Jazz in May

[french frank]

Mixed bag?

Apols if this is in another thread.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"The BBC soon
moved on from Lord Reith’s
proclamation that jazz was “a filthy
product of modernity”

Well,maybe! Never saw him down the Flamingo All Nighters...


Looks interesting.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep two days in May doin the jazz watusi on R4/BBC4 eh ...

El Senor you was a pill poppin beat nik ... can i borrow yer beret & bogos?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I have claimed for conga drums and dexedrine on my expenses.....but it was all within the then Flamingo house rules...

I refuse to resign.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yeh but what do the HMRC say? ........ capital gains on the dex huh?


El Senor only El Fidel is allowed to refuse to resign .... all others are shot, poisoned or beaten about the skull - take your pick .....

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

NP...Albert Collins...."Ice Picking"

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

get yer trepannic nut around these marbles then ...

[Serial_Apologist]

get yer trepannic nut around these marbles then ...

Skulldiggery!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Easter listening..."No room for headbangers"

Wilbur Harden/John Coltrane: ""The Savoy Sessions"

Forgotten just how good these were. Harden was a much maligned player...far more than just a Miles clone. Great little band.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

When I was small and starting to get in to jazz, John Kirby's sextet was a group that was held in high regard by my peers. I originally started by listening to jazz from 30's / 40's and I was eager to explore some of the more obscure, black groups which I quickly worked out were generally superior to the white counterparts. For some reason recordings by Kirby were hard to track down in the 1980's and I never managed to find a record by this band. When I eventually heard them they seemed impressive to begin with yet they never seemed to be anywhere as near as good as I had imagined. In some respects they were like the polite, middle class relations of the more rowdy Savoy Sultans in that they were a small group that almost functioned like a little big band in the way that they relied on riffs. Several years later I read Gunther Schuller's withering account of Kirby's band and I must admit that his opinion coloured my perception.

Schuller is an authority on the technical aspects of music but I find his conclusions about the merits of particular bands to be inconsistent and I don't think he is always correct in his assessments. However, his condemnation of the Kirby band as a group assembled to please tourists to NYC as opposed to producing genuine jazz is interesting as I think the band does seem a bit too prim and proper. I love musicians like Shavers and Procope and Kyle's Hines-influenced piano is nice to listen to. In this group though, I feel the music is trying to be too clever and, listening to other small groups from this era whether we are talking about Ellington's, Hampton's or Goodman's or indeed something like the Kansas City Seven with Lester Young, Kirby's group seems dated and removed from where the main thrust of jazz was at that time. They almost sound a bit twee and prim and proper. Still can't help being disappointed by their recordings and can see parallels with some of today's groups which exchange a degree of superficial slickness for genuine depth. I think that if this board was around in the 1930's then Kirby's band would be one that would perhaps be singled out for criticism.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Ian I suggest you re-read the chapter in my New History for an account completely at odds with Schuller, and suggesting that Kirby was the prototype for the bebop small group of the 40s. You need to listen to the airshots of the band with Dizzy on trumpet, depping for Shavers, recorded at the Aquarium in NY to trace the full evolution...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... a suggestion of merit to us all Alyn ....

bass players of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your prints ....

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

... a suggestion of merit to us all Alyn ....

bass players of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your prints ....

Doug Watkins....lovely deep "dragging" bass on the Trane/Wilbur tracks...

Wilbur played a Kuhlohorn...not many people know that.

"The Kuhlohorn (also Kuhlo-
Flügelhorn) is a thin Flügelhorn
(musical instrument), traditionally
in B flat. This is a specially
designed brass wind-instrument
played using a deep bowled
mouth piece. Chief characteristics
are its oval design and integrated,
usually conical tubing."

BN.

And he didn't claim it on expenses.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

and he didn't swig champagne from it whilst shagging a spad ....



this is what is exciting El Senor Blues