DMP

Has he ever finished his book? He has some great stories.

Right. That’s probably where I got the idea. Thanks!

I just ordered a Buddy Defranco album (“Mr. Lucky,” Pablo, 1981) with Dailey. Never heard of it, don’t know anything about it.

Just what I’m looking for. Thanks!

Like Ellington, there are hundreds of air checks and unofficially recordings - how would you even begin to deal with it all? But is there something that stands out as essential in the Goodman discography that a neophyte might miss?

No kidding. I walked out on Buddy Rich a couple times, but one time he started playing before I made it to the exit and I immediately turned around. Turns out he’s a pretty good drummer. (But he’s no Victoria Spivey.)

This thread reminded me of the one time I heard Dailey... He oversaw a jam session on Sunday afternoon at Folk City (renamed “Jazz City” for the afternoon, as I recall) in the early’70’s - I was excited to hear him, but after a brief set he turned the stage over to some old-time blues singer, who I didn’t have much interest in. Turned out to be VictoriaSpivey. What do I know?

I think Ayler’s group played a second number, but it was never issued. There may have been others at the concert, also were never issued. Must have been a hell of a concert!

Can’t recall the original contents of the album from the concert, but, besides a CD reissue of the album, several of the tracks have shown up as extra tracks on other issues (John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp). Are the Charles Tolliver and Grachan Moncur tracks available anywhere else? Does the CD reissue duplicate the original LP?

What about Curtis Amy’s Verve LP “Mustang,” with Jimmy Owens, Kenny Baron and (on one track, if I remember correctly) his wife Merry Clayton.

The “live” Cannonball (from the Manne Hole, with Charles Lloyd) is excellent. Some bad edits, though. Michael Cuscuna told me once he was hoping to do something with this material, but then the bottom fell out of the business.

Thanks to the Columbia Record Club, many of my generation grew up listening to Miles’ “Porgy & Bess.” And I think, like me, they knew nothing of the play or story - that music stood alone. Probably the same for all those wonderful Broadway original cast albums that were a part of many households - we knew all the scores, but nothing much about the actual shows. (When I finally did see the plays, I was often disappointed - should have stuck with the LP.)

“Benny Goodman in Moscow.” (I remember there was some criticism at the time (1962) that Goodman was hardly representative of where Jazz was at, why not send someone more modern - I always bought into that and avoided the LP - but listening now for the first time I have a different view. Plenty of room for Joe Newman, Phil Woods, Zoot Sims and others, Mel Lewis is the drummer, the band includes Victor Feldman, Jimmy Knepper, there are a couple of Tadd Dameron arrangements... Goodman - who sounds good - almost takes a back seat.)

Saw him several times, but 2 stand out: at the Village Gate, maybe 1965, the band was Jimmy Owens, Charles McPherson, Julius Watkins, Howard Johnson and Danny Richmond - memorable, Jimmy Owens’ lip is probably still sore; and 1972, at one of those midnight Radio City extravaganzas which were part of the Newport Festival for a couple of years - a bunch of people - Cat Anderson, Buddy Tate, Owens and McPherson, Milt Buckner....Mingus played a long solo at the end of this slow blues number, unbelievable, George Wein ran onto the stage and hugged him. (The performance was recorded, it showed up on one of those Cobblestone albums from that year’s festival.)