Album For Today

[Serial_Apologist]

From the unjustly overlooked 1964 live album 'Miles in Tokyo': www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xkiPPSVRvE
As far as I know this is the only issued recording of Miles Davis's short-lived quintet with tenorist Sam Rivers.

I think that's right, so thanks for this, JR.

Apparently Rivers was a temporary stand-in, Miles finding him "too advanced" at the time, and so instead he took on.... Wayne Shorter??

[Serial_Apologist]

Just arrived in the post: "For the Last Time" - Paul Dunmall, Phil Gibbs and Tony Marsh - released on FMR around Christmas time but sent to the wrong address.

On his card guitarist Phil says, "Here is the recording we did with T.M. shortly before he died. Hope you like it.

Inside the cardboard sleeve, Paul Dunmall writes:

"One of the most musical drummers that ever was. His use of space brilliant touch dynamics and most of all his total concentration.

"He always seemed in control and somehow made it look effortless but I know he was really working hard to make the music special.
His life was music to the very end.
Everybody loved playing with him, he always gave everything and expected the same from whoever he played with.

"The night before this recording we played a duet gig in Oxford. He had this new rack of small cymbals that he was very enthusiastic about and was saying that this was to become a permanent feature of his kit.

"He was always looking for new discoveries. It was Phil's idea 6 months before to record the trio again. We hadn't recorded for 10 years and I'm glad he suggested it because this was the last time I played with Tony. We had played together for over 30 years, just like my other dear friend and master drummer Tony Levin. Now that both of them have passed away it has left a big hole in my musical life that can never be filled.

"Of course we move on but friends made over a lifetime are irreplaceable. Something precious that is lost but we can still hear them at their best playing the drums. Listen to the great Tony Marsh here, he passed away just a couple of months after this recording .."

I think there's some utube of Tony Marsh accompanying Roscoe Mitchell at Cafe Oto at what would be his last-ever gig, in February of last year.

Tony played the beatless beat: I bet this is going to be good.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thank you for that post S_A

[Ian Thumwood]

I've been playing a CD of Bix Beiderbecke recordings this week. The tracks were all recorded under Bix's or Frankie Trumbauer's name. I hadn't played this for ages and it has been quite an interesting experience. The first half of the disc includes numerous ODJB standards as well as the classics such as "Sorry", "Goose pimples" and "Crying all day." These are odd and stylistically divorced from the kind of jazz Armstrong was playing. They have a charm about them which I think makes them unique. On the other side, there is a good deal of pop junk from the period that, I would have to argue, is very difficult to justify as even mildly good Bix. Some of the tunes like "Our bungalow of dreams" and "my pet" are pretty woeful.

Hearing Rollini and Leibrook tiptoeing some pretty intricate bass lines on the bass sax is one of the appeals. It does have a period charm and I think is fascinating. It did make me wonder about Red Nichols who also used a bass sax in his bands too. He seems lost to history these days and was frequently maligned in the manner not too dissimilar to what has been discussed on the thread regarding Brubeck. I can't recall hearing a lot of Nichol's work but I doubt if he recorded quite as much pop dross as appeared to be pushed on to Bix. Shame that Bix's output couldn't have be totally in line with his very best work.

[charles t]

Serialist: Hope you perused my topic re: Duns Limited Editions - several Tony Marsh/P.D. collaborations...

Including a duo just posted ystdy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttoSy-SYK-g

[Serial_Apologist]

Serialist: Hope you perused my topic re: Duns Limited Editions - several Tony Marsh/P.D. collaborations...

Including a duo just posted ystdy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttoSy-SYK-g

I have a lot of those Duns recordings, charles. Paul set up the label about 14 years ago, with an initial CD of just bagpipe solos, which had me fleeing the room in terror the way Paul approached playing them! I told him he could always make a living out of playing them should he start getting teething problems! His idea was to get as much of his own playing documented as possible while he was on a creative high.

The house Paul lives at is called Pigeon House Cottages, and it's in Dingle Road - which may make you think of Vaughan Williams or Delius, but which Paul's music most certainly doesn't!

[charles t]

S.A.

Yes, I have a - cross-pond - somewhat-picture of what you typed; based on videos I have downloaded re: Paul's place.

I too have a shelf of the Dunmall ouevre...including a Ltd Ed 3-disc set I ordered and it was air-mailed by Paul Rogers(!) who was on the date.

http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/labels/duns/dle060.html

[Serial_Apologist]

S.A.

Yes, I have a - cross-pond - somewhat-picture of what you typed; based on videos I have downloaded re: Paul's place.

I too have a shelf of the Dunmall ouevre...including a Ltd Ed 3-disc set I ordered and it was air-mailed by Paul Rogers(!) who was on the date.

http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/labels/duns/dle060.html

I've known Paul for 30+ years, Charles, ever since he described himself as "Just a Coltrane imitator, really" - an influence he has long transcended, imv, to become one of the greats to follow up on a still under-understood genius. It seems to have taken 20 years for somebody to arrive on the scene prepared to take on the later Coltrane of "Expression" and "Interstellar Space" in all its complexity. Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers and all those guys went their own ways, which were not his, the Brotzmanns of this world assumed the intensity without the sophistication and Trane's sense of responsibility, and Mike Brecker fashioned a burnished stadium approach out of part of what Coltrane developed into a product that became very popular with some young newcomers who thought you could impress and use technique to contain and stay safe on the inside. Which is all my views, mind! I got to know a lady friend of Tony Levin, and I remember putting to her that Paul didn't think he owed much to Coltrane any more, and her replying, "Well I should bloody well hope not!" There was a lot of friction about Mr Dunmall on the old BBC board, I remember, largely surrounding the concepts, tenor saxophone, and John Coltrane.

[Ian Thumwood]

GitGo....

Jeb Bishop is THE man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1uVq8pPoE

[Serial_Apologist]

GitGo....

Jeb Bishop is THE man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1uVq8pPoE

Strong reminder for me of Harry Miller's mid-70s band Isipingo in that number and their approach to the material, Ian.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not Harry Miller (couldn't find a suitable cut) but same period. Who's that little boy at the piano at 6'57"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzgrp9wmwYk

They just make it up as they go along: it should never be allowed.

[Serial_Apologist]

I picked up a double CD of The Cortege for a tenner on Wednesday at the Bull's Head Barnes, where Mike Westbrook's Trio with Kate W and Chris Biscoe did a great selection from Mike's apparently forever-expanding oeuvre. I regard the work as one of Westy's greatest and an achievement to compare with Carla Bley's "Escalator" - in the classical field I'd even put it up alongside Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony and Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony in scope and depth, and I had wanted a decent copy for a long time - the only one I'd previously had being a poorish quality cassette cribbed off a mate's LP. It was the only CD of the work there, and I wondered at the low price and had to ask, but Mike said that was what it was.

[Ian Thumwood]

I've had to work at home again this weekend. Oddly enough I've been playing Westwood Rossini this morning which I hadn't played for ages. It still sounds brilliant and is hugely entertaining, especially the concluding two sections which culminates with the William Tell Overture.

On top of that, I've dug out some other CD's that I have listened to for ages including some Howlin' Wolf, an exceptional Tania Maria live album from 1984 and an old Cassandra Wilson recording from about 10 years ago. It's weird listening to some of these records again and both the Westbrook and TM offerings still sound terrific. Always regret that I've never heard Tania Maria perform live as she is alleged to be one of the most exciting acts in jazz when in concert.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've had to work at home again this weekend. Oddly enough I've been playing Westwood Rossini this morning which I hadn't played for ages. It still sounds brilliant and is hugely entertaining, especially the concluding two sections which culminates with the William Tell Overture.

On top of that, I've dug out some other CD's that I have listened to for ages including some Howlin' Wolf, an exceptional Tania Maria live album from 1984 and an old Cassandra Wilson recording from about 10 years ago. It's weird listening to some of these records again and both the Westbrook and TM offerings still sound terrific. Always regret that I've never heard Tania Maria perform live as she is alleged to be one of the most exciting acts in jazz when in concert.

I agree about the Westbrook Rossini: only Westy could have brought that off without it sounding naff, and imv the only duff thing he's ever done was the Westbrook Beatles, where to my ears Phil Minton's voice is too "operatic" in a progrock manner to carry it off.

I saw Tania Maria at my first-ever Bracknell Festrival, which iirc was 1984 - I only remember her stuff as being funky bossa nova a la Flora Purim. I probably still have the programme stashed away somewhere.

[Ian Thumwood]

I'm aware of Flora Purim and the likes of Joyce who have created a more contemporary style of Brazilian jazz that still owes a lot to the Bossa movement in the 50's / 60's. Joyce has cited Bill Evans as a huge inspiration. I've always felt that Tania Maria offered something different. True, her first two acoustic albums for Concord Picante offered something in the same vein but there was always something more visceral about her approach. The third album "Come with me" was terrific and had an electric bass and guitar along with the fender Rhodes. I felt she was effectively roughing up the music in a far more exciting fashion than had been the case with earlier generations. Annoyingly, I neglected to replace my LP with a Cd as the latter is now going to stupid money on Amazon. "Wild; Live" was the album that I felt was the sound-track for me when I did my a levels. Always been a fan of her music even as she had edged towards more popular areas.