Comprehensively chronological in approach, Classics caters specifically to the obsessive-compulsive jazz fan. This Freeman compilation loosely covers a decade of the underrated saxophonist’s recorded output and the resulting cross-section makes for a fascintating repast. Most appealing are the eleven trio sides, which (surprisingly for the era) dispense with bassist and find Freeman in the stark company of pianist Jess Stacy and drummer George Wettling. He sounds a little gangly in spots, but the pared down setting also applies a rare (again for the era) microscope to his diagonal phrasing and limpid tone, both of which would influence the Oval Office-occupying Lester Young. Of the other odds and ends, four tracks team him with boisterous trumpeter Bunny Berigan in a quintet and another four feature him in an octet that includes Bobby Hackett and Pee Wee Russell playing a convincing hybrid of Dixieland and swing. Two novelty tunes stand out too: Red McKenzie singing “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” with gender specificity that intimates homoerotic overtones and the just plain crackpot “Private Jives” where vocalist Minerva Pious and Freeman revel in a slapstick skit of multiple personalities. The mighty Joe Milazzo hipped me to this set years back and it still finds its way into my occassional rotation when the taste meter tips toward swing tenor. Cast that ballot for Bud!
Posted by derek on April 1, 2008 1:59 AMI'm a fan of Pee Wee Russell, whom I only half-expected to see come up when I clicked the link for "Ask Me Now." :)
Not so much Bud Freeman. His sound is what I would describe as "tubby." Kind of hollow in the middle. A similar tone worked for Lester, but Lester had such far-reaching melodic ideas and that incomparable phrasing/rhythmic sense. Not so Freeman. Plus he inevitably suffers distinguishability problems when surrounded, as he often was, by pointy individualists such as Russell, Hackett, and Teagarden.
Geek Korner: Minerva Pious was the voice of "Mrs. Nussbaum" on Fred Allen's "Allen's Alley" radio segments. Her signature greeting to Allen was celebrated in paraphrase by Thomas Pynchon in Gravity's Rainbow thus: "You were ekshpecting maybe Lessie?" (see http://odzilla.jot.com/WikiHome/Contents/Part%201.%20Section%207)
Posted by: djll at April 1, 2008 10:04 AMNo relation.
Posted by: pdf at April 1, 2008 11:54 AMApologies, Tom. My Pee Wee prose got zapped somehow despite a presumed potency on my part. Wrote up Ask Me Now! a couple weeks ago at work, emailed it to myself, and now can’t seem to find it in the Hotmail Inbox. Rather than fumble through a re-write, I figured I’d try to foist off the Freeman (the welcome Phil drive-by makes that choice worthwhile alone).
You have a talent for coming up with tone descriptive that stick in my cranium, both because I disagree w/ them and because they’re so vividly memorable. Still haven’t excised that crack about Willie Smith and the acetylene-torched submarine hull from my brain. Now comes “tubby”… I think I hear what you’re saying, but once again the slander sensors are sending signals. Part of what’s so great about the trio sides here is that there’s no place for him to hide. It’s just him and the rhythm w/ the extra peril of a sans-bass setting & I think he does pretty well considering.
Posted by: derek at April 1, 2008 2:24 PMDerek -- for at least a couple of minutes there, the Ask Me Now! graphic was showing in the Album of the Week slot. You've got some weird, pervasive gremlins over there at BagHeadQtrs.
As for the antediluvian Freeman, it's less the tone than the rhythmic sense I don't dig. But I'm picky when it comes to saxophones, since there are so goddamm many out there polluting the soundspace. I'm not all that crazy about Chu Berry's phrasing, either. (Did I say that about Willie Smith? I remember the Zorn comment, but not that one you mention)
Sorry about the bad link in the first post to those multitudes who clicked on it. I think the % signs are the problem.
Posted by: djll at April 1, 2008 5:28 PMAs much as I’d like to pawn it off on pernicious Bags gremlins, that Pee Wee tease is purely my fault. I posted the covershot prior to realizing that the accompanying text was AWOL.
Again, I hear you on Bud. His occasional awkwardness of phrasing was what I was trying to get at with the admittedly vague adjective “gangly”; we just disagree as to the degree.
iirc, the choice Willie Smith dig was made here. Once again, disagree w/ the sentiment, but the imagery is inspired.
Curious about your takes on the ill-fated Brew Moore and Steve White.
Posted by: derek at April 2, 2008 7:38 AMI've heard little Brew Moore and nothing by Steve White.
BTW I used to own an LP of Pee Wee's "Ask Me Now!" It was not as interesting as I'd hoped. But here and there in Russell's post-Condon catalog are some gems. The get-together on Candid with Coleman Hawkins and Bob Brookmeyer has some fantastic stuff on it.
Posted by: djll at April 2, 2008 1:39 PMClick on White's name above for a taste. He’s kind of a goofy dude: heavy Pres patina along w/ the Beats, the latter crew coming through in the mid-tune “poetry” asides on some of his performances.
I like Ask Me Now! a lot, but agree that it’s hardly a radical record. The Candid is an all-star outing for sure, but his meeting w/ Giuffre on Atlantic strikes me as a bit of a missed opportunity. Some of his best later small group stuff I’ve heard is on that Savoy set w/ the clarinet paint tube cover where he shares the frontline w/ Ruby B. They stretch out & while the program is predictable, his eccentricities get a good airing.
Posted by: derek at April 2, 2008 2:12 PMThanks, Derek, that White man's music was wild. I also need to get more of Mr. Braxton's fave post-Prez tenor, Warne Marsh, in my ears.
Funny, I realize I have that Bud Freeman session with Bunny Berigan on the Mosaic set dedicated to that boozy, blowsy trumpeter. It's a challenging set, what with all those mind-rapingly dire vocals by Chick Bullock, Smith Ballew, Buddy Clark, etc, etc. Jeepers creepers, it's a slog.
I still haven't checked out Ruby Braff. He's somewhere down the list, after Matt Davies, Leonel Kaplan, Mazen Kerbaj, Masafumi Erzaki, Ruth Barberan, Sei Miguel, Sébastien Cirotteau - and Choi Sun-Bae (actually Al Harth sent me an excellent solo disk by Sun-Bae just recently).
Posted by: djll at April 2, 2008 5:28 PMTom, the name is Ezaki, and by all means check him out.
I read a great Braff essay by Balliett years ago, moved me to give him a listen at a time when I was quite the free-jazz-only snoot.
Marsh is the Marianas Trench, as in DEEP. It's too bad so much of his stuff is so scarce these days.
Big fan of Braff here. He’s one of those guys who was predictable, but also highly reliable, and one who actually got even better with age. He had a habit of taking part interesting ensembles, several bass-free trios (the one w/ Mel Powell that recorded for Vanguard is pretty great). Later, his own trio w/ guitar and bass backing (inspired, iirc, by Chet Baker’s Steeplechase sides using the same). Prolific runs on Arbors and Concord. I have about a dozen and can’t recall a bum date in the batch. Some good stuff on the Columbia Small Group Swing set from Mosaic too, just getting reacquainted with that this week after scoring a generously priced copy.
Jesse, is that Braff essay perusable in Bailett’s Collected Works?
Posted by: dere at April 3, 2008 6:38 AMI highly recommend the Warne Marsh/Red Mitchell duos. You can get them on emusic now for not much.
Posted by: damon Smith at April 4, 2008 7:28 AMAll this talk of Pee Wee, and I found a used copy of the Commodore collection "Jazz Original" last night. :):):)
Then, I ran across a filesharing blog that's posted the Mosaic Complete Atlantic Tristano/Marsh/Konitz set:
http://vanishyourself.blogspot.com/
get it while it's available... the Mosaic set's long OOP.
(ps. anybody know why Rapidshare downloads have gotten so damn slow?)
Posted by: djll at April 4, 2008 10:05 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................