JRR 18 April 2015

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Alyn Shipton plays listeners' requests
including music by George Melly with Mick
Mulligan's Jazz Band and Soprano Summit,
featuring Kenny Davern and Bob Wilber. This
week's relaxed mainstream selection
features the Vic Dickenson"


If that's a tad sleepy for all you pill poppers and wired Gerradistas, he will also be playing the opening track from Stanley Turrentine' first bluesy Blue note album, "Look Out" avec the 'Orace Parlan trio. And Sonny Redd (a Dave Taylor request?) and George Arvanitas.

So button up and button down.

BN.


Stan Turrentine cut one of the first versions of a track from Giant Steps, Syeedas Song Flute' and very good it is too. "ATs Delig'ht" on Bluenote. A good album to buy on Jazz Record Shop Day and support your poco local economy.

[Andrew Slater]

I see the listing has been posted in Mr. Shipton's blog.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I see the listing has been posted in Mr. Shipton's blog.

Yes, all there. I was just advance listing.

Vic Dickenson track really nice despite my er, leanings.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

Nice to hear Shad Collins in that line up as well.

The Turrentine track was a good as I had expected and the Wigan Jazz Orchestra a total surprise.

I was intrigued by the Sonny Red track as he was a name that came up quite frequently in the Jimmy Heath book that I had recently read. The record was pleasant enough and the alto player sounded like how you would imagine a West Coast player to have sounded on a Blue Note record. Red seemed to be far more active that his appearance on record would have indicated and the calibre of musicians cropping up on his own records must surely be testament to the respect with which they held him. I liked the record that was requested even though it was very different from the impression I had built up in my mind as to what he might have sounded like. In my opinion I think hearing unusual stuff is what makes JRR interesting and the better programmes are always those where you are introduced to unfamiliar artists.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Nice to hear Shad Collins in that line up as well.

The Turrentine track was a good as I had expected and the Wigan Jazz Orchestra a total surprise.

I was intrigued by the Sonny Red track as he was a name that came up quite frequently in the Jimmy Heath book that I had recently read. The record was pleasant enough and the alto player sounded like how you would imagine a West Coast player to have sounded on a Blue Note record. Red seemed to be far more active that his appearance on record would have indicated and the calibre of musicians cropping up on his own records must surely be testament to the respect with which they held him. I liked the record that was requested even though it was very different from the impression I had built up in my mind as to what he might have sounded like. In my opinion I think hearing unusual stuff is what makes JRR interesting and the better programmes are always those where you are introduced to unfamiliar artists.

His Bluenote and Riverside albums are more blues based but he still has that kind of sweetish tone. His stuff with Donald Byrd's last working "jazz" group in the mid 60s is the best I've heard him. He also worked with Kenny Dorham - there's a 60s bootleg album from the Five Spot. Like Frank Strozier (who I much prefer) he never seemed to break through.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

Bluesnik

I would strongly recommend the Heath book as it is an interesting insight in the jazz scene through the late fifties and in to the eighties. The stuff after this date really demonstrates the acceptance of jazz and the changing role of the music as the establishment woke up to both the heritage and potential. The problem with talking about "breakthrough" records is that the stuff that got recorded was not always reflective of the wider picture. There were numerous players whose profile was higher amongst musicians as opposed to record collectors and Sonny Red seems to have been a good example. I think Heath mentioned Red's involvement in jazz workshops and there is a lot of information about one organisation (forget the name) where a host of unlikely names became involved in one particular workshop. This included the likes of Frank Foster as well as musicians from a more "progressive" persuasion. It is quite a revelatory book as Heath is hugely critical of "Coltrane's angry brood" whilst at the same time being quite in touch with the younger generation of musicians who followed on from Heath. I like the fact that the book blurs the distinctions between different generations of players and styles but it is probably at it's best when praising over-looked musicians like Gil Fuller, for example, whose reputation amongst fans is diminished due to lack of recording opportunities.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Thanks Ian, I will check it out. I've always been interested in those who didn't get 'popular' in audience terms but were highly regarded by their peers. Jymie Merritt was another one who I always thought of as a good 'functional' bassist but who by his fellows accounts was far more.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

In 1962 Jymie Merritt formed and fronted the Forerunners in Philadelphia. The band, which evolved into a music cooperative exploring Merritt's own system of chord inversions, harmonics, and unique approaches to composition and rehearsals, produced a lexicon of its own known as the Forerunner system or concept. The Forerunner concept in its early days culminated in Merritt's expansive composition "Visions of the Ghost Dance".[1]

Among the original members of the Forerunner band were Odean Pope, Kenny Lowe, Donald Bailey, and September Wrice. This group performed regularly in and around Philadelphia for five years, until Merritt joined Max Roach’s band. Pope would also join Roach’s band, playing with him into the 1970s. Forerunner was on and off periodically from the 1960s through the 1980s, depending on what band Merritt was playing with at the time as well as how his health was. Saxophonist Bobby Zankel was a member of the second incarnation of the band when he joined in 1982, which also included Alan Nelson, Odean Pope, Julian Pressley, Colmore Duncan, and Warren McLendon. Zankel is primarily known as an alto player, but played baritone sax with the band, and described the role of the sax section over solos as taking on an accompanying role, where they would always play under the soloist, comparing it to the typical role of the bassist but in the sax section."[4] Approaching his 90th birthday Merritt continues to rehearse and perform with the current incarnation of The Forerunners, many of whom have been with the ensemble from its inception.

an extremely interesting bass player ....

to which 'Heath book' do you refer Ian?