More pix

Pictures of Amigos Invisibles

Los Amigos Invisibles rocks the Black Cat February 16 2008!

So because I'm a lazy sod and never even mention their shows just wanted to give a shout out to Los Amigos Invisibles who played the Black Cat club here in Washington DC this past Saturday night. As usual it was a great time. They kicked it off with the track that got me hooked on them about ten years ago: SEXY! and they never looked back...The night is a bit of a blur... I was in good form downing Fosters oil cans like they were the last ones to be found on planet earth.. Also a shout out to Tina Soumela and Rodolfo Matos who joined us for the pre show festivities and grooved with us at the show... Also have to put in a nice word for the keyboardist of Amigos Invisibles who took my Venezuela Zinga Son LP backstage and got it signed by everyone! THanks man! I won't forget that... The guitarist was also darn cool and came out to talk to the crowd after the show.. Only problem is I got my ears blown out (new sound guy mixing it too loud maybe??? or my ears are really weak)..I feel like I underwent a minor concussion..my ears are still ringing and I'm getting weird headaches which really blows but lets leave it at that and hope things settle back down to normal ASAP....

Now playing- Back in Black!

What an album folks! ACDC's "Back in Black". The biggest selling rock and roll record of all time because, yes, unlike the Eagles Greatest Hits and Jacko's Thriller this is pure rock and roll. Thrilling stuff; a big party in an LP...Originally released on Atlantic SD 16018 pictured above is my highly collectible original promo copy. This may be the high point of ACDC with Brian Johnson but what a high point it is! Every single song kicks ass. If you haven't heard this in a while give it a spin.. you'll be surprised at how fresh it still sounds...As I always say: "Why bands don't take this as a blueprint I just can't fathom!"

Great Live Jazz on 18th St (NO COVER!)- The Butch Warren Experience

Hey friends,

Executive Summary: Butch Warren, legendary 1960s bassist, appearing with great jazz band at Columbia Station on 18th St. in Adams Morgan in Washington DC on Wed nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights, Sunday nights. No cover! Sparse crowd last night. Need to get the word out on this before its gone.


Lets get the word out on this! Even if you're not into live jazz yourself you might be surprised at who is!

I thought I'd help spread the word on this because if we in Washington DC don't support live jazz we are not going to have any live jazz.. And in Duke Ellington's hometown that would be an embarassment and a crime....( FOR MEAT AND POTATOES SCROLL TO BOTTOM)

It was pretty incredible musically and accesible (not crazy weird jazz, not modern fusion jazz but just great straight
ahead old school jazz) but there weren't too many people there so they need your support and that of your friends. Its rare to find this kind of level of jazz at a nice place with no cover (there is a $10 minimum expected expenditure and they band does play for tips).

Butch Warren is a DC jazzman. Plays the upright bass. Did so in the 1960s with many of the greatest of the greats... We're talking Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Hank Mobley - THOSE KIND OF NAMES- and if you listen to many of the great Blue Note records of the 1960s (He's the bassist on one of the great sessions of all time- Dexter Gordon's "GO" along with Sonny Clark on piano)... anyways you may unknowingly have heard his work ... then again sometimes one takes the bass for granted but when its gone whooooooooooaaaaaaaaa nelly i'm bungee jumpin' and I ain't got no shorts on!

Anyways, Butch Warren went through some hard times(see link to Washington Post piece that delves more into that..) and who hasn't but he's back trying to make it in the real world and leading a jazz band called the Butch Warren Experience and I checked them out last night and was impressed. Butch Warren played on about half the songs and even sang a few tracks. He shares the bass duties with a stand in- Bill "Magic" Lavender. The saxophonist Knud Jensen was very impressive as was the pianist who acts as band leader, Peter Edelman. They played some standards (ie., Stella by Starlight) , some Charlie Parker (ie., Donna Lee) and some Butch Warren original compositions. The bandmembers are very congenial and you can interact with them in between sets. Its not every day you get to talk to a guy that played with these legendary cats but I didn't talk to Butch last night but will do so soon...

So please spread the word to your friends and check these guys out...

They're playing at


The Butch Warren Experience
appearing at COLUMBIA STATION
2325 18th St NW
Adams Morgan

Butch Warren/bass
Bill "Magic" Lavender/bass
Peter Edelman/piano
Eric Allen/ drums
Knud Jensen/tenor saxophone
Olivier Brown/trumpet

Wednesday 8:30 pm - 12:30 am
Friday 9:30 pm- 1:30 am
Saturday 9:30 pm - 1:30 am
Sunday 8:30 pm- 12:30 am

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/07/


thank you

Mr. Angus Young- Its time to rise up!!!!!!!!!

AC DC TO TOUR IN 2008?

Listening to AC DC on this MLK day early afternoon- the live album "If
you want blood you've got it"- which is an absolute scorcher. I've
been getting more and more into these guys over the past couple of
years and now they are the act I would like to catch live the most.
Angus Young is a mere 52 so there is no reason these guys shouldn't
kick some serious ass. The word was- apparently confirmed- that AC DC
was going to do a small club gig in Switzerland at the end of this
month but the plug was pulled. APparently word leaked out and it was
supposed to be semi-secret. My guess: they probably wanted to play a
show and see if they still wanted to do it for a big world tour laster
this year. Keep in mind they don't need the money and these guys - and
I'm thinking of the guys who run the band: ANgus and Malcolm Young-
don't do things for the money. They do not even have a greatest hits
album! Think about the money that they would get if they would do the
fairweather fans/mass buying public a favor and put the studio
versions of Highway to Hell and Back in Black (Bon Scott era and Brian
Johnson era) on one CD! It would sell millions. They just don't care
bout stuff like that and in spite of that according to something I
read they made 18 million dollars (australian) last year in spite of
not releasing anything new (DVD came out right at end of year is true)
or playing one show!

So is AC DC going to tour later this year. A friend of mine thinks
based on a live nationa ac dc store having gone up that the deal has
already been signed. I'll tell you one thing though : if these guys
play I am going to catch at least 3 of these shows. There is no band I
want to see more right now. The world needs AC DC right now. Need to
go back to that no frills just thrills Chuck Berry rock and roll.

Perfect music for the pleasant winter blues!

Boy here is an album that never gets talked about. This by all accounts was Lester Young's last recording. This album was recorded March 4, 1959 in Paris. Lester returned to New York very soon after and died March 19. How come this album gets nary a mention on the web? This album has been reissued as part of a Jazz in Paris series or some such under the title "Le dernier mesage du Lester Young" (Pardonez moi mon francais!). However, I could not find one review of the recording itself. I do remember after buying it I read a mini review maybe in the all music guide book which said Lester sounded really weak on this session. But when I went to the all music guide this morning (and say while i am on it whats up with the malware on that site!) I could not find a real review or the same review. This album features Kenny Clarke on drums (Klook!), and some european musicians: Jamil Nasser (bass), Jimmy Gourley (guitar) and Rene Urtreger (piano). This is real late night music or perfect music to watch the snow falling outside (as is the case here today). Its almost like Lester's final revisiting of many old friends. The tempos are real slow but Lester's sound is all beauty (wistful though it may be..).. These are all classic American songs: Oh, Lady be good!, Almost like being in love, I cover the waterfront (Billie Holiday), I can't get started (Billie Holiday did this one too I think), Pennies from Heaven, etc..... The liner notes consist largely of an interview of Lester around the time he was performing at the Blue Note in Paris. The interview is by Francois Postif who writes that Lester used to hang out after playing until 5 am having a drink and in fact the interview was held at 6 am at his house with Lester asking if he could talk jive which he does. Its a very interesting interview particularly keeping in mind that its probably the last.... Its also interesting because it made me think a bit about the movie Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon... I wonder if the movie was at least loosely based on Lester Young..Lester does not have nice things to say about Verve record label head Norman Granz not letting him record an album with strings..And he really gets mad when asked about Billie Holiday.. gets mad not about being asked but about how generally people want to get into people's private business about the drugs they do.. Say by the way why did Billie and Lester want so much to record an album with strings? Was it some sort of status thing or they just were really into the idea.. its well known Billie Holiday was happiest with her own album with strings ("Lady in Satin"). Anyways the music is extremely mellow but nice.. The accompaniment is very tasteful....It does remind one of Billie Holiday's latter recordings. Did Lester have the strength of his earlier recordings? perhaps not- but the expressiveness is all there and to this ears this is a wonderful listen. Originally released on Verve MGV-8378 (mine is not trumpter label but is deep groove- I know MGV 8375 Buddy Defranco is trumpeter so there may be a trumpeter pressing around too but this would seem to be early pressing).

On a Blue Note kick yet again- Grant Green

So finally after a few years of wanting to get my hand on the Blue Note Grant Green "1961-1966 Retrospective" box set I finally found it for a reasonable price. Curiously enough my set was made in Europe and shipped from Germany. Not sure why this is the case. Anyways, I feel like a kid in a candy store again. I mean this set has is jam packed with great jazz and incredible musicians over 38 tracks on 4 cds. I love vinyl but it has just become imposible to get all these records without having to fork over a few kidneys. Of course I have heard a ton of these tracks but not all.. not all.. I would calculate I may not have heard 14 of the 38 tracks compiled although I probably have a bunch of them on mp3 format somewhere..The pictures in the booklet, inserts etc (some should be in the picture immediately above this blurb) are the typical wonderful Francis Wolff photography. Its always interesting to me that these jazz cats always look so sharp in all the pictures. I mean they are perfectly groomed, manicured, dressed, styling gentlemen. All of them. For all the stuff you hear about who was doing what drug or having what problem when you look at the pictures Francis Wolff took they are all dressed to the nine's and styling.

Of course after taking a probably forced leave of absence from the label Green was back at Blue Note in 1969 and cut some incredible yet more on the funky/popular spectrum of things. Bob Blumenthal, like most critics, sort of dismisses the later Green and I feel thats very misguided but having said that the music on this box cannot be argued with or dismissed. Its great jazz. I am not a fan of compilations but for $20 this is a very worthwhile look at my favorite guitarist. Right now I'm listening to Jimmy Smith jamming with Green on their only collaboration now one of my favorite tracks I can tell its Lou Donaldson from the Natural One- Funky Mama- just came on.. This stuff is very hot....Of course Grant Green begins the song... One thing I found interesting is how young Green looks in the pictures be they from his arrival to New York City in 1961 or from later sessions in 1965.. and to add something to the discourse Gran Green apparently smoked Kool cigarretes by the way...

Sean Taylor

So Sean Taylor is dead. Listening to music as much as I do I couldn't
help but be struck by how many violent deaths relatively young black
men suffer. Sam Cooke and King Curtis came to mind.

Rene Bloch: Rene and his pachanga orchestra LP

SO I picked this up yesterday. I was struck by the really cool album cover... there is no credit for the album cover.. anyways the LP is on Capitol Records T-1530 .. must have come out around 1962... Capitol- as I recall- did not have much in the way of latin music.. the full title for the band is "rene and his pachanga orchestra" and the album itself "la pachanga"... the album features a song by johnny pacheco who i guess was just beginning to make his mark.. also some participation from paul lopez on trumpet who co wrote two tracks.. paul lopez has his own website here 
http://www.paulopez.com/paul.htm 
I wonder if Willie Bobo or Mongo Santamaria who at times played in Rene Bloch's orchestra played on this? i doubt it as it would seem to be too late for them to be on it.. anyways the music is pretty good and with capitol's normally good standards on packaging and sound...too bad there are no credits for the band! i note bloch played for perez prado and the album was produced by curly walter..in fact right now i'm listening to paul lopez jamming on his solo on "lola catuna"!

Dean Martin's "A Winter Wonderland"

Listening to the Capitol LP on T-1285 and on a few of these tracks such as Let It Snow, I've got my love to keep me warm and Baby its cold outside I think Dean Martin really hits home runs..

I mean where any of these songs Christmas standards before Dean Martin sang them? I listen to a lot of Christmas music around this time of year and no one does the holidays better than Dino. Oh yah Rudolph ain't nothing to sneeze at..The album cover is a hoot too... Dean is up to his usual no good ways..presumably hugging his girl while exchanging flirtatious glances with a beautiful snow bunny..I guess Christmas is just more fun with Dean Martin than without..without we seem to be left with too much Adestes and White Christmas type stuff...

quote

Here is a quote purported to be from Hank Mobley towards the end of his life.. I found it on the internet and it was part of a pretty good bio but unattributed:


"The doctor told me not to play it, or I might blow one of my lungs out. It's hard for me to think of what could be and what should have been. I lived with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk; I walked with them up and down the street. I did not know what it meant when I listened to them cry--until it happened to me."

Hank Mobley Obituary

I had often wondered if he got an obit in Philadelphia where he died and he did... see below:

Hank Mobley, International Jazz Figure

Hank Mobley, a jazz saxophonist of international stature who played with the leading musicians of the day and made his greatest impact as a member of the Miles Davis group in the 1960s, died Friday. He was 55 and had lived in Philadephia since 1972.

Born Henry Mobley in Eastman, Ga., he moved to the Newark-Elizabeth, N.J., area in childhood and studied music privately. Early in his career he played with the Paul Gayton orchestra and other regional bands.

As a tenor saxophonist, his most important associations in jazz were with the Horace Silver and Art Blakey groups in the 1950s and the Davis aggregation the following decade.

Later he was the co-leader of combos with Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham and Cedar Walton. In 1967-68, he toured Europe, making appearances in London, Paris, Munich, Rome and other cities in Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

Among the many musicians in his ken over the years were Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Slide Hampton, Wilbur Ware and Philly Joe Jones. He played recently at the Angry Square on New York’s 7th Avenue.

He was the composer of a number of jazz tunes, including "Breakthrough," "The Morning After," A Caddy for Daddy," "The Dip" and "Straight Ahead."

Survivors include his father, Otis Rogers; his stepmother, Lillian O. Rogers; and two aunts, Jenethel Cooney and Rosa Boyer. Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Johnson Funeral Home, 46th Street and Woodland Avenue. Burial will be Saturday at Mount Lawn Cemetery, 84th Street and Hook Road, Sharon Hill, Delaware County.
-Philadelphia Daily News, June 4, 1986. Used by permission.

January 11, 1986: Mobley's curtain call?

Interesting.. from the New York Times archives available on the internet we see that Mobley was still perhaps ocasionally playing the sax even a few months before he died..

Hank Mobley Quartet
The saxophonist Hank Mobley will lead a quartet, with Lodi Carr as guest singer, tonight at the Angry Squire, 216 Seventh Avenue, below 23d Street (242-9066). Sets begin at 9 and 11 P.M. and 1 A.M. There is a $7 cover and a two-drink minimum.
January 11, 1986 - Arts - 41 words

Did the revaluation of Hank Mobley begin here?

Interesting article from the New York Times November 3, 1990. Given that when Mobley died in 1986 the Times didn't even publish an obituary it is interesting to see this article. So what happened between 1986 and 1990? Perhaps the 1987 reissue of Soul Station on CD?

Review/ Jazz; Hard-Bop Solos of 1950's By PETER WATROUS Published: November 3, 1990

The small-group hard-bop compositions of the 1950's and 60's are some of the least explored territories in jazz. The music's composers have been seen as improvisers who wrote pieces as vehicles for soloing; the tunes, difficult to play, dropped out of the standard repertory. The sold-out show at Weill Recital Hall on Monday night featured the music of the tenor saxophonist and composer Hank Mobley, who died in 1986. The concert was meant to prove a point about his music's brilliance, and did a good job of it.

Of all the composers of the Blue Note Record label school, Mr. Mobley, who recorded with the label between 1954 and 1970 -- he was anoriginal member of the Jazz Messengers -- clearly loved ambiguity. His compositions, verging on melancholy, usually right themselves with a blue undercurrent that stiffens them; switching emotions as quickly as they switch strains, the compositions unfold logically, piece by piece. And as played by an exceptional group, including Don Sickler on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano, Buster Williams on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, the tunes resonated with emotional power that in no way seemed dated.

But the show was making other points as well. As arranged by Mr. Sickler (who is behind a good deal of the small-band repertory movement) the pieces took on complexity, with riffs, short drum solos and stop-time sections breaking up the traditional string-of-solos form. In addition, Mr. Sickler put together medleys of similar tunes; not all the musicians soloed on each piece, putting the compositions in the foreground and making for an audience-friendly concert. And with the chronology of the tunes ranging from 1955 to 1972, Mr. Sickler brought some light on Mr. Mobley's lesser-known, later compositions.

All of this floated on a perfect rhythm section that locked into grooves with the finesse of a well-tuned sports car. Mr. Higgins and Mr. Walton have a rhythmic affinity, and they would catch the structural changes of a tune with rhythmic cadences that framed the improvisers' statements. And the soloists picked apart the tunes as well; Mr. Jordan, typically, turned modal sections of Mr. Mobley's later tunes into a playground, moving from belly honks to high-pitched pleas to be-bop lines, before being reined in by a tune's sudden harmonic movement. And Mr. Sickler eased his way through the changes gracefully, capturing the bluesy wistfulness and ease Mr. Mobley left as his legacy.

Also check out

www.hankmobley.blogspot.com

I've decided to concentrate my little efforts on this blog but there is some other interesting Mobley stuff I posted on there a while back... Not sure why the google or yahoo searches don't pick up the blog...

More on Mobley's dissapearances from the studio

I had written in my post of a few days ago but the large gaps in Mobley's recording output and ascribed this to problems with drugs but it simply never ocurred to me that perhaps he was jailed for periods. Steve Huey in his bio on the All Music Guide mentions that after the Peckin' Time session "...a worsening drug problem resulted in an arrest that took him off the scene for a year.." and that after 1963's No Room for Squares "...drug and legal problems again put him out of commission during 1964." I look at the pictures of Mobley on the various album covers and its hard to imagine him being arrested. He is about as well dressed and clean cut as one can imagine but then again these pictures often look like they all come from the same session photographed by Francis Wolff so who knows... Its remarkable how little is known about Mobley's life considering he is a pretty big seller currently. Someone ought to do a bio of him before all the primary sources are gone!

Smokin!

So I was wrong....the phrase "Middleweight champion of the tenor.." is to be found in the liner notes to Blue Note 4080.. I just received the Workout album in the mail (a liberty pressing with New York labels)- a record I'd wanted for a long time- and the liner notes by Leonard Feather begin "Henry Mobley is the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone." This is the statement that we so often read consigned Mobley to ignominity because supposedly people read this and thought it was some sort of insult meaning he was not a heavyweight like Coltrane or a lightweight like Lester Young/Getz.. his sound was in the middle... boring...etc... We read things over and over again and we start to believe they must be true but its hard for me to believe that anyone who bought this album or even just read the liner notes would only have read the first sentence! And the next paragraph qualifies the statement "That is to say, he is not to be compared (and this judgment is made in terms of size of sound as well as fame, fortune and poll victories) with such heavyweights as Coleman Hawkins or John Coltrane, both of whom, in their respective eras, can be considered the most consistently unvanquished. Nor is there any necessity to relate Hank to the lightweights, headed by Stan Getz...." I mean is it possible that this phrase "Middleweight champion of the tenor" could have consigned him to obscurity? I really think this is a case of music critics trying to make themselves important. The review is laudatory and anyone with a passing knowledge of jazz would have recognized Mobley's sidemen on the album, Kelly. Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, as all having played with Miles Davis. Its hard to believe that anyone that enjoyed jazz in 1961 would have dismissed this record because of Feather's phrase. More than likely Mobley's type of jazz- in 1961 - just wasn't "in" and for whatever reason didn't connect with people.

Whatever happened to Hank Mobley? (via Dizzy Reece)

I'd always wanted this one but have found it impossible to find. There seem to have been very few copies printed of the original LP and I never see it on later pressings (i.e., liberty, new york, united artists, etc.). I do think it might be available on a scorpio pressing for 9.99.. not sure about that... but I found a Classic Records pressing and thought it would be cool to have one having heard all the hype.. Well I am impressed with the quality... The platter is heavy and really looks and feels like the original but of course no RVG or ear in the wax..sigh.... The LP cover is not as hard or thick as the original and is shinier ...on the back there is a telling "Courtesy of Blue Note Records.." I am not an audiophile but this one sounds great to me.. Now why was I interested in this one? Well , Hank Mobley firstly.... HE is the tenor man here playing with Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers and Art Taylor... .... but the main reason I was interested in this one is because the recording date on November 19, 1959 predates the one and only great Soul Station session by but a few weeks (February 7, 1960). Save for a live session with Blakey for Blue Note 4015 Meet you at the Jazz Corner in APril 1959 this was the first Blue Note Mobley date since Peckin' Time a session co-led with Lee Morgan dating back to February 1958 and also featuring Chambers and Kelly. And that was his first session since June 1957 on the classic Mobley Blue Note 1568. Its telling that he would go on to record his greatest LPs with both Chambers and Kelly. Leonard Feather who tragically called Mobley the "..middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone" (I believe in the liner notes to soul station) here also contributes the notes with the following reference to Hank; "Mobley's sound, on this track and throughout the album, has more assurance and warmth than ever"(referring to "The Rake") and later on referring to him with "Hank's time is conspicuously cool.." (re: I wishes on the moon). I have to agree with Feather that Mobley does sound different on this LP than he did in his mid 50s to 57 sides. Basically since mid 57 until Soul Station he only co-led Peckin time and played on the live Blakey date (in so far as Blue Note goes...). Ergo, Mobley's recording session work had decreased markedly. 1958 was a very fallow year taking into account that between 1956-1957 he'd been in on something like 38 sessions. He would never recover. He simply would not be recorded as often again. I suppose the reasons must either be that he fell into heavy drug use or that since he was not selling records there was not much desire to record him. The truth probably lies somewhere in between with these two factors reinforcing each other. Its truly a pity because I find his playing on the 1959-1961 period to be more enjoyable than his golden years recordingwise which must be considered 1956-1957. In fact we see that between Peckin Time in February 58 he did participate in the live at birdland twin dates for Roulette (which are not on the level of anything else he was doing) and a private basement jam session (Joe Brazil's) until in March 59 he participated on a rejected Blue Note session and played tenor on a few other rejected sessions -including one led by Sonny Clark- before Blakey took him to Birdland and the Meet you at the Jazz Corner..then it would take until the Dizzy Reece date to get him going again. So what we have is that basically Mobley between the last quarter of 1957 and the end of 1959 had barely been recorded at all! This is an amazing gap. Between Soul Station and Going Up with Hubbard (November 1960) there would be another 9 month gap. SO: 1958, 1959 and 1960 Mobley was recording infrequently. He would join Miles Davis in 1961 (perhaps March) stick around til May (includign the live at the blackhawk stuff) and be out of the Miles circle by May. At this point he would have a failed session in December for Blue Note , Another Workout (great stuff!), which would not be released and there is no record of him having played any music the entire year of 1962! What am I saying? I guess that Mobley really did fall on some hard times.. It remains for biographers to try to piece this all together... What is clear is that after failing to cut it in Miles' eyes Mobley pretty much did not play for 18 months!!!!!! Sad for someone that had cut Soul Station only the year before... mind boggling actually...