Happy frame of mind?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I think it was Wilson who said "the Labour Party is a crusade or it is nothing". Well, we've got the answer to that, its now a mid market shopping list. Maybe they can print up designer carrier bags with Nye Bevan or Atlee on them. Oh, just wait long enough.....

BN.

* I realise Labour is actually a 'Crusade', the million plus dead in Iraq etc. sort of proved that.

[clive heath]

...and passing over and back.... I did enjoy the track and yes, I have a happy frame of mind, thankyou for asking. There was another track, "Africa", from the same CD/LP which I didn't find anywhere near as rewarding.
Johnny Coles came to my attention in a way described here by Chris May of "All About Jazz":

"Gil Evans: The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions
If Stan Kenton's ponderous Sophisticated Approach (1961) showed how little jazz it is possible to make with an orchestra the size of Texas, Gil Evans' The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions shows how much more you can make with a lot less. The CD brings together two collections of brilliantly reimagined standards, New Bottle, Old Wine (1958) and Great Jazz Standards (1959), recorded when Evans was red-hot from two successes with Miles Davis, Miles Ahead and Porgy And Bess.
Evans' signature brass choir is in place—creatively voiced, spaciously arranged, a supple, multi-coloured, sonically surprising counterpoint to a succession of superb soloists. The added bonus, for Evans' projects, is the foregrounding of saxophone and clarinet soloists—Cannonball Adderley on New Bottle, Old Wine and Steve Lacy and Budd Johnson on Great Jazz Standards.

Trombonist Frank Rehak, tubaist Bill Barber and Evans himself all get to stretch out on New Bottle, Old Wine, but the album is practically an Adderley showcase (he too was newly hot in '58). He blows his stirring, circa-Somethin' Else stew of bop and soul, and it's good—but Lacy and the original swing-to-bop missing link, Johnson, are the ones who will make the hair on your neck curl.

Lacy's solos on Monk's "Straight No Chaser" and John Lewis' "Django" must be some of the finest pre-free improvisations he recorded, already heading from quirky to out-there. Johnson's clarinet solo on Don Redman's spooky, swing-meets-whole tone classic, "Chant Of The Weed," and slow-burning, stirring tenor solo on Evans' "La Nevada" are some of the finest the all-but-forgotten genius ever recorded. (Both tracks appear here for the first time in their original unedited form, with missing passages restored, and the whole Great Jazz Standards set has been sympathetically remixed from a newly discovered three-track master tape.)

Trumpeter Johnny Coles, featured on both albums, has the inevitable misfortune of being compared to Miles Davis and being found to be... different. Sunny, open and extroverted, he may not be a stylist of Davis' proportions, but he's an enjoyable alternative foil for Evans' arrangements.

Two magnificent but neglected albums rolled into one, and still coming up fresh as daisies.

Track Listing: St Louis Blues; King Porter Stomp; Willow Tree; Struttin' With Some Barbecue; Lester Leaps In; Round Midnight; Manteca; Bird Feathers; Davenport Blues; Straight No Chaser; Ballad Of The Sad Young Men; Joy Spring; Django; Chant Of The Weed; La Nevada (aka Theme)."

I had not dared to rate the Lacy and Johnson solos as highly but thought that Johnny Coles on "Davenport Blues" has a moody nostalgia which fits well. " Chant..." is an amazing track with close harmony chords in the mix... and of course I have the LPs and not the compilation reviewed here.

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

will take to "Chant.." so you can hear for yourself, sorry about the John Lewis ad. I dare say all the tracks are there somewhere and the Adderley is on the non-Classical LP page of my site.

[Ian Thumwood]

Clive

I've always loved those Gil Evans records albeit there are a few miscalculations such as "Manteca" and "Joy Spring" which seems somewhat unfinished. The former doesn't work at all, in my opinion. That said, the re-working of the Jelly Roll Morton composition is definitive.

Coles is a really strange musician. I've always loved his performances with Gil Evans where his trumpet truly compliments the ensembles. Outside the orchestra, he's a little bit under-whelming. I totally agree with your description of "Straight not chaser" but , then again, I feel Steve Lacy was the finest interpreter of Monk's music. "Chant of the weed" is terrific and not too different in it's modernity from Don Redman's original. It is intriguing that "Davenport Blues" was selected as Bix was something of a proto-modernist, employing whole tone scales as early as 1919 if you believe ear-witness accounts.

I don't think this is an under-estimated recording. "le Nevada" was re-recorded in a better version on the "in to the cool" album but I think this is one of Gil Evans' masterpieces. It is also a salutary reminder of how good Cannonball Adderley was - a musician too often dismissed by some for his populist leanings.

[Dave2002]

Themselves - however misguidedly?

Doesn't that make them masochists? There must be a lot of them about.

Ian's msg #14 is revealing.

Sorry - I'll let you all get back to jazz. Interesting to read more about Gil Evans.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Doesn't that make them masochists? There must be a lot of them about.

Ian's msg #14 is revealing.

Sorry - I'll let you all get back to jazz. Interesting to read more about Gil Evans.

I really won't rest until there is a John Lewis outlet in every foodbank. It should be a Clause IV moment.

On the Gil....good to see Bud Johnson getting a name check, very fine player in all kinds of settings. I also like Johnny Coles a lot. As well as with Mingus. he later played in Ray Charles' band along with Blue Mitchell, which is where I saw him. Ray featured him a lot back then on ballads.


BN, the Lidl Leninista.

[Serial_Apologist]

Doesn't that make them masochists? There must be a lot of them about.

Two young women in Twickers, being visited by Boris Johnson the other day: "We love Boris!" BBC reporter: "Who did you vote for?" Reply: "UKIP".

Or this one, somewhere in Yorkshire (not of course that that makes any difference) a woman (not that that makes any difference, of course) tells the reporter that previously she had always voted Labour, but this time for the Conservatives, because, "Labour's no longer the party it once was".

Ian's msg #14 is revealing.

Bang on the nail about Kinnock, though...

Sorry - I'll let you all get back to jazz. Interesting to read more about Gil Evans.

"Everything is interconnected" - the Buddha?

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Everything is interconnected" - the Buddha?

No, the Polish Plumber. That's a Ukip joke. If they did them.

As for Kinnock, we/you now have a new one. Steve the new MP, who married a Danish Princess and went to live in Aberavon. Where they lived happy ever after. And paid no tax. Because she's a mermaid. Non Dom rock.


BN.

[eighthobstruction]

....One Nation - One Consciousness....OM....G

....Action One : Mandleson has unfortunate accident, head gets stuck in trough - only muffled almost inaudible "Mmmmm Mmmmmn" noise ever heard again....

[MrGongGong]

....One Nation - One Consciousness....OM....G

[elmo]

Pretty horrendous few days - 5 more years of Government by the unspeakable, Murdoch, the bankers, venture capitalists and the rest of the horrible crew pulling on Cameron's puppet strings i.

This raised elmo's spirit today - Miles, Sam, Herbie, Ron and Tony "If I were a bell"

https://youtu.be/-xkiPPSVRvE