What are you listening to? August 2024

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Chick Corea - Dr. Joe (2007)

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The music here is as interesting as the cover is boring. :D

This is the first of five discs in a remarkable box set I found for sale on Facebook, of all places. :oops:

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Benny Goodman ~Yale Archives Vol. 6: Live at the Rainbow Grill (Released 1991)



Along with Zoot Sims and Doc Cheatham, there's a young Herbie Hancock on here.

By the way, to anyone interested, I have an extra copy of this with a different cover. It is on Music Masters and was manufactured for BMG Direct Marketing.

If anyone here wants it, simply send me a DM with your address, and it is yours.
 
By the way, to anyone interested, I have an extra copy of this with a different cover. It is on Music Masters and was manufactured for BMG Direct Marketing.

If anyone here wants it, simply send me a DM with your address, and it is yours.
That’s a wonderful BG collection. I managed to track ‘em all down a few years ago,
 
Alice Coltrane - The Carnegie Hall Concert (rec. 1971, rel. 2024 :mad:)

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Here's another essential recording that somehow got lost in the vault for more than half a century. Producer Ed Michel recorded this show professionally for Impulse! on February 21, 1971. But the suits at parent company ABC blocked its release. Doubtless avant garde jazz by a Black woman was not a high priority.

This show was a benefit for the Integral Yoga Institute. Along with Coltrane, the program also included Laura Nyro and The (formerly Young) Rascals, a mixed bag for sure. Four years after John's death, Alice found herself performing with many of the same adventurous musicians as her late husband, Impulse! stalwarts all. This show featured her piano, harp and percussion with an all star group including:

Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp
(2 saxes :banana::banana:)

Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee
(2 bass players! :cheer::cheer:)

Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis
(2 drummers! :clap::clap:).

If you can handle John's later work, this show will be right up your alley. In four long selections, these veteran improvisers really stretched out, much to the delight of the audience.

:5.0: on the Sam-O-Meter.

Laura Nyro's performance from that evening is here:


Nothing from The Rascals has surfaced as yet.
 
Odetta - Blues Everywhere I Go (1999)

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:confused: Lost In The Vault :confused:

In contrast to many of my LITV titles, I know exactly why this album was exiled. As a fan of her early folk-tinged work on Vanguard, I wasn't ready for the 69-year old veteran to adopt a full-throated blues style ala Bessie Smith. Spinning this one again now, I can really appreciate the patina of wisdom that time added to her voice.

For source material, Odetta reached back to the foremothers like Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey and Thelma Love, as well as Big Bill Broonzy and Leadbelly. Dr. John’s piano accompanies her on one song. But the rest of the album features a high-powered electric blues band consisting of Seth Farber on piano, Jimmy Vivino on guitar, Paul Ossola on bass and Shawn Pelton on drums. The singer and the musicians obviously both drew a lot of energy from each other in the studio, and the results are captured in impeccable sound quality that bursts from the speakers.

:5.0: on the Sam-O-Meter. Autumnal music at its best.
 
^
Yikes! George is still in the queue. :axo:

Harmonious Wail - Nonchalant (2002)

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:confused:Lost In The Vault:confused:

I received a promo of this album some time ago and somehow it drifted into oblivion. I'm thrilled that it resurfaced because there are no finer examples of contemporary French cafe swing with an Americana spin. According to their eponymous website,

The heart of the Wail is Sims Delaney-Potthoff, a mandolin virtuoso, and vocalist, Maggie Delaney-Potthoff, vocalist extraordinaire, whose percussive instrument of choice is a cardboard box (but who can also rock almost any household object), and they round out the trio with a world-class bassist.

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Of the generous 15 songs included here, three are Django Reinhardt covers, but the album avoids tedium with a wide-ranging selection of other tunes from "On The Street Where You Live" (my favorite) to Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry" to a 6 minute jam on "Dark Eyes". Sims and Maggie are still at it after 30 years, with lots of dates remaining this year as well as a tour to Ireland and Scotland next year.

:5.0: on the Sam-O-Meter.
 
Ella Fitzgerald - Live In East Berlin 1967 (2023)

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The Lost Recordings is a European reissue label specializing in performances for radio broadcast from the 1950's and 60's. Most of their output is classical but they have released several interesting jazz titles. This notable show came about by accident while Ella was touring Europe with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. She had a free day after a January 1967 gig in West Berlin so her promoter booked her with a trio on the other side of the Wall. For this release, the producers put together two incomplete tapes to reconstitute the full show.

Jimmy Jones (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass) and Sam Woodyard (drums) are more muscular than her usual trio led by Ellis Larkins. This suited the jazz starved denizens of Stalinallee, whose boundless enthusiasm inspired Ella to a higher energy performance than usual for this period. Scat vocals, blues, standards and a couple of contemporary songs made for a full program to enliven a cold, drab evening in Walter Ulbricht's workers paradise.

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:5.0: on the Sam-O-Meter.
 
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