What We Are Listening To – Winter 2023

Some fun stuff in the form of great music to get you to, and through, the holiday season in a variety of ways!

Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Carmell Jones, Dennis Budimir, Gary Peacock, and Shelly Manne are a tightly wound musical wrecking crew and on this album, they lay down some of the hippest sounds you can imagine. I instantly feel like the ultimate “Hep cat” listening to this LP. It’s too much fun!
Sonically, Impex has done a stellar job on this release. The vinyl has a stone-quiet background, and the dynamics and dimensions of the music are outstanding given the period. It was certainly well recorded, to begin with. The album was mastered from the original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180-gram vinyl by RTI. The packaging and print production look and feel of superior quality. A sonically satisfying and just plain fun listen. If jazz and or the surf genre seem at all interesting to you, go grab a copy!

The CD is filled with holiday songs from some of the best STAX talent of the day including Rufus and Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Cix Bits, and the Temprees. My favorite track though has to be “Santa Claus Wants Some Loving” by Blues great Albert King, sporting a groovy holiday rhythm and some of those trademark piercing licks from his Gibson Flying V guitar.

An overall great compilation and a very solid mastering job by Craft Recordings. My family enjoyed having this one added to the holiday music rotation this year. Load this in the CD player and be prepared to have the coolest holiday cocktail party ever!

In the track “El Matador” there is some wonderful exploratory work going on between Dorham and his crew, yet the rhythms and timing still keep things approachable and enjoyable to an average listener such as myself. Contrast that with the glorious straight-ahead swing happening on “Smile” where the whole ensemble is completely into the groove and hustling. You can easily hear pianist Bobby Timmons doing that same sort of vocal scat during his tasteful solo that Oscar Peterson is so well known for.

Melanie Parts 1, 2, and 3 are essentially a tightly arranged Suite dedicated to alto saxophone player Jackie McLean’s daughter. Both Dorham and McLean along with piano player Bobby Timmons, perform some standout solos throughout. Timmons and Dorham return as a duo for a very sensitive and sublime interpretation of “Prelude” by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. An almost magical rendition.

The SACD production includes analog mastering by Chris Bellman over at Bernie Grundman Mastering and SACD authoring by Gus Skinas. The packaging and liner notes are excellent. My only issue with this release is that the track listing printed on the back of the jewel case indicates 8 tracks with tracks 2-4 comprising the three parts of “Melanie”. My SACD player shows a total of 6 tracks with the three parts of “Melanie” being listed as one track. Not sure if that one track is indexed so that one can access the individual parts but, if it is my player won’t allow me to do that. A small niggle in an otherwise superb release.

Recorded live in 1962 at the Tsubo coffee house in Berkeley by Wally Heider and produced by Orrin Keepnews, shows Montgomery along with the Wynton Kelly Trio, and sax player Johnny Griffin in a dynamic and fiery live set that many fans consider the best commercial recording of Wes performing live. It’s hard to disagree with that assessment although there are at least a couple of other live Montgomery performances that are comparable in my mind.

Craft’s release of this particular live set is the most thoroughly curated version that has been made available to date. From the liner notes, “This 3-LP Deluxe Expanded Edition of Full House contains the original six tracks, and all the alternate takes from the Keepnews Collection, along with two previously unreleased takes from that historic night at Tsubo.”

Craft most certainly does not disappoint with this release of Full House. LP One has the original 6 tracks in album order and it sounds better than it ever has for a live recording of the period. Everything about how on-fire Wes and this crew of performers were when they committed that night’s events to tape has been said by critics many times over. And it’s all true. Every track in that original album was absolutely killer. Thanks to Craft Recordings’ attention to detail though, it has never sounded better.

The alternate takes on disc two are interesting little windows into how these guys worked together. With some subtle and other not-so-subtle differences that for whatever reason didn’t make the original cut in Keepnews eyes. I especially like the previously unreleased version of the track “Full House” with Wes’ original restored guitar solo. The version of this track that was originally released had a guitar solo that was an edit from two different takes.

Disc Three has a couple of alternate takes of “S.O.S.” and two alternates of “Born to be Blue.” All sound fantastic to me. I’d be hard-pressed to pick which of any of the takes is the superior version.
The packaging of this set is excellent with a full 3-section gatefold presentation, replete with session photos and new liner notes. Each of the LPs is pressed on 180-gram vinyl with the mastering (24-bit / 192 kHz) performed by Joe Tarantino and the lacquers being cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. It’s a superb-sounding set with no undue surface noise, pops, or cracks. Short of Craft giving this set the One-Step treatment, this is as good as it gets and it’s one of my favorites of their releases thus far.

“Mushroom Gravy” which is the track featuring John Scofield is an absolute peach! Just the rhythms and groove that Deitch and his crew lay down combined with Scofield getting equally funk-i-fied and nitty-gritty is just awesome to listen to on a great system. Wil Blades on organ and clavinet definitely sets the foundation for all the music in place of a standard bass, and you can tell he is enjoying himself. This is music that is so good that it demands I stop whatever else I may be doing and focus my full attention on it! Even when the tempo is dialed down in a track like “Alone Together,” the playing remains smart and classy. The band doesn’t venture anywhere near that pseudo-sexified syrup that sometimes passes for slow jazz these days.

Through it all Deitch handles his drum and cymbal work deftly. His sense of control and flourish are nicely captured in the recording giving any student of the drums complete insight into what he’s doing. I particularly like what I hear from Deitch on “7 Down.” Sublime stuff.

Local LA players, Babko (piano and keyboards), Lefebvre (basses), and Guliana (drums) display exceptional talents and are completely in sync with each other on this live set. “The Church of Bill Hinton” lays down some obvious gospel sensibilities at its core, but veers into some soul and funk through its travels. A great primer for what this trio can do. “New Wave Theater” for me, conjures up images of classic “B” black and white Sci-Fi movies set to the backdrop of an 80s musical vibe. I hear little hints of Frank Zappa-esqe weirdness rolled into a more melodic and satisfying package. The mental pictures these guys can paint for me with their music are amazing.

“Fugue Robotique” takes up the entirety of side C and is the most experimental sounding of all the tracks. Yet it still hangs on to enough of a melodic thread that it never becomes a tedious listen. I look forward to discovering where these guys are going in the song as opposed to getting lost in technical virtuosity and effects. That is a heck of a feat to pull off in a nineteen-minute modern jazz instrumental.

“New Jersey Ballad” and “Return to Jerz” are each like minute-and-a-half palette cleansers right after rich musical courses. Concise and appealing little hits of familiarity deftly delivered.
The album’s live acoustics were captured especially well in the recording. The sound and spaciousness just blossomed out of my speakers making me feel I was almost there, in the venue, during the performance. The vinyl itself was sonically flawless, pressed onto 180-gram rounds at Gotta Groove Records in nearby Cleveland, Ohio. No undue surface noise nor clicks or pops to speak of.

This is exceptionally good music and is extremely well produced. It is making me look forward to more material from both this trio and this label.

“Red Car Reminiscing” provides each of the instrumentalists a chance to stretch a little bit and paints an acoustic picture of traveling through a bustling city atmosphere. This is a tight and skillful group of players. “Feed the Birds” from the original Disney Mary Poppins movie, features Gaby Moreno’s graceful vocals returning to read the lyrics both in Spanish and English. Larry Koonse follows up with a lovely Spanish guitar solo that puts a new and pleasing twist on this classic.

The album itself is very well recorded and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. Unlike the previous Clam City album, this vinyl was slightly marred by some scattered pops and some audible surface noise at the opening of side B. A run-through with an ultrasonic cleaning machine might take care of most of this but the side B surface noise was a little disappointing to an otherwise beautiful sounding album.

The ring and decay of the notes are just outstanding, framed against the tasty cymbal and drum work from Jeff Hamilton, and deep, groovy bass playing courtesy of John Clayton.

This high sonic bar continues consistently throughout the set of mostly jazz standards and covers. A nice sprightly take on “Close Your Eyes” makes for an addictive listen. Kuhn even takes a turn at vocals on “Just In Time”, “There Will Never Be Another You”, “As Time Goes By”, “My World of Music”, and “Don’t Mean a Thing” and puts in an appealing and unpretentious performance. “Griff” is another standout track in that it is a bit of a shuffle but has, again, some top-shelf drum and percussion work by Jeff Hamilton that makes it seem that much more “extra” as the kids say.
I could keep going but, the bottom line is, this is a top-notch jazz trio, featured in a top-notch recording and top-notch album pressing. If you can get your hands on a copy of this 2LP set, you won’t be disappointed!