Larry Mizell - S/D - C/D

there's a new Mizell Bros comp out. looks to be heavily weighted towards Donald Byrd stuff.

is that hammond smith joint worth dropping $30 on

i might have it somewhere on cdr that i can leo for you, if interested. it's pretty nice. has an eryka badu sample on it if i remember correctly.

Been on a bit of a Bobbi Humphrey binge lately. Lovely, lovely stuff. Also been listening to Theo Parrish's "Early Byrd," a really early Theo edit of "Lansana's Priestess" off Places and Spaces. For some reason the Mizell Brothers collection linked above seemed incomplete/random/a missed opportunity despite it's awesomeness.

i copped this gary bartz record 'music is my sanctuary'
the only track i really like on it is 'swing swing'

should i listen more?

Sorry, to correct myself above "Lansana's Priestess" is obviously from Street Lady not Places and Spaces.

Maybe it's obvious, but the greatness of Donald Byrd's "Blackbyrd" cannot be overstated. At least it's one of my fave lite groove 70s fusion jams. Great vocals too. Sorta the pinnacle of Mizell-ness, right?

i copped this gary bartz record 'music is my sanctuary'
the only track i really like on it is 'swing swing'

should i listen more?

Check The Shadow Do! if you can -- Mizell/Bartz on Prestige, released before Music Is My Sanctuary. A little heavier, funkier, definitely not as smooth, partly because Reggie Lucas and Michael Henderson are all over it. Also better due to Hubert Eaves' presence.

is that hammond smith joint worth dropping $30 on

Which one? The Mizells did Gears and Gambler's Life. Gears can be had pretty cheaply on an OJC reissue. Gambler's Life: Soul Brother reissued it a few years ago. No more than $20, certainly. And they're both excellent. Gambler's Life has a couple stampeding, blow-your-face-out tracks. Gears is a little more graceful.

i was thinking the vinyl of gears, which used to be @ dusty groove for around 30 but it looks like it sold. I'll definitely check out Gambler's Life.

I'm actually looking for any of this sort of smooth disco sound, i think some of what put me off on the bartz record was when it veers more towards funk than disco it sounds hokier to me or something. I LOVE spaces and places, stepping into tomorrow ... anything along those lines would be great. Does Larry Young have stuff in this vein?

thnx for any recommendations.

Larry Young: not that I know of. The two last things of his that I know and have are the Fuel albums, both of which are way thorny and out-there.

No one did this type of thing nearly as well nor as prolifically as the Mizells, so it's tough to recommend non-Mizell things that are both similar and near that same level. In most cases, there are isolated tracks on otherwise poor/average albums that get near to it. The Blackbyrds (like "Mysterious Vibes"), Charles Earland (the Odyssey stuff, like "Ahead of Your Time"), maybe even parts of Ronnie Foster's last Blue Note and first Columbia albums. A Norman Connors comp wouldn't hurt, though those are all over the place chronologically and stylistically.

You might really like about half of Patrice Rushen's Patrice (or maybe just "Music of the "Earth"), just before the albums with "Never Gonna Give You Up," "Haven't You Heard," etc. There's some good stuff to be had on just about all the albums that came out through Elektra on Don Mizell's watch -- a couple post-Larry and Fonce Mizell Donald Byrds, Rushen's stuff, Lenny White/Twennynine, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Aquarian Dream. Much of it has been reissued by Wounded Bird. Granted, this was late '70s/early '80s, so some of it might be too slick, poppy, or self-consciously funky.

andy/jaxon/whoever else, what do you think of the blackbyrds' 'city life'? how do you rate their catalog in gen.?

thank u v. much for those recommendations, i'm going to scour some record bins this weekend

City Life is probably their best album. Each Blackbyrds album is considerably patchy to various degrees. If you're OK with CDs, the Happy Music comp that came out this year on Fantasy is excellent.

was offline all day. sleepy. will post tomorrow. don't want thread to fall off new answers.

deej, obviously the sound yr after is why i started this thread. Jazz in the late 70s / early 80s (jazz goes pop, jazz goes disco)
that herbie album i mention in the first post is great smoothed out disco.

make sure to pick up the RAMP (Roy Ayers Music Project) album. totally epic. there's a reissue at dusty. i bought it years ago for the "Bonita Applebaum" sample, but am listening to it again and it's super nice.

the Lee Oskar album "Before The Rain" album is pretty nice. "haunted house" great, and totally sounds like something the mizell bros would have produced.
http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/HauntedHouse.mp3

regarding larry Young, i have 3 of his albums. all are worth owning, but maybe not necessarily for a smoothed out disco feel. i have Fuel, Spaceball and Lawrence of Newark. in that order probably least crazy to craziest. Fuel has a song called "Turn off the Lights" that's super funky and has great synth and a girl singer that belts. the rest of the album, while still funky and gritty, is kinda prog/fusiony. Spaceball is both smoother than Fuel (has better production), but also way proggier. Lawrence of Newark is pretty amazing, but pretty out there. people have compared it to On the Corner (i don't really see). it's just a really heavy, loopy, modal kosmigroove album. imagine if Pharoah Sanders went electric (he's on the album).

the only Blackbyrds album i have (heard) is City Life. pretty solid album. Rock Creek Park would definitely be one of the Mizell bro's shining achievments except i don't think they have anything to do with it? Byrd produced the album. they wrote one song on it and are thanked in the credits (along with Gary Bartz and Patrice Rushen).

i've owned a few Bartz albums and always get rid of them. his sax has always bugged me.

cool, yeah its harder than you'd think to find some of this stuff ... a lot of times when groups aimed for disco they totally miss the point and sound generic, like disco album tracks or something. Like they don't hear how there are totally different factors going into yr listening on the dancefloor or something.

the mizell's did an amazing job just by overwhelming you w/ the beauty of the sound, so lush (overused word i know but seriously how else to describe 'think twice') and unselfconscious

bartz does the 'you are my starship' solo right? eternal props for that one

the other problem with this stuff is a lot of the usual music guides (amg or whatever) that i use to discover music just don't 'get it' and every review more or less parrots the same 'critics were outraged when [act a] when disco, and although there are some terrible disco tracks here sometimes, as with [song a] they really transcend the best of the disco genre!!' and you listen to [song a] and its some utterly boring/generic shit that gets automatic support because of whoever did it.

there's a great Bobby Hutcherson album "Linger Lane" that's REALLY good and sorta fits into this sound. definitely on the slower side. great cover of People Make the World Go Round. Mountain Caravan sounds like it coulda been on any of the mizell produced albums. kinda weird cover of MASH (i think a lot of people covered this for a while?!)

http://www.musicweb-international.com/jazz/Hutcherson/CD_BH_LingerLane.jpg

oh yeah, andy mentioned Ronnie Foster. his album tidal wave defintely has that smooth disco/jazz sound, but unfortunately, i'm not really feeling his sax tone. big Black Moon Sample on this thing though.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000005H5H.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

sorry, song is Tidal Wave, album is Pressure Sensitive

Artist is Ronnie Laws

:)

i am so butthurt

haha. so weird even. i did an image search for Ronnie Foster and came up w/that pressure sensitive cover?!

boogie oogie oogie is a longtime fav disco single, i really had no idea it came out of this whole thing

what do you guys think of the mizell helmed ltd record?

Foster was on Blue Note when Pressure Sensitive was released. Thought he was on PS but I was wrong (most of the Crusaders, though). "Tidal Wave" definitely sounds like the Mizells gone midnight.

the other problem with this stuff is a lot of the usual music guides (amg or whatever) that i use to discover music just don't 'get it' and every review more or less parrots the same 'critics were outraged when [act a] when disco, and although there are some terrible disco tracks here sometimes, as with [song a] they really transcend the best of the disco genre!!' and you listen to [song a] and its some utterly boring/generic shit that gets automatic support because of whoever did it.

-- deej, Friday, September 7, 2007 9:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

This (at least as far as AMG is concerned) is being rectified very slowly, but surely. A good number of albums are slammed on principle.

Love most of the LTD album, mostly for "Love to the World" and "Love Ballad."

Pulling Ned re: Ramp.

That would be pulling "a Ned."

Would not want to pull Ned.

nice writeup! i think i'll cop that this weekend, looks like dusty groove has it for 9 bucks

ok so i went nuts w/ my CC this weekend and copped a bunch of records. why is that byrd 'caricatures' record so devalued compared to the other two? Also found a 12" of that thousand fingerman track jaxon was talking about, its nice ... got a copy of 'gears' @ reckless, i paid about 15 bucks for it? maybe a little more, i forget, but figured what the hell. Still haven't seen his other one anywhere. About to check out Ramp and Herbie's sunlight in a minute here

ughhhh bobbi humphrey 'blacks and blues' has a huge scratch in the middle of 'chicago damn' that i did not see in the store :-/

chicago damn indeed...i thought it was a bargain at 7.99

lol this thread. these guys have to be some of ilx's most underrated artists

i've got this comp, which is pretty great
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VC2PNU6IF6Q/TE8gol31v7I/AAAAAAAABZ0/OKYP4NeZ6G8/s320/skyhigh.jpg

gotta get some of this into the next j0rdan recommendations thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-31TesF8UU

RIP Fonce Mizell :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyf2naIPD9g

RIP. great mix of mizell stuff here: http://blog.djmatthewafrica.com/2010/08/2-busy-saying-yeah-21-mizell-brothers.html

RIP such lush sounds

there was this great blue note cd comp just called mizell floating around a few years ago that had a bunch of Donald Byrd, some gary bartz and Bobbie Henderson.

Got "boogie oogie oogie" on right now!

those donald byrd records are so good nb i never really listen to 'caricatures' though

"stepping into tomorrow" is so awesome with mirror ball accompaniment. You don't know that song until you've listened to it with a mirror ball rotating.

xpost

give Caricatures another try - it grows on ya

Gears by Johnny "Hammond" Smith is the damn-near equal of those Mizell/Byrd albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRkDCwIKf5Q

why did i make this thread for only larry, not both brothers?

lol at youtube uploader messing w/eq to stop people from DL'ing audio from the video