david weiss

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Posts posted by david weiss

  1. Posted

    My memory might be a little fuzzy but I thought the saw solo was edited out completely and that the reasoning was that they needed to cut some time for the 2 LP set to fit onto one CD. Belden was definitely not a fan of the saw solo and I remember him being happy about it being removed. The consensus at the time was that the saw was played by Waits. 

  2. Posted

    23 hours ago, felser said:

    Well past Hubbard's prime, can't find a set list.  Onkel Po series is fabulous, surprisingly so in many cases.  Will wait for some feedback before jumping.

    As a trumpet player, I believe Freddie was still well on top of his game in the '80s.

    Perhaps one could argue he didn't make his best albums as a leader during this time period but his playing was still stellar in my opinion. 

    I think the playing on this date is very strong. 

    As for the tunes, they're mostly McCoy's.

    This is the original list of tunes. I'm not sure they all made it onto the release though.

    Inner Glimpse McCoy Tyner

    Latino Suite McCoy Tyner

    Body and Soul

    Neo-Terra Freddie Hubbard

    Island Birdie McCoy Tyner

    Round Midnight

    Blues for Basie McCoy Tyner

    What is This Thing Called Love Cole Porter 

  3. Posted

    18 minutes ago, bresna said:

    According to Feather's Encyclopedia, Rein de Graaff "Visited US in late 67, sat in w. Lee Morgan; Hank Mobley", so since this photo has been attributed to him (he is still alive BTW), it is likely to have been taken in the US and not Europe.

    I have a series of photos with Rein de Graaf and Kenny Dorham on the street in the East Village (Avenue A and 6th Street) and one photo he took of KD performing with Louis Hayes and Chick Corea. I don't have them on this computer though, I'll have to dig through some stuff to find them....

  4. Posted

    On 2/20/2022 at 8:17 AM, bresna said:

    David - How is James doing these days? I was able to see him many years ago at the Up And Over Jazz Café and had a blast. It was recorded and released on a CD called "Blues Up and Over". I always wished I could see him again someday.

    Blues Up & Over

    I have never been able to find a copy of the sequel, called "Round To It Vol. 2".

    Round to It, Vol. 2

    I expect by now, at 84, he might not be playing anymore, but I hope he's at least living comfortably in his retirement.

    I spoke to James maybe 6 months or so ago. He seems to be doing fine but unfortunately, he lost his wife recently. 

    I don't think he is playing anymore and I don't know of any public performances for a few years now. 

    It's a shame, he's great. 

    In 2008, he did a number of gigs with a Freddie Hubbard All-Star 70th Birthday tour. He emerged as the star of the show to me in pretty heady company. 

    He was also in the Cookers at the beginning. 

    I think I helped James a little with Round to It. If I recall correctly, I bought them to my mastering guy to master the CD.

    I'm on the road now but I will look for it when I get home and if I have a 2nd copy, I'll gladly give it to you....

    On 2/20/2022 at 0:35 PM, JSngry said:

    Spaulding with Ra...J-Mac inspired, but for sure he had his own thing developing:

     

    Well... the Sun Ra stuff was fairly straight ahead in that time period if I recall correctly. I'll have to give this a listen, it's been a while. 

    I just relayed what James told me, I didn't say I agreed and was pretty surprised he told me this (and then called something like Satin Doll on the gig). Over the years I've been surprised about how conservative (comparatively) a few musicians who are on all those adventurous are. I wondered if they always were like that and just going with the flow or they developed into that as they got older. A few don't speak kindly of the some the (great) electric stuff they did in the '70s either. You never know I guess....

  6. Posted

    7 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

    Does anyone know the answer to this? 

    Presumably he was signed up. Otherwise how would he have been part of the permanent stable of session musicians. Or did it not work like that?

    I've worked with James a decent amount and don't recall if we ever talked about this. I remember doing a gig with him and suggesting he play a few of the tunes from those Blue Note albums he was associated with like Minor League or D Minor Mint. Every gig people were coming up to him asking him to sign Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard albums and still he was skeptical. It wasn't a matter of not wanting to look back but more that he thought the music was a little too adventurous for the audience. I'm just a be-bopper he would say. I would say, I think some people might not totally agree with you on that one. I do remember reading an interview with him where he was asked this question and he said he didn't want to do it because he would have had to do a Sidewinder type of tune. He never was signed. Sidemen are hired for each specific record date but if you are liked and do well, you get called more.... Most labels do have their go to guys that are not signed to the label. It does put you in a better position to be considered for a contract though....

  7. Posted

    1 hour ago, mhatta said:

    As I mentioned before, I heard that it was originally supposed to be released on Sue Mingus' label (or CBS?) but somehow scrapped, so it may not be so strange to call it The Lost Album.

    Generally speaking, I respect the artist's decision, but on the other hand, sometimes I think that artists cannot do justice to their own work. I understand the feeling, but I feel that in most live jazz recordings, if you tweak it afterwards, it becomes somewhat strange.

    On dropouts, etc. -- for example, in my source of Mind Reader's Convention in Milano, John Faddis's solo phrase is dubbed in at about the 10-minute mark (connected the tapes?). Also, there is a dropout of a few seconds at about the 20-minute mark. I hope it's fixed in this official release!

    Regarding the "two endings", you probably mean Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress.  Some bootlegs have so-called "Alternate Ending". It doesn't seem to have been re-recording in the studio (has applause), more likely the last 3min of another live take, but I honestly don't know why Mingus decided to redo it, as both sounds like a normal ending, not train wreck.

    I'm pretty certain there are no overdubs. Faddis does stick out a bit at times when screaming though. Mind Reader's is the other tune with an insert (and it is around the 20 minute mark so whatever you might have heard there is probably gone). After the announcements at the beginning of the 2nd set, Mingus announces that before we get started, we have to do an insert, gives the band direction and they give it a shot. It's a bit messy so they do a 2nd take. This is the part that was a train wreck. They essentially miss a chunk of a written interlude so perhaps you don't even know what's missing. It's there now though. It's a difficult passage. Once they finish these two takes, Mingus thanks the audience for their patience and they begin the set in earnest. I did this work at least 6 months ago so I don't remember the exact details of the edits but Orange was a more traditional insert. They picked it up at a certain point and played it to the end. I believe it had something to do with part of the head missing or something like that. I would have to go back and listen to be sure. Not a blatant train wreck perhaps but something Mingus felt strongly about fixing obviously. 

  8. Posted

    1 hour ago, bertrand said:

    So Mingus actually took the entire band back in the studio to record the edits? Someone had to pay for that, and I assume that someone thought they could insert them somehow. That is very interesting.

    Mingus was one of the first in jazz to tinker with the recordings and not feel a need to present a session as is, starting with Mingus Ah Um which had many edits.

    What annoys me personally about the marketing hype is the fact that I feel I am being talked down to. I can decide if a set of previously unreleased Mingus music is important to me or not, I do not need to have it sugar-coated. The problem with the over-hyped new releases is identical, plus in that case it is insulting to the other artists who were not fortunate enough to become media darlings. Lazy journalists are at fault there.

    At least the release now has a confirmed target date and I will not be asked to take down any mention on Facebook. I guess that's progress.

    They did it on stage at Ronnie Scott's. If I recall correctly, they do it at the beginning of the next set.

  9. Posted

    On 2/16/2022 at 2:46 PM, Dub Modal said:

    I'm on board for it. Will be interested to hear of any differences between it and the bootleg floating around. I think it was Resonance's Rollins in Holland that had some edits, making the boot still attractive despite the official release. 

    How shall I put it. The edits on the Rollins set were based on the artist's comments or wishes. He is in the habit of wanting to put out the best product possible and approached his feedback to us in this way. I don't think he has an appreciation for the keep it complete blemishes and all school of thought. 

    As for this set, I came on board a little later than usual for this one. I did not hear any dropouts but I'm not sure if it was because the tapes were clean or the dropouts were addressed in mastering. However, there are edits on this set as well but it is for the opposite reason this time and quite fascinating to me. Since this was a live set and there were a few ensemble train wrecks, Mingus actually rerecorded the sections in question to be edited into the tracks as needed. I think one of the inserts they recorded was actually included on the bootleg of this music. It was pretty ambitious thinking for the time and with the tools they had then, essentially a razor blade, the edits probably would have been impossible at the time but with modern technology, the edits are possible and the train wrecks were edited out and replaced by the rerecorded inserts. It made my job more interesting at least....

    19 hours ago, JSngry said:

    I can get perfectly stoked by "First Official Release" of "Previously Unissued" or something like that. That's accurate language, and is indeed a reason to be excited.

    "Lost" or "Never Before Available" and shit like that, no, that's usually not true, not in the least. The recent Hasaan things, yes. This Mingus and other such stuff, no.

    The inability to hype without being able to resort to what is, objectively, an untruth demonstrates a core lack of imagination that is only a few steps (or less) from an actual grift.

    Sign of the times.

     

    I have nothing to do with this aspect of things of course but it does annoy me. Perhaps not as much as new releases being called instant classics or groundbreaking or musicians being called the most important of their generation or innovative or something. Perhaps not as easily provable as a blatant misrepresentation but for whatever reason, it annoys me more at times.... But hey, they got to sell records....

  10. Posted

    3 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

    Interesting! Did you play-with/know Bob Kenmotsu back in the 80’s any too? (Or any of the other players from this Shintaro Quintet album, for that matter?)

    And David, speaking on Don Moore, have you (or has anyone?) ever heard the rest of that short probably 30-minute set by Joe/Bobby/Elvin/Don-Moore? Beyond just this one track. Somewhere around here I posted all the details (only 3 tunes, iirc, but the titles are known). But does the entire performance circulate at all?

    I knew Bob a little from the late '80s and had the Bay Area guys invite him to this gig based on that memory. As I stated above, I played with Fuku, the drummer quite a bit back then as well, sitting in on his gig.

    I have heard the whole Joe Henderson show, it's great of course. I thought we had a path towards releasing it with another Joe Henderson show but that didn't come to fruition. 

    If the other show is ever released (it's a monster but I can't talk about it at all) you'll see what I mean.

    Hopefully there will be another way someday.....

    All the Monterey tapes are housed at Stanford University and I believe are available to listen to....

  11. Posted

    On 1/27/2022 at 0:16 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

    Well gosh golly, here’s the tenor-player, Bob Kenmotsu — with none other than our very own David Weiss, about 5 years ago…

     

    I didn't know this existed (or that it was recorded). This was one of a few gigs I did in the Bay Area with the drummer Danny Spencer of Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet fame. As for the video from Fuku's loft, the drummer is Jo Jones Jr., Papa Jo's son and the bass player is Don Moore who is the bass player on that Joe Henderson recording from the Monterey Jazz Festival with Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones. This was around the time I moved back to New York and this was the scene I walked into. I played with these guys often. Fuku had a steady Saturday night as well that turned into a jam session where I cut my teeth often....

  12. Posted

    5 hours ago, bresna said:

    I am a bit surprised that 78 year old Bernie Grundman is still being called on to master these audiophile releases. I'm not even 60 and I know my hearing ain't what it used to be. If he still has great hearing, he might truly have been born with "golden ears". :)

    I worked with Bernie recently and thought he did a great job. Granted, it wasn't an audiophile release (it was the Blakey live in Japan release) but he did great work improving the overall sound of these tapes. He also has a great staff around him who would keep everything in check if there ever was an issue....

  15. Posted

    On 1/4/2022 at 0:17 PM, jazzbo said:

    What I do appreciate about this release though is that it is atypical, opening with that drum solo was not common, they departed a bit from their usual repertoire.

    I believe when they played live, they opened with a drum solo most of the time....

    On 1/4/2022 at 2:21 AM, bertrand said:

    So these were two different concerts on the same night, and neither concert is complete because some tunes were cut short? Which tunes were incomplete?

    From my notes.....
    Like Someone in Love (incomplete, sounds like the tape ran out)
    A Night in Tunisia Take 1 (incomplete, sounds like the tape ran out)
    My Funny Valentine (incomplete) Trio
    Round About Midnight Take 2 (incomplete)
     
    None of these tunes went on for very long....
    I don't know why they went for a slightly more conservative program for these shows but they were towards the end of their tour. 
    This was potentially for some sort of film so perhaps they decided to stick with the hits? Who knows.....
     
     

  17. Posted · Edited by david weiss

    On 12/12/2021 at 8:57 PM, Mark13 said:

    It became available here in The Netherlands a couple of weeks ago and I have already given it a few spins.

    Audio is not spectacular but decent enough. The programme - as one might expect -  is somewhat more conservative than on American gigs, where Shorter's tunes were entering sets. 

    I just checked my booklet, but no binding-errors here.

     

    They played Shorter tunes (Nelly Bly and The Summit) on other concerts from this same Japanese tour. I'm not sure why they went with a slightly more conservative program for these particular shows and repeated a lot of these tunes for both shows like Now's the Time (others were incomplete takes as the tape ran out).

  18. Posted · Edited by david weiss

    On 12/29/2021 at 6:24 PM, Eric said:

    Thought this might of interest to some here (claims/appears to be an ESP test pressing on eBay):

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/175087032766?hash=item28c40019be:g:Ra8AAOSwbM9hzN-6

    That's pretty ambitious for.this record even for a test pressing. Ironically, I sold one for a lot less money on ebay a month or so ago (but this one is in much better condition). 

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/234216967242

    Ironically, it was purchased by Mats Gustafsson (along with Albert Ayler "Bells")

  19. Posted

    On 11/28/2021 at 7:28 AM, Shrdlu said:

    Everyone knows that Miles Davis recorded Green Dolphin Street in C. But The Three Sounds recorded in in Eb. 

    I wondered what the "official" key is. An online search yielded nothing. 

    Miles was not a reliable source for keys. He recorded Straight No Chaser in F, but Monk wrote it and played it in Bb. There is no advantage in changing it to F.

    Anyway, I checked the trailer for the movie, and the orchestra plays in in Bb.

    It doesn't matter very much.

    Miles recorded it in Eb. Played it live in Eb as did most others. 

    Miles liked F so maybe it was an advantage for him.

    He played Ray's Idea in F though it was originally in Db.

     

  20. Posted

    39 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

    Didn't many of those Left Bank JS recordings feature a very out of tune piano?

    Yes, the piano is out of tune to varying degrees depending on the recording. Sometimes it's not so bad, sometimes the music is so powerful, you overlook it a bit....

    Sometimes it completely ruins the recording or someone with a conscious deems the recording unusable and the world at large never hears it....

  21. Posted

    4 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

    Listened yesterday to the Verve date "Four" with the Wynton Kelly trio.  It was a decent session (in my opinion), but not anything special. The tune "On The Trail" was my favorite. The sound quality was below average. The bass & drums were not at all clear. There was a muddy quality to the sound. 

    This is not unusual for a number of recordings from that Baltimore venue. I strongly suspect it was not recorded with the intent to release it on a commercial label.

    The Left Bank was essentially recording for "archival" purposes. Almost all of the recordings were never meant for commercial release but over the years many have seen the light of day. Some are pretty well recorded many certainly are not and have a lot of issues. Some are salvageable, some are not.... But as the years pass by, a lot of them are the only documentation of many great artists performing live with their own bands during a particular period of time (or for some, ever) and for that, are quite valuable, to me at least. 

    On 11/28/2021 at 0:46 PM, Mark Stryker said:

    I think the first volume, "Four," is out-of-this world fantastic. Joe on "On the Trail" or "Green Dolphin Street" is as great as Joe gets. On the whole, Straight No Chaser isn't quite as strong a record. As it happens, I had a conversation last week with Pat Metheny, who LOVES these records. 

    I have to agree with this and like the 2nd one as well but perhaps not as much. Joe is amazing on these and as great as I think he is, these recordings were still a bit of a surprise for me. The Village Vanguard stuff never really floated my boat. It's good but it never had repeated plays in my house....

  22. Posted

    On 8/28/2021 at 10:39 PM, JSngry said:

    And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that one person was probably not Zev Feldman, that GREAT "jazz detective" and native of Palo Alto, California.

    I believe Mark Stryker provided a link to the answer further up this thread. Steve Griggs devotion to Joe Brazil's legacy uncovered this. Noted Coltrane scholar Yasuhiro Fujioka probably made the connections and so on and so on. One of the perks of successfully branding yourself the "jazz detective" is that one is probably approached a lot when things are unearthed. It looks like Steve Griggs laid the groundwork on this one

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

    How was this so hard to find for 50+ years? Perfectly labeled, it even said “A Love” on the box.

    30 years I might believe, but not 50.

    The box was in a bigger box that no one opened for years. This happens more than one would think and in this case, it seems to have come to light because of one person's persistence....

  24. Posted · Edited by david weiss

    3 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

    Hazy memory says raised stage near near the center, seats of the field, "box seats" in the first couple of rows of the stadium.

    91865458_3107294499281551_30848429816985

    Monk cancelled and Blakey was the sub.

    Was this an annual festival for a few years? I seem to recall hearing a tape of Freddie Hubbard from there that I think was from 1973.

  25. Posted

    On 8/24/2021 at 5:43 PM, Larry Kart said:

    OK, I bit on the CD set  after listening to a few tracks from the old 3-CD set. The music is so fresh and electric that if they've improved the sound  quality a fair amount, I tell myself that I've got to hear it. In particular, I'm hoping to hear Roker more clearly. He really had the pots on, as they used to say.

    Not much you can do about the drums I'm afraid. 4 track recording with the drums all on one track so there is not much one could do about the balance of the kit or panning or whatnot. 

     

    12 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

    Bennie Maupin was, and I assume/hope still is, a fine player -- out of Rollins, at least at the time of this recording, but with an individual twist.

    In the booklet I'm glad that they asked Jaime Branch to contribute. Her brief comment was particularly nice.

    He is still a great player. I hear a lot of Joe Henderson in him on these recordings....

     

    On 8/23/2021 at 1:01 PM, jazzbo said:

    According to the booklet "Ceora" had a one minute length due to the tape running out so they did not include that extremely truncated piece.

    More precisely, they turned the tape machine off the minute they heard the first notes of the melody of Ceora. Saving tape I assume and not recording a tune they knew they would not use for the recording. 

    On 8/23/2021 at 8:11 PM, JSngry said:

    David Weiss, a man of his word!!!!

    On a more serious not, I think Blue Note maybe screwed the pooch on this one by leading with the LP Set angle and not making it clear that there was also going to be a CD version. That price tag for the LP set...I mean...if the want old fucks like us to get excited about the content of a product, it might help to have "folks like us" get totally put off by the format, you know? We can help build that buzz becuase we already know this shit, ok? People you're trying to build a buzz with about a 50 Bajillion Dollar LP product for somebody they probably know of by reputation and/or old people talk,,...good luck on that.

    Now David Weiss will probably come in and say hey, the LP set is sold out already, weve got CD inventory to last until the end of the decade and beyond. :g

    He also did the Grant Green & Elvin Jones Lighthouse records, but on those he is also credited with remixing as well as recording. Perhaps relevantly, those are also George Butler productions whereas the Morgan side was Francis Wolff's baby.

    Hey, the LP set is sold out already ;)

    I'm told it shipped sold out. As I said months ago, I believe the vinyl craze got this made and a reasonably priced CD set is the byproduct of this phenomena and the least they could do for the rest of us. I guess the CD sales will tell them how much real interest there was in this set in the long run and yes, I assume they can do another LP pressing run down the road at some point.