TT 507: Blindfold Tests

today and yesterday

Thanks to Ashley Kahn for being rather generous in his selection of items for the Downbeat Blindfold Test done in Umbria this past December. Ashley knows what I know and played to my strengths, so it was easy for me to basically ace the test. Read the whole thing here.

(Thanks also to my old friend Enzo Capua for bringing me to Umbria so many times!)

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I always turn to the Blindfold Test first when I get my new Downbeat.

Most of the interviewees have gotten safer and more political over the years, but back in the day, comparatively unfiltered comments can make for surprising and occasionally revelatory reading.

Ray Bryant in 1960 has no use for Steve Allen playing Horace Silver or Cecil Taylor, but digs George Shearing.

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Gerry Mulligan in 1960 is confused by Cannonball Adderley and Bobby Timmons, which is strange enough, but then his comments on Thelonious Monk are unintentionally revealing. I am a Mulligan fan, within reason, but never dug the record Mulligan Meets Monk. Now it all makes sense. (That particular Monk recording of Irving Berlin’s “Remember” awesome, of course.)

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Last year I was paging through one of the Encyclopedias of Jazz assembled by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler. Feather cherry-picked good moments from the Blindfold Tests.

Kenton’s unsympathetic comments made me re-listen to “Cascades” from the classic album. I don’t hear any “time hassles.” Pretty damn good solo from Bill Evans too LOL — I mean, could Kenton himself done any better???

I hadn’t paid attention to Zawinul’s “The Searcher” until reading Hancock’s praise. It’s in a fast 7/4 and certain melodic shapes definitely foreshadow Weather Report. I deduct a star for the person playing loud and inconsistent tambourine

Zoot Sims was played Pharoah Sanders “Aum” from TAUHID. The full Booker Ervin Blindfold Test is here. That "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" with Lockjaw has killer saxophone but the overall band vibe is relatively pedestrian.