heavyp
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by heavyp on Sept 29, 2017 22:49:28 GMT
resurrecting this post and almost falling off my chair... ;-D among the hundreds of jazz albums i listened to, i remember one that really infuriated me because it was far beyond what i expected and i just couldn't apprehend it for what it was, it was out of my comfort zone hence frustrating. it's marc johnson's bass desires (first album). i wondered how these genius musicians could produce such lifeless music. it took me a while to elevate myself to their cloud.
i need to adress the KOB matter as it's quite impossible for me to understand/acknowledge Greg's statement. KOB is probably - like the way it is for millions of music lovers - THE album which changed my perception of music and opened my mind/heart to jazz 40 years ago and counting, as i still do listen to it, on any available format, from mono 6-eyes to streaming - depends where i am and what i do - at least once a week.
at 15, discovering at once miles, coltrane, evans, adderley was a revelation, an epiphany, a life-changing experience. there are plenty of classics, mind-blowing records that impressed me and helped me reaching next levels but KOB is pure DNA.
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Post by sztiv on Sept 30, 2017 10:37:22 GMT
Bop Be is an album I've been carrying about for 30 years that I've only just begun to appreciate. Recent listening to Motian and Haden encouraged me to try again with Bop Be and now I'm rather enjoying it.
I have nothing to say about KOB because I've don't have a copy and to the best of my knowledge I've never listened to it. Of course such is its ubiquity that much like Adderley's Somethin' Else which I recently acquired, I'm sure I know KOB really well without ever having listened to it formally.
But I'm fascinated to read the discussion you were having about race and records that were created to appeal to specific consumers. It's also great to read a post that acknowledges the vital role played by Jewish people in the development of jazz, although the same is practically true for the entire western entertainment industry.
I can only add a couple of anecdotes here.
Firstly I'm reminded of what Herbie Hancock said when I saw him on his Gershwin concert tour. He said that you can trace the origins of almost all popular music to the blues and George Gershwin.
I currently live in Bristol. A port since the middle ages when it traded predominantly with Ireland, Spain and France, Bristol then became a major centre for the north Atlantic slave trade. They used to make a lot of cigarettes and chocolate bars here.
My wife and I walk our dogs beside the river Avon to a pub just outside the city limits close to a white working class suburb. Recently we've stopped using the pub as it's become increasingly obvious that many of its clientele are nasty ignorant racists. Nothing new here, you can hear stories like this all over.
But what I can't understand is this. Last summer they organised a party at the pub with "live" music. There must have been about 250 people, all of them white, which isn't a problem as it's a white neighbourhood. But the bloke singing along to pre recorded backing tracks was a black man and 90% of the songs he performed were reggae, soul and disco. I kid you not the place was rocking. Everyone sang along and everyone seemed to know all the words.
I'm just left standing there scratching my head in bewilderment.
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heavyp
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by heavyp on Sept 30, 2017 14:04:38 GMT
Bop Be is an album I've been carrying about for 30 years that I've only just begun to appreciate. Recent listening to Motian and Haden encouraged me to try again with Bop Be and now I'm rather enjoying it. I have nothing to say about KOB because I've don't have a copy and to the best of my knowledge I've never listened to it. Of course such is its ubiquity that much like Adderley's Somethin' Else which I recently acquired, I'm sure I know KOB really well without ever having listened to it formally." Bop Be is one among others fine abc/impulse 80's recordings of KJ and his "other" band. "blackberry winter" being the kind of lovely ballad only KJ can play and get away with. from this era, i prefer Byablue though at the time i was more into his ECM productions. now i tend to prefer the impulse years as KOB was one if not my very first jazz record, you'd understand how a seasoned jazz fan NOT having ever listened to it seems to me rather odd and almost beyond comprehension. no judgment here, but i encourage you to do yourself a favor. it is - before its classic status- an extraordinary piece of modern jazz, which has actually very little in common with "somethin' else' - except for its timeline and line-up. actually, KOB has very little in common with any other mile's album, thanks to Bill Evans' input.
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Post by sztiv on Sept 30, 2017 16:09:48 GMT
as KOB was one if not my very first jazz record, you'd understand how a seasoned jazz fan NOT having ever listened to it seems to me rather odd and almost beyond comprehension. no judgment here, but i encourage you to do yourself a favor. I intend to buy it and listen to it and I'm absolutely certain that I'll like it. Maybe that's one of the reasons I haven't yet done so. In any case Someday My Prince Will Come is the one I'm looking for first.
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Post by gregorythefish on Sept 30, 2017 16:57:37 GMT
heavyp, yeah you are definitely the rule with regards to KOB, and i am the exception. i listen to music in a weirdly mechanical order which has more to do with OCD issues than anything else but either way, whenever KOB comes up as an option in my rotation, digitally or on vinyl, i listen to it, which is about once a month or so. i always feel the same way.
some classics don't click with everybody. but it isn't bad at all. i just don't like it. important distinction.
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heavyp
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by heavyp on Sept 30, 2017 20:43:32 GMT
heavyp, yeah you are definitely the rule with regards to KOB, and i am the exception. i listen to music in a weirdly mechanical order which has more to do with OCD issues than anything else but either way, whenever KOB comes up as an option in my rotation, digitally or on vinyl, i listen to it, which is about once a month or so. i always feel the same way. some classics don't click with everybody. but it isn't bad at all. i just don't like it. important distinction. hi Greg, don't get me wrong. i have no issue with you not liking it. it's more what you say to justify your point i have a hard time to deal with. ma ybe all the reasons that make me love KOB so much are the very ones that turn you off, meaning we're standing miles apart on jazz turf, which is totally ok. it seems you enjoy Jimmy Smith and organ a lot, whereas the instrument itself - xcept for some occasional Larry Young, is almost unbearable to me. no big deal.
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Post by alunsevern on Oct 1, 2017 10:13:08 GMT
There are certainly some records that I 'save' for special occasions -- by which, I mean occasions when there is no possibility of my own inattention or poor mood or whatever interfering with the experience. KIND OF BLUE definitely falls into this category. I treat it with the same respect -- and caution, I suppose -- that I ŵould Bach or Beethoven: I play it when I know I am equal to the task
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Post by gregorythefish on Oct 1, 2017 14:41:40 GMT
oh, i didn't infer any malice, heavyp, we're good. yeah, my reasons aren't popular, but they are my honest reasons. pick any other universally lauded classic, though, and i'm right there agreeing. i don't know if we are miles apart (yuckyuckyuck ) but i do like organ. i'm kind of a sucker for it, honestly. have you ever heard "the philosophy of urso" or quinichette's "the vice pres"? both compendia of the respective great players and both have a few old-timey tenor-organ duets which are truly magical if you ask me. but i also like larry young! fun fact, i once scored "lawrence of newark" at a rummage sale for a dollar!
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