Whats on your turntable tonight?

•Ronald Shannon Jackson & Decoding Society: Decode This
•Hank Mobley: Straight No Filter
•Drive-by Truckers: Southern Rock Opera
•Franscisco Aguabella: H2O

•Count Basie - Fancy Pants
•Richard Thompson - Mock Tudor
•Jay Hoggard - Riverside Dance
•Mosaic box of Complete Pacific Jazz sessions of Chet Baker with Russ Freeman

Funny you should mention that! Played old, scratchy versions of Dumbo and Aristocats for my daughter the other night. Finished things off with "Ella and Louis"; her choice!

•Branford Marsalis - Crazy People Music: Young Branford with his telepathic quartet. Juicy Ornette style musings, along with usual, high quality post-bop stuff. Tain is one titanium plated monster.

•The Jazz Crusaders - Stretchin' Out: Old Pacific Jazz title with Monk Montgomery on bass, along with the potent Texans. Great ensemble sound right from the start. Signature sax-'bone synergy kills me every time. Joe Sample ain't chopped liver either.

•Jean-Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean: Hadn't heard this since my first copy was stolen over 20 years ago. DAMN...Alan Holdsworth and Alphonso Johnson had spectacular chops! Recently saw Johnson supporting James Carter...still has chops on his chops.

•Taylor's Wailers - This is a late 50's mono set that is drummer Art Taylor's first recording as a leader. High energy set that features Ray Bryant's swinging and harmonically advanced piano playing, and Art Taylor's powerful but nuanced drumming. The horn players; Charlie Rouse, Donald Byrd and Jackie McClean blend beautifully and have immediately recognizable solo voices. John Coltrane, Red Garland and Paul Chambers are on one cut. The high points of the record are the two Monk tunes that close the set; Minor Swing and Well You Needn't. Apparently, Monk wrote the arrangements and conducted these tunes during the recording session, and it shows. All the rhythmic quirkiness and signature chord changes featured in Monk's own recordings are in evidence. Great record.

•Miki Honeycutt - Soul Deep Late 80's recording from a Rounder affiliate that simply cooks. This lady has that big, brassy soul queen sound, but with a distinctively bright vocal timbre. Stylistically, less Gopspel and more Broadway, which works great here. Excellent, hyper-tight, backup band cooks throughout. No question that these folks know their way around 60s and 70s Blues and R&B.

•Chico Freeman - Kings of Mali: A late 70s India Navigation offering with Chico on reeds, Jay Hoggard on vibes, Cecil Mcbee on Bass, Famodou Don Moye on drums. Mostly free outing but less densely arranged so instrumental textures play a big role in moving the music. Moye is just too cool. His martial cadences pop up in surprising places and rock the joint.

•Green Day - American Idiot: LP kills the CD which is flat and lifeless in comparison. Negativity with a sense of humor and not too self righteous to be fun. These guys play fast, loud and well.

•Peter, Paul and Mary - Album 1700: My daughter loves their harmonies and has a real jones for Jet Plane. Recording is incredibly dated, both musically and sonically. However, Mary Travers voice was recorded with little reverb so she sounds absolutely present. Big, fat acoustic bass is very well presented too.

•Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Dap Dippin' etc.: Brooklyn based funk outfit with FAT bass lines and great horn-based groove. Clearly inspired by JB but they also have their own greasy, funky thing going on. Sharon is a hurricane of a front woman. The louder the better.

•Audioslave - Bought this on my son's recommendation and like it better than I thought I would based on what I heard on his system and the radio. Absolutely murders the CD, which has not been the case with Rage Against the Machine's LPs. The mating of Chris Cornell with the RATM rhythm kings doesn't always work, but creates a fatter, deeper groove than RATM when it does. Show Me How to Live is a good example.

•Joy of Cooking - A San Francisco hippy group from the early 70s that played a gently cooking bluesy-jazz-rock hybrid. Songs are quite good but the reason to listen to this one is the awesome Terry Garthwaite. Had vocal qualities that were reminiscent of Janis Joplin but without that center-of-the-earth power. Because of that she used a more nuanced approach. Brownsville Mockingbird is a great tune.

Something's going on in the Jazz LP reissue market that y'all should be hipped to. I've recently picked up a tidy number of reissues of phenomenal late 50's, 60's and early 70's records that have been out of print for decades. These records were originally from many different labels, have all original style packaging, and give no indication of their more recent origins. The vinyl is of good quality and the pressings are flat and without stamper defects. I've been buying them for $7 a piece from my local record store. Many of these are records that collectors have been searching for for decades. A few tasty examples:
•Dave Burns - Warming Up (Vanguard) - This guy was one of Diz's favorite trumpet players in the late 50's and early 60's. He has great tone and intonation. His solos are compact, and imaginative but not showy in the Lee Morgan sense of things. He is also a very fine composer as the two originals, "Slippers" and "Rigor Mortez" attest. The supporting cast is stellar; Al Grey, Harold Mabern, Bobby Mitchell, et al. This is as fine a slice of post-bop as you are likely to find.
•Roy Haynes with Booker Ervin - Cracklin' (New Jazz) Booker Ervin has to be one of the most underrated tenor saxophonists in Jazz history. Everyone worships Coltrane (justifiably) but who out there really sounds like him? I hear Booker Ervin in just about everybody. Roy, of course is well recognized as the percussion deity that he is. "Scoochie" should be essential listening for all modern practitioners of the art.
•Wild Bill Davis - At Birdland (Epic) This one will be a big surprise to everyone that thinks that modern Jazz organ began with Jimmy Smith. This guy could burn! Although clearly more closely tied to Swing than Jimmy, some of Jimmy's more frequently used phrases turn up here. Hmmm. I'm guessing that Jimmy "borrowed" alot from Wild Bill. This is a live set, and Wild Bill's clearly intent on pleasing the crowd (a la Jazz at the Philharmonic), so some things sound a bit corny. Its happy music that I play alot.

Roland Alexander - Pleasure Bent: Hard bop saxophonist contemporary of Coltrane with a sweet middle register and a good head for changes.
Antibalas - Who Is This America: Fela-flavored Afro-funk via Brooklyn. Great horn driven booty shakin' music.
John Mayall - Turning Point: Post-Mick, Post-Peter, Post-Eric Mayall, but really good! Mostly acoustic Blues with tasty sax work by John Almond. Surprising.
Lee Morgan - Cornbread: Seminal hard bop masterpiece. Ceora is one of the most beautiful and memorable songs of the era. Blend of Morgan, Jackie McLean, and Hank Mobley is sublime.

Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
I just got a new and fairly ratty CBS pressing of this classic slab of proto-Punk ca. 1973. David Bowie rescued this imploding/exploding combo from drug-induced oblivion just long enough for them to wax this great, great record. I hear the inspiration for every Punk band from the Sex Pistols to the White Stripes. As Jimmy Miller used to instruct folks when listening to the Stones, this record should be played LOUD!!!

Grant Green - Iron City: Grant Green had the lightest touch, he just seemed to glide across the fretboard. But he could swing hard too! He was a particularly effective rhythm player. His comping behind Big John Patton on Samba de Orfeu was propulsive, snappy and perfectly complementary.

You're welcome Rushton. Good listening to you too!