1. WOODY HERMAN, Sidewalk Stanley rom Brand Wow Fantasy. Mike Bloomfield, gut Woody Herman, vocal Alan 8roaatent, arranger, composer. "That really strange. t sounds ikea show- ‘ease fora guitarist recon, but it doesn't really Show him off, Mike Bloomfield made alot of Tecords lke that, That Super Session record ‘we did was structured like that "At Test 1 thought that just the rhythm sec~ tion made the track, and they overdubloed the horns; but then Init I thought the horns were probably onthe date "The chart was fairly square: 1 doa't know why that was, Maybe because it was just a blues thing, and they just wanted to let the guy play. I didnt see the point in the horns, al Though they got beter toward the end. 1 thought the singing was silly 'é have to rate that only one, because [ rally wanted to hear the guy play. andit was very cluttered. 2.MERBIEHANCOCK. Fat Mama (1 Aitert Rotunde, Wetner 810s) Hancock Composer. Busier Willams, baes; Toco Heath "That's just more Muzak; but i's better than the last one. A litle funkier, a better rhythm Sestion, It sounded Chicagovish . . . those Chess people. perhaps. Two stars, because the rhythm section was beter. But-none of that moves me emotionally, which is what Like about musi, That would fe nice to sweep the house to, ar something lke that. 181000, SWEATETEARS. High On @ Mountain itiom 88874, Columbia. Tean't give that any stars .can I just say ‘no comment”, because i's ungroovy of me to say anything about that. No. ¥ really don't ‘want to praise them, and I don't want to put them down, I think i would be very ungroovy fof me to try and put them down «it doesn't Feally serve their purpose. they've trying 10 make musi. In the other cases had no idea ‘who it was, But | know who this is. So it loesn't make any sense for me 10 say any> thing about it. | think people would under Stand that 4. BULEVANS. Comrade Conrad (rom Tho Bil Evans Album, Columba), Evans, acoustic, ole: the piano, composer Eddie Gomme, bass “That's thrown me real curve; | haven't heard music ike that in a long time. It's LPs for Columbia something new because the piano is recorded in stereo the acoustic piano. It was nice; the thas player was superb, just stuck right out “The piano player was very very good techni cally. although he drew on a great many re. Sources... there's nothing wrong with that. 1 heard a cat in the Soft Machine who really turned me around T'd ive this three-and-a-half stars: i's very ‘competently played, very groovy’. and very Well recorded 100, Incidentally, it took me fsbout 20 bars before I realized there was an tlectrie piano also—he just slipped it right in. The changeover was nice, However, I didn't really fee! the composition too much very abstractto (Afterthought: Marty Morell? He used to play with me, when we were kid ina rock‘ roilband,) 5. CHARLES LOYD. Loveland Blues (trom The Flowerig 0! the Orginal Charles Lloyd Quarter, ata), Loyd, composer, ute: Keth ‘pratt plano: Cecil MeBee, bass: dack Oe John Tove the piano player on that. Very funky and it held my attention. The drummer Sounded like a very. non-jazz drummer. Sounded like he came out of more a blues background than a jazz background. The Mute player was either really sharp out gry black .. W's hard to Treould't believe how out fftune twas, unless he seriously meant to do that which | understand, depending on who it was, Fit was somebody very docile. then it twas just out of tune, and 1 don't understand how he'd let that go by on record, because you don't have to do that nowadays For the piano player and... the drummer had that thing of hitting the frst to beats at the end of somebody's solo— Bernard Purdie {does that a lot four stars for the piano play- cr, really funky 6. COUNT BASIE, Zhe Megic Flea (rom Strignt Sfnees, Dot) Sammy Nestice, compare, ara “That stuff goes right by me: I've heard itso many times, There's just a few people that do that for me; Don Elis and Maynard Ferguson fean do i, but those other big band 2/4 flag swavers never do get to me- My favorite band Was Maynard Ferguson's from 1988-64, with, Don Sebesky. Wille Maiden, Slide Hampton, etal, They Killed me, I went to see them al blindfold test al kooper Al Kooper's broadly diversified activities make it impossible to pigeonhole him in any one area,eitheras performer or producer.“ First prominent when his song This Diamond Ring became a hit or Gary Lewis and the Playboys, he established himself as an accom plished musician (playing piano, organ. guitar and several other in Struments) and as the star of Super Session, a featuring Mike Bloomfield and Steve Stills. He took part in Grape Jam with Moby Grape and Electric Ladvland with Jimi Hendrix: Bob Dylan used him as the o ‘Long a believer in the rock jazz synthesis, Kooper went through a five-year phase as a jazz fan between the ages of 1S and 20. "My parents took me 10 i fs.a 15th birthday present Spiritual roots in Moanin and 1 was hooked.” Kooper was the idea man behind Blood Sweat&'Tears, on whose fiest album he played a prominent role, Since then. he has produced The New Don Els Band Goes Underground and othe jazz and rock jam session album ist in Blonde on Blonde Art Blakey's Messengers at the Five Spot he recalls. “I heard those church and This was his fist Blindfold Test, He was given no information bout the records played the time. A lot of what L wanted to do with Blood, SweatdeTears came out of that band. For whatever influence I had in the beginning, that was my dream T think Don Ellis took Maynard's lead when Maynaed dropped out. Maynard would have been doing what Don Ells is doing today, had he Kept on poing. Those bands are sister bands tome Bul for this record, one-and-ahalf stars. 1 don't know who it was, and [just couldn't get fnto ita all, 1 might have Been one of five ‘hands —it was probably Don Elis or Maynard Ferguson! 7. JOHNNY HAMMOND, Breakout (rom Break ‘ui, Kudu). Grovor Washington, tonor sax; Ham ‘mone, organ, composer Ene Gale gular John: ty Witams, Fender base, Bily Cobham, drums: ‘ido Moreira percussion. ‘Yeah, my drummer would have loved that! soneo those orgastie drive pattern that’s ron-stop, The organ playing was good, in feeling with the piece, The guitar ses mixed way to0 Low: 1 Hs trying to dig it out because he was playing some really interesting things. But all you ‘could hear was organ, and drums through the whole thing, and i ws hard 10 make out the percussion. the bass came through okay. “The saxophone solo didn't sland out too much to me. There's a couple of people round that can really play nowadays. Fred Lipsis realy can play. Of course, I've never hheurd him play really well on a record; I've heard him play i person quite bit though, There's ridiculous groove on that track realy. really nice groove! Didn't know what time twas in forthe longest time. Atthe end | Tealized it was four, But it was. so kicked round that at different times Thought it was Tit gve that four. Very good shythm sec TLE: Could you think of any records you Would have given five stars? AK: Donny Hathaway. he bills me. tke Todd Rengren’s new album. [listen to things intwos. [find an album Tike, start listening to that and stop listening to everything else. ‘When I find another one like I'l stop listen Ingo everything for a while, and jst listen to those two.» but really listen to them. wear them out so t could never listen to them again IMy heart and soul sia gospel music, and | never ire of those records in my collection. November 11) 23 49ysbey p1pu0e]