Paul Desmond Blindfold Test [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:05:07 Leonard Feather: On that. Okay.

00:00:05:10 - 00:00:06:21 Leonard Feather: Wow.

00:00:06:24 - 00:00:17:18 Paul Desmond: Oh. So just to be safe.

00:00:17:21 - 00:00:34:16 Paul Desmond: that sounded quite a bit more like Clifford, like, Max Roach and Clifford Brown. And.

00:00:34:19 - 00:00:42:12 Paul Desmond: It’s a good record. I don’t especially want to hear it again but I enjoyed it while it was going. Give it three stars.

00:00:42:14 - 00:00:51:16 Leonard Feather: Any individuals that stood out for anything. Gender. Rhythm section. Tone and angles.

00:00:51:19 - 00:00:59:13 Paul Desmond: It was all very competent. Nobody stuck out. Especially. It’s like I had a very good group sound.

00:00:59:15 - 00:01:06:15 Paul Desmond: Okay. Any particular preference? Coast wise, would you say? Well, it certainly sounds New York ish.

00:01:06:18 - 00:01:13:29 Leonard Feather: Yeah.

00:01:14:01 - 00:01:16:12 Leonard Feather: That was wild. Yeah.

00:01:16:14 - 00:01:35:13 Paul Desmond: I like the writing very much. If it was written and if it wasn’t written, I like it even more. Yeah. Was it hard to tell? Yeah. At first, it sounded as if it must have been written towards the end. More and more, it seemed, to random to be written, which could be very good writing.

00:01:35:13 - 00:01:41:18 Leonard Feather: Or very good playing or luck for it. No. Eliminate luck with more.

00:01:41:18 - 00:01:59:17 Paul Desmond: Than two people. it takes more than that. But I liked it very much. I would imagine it would have to be in the East Coast somehow. Because I think there’s more flute players out here. There seem to be an awful lot of them on the record. Is it one of those Herbie Mann organizations was.

00:01:59:17 - 00:02:08:11 Leonard Feather: Impossible to guess at the instrumentation, or was like two out of two? Well, the only. Funny thing I could.

00:02:08:11 - 00:02:10:02 Paul Desmond: Hear, it was.

00:02:10:05 - 00:02:28:28 Leonard Feather: An alto flute and a collection of flutes and a piccolo and, some kind of hand played drum. Yeah, that’s about it. Well, I’m glad you liked it. Oh, yeah? How do you write it up? Five.

00:02:29:00 - 00:02:30:06 Paul Desmond: Three.

00:02:30:08 - 00:02:38:04 Leonard Feather: Three and a half. Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:38:06 - 00:02:54:20 Paul Desmond: Like Wilder was doing it. If you want to know the truth. It sounds like those Monday night. studio musicians, woodwinds, workshop groups. Yeah. Which are great to play in, but I don’t think people should have to listen.

00:02:54:23 - 00:03:02:12 Leonard Feather: Yeah.

00:03:02:15 - 00:03:12:21 Leonard Feather: Well, you wouldn’t recognize anybody. No.

00:03:12:23 - 00:03:19:11 Paul Desmond: I’d say. Well, it’s hard to.

00:03:23:02 - 00:03:25:15 Leonard Feather: Go about the.

00:03:25:17 - 00:03:38:00 Paul Desmond: Three stars academically for the musicianship involved in playing at that. Well. Yeah. But, no star for the idea of doing it. Yeah. Not as a jazz record, anyway.

00:03:38:03 - 00:03:47:15 Leonard Feather: Without a five star. Don’t give any probabilities. You.

00:03:54:22 - 00:04:12:16 Paul Desmond: Well, I think it’s a good idea. what’s it gonna wait? I’d better clarify that. I’ve heard dizzy play beginning of again, I think, with, some kind of a rhythm, but that certainly wasn’t there. I don’t think unless I’m losing my mind.

00:04:12:19 - 00:04:24:15 Paul Desmond: And, I enjoyed that, but I don’t enjoy this. It was much too overwritten and ornate and oppressive.

00:04:24:18 - 00:04:27:18 Leonard Feather: And I don’t suppose it was the musicians fault.

00:04:27:18 - 00:04:37:06 Paul Desmond: They all seem to play pretty well, but I don’t like the arrangement. Or again, the idea of doing that particular thing. Yeah, it seems to get harder to find records.

00:04:37:06 - 00:04:44:15 Leonard Feather: That you don’t like to listen to. You mean as opposed to having to study them or.

00:04:44:17 - 00:04:45:20 Paul Desmond: Having to react to them?

00:04:45:21 - 00:04:57:29 Leonard Feather: I suppose. Well, you.

00:04:58:02 - 00:05:18:07 Paul Desmond: I, I started out sort of being conservative with the amount of stars and the theory that eventually I would reach something that I would want to give five stars to. But it seems to be working the other way. And I was never very good at fractions. I don’t know, I guess two stars.

00:05:18:09 - 00:05:46:20 Paul Desmond: With. Curiouser and curiouser. I have no idea who they were, but I enjoyed listening to it very much. I would like to listen to it many times. Again. It had that error of, improvization about it again, which puzzles me because. I don’t think that could have all been improvised.

00:05:46:22 - 00:05:52:19 Leonard Feather: But it certainly had the feel. Yeah, it’s. If it was.

00:05:52:19 - 00:05:53:10 Paul Desmond: It was certainly by.

00:05:53:11 - 00:06:07:07 Leonard Feather: Very harmonically sophisticated guys. And it was it was beautiful, very moody and reflective for four stars.

00:06:07:09 - 00:06:20:21 Paul Desmond: Four and a half stars. I don’t know what I’m saving that half a star for. Well, maybe the real thing would come along. and then coast I did. Come on.

00:06:20:24 - 00:06:26:03 Paul Desmond: Well, it certainly doesn’t fit in with the stereotype of either coast. And I imagine the individuals could be from both coasts.

00:06:26:08 - 00:06:35:16 Leonard Feather: It’s much more of an individual thing than anything else.

00:06:35:19 - 00:06:44:19 Paul Desmond: I going to wonder whether your selection of records represents journalistic foxy ness or musical taste. Well, again, I.

00:06:44:19 - 00:06:49:26 Leonard Feather: Don’t know who it was.

00:06:49:29 - 00:07:01:17 Paul Desmond: Maybe Marge Hyams or somebody like that. I didn’t like it very much. And,

00:07:01:19 - 00:07:31:19 Paul Desmond: Playing accordion is sort of a self inflicted occupational hazard that requires an awful lot in the way of content to justify it, which in this case didn’t happen. They had sort of had that. I will. 50% better than music feeling. I’d say two stars.

00:07:36:17 - 00:07:53:07 Paul Desmond: Well, that was André and Shelly, one of those show tune albums. I love that rhythm section. Yeah, and Andre seems to be getting closer and closer to his goal of sounding like Horace Silver. Yeah.

00:07:53:10 - 00:07:59:25 Leonard Feather: You know.

00:07:59:27 - 00:08:04:24 Leonard Feather: Ooh. Three and a half stars.

00:08:04:27 - 00:08:34:02 Paul Desmond: It’s a wonderful sound to hear again. That’s got to be Jerry and Chet. Unless not. Well, in this kind of a test, I should never say things like that. Because if there exists, an expert duplication, I’m sure you’d be playing it for me. But I still think that’s Jerry. And, Chet, it certainly isn’t the best thing they’ve done, but it has a nostalgic value.

00:08:34:04 - 00:08:48:02 Paul Desmond: If there is anything to be said about West Coast or East Coast jazz, if you classify Gerry Mulligan group as West Coast, which is kind of silly because it just happens to be where they were at when they met. Yeah. So I would say this is one of the.

00:08:48:02 - 00:08:59:18 Leonard Feather: Most valid things to come out of the West Coast. Yeah. And the they’ve done a number of remarkable things.

00:09:06:01 - 00:09:23:18 Paul Desmond: For stars. maybe I’m being nostalgic. Well, it sounded good. I like to hear it. Like the rhythm section. I was,

00:09:23:21 - 00:09:34:24 Paul Desmond: It was okay. It wasn’t too demanding a situation for a rhythm section, so it’s hard to tell. Yeah.

00:09:34:26 - 00:09:51:04 Paul Desmond: this reminds me of that blindfold test that Bill Russo took where he heard elite comments. Record said it sounded as if he had fallen back into the mainstream, which killed me at the time because it seems awful to think that you would.

00:09:51:06 - 00:10:19:28 Paul Desmond: Change your playing after careful consideration and have somebody else interpret it as an unfortunate accident. Yeah. And, My first thought was, if it’s Lee, he’s drowning and somebody should save him. I shouldn’t say all these things. Can I edit this later? No, that’s not fair. Now, I guess it was probably Bud Shank, and I sympathize with him because I have the same problem in my occupation, which is to,

00:10:24:09 - 00:10:38:29 Paul Desmond: It’s a problem of one who is sort of raised in the atmosphere of cool jazz, trying to sound hostile enough to be currently acceptable. Yeah.

00:10:39:01 - 00:10:46:22 Paul Desmond: why am I saying.

00:10:46:25 - 00:10:51:08 Paul Desmond: It was well done, but it wasn’t really two moving.

00:10:51:11 - 00:10:54:06 Leonard Feather: At that.

00:10:54:09 - 00:11:30:28 Paul Desmond: Piano sounded a little more authentic, but it’s easier to do that on piano. You don’t have the problem of sound. Yeah, it’s easier to shift and the. There never was. No. Piano that’s pretty much sounded the same throughout all this. More southern horns. There’s an era of kind of competent funkiness about this, but it seems superficial and not as if it’s really meant somehow.

00:11:31:00 - 00:11:35:03 Paul Desmond: Any comment on the bass or.

00:11:35:05 - 00:11:36:04 Paul Desmond: I honestly didn’t.

00:11:36:04 - 00:11:42:01 Leonard Feather: Hear it was an arco, so I’m well, I guess.

00:11:42:04 - 00:12:00:15 Paul Desmond: Could you could you play it again and I’ll be happy to. It wasn’t that important. I kind of like Philly Joe Junk. Yeah. Are we still going? Sounds like Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Which I suppose would mean that the alto player was aunt Pepper. But the situation remains pretty much the same.

00:12:00:17 - 00:12:08:04 Paul Desmond: Did you read it? No I didn’t.

00:12:08:06 - 00:12:12:21 Paul Desmond: Let’s see if dancing was to start hard. I sympathize.

00:12:12:21 - 00:12:19:10 Leonard Feather: With you.

00:12:19:13 - 00:12:20:02 Leonard Feather: Oh, two.

00:12:20:04 - 00:12:24:27 Paul Desmond: And three is good.

00:12:24:29 - 00:12:28:11 Paul Desmond: I’d say,

00:12:28:13 - 00:12:34:11 Leonard Feather: Three and a half. For,

00:12:34:13 - 00:12:42:10 Paul Desmond: Just a very good but uninspired job.

00:12:42:12 - 00:12:59:01 Paul Desmond: I like to see it. I mean, you know, are you going to write you all those little things? Why am I saying this? And, if you don’t want me to, I can take that. Yeah, because it’s pretty disjointed. I’m trying to be honest, and that’s the only reason that it becomes incoherent. So I don’t think it’s.

00:12:59:01 - 00:13:02:12 Paul Desmond: Well, One thing that might surprise you or it.

00:13:02:12 - 00:13:07:17 Leonard Feather: Might not, is that all the records that I made on the West Coast.

00:13:07:19 - 00:13:08:26 Paul Desmond: It doesn’t. I don’t think it proves.

00:13:08:26 - 00:13:14:25 Leonard Feather: Any particular way, but, so it might have an interesting. I just want to help you come up.

00:13:14:28 - 00:13:40:24 Paul Desmond: That is interesting. Does it demonstrate anything? Demonstrates that they have recording studios on both ends of the continent and that people travel? Yeah, I guess it’s both. And you get to own styles on both coasts, right? Certainly. But I never said anything to the contrary. No, but so many people have. Oh, I’m on the authority of voice of my carries on way that you know, you haven’t said that.

00:13:40:29 - 00:13:49:18 Paul Desmond: I always thought it was the critics, more than anyone else, had fostered the East Coast, West Coast dichotomy because they need things to write about.

00:13:49:20 - 00:13:54:03 Leonard Feather: The professional pigeonholes. That’s right.