Jazz for aficionados

****Should / does the name and music have any relationship? Should a person be able to hear and follow the theme or subject indicated by the name?****

Should?  Grandma used to tell me: "there are no "shoulds" in life".  In seriousness, should the name of the music....?  Probably not, although I think it's much better when it does and I think the best tunes do.

Does?  Often it does.  1. Sometimes it's obvious and the music follows, as you say, the theme indicated by the name. 2.  Other times it's a very "inside" relationship that only the composer of the tune is privy to; and, may want to keep it that way.  3.  Sometimes there's no relationship whatsoever and the title is random or may relate to a person or event without the music itself relating to that person or event; I think this is the exception.

1. Obvious:
- "Take Five".  The tune is in 5/4; five beats to the measure.
- "Watermelon Man". HEEEEEEEEEY WATERMELON MAN
- "So What". Eight note bass lick followed by the two note motif by the horns: SO WHAT!
- "Ceora". First three notes of the tune are clearly deliniating the three syllables of the title.
- "Take The A Train".  YOU, MUST TAKE THE A TRAIN
- "Salt Peanuts".  SALT PEANUTS, SALT PEANUTS

2.  Inside
Well, if it weren't an inside thing we would know, right?

3.  
- "Ornithology".  No clues in the music itself, but since the word means the study of birds.....duh!  "Bird", get it?
-  "Bitches Brew".  Couldn't imagine the connection.
- "Billy's Bounce".  Obviously relates to Billy (?), but I don't hear it in the music itself

Often, a composer has an experience or sees somehting that has some kind of impact as in the case of "Watermelon Man".  I heard Herbie Hancock describe that very process in how he wrote the tune; he saw a man selling watermelons.  Fewer times the composer writes a tune and then "looks" for a title that he feels somehow relates or chooses to leave the choice of title completely random.

BTW, I think your overall assessment of Thomas is spot on.

When I saw all these re-issued CD's by Leon Thomas, I thought I had struck a gold mine. I remembered that he had sung with Count Basie, but I thought he had left that behind for his "Avante Garde" mode, as Acman referred to it; that's all I wanted to hear. If I want to hear Joe Williams, I'll buy Joe williams. I think it would have been better if he had separated his different modes, conventional and yodeling, then both camps could be satisfied. I've got albums by Yusef Lateef and John Handy where they do the same thing; mix popular and unconventional music that I bought the album for. I recorded the unconventional, and forgot about the conventional, but that's half of the album wasted; which is what I'll do with Leon's albums.

Speaking of Yusef Lateef I'll replace his scratchy records. He played some way out instruments like: bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto, and is known for the blending of jazz with Eastern music. I don't think I have "The Blue Yusef" let's give it a listen. This cut is titled "Back Home", it's really kicking.
           

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



Does anyone have an album by Yusef where he uses all or most of those unusual instruments?
I would certainly like to give that one a listen.




Enjoy the music.

O-10, I do have "Jewels of Thought", but Kharma is one recording that I had on cassette, and was forced to get rid of due to lack of storage space.

It still bothers me, that I had to get rid of thousands of great titles on cassette. Should have got rid of a child instead  :), in hindsight, but I do like to hunt down music in dark, dusty rooms, so maybe one day I will get them all back!

I am not the biggest fan of Leon, but thanks for bringing him up for discussion and listening.

Rok, I remember reading that" Bloodcount" was actually another song title written before Strayhorn was sick, before the history we were told , of it being composed by Strayhorn on his deathbed, but I like the history we were told.

Have to leave for work, so I don't have time to clean up that last paragraph.

Thanks Frogman! I hate half truths and just did it myself. I guess I will file this under, if you don't have time to post correctly, don't post