There have been a number of posts on people's "cheese", their feel-good, slightly guilty listening pleasures. With me it's never been pop music, but a cd arrival today made me realize what the Nilpferd fromage equivalent could be- funky, brassy big band jazz.
Here's a 1963 Grammy winning recording of Watermelon Man by the Woody Herman big band, arranged by Nat Pierce. I especially love the deep bottom end to this arrangement, anchored by the trombones and baritone sax, along with the call and response playing of the saxes against the brass, and the on-fire rhythm section. OK, I basically love everything about it.
Recordings of funk based material by the great sixties big bands were born out of necessity, as it became increasingly harder to sell swing and hard-bop based records, but I don't consider it a sellout, rather a match made in heaven.
These types of tracks- Count Basie's Hang on Sloopy is another great example- appeal to me on two levels- on the one hand there's the sheer, technical beauty in such machine-tooled playing when a 18-odd piece band gets its chops around something this funky, on the other hand I just love the sound of it at a gut level.
Excuse me now while I do the funky nod.
10 comments:
BEautiful picture and awesome track, Nilfperd. Haha, Isaac's doing a bit of a funky nod himself.
Marriage made in heaven. I love this stuff for exactly the reasons you cite, Nilpferd. If this is cheese, it's the sort you can only get in the upmarket deli's!
Cheers, Makinavaya, and thanks for the comment Steenbeck- pleased and humbled that I've managed to extract one of the prized funky nods from Isaac.
I'm having one of those ex-vinyl moments with this recording- the last time I heard it must be over twenty years ago, my Dad's LP was pretty scratched and there was always a jump near the end of the trumpet solo, I keep waiting for it and it never comes..
nilpferd (and, of course everyone): Channel 4 news here in the UK just did a piece about Jimmy Cobb.
"To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this most famous record [Kind of Blue], Cobb, who is now 80 years of age, is touring with his "So What" band, named after the album's most famous track."
Here's the address of their extended interview with him: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/arts_entertainment/jimmy+cobb+remembers+kind+of+blue/3346997
Curiously, given our exchange on the unlikely covers blog, my last real ex-vinyl moment was with "Justice Tonight" as my prized 12 inch has a dirty great scratch which took me a while to get used to not hearing after getting the Black Market Clash CD.
Super picture, Nilpferd. Music's not bad, either.
TUNE!!!
Thanks Chris. Jimmy Cobb played on the recent Miles in India collaboration, good to see him still in action.
Cheers, Ali and Blimpy.
Makinavaja- I'm almost tempted to "recreate" the scratch digitally, just to avoid waiting for it in vain each time...
Is that the future architect? Very cool pic.
You either have an unfeasibly large watermelon or a very small child.
It was a very big 'melon.. Mara is also rather petite. Not sure she has the necessary masochistic streak for architecture though- I think she's a bit too smart for that. Time will tell.
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