John L

Very sad news. Gaslini was a living musical giant. RIP

Thank God for both Max Roach and Art Blakey. They both led some of the greatest jazz bands. Their approaches and bands were very different. So the question here is very hard to answer.

A number of excellent newer releases have been on Dark Tree Records. I have been particularly enjoying "Robert Miranda's Home Ensemble: Live at Bing Theater." It features not only Horace Tapscott but John Carter & Bobby Bradford.

ditto. D)

It seems to be working now.

Great to have you back, Larry, and congratulations on the good news.

Thanks.

Jack McVea had a trumpet player in 1946-1947 named (it would seem) Joe "Red" Kelly. Discographies seem to list this name alternatively as John "Red" Kelly and Joe "Red" Kelly. The new Mosaic Black & White Set lists the trumpet player on the "Open the Door Richard" session as "John "Red" Kelly" but then lists the trumpet player on the immediate follow-up session for Black & White as "Joe Kelly." Presumably, this is the same person? It sounds like the same guy in both sessions to me. He gets off a really nice solo on Bulgin' Eyes from the Open the Door Richard session despite flubbing a few notes.

Maybe the subtext here should be "modern jazz for butt shaking." Before WWII, a lot of jazz was for butt shaking. But most modern jazz is not. Sometimes it might be good for toe tapping, finger snapping, head nodding, even shoulder wiggling, but rarely for full blown butt shaking. Some of the tracks mentioned here are good exceptions. Herbie Hancock's Chameleon is a classic in that regard. Deodado's Super Strut was another dance floor burner. I was living a lot in Ethiopia in recent years. Most Ethiopian Jazz is aimed directly at the dance floor, and still today. Then there is Latin Jazz...

Your grandfather was a truly great trumpet player.

It is interesting that she works at a federal agency but cannot get any vacation time. Usually, the government is pretty good about that. It sounds like she could really use a bit of time off from work right now to both relax and work on getting herself together. Perhaps it could even qualify as sick leave. Is that impossible?

That would make a very nice Mosaic: The Louis Armstrong Okeh recordings: 1929-1932. The 3 discs on JSP remastered by J.R. Davies are the best sounding current source on CD. But there are some missing alternates and other tracks that can be found on the various Columbia releases. The whole thing would fit nicely on 4 CDs. If they could include the RCA recordings from 1932-1933, it would be 6 discs. One disc could also have the historic 1933-1934 European concerts. Such a 7 disc set would be the perfect complete interval between the Hot 5s and the Decca recordings already packaged by Mosaic. It would also include consistently great music, some of the best ever recorded.

I am also listening my way though this fascinating set. While the high quality of much of this rather obscure music is striking, I worry that this will still be a set that I will still rarely pull off the shelf after I finish a single listen. I am therefore planning to put some of the best material into playlists so that it won't be forgotten.

I really like Gato's work in the 70s, including the mid-70s Latin America series on Impulse (Chapter 4: Live in New York from 1975 is probably my favorite). For Pharoah, my preferred vintage is late 60s-early 70s. Not that he didn't record a lot of good music after that.