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mousethief
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#76 Post by mousethief » Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:47 am

Shorty Dave wrote:In one week, I spent four hours at Albert Murray's home listening to Basie records, had a three hour dinner with Frank Foster, and spoke with Basie's son Aaron, Clark Terry, Benny Powell, Junior Mance, George Wein, and Nat Hentoff.

I can die now.

See you all soon!!!
You can't die until you post it, at least. Besides, who will pimp Y7A?!!

Kalman
"The cause of reform is hurt, not helped, when an activist makes an idiotic suggestion."

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Jerry_Jelinek
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#77 Post by Jerry_Jelinek » Thu Oct 07, 2004 9:29 am

Have fun everyone. I'll be playing Basie in the car this weekend as I drive around and think of everyone.

Shorty Dave
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#78 Post by Shorty Dave » Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:41 pm

FYI, jazz fans, two interviews are going on Fri morning to promote the Basie Centennial Ball.

8:20 - 9:30am listen to WKCR (89.9 or you can hear it online at www.wkcr.org) for an interview with Benny Powell

12 - 1pm listen to WBGO (88.3 or you can hear it online at www.wbgo.org) for an interview with Frank Foster

Both, of course, are playing Saturday night :)

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#79 Post by Nate Dogg » Mon Oct 11, 2004 11:57 am

The Basie 100 went great. At times it felt more like a concert than a dance (that is a good thing, it means that I had a huge temptation to pay attention to what was happening on stage).

Clark Terry was awesome, it was cool how he was able to turn it on when he needed to.

Barbara Morrison and Junior Mance were great as usual.

It was great to see Dennis Rowland, he should play more dance events.

The panel was great.

Kudos to Shorty Dave, Wexie, Yehoodi, and everybody else who made it happen.

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Shanabanana
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#80 Post by Shanabanana » Mon Oct 11, 2004 2:56 pm

Great weekend, and great music Saturday night. There was so much else going on (contests, performances, announcements, presentations) that I barely danced all weekend. But it was good to see people who I haven't seen for years.

Clark Terry made my weekend. Junior Mance, Barbara Morrison and Dennis Rowland rocked the house too. Each time I looked up, there was some new fabulous musician on stage. Kudos to the organizers!

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#81 Post by julius » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:12 pm

As a listener, I thought Saturday's band was fine, and the guest stars that I caught were awesome.

As a dancer, I think Frank Foster's band stank. Not that the individual musicians were bad, but the arrangements and the protracted soloing and heavy drumming really bothered me. It didn't help that the sound man was seriously falling down on the job.

I thought HRO did a far better job honoring Basie's spirit Friday night than Frank Foster did Saturday night.

As far as dancing goes, I enjoyed the Sunday night jam band the most because all the factors that go into a good dance were there for me. Space, people, music, and floor. I did notice Lt. Jim dropping a beat here and there though. That demon rum will getcha every time...

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Mr Awesomer
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#82 Post by Mr Awesomer » Tue Oct 12, 2004 1:03 pm

julius wrote:I thought HRO did a far better job honoring Basie's spirit Friday night than Frank Foster did Saturday night.
Speaking of HRO, what the hell happened to them? At HJDF last year they were on fire. This past weekend it's like someone put a hose on them. Still technically amazing... just... I dunno, they just weren't the same.
Reuben Brown
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Swifty
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#83 Post by Swifty » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:16 pm

The only complaint I had was that none of the bands this weekend had a rhythm guitar. Any Basie tribute should automatically come with a Freddie Green tribute as well. :(

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#84 Post by julius » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:34 am

HRO did. They didn't have a pianist, which makes for an interesting tribute to Basie...

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Jerry_Jelinek
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#85 Post by Jerry_Jelinek » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:46 am

julius wrote:As a dancer, I think Frank Foster's band stank.....I thought HRO did a far better job honoring Basie's spirit Friday night than Frank Foster did Saturday night.....
I wasn't at the shows, but this comment is perfectly understandable. Frank Foster isn't an arranger or composer for dancers.

He came up in the 50s era of Basie. He was never satisfied with playing the same things over and over again. He constantly wants to move the music forward. He is probably the biggest reason the current Basie Ghost band is still composing new stuff. When he took over the ghost band, Frank was still trying to infuse new music into the 'Ghost' band genre.

Did the current Ghost band play at all? I've heard them maybe 4 times in the last 2 or 3 years and they are an amazing hard swing band. Not really for dancing, but a very powerful band to listen and enjoy.

Now was the event being promoted as a dance only event, or was it a tribute to the centennial of Basie? Remember the dance era of Basie (~1937-1945) was a very small portion of Basie's overall music.

I personally find more listening enjoyment to the 50s and beyond bands.

mousethief
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#86 Post by mousethief » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:58 am

Shorty Dave is prolly best to answer this.

Kalman
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Swifty
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#87 Post by Swifty » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:01 am

julius wrote:HRO did. They didn't have a pianist, which makes for an interesting tribute to Basie...
I guess I must have been running around too much trying to get Rob 'adapted' and stuff to notice? Damn I'm lame.

I was thinking of the Saturday band, primarily.

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#88 Post by julius » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:01 am

It wouldn't have mattered if Frank's band had been the reincarnated undead corpses of the 1939 Basie band, there was no room to dance, and it would have made my evening horrifically grumpy had the band been swinging in the way I wanted anyway.

I'm not objecting to the choice of the band, I'm just pointing out that they didn't really hew to _my_ choice of dance music. I know for a fact tons of other people danced all night long (heck, I did too) and had a GREAT time. Just because I'm a picky git doesn't mean the band was bad for everyone.

Just wanted to make that clear.

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Swifty
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#89 Post by Swifty » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:03 am

GuruReuben wrote:Speaking of HRO, what the hell happened to them? At HJDF last year they were on fire. This past weekend it's like someone put a hose on them. Still technically amazing... just... I dunno, they just weren't the same.
Still speaking of HRO, I just discovered they have a website: http://www.harlemrenaissanceorchestra.com/

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#90 Post by Shorty Dave » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:05 am

Jerry_Jelinek wrote:Frank Foster isn't an arranger or composer for dancers....He came up in the 50s era of Basie.
More of my thoughts later when I fully recover; I just had to quickly respond to this. Jerry, I have to respectfully disagree with this comment. Off the top of my head I can immediately think of four Basie tunes that Frank wrote and arranged that I DJ at dances all the time: 4,5,6, Down for the Count, Shiny Stockings, and Blues in Hoss' Flat (aka Blues in Frankie's Flat). Additionally, many (most?) of Frank's early gigs in Basie's orchestra were for dances. (In fact, Frank talked about how he admired Basie's ability not only to know what song to play but also at what tempo the dancers wanted it. That's why you'll hear Splanky's ranging from 110bpm to 160bpm and Jumpin' at the Woodsides from 200 and change all the way up to 300bpm.)

(Also, Fri night had a rhythm guitar, but no piano. Sat night had a piano, but no rhythm guitar.)

More later :)

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