Yesterday I noted that there was a surprising concentration of Latin music, most of it Cuban. Well, actually now that I think about it it's either been Cuban or Brazilian. I've already talked about why there was an explosion of Cuban music in record stores, so having them makes sense. I just didn't expect them to all be in one place. There is another one today and tomorrow I can see another bossa nova CD waiting to be listened to.
Today brings the Albatross up to 20 gigs. It's going to be a bit until we get to the point where it won't fit on an iPod Touch. I think at this rate it will fit its entirety on an iPod Classic. If only this blog had actual readers, I could get one...ah well...
Bobby Hucherson
The Kicker
Fun fact (alright, not all that fun), Joe Henderson appears on this album called "The Kicker" and has his own album called "The Kicker" which is what I, in my sax-centric ways, almost put in the player instead.
There are three vibes players now on the hard drive with no repeats. Not an easy feat.
I have some sort of Joe Henderson connection (not the six degree kind, rather that he was someone of some importance at some point, like I had an album of his I liked or he appeared a lot on things I liked or an instructor really liked him so I listened to him a lot...I don't think any of those are it though...dammit) that I can't remember now. I wish I could remember it because it would give me something to build on here.
It's another Blue Note CD and another Rudy Van Gelder recording. I wonder if this dude ever just got sick of awesome jazz. "How was work, honey?" "Ah, you know...just another set of legendary performers laying down another set of landmark tracks that players will be wearing their record players out on...same ol' shit...gah. Whats for dinner, anything good?"
This CD barely survived, and whats worse is I think the damage is recent because the card doesn't look too worn out. That's the back of the CD, obviously. I just have that card and barely enough ring left to hold the CD. I really need to get a handle on the CDs or this is going to become really difficult.
Huh, according to Wiki (which may not be true, obviously) this album wasn't released until 1999 even though it was recorded in 1963. No reason is given.
The whole album has a kind of laid back feel to it, as you would usually expect with a group headed by a vibe player, but still enough groove to it that it doesn't become too mellow.
I feel like I should have been including the line ups for all these CDs to track how much cross polination there is between them. Not too long ago a Grant Green CD went on the hard drive and now here he appears as a side man on Hucherson's CD.
Various Artists Cuba Caribe
Aaaaand more Cuban dance music. This is from Hemisphere.
All of this scrambling to capitalize on Buena Vista Culture Club didn't really work. Unless it was actually someone from the film most people weren't interested. The movie had opened them to a new style of music, but the exploration stopped right there and no further.
Even a sampler like this was just too much for a lot of the people to venture into. It was a safe philosophy to have, I guess. They had been presented with a relatively successful film that assured them that these guys were cool, anything else they'd have to start making their own selections, which actually might mean buying some stuff they didn't end up liking. The cynic in me wants to say that was the greatest fear right there. They might 'not like' the wrong thing, and then their new found connoisseurship would collapse. Better be predictable and within the lines then venture out and have to pretend to like stuff you don't.
Though really it was probably an economic issue. They already knew they liked the people in the movie, they don't know who any of these people are, they're not going to spend $100 just to explore Cuban music when they're going to be listening to their Peter Gabriel and U2 and Paul Simon and Sting CDs most of the time anyway, just buy what you already like. Can't really fault them for that, I guess.
This music kind of sneaks up on you. I don't really know that much about Cuban music (despite my recent volume of listening...) so I don't readily make the distinctions between the different groups. Instead I allow myself to be distracted while the music plays and then all of a sudden I find myself halfway through a song going, "Wait, this is pretty cool."
Going for another triple at the end of the week as this time I've encountered an honest single and it seems a cop out to count it as a full album. Getting more into CDs I don't remember ever getting, including unopened ones.
The worst part is the addictive nature that brought on the Albatross in the first place, because after starting this project, I've wanted to actually go and get more music. I'm discovering music that I had that I really enjoy every week so far, but I still feel the need to go and actively add to the pile. Something has to be wrong...
Three empty nests today as well--Duke Ellington in Sweden, Don Byron "Romance With the Unseen", and Jerry Granelli Jeff Riley.
US3 Cantaloop (Single)
It's hard to find too much to say about this. I suppose I should be embarrassed by this quickly faded rap fad of one taking samples from the Blue Note catalog to make modern rap songs. I hoped it would catch on, I'll be honest about that. I have some rap in my past. I liked Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash...I even went to a Fat Boys concert. I've made my peace with it.
But I grew into jazz, and when it looked like I could combine my early love of hip hop and jazz, sure--sign me up. And Cantaloupe Island is a funky song all by itself, perfectly fitting into a hip-hop mix.
So I was into this as much as anyone else with at least a passing fascination. But Cantaloop was the only one that did, and US3 faded quick. I don't know if they're recording anymore or off doing other things or what, but I never heard from them again the entire time I worked at the store.
Singles on CD are a difficult thing for me, but that might be because I'm not often that into 'remixes.' I get it, it's several different takes on the same song, and that can be intriguing, but essentially I have the same song now five times. To its credit, some of the later remixes are fairly different, but they all come back to the old Herbie Hancock piece.
That was a refreshing side effect, people started searching out Herbie Hancock records to find out where that track came from. This of course wasn't Hancock's first foray into Hip Hop, he was also responsible for the iconic Rock It, which prompted my dad to speculate that Herbie Hancock didn't know how to play piano. Little did he know...
I think singles exist to completely cure you of liking the song after listening to five slightly different versions in a row. I still like it, but man, I'm kind of done with this song for like a month or so now.
I have to admit, there was a part of me that was hoping I'd end up for at least a little while as a saxophonist in a live Jazz/Rap band. I was kind of willing to be a whore on the sax, mostly because I felt, no matter what, the horn always classed up the joint. I had a bias, obviously.
Stefon Harris and Jacky Terrasson Kindred
There are probably some sound reasons I never got around to listening to this CD. All white covers are never a good sign, The Beatles aside. White covers and white suits, double whammy. People named Stefon, also not generally a good indicator. All respect to Stéphane Grappelli, but violin is still a little hard to get into in jazz.
And as much praise as I had for the vibes earlier, it's still a bit of a land mine instrument.
When taking home boxes of CDs at a time, these all seemed like sound reasons to put off listening to this CD.
My mistake, apparently. While there are some tracks that are easy going and light, this is a progressive jazz CD that goes right along with the earlier James Carter CD and anything else I would normally listen to.
It has a pretty good spread of traditional Jazz standards and modern pieces, like the rather smokin' Rat Race that finds the two performers chasing each other in overlapping solos.
This is a far more intense jazz experience than the cover suggests. I'm not sure what they were trying to convey. I guess it's pretty hard to come up with a concept for a jazz album cover, now that I think about it. There's only so many shots of a guy standing next to his instrument one can try and pull of. I remember reading an interview with Wynton Marsalis where he complained to the photographer that he didn't want to hold his horn in yet another photo-shoot, though he eventually did. Now that I think about it, it might have been Chet Baker. Doesn't matter, I guess.
I mean, rockers can identify the 'hard-coreness' of their music by the look of the cover and the amount of stage make-up their performers wear, but a progressive jazz album could end up looking like a fusion album by the cover.
This is another damaged set of liner notes, so I don't have much insight into the CD itself, but this is really pretty good.
I've mentioned before my fascination with trombone players and there not being enough of them. Well, the Albatross has been hiding this unopened gem since 2001. Roswell Rudd, which by the way is an awesome name, joins saxophonist Archie Shepp (I'll admit right now I thought he played piano) for a live concert in New York.
There's a lot here for me to like. Progressive jazz sound, trombone, live music banter right off the bat, with Rudd introducing his composition Acute Motelitis with "Trapped in a motel room in the middle of nowhere." There's even poetry, apparently.
Eventually the Albatross was going to reveal my fascination with spoken word, and it apparently decided to slip it in here on what is apparently a super album of 'things I dig.' Yep, I like spoken word. Now, I thought what you're thinking, that it meant that I like slam poetry. Turns out, not so much. I mean, there have been a few instances of slam poetry that I have actually liked, but it took a whole lot of bandless rap artists before I got to those. I feel that poetry struggled really hard to let people know it didn't have to rhyme only for slam poets to re-enforce the idea that it had to.
But that aside, I actually dig spoken word. It all started with a quest to find a recording I had read about of e.e. cummings, which I never did. But I discovered a lot of Beat recordings and other spoken word story tellers and kind of got into it. This also led to my beard, but that's apparently a long story that after I typed out I realized even I didn't care about...
Every track, it seems, is getting an introduction. A heartfelt tribute to a loved one with the a pretty cool nickname (Steam), and the introduction to Pazuzu that made it sound like a summer insect, but is instead apparently a demon who is also featured in The Exorcist. Also the gargoyle that Prof. Fairnsworth lets loose in Futurama. The two trombone Slide by Slide...jazz titles like their puns...this song metamorphoses a lot in its 11 minutes. I also like the acknowledgment at the end, "Thank you very much for Slide by Slide...featuring everybody..."
I've never been comfortable with saxophonists who also sing. Perhaps it's jealousy. Maybe it's that the trumpet is easy to hold to one side out of the way, but the saxophonist has to lean over his horn dangling awkwardly from his neck or to the side to sing and we have an extra hand to position when we start to play after we sing.
Or it's just that I can't sing so I don't think other saxophonists shouldn't either. Nice closer with a tribute to Elmo Hope.
The Albatross closed out with a lot of lies and fake outs (including the disappointing Fatal Error of the Count Basie Plays Ellington...) but also some albums that were destined to languish in obscurity if I actually selectively went through this. Not bad, Albatross...now quit killing good CDs in the process...
One of the most consistent elements about The Albatross is that it is full of lies and disappointment. If you follow this on Facebook you'd be expecting Chuck Mangione and the compilation Bang on a Can V.2.
At least that is what The Albatross would like you to believe. But, as many times in the past, The Albatross was raising me up (who wouldn't look forward to juxtaposing inoffensive smooth fusion with an experimental music compilation?) only so it could bring me down.
Chuck Mangione's album The Feelings Back is an empty nest. The CD has long since flown the coop. Perhaps this is one that I listened to right away and that never made it back. It's too bad. I have a big soft spot for Mangione in a bizarre nostalgia way. When you're a kid in some ways you're at your musically purest. You like things on a completely gut level, you just get hooked on something without really knowing why. It was that way with Feels So Good.
Honestly, I believe that if listening to that song doesn't make you smile at least a little you might be dead inside. Mangione is the soft side of Chucks with beards...maybe there should be a counter facts about Chuck Mangione (Kittens look at pictures of Chuck Mangione to brighten their day, Rainbows are the sky smiling because Chuck Mangione is underneath it...sorry, moving on...) That wasn't on the missing album, but there is something warm and friendly about Mangione's tone that would have been comforting right now. Like footie pjs or having someone tuck you in. You wouldn't want anyone to catch you enjoying that as an adult, but admit, deep down...it'd still be nice.
But as much as The Albatross lives to surprise, it also lives to disappoint.
So it goes also with Bang on a Can V.2. But this one has had a much more tragic fate. The CD has been, I'm guessing, soaked, and is not only dirty, but fuzzed to the liner notes. It may have rendered it unplayable, I'm going to try and recover it tomorrow. So, two more deep I go.
That brings us to Great Swing Classics in Hi-Fi...which is also an empty nest. Apparently an album where a bunch of largely white (while still legendary) band leaders re-recorded songs in the new 1950s 'hi-fi'. Oh well, on to the next one...
At last, a case and a CD...
Milt Jackson Sa Va Bella (For Lady Legends)
I dig jazz vibes. The Modern Jazz Quartet was one of the first groups I started to get into when I began to explore 'real' jazz (post-Mangione fascination.) The vibes are, at least to me, the quintessential cool jazz instrument. It's smoking with a cigarette holder. It's the guy who can pull off a smoking jacket. It's the martini drunk by the guy who cares how its made. I should be listening to this on a hi-fi while sitting in a large leather chair on a plush rug with a fire place in the middle of the room.
This album is also a poison pill to my brain. A tribute to the woman who influenced Jackson (with Etta James doing vocals) it contains some of the most persistent earworms that vocal jazz has to offer. Right off the bat with Lady, Be Good (I love songs meant to be sung to women sung by women...as with most things of this nature more common than songs meant to be sung to men sung by men...still...) What a Difference a Day Made...that song has officially been stuck in my head for over a decade alongside the theme to I Dream of Jeannie. My only hope is that at least in jazz there really is no 'definitive' approach to a song and the given melody, especially for singers, is...well, optional. But no doubt tomorrow I'll be walking around humming the version of Lady Be Good I'm familiar with and only occasionally remember why.
Looking down the track list, Send in the Clowns is coming up...that's another hunk of stinky cheese that I can't get enough of. Interesting track order - Good Morning Heartache and This Bitter Earth bookends A-Tisket A-Tasket. It's like a bummer sandwich with a rainbow inside.
Fun fact: Up until this moment I thought it was ...a Day Makes, not Made. I've been mishearing that for years. Good to know.
I played vibes in high school briefly. Well, vibraphone. I don't think you get to use the hip cool 'vibes' until you're laying it down Milt Jackson style. This was for drum line. I faked out the instructor because I was trying to see how to hold four hammers and he for a moment thought I could do that. He hated me a little after that.
What the hell...the band does this out-of-nowhere chanting at the end of what would otherwise be a hokey standard (A-Tisket A-Tasket). I love it... I don't understand it ("So do we so do we so do we" and then "no no no no"), but I love it. Ever since John Coltrane's Om! and A Love Supreme I've had a thing for chanting in songs.
Seriously feel like I'm trying to woo a classy lady with this...it's the kind of jazz you can play and have a copy of the Kama Sutra too prominently displayed on a coffee table and totally get away with it.
Send in the Clowns is less cheesy without an over-emoting singer performing it. On vibes it's just smooth. That may be because everything on vibes is smooth.
An appropriate end to the album with the title track doing a little Latin feel. Latin jazz can be really smokin'...and sometimes it can be like someone 'spicing things up' by putting a little pepper on their BLT. This is the latter. Nothing wrong with that, though...you don't want to disturb the tobacco pipe smoking you should be doing while listening to this album.
Transitioning from this album to the next in my iTunes library, Moby doing a cover of Verb:That's What's Happening (another promo that had made it on iTunes before being lost to the beast) is a little jarring.
Al Jolson The Best of Al Jolson
Another instance of Amazon not having the album on MP3, but you can listen to samples here.
This is one of those 'archive' promos I would grab that I would get a bit of a hard time for. Truth be told, I fancied myself a bit of a musicologist, or at least I wanted to be until I realized I didn't have the aptitude for it. Plus my ego wouldn't let me be anything other than a performer, not someone who comments on performance...now look at me...
Al Jolson is one of those artists I'm more familiar with as a parody than with the actual artist. To say that about Al Jolson specifically is kind of interesting I guess. I was probably in the last generation to watch old cartoons un-edited, all the racism fully intact. That meant rubbery characters in black face making like Jolson belting out "Swanee" and "Mammy" while little Picaninny caricatures would dance happily, perhaps munching watermelons...we watched these on TV between (and sometimes in) Bugs Bunny cartoons. I think there was a sense that this was wrong, just old.
Maybe it's the cartoons...maybe it's time...maybe it's sensitivity...Jolson just sounds hokey. I mean, he is. This isn't really a revelation, now that I think about it. He's the most famous person of a group of people that did a horrible thing...I wonder, without the black face, would he stand out in the canon of singers? I think there is an argument for it...there were a lot of black face singers...
According to the liner notes it was Jolson's stage presence that made him legendary, his ability to engage an audience in a time when live performance was king. You can certainly hear it in the recordings, even without seeing him you can tell he's a very animated singer...and not just in the context that I know him, as a racist dancing flower...
So this is a strange place to be. I felt at the time and feel now it's important to have this. It's a part of American music history, warts and all...and it really is good for what it is. But it's still uncomfortable...like, I would feel the need to sheepishly explain if My Mammy came up on party shuffle.
Like the old racist cartoons, I think that they should be accessible, but I don't really have a problem with them not being shown on Saturday morning anymore.
Hallelujah I'm a Bum Again...the theme song to how some Republicans envision the unemployed I guess...sorry to get political, it was too hard to resist...
Listening to this CD is making cartoons funnier retroactively. In that uncomfortable kind of way...
I think that owning this kind of stuff (stuff only for its historical value) has a little element of that guy who carries way too much knife hoping for that one instance where someone has to cut a thick rope..."I got it!" I have this stuff waiting for some instance where someone's going to need a specific music and I'll have it. Of course the daunting nature of The Albatross defeated that.
As I said, The Albatross is full of lies and disappointment.
