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23 August 2012

Comments

Wommusic
1.

Hahahaha - LOVE your closing line!!!

Sam
2.

House music is the direct descendant of Disco. I love Disco.

godoggo
3.

I love Disco Monk.

DJA
4.

I respect that people are willing to cop to liking "Disco Monk."

Trombonist Dave "Smoota" Smith contributed the following, via Facebook, which is too good not to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIqwF2oWcQ4

Neil
5.

Can't view the "live at the Roxy" clip from where I am, but I suspect it was the same as the track released on a 1992 EMI compilation I own called "the best of Donald Byrd". The Mizells also did some fine work with Gary Bartz, "Funked up" is worth checking out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-agE54EEVS8

Tom
6.

"Is it jazz?" is not a stupid question if you're a jazz-aficionado who adores and prefers music that is based on spontaneous interaction instead of playing over dull disco-beats! Of course those Byrd-Mizells-recordings are not that bad, but if you're really into jazz, why should you waste your time with them instead of listening to the masters at their peak? Different kicks for different pricks ...

DJA
7.

Tom, if you'd taken the time to listen to the multitrack breakdown of "Think Twice" in the video I referenced above, it would be clear that there is a ton of spontaneous interaction going on within the rhythm section. These players are masters at their peak — it's not hard to hear if you'd care to open your ears a little.

Tom
8.

DJA, what I need to be happy is interaction on every level - not just in the rhythm section - but yeah, sometimes it's fun to listen to "backbeat-music", but then I'd rather listen to Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye and not to Donald Byrd's disco-stuff, I don't know, it just doesn't speak to me - my ears are wide open, but most of the time they want to listen to Miles, Ornette, Bird & Co. - maybe I'm reactionary? Who cares ...

Kiefferjohn
9.

Love this, thanks!
There's a longish interview with Harvey Mason at
http://archive.org/details/TheHarveyMasonInterview
where he talks about the Mizell era at about 15:00.

larry mizell jr.
10.

great writeup, way insightful.

and like dalton in road house said: opinions vary.

DJA
11.

Hi Larry,

WOW... thank you so much for stopping by commenting! Your music has been a great inspiration to me and it was a great experience for us to perform it live.

Also, much respect for the Road House reference.

larry mizell jr
12.

Hey DJA, i'm not the producer, I'm his son. I'm sure pops has seen Road House before though.

DJA
13.

A thousand apologies! I (evidently) missed the all-important "jr." You are, I take it, the Seattle music journalist? I grew up just across the border, in Vancouver. Hope things are good on the Wet Coast.

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