bertrand

Is this really Patti Bown, or maybe someone else?

1970?

Zev Feldman will find a backup copy. He will not release it though because it will have no commercial potential.

So it is not the Wolff estate taking over, I was wrong in that other thread. UMG taking over is fine, but we will still only get to see it in bits and pieces. I dream of an archive where you can see every single photo, organized by session. There would be one folder per session.

Yes. That was mentioned in the film. Everyone was shocked, even Lion, when his wife and kids showed up at the funeral. Why this was never told until the film is a mystery. She was African-American.

Yes, he was definitely in the band by then. The unanswered question is whether he joined in late July or early August. I thought Mosaic no longer controlled the Wolff images and their status was in limbo? I wonder if this related to the fact that the producers of the Blue Note documentary 'It Must Schwing' tracked down Wolff's family. Apparently, it was a surprise to everyone when a wife and kids showed up at the funeral in 1971. Wolff had kept his personal life very private.

Has this material been released before?

The concert the day before was definitely filmed. The repertoire was somewhat less conservative in that they played 'Yama' and 'The Summit', but my hunch is that it is just a fluke that the 1/12 concert left out Shorter and Morgan tunes. There was no specific plan. This is a great set, and I am pretty sure the only live date by the Shorter/Morgan/Timmons band from a foreign tour to be released on US Blue Note, the label to which Blakey was signed at the time. The others are from US club dates. I will take any record with Lee and Wayne together, one of my favorite partnerships ever. It is kind of odd that they played two different halls in Tokyo 10 days apart, but then I am sure the demand was high. The Messengers also played two different venues in Paris in 1958 with Golson. So where else in Japan did they play on this tour? Looking at the Blakey chronology: Art Blakey Chronology (and the Jazz Messengers) (jazzmf.com) we have Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya, with no specific dates, but presumably between the two Tokyo dates. I wonder if any of these were recorded. The live dates by this band are far from a 'you heard one, you hear them all' situation. I find the playing much more aggressive on the May 1961 Paris recordings, Wayne sounds borderline hostile. Was it perhaps because the band was soon to break up? Lee's 'personal problems' did not help the dynamic, I am sure. I am also curious as to when Lee Morgan left the band exactly. Lee is on the 6/13/61 Impulse date, and in Baltimore right after. KD subs for Lee at Newport on 7/2 (I wish we knew more about that incident), but Lee is back with them in DC two days later. There are photos with Lee from the Jazz Gallery in late July/early August, but Hubbard is on board by 8/8/61 for a few tracks from Three Blind Mice. Bill Hardman may have filled in briefly in the interim. If the Jazz Gallery is really early August, then Hardman's tenure was very brief. Jeff McMillan has different info in his Morgan chronology: 1956 (umich.edu) 1) Morgan is ill on 7/2/61, hence KD subbing. 2) Jazz Gallery is 7/11-16, but then apparently Lee is also in South America? 3) Hubbard is already with Blakey at the Village Gate on 7/25. The Village Gate and Jazz Gallery dates need confirmation. I have the New Yorker CD-ROM, I will see what I can find out. When did Lee come back? Hubbard is on Kyoto (2/20/64), Lee may have been at the Manne Hole as early as 3/10/64 per Fitzgerald, maybe slightly earlier. McMillan has more: Lee is not at the Village Gate on 2/21-22, but he rejoins in late February. He has Manne Hole gigs 2/28-3/8. Even better: the Messengers are on the Steve Allen show on 3/6, and UCLA has a copy. This is footage of Lee I have never seen, presumably the Indestructible lineup. I want to see that! Charles Tolliver filled in briefly for Lee in June/July 1965, including Newport on 7/2/65. Would love to hear that! Lee's last gigs with Blakey were in August 1965, possibly at Manne's Hole. I wonder if Blue Note/Zev Feldman are planning more Blakey releases. The 1/11/61 TV Show with the Sharps and Flats has never been on CD in the US, to my knowledge. And I still think a CD combining the 1959 Newport date with Lee and Mobley and the 1961 Newport date with KD and Wayne would be a most attractive package. Recordings of both are in the VOA/Newport collection at the Library of Congress. The former is 40 minutes, the latter is between 15-30 minutes depending on whether there are two songs or three. There is a story behind that I probably already told... Bertrand.

40K is consistent with the fees I was hearing for Shorter around 2008, if that helps.

When he played at Bohemian Caverns in DC in the late 90s he got a rubber check. That was under the old owner. The guy who ran it after for about 10 years until they closed, Omrao Brown, was a class act all the way.

But this concert was after other Japanese concerts that did feature Shorter pieces. Maybe the incomplete pieces are Shorter tunes.

Not with COVID. Yup. That is probably why he gets mixed up, but, as I said, he tells the story as if the accident happened in August.

So how do get to hear this music? There is no reason we should not be able to.

A rare recording is up there now also.

Yes, contracts are out there but those who have them are not getting the research importance. Blue Note has contracts which would prove when an artist was signed to them but they are hanging on tightly to this info. It is needed whenever a tape shows up and it has to be determined which label, if any, has jurisdiction. This will be an issue if that Grant Green Left Bank tape ever surfaces. I think he was not with Blue Note, but they may claim otherwise. The Left Bank archives at UMBC does have a few contracts, let me see if I scanned any of that when I visited last August. I know the fee for a Duke Pearson Big Band gig was shown, and maybe a couple of others. To watch someone in action claiming contracts are of no historical importance, please watch the YouTube panel discussion I was on last year. You should be able to find it by searching for 'Baltimore Jazz Alliance Left Bank Jazz Society'.