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mikeweil

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Posts posted by mikeweil

  1. Shared birthdays...

    in Artists

    Posted

    21 February

    Tadd Dameron *1917

    Al Sears *1910

    Nina Simone *1933

    Warren Vache *1951

    Not bad, but Jim, how come your list is so impressive? Except for the lucky guy who shares his birthday with the Duke...

  3. Elmo Hope

    in Artists

    Posted · Edited by mikeweil

    There is an excellent Elmo Hope Discography on the web, written by Noal Cohen.

    The twofer LP All Star Sessions consisted of the Prestige Session known as Informal Jazz and the Riverside LP Homecoming with Blue Mitchell, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster and Hope's bandmates from the Joe Morris R & B group, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones. Their trio title tune is one of the greatest improvised blues performances I have ever heard! Highly recommended! Available as Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-1810-2 with three bonus tracks. There is a CD issue of the Milestone twofer as well, but it omits one or two tunes from the Riverside LP and doesn't have the (very good) bonus tracks - the info on the Elmo Hope page at the Fantasy website is not quite correct as it does not mark all three bonus tracks on the Homecoming CD issue. Informal Jazz is available only on the All Star Sessions CD issue or in the Prestige Coltrane box set.

    I consider the Blue Notes, the Riversides (there is a great solo/duo piano LP with his wife Bertha) and the Contemporary (ex HIFIJazz) albums the best. The Last Sessions are great, too.

  4. Super Session

    in Re-issues

    Posted

    For me, Bloomfield was the greatest white blues guitarist ever! But he had his ups und downs, Kooper's new liner notes to the Live Adventures reissue are very telling in this respect. But nevertheless, this disc contains what is IMHO Bloomfield's greatest solo on disc, in "I Wonder Who". His vocals are second rate, but his guitar solo is fantastic; listen to the point where he milks that one note and stretches the beat to its utter limit.

    Gonna get me that new reissue. Curious to hear that track without the horns, who were, as Kooper already stated on the original liner, "added as an afterthought". Second afterthought: take your own choice .....

    BTW I'm looking for Nick Gravenites' live LP (Fillmore?) with Bloomfield guesting (Epic). Anybody got that, or was there any reissue?

  6. Paul Gonsalves

    in Artists

    Posted

    The Impulse twofer CD "Tell It The Way It Is" that also includes "Cleopatra - Feelin' Jazzy" is very nice, in spite of the movie soundtrack reference. Fine sidemen and good sound.

    I also recommend his OJC/Jazzland album "Gettin' Together" with Nat Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones and Jimmy Cobb: Great to hear him in such an advanced hard bop setting, and he is in top form!

    He can be heard to good advantage on quite a number of Ellingtonia albums, but I consider the Impulse and Jazzland albums to be his top work. Now if he only hadn't been drinking that excessively .... :rolleyes:

  8. Walter Fuller dies

    in Artists

    Posted

    What is missing are his unvaluable contributions to the early Dizzy Gillespie Big Band and its circle. He was co-credited for Manteca, with Dizzy and Chano Pozo, among other things.

    Must be hard to do a well researched obituary. When Mongo Santamaria died, a writer for one of Germany's leading daily newspapers wrote two paragraphs, the first was a superfluous history of Latin jazz, the second on Mongo inclued three biographical errors!

  12. Most interesting/favorite James Spaulding context

    in Artists

    Posted

    So it seems Spaulding is one of those players you either love or don't.....

    I always liked him, he was one of my favourite alto players from the first time I heard him (which was on Freddie Hubbard's Breaking Point, a friend of mine had that at the time).

    I voted for the "progressive dates" because the Rivers date would have been my single choice date. The originally unreleased date with Hutcherson, Patterns (?) is nice too. That he and Joe Chambers - who had even grteater potential as a composer than Spaulding - didn't get their Blue Note dates is one of Alfred Lion's greatest mistakes, in my opinion.

    Jackie McLean, OTOH, never really got to me - couldn't stand his intonation. Always liked Dolphy. And Bartz.

    When Spaulding had his first date as a leader, in the 1970's for Storyville, I was disappointed because it was a straightahead Ellingtonia thing. And the Muse dates are nice, but not overwhelming. Maybe he missed the right point in time. With Hubbard it always sounded to me like Freddie kept him down a little so he couldn't steal the show - Freddie certainly had the bigger ego.

  15. Bennie Maupin

    in Artists

    Posted

    Thinking about it, Maupin remains my favourite bass clarinet player.

    Besides David Murray, Chris Potter and the like, isn't there some nice b-c every now and then by Michael Moore, Marty Ehrlich and Bob Mintzer (the latter two on Don Grolnick's Blue Notes).

    I have to admit my favourite straightahead b-c albums are Herbie Mann's "Great Ideas of Western Mann" on Riverside/OJC (with Jimmy Rowles and Mel Lewis) -

    and Buddy DeFranco's (yes! his only bass - and alto - clarinet recordings) "Blues Bag" on VeeJay(1964). The latter practically has the Jazz Messengers - Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Victor Sproles, Blakey - of the day plus DeFranco and Victor Feldman alternating on vibes and piano. A great selection of Blues tunes by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Monk, Feldman, DeFranco, Leonard Feather and Dizzy Gillespie. Very nice selection of tunes, great concept, great playing. Does any of you b-c freaks cherish any of these two?

  16. Bennie Maupin

    in Artists

    Posted

    Jack deJohnette's "The DeJohnette Complex" on OJC/Milestone has some nice Maupin, in a vein similar to the IS sessions.

    There is a long bass clarinet solo on the next deJohnette Milestone LP "Have You Heard" and more Maupin on the Prestige "Sorcery" - don't know if they were on CD.

  17. Bobby Capers

    in Artists

    Posted

    I have always enjoyed saxophonist Bobby Capers' playing. I have most of his records with Mongo Santamaria and the Latin Jazz Quintet, found a small number of studio dates and the info he played but obviously never recorded with Max Roach. The stuff he recorded with his sister, the esteemed pianist/composer Valerie Capers remained unissued and is probably lost forever, as well as a session as a leader for Atlantic.

    I read on some web pages on his sister that he died, but cannot find any details.

    Does anybody here know when he died, the circumstances and wether he recorded anything more than the stuff mentioned above?

    I consider writing his discography and would be grateful for any biographic/discographic detail.

  18. Jutta Hipp died on Monday, April 7

    in Artists

    Posted

    Her playing here is rythmically rather stiff, something akin to Dave Brubeck of the period.

    I haven't heard these early Hipp recordings, they are hard to find, even here in Germany, but I know Brubeck's early stuff very well and know he just tried something ryhthmically different than just swing in a conventional jazz sense. I appreciate his ideas wery much, have tried similar things and sometimes received criticsim from people - listeners or fellow musicians - who could not follow the idea that rhythmic phrasing was subject to improvisation just as melody or harmony are.

  20. Jo Jones

    in Artists

    Posted

    Paul Quinichette on Riverside

    Paul Quinichette never recorded for Riverside, to my knowledge, so I reckon you're talkin' 'bout the two Basie-ites Prestige sessions:

    OJC OJCCD-978-2 - Paul Quinichette - For Basie

    OJC OJCCD-1049-2 - Paul Quinichette - Basie Reunion

    I have a very interesting duo recording Jo Jones did with Milt Hinton, originally on Everest, available on Fresh Sound FSR-CD 204 "Percussion and Bass", that has him on vibes, tambourine, timpani as well as traps, shows a lot more versatility than usually expected.

    There were some solo recordings done for the French Jazz Odyssey label in 1973, but I never saw these anywhere, has anybody here heard them?

    Those Vanguards are very nice indeed, it's a shame they were reissued in such a scattered fashion.

  22. Chris Connor

    in Artists

    Posted · Edited by mikeweil

    I think she's even greater than June Christy, as she improvises a lot more and takes a lot of chances along the way. The early Atlantics are killer stuff. The way she phrases rhythmically on her rendition of "Moon Ray" sends chills down my spine. Christy is somewhat too controlled, in a way, for my taste, although she once was my favourite; but that was before I discovered Connor!

    B0000033CD.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif

    Of the younger female singers, Dominique Eade comes closest. She did a very original 5/4 rendition of "Moon Ray" on her Christy/Connor tribute CD "When the wind was cool". Check her out, you'll like her.

    261625.jpg

  23. Pentangle

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted

    Look out for the 80s discs by Danny Thompson's band 'Whatever' that mixed jazz with British and Eastern European folk.

    I have them all and love them, although the saxists are not quite my taste. But Danny's bass sound ..... it's one of the grandest bass sound I've ever heard! Wish Dave Holland had such a big sound.

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