James Accardi

Hi, folks—this is Accardi (not Riccardi). I saw this thread a while ago but had not yet had a chance to reply. I just got word from Noal Cohen that these recordings are now on CD: FSRCD1139 (“Live at Birdland Historic Unreleased Recordings”). I had nothing to do with this release, and the timing seems to just be a coincidence. Take note that this album contains music from two other Birdland shows with Elmo Hope (February 24, 1962 and March 3, 1962). My acetates of all this material were cut by Boris Rose from his tapes, and details of these can be found in the Elmo Hope discography at Noal’s excellent web site (as well as the Evensmo solography). The information on the Fresh Sound web site has the date for the session with Gilmore as January 5, 1962. This show, and the “Mulligan-Brookmeyer” set which follows it, are listed as “1/5/62” in the Birdland Book. They both appear in chronological order in the book, but clearly the typist was accustomed to typing “62”. January 5 was a Saturday in 1963, a Friday in 1962. Also, the second title is listed as “I Remember Clifford” but I hear it as “I Can't Get Started” (certainly the recording includes the “you're so supreme” bridge). The Birdland Book reads: PHILLY JO JONES 1/5/62 (1) Show Us The Light (14) (2) (10) (3) Take 12 (8½)

The tenor player on the Sun Ra tracks is John Gilmore. This July 12, 1956 session is listed in the Gilmore solography I co-wrote with Jan Evensmo (available at jazzarcheology.com). Delilah, which was unissued at the time of the eBay auction, was included on “Kosmos In Blue” (John Gilmore Anthology Vol. 1).

The recording of Clarinet A La King heard on the Greatest Hits record was recorded on November 18, 1958 and was first issued in the “Happy Session” album.

Thank you! I've edited my post to include that track.

Here’s the info I have for this: MILES DAVIS SEXTET Miles Davis (tp); John Coltrane (ts); Buddy Montgomery (vib); Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d). “Dimensions in Jazz” concert, Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, Friday, March 4, 1960 01. So What 02. On Green Dolphin Street (n/c) MONTGOMERY BROTHERS QUINTET Ron Washington (ts); Buddy Montgomery (p); Wes Montgomery (g); Monk Montgomery (b); Lenny McBrowne (d). Radio broadcast, Jazz Workshop, San Francisco, CA, between June 17 and July 18, 1960 01. West Coast 02. In Your Own Sweet Way The Montgomery Brothers group opened at the Jazz Workshop on June 17, replacing Horace Silver’s Quintet. They were followed by the “Lockjaw” Davis-Johnny Griffin Quintet (dubbed “The Tenor Scene”) who opened July 19.

Thank you to EKE BBB for posting the list of Masters Of Jazz/Média 7 CDs. It took me over twenty years to assemble a complete collection, as some of the later discs saw very limited distribution. The list above contains what I feel are the core releases; there are some supplemental items the collector may wish to obtain as well. The Charlie Christian set referred to by Big Beat Steve is part of the “Cabu” collection. These discs had no liner notes, and in most cases not even dates were supplied. But there are many recordings on these albums which were not issued on any of the CDs listed above. (“Cabu”, who is responsible for the art on the covers, is the same Cabu killed in 2015 at the Charlie Hebdo offices.) Besides the Cabu series there was also an 18-track sampler issued in 1996 (MJCD 1000). The 13-CD Duke Ellington “Anniversary” set (MJCD 1301-1313) is fantastic (but, again, there are no liner notes). Recordings supplied by Coover Gazdar and intended for the Wardell Gray series were issued for the first time on CD: sagajazz 53 (Count Basie Septet & Octet “On Film and Live”). Christian Bonnet and Michel Fontanes continued the Billie Holiday series on the “Kangourou” label, the last of which was Volume 27 (February 1958 Lady In Satin The Unissued Takes And More”). == Concerning the missing entries among the high numbers, I asked Christian about this in June of 2011. I wrote: “Towards the end there are gaps in the catalog numbering of the Complete Edition/Complementary Works discs in my collection. Assuming that Billie Volume 17 was the last disc issued, there are 8 CDs I’ve never seen. I gave up searching for these some time ago, as I suspected there were catalog numbers allocated to volumes which were never issued. I have never seen a complete list, so this is guesswork on my part. The eight volumes I’ve never seen are as follows: MJCD 185, 190, 194, 196, 197, 199, 200 & 201. Am I correct that these items were never issued?” Christian replied: “You’re perfectly right concerning those eight “ghost CDs”: they were never issued, due to the bankrupt of Next Music who was then producing the MoJ series. And I can’t remember which artistes they were supposed to concern. This was the end of a beautiful story I was part of...” Christian (“Xian”) was an incredibly nice guy (he passed away in 2017). I trust that he would be pleased to read this thread and hope he would approve of my publishing this excerpt from a private correspondence.

Leonard Feather and Ed Stokes both hosted at least the first two months of the WMGM “Jazz Caravan” shows from the Band Box. Feather is the voice saying “Your Father’s Moustache” in the beginning of the Harris-Jackson recording. Stokes can be heard at length on Lp: Raretone 5012-FC (“Stan Getz Special Vol. 2”) and CD: MDD 010 (“Mingus chez Duke”). He was the only emcee on the March 4, 1953 “Jazz Caravan” which featured a Buddy Rich Quartet. Harry James joined the group for one number, “Tarry With Harry”, which was issued on Lp: Joyce 1078. That track has Stokes’s voice at the beginning and end and can be heard from 0:04 until 7:16 at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSlFgq-0WTU Here’s Stokes on WMGM in 1959 (link should start at 4:46:10): https://youtu.be/nEXBg5yqbJQ?t=17168

Here is some information from my notes on a couple of the sessions previously mentioned: The Oscar Peterson material stems from the first WMGM “Jazz Caravan” radio broadcast from the Band Box in New York, January 19, 1953. Barney Kessel and Ray Brown are the other players in the group. This session used to be listed at jazzdisco.org (as from Birdland). The entire “Jazz Caravan” broadcast is listed in Boris Rose’s “Bop - Modern – Progressive” book, page “NB #13”. Rose recorded all three sets. Emcees were Leonard Feather and Ed Stokes. The first was by a Gene Krupa/Teddy Napoleon/Charlie Ventura trio and was issued (sans announcements) by Rose on Ozone 25. The Oscar Peterson Trio material is from the second set. All the issued material first appeared on Boris records: Alto AL-718 (“Canadian Keys”), Session SR-120 (“Hooray For Oscar Peterson And Art Tatum”), and Ozone 11 (“Oscar Peterson Trio Lee Morgan Jimmy Heath”). “Heat Wave” was reissued on Kings Of Jazz KLJ10022 (“Here Is Oscar Peterson At His Rare Of Rarest Performances Vol. 1”). Charlie Shavers joined the Peterson group for a 4 ½ minute performance of “Embraceable You” which remains unissued. The third and final set was by a Flip Phillips-Buddy Rich Trio (with Hank Jones on piano), augmented by Charlie Shavers on “Bugle Call Rag”. This material (including many of the announcements) was issued on Joyce LP-1153 (“One Night Stand With The Flip Phillips-Buddy Rich Trio At The Bandbox”). The info I have for the Dexter material on J For Jazz JFJ802 is: DEXTER GORDON QUARTET Dexter Gordon (ts); John Young (p); Rufus Reid (b); Wilbur Campbell (d). “Just Jazz”, WTTW television, Chicago, IL, July 1970 As was most often the case, the announcements were removed for the Boris record. Also missing from this record are the 1:15 opening theme (“Long Tall Dexter”) and a 45-seconds unaccompanied tenor sax solo which closed the show. Incidentally, jazzdisco currently lists a set from the February 16, 1953 “Jazz Caravan” broadcast in its Stan Getz discography as from Birdland. That material is actually from the same Band Box show as the Bill Harris-Chubby Jackson Herd performance of “Your Father’s Moustache” in which Ed Stokes yells, “here comes Charlie Parker”.

Three more recordings from the Glendale engagement can be heard at Dave Radlauer's "Jazz Rhythm" site as part of a Basie series, here: http://jazzhotbigstep.com/269.html These are from the collection of the late Charlie "Duff" Campbell (Charlie passed away last year). Three new performances, Pound Cake, Oh, Lady Be Good!, and Roses Of Picardy (Rushing, voc). Lester solos (brilliantly!) on the non-vocal tracks and there's obbligato on the Rushing number. Oh, Lady Be Good! and Pound Cake are on "COUNT_BASIE_2B.mp3"; Roses Of Picardy is on "COUNT_BASIE_4B.mp3". Well recorded, well preserved Pres!

Thank you very much! Hopefully it will be - or has been - a help to a few Wardell fans. I should point out that the very end of "Benny's Bop" is missing on the Audio-Park CD, but it's hardly noticeable.

Two tracks from these concerts ("Swedish Pastry" and "Mel's Idea") are on DRLP 29. Everything on Dragon DRLP 16 is from the Click restaurant from between May and June 1948, with nearly the same band. On the White Plains dates Mary Lou has replaced Teddy Wilson and Lombardi has replaced Arnold Fishkind/Fishkin. Patti Page was replaced by Dolly Houston and Jackie Searle. I don't trust Russ Connor's assignment of Red Rodney as the trumpeter on the June 26 date, as Rodney seems to have guested only on the opening weekend when Wilson and Page were still on the band. "Benny's Bop" was announced as "Mel's Idea" on June 26, so there is only one version of "Mel's Idea" from Westchester County Center. This track sees its first release with the Audio Park CD (the CD calls it "Mel's Idea"). On the "Tribute From Sweden" Lp, “Blues For Sweden” is really Blue Views, “Stompin Slow” is "Mary's Idea" (Just An Idea), and “Swedish Sweets” is Swedish Pastry". Hep CD 36 has all the V-Disc recordings from August 20, 1948, except for the two alternative takes of "Benny's Bop" (which remain unissued). As far as I'm concerned, the Audio Park release is the definitive issue of this material - although it would have been nice to have the incorrect "Mel's Idea" title fixed once and for all! Contemporary reviews are here: http://wardellgray.org/discography.html

Exciting news for fans of Wardell Gray! Both "The Benny Goodman Show" broadcasts from the Westchester County Center have been issued in Japan on CD: Audio Park APCD-6067 (“Modern Benny 1948 featuring Wardell Gray & Stan Hasselgard"). Two previously unissued titles feature solos by Wardell - "It's The Talk Of The Town" (a Dolly Houston vocal number), and a superb "Benny's Bop" (Limehouse Blues) with a 64 bar tenor solo! Unfortunately I cannot read Japanese, so I cannot understand the liner notes. But photographs of what seem to be the source discs almost certainly are of acetates cut by Boris Rose. Rose issued some of these recordings on his Från Staterna ("From The States") label as "Tribute From Sweden". Besides the tracks with Wardell there's also fantastic playing by Goodman, Mary Lou Williams, Stan Hasselgard, Billy Bauer, Clyde Lombardi, and Mel Zelnick. The sound here is as good as I've heard on any copy of these shows.

Yes, there are more recordings of Stan soloing with Benny. I'm sorry, my Russ Connor discographies are not at hand, but below is what's on the first two Masters Of Jazz CDs in the Getz series. Some are airchecks, some are from AFRS transcriptions, and a few studio recordings for Columbia: Stan Getz Volume 1 (MJCD 117): Columbia, New York, November 20, 1945 co35210-3 - Give Me The Simple Life (master take) co35210-4 - Give Me The Simple Life Columbia, New York, December 19, 1945 co35523-1 - Rattle And Roll (master take) co35523-? - Rattle And Roll AFRS Magic Carpet 199 A, Terrace Room, Newark, NJ, November 28/December 23, 1945 Seven Come Eleven Sustaining Broadcast (Mutual), Terrace Room, Newark, NJ, December 20, 1945 Rattle And Roll Sustaining Broadcast (Mutual), Meadowbrook Gardens, Culver City, CA, January 14, 1946 Rattle And Roll AFRS "One Night Stand" No. 856, Hollywood, CA, January 27, 1946 Who's Sorry Now? AFRS Jubilee Series H-11, Program 168, Hollywood, CA, January 1946 I'm Always Chasing Rainbows Who's Sorry Now? Stan Getz Volume 2 (MJCD 144): AFRS Jubilee Series H-11, Program 166, Hollywood, CA, January 1946 Rattle And Roll Give Me The Simple Life AFRS Jubilee Series H-11, Program 168, Hollywood, CA, January 1946 Who's Sorry Now? Columbia, Los Angeles, CA, January 30, 1946 HCO 1672-1 - Swing Angel AFRS One Night Stand No. 872, San Diego, CA, February 2, 1946 Rattle And Roll The above information is taken from the booklets to the Masters Of Jazz releases.

Another "vote" for a Wardell set! I'd love to see a "Count Basie at the Royal Roost - The Complete Recordings", as there's still a lot of unissued material from Boris Rose's collection. And a Teddy Wilson (minus Billie) set would be fantastic. Masters of Jazz of course put out five CDs exactly like this: two volumes of "The Legendary Small Groups", and three volumes of "Teddy and the Girls".

Hey everyone... The correct date for this concert is Monday, February 8, 1954. Definitely among the personnel are Teddy Edwards (as); Bob Collins (tb) and Jerome Richardson (fl) - these players are announced by the emcee (Pat Henry). More information is at the new Wardell Gray website.