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Jazzjet

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  1. According to Jazzwise magazine the next batch of RVG reissues ( due on 1 September ) includes : Hank Mobley Quintet - Hank Mobley J.R. Montrose - J.R. Montrose Lou Takes Off - Lou Donaldson The Opener - Curtis Fuller Plays Fats Waller - Jimmy Smith Peckin' Time - Hank Mobley Leapin' and Lopin' - Sonny Clark Evolution - Grachan Moncur Dimensions and Extensions - Sam Rivers Dearly Beloved - Stanley Turrentine Also due for release on 21 July are two in the Rare Groove series : Heritage - Eddie Henderson Howlin' for Judy - Jeremy Steig ( compilation of Steig's albums Legwork, This is Jeremy Steig and Wayfaring Stranger )
  2. There's your problem. Boomers...ugh. They think they invented everything interesting or important since the end of WWII. "I was there, man. I remember where I was when JFK was assassinated..." Speaking as a baby BUSTER (born in 1970 when people just weren't having babies), I have to say that I REALLY came to despise the boomers as a grew up. Nothing was EVER geared to people my age. It was either aimed at my parents or my younger brother. There weren't enough people my age to make it worth their while. Then the early 90s happened. And there was something that was just being made by people MY age. And it was bitter. And dark. And nihilistic. And wonderful. It put all the flower power shit up against the wall and pulled the trigger until the chamber was empty. I still listen to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Beck. Hell, yeah! I do love music from the sixties and seventies, I just don't fool myself into thinking that it's the only stuff that matters. Best songwriting team since Lennon/McCartney? Morrisey and Marr! I salute your spirit but dispute your analysis. Equating Morrissey and Marr with Lennon and McCartney is so wrong it's funny. When one of your innumerable, dreary indie bands has achieved 10 per cent of the impact on popular culture of the Beatles, Stones, Who, Led Zep, Dylan etc, please do let me know.
  3. I'm just ploughing through the piles of Blue Note CDs that I've acquired recently, largely thanks to this forum. Up At Minton's by Stanley Turrentine is a fine record with a relaxed feel. I particularly enjoyed Horace Parlan. Can anyone recommend any of the Blue Note titles by Parlan ( none of which seem to have been reissued at a reasonable price ) or any of his work for other labels?
  4. Having started the thread, I guess you may be right. Interesting to see the level of enthusiasm for a number of bands like Babyshambles - and bizarrely encouraging. The fact that I really don't see their value is of course irrelevant - it only matters to those to whom it matters. One noticeable thing in modern rock compared to say pre-1975 is the sheer multiplicity of sub-genres. Back in the day if you talked about rock people had a fairly universal understanding of what you meant. Now, it can - and does - mean just about anything, from alt.folk to grunge to emo etc etc. Maybe there just isn't a rock culture any more?
  5. I was with you until you brought up Babyshambles. Pete Doherty a poet? Don't make me laugh. They make Freddie and The Dreamers look like rock gods.
  6. Not sure about that. It's been 44 years since the Beatles hit in 1964. 44 years before that was 1920. Don't know that our parents/grandparents looked back as fiercely on Al Jolson or Bing Crosby or whatever as my generation does on the classic rock era. I agree with the comment that rock music has been in a 35 year decline. Some touchstones: 1 - the death of 60's idealism (think Charles Manson and Altamont) and the ascendancy of Cocaine in the rock world, which destroyed the populist aspects of the rock experience. Granted, much of the 60's idealism was a fairy tale, but it was a fairy tale with an awesome soundtrack. 2 - the firing of Clive Davis by Columbia. They were a very daring company in the late 60's, as was Warner/Reprise. A lot of great albums got made then by those companies which would not be today 3 - the ascendancy of the singer/songwriters and country rock groups on one hand and the hard rock/heavy metal groups on the other, which polarized rock music and made other styles a niche. 4 - The AOR format, which eliminated the free-form FM format on one hand and trivialized AM top 40 playlists on the other hand. 5 - The elimination of the ability of independant labels to break new music regionally and have it go national based on merit. 6 - Punk and Disco, which seemed at the time to immediately turn everything before it into dinasours. Granted, a lot of it had become fossilized prior to that, opening the doors for Punk and Disco. 7 - MTV was damaging on one hand, because the visuals became more important than the music in a lot of ways, and because it made it even more impossible for niche/local music to ascend to national status. On the other hand, there was a return to a focus on individual songs rather than albums for a brief time, and I would argue that the early-mid 80's were by far the strongest pop period of the last 35 years, even though much of the production sounds dated now. The writing was stronger than it had been in some time, and much much stronger than it has been since then. But MTV eventually led to the Britney's and Xtina's, via Madonna. Madonna had much musical merit at time, but that seems but a small part of her legacy, and much of the rest of that legacy has been pretty damaging on a lot of levels. 8 - Rap, while some has merit, further dumbed down a lot of musical values in many cases. I have to smile here, as my parents would say the same about rock, but there it is. 9 - There is still some good music to be heard on adult alternative rock stations (we have one of the best in the country, WXPN, here in Philly. David Dye's World Cafe originates from WXPN), but even there, the format is more rigid than we might wish, though a lot looser than on "for profit" commercial stations. 10 - When's that last time there was really something "new" of great value in music to draw the masses? Also, when's the last time a group seemed to grab the spirit of the populace the way groups like U2 or Big Country did in the 80's, and so many did in the 60's? Just some ramblings from a 53 year old on his lunch break, this is by necessity overly simplistic, but maybe will raise some good discussion points. Agree with most of your points. One I would add is the takeover of control in the music business of accountants, probably from the mid-80s. Creativity was severely compromised as a result and many of the albums we cherish now ( Pet Sounds for example ? ) might never have got made once the accountants took over. Arguably, the decline in rock and pop dates from this time.
  7. I guess like many on this forum I have a fair number of rock albums alongside the bulk of jazz, funk, soul etc. However, most current rock leaves me totally cold and its a long while since I bought a rock album. Of course this might be due to my taste changing and, indeed, most modern rock is not aimed at my generation. However, it does seem that rock has lost its edge with a lot of very average bands trying to sell to a diminishing market. UK rock, in particular, is full of bands characterised by limp vocals ( often in fake cockney accents ) and minimal songwriting talent. The subject matter isn't very inspiring either. Am I missing something or do others notice the same decline?
  8. More Holborn than Camden. I used to work just across the road from the theatre. About 5 mins from Holborn tube station.
  9. Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like more of my money headed to Amazon any day now!
  10. Great news. Thanks Roger for posting this. Sounds like a must-purchase!
  11. I know what you mean - up to a point - but I would like to have the choice. I still recall a few occasions when I heard an album being played over the shop's P.A and was so impressed that I had to buy it there and then. One was Don Ellis's Live At Monterey ( at Collets, later to become Ray's ) and another was Forest Flower by Charles Lloyd. You can't do that on Amazon!
  12. Yes, Dobell's booths had a very specialized line in grafitti. Two I remember are: "Roland Kirk has two mouths" and "Gladys Pringle:" (or some such name) "best white entertainer ever" plus London suburban phone number. Not the Gladys Pringle?
  13. Thanks. I've got quite a lot of Grant Green but not this one. I'll check it out.
  14. Mustn't forget 'Brown Street' by Joe Zawinul and the WDR big band. It's a blistering album and the title track is worth the price of the album on its own.
  15. I guess it all comes down to individual experiences. Most of the time I enjoyed shopping at Mole but occasionally it was a bit sniffy, particularly when asking for something that was perhaps seen as a bit 'popular'. It depended on who served you. As for Dobell's, my experience was a bit earlier as a schoolboy. The good thing was you could take LPs into the record booth and play them on turntables that must have been featured in the Flintstones. The arm of the turntable must have weighed a ton and did unmentionable damage to the record. If you didn't buy it - the norm in my case - it just went back into stock for some poor mug to buy it next time. And does anyone remember the second hand basement, run by John Kendall I think. It was like a small cave, complete with damp, but I picked up some great bargains there. My favourite, however, was Ray's Jazz ( formerly Collett's ) which has now migrated to be Rays Jazz at Foyles. Service was usually friendly and helpful and I'll always remember a small, bearded Scottish guy who was a regular customer and had a fantastic technique of flicking through the album display racks at lightning speed. Probably gave up when CDs came in.
  16. I remember going into Branson's very first record shop on the upper floor of a small cheapo fashion store in London's Oxford Street. That was full of cushions and the familiar smell of patchouli oil and spliffs. I recall buying Boz Scaggs' first album there ( worth it just for 'Loan Me A Dime' ). I agree about big stores in general. However, the Virgin in Picadilly did have a good listening system where you swiped the CDs bar codes on the listening stand and listened to a few tracks. Smaller shops are ( or used to be ) far more satisfying than the big megastores in most cases, partly because the bigger stores are obliged to carry big stocks of everything. However, I do recall the big Amoeba stores in San Franscisco being like a treasure trove. Are they still there? The HMV in Oxford St wasn't bad last time I was there and the jazz section staff at least seemed to be interested in the music. I do miss the sometimes sneering and patronising approach of some smaller, specialist record shops ( a bit like in High Fidelity). Mole Jazz used to be a bit like that sometimes and the old Dobells shop in London was well known for customer abuse.
  17. Jazzjet

    Jazz 625

    Sort of answering my own question but I've found this listing from the British Film Institute. Even this doesn't look complete however as Jimmy Smith, for one, is missing. Still, at least its something. BFI Jazz 625
  18. Jazzjet

    Jazz 625

    Does anyone know of a complete listing of the programmes made in the BBC's 1960s TV series Jazz 625? Typically of the BBC I believe some of the broadcast archives were destroyed ( probably to save money in order to fund Jonathan Ross's salary ) but there were some re-broadcasts in the 80s and 90s. I'm currently converting some of the Jazz 625 shows from VHS to DVD and this is what I have so far : Cannonball Adderley Art Blakey Duke Ellington Errol Garner Dizzy Gillespie Coleman Hawkins Tubby Hayes Thelonious Monk Oscar Peterson Jimmy Smith Joe Turner Ben Webster Clark Terry & Bob Brookmeyer Charlier Parker Tribute ( Sonny Stitt etc ) Various - Retrospective
  19. Rubbish pasties! In 3 1/2 years living in Cornwall I got out twice - both times to Plymouth! It's probably as easy to get to NYC as Bath.
  20. Sorry I'd be interested to know what the Rollins Vol 1 is like. I'm only familiar with the more famous Vol 2 - one of my all time favourites. Not sure I've ever checked out Vol 1.
  21. Hope so. At around 4 to 5 GBP each they were pretty irresistible. It was either Blue Note classics or the new Coldplay album
  22. That would be the jazz CD shop in Bath, if you are thinking East of Cornwall. Failing that it's the Jazz Record Centre or Downtown Music Gallery NYC if thinking West. I'm not sure if there are any jazz outlets these days in Exeter (there used to be a great LP shop on Gandy St but long gone now I'm afraid). Too bad that Peter Russell's 'Hot Record Store' in Plymouth is long gone. That was a good place - although a bit 'trad/mainstream' inclined. I think I'd prefer NYC!
  23. On the basis of the recommendations/comments made etc ( plus reference to the Penguin Guide ) I've just put in a big Amazon order for : No Room For Squares - Hank Mobley Ready For Freddie - Freddie Hubbard Inner Urge - Joe Henderson Free For All - Art Blakey Heavy Soul - Ike Quebec Workout - Hank Mobley Doin' The Thing - Horace Silver Bossa Nova Soul Samba - Ike Quebec This on top of a batch of Stanley Turrentines last week. No idea when and how I'm going to listen to all this stuff but hey you're only old once!
  24. Between Truro and St Agnes on the coast,near Porthtowan. Not a decent record shop within a hundred miles!
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