Way too busy at the moment to blog, but here's a quick post.
This song is kinda perfect - I know it's been revived a lot, but I keep coming back to it. I'd associated the song "Send In The Clowns" with washed-out cabaret singers on daytime talk shows until I heard Lorez Alexandria's magnificent version.
I've been replacing all the dead BooMp3 players - I think (I hope!) I'm about halfway through ... arrrgghh.
So in the meantime, a couple of recommendations
GREAT 1969 bootleg of the Bobby Hutcherson-Harold Land Quintet over at Katonah's Private Press, There's also another live session featuring the same players recorded in Antibes a few days before Go grab themand check out Katonah's other wonderful music.
Also :
I spent a day over at Blaxploitation Jive linking up their Marvin Gaye discography. A few gems and rarities uncovered along the way.
If you're a jazz person who originally came from soul-funk and haven't checked out Marvin for some years, you might have missed some more recent releases from jazz crooner Marvin.
"Marvin Gaye at the Copa" was recorded in the late 60s but not released until 2005. Check out his version of "Reza".
Marvin went through a stage in the 60s where he really wanted to escape pop-soul and turn himself into someone like Nat King Cole. He recorded an album called "Romantically Yours"which Motown shelved at the time.
In the 70s he went back to the tapes and re-did the vocal tracks, using the multi-tracked, more poignant style he'd developed over albums like "What's Going On" , the Leon Ware-composed "I Want You" etc.
After his death Motown threw out "Romantically Yours" to cash in, then finally in 1997 they released "Vulnerable", featuring the re-done 70s vocals. It's worth checking out.
Bacoso's been posting some great Eddie Palmieri over at OIR which has encouraged me to drag out my latin albums again .... Eddie's a genius and a revolutionary giant. Latin had never seen harmonies like this before - Palmieri pushed at both the latin boundaries and the jazz boundaries at the same time without letting them wash each other out.
Palmieri's great early 70s albums like "Superimposition" and "Justicia" began to mix up genres in a way that reflected the cultural gumbo of New York itself. He began to really stretch his own boundaries in the studio with 'The Sun Of Latin Music"in 1973, particularly with the sprawling 15 minute "Un Dia Bonito", which begins with atmospheric textures and dramatic pacing, then works through an extraordinary, almost classical cross-harmonic brass buildup before morphing into a latin stormer. (I've added this as a bonus track in the comments). The album netted him his first Grammy award, which was in fact the first-ever Latin Grammy.
Later in 1973 he released "Sentido", which in tracks like "Condiciones que Existen" began to incorporate the funk textures from the album by his "Harlem River Drive" project, once again a distinctly New York cultural stew that can also be heard on the live "Sing Sing" albums from 1971, and influences other live recordings like the "University Of Puerto Rico" album.
'Cobarde' excerpt
Less funk and more cuban textures in this album from 1974, but it's still from the period when Palmieri had most of his considerable irons in the fire at the same time, moments of descarga - listen to everyone go crazy in the 12-minute standout track "Cobarde"; piano atmospherics and experimentation in "Random Thoughts"; percussion to die for in "Oyelo Que Te Conviene".
'Resemblance' excerpt
There's the salsa of "Un Puesto Vacante" with Lalo Rodriguez tearing up on the vocals, some boogaloo strains in "Kinkamache", and finally jazz and even big band textures in "Resemblance". That last track has quite a different lineup of jazzers including Ron Carter, Jeremy Steig, Steve Gadd, and Eddie Martinez on the rhodes.
'Kinkamache' excerpt
And all the way through there's Eddie himself, always unexpected and exploratory in his piano progressions, and writing incendiary brass parts like no-one else can. He was apparently never fully satisfied with getting this album finished, but Coco Records put it out anyway - thus the title. He won his second Grammy award with this one.
WAV and 320 MP3 versions of "Unfinished Masterpiece" are in the comments, also a bonus of the aforementioned track "Un Dia Bonita" from "The Sun Of Latin Music".
Also check out the discography below for 53 more Eddie Palmieri-related albums.
MUSICIANS Eddie Palmieri - piano and leader Lalo Rodriguez - lead vocal Victor Paz - trumpets Barry Rogers - trombones and tenor tuba Nicky Marrero - timbales & percussion Tommy "Chuckie" Lopez Jr - bongo Eladio Perez - conga Jerry Gonzalez - conga on "Cobarde" Polito Huerta, Eddie "Gua-Gua" Rivera, Andy Gonzalez - bass Ronnie Cuber - baritone sax, soprano sax & flute Mario Rivera - tenor & baritone Sax Lou Orenstein - tenor sax Bobby Porceli & Lou Marini - alto sax Peter Gordon - french horn Tony Price - tubaAlfredo de la Fe - violin Harry Viggiano - electric guitar Jimmy Sabates, Willie Torres, Ismael Quintana - coro
Guest musicians on "Resemblance" :
Eddie Martinez - electric piano Jeremy Steig - flute solo Ron Carter - acoustic bass Steve Gadd - drums Mike Lawrence - flugelhorn Ronnie Cuber - baritone solo Ed Byrne - trombone Lynn Welshman - trombone
PRODUCTION and ARRANGEMENTS Eddie Palmieri - arrangement, theories and structure Rene Hernandez - arrangements Barry Rogers - arrangement on "Cobarde" Eddie Martinez - arrangement on "Resemblance" Harvey Averne - producer
Great lush soul album from Leon Ware featuring his usual top-notch vocals and songwriting. I wrote an extended history of Leon's work in the "Rockin' You Eternally" post, so have a read there, where I've just had fun updating about ten links! I could only find this album on one of those 'give-me-a-rare-album-in-return' blogs, so I thought i'd rip my own copy and add a discography.
Anyway, here's an edited excerpt from the big Leon Ware post relating to this album :
Best known for his classic album "Musical Massage"and his composition of Marvin Gaye's entire album "I Want You", Leon Ware released the self-produced "Inside Is Love", in 1979. It's a generally uptempo collection of soul numbers like "What's Your Name", and a faster version of "Inside Your Love" than the version he'd worked on with Minnie Ripperton on her album"Adventures In Paradise".
Notably, with "Love Is Such a Simple Thing", he began a collaboration with Brazilian legend Marcos Valle, who was exploring soul textures at the same time as Leon was reaching into brazilian harmonic changes. Valle began to feature Portugese versions of their collaborations on albums like 1981's "Vontade de Rever Voce" and 1983's "Marcos Valle".
Hope you enjoy this one.
TRACKLIST
01 'What's Your Name' (4:10) (Leon Ware)
02 'Inside Your Love' (4:35) (Minnie Ripperton - Leon Ware - Dick Rudolph)
03 'Love Is A Simple Thing' (3:31) (Marcos Valle - Robert Lamm)
04 'Small Café' (3:43) (Leon Ware - Ron Roker)
05 'Club Sashay' (4:17) (Leon Ware - Melissa Manchester)
06 'Try It Out' (3:56) (Leon Ware - Allee Willis)
07 'Love Will Run Away' (4:36) (Leon Ware - Elkie Brooks)
08 'On The Island' (5:24) (Leon Ware - Adrienne Anderson)
09 'Hungry' (3:56) (Leon Ware - Adrienne Anderson - Dave Blumberg)
MUSICIANS Guitars - David T Walker, Wah Wah Watson, Kevin Moore, Bruce Fisher Bass - Eddie Watkins, Scott Lipsker Piano, Electric Piano - Sonny Burke Rhodes and vocals - Leon Ware Synthesiser - Pete Robinson Drums - Ed Green, Jeff Holman Singers - Maxine Waters, Julia Waters, Owen Waters, Deborah Thomas, Melissa Manchester Percussion - Paulinho Da Costa, Holden Raphael Solos - Plas Johnson (tr. 3,5,7); Deborah Thomas (tr 1)
On "Small Cafe" : Chris Rae - guitar Graham Jarvis - Drums Frank McDonah - bass Criss Hall - piano Leon Ware - rhodes
PRODUCTION DETAILS
Producer - Leon Ware for LW Productions Track 4 produced by Leon Ware and Ron Roker Producer - Leon Ware Arranged By - David Blumberg , Gene Page (tracks 2-3) , Sonny Burke (tracks 4-5) Recording Engineer - George Sloan Second engineers - Ross Pallone, Ron Garrett, Jane Clarke, Tony Autore Mixing Engineer - Cal Harris Tracking Studio - Hollywood Sound Recorders Vocal studio - Black Orpheus Recording Orchestration Studio - A&M Recording Studios Mixing - Motown Recording Studios Matrix# FAB 8500-A / FAB 8500-B (P) 1979, T.K. Productions, Inc. Art Direction / cover concept - Mike Doud Photography - Jeffrey Scales
Special thanks to : Ross Regan, Ron Strasner, Cholly Bassoline, Ed Mills (for creative assistance), Carol Cassano, Eduardo Sayad, and all the other people along the way ..
Rip by Simon666 Pics from Discogs Albums in post text from : Blak's Lair, Point3Recurring, The Bossa Blog, and Regalame Esta Noche. Please thank these guys if you grab their albums.
WAV / MP3 in COMMENTS in comment #6 (2nd WAV link fixed now)
Back : Kenny Barron, Larry Ridley, Freddie Waits.Front : James Moody
"Dreams" excerpt
"Morning Glory" excerpt
"Wave" Excerpt
Although James Moody is predominantly famous as a long time saxophonist for Dizzy Gillespie and as the composer of "Moody's Mood For Love" - check Moody himself singing it at that link - he's enjoyed a career as a leader in his own right for over sixty years and is still going strong.
The clip above is an interview with 82 year old Moody, shot in August this year by the people from Blackademics("the premiere online roundtable for young black thinkers"). While he eats his soup, Moody talks about his first musical collaborations while stationed in the Air Force in 1943; his disenchantment with racism in the USA which caused him to move to Europe for several years; contemporary racism; and bebop, swing and musical evolution. He finishes by opining “When you stop growing, you’re through”.
JAMES MOODY & the early 1970s
While Moody's albums had played around the edges of bebop, in the 1970s he both embraced and influenced the emerging paths being taken by his collaborators in structure, source and instrumentation - not travelling deep into the avante-garde, but always looking beyond jazz's perceived boundaries.
1970's wistful and laid-back "Heritage Hum" saw Moody turning more to his flute alongside his better-known tenor and alto saxaphone, at the same time as his harmonic structures in some tracks began to journey below the U.S. border.
After recording the relatively straight-ahead "Too Heavy For Words" with Al Cohn in 1971, he released "The Teachers" (1971), on which he began to embrace soul jazz, funk and some New Orleans-tinged blues elements, a smorgasbord that seemed to either reflect or grow from Dizzy Gillespie's fusions on Perception Records at the time, albums such as "The Real Thing" in which many of the same players took part.
Fellow Gillespie comrade Mike Longo, who'd been on "Heritage Hum", also brought Moody on board for his '72 album "Awakening", which furthered some of the textures established on "The Teachers" , particularly pushing up the funk quotient by incorporating Alex Gafa's wah-wah guitar.
The soul jazz factor came to the fore on Moody's first Muse record in 1972, "Never Again", with his tenor sax working hard against Mickey Tucker's great hammond organ work on tracks like "Freedom Jazz Dance".
"Feelin' It Together" was recorded on January 15th, 1973; and represents another stage in the type of growth he speaks of above.
The album opens by looking back to the players' bebop roots with a complex, frenetic nine-minute rendition of "Anthropology", composed by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Walter Bishop, originally derived from a bebop variation of "I Got Rhythm". Moody soars on alto sax here, trading solos with Kenny Barron's acoustic piano and Larry Ridley's bass, while drummer Freddie Waits scats around Ridley's insistent walking improvs.
While the title of his previous album "Never Again" had apparently referred to his desire to stick to tenor playing from now on, "Feelin' It Together" features Moody on tenor, alto and flute for two tracks each.
Keyboardist Kenny Barron was ten weeks away from recording his debut album "Sunset to Dawn", and that album's references to latin rhythm and brazilian harmonic structures can be felt here in nascent form in his two compositions, "Morning Glory" and "Dreams", both of which feature his spacious rhodes work.
"Dreams" excerpt
Moody's flute work is superb on "Dreams", with finely controlled and varying tremelo that initially engages directly with the inbuilt tremelo on Barron's rhodes, working around the rhodes' metered pulse with subtle variations - dancing with the machine, if you like. Likewise, his alto sax work on Barron's "Morning Glory" sits above the warm bed of rhodes chords in a whisper-to-a-scream display of dynamic virtuosity.
"Morning Glory" excerpt
Barron's work with Moody went as far back as "Another Bag" (1962), and since then he'd appeared on the Moody albums “Moody and the Brass Figures” (1966) and “The Blues And Other Colors” (1969), as well as working with him on a multitude of Dizzy Gillespie albums in the 60s. He'd continue to work on at least another four Moody albums, including "Sun Journey" in 1976.
There's a nice extended version of the standard "Autumn Leaves", with an atmospheric opening built over Freddie Wait's percussion rumbling. When the theme comes in, Moody's aching tenor is counterpointed by Barron's complex chord-based improvisations. There's no clear separation to sax "solo" as Moody subtly builds his improvisations out of the song's melody, then hands over to Barron's piano for a floating series of arpeggio clouds.
"Wave" Excerpt
Moody and Barron also trade solos throughout an interesting interpretation of Jobim's "Wave". Here's a pdf score for Moody's flute part. The track has a sparse, atmospheric opening with Freddie Waits on shakers and tin flute sliding over Barron's rhodes, before it develops into a chugging bossa with Moody on flute. (For a very different, but also great version of "Wave", see Moody performing the track with the RIAS Big Band.)
The album finishes with an unusual version of "Kriss Kross". After the theme is sparsely introduced by Moody's sax over drums, it cuts almost incongruously to a fugue-like sequence with Barron on harpsichord, then Ridley walks us into a more traditional bebop / blues take on the track, with Moody blowing a hard tenor solo. A subsequent rhodes solo from Barron makes way for a bowed sequence from Ridley, before we return to the harpsichord fugue. It's a strange finish.
Busy drummer Freddie Waits had played on Hubert Law's "Carnegie Hall" album three days before recording this one. He'd also worked on Moody's "The Blues and Other Colours" (1969), and went on with Barron to record "Sunset to Dawn" ten weeks later in April.
As a founding member of Max Roach's percussion collective M'Boom, Waits worked on Brother Ah's "Sound Awareness" around this time, and would go on to record both Mboom's "Re: Percussion" and Neal Creque's "Hands Of Time" in August.
Still two years away from recording his debut album "Sum of the Parts" for Strata-East Records, bassist Larry Ridley came to this album with a twenty year history as a sideman, playing on albums by people like Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and many others.
Ridley's most recent date had been as a member of the "Jazz Contemporaries" for the 1972 Strata-East album "Reasons In Tonality". He'd also played with Moody on the "Newport In New York : The Jam Sessions (Vol 3&4)" album in 1972, and had worked with Kenny Barron as far back as 1962 on brother Bill Barron's album "The Hot Line".
Later in 1973 James Moody would join up with producer Richard Evans for "Sax & Flute Man" (later re-released as "The World Is a Ghetto"), a more commercial production in the vein of Evans' production of Ahmad Jamal's "Ahmad Jamal 73", even covering two of the same tracks. Some of it's a little too easy-listening for my ears, but there's three or so good tracks, nice rhodes work and some funky moments - worth checking out.
You'll find links for "Feelin' it Together" in the comments, but also check through the sections below for many additional albums and extra treats. Hope you enjoy this one, let me know what you think.
JAMES MOODY - "FEELIN' IT TOGETHER" (1973, Muse)
TRACKLIST
01 'Anthropology' - 9:07 (D. Gillespie / C.Parker / W. Bishop) pub : Music Sales Corp, ASCAP
James Moody - alto sax, tenor sax and flute Kenny Barron - acoustic piano, electric piano and harpsichord Larry Ridley - bass Freddie Waits - drums, misc. percussion, tin flute PRODUCTION
Muse Records 5020 Produced by Don Schlitten Recorded January 15, 1973 Recorded at Media Sound, New York City
1961"Cookin' The Blues" donated by The Jazzmanmediafire covershere rapidshare audio 12345 or megaupload audio12345
1962/63 "Another Bag"/"Comin' On Strong" 123 1963"Great Day" at Guitar and the Wind 1964 "Running the Gamut"album track : "If You Grin You're In" at Office Naps (check this post on Ed Bland)
2004 "Moody Plays Mancini" at Avax * Further uploads or blog links for the other 34 albums appreciated! * See full discography here * I'd love to hear Beyond this World (1977) COMPILATION
14 VERSIONS OF "MOODY's MOOD FOR LOVE"Donated by The Jazzman (big thanks!) Rapidshare ONE TWOTHREE
1. James Moody 2. King Pleasure with Blossom Dearie 3. Eddie Jefferson 4. Annie Ross 5. King Pleasure 6. Eddie Jefferson & James Moody 7. Queen Latifah 8. King Pleasure 9. Robert Moore 10. King Pleasure 11. George Benson 12. Bob Welch 13. Eddie Jefferson & James Moody-live 14. King Pleasure
CD rip of "Feelin' it Together" in WAV/MP3 by Simon666CD rips of "The Teacher" and "Heritage Hum" by Anonymous"Moody's Mood for Love" compilation by The Jazzman"Cookin' The Blues" rip by The Jazzman Special thanks to Ish for advice.
Apart from blogs noted in the discography, album links in this post go to : ile oxumaré, El goog ja, Orgy in Rhythm, original funk music, Jazzdisposition, magic purple sunshine, Blog-o-Blog, my favourite sound, call it anything, the cti never sleeps, fm shades, jazz’n’rakugo, romanticwarrior-jazz, República de Fiume, gutar and the wind, My Jazz World, Lysergic Funk
Please thank and support these bloggers if you click through and download.
More behind-the-scenes efforts : 
I spent a day over at Blaxploitation Jive linking up their Marvin Gaye discography. A few gems and rarities uncovered along the way.
EDDIE PALMIERI DISCOGRAPHY 
Back : Kenny Barron, Larry Ridley, Freddie Waits. Front : James Moody
1970's wistful and laid-back "Heritage Hum" saw Moody turning more to his flute alongside his better-known tenor and alto saxaphone, at the same time as his harmonic structures in some tracks began to journey below the U.S. border.
After recording the relatively straight-ahead "Too Heavy For Words" with Al Cohn in 1971, he released "The Teachers" (1971), on which he began to embrace soul jazz, funk and some New Orleans-tinged blues elements, a smorgasbord that seemed to either reflect or grow from Dizzy Gillespie's fusions on Perception Records at the time, albums such as "The Real Thing" in which many of the same players took part.
Fellow Gillespie comrade Mike Longo, who'd been on "Heritage Hum", also brought Moody on board for his '72 album "Awakening", which furthered some of the textures established on "The Teachers" , particularly pushing up the funk quotient by incorporating Alex Gafa's wah-wah guitar.
The soul jazz factor came to the fore on Moody's first Muse record in 1972, "Never Again", with his tenor sax working hard against Mickey Tucker's great hammond organ work on tracks like "Freedom Jazz Dance".
"Feelin' It Together" was recorded on January 15th, 1973; and represents another stage in the type of growth he speaks of above.
Keyboardist Kenny Barron was ten weeks away from recording his debut album "Sunset to Dawn", and that album's references to latin rhythm and brazilian harmonic structures can be felt here in nascent form in his two compositions, "Morning Glory" and "Dreams", both of which feature his spacious rhodes work.
Busy drummer Freddie Waits had played on Hubert Law's "Carnegie Hall" album three days before recording this one. He'd also worked on Moody's "The Blues and Other Colours" (1969), and went on with Barron to record "Sunset to Dawn" ten weeks later in April.
Still two years away from recording his debut album "Sum of the Parts" for Strata-East Records, bassist Larry Ridley came to this album with a twenty year history as a sideman, playing on albums by people like Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and many others.
Later in 1973 James Moody would join up with producer Richard Evans for "Sax & Flute Man" (later re-released as "The World Is a Ghetto"), a more commercial production in the vein of Evans' production of Ahmad Jamal's "Ahmad Jamal 73", even covering two of the same tracks. Some of it's a little too easy-listening for my ears, but there's three or so good tracks, nice rhodes work and some funky moments - worth checking out.
