Joe

Ricky Ford's Muse recordings? Or was the Shaw Mosaic a special case of Cuscuna working closely with Woody's estate? I.e., Might we ever see other Muse sets? Some sort of Gary McFarland set would be nice. Mostly Verve, but would be nice to get the one-offs in there too. Might be too little "jazz" for some listeners, but all of that material -- whether released under his own leadership or not -- is interesting. Contract the Leaning House guys (now in Houston), restore all those discs to circulations (Marchel Ivery, etc.) and add those Red Garland Recovery Room recordings they were supposed to put out.

MAL-4 is also pretty essential IMO. Trio, swinging, but also documents another side of Mal's skills as an arranger. And "Love Span" might be the, uh, loveliest, performance he ever committed to tape.

Dude could play, especially when he picked up his trumpet. Not quite sure how to characterize his sound, often mellow, even a bit "fluffy" ... I guess there's some Clifford Brown in there, but more measured, certainly less exuberant (hear his contributions to that Elmo Hope Quintet date waxed for Richard Bock) ... maybe some Sweets Edison, too. And Shorty Rogers, duh, but without the overt impishness. And bouncier. Not quite the West Coast Tommy Turrentine, but, like TT, I always look forward to hearing his contributions when he shows up. That includes those Shelly Manne mid-50s LPs (in the company of Charlie Mariano), Pepper Adams' Mode date, Lennie Niehaus' Contemporary recordings, a handful of sessions under his own name/leadership for Bethlehem. Brother of Claude, of course, and, by all accounts, a more troubled individual. But he seemed to have found regular work in Hollywood's studios. So, really, what was his deal?

Update: the Claude Williamson interview in question looks like it appears in the March 1997 issue of CADENCE. Not sure what volume and issue that would be, though...

Agreed... it's the record where Mingus starts to sound like Mingus.

Fascinating!

Always had a lot of affection for this record. It's got so much... mood. It's also a real triumph of programming, which is saying something given Bob Weinstock's preference for blowing sessions. Also interesting to me how relatively light Mal's touch here is compared NOT to his post-breakdown work, but the more "pounding" playing he was doing with Mingus around this same time. Cf., AT THE BOHEMIA, which is one of my top 5 Mingus records (though I feel like it doesn't get much love). That Mal sounds more like 60s Mal than this Mal. Not a good or bad thing; just interesting (maybe).

Thanks! I will look for that!

Agreed! Interesting to compare his work on this instrument to Bob Brookmeyer's and Bob Enevoldsen's. He's much closer to the latter than the former, at least to my ear. This is a nice, heretofore unheard-by-me example of his prowess on his other horn.

Charette's new to me... liking what I'm hearing so far. A very subtle player who seems to have listened closely to both Larry Young and Shirley Scott. Will be interested to hear what he sounds like in an ensemble.

Not quite the "female Nick Drake," but close enough.

Nice! I always liked Herbie Mann's work on bass clarinet. Before him, there's Harry Carney and Benny Goodman? Who else?

Indeed!

Records I'd forgotten about...

Some of Evans' best work from the post-LaFaro era, IMO

Sounds surprisingly like late 90s Stereolab at time (if you will pardon that anachronism).