Gheorghe

Same here, haven´t played ot for many many years if not decades. Nice idea for listening to it again, especially as now there´s so much discussion about the Miles-Hank Mobley relations. I think I remember I paid very much attention to what Mobley played.

Wasn´t almost everybody else in the band also using ? Paul Chambers I think was a live long user. If Miles really had kicked the habit totally (wich I doubt I think he had a livelong affair with harmful stuff), at least his first quintet was only junkies and I don´t think he felt superior of them or they felt inferior or things like that.

wow, never thought Miles would also give his autograph...... About the photo: Whatever other difficulties Hank Mobley might have, he had taste, he´s always well dressed. Nice coat, the man had class. I heard that even at the very end of his live, when he appeared (but didn´t play) on a great BN anniverary he was well dressed and made a short speech. But there´s no photos from that event.

I´m not so sure if Miles really "hated" him, but look, that period when Hank was with Miles, was kind of a period of transition for Miles, he didn´t know for a while in what direction to go. He had behind him the first classic quintet, the sextet with Trane and Cannonball, the three albums with Gil Evans, the great achievement of "Kind of Blue" and the collaboration with Bill Evans, so the early 60´s was a time of more conventional stuff without risking nothing. So maybe Miles "hated" to look back at that period more than he personally "hated" Hank Mobley. Another thing: There are not many photos of Hank Mobley from later years. Once I saw a photo of him with a hat and grey beard, and maybe this was after he returned to the states? And one little photo of him on the Tete Montoliu album, but there I really had difficulties to recognice him, he looks so old.

Yes, more than just Bird......, well at least I had purchased the fantastic Billy Eckstine "Together" and the "Afro-Cubop" (Machito, Howard McGhee ), and once I purchased a Red Rodney with some "Bebop Preservation Society" but this..... didn´t appeal too much to me, maybe the same thing like you say "latter-day recordings by old bop master"

This one is really a treasure ! They sound wonderful together, and I think it was the only occasion Dannie Richmond (one of my favourite drummers) recorded for BN.

@HutchFan, thank you so much for this great infos. I think I should purchase some of those late Haig recordings. I think the Spotlite LPs where around when we used to buy LPs during that "era" , but I fear that during that period (1978) I was too much interested in Bird (who was something for me like let´s say James Dean would have been for the generation before me ) and since Spotlite was very much a "Bird-Label" (all those "Bird in Lotus Land" "Bird in Paris", '"Bird in Sweden" etc.) I overlooked the Haig albums under his own name, I think I "listened" to pianists only as Bird and Dizzy´s "sideman", but that was the situation, I was just a bit too dumb then to dig the whole thing...... I think I saw "I remember bebop" once or twice but didn´t buy it, maybe I feared it might be a sampler, but I think this was Henry Renaud´s thing, always trying to gather the bop pianists who had survived. On this cover I could recognize very easily Duke Jordan . Barry Harris, John Lewis, I´m not sure but the man next to John Lewis could be Walter Bishop ? Is Al Haig the first one? Or the one in the middle ? then, I don´t have no idea who is the first one .....

One of my favourites. I love those Eckstine recordings with the big band from 1944-1946. This together with the Spotlite album "Together". Fats Navarro with Mr. B ! This was my first Art Farmer album I had purchased, and Mr. Farmer signed it for me. A treasure, really. And the best rhythm section you can imagine with Cedar Walton, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins. A five star album, but what I say, give it 100 stars......

I must admit I heard a lot of Al Haig from the 40´s but nothing he did later. I´ve always been fascinated how Al Haig developed his very personal style. In 1945 he still sounded a bit "stiff" but really started to stretch out later in the 40´s. And his ballad style is beautiful, his piano solos on Wardell Gray´s album are fantastic. Did he change his style in the 70´s ? And strange, I have heard he had a very rough time in the 60´s, there are stories I wouldn´t like to mention, but on that photo he looks so straight, much more like a lawyer or a banc director than a bop verteran.....

Thank you so much for sharing this great interview with us. I´ve read from another source I think, that Hank talked in a very positive manner about his time with Miles. Not like others who said Miles did not like Hank´s playing. I like very much Hank´s playing on that live double album "Black Hawk" I think...... It´s interesting that Hank at that time (1970) said he had no plans to go back home, while he must have been back in July 1970 when he recorded his last BN album. Though many say the romantic thing about Americans in Europe (jazz musicians) I think it was not only happy experiences, it must have been hard to check out in which city you might get a gig, and then play with local rhythm sections. I think Dexter told it in a very significant manner that he said "you always have the role of a teacher, you have to tell them how to play". Sure there was very good players also, like let´s say George Avanitas Trio, Pierre Michelot, Nils Henning, Alex Riel, Tubby Hayes, Stan Tracey, Tony Crombie and so on. I was very surprised Hank mentiond Cracow, but that´s really a fancy old town and it seems that Hank enjoyed places like that. He also did Hungary I heard, and above all, I didn´t know he played in my hometown Vienna also. I would have liked to know where he did play then, and with whom, but I think most people I could have asked are gone now. In the sixties I was a kid and became interested in jazz not earlier than in the 70´s, so this was after Hank was in Vienna......

I must admit I have not listened to very much Chuck Mangione, but remember a small club they had in the mid 80´s in Vienna where the club-owner and DJ spinned very often "Children of Sanchez" which I think is a very catchy thing.

I have all Lee Morgans from the 50´s and most from the 60´s. This might be the first one, with Clarence "C" Sharp on alto. Nice little record, but the best Morgan from the 50´s I think is "The Cooker". I listen a lot to Lee Morgan right now, since our trumpet player likes him very much and on some of the last occasions we had "Ceora" in our repertory.

I had the BN-LA double album "Paul Chambers-John Coltrane High Step" with the complete Westcoast Session (Quartet with Trane, Philly J.J. and Kenny Drew), ony parts of the "Whims of Chambers" which actually was the BN record, and the three tracks for the Transition label. Later I purchased the "Whims of Chambers" and then the japanes Cardboard of "Chamber´s Music" which features also as bonus tracks the three Transition tunes . I always have loved those strong titles, wonderful music. Then, in the second half of the 70´s I was just at the beginning of my career as a jazz fan (and part time player) and didn´t know much more than Miles and Mingus. So, when I saw that double LP with those players I had on the Miles "Steamin" (Trane, Paul, Philly J.J.) I said to myself this must be good if it´s the "Davis Crew"

It´s interesting it has the same cover photo like my to CD´s of Monk on BN. But the first time I ever heard Monk, (which was the BN recordings) was a double album "Complete Genius" from the BN LA series.

Wonderful album with a special story for me, since it was just the second Mingus album I got, more than 40 years ago. Wendesday Night Prayer Meeting fascinated me from the first moment on, everything, Cryin´Blues, Moanin´ , E´s flat A´s flat too........

A classic and from my point of view the very best album from the 5 he did for Columbia. It´s the best because it´s his working unit and the material is what they usually did live. I remember when I first saw Dexter live, this was in the record stores as the "brandnew Dexter album" and the next day I purchased it. The music is fantastic, but I´d also like to mention the great photos and the liner notes.

Great player. Heard a lot of great solos on the live dates with Sonny Rollins.

Don´t forget the incident Mingus with Jimmy Knepper ! But also Miles was told to be violent to other musicians. He punched John Coltrane and Monk was there and told Trane "as much saxophone you play, you don´t need this, why not join my band ?" There was also a rumour that Miles hit Monk during the famous "Bag´s Groove" session in 1954, but Monk, who was much stronger than Miles later said "what me? He´d better not!" And a lesser known incident is about Fats Navarro when he tried to smash Bud Powell´s hands with his trumpet, but missed his hands. Miles tells in his autobiography, that around 1981 while rehearsing he poured a bottle of beer over his guitarist´s head (Barry Finnerty) who had all his electronic equipment around him so this was quite dangerous.

Is it possible I saw and heard Gary Smulyan with the Woody Herman Herd in 1979 ? I remember a very strong baritone player and I think it was he. And about Dick Oatts, I think I saw and heard him in 1978 with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band

1977, it might be from that last year when Mingus was able to play, with his last band with Jack Walrath, Ricky Ford, Bob Neloms and Dannie Richmond. Looking at the photo and seeing the kinky afro hair style I think it was during that time, since one or two years earlier his hair was shorter. I remember it well, they usually performed extended live versions of the long title tunes from the commercially released 1977 albums "Two or Three Shades of Blues" and "Cumbia and Jazz Fusion". Usually they started with "Song for Harry Carney". The band was really strong.

Great albums , listened to them recently, always great

Tony Inzalaco was very much in action in Europe in the 70´s. He was or is a very very fine drummer. I saw him live on several occasions, he played very much in Vienna with the Frith Pauer Trio (Fritz Pauer p, Jimmy Woode b, Tony Inzalaco dr) and I remember an unforgettable night at Jazz Freddy: Johnny Griffin with the Fritz Pauer Trio, so I saw Tony Inzalaco with Griff , those were the days !

Oh that´s really sad news. Though the early 80´s I got to know him personally we had many occasions to talk about music and listen to tapes etc. He played a very impressive set on Hollabrunn Jazz Festival 1985 with some of his old buddies like Paul Fields. During the time I knew him, he recorded "Pannonian Flower" a really strong composition.

"five stars" especially for the participation of Sam Jones and my favourite drummer Philly Joe Jones. This is one of the greatest Bud Powell albums after 1953. All compositions by him, and they are great compositions. John´s Abbey became a signature tune during Bud´s years in Paris and after his comeback to the states. He never failed when he played it. And he kept "Monopoly" in his song book. And "Buster Rides Again" is a fantastic latin tune with the great Philly J.J. doing an extended drum solo.

A wonderful album, I think it was actually the first Clifford Brown/Max Roach I ever heard, decades ago. Great compositions by Richie Powell !