DMP

Back in the late ‘60’s, near the end of his long reign with the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Steinberg programmed all the Mahler symphonies, and the audience would groan. Not Mahler! Now, of course, the audience loves them! (Not sure what brings groans from the audience today. Maybe Bruckner.)

Regarding “Trying to Get Home...” “New Perspective” was sort of a fluke hit, and, if I recall the notes correctly, Nat Hentoff says that this was a sincere effort by Byrd, not some attempt to jump on the current soul/gospel bandwagon. I would say the follow up - “Trying...” - IS a concious attempt to jump on that bandwagon! The cover pretty much says it, along with the “funkier” lineup. (Good enough album, but doesn’t stand up to the original.)

Annie Ross was in Superman lll, the one with Richard Pryor. Think she was a villain. Lousy movie.

A couple of those ‘Jasmine’ reissues of Jimmy Deuchar’s ‘Tempo’ material, and Stan Getz, “Children of the World,” which hasn’t gotten any better over the years.

Nathan sort of held up the release of that Larry Young Resonance album - most of the material on it was from his dates, he hired Young as a sideman. Eventually the label agreed to acknowledge this, which cleared the way. (Not that Resonance needed his permission, but at this point Nathan had established a relationship with Michael Cuscuna, so they hashed it out.)

I always lumped Crown with those other supermarket budget labels, but they served a purpose. If my memory is correct (and it might not be), the Charlie Parker Dial material, unavailable for years, came out in the early ‘60’s on a couple LP’s on one of those labels, maybe Baronet or Crown. (One of the titles was “A Handful of Modern Jazz.) But the tunes were mislabeled, so for years I thought Ornithology was Max is Making Wax.

One thing I never got about the label is that somehow Dick Schory was involved - maybe through another label he owned? (Dick Schory, the guy with those percussion albums in the ‘50’s that you’d use to demonstrate your new stereo.)

Avakian produced that 1963 recording of the original Benny Goodman quartet (“Together Again!”) for RCA, and (as he often did), wrote the liner notes.

I put on one of those Harper Brothers ‘Verve’ albums the other day, but it wore me out after a couple tunes.

I saw the great Browns running back Leroy Kelly at Leo”s Casino (on Euclid Ave., Cleveland), maybe early 1965. (Get this - the show was Roland Kirk and Ramsey Lewis, and the emcee was Flip Wilson! Those were the days!) (Kirk, with Horace Parlan, was plugging his upcoming all flute album on Mercury.)

No mention in the Mosaic notes.

Ahh... that makes sense. Very good!

“A Teddy Reig Production.” What’s that all about? Did Johnny Smith have some separate deal with Verve?

Spencer, on Hulu. Terrific score by Jonny Greenwood.

Some nice earlier Green is on Charlie Ventura’s concert in Pasadena, 1949. Conte Candoli, Ed Shaughnessy, Jackie & Roy, one of those Gene Norman shows. Bop for the people indeed!