The Used Jazz Record Bin

It's not quite dead, yet.  There is no point in complaining about the steady disappearance of jazz sections in record stores when record stores are all but extinct.  It was a little disconcerting when I discovered that the modern jazz section of the Music Factory in New Orleans was all but gone.  It is pretty clear that jazz artists aren't going to sell their recordings at those venues.  However, this is not really anything new.  How many record stores have ever carried good jazz sections or even good alternative rock sections for that matter?  No record store in my hometown ever carried Patti Smith's great recordings.  What is new is that you can get almost anything you want online. 

What I am really sad to see go are the bins where you could find good second hand jazz CDs.  I did manage to find a couple of gems this weekend at Cheapo Records in the Twin Cities.  I have a respectable collection of Elvin Jones recordings, but I didn't have the double album Illumination/Dear John C. until now.  Well, I did have Illumination.  I was glad to get the second half for a very good price. 

Dear John C., as you might have guessed, is a tribute to Trane.  The lineup is Elvin Jones on drums, Charlie Mariano on alto sax, Roland Hanna and Hank Jones on piano, and Richard Davis on bass.  It's worth a listen.  I am playing the title cut and 'Love Bird'. 

I picked up Natural Illusions by Bobby Hutcherson.  It is a 1972 recording that seems to be rather lack luster, but it does fill out my Hutcherson collection. 

I was pleased to find Revue, by the World Saxophone Quartet.  This all star, all sax group is something you want to check out if you think, as I do, that the saxophone is the main register of modern jazz.  The quartet features Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax and also clarinet; Julius Hemphill on alto, soprano, and flute; Oliver Lake on the same; and David Murray on tenor sax and bass clarinet.  There is enough texture here that you could float on it. 

I am playing the title cut and 'David's Tune'. 

A Mountain of a Hemphill

Just randomly strolling through my collection tonight I hit on The Julius Hemphill Sextet.  Avant gardener Hemphill (1938-1995) seems to be the almost invisible man.  I couldn't find an entry on him in the Jazz Encyclopedia.  Nor could I find the album Five Card Stud on Discogs.  That's damned odd, because Discogs has pretty much everything.  

Anyway, Five Card Stud is a very fine piece of work.  It is all saxophone all the time.  Here is the lineup, from Wikipedia:

• Julius Hemphill - composer
• Tim Berne - alto saxophone
• Marty Ehrlich - soprano saxophone, alto saxophone
• Sam Furnace - soprano saxophone, alto saxophone
• James Carter - tenor saxophone
• Andrew White - tenor saxophone
• Fred Ho - baritone saxophone

I note the presence of Tim Berne.   An all horn band is a lot like a Capella music: voice is everything.  Fortunately, the sax has a lot of rich voice.  I don't miss the drums or the ubiquitous thump of the jazz bass, maybe because some of the horns are thumping like a bass.  Much of the composition divides between a solo, a horn doing bass, and an orchestra-like chorus. 

Search this one out.  Everything on it is toe curling good.   I am playing 'Moat and the Bridge' from the album. 

Another Hemphill recording (the only other one I have) is Flat-out Jump Suite.  This is a pure avant garde concept album, with titles 'Ear', 'Mind', 'Heart', and 'Body'.  You don't want to miss hearing this one. 

The Julius Hemphill Quartet is:

• Julius Hemphill - flute, tenor saxophone
• Olu Dara - trumpet
• Abdul Wadud - cello
• Warren Smith - percussion

 I am playing 'The Body' on my L365 station.