Vinyl Archeology #13

First posted on Mark Is Cranky:

A View From The Chair

I did something a couple of nights ago that I haven't done in about eleven months: I went up to my listening room and ingested a pile of records. Yes, records. Vinyl. Black circles. Albums. Use any description you like.

For a bunch of reasons...work, moving to a new house, getting a new dog, cognitive dissonance and the presence of one or the other stepkid at various points, I just have not been able to carve out enough 'me-time' to make it back to the listening chair.

Much of that has changed recently so I've allowed myself to wade back into the world of used vinyl exploration. The list below was purchased at a new record shop over in Brattleboro, Vermont. In The Moment records has a fine selection of jazz albums. In fact, I had to restrain myself as I like to buy only as many records as can be dealt with in one listening session.

Vive la vinyl!

Pierre Dorge Quartet - Ballad Round The Left Corner

This was a near-total crapshoot. I've never heard of guitarist Dorge, but the names Billy Hart (drums) and John Tchicai (soprano and alto sax) were familiar. This is mostly straight ahead jazz with a fair bit of angularity. Dorge's playing goes from the ethereal to way out there. He has a Jim Hall-type tone, but even less electric. Gorgeously recorded, it sounds like just a couple of mics. It sounds like you're right there in the room.

Paul Motian Quintet - Jack Of Clubs

A huge find. Drummer Motian employed two saxes (Joe Lovano, Jim Pepper), bassist Ed Schuller and Bill Frisell (before he was really Bill Frisell, if ya know what I mean). OK, that's not quite right about Frisell. He does use a volume pedal to get that attackless sound. But there's no distortion and not much in the way of those mile-long tones. Still, you can hear where he was headed. Lovano and Pepper kill on this disc. Leader Motian ties it all together with interesting compositions and supremely melodic drumming.

Power Tools - Strange Meeting

Now this is where Bill Frisell was headed. With Melvin Gibbs on bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, Strange Meeting sounds like the jazz equivalent of a rock power trio.

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Kabalaba, Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival

With guest Muhal Richard Abrams on piano, this is the Art Ensemble at their polyrhythmic, squeekalicious best.

Keith Jarrett - Bop-be

The time will come when architects and engineers will be summoned to my house to shore up the floor beneath my Keith Jarrett collection. Not yet though. The latest addition is a sealed copy of Bop-Be, a session covering the music of Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Dewey Redman and Alec Wilder. The cast includes Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Contains some inspired play (as you would expect from this group) and some incredibly annoying Jarrett whining.

Buddy Emmons - Steel Guitar Jazz

A jazz quartet plus steel guitar as lead instrument. This might sound like a novelty record but instead it's Emmons playing his heart out on a program of standards and originals (the opening "Bluemmons" is killer). Very cool to hear the steel guitar trading fours with the sax. The unison playing on Sonny Rollins "Oleo" is just nuts.

A bonus with this last record (and one of many reasons why used record shopping is so much fun) is the old record sleeve. One side contains a bunch of ads for artists of the day: Brook Benton, Smothers Brothers, Lesley Gore, Johnny Mathis, Mitchel Trio and Sarah Vaughn. The other side has three ads for various portable Mercury record players. Yep, mono and stereo phonographs, some of which ran on flashlight batteries. Precursors to the iPod? Sort of. Anyway, the ad copy is great: "Mercury Full Throated Fully Transistorized Portable Phonographs".

Oooh, fully throated!

Article Author: Mark Saleski

Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. He has contributed to Jazz.com and also writes reviews for Blogcritics.org. He produces the weekly feature The Friday Morning Listen. …

Visit Mark Saleski's author page — Mark Saleski's Blog