Shrdlu

I really enjoyed these reminiscences, Garth and Jazz1, having lived in Jo'burg from 1972 through 1976. By the way, I bought my current Selmer Mk VI tenor there, and I think it was from Bothners. I only got to Cape Town once (it is about 1000 miles from Jo'burg!), but don't recall any jazz players there, or from there. In the 70s, the main jazz venue was Johannesburg, no question. There was a little bit in Pretoria, which was surprising as the vibe there was like 30s Germany. I played for years alongside a Pretoria trumpeter called Charlie Sayers, who was excellent and doubled on trombone. I also played with a Pretoria pianist called Robert Payne, who was also very good. But we mainly played in Jo'burg, at such places as "The Red Lantern" (Mynpacht Hotel) and the Alba hotel in Braamfontein (a Jo'burg suburb near downtown). Robert was the first guy I knew who had a Fender-Rhodes. He was once approached by the U.S. Information Service in Pretoria to do a gig in the Embassy, and he used me for that. Later, he went to London, England. That guitarist Johnny Fourie is sensational, and easily as good as John McLaughlin. As I recall, he played in a very similar way. If Johnny had made it to the U.S., I'm sure he would have become famous. A bassist with whom I played a lot was Art Kelly. His family once owned a big music store in Johannesburg, and Art had a Steinway baby grand at his house, so that's where all the "blows" were held. He had an antique flat-back bass (a wonderful instrument, which we all called the Mother) as well as a blond Kay. One of the guys who used to hang with us used to play bass and piano. He was called Kim. Kim amazed me, as he started writing to and phoning Bill Evans in New York, and he got replies. When Kim went to New York, Bill actually came over to the place where Kim was staying and took him out shopping for a day. Then, they went back to Bill's for dinner and Bill played some solos for him! Talk about Hutzpah!

From the U.K. HMV website, for "Pure Desmond" Track Listing 1. Squeeze Me 2. I'm Old Fashioned 3. Nuages 4. Why Shouldn't I 5. Everything I Love 6. Warm Valley 7. Till The Clouds Roll By 8. Mean To Me Bonus Tracks 9. Theme From MASH 10. Wave 11. Nuages [Alternative Take] 12. Squeeze Me [Alternative Take] 13. Till The Clouds Roll By [Alternative Take] and they only want 6.99 pounds for it right now (about $11.50 in real money). They also have "Skylark", for the same amount.

Jim, ... , please get this fixed, har, har!

As the British say, "It'll be repaired on Thursday"! Actually, they would say "I will make arrangements to look into it."

Interestingly, these are RVGs! (Not the original recordings, I mean the remastering.)

I lived through the 50s, and I remember feeling excited (as a little boy) at the news that four speed record changers were coming out. Coincidentally, automatic washers came out, which fascinated me. I actually saw a specimen of a four-speed changer once - a friend's parents bought one (made by an outfit called Collaro). We turned it on at 16 2/3 (without a disc!) and watched it go around. I never saw any 16 2/3 discs though. I wonder how many were ever made.

I don't think any of us were expecting or requiring that the new album be just like the 1969 effort. We are just keen to hear more by these master musicians, and it's so good that this lineup has been assembled.

A friend in Melbourne, Australia just emailed me about a virus scam in which you get a message supposedly from Microsoft (complete with official-looking logos) offering a patch to protect you from a virus or worm. The message includes an exe thing that you are supposed to click on. The thing is itself a virus or worm.

I think you should get him a Selmer Mk VI!

He was born the same year as my Mom and has the same birthday as me! My Mom, praise God, is still fit as a fiddle. Oh, if only Trane had not been taken in by that heroin! He would still only be 77 if he were still alive. I remember the tiny article in our local newspaper saying that he had died. Of course, I had no way of knowing that he was not well. Miles said the same thing. It's staggering that it's now 36 years since he died.

Wow! Thanks for all the extra information, Mike. I have never heard about the four Parrot 78 pieces. How interesting that Richard Davis was on those. I have a copy of the French 2 CD Columbia set. It seems to have been taken from LP masters that were available to the French branch of Columbia. Sadly, half of the tracks are from an LP master that had fake stereo or reverb added. They sound pretty bad. These tracks are the ones which are on the Epic LP "Ahmad Jamal Trio", so I found a good copy of that LP and made up a custom 2 CD set with the tracks from that LP and the rest taken from the French 2 CD set (those sound fine, by the way). I was aware that Mosaic is currently unable to issue a Jamal (guitar) trio set because of problems in getting permission to use the Argo (Parrot) masters. I think this problem is being caused by the Jamal family, and not by Universal, which owns the Argo catalog. The Epic LP that I tracked down sounds much better than the Argo LP.

Thanks for the link to the review, Guy! Sessions that are theoretically good are sometimes a big disappointment, but, judging by this review, this album will be every bit as good as we could hope it to be. That is: one to grab as soon as funds allow.

Well, it's Monday now, the topic is becoming old, and no-one has commented, so here is where the stereotype Poyret accent comes from. It's called a West Country English accent - such counties as Cornwall, Devon and Gloucestershire have it, at least theoretically. But it isn't as common as it used to be. Nor is the heavy Yorkshire accent that you hear on the James Herriot vet series on PBS.

Sorry to hear this, Randissimo. It's a bit after-the-fact, but the tomato juice remedy definitely works, according to my late wife. She grew up in a rural location in SW Ontario (near Windsor), and told me about a time when their two cats got squirted. Of course, the kitties tried to come into the house, but were caught just in time. Her Mom got rid of the smell with tomato juice. All the best. Sorry if this makes me think of a Warner Bros cartoon!

Hey, thanks a LOT, Mike! This is quite a surprise, as I thought that this album was recorded for Argo. An interesting point is the fact that it was recorded before Ahmad stopped recording for Columbia (Okeh/Epic). The trio (with Ray Crawford and Eddie Calhoun) did two sessions of four tunes each in 1951 and 1952, originally released on Okeh 78s and then later on LPs. Then came the Parrot (Argo) session, on 5/23/55. Then, a final set of Columbia sessions in October 1955, which produced 14 tracks. Israel Crosby had replaced Eddie Calhoun by 1955, of course. It goes without saying that all these tracks would make an excellent Mosaic. By the way, I have not traced any other Jamal recordings in this 1951-55 period. There seems to be quite a large gap. That is sad, as a case could be made that the group was at its most influential stage ever during those years. That's certainly true as far as the influence on Miles, Trane, Red and Gil Evans goes.

After getting two duds (a fake stereo and then a very badly scratched mono), I finally tracked down a real mono LP in acceptable condition. It's not perfect, but is quite listenable, and I doubt that good copies of this LP are easy to come by. This is, of course, historically a very important album, but that's another story. My question is: does anyone know what the original LP cover was? I have two here. One has a picture of an old car on a cobbled street. It looks like an old Citröen in Paris. The LP label is gray, and it says J09P 1209-1 in the dead wax on side 1. The other album cover has a picture of Ahmad done up like a dog's dinner (old Cockney slang!) in a white tux. The LP label is black, and the stuff in the dead wax is exactly the same. The two editions of the LP are identical in all other ways. Thanks for any help you can give with this momentous question.

Merci du "head's up", Claude! I also love "Infinite Search". A friend of mine got the LP in the early 70s and thrashed it to death. I have heard very few other albums more than that one. Recently, I tracked down the complete session on CD. To do this, I had to get TWO CDs, each missing one track! I made a CDr in the original LP order. It still sounds absolutely fresh, and it still holds my attention all the way through. What a creative musician Miros is! This should be a great reunion.

Yeah, go for a CD burner inside the PC - or, the DVD drive if funds permit. I would strongly recommend an LG burner. We've had one for several years, and it's never given a minute's trouble. And you don't get faulty end-of-file markers like you do with those horrible Harmon-Kardon stand-alone burners. We also had a read-only Creative Labs CD drive, and it was a piece of junk. It's gone now, as it just up and died. Don't buy one of their burners.

I've loved this music ever since I first heard it on LP, though I did not have all of it until the 2 CD set appeared. Wilbur sure does have a lovely sound, and Trane really digs in on these tracks. Having Tommy Flanagan is a great bonus, too. These sessions seem to have been a "tit for tat" deal with Prestige, as Harden was used on a Trane-led Prestige date at about the same time - also well worth having if you don't already have it. I agree with you, John, about Tommy's opening solo on "Snuffy". That introductory solo break has incredible timing, reminiscent of Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" opening for quality. It seems simple, but you try even to hum it! This set is of great importance. It seems that some of the stereo session reels have been lost, as there is a mix of mono and stereo, even on the same date. Perhaps LP masters are all that survive. On which Fuller session does Harden appear, and where can one buy it, and the "King And I" CD? Savoy CDs are not exactly found in every store.

Avast there, me hearties, t'is Saterrday now. Does this mean that we can make pirate copies of the latest European RVG CDs? By the way, does anyone know where that pirate accent comes from? I do, but I'll leave it as a riddle for awhile.

This IS good news. I have really enjoyed that series when it was broadcast. When I first saw it, on PBS TV in about 1979, we had a baby who frequently interrupted us while we were trying to watch it! It was very difficult to figure out what was going on, with Guinness going on about stuff like "did you see Polyakov in Czechslovakia" and the baby going "Waa, waa, waa" and puking all over the bed. Plus all that abstract string quartet noise grunting in the background. We have it so easy now. There were no VCRs then, and now we have DVDs. I have this on tape, though, from a recent re-broadcast. It's about time the TV Tax Company (TTC) opened its vaults. Here's a gem that I would love to get. In about 1989 they showed a four-part bio of Slim Gaillard in their "Arena" series. Once again, I did not have a VCR handy. I would LOVE to see that again. There was a lot of good Vout stuff, and a highlight was "the peanut that went to the moon" - a peanut, in shell, that was said to have been taken to the moon in 1969 by one of the astronauts.

You were wrong, B3-er: the board problem does lose some posts, as I posted on this thread about 2 days ago but the post disappeared. Not to worry. No harm done. I just wanted to say that I think Henry is top-class all around. My favorite is the "Peter Gunn" music (two LPs), which is good enough to sustain interest after many dozens of playings, especially the first album. The compositions, the arrangements, the sidemen, the production and execution are all first class. Many years later, he even shows up as the composer of the "Remington Steele" theme, though it was not performed under his direction.

I agree about ears rather than bits, though the more recent CDs usually sound better than the old 1980s (16 bit) ones. Does anyone else prefer the 20 bit CDs to the 24? A lot of the 24 bit ones are very loud (I instinctively turn down the vol. knob before starting a 24 bitter). I have several 20 bit CDs that sound great, and, particularly, I think Ron McMaster's work peaked in his short 20 bit period. This is an important point, as we are stuck with Ron for a lot of rare recordings.

Great idea for a thread! I'm a big BG fan, and Benny had a great trumpet section, Harry foremost of course. That "On The Air" set sounds interesting. I did recently get the BG MGM 3 LP set called the "Treasure Chest" (not on CD, sadly). Recorded in 1937-39, these cuts are no doubt very similar to the "On The Air" collection. They sure are good. Also, Harry came back for the 1955 movie soundtrack (also not on CD), released on two LPs called "The Benny Goodman Story". I've had Vol. 2 since the 50s, but just recently got Vol. 1 (found a mint copy, hee, hee!). That's a fine summary of the BG years, with Harry well featured, plus a guest appearance by Buck Clayton, who could not be listed in the notes at the time. (Buck LaFunque?)

Will be praying about it!