Viva Vic Feldman! The Worker's vibraharpist and Soviet Hero!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Another excellent Vic Feldman date is the
'Soviet Jazz Themes' album he recorded in 1962 for the short-lived Ava label. It featured Carmell Jones,
Harold Land, Joe Zawinul, Frank Butler, etc..."

'Soviet jazz themes' eh! Wotz notzo to likeski. Just discovered this little red gem on Youtube and it is really very good! Well, with Carmell, Harold and Frank Butler we are in hard West Coast Supreme Soviet.

Don't believe me revisionists? Check out the track "Victor" on Utube and kick the snow off your boots, you imperialista ECM headnodders.

Too late to request for a May Day JRR? Maybe next year. Lenin and Lev D would have been so proud of "ze boys".

BN.;


added by host:

Any suggestion that Vic and the Comrades made this hard bop gem purely to cash in on Benny Goodman's etc. trip to Moscow and you'll be on ze slow train to Sibera N.

[Ian Thumwood]

The Goodman strip to Moscow was the one where the clarinettist commissioned arrangements by Tadd Dameron and Gil Evans although I believe the latter were never performed as Goodman felt they would alienate his following.

I wasn't aware of this 1962 disc ( an early example of a concept album) but I have been listening to VF with Miles on "Seven Steps" a lot of late and think that his piano playing nicely took up the baton from Bill Evans. This album is always seen as transitional and therefore someone inferior but I think that it is easily one of the best albums Davis made. His ballad playing on this is exceptional and the best he put down on record. VF's comping behind contributes a lot to the success of the disc. Miles was pushing forward with both the East and West coast groups on this disc but the only retrospective element is actually the drumming of Frank Butler, as good as he is on a West Coast context. With Miles the laid-back approach doesn't work quite as well in comparison with PJJ and obviously Tony Williams. VF seems more modern than I would have anticipated on this disc - Butler, if I am honest, is behind the curve.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

we'll have none of that sovspeak we is chapel revisionist scum 'ere El Senor

a little known outing for Scott LaFaro

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

we'll have none of that sovspeak we is chapel revisionist scum 'ere El Senor

a little known outing for Scott LaFaro

Against all the odds Vic's "Soviet" album really works. About 'Soviet' as Central Avenue, and like The Harold Land/Carmell Jones quintet "Plays Folk Tunes", dumps any outside influence at the first chance of boppery.

On the other hand Johnny Griffin's " The Kerry Dancers" on Riverside fully respects the material and is bloody gorgeous. Griff plus Barry Harris, Ron Carter and Ben Riley. Majestic date.

BN.

Apart from Comrade Feldman, my other discovery today (late I know) was Sidney Bechet's wonderful "Saturday Night Blues" on Bluenote with Teddy Bunn on guitar. One for the desert island. Traditional maybe but not a banjo in crushing distance. It can be done Comrades.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yesterday i saw a Tee Shirt with the motto

"Paddle faster! I hear banjos!"

i would have bought it but they wanted to charge £16-99p .... any way it reminded me of yer ducks El Senor!

btw it was grey not red [bourgeois grey/yellow with an arcane meedja studs reference to Deliverance eh]

bot i recall Mr Feldman playing vibes/piano down the old place when we wuz ladz ... Tubbz too!

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

yesterday i saw a Tee Shirt with the motto

"Paddle faster! I hear banjos!"

i would have bought it but they wanted to charge £16-99p .... any way it reminded me of yer ducks El Senor!

btw it was grey not red [bourgeois grey/yellow with an arcane meedja studs reference to Deliverance eh]

bot i recall Mr Feldman playing vibes/piano down the old place when we wuz ladz ... Tubbz too!

Vic Feldman's 50s stuff with Dizzy Reece etc is great. I think fueled by drums et crates of Watneys and IPA, hence people changing/ missing/"emotional" on the line-up. Who else would call a recording date on the 1st Jan cept Les Brits?

Lovely stuff and Tubbs on baritone AND sounding very good.

Salute Le Old Vic!


BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

The Dizzy Reece material is issued on one of those bargain basement multi-Cd pack but the original Blue Notes are going for ridiculous money.

It is weird hearing Scott La Faro in a more mainstream session. I suppose that this may be an early recording as he sounds nothing like an recall from the BE trio records. Feldman's piano playing is impressive but the bass and drums sound a bit like an Aebersold play-a-long on that track.

The Bechet Blue Notes are terrific. Alfred Lions made a massive error when he decided to concentrate on modern jazz in the early fifties and I wish he had lavished the same care and attention with some of the older players. I find Bechet to be an enigma as there seems to be so little with him on amongst the jazz records of the 1920s as he was often playing in Europe and got as far as Russia. It is satisfying that Lions managed to nail him down to produce what many would feel to be his best work. It is strange why Lions seemed to have jettisoned Bechet.