DMP

Curtis Amy’s “Mustang,” on Verve?

Red’s terrific, but I rarely play the Prestige trios - too many bass solos, a little goes a long way.

What always gets me is that series, which went the distance, ended during the second week in October. In the afternoon. I remember it being a pleasant day. Today the season stretches out another month, with night games in lousy weather. What next? Designated hitters?

Thanks! That would be a 3 mile walk from downtown, where the hotels were located, mostly uphill, as he describes. Hell of a band! (And hell of a World Series.)

Yesterday was the anniversary of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Yankees to win the World Series. The game ended around 3:30, with Bill Mazeroski’s 9th inning home run in the seventh game, certainly one of the great moments in baseball. (Every year fans gather at the site of Forbes Field to listen to a broadcast of the game.) Anyway, Gerry Mulligan and his Concert Jazz Band were on what I think was their initial tour, with a stop in Pittsburgh at (I believe) the Syria Mosque that night. That venue (the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the site of probably every major artist of the period - among many others, I caught The Who, Ravi Shankar, Roland Kirk, but foolishly skipped Bob Dylan and Joan Baez) was a stone’s throw from the ball park. The city, of course, went wild! Did the concert come off? I think Mulligan talks about this in the notes in the “On Tour” LP, but my copy is long gone. Can”t imagine many people were interested in “I’m Gonna Go Fishin’” that night.

I’ve always considered Herbie Hancock’s ‘Blindman, Blindman’ as one of the first of this type of thing - it was even promoted on the album’s cover. An obvious attempt to create a Jazz “hit.” Of course, the Blue Note catalog is filled with pre-‘Sidewinder’ numbers that had wider appeal, often showing up on jukeboxes, not necessary in that ‘boogaloo’ style, but funky and with some commercial appeal - “Back at the Chicken Shack,” “Moanin,” Horace Silver...

Two of my first LP purchases as a kid, my introduction to many of the great New York musicians at the time, and I still play them. Lowe might have been the “leader,” but I heard him as more of a participant. (I also bought Buddy Morrow’s “Double Impact,” a mediocre sequel to his mediocre “Impact” - the era of television theme albums.) (Harry Betts’ “The Jazz Soul of Dr. Kildare” - nothing special, but Jack Sheldon had a beautiful sound.)

Every time I hear it, I still hear the skip in Barry Harris’ third chorus of the title cut after all these years - don’t miss my vinyl copy.

Robin Kelley’s notes to the Monk “Palo Alto” release mentions this in passing. Does anyone remember this? Pittsburgh was one of the stops, although I don’t recall the Schlitz name being attached. It was Cannonball (opening with “74 Miles Away”), Gary Burton (with Coryell and Roy Haynes), Herbie Mann (Roy Ayers, Sonny Sharrock & Miroslav Vitous), Hugh Masekela (replacing Wes Montgomery, who was announced as part of the lineup, but recently passed - Masekela was subbed, probably on the basis of having a surprise “hit” record at the moment), Dionne Warwick and Monk. Wow! We used to take these kind of shows for common, although, outside of Newport, that was about a strong a lineup as I ever heard.

Years ago (before the Japanese reissues), looking for Rudolph Johnson’s “Second Comimg,” I tried ordering it on a Black Jazz website. No luck, couldn’t get it to work. But somehow I found a telephone number, somewhere in California, the guy who answered, apologized - couldn’t have been nicer - and sent it to me for free! Sounded like the whole operation was located in his garage. Does anyone know about this?

Wow. That clears that up! And thanks Nliko for digging up those pictures. A lot of great music in the neighborhood, we probably thought it would last forever.

Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron, Herbie Lewis and Louis Hayes. They played a week at the Crawford Grill, here in Pittsburgh, sometime in the fall of ‘67. The only tune I remembered them doing was ‘Backlash.’ I’ve never seen a reference to the group, any recordings... Obviously short-lived, although if they went to the bother of coming up with a name (as opposed to something like the Freddie Hubbard-Joe Henderson Quintet) it makes me think they may have had plans for the group. Anyone hear them? Did they have other gigs? (Those were the days, when you could hear Freddie Hubbard in a neighborhood club.) Is my mind playing tricks on me?

There are some corrections to Colinmce’s list, I’d need to take some time to go over it, but the first item (Donald Byrd) did have a domestic CD release, as did many others. (The CD era began in the mid-80’s, and a lot of stuff came - and went - quickly, easy to miss.)

There’s an interesting story about the album in (of all places!) an Amazon review, by someone named Travis Klein (if that’s his real name, who knows about those reviews). He recalls the recording as being 1965, and that is a period when Young was working and recording with Green. However, a common recording date is 1967, and Patton was working with Green then (I saw the group at a gig that year at the Hurricane, an organ bar on Center Ave., up on the Hill.) Whoever it is, and I’ll go with Young, it’s hard to identify - nothing really stands out, the organist is working the standard organ vocabulary.

I also put “Upendo...” high on my list, Eaton is particularly strong on it - but part of the reason he stands out is that the recording puts him right up front, he almost dominates! He is also strong on “Dancing in the Streets,” recorded live in San Francisco, which is actually one of the least commercial of Lewis recordings. (I think the original trio was better experienced in person - Young, and especially Holt, were showmen, that was part of the presentation, which doesn’t come across on record.)