Hi John,
Sorry I left out the title - "JJ's Broadway" (arrangements of show
tunes). Some of the tracks are glorious to my ears, and I'm proud to
have been a participant.
Again, not to start a war: I am a displaced NYer now living on the
West Coast in beautiful Bellingham, Washington - with a 50 + mile
view across Bellingham Bay to the San Juan Islands and the Canadian
Cascades from our home - hard to beat, but I'll take East Coast music
any day. I think it's sometimes possible to get similar performances
from musicians here, if they have been selected for that
characteristic, but there's no question in my mind that there's an
overall energy, commitment to rhythm, and something that feels to me
like working against a kind of resistance, a friction that produces
excitement and heat in East Coast players that is lacking in the
West. It's too easy to go outside away from problems into good
weather and beauty here. In NY, you are stuck in canyons and caves
and must produce beauty indoors in the company of others. I'm such a
city guy!
Sometimes Jazz musicians from New Orleans and Baton Rouge (Wynton and
some of his cohorts), say about certain expressive inflections and
musical gestures they like, "That's Country!" I want to say about
the music I love, "That's Urban!"
Chuck
On Jun 28, 2006, at 11:00 AM, John Howell wrote:
Chuck Israels wrote:
I played on a recording date in 1963 with JJ Johnson -
arrangements written by JJ for himself, 4 other trombones (Urbie
Green and Lou McGarity, on tenors, Tommy Mitchell and Paul
Faulise on bass trombones, and a rhythm section that included
Hank Jones and Walter Perkins, now available on Verve CD V6-8530).
Chuck: That wasn't by any chance the "Trombones Incorporated"
album with East Coast players vs. West Coast players, was it?
Incredible players, incredible charts, and a tutorial in the
difference between East Coast and West Coast Jazz at about that time.
The close miked recording sounds quite good to me now, and the
effect is somewhat louder than I remember the sound in the room,
but the impact and feeling of immersion in the glory of the
vibrating air in the studio, even if not quite as loud as the
recording can be played, was orders of magnitude more beautiful,
and it took my breath away.
Yeah! Sinatra insisted that his last recordings for (Decca?) be
done live, and because he had an attitude problem with them he sang
through each song exactly once. And I was on tour with Hank
Mancini just after he had gone BACK to live recording with everyone
in the studio after having done tracking for several albums, and he
commented that he would never go back to tracking!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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Chuck Israels
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Bellingham, WA 98225-5836
phone (360) 671-3402
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