🎷 AotW: CTI Tamba 4 - WE AND THE SEA (SP-3004)

All the CTI releases

How Would You Rate This Album?

  • ***** (Best)

    Votes: 13 81.3%
  • ****

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • ***

    Votes: 1 6.3%
  • **

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • * (Worst)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Never Heard This Album

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    16
The Japanese CD issue of Samba Blim (in jewel case) from a few years ago sold out.

However, coming soon in Japan: A reissue Limited Edition SHM-CD (Paper Jacket) of Samba Blim will be out 20 May 2009

All the best,
Mike
 
I get REALLY tired of all the Taylor/Sebesky bashing on this forum . Let me point to one Taylor/Sebesky arranged/Randy Weston project. It was on the CTI label, came out in 1972 and is a masterpiece of brass/big band
arranging and production. And it's not all that commercial, either. They DID take chances at CTI and A & M, you just have to take the time to seek out the really good stuff. The album is called "Blue Moses" and is available on Amazon from Japan. Lets not forget, as I've stated many times before on this forum, that the A&M and CTI things WERE NOT MEANT to be straight ahead jazz dates-- they were basically jazz-flavored pop projects, designed specifically to reach a wider audience. And in that respect they succeeded, for the most part.
 
Yeah, I remember a tune called "Grey Moss" , I think, on that Adderly album (he did two for A & M) that I played about a million times after I bought the album -- JO , do you know which tune I am speaking of ???
Killer !!!!
 
big band rickster said:
I get REALLY tired of all the Taylor/Sebesky bashing on this forum...
Sorry, man -- hey, if it's any consolation I'll take Taylor/Sebesky in a heartbeat over Dave Grusin's famous orchestral-jackhammer charts that chronically smother the soloist. Anyway, you're correct in that these things were never intended to be passed off as "jazz" LPs... (Of course, Herb knew a "pure jazz" production unit would not turn a profit for A&M...so to get a decent return (desperately needed given the costly packaging) he needed to make it more accessible. Creed had a strong ($$) track record with "pop-jazz" over at Verve anyway with Wes (30min LPs, top-40 covers, 3-min songs, orchestrations, etc.), so he just continued the approach for Herb... Of course, it's one thing to have a Montgomery or Mann LP turn a profit for you, but stuff like that Artie Butler LP could never have been expected to break even against the high production and packaging costs!)

I look at it like this: as "jazz" LPs they're pretty dismal; as "pop" LPs they're quite good -- in fact, the first four are wonderful!!

big bad rickster said:
Yeah, I remember a tune called "Grey Moss" , I think, on that Adderly album (he did two for A & M) that I played about a million times after I bought the album -- JO , do you know which tune I am speaking of ???
Killer !!!!
Yup. That's the Calling Out Loud LP. Grey Moss resembles the tuneful/lyrical melodies that Joe Zawinul would bring to Miles Davis' In A Silent Way prep and recording sessions. The other piece is Ivan's Holiday -- again, another haunting piece...with Nat using that wacky veritone attachment to get the "electric cornet" sound. (Remember Eddie Harris and Bunk Gardner using this thing? Apparently it was all the rage during '67-'68. Just the thing that probably sold for 5$ back in 1986 -- and now'll cost you like 300-smackers on e-bay!)
 
Do you know if Varitone was the correct name for the attachment? Selmer had their Varitone saxophones, which had a microphone in the neck, and a control box that provided a handful of effects. Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt were two who used it on recordings; other than that, it never gained a following.

I could see something similar for a cornet--makes me wonder if someone retrofitted a Varitone setup to the cornet in this case.
 
The Liner notes for YOU, BABY indicate that Nat used the Varitone. I recall the writer remarking about Nat's "husky tone" or something like that. He probably also used it on CALLING OUT LOUD. FWIW, JJ & K also used Varitones for part of BETWIXT & BETWEEN.
 
Funny--I found an old post of mine on the "Sax On The Web" forum. I'd heard the Selmer Varitone on one of Chico O'Farrill's albums ("Married Well"), and commented that it sounded like a badly-miked saxophone. :laugh:
 
Brasilian jazz in its purest, most simplest form... Free from any strings, brass, or electronic effects, marking the ambition of the day, which would diminish such an unspoiled musical worth...

Not that anything like that could take anything away from these guys... You don't have to be "big, into jazz", to like...!



Dave
 
Certainly Creed Taylor's claim-to-fame is not his role in the creation of fusion jazz in the 1970's which begat today's smooth jazz. Rather it can be argued that no person had a greater role in the promotion and popularization of Brazilian music in the 1960's than Creed Taylor. His musical imprint is on all the classic albums he produced in that period for Tom Jobim, Walter Wanderley, Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz and the Tamba Four. Gene Lees, the writer of English lyrics to Jobim's "Song of the Jet". "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" and "Double Rainbow" said in his book, Singers and the Song II, "were it not for Creed Taylor, I am convinced, bossa nova and Brazilian music generally would.....become a quaint parochial phenomenon interesting to tourists, instead of the worldwide music and the tremendous influence on jazz itself that it in fact became."

Of critical importance, in 1963 he produced the album "Getz/Gilberto" which was released in 1964 just when interest in Brazilian music had started to ebb away. What this album's huge success would do is give Brazilian music an enormous spark and gravitas that remains with us today. It has been said that the album's signature song "The Girl from Ipanema" is the second most recorded song in history, right after the Beatles "Yesterday".
 
A couple of further notes about this album.

"Nós e o Mar" was originally recorded for their 1962 debut album Tamba Trio.

"Moça Flor" comes from their 1963 album Avanço.

The arrangements of "O Morro (Não Tem Vez)" and "Consolaçao" were originally recorded live, on the 1965 album 5 Na Bossa, a concert which also featured Edu Lobo and Nara Leão, although this version features a few more vocal parts. A faster two-minute version of "Consolaçao," in 6/8, was recorded on their 1963 album Tempo. And on the 1968 Philips album named Tamba Trio, both of these song appear again in the same arrangement as the 5 Na Bossa version, albeit a little faster in sections, and in far better sound quality.

A similar moody version of "Canto de Ossanha" is found on their album Tamba from 1966. Interestingly, the bass figure from the introduction of "Tristeza" is the same one used on the intro of "O Morro."

Tamba also has a track named "Iemanjá" but it is not the song found on this A&M/CTI album; the true title of the song is "Canto de Iemanjá," penned by Baden Powell and poet Vinicius de Moraes.

That leaves "Dolphin," which was written for this album.
 
I understand this is an old thread, however Amazon has this release and Samba Blim on schedule for release in April as SHM CD releases. Not inexpensive, however I am not gonna miss these this time
 
I think it's the "Japanese way" to keep reissuing these on different, allegedly "improved" CD formats every decade or so. 😁 Somewhat related, they also released the Luiz Eça & Cordas album on CD as well. But, none of the other Tamba Trio albums thus far.

Shop around a bit--maybe there will be another online seller who has them less expensive.
Qobuz has all three of the Tamba 4 albums available for download, with We and the Sea at $13.59 USD, and Samba Blim and California Soul at $12.09 USD. Not exactly collectable CDs, but at least they are still available to purchase.

 
What a difference 35 years make. When this was reissued a few years ago DownBeat gave it a glowing review and ****1/2 stars.



Capt. Bacardi
I don't believe it was the passing of time that caused a more positive and accurate review. It was simply the fact that someone else reviewed it. The original bad review in a 1968 Downbeat was by Pete Welding, who had many strange reviews that I personally disagreed with. If any of the better and more consistant reviewers on the Downbeat staff in 1968 (Harvey Siders, Dan Morgenstren, Ira Gitler, Michael Zwerin, Harvey Pekar or Don DeMichael) had done that original review, I'm certain that "We and The Sea" would have received somewhere between 4 and 5 stars.
 
I was rereading some jazz reviews a group of us did at Compuserve (and shortly thereafter, on another site I set up) about 25-30 years ago. Some reviewers were always fair about the recordings, even if they didn't particularly like them, and wrote in a style that made you appreciate why. Yet there were one or two in particular who could be very nitpicky, and the hate for the music they were reviewing just poured out of their writing. As I sort through deciding which ones to "reprint" online, those hateful reviews will never see the light of day, far as I'm concerned. They seemed to be part of that group of jazz listeners who have acute tunnel vision for what they like, which was very narrow in scope, and anything else was invalid as far as jazz (and the entirety of music) was concerned.

There are also a handful of rock/pop reviewers who I know, if they like a recording, I will dislike it...and vice versa. Or some who are so full of self-importance that their flowery prose does nothing to describe much about the recording at all; rather, they'll tell us what the artist had intended, as if they were mentally tethered to them. 🙄 I'd rather just hear about what a reviewer likes or dislikes about the songs on a record, especially if they point out details I might have missed. Even if I partly disagree, a well-written alternate viewpoint will still get me to give the record another chance.

Short version: I have no tolerance for hack reviewers anymore. 😁
 
I was rereading some jazz reviews a group of us did at Compuserve (and shortly thereafter, on another site I set up) about 25-30 years ago. Some reviewers were always fair about the recordings, even if they didn't particularly like them, and wrote in a style that made you appreciate why. Yet there were one or two in particular who could be very nitpicky, and the hate for the music they were reviewing just poured out of their writing. As I sort through deciding which ones to "reprint" online, those hateful reviews will never see the light of day, far as I'm concerned. They seemed to be part of that group of jazz listeners who have acute tunnel vision for what they like, which was very narrow in scope, and anything else was invalid as far as jazz (and the entirety of music) was concerned.

There are also a handful of rock/pop reviewers who I know, if they like a recording, I will dislike it...and vice versa. Or some who are so full of self-importance that their flowery prose does nothing to describe much about the recording at all; rather, they'll tell us what the artist had intended, as if they were mentally tethered to them. 🙄 I'd rather just hear about what a reviewer likes or dislikes about the songs on a record, especially if they point out details I might have missed. Even if I partly disagree, a well-written alternate viewpoint will still get me to give the record another chance.

Short version: I have no tolerance for hack reviewers anymore. 😁
I have Less tolerance for Hack reviewers either in my opinion All Music Guide had so many of them I totally got away from them well over a decade ago.
 
Dusty Groove is listing both WE & THE SEA and SAMBA BLIM for April and for about $15.99 each.
 
Dusty Groove is listing both WE & THE SEA and SAMBA BLIM for April and for about $15.99 each.
Thanks. A lot less expensive than Amazon

Also pre-ordered the Sergio Mendes and Brasil 65 SHM as well.

I have never purchased from Dusty Groove. How are they (reliability, packaging, secure transaction)?
 
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Thanks. A lot less expensive than Amazon

Also pre-ordered the Sergio Mendes and Brasil 65 SHM as well.

I have never purchased from Dusty Groove. How are they (reliability, packaging, secure transaction)?
They are generally perfect. They have a high regard for records, CDs, etc., and their customers.
 
I have never purchased from Dusty Groove. How are they (reliability, packaging, secure transaction)?
We used them a long time ago here in the forum when a bunch of the Mendes albums finally got a CD release in Japan, along with others we wanted (including the first release of We and the Sea on CD, prior to Verve doing it in the US). Probably goes back 15-20 years or so. Dusty Groove has been a Chicago mainstay for decades, so they're about as trustworthy as it gets, and they've always had a soft spot for these types of releases.
 
I have never purchased from Dusty Groove. How are they (reliability, packaging, secure transaction)?
Another vote for purchasing from Dusty Groove. I've dealt with them for over 25 years, buying and selling lps as well. The owner Rick is a class act and he takes care of his customers. Buy with confidence.
 
All of my trips to Chicago...and I still haven't visited Dusty Groove yet. 😁
 
I have zero excuse--I live 4½ hours away from Dusty Groove!

The only time I might have had an opportunity to go was a few times on Record Store Day, when my Chicagoland pals would hit the stores. But those were always the same weekend as the audio show. I figured I could see a record store any day out of the year, vs. three days out of a year for the show, so I passed.
 
All of my trips to Chicago...and I still haven't visited Dusty Groove yet. 😁
Definetly go there when you get the chance. The store is very clean and well laid out, and their prices are reasonable. In the 45 years I've been going to used record stores, this one is the best. Unfortunately the only other used record store in the area worth visiting is Squeezebox in Evanston. The rest are dirty stores with poor selections.
 
I've received my latest copy of WE AND THE SEA from Japan. It's housed in standard jewel-case and is part of a series called "All Of Jazz". Here are some scans:
WeSea1.jpgWeSea2.jpgWeSea3.jpgWeSea4.jpgWeSea5.jpg

Sound quality sounds pretty much identical to the Verve reissue from a number of years ago. This is essentially a price-down reissue, common in Japan.
 
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