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  2. Eugene Ormandy/The Philadelphia Orchestra - The Columbia Legacy, disc 6.
  3. 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 starightahead 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 raher 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 programmin 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 chose 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 - 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 or 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 thus 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 soem 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 thsi 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 bonus tracks. 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, 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.
  4. The Jazz Connection was a trip. A serious fan ran it and thought it would be a great idea to combine a jazz record store and a jazz nightclub into one unit. Well, it was a great idea, but not for Dallas. But I did pick up a couple of Sonny Simmons CDs the one time I played there! Sambuca can stay gone afaic. Whatever light they might have had when they opened died pretty quickly. NOT nice people. Musicians - WORKING jazz musicians, mind you, cats who need the work, actually organized a boycott of the place. So they went to smooth jazz soloists playing over tracks. Not nice people.
  5. Today
  6. The Jazz Connection was pretty short-lived, located on Lovers Lane and Inwood. I also saw Marchel Ivery there with Joey DeFrancesco. It may have been one night only so perhaps we were there on the same night. Sambuca in Addison is also long gone. I recall seeing Marchel there, opening for David Newman, and another time, Terence Blanchard.
  7. 1941, live in Balboa. Howard Rumsey on upright electric bass. "Lunceford on steroids"? Sure. But at this point it's honest and exciting!
  8. I think it was called The Brick House? Loud as fuck and not always the best audiences. Or maybe it had something to do with blood, the name? All I can recall is that it was not really fun to play there.
  9. RIP - she was often tied to horrible songs and production, but she was not without talent, and survived a lot of personal trauma. She was 19 when "Who's Sorry Now" hit in the late 50's, 26 when she had her last top 40 hit in 1964.
  10. A favorite, for obvious reasons - and it just dawned on me that the Phil Schaap Jazz Collection has two recordings from the October 1982 Rhythm 'n' Jazz group engagement, which was making its debut under that name and featured Bob Neloms. And check out the Percy photo credit.
  11. “Kenny Drew Trio” Riverside/JVC XRCD I always wanted a copy of this XRCD but didn’t see one that wasn’t expensive. . . until last week, when I saw one on ebay for 5.99 and free shipping. Took a chance that it was in good shape, and it arrived today in EXCELLENT shape.
  12. well what people would probably really enjoy are some of the 1940s-50s flyers found in Leonard Gaskin's Papers at the Smithsonian.
  13. NP: Carol Sloane with Roland Hanna & George Mraz - Spring Is Here (Take 1 & 2) (Solid JP, rec. 1977)
  14. Niko

    Carmell Jones

    Hardy and Horwich had similar sounding names and ran a label together but they both had significant parts of their lives outside jazz and apart from each other... Hardy was an ornithologist of renoun (obit, 1930-2012) and Horwich was L Ron Hubbard's son in law which put him into a remarkable place in 20th century America (as you all know much better than me)
  15. Hey Kids!!!! Here's you chance to catch up all at once!!!
  16. Week 7 picks https://doorfliesopen.com/2025/07/17/cfl-beat-240/ https://3downnation.com/2025/07/17/3downnation-cfl-picks-straight-up-against-the-spread-week-7/ https://pifflespodcast.com/blog/piffles-picks-week-7-2025/ My picks... Als over Argos - Alexander will be back, but Kelly will not. Stamps over Bombers - The Stampeders are rolling, but the Bombers are the most likely team to stop them. Lions over Riders - The Lions were cohesive last week, and I'm still not sold on the Riders. Ticats over Redblacks - The Ticats are getting better, while the Redblacks find ways to lose. ***** ***** Game Notes https://www.cfl.ca/2025/07/17/game-notes-what-you-need-to-know-ahead-of-week-7/ ***** Week 7 previews https://cflnewshub.com/cfl-news/cfl-schedule-today-july-17th-2025-toronto-argonauts-vs-montreal-alouettes-tv-channels-live-stream-odds/ https://cflnewshub.com/cfl-news/toronto-argonauts/ailing-argos-face-uphill-battle-against-alouettes-tonight/ https://cflnewshub.com/cfl-news/game-preview-calgary-stampeders-4-1-vs-winnipeg-blue-bombers-3-1/ https://www.cfl.ca/2025/07/17/3-keys-to-victory-for-calgary-winnipeg-in-week-7/ ***** Season reviews https://www.cfl.ca/2025/07/17/10-off-season-additions-that-are-paying-off-big-time/ https://www.cfl.ca/2025/07/17/way-too-early-all-cfl-picks/ ***** David Naylor: Which schools produce the CFL players? https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/from-dave-naylor-a-closer-look-into-where-the-cfl-finds-its-talent-1.2336226
  17. Interestingly, the JSQ continued to "record for" Epic all the way through 1966, while simultaneously recording for Columbia (again). Same company, but still, I wonder if the Epic deal was for recording more "popular composed. For Columbia, in 1963, the recorded their epochal Bartok cycle. In spite of the fact that it's somewhat "legendary", it has yet to receive a CD release in America. However...French Sony Classical put this out in 2002: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/2422878 I monitored this item and one American seller popped up with a quite affordable set. So it does exist, and I did Carpe Diem all over it: Could probably benefit from a modern remastering, and its a drag that #4 is split between two discs. But these are THE 1963 performances, it IS on legit CD, and you CAN make it into 3 CDs of your own making AND have them all in sequence. So overall, life is good, and Summer With The Juilliard String Quartet continues!
  18. Post away... I tried making the thread topic have a "hook", but flyers are flyers, no matter where you get 'em. I think people would like to see them, even if they're not scans of shows you've actually attended. I just happened to have a file folder full of them that I kinda tripped upon this morning, so I thought people here would get a kick out some of them. And maybe the stories too.
  19. Riccardo Muti - The Complete Warner Symphonic Recordings, disc 83.
  20. Not quite on topic but I did receive a variety of West End flyers from Vanderbilt out of the Phil Schaap archive but if Kevin prefers actual saved flyers from venues visited, I will refrain from posting the best ones.
  21. Gene Ammons “Legends of Acid Jazz” Prestige cd The man with the horn that could do it all, from swing to funk and beyond. Bass – Ron Carter (tracks: 1 to 6) Drums – Billy James (tracks: 13, 14), Idris Muhammad (tracks: 1 to 12) Guitar – George Freeman (tracks: 1 to 12), Paul Weeden (tracks: 13, 14) Organ – Don Patterson (tracks: 13, 14), Leon Spencer (tracks: 7 to 12) Piano, Electric Piano – Harold Mabern (track 1 to 6) Tenor Saxophone – Gene Ammons (tracks: 1 to 7, 9 to 14), Sonny Stitt (tracks: 7 to 10, 12) 1-6 recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ on Nov. 11, 1970 and originally released on Prestige 10006 as Gene Ammons - The Black Cat! 7-12 recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ on Feb. 8, 1971 and originally released on Prestige 10019 as Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - You Talk That Talk! 13 and 14 recorded in Chicago, May 1962 and originally released on Prestige 7791 as Various - The Soul/Jazz Giants
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