Roger Kellaway Cello Quartet - Come To My Meadow

 I don't remember who recommended this record. I don't even remember why it stuck out in my memory but it must have because when I ran across it in the folk section at some off the beaten path music shop, a light went off and I took it home with me along with about a half dozen bluegrass records.
 Turns out that while I liked my hillbilly records the dude had soaked me on some records the were e-bayable for considerably less. My ignorance caught me off guard. And unfortunately I was less than happy with this as well, guilty by association.
 But time has change my feelings. This is a really nice record. Perfect for the backporch as the sun is setting, the embers from the grill are dying and all is at peace with the world. Kellaway is an accomplished pianist, the quartet is interesting in it's arrangement and there is a distinctively open folk feel to it after all, even if the knuckle head filed by cover only.

Come To The Meadow

1. Come To The Meadow

2. Chant D'Amour

3. Ballade

4. Seventide

5. Time

6. Arcades II (Stravinsky In Memoriam)

7. Mostly on a "D" String

8. Jorjana #7

Roger Kellaway - piano

Edgar Lustgarten - cello

Chuck Domanico - bass

Emil Richards - percussion

recorded Capitol Studios "A"...11/14/73

here

louis armstrong / sidney bechet with the clarence williams blue five

 Let us never forget where things started. These recordings are closing in on 90 years old. Goddamn if they aren't exciting still. If you are still in your seat by the time Papa De Dada comes on, check your pulse.
 The cover notes tell us that these recordings are Armstrong's first recordings on lead cornet just after leaving King Oliver and Sidney Bechet's first sides ever. It's not hard to see that this is where the great unison playing that was to become the staple of bebop had its roots.

1. Kansas City Man Blues

2. Wild Cat Blues

3. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues

4. O Daddy Blues

5. Pickin' On Your Baby

6. You've Got The Right Key But The Wrong Keyhole

7. Texas Moaner Blues

8. Cake Walking Babies From Home

9. Everybody Loves My Baby

10. Of All The Wrongs You Have Done To Me

11. Mandy Make Up Your Mind

12. I'm A Little Blackbird

13. Papa De Dada

14. Just Wait Till You See

15. Livin' High

16. Coal Cart Blues

Thomas Morris; c 1-4, Louis Armstrong; c 5-16, Sidney Bechet; as 1-4, 6-8, 12, 13, 16: cl 7; sarrusophone 11, Buster Bailey as 5,9,10,13-15; cl 16, possibly 14,15, Charlie Irvis; tb 1-15, Charlie Green; tb 16, Narcisse Buddy Christian; bjo, Clarence Williams; p, 

17; Bechet palys cl, sop, and again cl : 9,10 possibly Aaron Thompson, tb : 13: Bechet plays sop. and sarrusphone ; Bechet and Bailey both on soprano*

Once again my anonymous friend has come through and given us a much cleaner version than I originally presented. Please include him in your thanks.

CBS 63 092

Dave Liebman Plays Cole Porter

 I will be the first to admit that I am not usually a big fan of soprano sax. But...as I get older i find myself much more accepting and Liebman goes a long way in making that happen with the record.

 On the other hand, my adulation for Cole Porter tunes is widely known and so this record would get a pass on that fact alone. No other composer, to me remains so substantial even when these giant pop songs are broken down to the most deconstructed trio settings. A testament to that is this record. While never wandering far from the original melodies, sometimes you have to cock your ear to pick them out.

 Usually the higher register of the soprano sax grates on my nerves after a song or two, but for some reason that doesn't happen on these recordings. Perhaps because Liebman doesn't seem to focus the spotlight on himself and let's the trio share in the glory. Truly an lp whose sum is be greater than the individual parts.The inclusion of a couple of rarely heard songs is always a nice touch.

 And with Porter's birthday just around the corner, what better tribute?

Dave Liebman Plays Cole Porter

1. I Love You

2. Dream Dancing

3.  Begin The Beguine

4. I've Got You Under My Skin

5. True Love

6. Riding High

7. Why Do I Care?

8. It's Alright With Me

9. Get Out Of Town

10. In The Still Of The Night

Dave Liebman - soprano sax, flute

Steve Gilmore - bass

Bill Goodman - drums

recorded Snydersville, Pa 1998, released 1994

Red Records RR123236

Clarinet Summit - Southern Bells

Clarinet month continues! But we don't fall too far from the original tree. This is the studio follow up to the previous Summit lps...although it only  took 3 years for them to do so.
 Once again you get a couple of more Ellington tunes. Don't cry, they're pretty goddamn cool. The originals shine and would hold the stage if the Perdido duet wasn't so perfect.

1. Don't Get Around Much Anymore

2. Fluffy's Blues

3. I Want To Talk About You

4. Beat Box

5. Southern Bells

6. Perdido

7. Mbizo

Alvin Batiste - clarinet

John Carter - clarinet

Jimmy Hamilton - clarinet

David Murray - bass clarinet

Recorded 3/29/87 at Golden Thumbs Records, Atlanta Georgia

produced by David Murray

Black Saint vinyl  BSR 0107

Clarinet Summit - Vols. 1 & 2

 I'm sitting on back patio, pleasantly buzzed. Dark clouds are crawling over the mountain. Lighting and thunder announcing the imminent rain. I love an early spring thunderstorm. But there is something special when the music connects with the atmosphere and every thing just sounds...special.

This evening was one of those and these records were the soundtrack. Tonight I offer up both of the India Navigation lps in their unabridged form.

What is so freaking cool about these lps is the way that 3 younger musicians, all coming from different places in the idiom were able to lure an old master out of retirement.There are far to many highlights but a couple are so good it would be criminal to leave them unmentioned. For me, Murray's original solo piece is as cool as anything ever performed on bass clarinet. The Hamilton/Batiste duet on Honeysuckle Rose is a classic mentor - student outing, where everything comes full circle, brilliantly.
  Vol two approaches being a Duke tribute and yet you can almost feel the joy in the performers as everything falls so completely together swinging the the tunes they all grew up on. And just when you think you may have had enough... they reprise splendidly a near perfect improvisational piece.

 The clarinet is such a damn cool instrument that is so overlooked it's crazy. I'm thinking a might declare this the "Summer of Clarinet" and focus on posting great clarinet stuff for the next few months.*

Clarinet Summit - VolumeI

1.Band Intro

2. Groovin' High

3. The Jeep's Blues

4. Sweet Lovely

5. Sticks and Bones

6. Honeysuckle Rose

7. The Washington Square Park Episode

8. Clarifavors

Clarinet Summit - VolumeII

1. Mood Indigo

2. Night Mist Blue

3. Waltz A Minute

4. Creole Love Call

5. Solo and Ballad for Four Clarinets

6. Satin Doll

7. Clarifavors

Alvin Batiste - clarinet

John Carter - clarinet

Jimmy Hamilton - clarinet

David Murray - bass clarinet


IN-1062
IN-1067

* sure..... I will.

Shelley Manne - Hot Coles

Another crazee lp I dragged over from the CP blog. Shelly gathered up a bunch of mid '70's LA session men and turned out an lp of  Cole Porter arrangements that would not have been out of place on a nice space-age bachelor  pad recording. Spool thread on the reel to reel baby 20 years too late...



 This recording comes with permission from our sadly missed friend Arkadin. Swing cats, swing!!

1. From This Moment On
2. Easy To Love
3. Get Out Of Town
4. Begin The Beguine
5. Night And Day
6. All Of You
7. Love For Sale
8. In The Still Of The Night

Shelly Manne - drums, percussion
Tom Scott - flute, soprano sax
Oscar Brashear - trumpet
Tommy Tedesco - guitar
Victor Feldman - piano
Mike Wofford - electric piano
Chuck Domanico - electric bass
Mailto Correa, Moacir Santos - percussion

Flying Dutchman Records BDL1-1145
1975

Hannibal - The Angels Of Atlanta

This is the lp I promised a couple of posts back. One of those I found in the local junk shop (Gotta call a spade a spade here). Never the less I was quite happy to land this, an original German enja release.

Peterson's trumpet soars while accompanied by a fine, fine bunch of musicians. The addition of the Harlem Boys Choir adds to the grandiose feeling that pervades this release. At first I was a little put off by the many vocals but as I kept listening I began to understand how perfectly they fit in. Duke used vocals several times in the same manner making the song sound big and intensely soulful at the same time as they did here with "The Inner Voice". Another nice touch was the use of both cello and standard bass.

This is a record that I knew absolutely nothing about, had only a rudimentary knowledge of Peterson himself, but when I saw the band I know I should be listening to this record. My blind choice did not disappoint, and indeed while I was trying to whittle the guy down on the cost of several other records, I knew this would be worth every penny that he undervalued it...$5.00.

 1. The Angels of Atlanta

2. The Story Teller

3. The Inner Voice

4. Mother's Land

5. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson - trumpet

George Adams - tenor sax

Kenny Barron - piano

Diedre Murray - cello

Cecil McBee - bass

Dannie Richmond - drums

Pat Peterson - vocals

The Harlem Boys Choir directed by Walter Turnbull

enja 3085

Lee Konitz / Red Mitchell - I Concentrate On You

There are a bunch of great lps loaded up my Cole Porter blog. Some I never posted here because they didn't fit in or they may have been too readily available. I'm gonna keep that blog open and updated albeit at a snail's pace, but I am also gonna move some of the cooler shit over here.

If you didn't know about the CP blog but would like to, there is a link in the list to the right. It is open for the time being again.

On to the music...

I had been searching for this baby for quite sometime and wouldn't you know, between the time I located it and actually had it sent, someone slipped it into the blogosphere. C'est la Vie! (edit - wouldn't you know I ran across a copy in a small music store, all outta the way in Hayseed, NC. just a couple of weeks later.)

I know the cat that put it up recently (a great guy) and we both agreed that there was room for both. His, if you locate it, is a flac copy from a cd. Mine once again is mp3 from the lp spinning on my turntable as I type.

I love way way these two work on this record. I love that Konitz treats the alto almost like a tenor, giving way to slow languorous lines instead of quick flights usually associated with the smaller horn. This lp is as sophisticated as anything Porter portrayed. Both players take this to heart in the probing, sensuous lines that follow along closely with the original melodies. And yet they still manage to not sacrifice the irreverence and wit that Porter cultivated in his songwriting.

And let it be said that this version of "I Concentrate On You" is one of the great seduction tracks of all time. A sure winner any time, but best during the cool down.

Lee Konitz/Red Mitchell
I Concentrate On You
a tribute to Cole Porter

1. Just One Of Those Things
2. Easy To Love
3. It's Alright With Me
4. Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye
5. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
6. Love For Sale
7. In The Still Of The Night
8. Night and Day*
9. I Love You
10. I Love Paris
11. I Concentrate On You

Lee Konitz - alto sax
Red Mitchell - bass, piano*

Recorded 7/30/74, Copenhagen

IC 2018

Archie Shepp - Steam

As one of those dudes who scours around for records anywhere they may be lurking, it is finds like this that keep reminding me of why I do it. the other day I buzzed past a small "antique" shop that I see often but is rarely open. I have sifted through their decent pile of lps a couple of times to no avail and never saw anything that would have indicated any change in inventory, so I am not sure why I bothered to stop again. Just perhaps because it had been so long, or just karma, but stop I did. The owner did not recognize me and explained the records were a dollar apiece. And just like the last time I asked if he had anything that was "collectable". He directed me to a couple of cabinets that I had seen previously but this time he added a third. It was filled with the usual Beatles and crap that people think are worth something but lo and behold I found this lp. Actually I also found the next lp that I am gonna post as well, also on Enja.

This is Shepp at my favorite. Live. Stripped down, raspy and raw. I just love the way these guys tear into one of my favorite Duke pieces. I don't have any idea who these back up guys are but they're alright in my book. The only other two pieces on the lp are a smoking Shepp composition that lives up to it's name, and  piece written in appreciation of John C. Shepp handles it beautifully.

This was recorded at the East-West festival In Nuremberg, May 14th, 1976 ( was a senior in high school, and had just barely discovered Miles and Trane. Man, did I have a long way to go.)

1. Solitude

2. Steam

3. A Message From Trane

Archie Shepp - tenor sax, piano

Cameron Brown - bass

Beaver Harris - drums

enja 2076

Duke Ellington plays

Alright I know I've been a complete slacker lately, but honestly there is so much great music out there that it is difficult sometimes to offer something different. I'm hoping this all too short offering will keep the wolves at bay.
 In keeping with tradition, I'm offering you all this Duke Ellington 10"er. I know it is next to impossible to offer rare Ellington, the dude is well documented after all. Just the same, I have just shy of 100 Ellington lps and this is the only place I have all but 2 of these tracks. Of those two tracks, "It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream" melts me every time.

Duke Ellington plays

1. Hiawatha 

2. Minnehaha

3. It Shouldn't Happen To A Dream

4. Diminuendo In Blue

5. Happy Go Lucky Local - Pt 1.

6. Happy Go Lucky Local - Pt.2

7. Tulip Or Turnip

No recording credits are printed on the sleeve but I am sure some ambitious soul could easily dig these up on a Duke discography somewhere.

Allegro 4038