Al in NYC

Wow, those prices are truly shocking. I didn't think these records were all that rare. I inherited vinyls of Mode For Joe and Page One back when my father died, in several shelves of records of the same vintage. I think the Page One may have been sent to dad by Joe himself, since my dad knew him from his time at Wayne in Detroit. Of course, I have had the CDs of all of the Henderson Blue Notes for decades (and have upgraded a few of them over the years). So I would have no need for the Mosaic. But if the Mobley set sold that well then there's obviously a pretty decent market for music of that era. While we old jazz-centric folks from the late vinyl years and the years of the early CD reissue bounty may have most or all of this music, it seems that others so not. Since it seems that Mosaic can put BN sets together pretty easily from the fine Japanese remasters of this material, and probably make a decent profit on them, more power to them. However much we may want more adventuresome sets of more obscure musicians or labels, I'm certain these sets are a much better bet for a company on the ropes like Mosaic.

A truly great actress RIP. I was fortunate enough to see her in her late career Tony-winning star turn in Trip to Bountiful on Broadway. She was indeed amazing and touching in a role that put her on stage for about 2 hours straight at 88. As for the Miles connection, a close friend of my parents who was not a jazz fan but knew Cicely Tyson well through her work in the civil rights movement always referred to Miles as "that awful little man", and said of their marriage "I have no idea why she married him, I don't know why anyone even likes him". Further into Ms. Tyson's connection to jazz, she can be seen on Sunday night 1/31 on TCM in an extensive early film role in the pretty strange 1966 jazz movie A Man Called Adam. Starring Sammy Davis Jr. as a rather Milesesque character, with a supporting cast of Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Frank Sinatra Jr., Mel Torme, Kai Winding, Peter Lawford, and Lola Falana, a Benny Carter score, and Sammy's trumpeting dubbed by Nat Adderley. Crazy baby.

4 of 7 for me, not bad (Freeman, Blythe, WSQ, Forrest/Scott). The Blythe is, of course, a classic (although I like a few of his other recordings from the same period nearly as much). The others are merely very fine to great.

Goodness that's a boring and almost wholly predictable list. The only semi-outlier is Conference of the Birds, and even that has a direct Miles/Bitches Brew connection.

HutchFan, I don't post around here much anymore, but I wanted to thank you for your hard work in rolling out this list and the posts on your website. As I've been slowly collecting my way through the '70s, I've been on the lookout for lists like this one that might guide me a little better. My dad's collection pointed much of the way through previous decades, but like a lot of folks his age he sort of gave up on taking in new music in the '70s, so other than a pile of Pablos, a few Xanadus, some records by old friends, and the obligatory copies of Bitches Brew and Koln Concert, there wasn't much there. Since I started reading through this thread and your website last wee, you've already pointed the way to a few things I've picked up. Great stuff (that Coleman/Montoliu and the Bobo Stenson were both real killers, among others). Oh, I think my count is around 135 (or 136 or so now that you've added Broken Wing), counting stuff I have in Mosaics and other boxes or partially mixed in on reissues. Very heavily weighted towards the earlier part of the decade, like most others here.

Allen Eager won his class and finished 10th overall at the 1961 12 hours of Sebring, co-driving with his girlfriend, and more experienced racer, Denise McCluggage. The next year he crashed out of the same race when he collided with Ken Miles of Ford vs Ferrari Christian Bale fame. Here is a longish, but fascinating, story about the pioneering Denise McCluggage, her struggles in auto racing and her relationship with Eager, and the story of that 1961 race. https://www.si.com/racing/2018/10/29/denise-mccluggage-racing-driver-journalist No thread on jazz musicians and cars would be complete it seems to me without mentioning Herbie Hancock and his unique 1963 Shelby Cobra, which he bought brand new for about $6,000 and still has today. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/14/a-rude-car-salesman-did-me-a-favor-says-jazz-icon-herbie-hancock.html

Even though he once told my father to go to hell, I dearly loved Lee Konitz, and I think my dad loved him even more. He could be a cantankerous man, in the best sense of the word, and sure didn't suffer fools (a confrontation with some chatty idiots at a Jazz Standard show a few years back was especially memorable, and hilarious), but he was also caring, generous, curious, and would play with all sorts of musicians he respected. Hence all of the great recorded collaborations pointed out by many here. I have been listening today to several of his recordings from the late '60s through the '70s. During this period it feels like he was breaking out of the Tristano/bop/cool box he'd been in since the earlier years of his career, either through his own affiliations or the pigeon-holing of record companies and critics, and really stretching out and using his considerable talents and the vocabulary he came with to make really adventurous music. Beyond the compelling musical conversation and challenges he continued with Warne Marsh during this period, I have always particularly been attracted to his ongoing collaborations with Martial Solal. From the wonderful Impressive Rome and European Encounter forward, particularly the amazing Satori with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette from 1974. I was fortunate enough to have several opportunities to see him perform, from a show at the West End way back when I was first at Columbia to the last time I saw him at the Charlie Parker festival in Harlem a couple of years ago. His playing was always always magnificent and compelling and reflective of a deep engagement with both other musicians and jazz history. Of course, he was a part of so much of that history, and with Lee's passing we move further on from a direct connection with a lot of that history, from Claude Thornhill to Bird and bop, Birth of the Cool, and the whole cool jazz moment of the 1950s (to which Lee may have been somewhat wrongly attached, but attached he certainly was, and he played with most of the important figures). Even though he was in his 90s, this one really hurts, especially because its a reminder our human and artistic connections to one of the most pivotal and exciting moments in American musical history are now being forever severed. Bye Lee...

This is brutal. I was just told of Wallace's death this afternoon by a friend from one of the old jazz boards. And I started to reminisce about the several times I saw him and the few times I personally interacted with him. The most memorable were seeing him twice in a couple of weeks leading an orchestra and playing beautifully doing Wayne Shorter's previously unrecorded Universe suite at the Charlie Parker Festival in NYC and the Detroit Jazz Festival, seeing him with his wife Geri Allen at the Brooklyn Museum (heartbreaking now), and seeing him in an impromptu late night set here in NYC with Russell Malone on my 50th birthday weekend, when he came down and sat in the audience next to us playing some beautiful ballad comping while Russell soloed. But the most beautiful show was almost 20 years ago now on a hot night in Detroit, where he simultaneously improvised with Bennie Maupin over a few Miles tunes in a surpassingly beautiful moment I still treasure among my very best jazz memories. On a more sobering front, I believe Wallace was playing shows into March. I wonder if he was exposed then? I know most NYC clubs were open to mid-March I'm hoping against hope that not too many of our great musicians (and their audiences) were exposed and potentially infected during those weeks when we should have been so much better about seeing what was coming. Wallace Roney is a big loss, gone way too soon, and he will definitely be missed. Bye...

What an incredible photo. Having been in Cobo Arena maybe hundreds of times I can picture exactly where that was. That earlier thread conatins the recollections of someone who attended to concert as a high schooler. Apparently, Coltrane's own group (other than Alice) couldn't make it to Detroit for some weather-related reason, so he played with Monk. The date was January 15, 1967, the same day as the first Super Bowl.

Roy Haynes 95th birthday shows at the Blue Note next weekend have been cancelled and replaced. Certainly seems prudent.

Happy Birthday Roy!! I believe his birthday shows next weekend at the Blue Note have been cancelled though, which was probably an easy call. The club is now showing Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban All-Stars for those dates.

According to what I see online this morning, all of the major NYC jazz clubs are still planning to be open (although the Vanguard has cut back to one set on weeknights). Given what's going on here I can't imagine that that is going to last. Was supposed to go out tonight to catch Kirk Lightsey at Mezzrow. Although I would like to help them in what I am sure is their hour of need, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. Might be the last show I'm able to see for a while though...

Crying this afternoon with the NYC rain. One of my favorite artists ever has died. Will always have a special place in my heart and in my ears for McCoy Tyner. Goodbye Mr. Tyner...

I inherited several older sets from my father with this problem. As Dad got older, let's just say he wasn't as dexterous as he used to be, and the stuff Bresna described above happened to these boxes. So, I'm trying to figure out what may be the best way to repair them. Maybe the archival tape suggested by Captain Howdy will work. I am so glad that they went to regular boxes eventually. My sets with those boxes are still in great shape.

There were 2 Yankee Stadium concerts as part of Newport in New York in 1972. July 7 with Ray Charles, Nina Simone, BB King, Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan, and a Jimmy Smith jam session with Kenny Burrell, Joe Newman, Illinois Jacquet, Zoot Sims, Clark Terry, and Roy Haynes. And July 8 with Roberta Flack, Lou Rawls, Herbie Mann, Les McCann, and the Giants of Jazz. My dad went to both of them, and several more of the Newport in NY events that week. I have the programs somewhere in the back files.

I just ran into this article out there while looking for information on Baby Face's years on the Chicago scene in the late '60s for a friend who is involved in the jazz education world there. It really a stunning piece of research and a wonderful article about a masterful musician about whom much too little information has been available for so long. Bobby Tanzilo is to be congratulated. Tanzilo's article clarifies or settles a number of questions about Willette's background and life beyond his recordings that have been rolling around for years. Fascinating that his sisters also recorded for a major gospel label. And the information about his father, the pro-segregation Arkansas radio preacher known as Prophet Willett, also served to help close another odd circle in my research on the voting rights movement in the south (another snippet of information here: https://bit.ly/2Rko5nv) It was a connection that I never would have made. Listening on this cold dreary NYC afternoon to the wonderful Behind the 8-Ball, and deeply loving it.

I just caught up with this news. Shocking, even though he was in his 80s, because I just saw him playing, wonderfully as usual, just a few weeks ago. He worked right up to the end and apparently died of a sudden heart attack. He was not a complex player, and was by his own telling self-taught (in large part by watching Phineas Newborn Jr's hand work), but his work was always interesting and very enjoyable, and often smoking and stunning. Like a lot of Memphis players there was a fair amount of R&B based funk in his work. Plus, the couple of times I had the occasion to interact with him I found him to be a quiet, gentle, but very engaging person. He will definitely be missed on the NYC jazz scene, where he had become an always welcome mainstay over the past decade plus. Bye Mabes...

I wouldn't consider asking for my money back. Kenny Burrell is certainly welcome to the smallish amount of money I sent (or even more) just by asking. However, I am quite concerned by the weirdness that seems to be going on around him, his health and welfare status, the actions and health of his wife, and how someone with his income, insurance, etc. has apparently become broke or near broke.

I've been very concerned over this situation and the Post article has just amplified my concerns. None of this has seemed quite right from the start, especially given what we know about Kenny's status at UCLA. I send some money to the Go Fund Me, of course, since even beyond his considerable contributions to music Kenny was an old friend of my parents and had been even closer in the old days with a number of our family's friends. After all, when a friend comes to you for money your first reaction isn't 'what do you need it for?' or 'why do you need it?', but 'how much do you need?' That doesn't mean you should suspend all critical thinking though. I must say here that I am extremely disappointed in the Jazz Foundation, which is an organization I have trusted and contributed to going back to the involvement of another old family friend, Nat Hentoff. If they had put out a more cautious or non-committal statement I might not be so disillusioned, but their statement about the story behind the Go Fund Me made it sound like they had actually confirmed the situation beyond just taking Katherine Burrell's word for it. The Foundation's confirmation, repeated throughout almost all of the stories about Katherine Burrell's funding plea, was key in so many people suspending their skepticism and giving their money so generously. This now seems to be a highly unfortunate black mark against an organization that has done so much; one that makes me wonder what else is going on over there now. Unfortunately, this all sounds a lot like a case of mental illness running unchecked. All of the germophobic paranoia and the zealously guarded secrecy and isolation lead me to the conclusion that others on this thread are probably correct that something is going very wrong here. The reports of boxes constantly outside their apartment, and the unconfirmed accusations of "identity fraud", lead me to another troubling thought, that the problem here may be related to disordered and out of control spending. I've seen this happen in the lives of the mentally ill and/or elderly relatives of friends. The combination of credit cards, the internet, Amazon etc, and TV shopping like QVC make it all too easy for disordered spending and compulsive acquisition to take over one's life, empty bank accounts, and mire folks in crushing high interest debt. All of this leaves me, as it seems to leave many of you, deeply concerned about what is going to be done with all of the Go Fund Me money, and even more concerned about the present status and the future of Kenny Burrell.

I just caught up with this shocking news from an NPR story on my feed this morning. Made me cry. Kenny was an old acquaintance of my late parents going back to their days at Wayne U. and a very close friend of some of their friends both inside and outside of the music world. My mother was a probate/elder care attorney late in her career, and through her I have seen things go spectacularly bad for even seemingly secure people. Often all it takes is a couple of bad events together, combined with the declining health, declining mental and physical energy, fixed income, and increasing personal isolation that are part of growing old (to say nothing of the industry of sharks who exist to profit, legally or illegally, off of these difficulties), to quickly find oneself in serious trouble. I'm sure it's not too political to say that the way we treat our older people, and our health care non-system, are a national shame. Anyway, I will certainly give to Kenny and his family. If only for him taking the time at Baker's a couple of times to speak with my young self and impart some life wisdom and musical knowledge to an ill-informed and taste-deficient teenager. All you had to do was ask...

An interesting exercise, and one I had not even thought about even though I have a copy of the picture hanging over the couch at my cottage in Ontario. My list (as far as I can remember): Golson, Farmer, Blakey, Griffin, Mingus, Krupa, Kaminsky, Freeman, H. Jones, Silver, Sullivan, Rushing, Hawkins, Shihab, McPartland, Rollins, Williams, Hinton, Heard, Mulligan, Eldridge, Gillespie, Basie. Several of these performers I was dragged off to see by my folks when I was a kid, which I may not have been totally happy about back then, but am deeply thankful for now. Despite the fact that he was perhaps my father's favorite jazz musician of all, I somehow missed seeing Thelonious Monk, which has to go down as the biggest miss of my musical life.

Mark, please go ahead and copy my post. I used to spend several weeks a year in Detroit, but almost all of my family is deceased or gone from the Detroit area now. We still own property in Ontario on Lake Erie though, so I do get around the area a bit during the summer. I'm almost always there over Labor Day weekend, so I make a point of trying to attend several shows at the jazz festival. Nice to hear about Cobb's. I spent quite a bit of time there, and even more around that neighborhood, back during my teens and early 20s. I remember the end of the Bob Cobb era and mostly remember the Henry Normile era. That neighborhood is certainly quite a different place these days.

Mark, thank you, you have just jogged a memory loose for me! I've been wracking my brains for years trying to remember where I saw Mingus as a teenager. I mentioned it to my father before he died, because I remember it was he that took me and my mother to see Mingus (my dad loved a lot of his work), but even he couldn't remember where it was in Detroit. He even suggested that we may both be mis-remembering it, and that it may have been in New York. All we were sure of is that it was winter, and cold, and that it was a wild show. But Strata on Selden it definitely was, because once I saw it mentioned I remembered that it was right around the corner from Zakoor Novelties, which was where dad would take my sister and I to buy all sorts of cheap fun stuff. I'm pretty certain it wasn't that Tuesday show though, because that would have been a school night for me. I do remember that Mingus was increasingly unhappy with his side men through the evening, including Roy Brooks (who was the only one of them I thought I remembered, so thank you for confirming). To the point where he scowled at them and told them all to lay out while he played a very extended bass solo. I do remember just loving it though, and playing the grooves off of my dad's Mingus records for the next year or so. As someone who remembers that era in Detroit jazz, and came of age right at the tail end of it (I even spent part of my 18th birthday at Cobb's listening to Sam Sanders and Visions), I can't tell you how much I look forward to your book and your perspective on the now almost forgotten blossoming of creative jazz that happened during that era in Detroit.

The fascinating story of how Allen Eager came to be one of the winners of the 12 Hours of Sebring sports car endurance race, and the even more fascinating story of the woman who taught him how to race and did most of the driving. With short stops along the way for Steve McQueen, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and others. https://www.si.com/racing/2018/10/29/denise-mccluggage-racing-driver-journalist

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn...... Just saw this terrible news on television just now, and was shocked and deeply saddened and, unfortunately, not too surprised. Last time I saw Roy, although he played great as he always did, he was clearly barely making it. And, like I'm sure a number of people here, I also saw Roy in past years in a condition where he wasn't really in a state to play, But the Roy I'll remember is the one I followed around from gig to gig for several years because he would almost always blow everyone's socks off. The Roy who was up at the very top of players of his generation. The Roy who dominated a not much over half full Jazz Gallery on a snowy night and just couldn't stop playing for the few folks assembled there. The Roy who despite his extroverted stage presence had a few soft friendly words for my father when Dad complimented him on the way he approached certain tunes. He is gone far too young and will definitely be missed. Bye Roy...