rather, it correctly recognizes everything Elvin is already doing (the power, flowing across the bar lines without giving the soloist easy signposts) but that eventually he'll probably have to simplify his style.

"...I have often had the same trouble with Elvin...the tension would build to a point where I had trouble finishing my choruses, and I would begin trembling with internal excitement, but completely unable to tell where we were any longer...that is obviously a situation to be avoided."

...until you find a group other musicians who always know where 1 is and can maintain the tension indefinitely. Now I wanna listen to a bunch of early Elvin.

oh wow the very first issue has the (in)famous Gunther Schuller article about Sonny Rollins.

The reviews are hilarious too:

Relaxin' (with the Miles Davis Quintet) and Musings neither disappoint nor do they set the world on fire. Both call for no excess wordage on the part of a reviewer; they should be enjoyed and not analytically picked apart. I enjoyed them. —Mimi Clar

His (Coltrane's) solo on Giant Steps particularly shows a rhythmic stiffness and melodic tameness. He does not construct any real line with the arpeggios.

--H.A. Woodfin

I didn't know this album -- These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly. It's sick, Richard Davis is going hard (and really keeping tracks like Goodnight Irene from being too straight), the late Tootie Heath on drums & tambourine, Cedar Walton, and amazing vocals by Sandra Douglas on a couple tracks.

Damn, this version of Black Girl (aka Where Did You Sleep Last Night)

Way better than the title suggests, great album