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eMusic vs. CDs in my Collection part 1
4 Aug 2006, 20:22
I have been on task to load my store-bought cds onto iTunes so that I can
and in the meantime I have also been loading music new to me on iTunes through an eMusic subscription. I just cannot say enough good about eMusic. If they have a dark side, please don't tell me, because I am still marvelling at the back catalog they are makingavailable.
During July and early August, I have added from my cds and from eMusic, so this isn't really a competition as much as it is a momentary snapshot of what I'm adding from which sources. First the music from my cds.
This month from the Collection Casa de Bubba:
[album artist=]Instrumental Music Of The Southern Appalachians[/album]This is a VA compilation with several songs each by Etta Baker, Hobart Smith, Richard Chase and others. This is old-timey music suitable for Pappy O'Daniel's Flour Hour.
A variety of Wayne Shorter selections:
Moto Grosso Feioon Blue Note, a gorgeous suite of soprano sax pieces over ostinato vamps supplied by Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams (under an assumed identity as 19 year old Belgian girl Michelin Prell who was never heard of before or since). The kicker here is that most everybody is playing an instrument slightly different than they're known for. Shorter plays soprano, McLaughlin is playing acoustic guitar as does Dave Holland. Carter plays cello and Corea plays marimba and percussion.
Speak No Evil and Juju, two more from Shorter on Blue Note--these from the mid 60s (Moto Grosso Feio was recorded during the same time as the Odyssey of Iska sessions but not released for many years)and during a period of transition for Shorter. Juju begs the comparisons with Trane: the band is Tyner, Jones and Workman. On Speak No Evil, Shorter is with his bandmates from the Miles Quintet, with Freddie Hubbard taking the horn spot. These are both stellar recordings and give us old-fart jazz listeners hours of amusement as we argue which rhythm section was better--Miles's or Trane's? And like a gathering of the world's top economists, if you laid us end to end, we would never reach a conclusion.
His Tangerine and Atlantic Sides. You know Percy, right? No? No, he's not Curtis's little known brother. Percy Mayfield was one of the R&B geniuses of the early 50s. He wrote a number one hit for himself called "Please Send Me Someone to Love". Still not familiar? OK, he wrote a little tune called "Hit the Road, Jack" for his buddy Ray Charles. He wrote some achingly beautiful proto-soul ballads and a few real-life inside views to the life of the committed alcoholic. Scary and beautiful.
Italian Renaissance Dances, who are a group of North American English-Traditionalists, if you'll bear the oxymoron. These are some pleasant and pleasing Italian court dances performed by this string ensemble. They play lute and viol, and violin. The connection with jazz, for me, is that the bass lines are laid down as the foundation from standardized patterns, but the musicians work from memory and improvise--they do not play from sheet music, but instead they jam.
Finally, a favorite jazz/blues steamer: Swiss Movement. Recorded at Montreux in 1969, this is a classic of soul-jazz and "Compared to What" is one of those songs that just invites singing along.
I'll leave it there for now and continue with my NINE (9)! lp's worth of eMusic downloads for August.
- free up living room space
- play music networked throughout the house
- recoup a little cash?
and in the meantime I have also been loading music new to me on iTunes through an eMusic subscription. I just cannot say enough good about eMusic. If they have a dark side, please don't tell me, because I am still marvelling at the back catalog they are makingavailable.
During July and early August, I have added from my cds and from eMusic, so this isn't really a competition as much as it is a momentary snapshot of what I'm adding from which sources. First the music from my cds.
This month from the Collection Casa de Bubba:
[album artist=]Instrumental Music Of The Southern Appalachians[/album]This is a VA compilation with several songs each by Etta Baker, Hobart Smith, Richard Chase and others. This is old-timey music suitable for Pappy O'Daniel's Flour Hour.
A variety of Wayne Shorter selections:
Moto Grosso Feioon Blue Note, a gorgeous suite of soprano sax pieces over ostinato vamps supplied by Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams (under an assumed identity as 19 year old Belgian girl Michelin Prell who was never heard of before or since). The kicker here is that most everybody is playing an instrument slightly different than they're known for. Shorter plays soprano, McLaughlin is playing acoustic guitar as does Dave Holland. Carter plays cello and Corea plays marimba and percussion.
Speak No Evil and Juju, two more from Shorter on Blue Note--these from the mid 60s (Moto Grosso Feio was recorded during the same time as the Odyssey of Iska sessions but not released for many years)and during a period of transition for Shorter. Juju begs the comparisons with Trane: the band is Tyner, Jones and Workman. On Speak No Evil, Shorter is with his bandmates from the Miles Quintet, with Freddie Hubbard taking the horn spot. These are both stellar recordings and give us old-fart jazz listeners hours of amusement as we argue which rhythm section was better--Miles's or Trane's? And like a gathering of the world's top economists, if you laid us end to end, we would never reach a conclusion.
His Tangerine and Atlantic Sides. You know Percy, right? No? No, he's not Curtis's little known brother. Percy Mayfield was one of the R&B geniuses of the early 50s. He wrote a number one hit for himself called "Please Send Me Someone to Love". Still not familiar? OK, he wrote a little tune called "Hit the Road, Jack" for his buddy Ray Charles. He wrote some achingly beautiful proto-soul ballads and a few real-life inside views to the life of the committed alcoholic. Scary and beautiful.
Italian Renaissance Dances, who are a group of North American English-Traditionalists, if you'll bear the oxymoron. These are some pleasant and pleasing Italian court dances performed by this string ensemble. They play lute and viol, and violin. The connection with jazz, for me, is that the bass lines are laid down as the foundation from standardized patterns, but the musicians work from memory and improvise--they do not play from sheet music, but instead they jam.
Finally, a favorite jazz/blues steamer: Swiss Movement. Recorded at Montreux in 1969, this is a classic of soul-jazz and "Compared to What" is one of those songs that just invites singing along.
I'll leave it there for now and continue with my NINE (9)! lp's worth of eMusic downloads for August.
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Village Vanguard, eMusic Subscribers, This Group Only Exists To Have The Best Eclectic Radio Ever - Period, Older Than Dirt, Jazz ClubComments
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beelzbubba wrote:
Left out of that earlier discussion were St. Louis Blues and the earliest configuration of the Chicago Undergorund, Playground on Delmark and also listed under Rob Mazurek, one of the key figures in the CU. St. Louis Blues is a later Shepp date with elders Richard Davis and Sunny Murray filling out the trio. This is not abouut breaking ground but rather carrying on the tradition. I love Shepp, especially the angry young Shepp. Here, the years have taken a step or two from his game, but he is still one of the tenors who defined 20th century jazz.
The Chicago Underground is playful as suggested by the place of the title. There are covers--one an Ellington tune, the other a Hancock, and this cd mines the Second Miles Quintet territory. Mazureks's co-conspirator, and first official member of the CU collective after Mazurek, Jeff Parker adds his characteristic warp on guitar. For those who are interested, Parker is a member of Tortoise, too, and a curious blend of CU and Tortoise records/performs under the name Isotope 217.
But what about eMusic this month, you ask? Thanks, I was getting to that.
I was greatly relieved this month. I was able to empty this huge penny jar I had been collecting my change in, and eMusic made it possible. See, I used to run a record co-op back in the early 70s and as such, I met and talked with musicians and small-label distributors. One was Ray Flerlage, who ran Kinnara Records on the south side of Chicago. Only this year did I find out that Ray was a guy that would be at nearly every blues show around town taking pictures and filing them away.
But Ray would give me vinyl from micro-labels like India Navigation and Strata-East, JCOA and Survival. It's this last that has me stoked. Survival was a shoestring operation by Rashied Ali with live recordings in the downtown lofts. I had two of those Rashied Ali dates, a quintet and a quartet. There were also duets with Frank Lowe and with Leroy Jenkins. The Knitting Factory has now reissued many of these Ali-led dates and I downloaded New Directions in Modern Music. The years peeled away and I was back in a two-storey brick rowhouse just outside Chicago's Loop listening to Chicago's version of these loft dates. Ali was passing through and stopped by this after-hours jam where Thurman Barker, Ajaramu, and Steve McCall were already pounding away on any and all percussive surfaces--and they made room for the traveling dignitary. There was no piano and the bass players had long gone home, but a few horns were around--but my mind is foggy, was it Kalaparusha and Wallace MacMillian? Doug Ewart? No matter. This hit the spot.
Not all is bliss in eMusic-land, though. I was greatly disappointed by Arrival. The review talks of British rasta funk and instead most of it is slow, sloppy Reginald Dwight inspired ballades (Living for Your Love) or soft-funk-pop (You Won't Feel So Proud, What's The Word) that make me actually want to hear Kool's Celebrate one more time.
Redeem thyself, eMusic. OK--I found some familiar krautrock terrain: Coeur de Verre, though PV's sacred world-fusion is hardly echteskrautrock. Still, a palate cleanser.
Brilliant gem-in-the-rough? Spaced: Collected Works 1980-1999. If you like any of the following albums, you must pick up this one:
I'm not ready to put anyone on this album up into the same class as the above, but damn--this one came out of left field. I've never heard of this trumpeter and this album, as a whole, stands with those above.
I picked up Standin' On The Verge of Getting It On, but I know this one by heart. Just filling in the digital for the vinyl. I also picked up Live and based on a reminderby Televiper I picked up Soul Bodies, Vol. 1. Hamid makes this date for me. Tsahar provides many moments of interest, but I gotta say, Hamid's been my man since we were 19 and 21 respectively (he's the younger and much much better looking one).
And finally, the soul-soaked I've Got My Own Hell To Raise. Another one I've had on my saved for later list forever, I finally downloaded it and was pleased--especially after the Cymande experience. It's not earthshaking or groundbreaking, but just another reminder that there are veterans out there like LaVette who can put a little lifesblood into a song and who deserve to be heard and deserve to make a living all while People Magazine makes a fuss over Britney's latest fiasco. Spare me, & turn up the LaVette--she's got her own hell to raise. -
barewires wrote:
Well, I gotta say I prefer Elvin Jones and a drunk chimp to just about any other rhythm section. But that's just me. Elvin's sessions as a bandleader are really good, I have the Mosaic set and I like it a lot. Although if you count a pianist as part of the rhythm section, Miles had the edge on Coltrane - Tyner's playing is too blocky for me.
Shorter's stuff is really good, although I think I like Shizophrenia better than Ju Ju amd Speak No Evil. But I regularly listen to all of them. He doesn't play soprano on these, but I think that he did regularly in Weather Report, no? I think so, but I'm not a big Weather Report fan.
As far as Pharoah Sanders, has he done anything really good since 1990 or so? The last thing that I heard that really impressed me was Sonny Sharrock's Ask The Ages. BTW You asked about what other people might consider seminal on different journal article, this would be my nomination (or maybe Randy Weston's Spirits of Our Ancestors) but only for recent jazz. But back to the point, I haven't heard a lot recently from Sanders that is compelling.
I'll keep my eye out for that Longineau fellow. I dig Bobby Hutcherson's San Francisco, I listen to it pretty regularly. Poor Harold Land never really got his due. A friend of mine loaned me his copy of Carmell Jones' Mosaic collection, it's got Harold Land on it - I'm expecting good things. -
talking_animal wrote:
I can't agree with you enough about Wayne Shorter and Speak No Evil or Juju. For anyone else reading, beelzbubba is correct and both are fantastic.
On the emusic subject, I found
Koukou-Beyla while trolling through last.fm's pages (searching for Guinea, I think). It's a slamming djembe track, and what's better, the whole album is available on emusic (link here).
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beelzbubba wrote:
The rhythm section question--well, yes, there it is, isn't it? The common definition includes the pianist because at one time the pianist comped chords and helped propel the lead instruments, the main exception provided of course by pianists who were the lead.
I'm not historian, but I'd say that long about Bud Powell the piano supported the rhythm but also provided accents and fills--much as Kenny Clarke revolutionized time keeping in the heyday of bop, the pianist started assuming a larger role in a composition's execution.
So the arguments have posed an irreducible question--McCoy, Elvin, Jimmy or Herbie, Ron, and Tony. Many, like you, like me, pick on the basis of Jones alone. Throughout the seventies and eighties, I never really heard another drummer who could equal Elvin. I have always felt that Blakey was his equal and since the eighties, when Hamid Drake reached his prime, I have thought that Hamid is the most complete drummer/percussionist out there.
But put Hancock up against Tyner and I'm stymied. That Tyner is too blocky is a common criticism. I'm not in that camp and probably because i've sat literally over hhis shoulder (at the Jazz Showcase) and been amazed at the complexity of the polyrhythms he constructs--much as Jones did--that weave in and out of the tune. Hancock's compositions, like Shorter's, are often more cerebral and elegant (though not cold or dispassionate). Ron Carter is also more eloquent on bass than Garrison, but Garrison provided such a solid rock bottom and his flamenco touches knock me out.
Blue Note is the place where these rhythm sections in various configurations played behind Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, and Wayne Shorter among others. I'm soooo glad that I never have to choose, because there really is no better--they are part of our heritage and culture and both should be cherished and honored.
Schizophrenia is an amazing date and Spaulding was always a great addition to any lineup. Super Nova is another blockbuster (although I can't take the vocal interlude) and shows what the Davis band was exploring at that time with McLaughlin and adds in the Czech teenage phenomenon Vitous. If you don't have Infinite Search with Henderson, Hancock, McLaughlin and Chambers/Dejohnette, you are missing an indispensable part of that era's transitional music as it moved from post-bop toward fusion. My favorites are those that are still on the post-bop side of that equation, although I do like Weather Report up until (and including) Mysteriouus Traveler. Beginnning with Tale Spinning and Black Market, I am outside of the hallelujah chorus.
As far as Sanders, I cut him the same break as I cut most of the elder statesmen. Yes, their masterpieces are from some time ago, but they are still capable of some damn fine playing, and I do what little I can to help support them, since royal commissions are not part of our landscape. [album artist=Pharoah Sanders] Spirits[album] is one of the more recent ones where Sanders seems energized by his cohorts, in this case Adam Rudolph and Hamid Drake. Much of Sanders's recorded output is not up to the Impulse work or the 60s and 70s, but I still find it enjoyable in a world dominated by Coldplay, 50 Cent, and Beyonce.
Harold Land never did recieve his due, and there are probably hundreds more out there in the same boat. Hadley Caliman and Sonny Fortune come to mind. Land and Hutcherson recorded many dates together and some appeared under each man's name, but the results were consistently excellent. This Longineu Parsons is someone who evidently fell outside the orbit of the New York and Los Angeles tastemakers, Apparently he cut his teeth working with Cecil Taylor in the seventies, and his 1996 album Work Song is co-creditied to Sam Rivers. On that disk--and on the collection Spaced he shows his debt to Lee Morgan on Search for the New Land. All in all, a very worthwhile disk. -
talking_animal wrote:
What about Ed Blackwell and Charlie Haden? I find the both of them to play so melodically that they transcend the idea of rhythm. Especially fine are the Old and New Dreams records with Don Cherry and Dewey Redman.
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barewires wrote:
I think that there are quite a few elder statesmen of jazz that are still making vital music. Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp, Roscoe Mitchell, Peter Brotzmann, Andrew Hill, and Sam Rivers have kept chugging along, and a few such as Randy Weston and Charles Lloyd seem to be producing better stuff now than they did back in the good old days. I know what you are saying about musicians not having a reliable stream of income, but I'd be much more inclined to see these musicians live than buy a disc for simply sentimental reasons. And I agree, the worst thing every played by any of the people we have mentioned are better than the best thing ever done by the likes of Beyonce Knowles. But to me, Pharoah's drought is not related to a lack of energy. For instance, I have the collaboration that Pharoah Sanders did with the Moroccan musician Maleem Mahmoud Ghania and his crew. Pharoah's playing is energetic, but not at all in tune with what the africans are playing. They are all going in different directions at the same time. I think maybe Sanders doesn't really know what he wants to do and so just goes from thing to thing trying to find a place for himself.
I know that I was bit unfair regarding Tyner. He is no doubt a highly capable pianist who can play in a variety of styles. Nonetheless, I prefer what others were doing.
I had assumed that Susie Ibarra was your favorite of the contemporary jazz drummers, and then wham, you pull Hamid Drake on me. Well, I won't argue that at all. He is electrifying.
No I don't have Vitous' Infinite Search. I'll see if I can't track down a copy of that one.
One more thing is the question of whether the piano is part of the rhythm section. My answer is that it depends on the pianist. On the one extreme there are the Cecil Taylors and on the other hand there are the Bill Evans. One of my favorite pianists of all is Professor Longhair who isn't a jazzman at all. I can't get enough of that New Orleans rumba-funk-rhythm-and-blues thing. I remember reading something from Eddie Bo or Huey Smith about New Orleans piano, basically it came out of house parties and they generally played without a rhythm section so on the second line the pianist would kick the piano to get more rhythm out of it. -
beelzbubba wrote:
You got me there, Jonathan. Can I plead that I think of Haden & Blackwell as so integral to Ornette & Cherry's albums that I can hardly conceive of them as a rhythm section ?
Hamid will tell you that hours of listening to Blackwell helped him realize and incorporate the overhand style of rolls & fills that Blackwell himself pegged as coming from Baby Dodds. -
beelzbubba wrote:
Seconded, [user}barewires[/user]. I try to see these folks as often as I can live, but Ann Arbor is rarely on their path and I don't get to Chicago as often as I should. I have seen Pharoah live three times in the past ten years, and each time was rewarded with a spectacular show--and I know how that can be a crap shoot; Sanders is notoriously picky about reeds and a bad box can set him into an evening long funk.
I've seen Brotzmann live here a couple of times and mostly because the drum & bass has been Drake & Parker. I have not yet been able to figure the allure that Brotzmann has. When I've seen him it seemed like he has two speeds, on and off, no sense of dynamics, timing or relationship with the rest of the band. I have several recordings, too, an dso far his charm has eluded me. Taylor on the other hand is someone whose music becomes more and more open and available to me the longer I listen to him. He is truly a national treasure and of course will never be recognized as one outside the jazz community and even then argued about and honored only by a small subset.
The Maleem Mahmoud Ghania I think you can blame on the producer, Bill Laswell. If you listen to Ask The Ages, Axion Ambient, and the Ghania disk (and others that escape me right now), you'll find some of the same Pharoah lines note for note. I am not at all sure that Ghania and Sanders were in the same place at the same time--more likely is the Laswell tactic of overdubbing stuff in the can into multiple recordings.
Susie Ibarra is the bomb, for sure. But Hamid & I go back to the mid 70s when the Fred Anderson group would play Friday nights from midnight until 6 am and open the floor to anyone with the desire to join in from 3 am to 6. There was a small group of dedicated loyal followers who made the trek in from Dekalb, IL to Chicago every Friday for nearly two years and I was one of them--we moved back to Chicago during that time and helped Fred secure a new location when the old one suddenly closed. So I may be infatuated with drummers that have the stuff, but Hamid holds a special place with me and always will. -
barewires wrote:
I'm looking at the liner notes from Trance of the Seven Colors. It says it was recorded in a three day span in the city of Essaouira in Morocco, and there are photos of Sanders playing in Moroccan settings, but nothing of Sanders actually playing at the same time as Ghania's folks. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I'm not entirely convinced that Sanders' parts were assembled from other recordings. Honestly though, I don't know them well enough to say whether they were or weren't. So I'm not entirely sure what to think.
Brotzmann is a guy that I can like quite a bit but I really have to be in the right frame of mind. You are right about him having two speeds, off and on. I sympathize with your complaints, without entirely agreeing. I too saw him play in probably 1994 or so in Chicago with Drake and Parker. This would have been at the Hothouse. Parker at one point lodged his bow into the strings of his bass, and Drake played one piece with chains instead of sticks. Were you the one booing Brotzmann during his solos? On the internet humor does not always come across clearly so I tell you I am joking about the last part. It was a very, very memorable show. I have a few things by this trio and I like it quite well. On a potentially sadder note, a good friend of mine who went to the same show tells me that Parker has prostate cancer, although I haven't seen anything reputable on the topic.
By the way, the mosaic Carmell Jones collection is not too bad but not essential either, but it does contain an entire Harold Land album: Harold Land play Folk Songs, or something like that, it's got some very suprising renditions of folk classics like On Top Of Old Smokey. It too is good but not essential, but Land gets bonus points for having a very vivid imagination as to how to present material. -
beelzbubba wrote:
I based what I said about the Laswell/Sanders/Ghania recording from some ephemera that was floating around on the web circa 1999/2000. The Peace in Essaouira sax lines are nearly the same as ones on (recorded the same year) Ask the Ages--I think it is Who Does She Hope to Be? but it could be another. I don't think those are exact duplicates, but on several other compilations, Laswell digitally splices the Sanders lines into other compositions as he does with Shorter on the album Hallucination Engine and with Hancock on Funkcronomicon. I know that it says that Sanders and Laswell & Ghania's extended family all rocked out for three days with nothing but a digital recorder, and I'm willing to believe that they jammed hard. But I'm also willing to believe that the notoriously fussy Farrell Sanders of Little Rock, Arkansas recorded much of his contributions as solo sound explorations. They rarely seem tied to whatever else was going on, as you noted.
