MetaChat - Don't mind me, again.

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01 February 2007

Don't mind me, again. →[More:]I'm playing a couple of hours of straight ahead jazz, for those so inclined. And thanks to a Very Special Lurking Listener in Memphis, TN, whose delicate ears pointed up a problem with my first program, this program has been gain normalized in advance using ReplayGain, so we shouldn't have surprise volume changes from track to track. Props to the uber coders at Nullsoft for the gain analysing plug-in for Winamp.

It's just you and me, kids, and a Shoutcast server between us. As an experiment, I'm gonna post some pre-written bits as we go, that I hope will be interesting to those of you listening (and respect the MeCha Radio guidelines), and that will still be interesting to those who might come to this thread later. Believe me, I have no desire to come off as a MeCha version of WKCR's erudite but frequently annoying Phil Schaap (although Schaap does have a lot of personal history and knowledge with New York jazz, which I can't claim), but otherwise, this is just Files Off My Hard Drive, isn't it?

So, let's see how it goes, and if anything I post, or that you kick in contributes to a conversation, great. That's the way radio used to work, before it got carried up to satellites and demographically analyzed, talkified, and franchised.

The intro for this set, "The Greeting" is from a later McCoy Tyner album, called Things Ain't What They Used To Be.

post by: paulsc at: 20:03 | 34 comments

#2 Big Paul

My name IRL is Paul, and yes, this is a track I play for myself frequently. Well, why not? Hard to beat the combo of John Coltrane and Kenny Burrell. It's off the 1958 album "Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane", which was maybe the last time Coltrane took second billing on a recording collaboration. What's nice about this cut is that the two front men sit down and give the rythym section some room, making it feel like a real group effort, instead of a showcase recording project. Tommy Flanagan's piano work is as tasteful as Bill Evans work would later prove to be behind Coltrane on Miles Davis' projects.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:06

#3 Caravan

Art Tatum was the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived. Well, sure, that's an opinion, but I'm in good company. A couple of minutes of Art Tatum in a set is a kind of blessing on the rest of it, I think. This track is from a compilation The Best of Art Tatum.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:20

#4 How Deep Is The Ocean?

This track holds some special memories for me, as it is one of the first things I heard off my Dad's jazz records, after I got big enough, as a kid, to be trusted to operate the record player. If anyone has literally "breathed" an appreciation of jazz into another person's heart, Ben Webster did it for me, through his horn. This cut is off the Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson album. Oscar Peterson is one of those rare talents that can be equally good supporting some one else out front, or fronting, himself. When I grow up, I'd like to be as gracious and deserving of the grace of others as Oscar Peterson.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:22

#5 I'm Just a Lucky So And So

Ramsey Lewis was "In" with The In Crowd back in the '60's. And Dr. Billy Taylor has been a performer, teacher, writer, and popularizer of jazz since about the time I knew what jazz was. This peice is from a 1989 album, which is just the two of them playing piano duets.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:25

#6 On Green Dolphin Street

So, have you ever seen a green dolphin? No? Me neither. I did see the film: Green Dolphin Street. But that's another matter, entirely. Milt Jackson and Oscar Peterson team up on this 1961 date, for a sweet old jazz standard, that's a favorite of many people, including me.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:29

#7 Lystero

A classic up tempo be-bop track by Kenny Burrell with a pretty melody, and Coltrane and Burrell trading solos and pumping out notes like Charlie Bird.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:37

#8 A Ballad

Tracks can be "just pretty" and still be historically significant, as this one is. Stan Getz blowing tenor sax with Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax, on a Gerry Mulligan composition, isn't from just one of those "jazz man X meets hipster Y" formula sessions that ran through some charts. It was a real collaboration, and a commercial success still widely collected. And at the same time, this is one of the prettiest ballads I know. To some extent, we owe it all to Norman Granz, who got these guys together for a recording date on his Verve Records label. Lou Levy on piano for this recording, contributes some of the "coolest" West Coast piano you'll hear. For all his foresight in arranging this and other collaboration projects for Verve, Norman Granz did jazz music an even bigger favor, as he worked tirelessly over many years, to produce the famous JATP (Jazz At The Philharmonic) series.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:43

#9 Love Theme from "Spartacus"

If you've never seen Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, you may have trouble appreciating Bill Evans quiet restraint on this theme, recorded in "January or February" of 1963"*, as Bill Evans was trying to return to recording after his bass player and friend Scott LeFaro's death. This was almost 4 years after Evans first came to national attention for his work with Miles Davis on the seminal "Kind of Blue". This tune was widely performed then, and it's still something of a "standard" that is recorded by others. Something pretty, and human, and maybe, to my ear at least, a man playing a kind of requiem for a friend he loved and missed.

* Although the album notes on which this track appears say simply "Evans (p. overdubbed) Rec. Jan. or Feb. 1963 in N.Y.", it doesn't seem to appear in some of the more exhaustive discographies for Evans.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:49

#10 Blue in Green

Forget his lamentable efforts in '70s "jazz fusion," forget his drug use and his difficult temperment, forget anything but "The Cool" Miles Davis evidenced here. It's enough to grant him entry into any reasonable Heaven. From the aforementioned "Kind of Blue" album.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 20:54

#11 Five Spot Blues

This is from the "Monk's Dream" album.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:04

#12 D-Natural Blues

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery is one of those albums that people who really like jazz tend not to listen to very much, maybe because they feel that it's over produced in spots. OK, maybe, but I love the Tommy Flanagan lead in on this track, and the clean down to earth playing by Wes Montgomery.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:05

#13 Milestones

Milestones, by all accounts, wasn't an easy album for Miles Davis to make, and this re-named title tune always seemed to me to contain all the reasons why. Be-bop rythyms cut with tempo break sections, overlayed with the improvised scales that would come to be called "modal" jazz, this tune is as much bridge between what Miles had been playing, and what he hoped to be playing, but hadn't quite all worked out yet. And yet it works. That's the genius of it.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:08

#14 This Can't Be Love

Same album credit as #4, just because I like the breathy, warm sound of Ben Webster's tenor sax. Oscar Peterson on piano again, too.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:14

This track is fantastic! Thank you.

posted by phoenixc 01 February | 21:15

You're welcome, phoenixc. It's the kind of sound that makes me wanna dance, although I dance pretty badly. How 'bout you?

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:18

This is a great set of songs, paulsc. It makes me nod my head.

(I figure you've read the Shoutcast requirements, right? Do you think it's permissible to play, say, three songs by the Thelonious Monk Quartet, then three songs by the Thelonious Monk Orchestra, then three Monk solo piano numbers?)

posted by box 01 February | 21:21

I can't help but tap my toes and bop along to the beat.

posted by phoenixc 01 February | 21:21

#15 Lush Life

This is a Billy Strayhorn tune that has become a jazz "standard." McCoy Tyner has recorded it several times, but I like this version a lot. You can really hear his big hands (the guy can span nearly 2 octaves with each hand, and has incredible finger independence), and feel the power and control with which he plays. Also from the 1990 album "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" cited above.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:24

"Do you think it's permissible to play, say, three songs by the Thelonious Monk Quartet, then three songs by the Thelonious Monk Orchestra, then three Monk solo piano numbers?)"
posted by box 01 February | 21:21

I think it would be, particularly if the tunes by each musician weren't all from the same album. And I think that's a great way to recap how a tune, or a sound, or a musician developed over time. Interesting idea for a set.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:26

I've listened from song one. I should get up and switch the laundry, but I'm mesmerized. Great stuff.

posted by LoriFLA 01 February | 21:27

#16 I'll Never Smile Again

Many people recognize Erroll Garner as the composer of "Misty," and he must have played "Misty" 10,000 times in his career. It's Erroll Garner playing "Misty" in that 1971 Clint Eastwood movie "Play Misty For Me" but personally, I think hearing Garner play a pretty tune like this gives you a much better sense of his sweet and intuitive style.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:29

"Do you think it's permissible to play, say, three songs by the Thelonious Monk Quartet, then three songs by the Thelonious Monk Orchestra, then three Monk solo piano numbers?)"
posted by box 01 February | 21:21

I think it would be, particularly if the tunes by each musician weren't all from the same album. And I think that's a great way to recap how a tune, or a sound, or a musician developed over time. Interesting idea for a set.
posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:26

Please don't. Since the royalties all go to the same place (and we do pay royalties), they're all considered the same artist.

Otherwise, a person could conceivably play 3 songs from every album in Barry Manilow's catalog, constituting an all-Barry broadcast. This will get us in hot water.

Please adjust the playlist accordingly.

posted by mudpuppie 01 February | 21:30

"... Great stuff."
posted by LoriFLA 01 February | 21:27

Thanks, LoriFLA. I hope I'm not gettin' between a Mom and her kid's laundry though. :-)

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:31

"... Please adjust the playlist accordingly."
posted by mudpuppie 01 February | 21:30

I guess that's the word on that, then. Thanks, mudpuppie.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:35

#17 Sweet Lorraine

Art Tatum again, from a 1943 "V-Disc" recording. "V-Discs" were a morale effort project sponsored by the U.S. War Department, in which musicians came in, recorded greetings to the troops in Europe and the Pacific, and made 12" 78 rpm records of popular tunes. The records were cheaply pressed in acetate, and sent by the thousands to USO's in Britain and Hawaii, and were played by Armed Forces radio and Voice of America. On this track, there's a little spoken intro and greeting to the troops abroad by Art Tatum, at the beginning, that seems at least as apropos today.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:36

#18 I'm Beginning to See the Light

Benny Carter was a horn player's horn player, and one of the few guys who ever recorded on both trumpet and saxophone. This track is from a live concert he played at Princeton on November 11, 1990 issued as "All That Jazz - Live at Princeton".

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:38

Just to be clear, part of our agreement with Shoutcast states that they can check any playlist for violations of the terms of use. If they happen to pull a playlist and see a string of 9 songs from any single artist -- even if some are from a quartet and some are from solo recordings -- it's going to jump out at them. That's what we need to avoid.

Just don't give them any obvious reason to come after us. If what box listed is what shows up on your playlist, it's going to look bad. If box was truly being hypothetical, then let's just avoid the problem ever coming up.

Thanks!

posted by mudpuppie 01 February | 21:41

#19 Bumpin'

This is one of Wes Montgomery's best known tunes, and is set here with a big studio strings arrangement, with lots of reverb, overdubbing and board work, making it sound like movie music. Times change, tastes change, I guess, but while the production sounds as dated as a time capsule's contents, Wes Montgomery's guitar work doesn't.

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:49

#20 Bye-Ya

Here's Thelonious Monk again with his Quartet from the "Monk's Dream" album I took "5 Spot Blues" from earlier. Good tune for wrappin' up a set, so, "Bye-Ya!" To recap, what we heard in this set was:

1. McCoy Tyner - The Greeting 2:27
2. John Coltrane/Kenny Burrell - Big Paul 14:05
3. Art Tatum - Caravan 2:38
4. Ben Webster - How Deep Is the Ocean? 2:35
5. Billy Taylor/Ramsey Lewis - I'm Just A Lucky So and So 4:36
6. Milt Jackson/Oscar Peterson - On Green Dolphin Street 7:30
7. John Coltrane/Kenny Burrel - Lyresto 5:43
8. Stan Getz - A Ballad 5:41
9. Bill Evans - Love Theme from "Spartacus" 5:09
10.Miles Davis - Blue in Green 5:37
11.Thelonious Monk Quartet - Five Spot Blues 3:16
12.Wes Montgomery - D-Natural Blues 5:24
13.Miles Davis - Milestones 5:46
14.Ben Webster - This Can't Be Love 9:49
15.McCoy Tyner - Lush Life 5:36
16.Erroll Garner - I'll Never Smile Again 5:32
17.Art Tatum - Sweet Lorraine 3:47
18.Benny Carter - I'm Beginning to See the Light 10:02
19.Wes Montgomery - Bumpin' 6:44
20.Thelonious Monk - Bye-Ya 6:02

posted by paulsc 01 February | 21:56

Lovely, paulsc. Thanks!

posted by box 01 February | 22:20

Otherwise, a person could conceivably play 3 songs from every album in Barry Manilow's catalog, ...
Surely nobody here would be that cruel, would they?

posted by dg 01 February | 22:25

Could I just point out what a great thread this was? paulsc deserves some kind of ovation. I'm sorry i wasn't around to listen.

posted by urbanwhaleshark 01 February | 23:07

Thanks UWS.

* paulsc poses in front of mirror, sucks in gut, intones with a straight face "I'd like to thank the Academy..." *

posted by paulsc 02 February | 01:01

paulsc, that is lovely and I am so sorry that I couldn't listen to it!

posted by By the Grace of God 02 February | 06:41

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