NWR: Miles Blind Tasting Jazz -- Blasts From My Teenage Past

Larry -- Knock off the last part of the url and you get an index to other blindfold tests he did over the years. Truly amazing stuff.
 
Interesting that Tony Williams suggested Miles hire Dolphy. Had that occurred and Dolphy lived, one can only dream! (Not that one can complain about what Shorter did there.) I wonder if Dolphy's close association with Coltrane had something to do with Miles's rejection.
 
That could've been interesting. I'm not sure how Dolphy's very angular alto style would've worked in the context of that group. I imagine his flute and bass clarinet would've fit in just fine.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

The only white guy he praises is Brazilian. So there.

Getz was married to a Brazilian for a time (in fact, she was still Gilberto's wife when they made that recording), but he was not Brazilian. He was of Ukranian Jewish background, one of the seemingly endless NYC Jewish "Lester people" (to use Bob Houlihan's term), and several of them were awfully good.
 
Here's what Miles said: "Stan plays good on that. . . . And I like Stan, because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can. Which takes a lot of imagination, that he has, that so many other people don't have."

We can agree that he's talking about Stan G, but in my opinion, the reference was to Getz, not Gilberto, because neither João nor Astrud was named "Stan." :) ;)
 
Thanks, Claude!

I'm going to start incorporating "sad" into my wine vocabulary: "What do you want me to say? That's some sad shit. See how they fuck wine up? There's oak on it but the oak ain't doing nothing..."
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Here's what Miles said: "Stan plays good on that. . . . And I like Stan, because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can. Which takes a lot of imagination, that he has, that so many other people don't have."

We can agree that he's talking about Stan G, but in my opinion, the reference was to Getz, not Gilberto, because neither João nor Astrud was named "Stan." :) ;)

He says "As for Gilberto, he could read a newspaper and sound good! I'll give that one five stars."
 
Claude, thanks. Really fun!

The Monk reaction to Oscar Peterson is priceless.

It's always fun doing the same to winegrowers. Cristiano at Sella was quite fun, and our own Brézème too. No ratings, of course, but the reactions are great.
 
Love it!
Mingus kills it on Money Jungle. Such an instigator throwing down the challenges. I love how the trio plays at each other as opposed with each other on that album.
As for Dolphy, come on Miles, his solo on "Out There" is benchmark for alto.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Here's what Miles said: "Stan plays good on that. . . . And I like Stan, because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can. Which takes a lot of imagination, that he has, that so many other people don't have."

We can agree that he's talking about Stan G, but in my opinion, the reference was to Getz, not Gilberto, because neither João nor Astrud was named "Stan." :) ;)

He says "As for Gilberto, he could read a newspaper and sound good! I'll give that one five stars."
So if Gilberto was white and was being praised by Miles, and you say that Miles only praised one white guy, then which is it that you see: Getz wasn't white or wasn't being praised by Miles? I don't see either position as being tenable, Oswaldo. To my view, he praised both Gilberto and Getz.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Here's what Miles said: "Stan plays good on that. . . . And I like Stan, because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can. Which takes a lot of imagination, that he has, that so many other people don't have."

We can agree that he's talking about Stan G, but in my opinion, the reference was to Getz, not Gilberto, because neither João nor Astrud was named "Stan." :) ;)

He says "As for Gilberto, he could read a newspaper and sound good! I'll give that one five stars."
So if Gilberto was white and was being praised by Miles, and you say that Miles only praised one white guy, then which is it that you see: Getz wasn't white or wasn't being praised by Miles? I don't see either position as being tenable, Oswaldo. To my view, he praised both Gilberto and Getz.

And Gil Evans, and Al Hirt, and Bobby Hackett, and Barry Goldberg, and Mike Bloomfield, and Zoot Simms. What's the point?
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Here's what Miles said: "Stan plays good on that. . . . And I like Stan, because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can. Which takes a lot of imagination, that he has, that so many other people don't have."

We can agree that he's talking about Stan G, but in my opinion, the reference was to Getz, not Gilberto, because neither João nor Astrud was named "Stan." :) ;)

He says "As for Gilberto, he could read a newspaper and sound good! I'll give that one five stars."
So if Gilberto was white and was being praised by Miles, and you say that Miles only praised one white guy, then which is it that you see: Getz wasn't white or wasn't being praised by Miles? I don't see either position as being tenable, Oswaldo. To my view, he praised both Gilberto and Getz.

I conceded in my first reply that I had overlooked Getz, the other white dude he praised, and was pointing out that the Gilberto that Miles was referring to was not Astrud Gilberto, who also recorded with Getz, but Joao Gilberto. Capice?
 
originally posted by John Roberts:

And Gil Evans, and Al Hirt, and Bobby Hackett, and Barry Goldberg, and Mike Bloomfield, and Zoot Simms. What's the point?
This was my mistake of memories nearly fifty years old. It was Roy Eldridge, not Miles, who had said that he could tell just by listening whether a player was black or white -- and was proved mercilessly wrong in a famous blindfold test by Leonard Feather in which Eldridge couldn't correctly identify the race of the musician even 50% of the time.

For further entertainment, here is Mingus undergoing a blindfold test.
 
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