All Activity

I haven’t spun this SACD enough–been listening to the OG LP copy I have a few times since I got this and need to revisit it. Have to admit it sounds fantastic. Santana “Borboletta” Sony SACD (listening to the stereo layer). Perhaps my favorite Santana release.

💗 😁 Lucky you. He is a great pianist. Have him also with Billy Harper on Denon.

A deliciously cool morning! Slept well after a gathering of like minds with a purpose at Garfield Park in Mentor. A few hours in the fresh evening air was very nice. Starting off with a more modern “Chicago Style” recording I pulled from the shelves. Nothing essential, but well-recorded fun music. Red Balaban & The Eddie Condon All Stars “Memories Of Condon’s - Volume One” Jazzology cd I bought this because “Bobby Gordon never disappoints.” Bass – Red Balaban Clarinet – Bobby Gordon Cornet – Ed Polcer Drums – Ernie Hackett Piano – Jim Andrews Trombone – Ed Hubble Part one of the recording of all the music that bassist Red Balaban and the Eddie Condon All-Stars played at a 1978 Connecticut concert.

Thought I'd let people here know about this - my 4th album as bandleader/composer, featuring the amazing Rachel Musson, Alexander Hawkins and Will Glaser... Olie Brice Quartet 'All It Was', releases today on West Hill Records Available on bandcmap here: https://westhill.bandcamp.com/album/all-it-was And on Squidco if you're in the States: https://www.squidco.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=36469&Category_Code=

I knew the Sox had a tough row to hoe coming out of the break with the Cubs, Phils and Dodgers (first two on the road) but now I see that they have the toughest remaining schedule in the entire American League, and they finish the season with a tough stretch too: Rays, Blue Jays, Tigers (and also first two series on the road). If they somehow reach the playoffs they will have earned it.

oh what a great list. Timeless was my favourite label because those artists were my favourites.

anectdotes.....once I almost got into a battle when we had a one nighter in some goddamn town with a pick up personnel of mixed nationality (one US-Girl on trumpet, one italian guy on bass and a bit vocal, and three romanian guys if you include me (as beeing a "terrible" mixture of jewish, romanian and hungarian blood). They had hotel rooms booked for us to stay over nite after gig and while the girl was in the dress room, we went to the bar to discuss WHO will be the one who will be with the girl in the same room..... I pretended that I must be the one, while the italian guy shouted that of course he will sleep with her, and my other compatrioți also yelled as loud as they could. The whole situation became quite grotesc and curse words where yelled. Both italians and romanias can be very very irascible and what a wealth of dictionary of ugly words we have in those latin-based languages. When words was not enough, it was damn near that fists and who knows what all have in their pockets will be used. At that moment, the manager of the event came into the room and said with a grin on his face: „Hey guys, calm down, the lady just booked a separate room for her.......

Man, I didn´t know he looks so similar to Lester Young 😮

I have not listened to records for a long time, but hear them in my head. Today, while waiting for the Trolley I spinned "Fast Track" from the 80´s Miles Davis live album, the one with Mike Stern. You C, I got my hifi-equipment just inside me 😎

I don´t have the book and must even admit that it was many moons I didn´t even read a newspaper or any other news. But if it is focused on his career as a jazz musician, it would be great for me, because I never was very interested in other stuff than music.

July 18 Brian Auger - 1939

Yes, like these. 👍

These?

Sure you can! That's the first one that comes to my mind, actually. My question is - who laid that track?

Her prime was a bit before my time, but that's the one by her I always liked, and 'Stupid Cupid' is stupid fun. Can't name a third song by her...

The complete recordings of the Amar-Hindemith quartet are available in a 2 CD set and not particularly expensive: https://www.discogs.com/release/17898544-Amar-Hindemith-Quartet-Mozart-Beethoven-Dvořák-Verdi-Reger-Hindemith-Bartók-Křenek-Stravinsky-Co Audio quality is "rough", but I grew up on Bird bootlegs, so hey... What's striking, to refer to other reviews, is how direct this playing is. There's a lot to be said for that in these pieces! I don't know that anybody today would do it like this.

Of course there's some overlap with the Hindemith thread: The original Amar Quartet was assembled out of necessity in 1921 at the first Donaueschingen chamber music performances in order to play the premiere of Hindemith's String Quartet, Op. 16. The sensational success of this premiere encouraged the musicians to continue performing together as a quartet. This was a stroke of luck for the contemporary art of the quartet, for the musicians intensively devoted themselves to the cultivation of modern chamber music, including Bartók's Opp. 7 and 17 and Schönberg's Opp. 7 and 10. The ensemble was named after its first violinist Licco Amar; the second violinist was Walter Caspar, Paul Hindemith played the viola, with the composer's brother Rudolf Hindemith or Maurits Frank on the cello part.

The first recording of a Bartok String Quartet (1926): fwiw, Licco Amar was Hungarian himself.

Hey. I had a hard time staying in there because of the volume!

RIP. I remember Where the Boys Are being popular, but her songs were never a part of my life. Maybe (I'm just guessing) her hits were bigger on the adult stations than on the teen stations.

Great work, Mike! I have eight of the eleven.

I'm pretty sure the CD I have of "Welcome to the Party" was bought there that night. I couldn't stay long because it was late and just so loud in there.

Thanks. Not too long to wait!

Eugene Ormandy/The Philadelphia Orchestra - The Columbia Legacy, disc 6.

Since we're mentioning so many of his Verve albums, a word of praise and a heartfelt recommendation for this recent issue is due: These excerpts from six live dates at the Penthouse in Seattle show how different Tjader's live gigs were from his studio albums. He had not changed his basic attitude of starting with straightahead jazz and adding the conguero later for the Latin numbers, and lost none of his jazz chops. The bands were tight, the sound identitly clear, even with sidemen that stepped in for only a few weeks or months. The joy of playing is evident, as is the good spirit and interaction within the band. The concepts of the studio albums were dominated much more by Creed Taylor than I previously thought. To save on airplane fares, and because it was his preference, he used New York studio professionals, which had its pros and cons. Here's an overview of the Verve albums, with year of issue: 1 - In A Latin Bag - 1961 - basically his regular band with Paul Horn and Armando Peraza added. Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo had left, replaced by Wilfredo Vicente and Johnny Rae. Lonnie Hewitt played piano. Very elegant, very professional production, less casual than with Fantasy, but recorded in LA. 2 - Saturday Night / Sunday Night At The Blackhawk, San Francisco - 1961 A straightahead quartet live recording at one of all jazz musicians' favourite venues in California, with Lonnie Hewitt, Fred Schreiber, and Johnny Rae. It was to remain his only live album for Verve, Creed Taylor rarely was saitified with the sound and all. But this shows Tjader was up to par with any vibist of his generation, and perhaps had the most beautiful sound on the instrument. Both of these were coupled on a British reissue in perfect sound, Universal never bothered to consider them. https://www.discogs.com/release/14772484-Cal-Tjader-In-A-Latin-Bag 3 - Anita O'Day & Cal Tjader - Time For 2 - 1962 Both were Verve artists at the time, the combination works fine, they used used Tjader's band with O'Day's pianist Bon Corwin steping in on several tracks. Since drummer Johnny Rae was an accomplished vibist as well, Tjader played drums on some tracks, the instrument that he started on and kept playing on a few recording sessions. This was reissued by Verve on CD. 4 - Cal Tjader Plays The Contemporary Music Of Mexico And Brazil - 1962 The bossa nova craze had not yet started when Tjader went for Clare Fischer's idea of combining the beautiful melodies of Mexican composer Mario Ruiz Armengol with a rather unusual selection of modern Brazilian tunes. Tjader never went for the Jobim/Gilberto repertoire that everybody played. This, too, was reissued by Verve. I recommend programming the player for either the Armengol or the Brazilian tunes. Tjader's vibes sound is exceptionally beautiful here. 5 - Soña Libré - 1963 Recorded with Tjader's working band of the time with Clare Fischer on organ as well as piano, this remains one of my favourites. A tight band, well chosen repertoire. There is one set with this personnel in the Penthouse set. Believe it or not, this was among the first fifty CDs reissued on CD from the Verve catalog - but it is long out of print. 6 - Several Shades of Jade - 1963 This may be an attempt to profit on some type of exoctica fashion, but Lalo Shifrin's great arrangements make this a winner. New York studio guys play their asses off for a perfect backdrop for Tjader to solo on - this is as much a Schifrin as a Tjader album. 7 - Breeze From The East - 1964 In an interview, Tjader confessed that he vomitted when he left the sudio after a mixing session. This may be exaggerated, but it definitely is the un-jazziest album he ever made. The number of preliminary sessions and outtakes tells the story of how ill-conceived this mismatch of producer/arranger Stan Applebaum and Tjader was. In my ears, it fails even as an exotica album. Not nearly as Japanese as the cover suggests. The last two albums were thrown together by Verve for a CD reissue. https://www.discogs.com/release/994955-Cal-Tjader-Several-Shades-Of-Jade-Breeze-From-The-East 8 - Warm Wave - 1964 One of Tjader's greatest wishes was to record an all ballad album with some of the great New York studio pros, like Hank Jones. What he got was was this album where an overbearing string orchestra was arranged on top of the basic tracks. Claus Ogerman was one of Creed Taylor's favourites. If they had mixed the strings, flutes, and voices at lower volume this would sound much more elegant. It is good, but .... Never got a single CD reissue, not even in Japan, only a few tracks pop up on compilations. 9 - Soul Sauce - 1965 Undoubtedly Tjader's best selling Verve album. Taylor had booked an all-star band with Donald Byrd, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Burrell, Armando Peraza etc. and wanted some popular tunes from Tjader's book and some standards, but somehow it did not take off. So they flew in Tjader's band from California who laid down a series of first takes in one session. The title is a new name for one of the warhorses of the Dizzy Gillespie band with Chano Pozo, Guarachi Gurao, which hardly anyone was able to pronounce correctly. After Willie Bobo had overdubbed his vocal comments the following day and remarked this version was spicier than the original, Taylor came up with the title Soul Sauce, branding a whole style of music - salsa! Only Afro Blue from the all-star sessions made it to the album. This was on CD several times in the US and Japan, but only the 1994 CD reissue has the two bonus tracks that presumably were arranged by Gary McFarland. 10 - Soul Bird; Whiffenpoof - 1965 Trying to follow up a hit record with another one often fails. Neither this nor the next became as popular as Soul Sauce, despite the inclusion of another Gillespie/Pozo number, Tin Tin Deo, and one titled Soul Motion. Taylor had leaned his lesson and kept Tjader's band for the session. This was on CD in the US LP replica series. 11 - Soul Burst - 1966 Another attempt to follow up Soul Sauce - this time Manteca was included. Oliver Nelson was the arranger here for four tracks, of an all star band of New York pros including a young Chick Corea, but a comparison with the Penthouse live sets of that year shows that his working band played much livelier. This too was on US CD. --------------------------------- The remaining five will come tomorrow.