Lambert, Hendricks and Ross

Message

gatorgal · #1 Post by **gatorgal** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:52 pm

I'm just getting around to listening to some L,H & R that a friend gave me weeks ago. Some of it I really like and some of it is just... ehh.

Curious to know what the general consensus is of the group. I'd also like to learn a bit more about them.

Thanks,
Tina

funkyfreak · #2 Post by **funkyfreak** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:47 pm

There's a discussion of them here you may be able to gleam some points from http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=348

-FF

Nando · #3 Post by **Nando** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:59 pm

Jimi Hendrix did vocalese?

mousethief · #4 Post by **mousethief** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:42 am

Excuse me me me bop bop a le bop waa waa shadoobeo dowaay...

Kalman

mousethief · #5 Post by **mousethief** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:44 am

Don't like 'em. Why should I be forced to buy a CD full of crap to get one decent song. That's worse than "Are Ya Hep to the Jive!"

Kalman

gatorgal · #6 Post by **gatorgal** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 8:05 am

funkyfreak wrote:There's a discussion of them here you may be able to gleam some points from http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=348

-FF

Thanks... I actually tried doing a search of them by thread and couldn't find anything. I suck at searches.

Nando... What are you now, Mr. Spellcheck?

Kalman... Not sure which LHR CD I have since my friend just gave me a whole bunch of mp3s. I'm curious to know which song you like. So far my faves have been "In a Mellow Tone", "Moanin'" and "Cottontail". Yep, it's cheesy... but it ain't easy bein' cheesy.

Tina

#7 Post by **JesseMiner** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:18 am

Love 'em! I have most of their recordings. I don't think I'd play a ton of them for dancing, though one of my favorites that I do play is "Charleston Alley". Dave can attest as he was dancing to it this past weekend at NADC. I had an incredibly memorable dance to that song several years ago in Chicago (I'm sure we all have many songs like that where we can pinpoint exact where we first heard it).

Meeshi's glowing review on Swingorama (are his reviews still on there?) first turned me onto L, H & R, and then I read about them again in Norma Miller's book "Swingin' At The Savoy". Their Sing A Song Of Basie album was my first purchase - it's so interesting to listen to the original Basie recordings and then their vocalese versions.

On a side note: my cousin is a bassist in NYC and was recently touring with Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. Very cool.

Jesse

Ron · #8 Post by **Ron** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:58 am

Jesse, you and I often have similar tastes, but LH&R isn't one of them. I just think they are OK.

Jerry_Jelinek · #9 Post by **Jerry_Jelinek** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:45 pm

Tina,

I love Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Jon is truly a legend in his own time. He still writes vocalese words for songs. A lot of Manhatten Transfer stuff has Hendricks lyrics to traditional instrumental songs.

There is a double CD on Columbia - "The Hottest New Group in Jazz - Lambert, Hendricks and Ross" - CD C2K 64933

This has 3 complete LPs along with 7 bonus unreleased tracks on it. Includes my 2 favorites - Twisted and Give Me That Wine. Those songs knock me out every time.

The 2nd CD in the set has a few things that either go on and on, or are just plain bad. From my notes:

CD 1 = 19 of the 21 tracks I would use on the air. 11 of these I have as med swing. 2 are gospal things and a few fast swing or fast bop.

CD 2 = 14 of the 18 tracks I would use on the air. Only 4 of these are med swing. SOme gospal, some slower blues. ALso one track is an alternate take of another track.

Nando · #10 Post by **Nando** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:47 pm

Jon Hendricks is great.

I'd recommend his "Boppin at the Blue Note" it features other members of his family. His daughter used to sing with one of the NY bands here before she moved to L.A.

I got to catch Jon here in NYC at a panel regarding jazz vocalists with Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy, and Sheila Jordan amongst others at the IAJE conference, he also conducts his "Vocalstra" from the University of Toledo.

"Hottest Group in Jazz" is a great album, but the only thing I've ever risked playing at a dance is "In a Mellow Tone." It's like someone else said. Even though it's pays respect to an original arrangement, vocalese sometimes loses the energy from the original work... at least energy that would make me want to dance, in comparison to just listening to the songs.

Other tunes on that album which I like (off the top of my head) are "Moanin" "Twisted" "The New ABC" and "Home Cookin", but really it's a great album to listen to overall.

Yakov · #11 Post by **Yakov** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:26 am

you know, i used to be really in to them (as you can read on this board) but nowadays i'm just kind of like "eh"... especially now that i'm acquiring more and more of the original recordings that were their source material... although nothing helps you to memorize a solo better than to have lhr words to it...