Chuck Nessa

Maybe Blakey said it directly to Michael.

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

It may be a great album. No value judgement on the recording in my post, but players with styles set in the '40s and early '50s, while grafting on modal styles from the late '50s, recorded in the mid seventies are conservative to me. Had nothing to do with what I recorded. I don't expect/demand players change, I do expect a clear headed view of the evolution of music.

Don Byas too.

Eight guys, eight balls - cover looks right to me.

For 1977 this certainly meets my defination of conservative.

Hey, Iowa was the birthplace of Bix, Art Farmer and Glenn Miller.

Believe me, I don't mean to kick dust on the Pablo label BUT it is musically conservative. Nothing beyond Johnny Griffin/Zoot Sims stylistically. The label also released a bunch of mediocre or worse dates. There are many treasures in the catalog, but be careful. Pay attention to recommendations.

Al Jarreau was in grad school at the University of Iowa. He performed about one Sat. night a month at the Trap, which was in Cedar Rapids. I rode to the gig with him a few times. He was then a Mathis/Hendricks inspired jazz singer. Everything in his later "popish" style was in place at the time. He made a record for Studio 4 in 1965 with a Tender Trap rhythm section. It was not issued at the time but was issued on vinyl by Bainbridge around 1980. The Iowa City jazz scene was interesting at the time. Dale Oehler, the pianist on the JR record has/had a career as arranger/producer in LA (run an AMG search to see all the credits). John Wilmeth, JR's IC bassist also played trumpet and you can do an AMG search on him too. The regular drummer was Rusty Jones (nephew of Isham) who later toured with George Shearing for a few years. He later became a staple in the Chicago club scene. Paul Smoker had his own scene going on at the time, as did a dandy tenor player named Kent Kohea. As I was about to leave the university scene, JR was talking of moving to LA and the rest of the guys enticed their friends Dave Sanborn and a fine drummer named Tom Radtke to transfer from Northwestern to Iowa. You all know what happened to Davie, but Tom became one of the two "on call" studio drummers in Chicago. All of these people made it into AMG, I see.

The Message is a very fine recording but by the mid sixties I think JR had moved to another level. This phase may not have lasted long since nothing I've heard since then compares.

Never had the chance to catch Baby Face in person.

All I can say is I hope Rudy doesn't quit before he does a couple more projects for me. If he's totally deaf, I'm sure they will sound better than the alternatives including the TOCJ guy.

I started at the University of Iowa in the summer session of 1962, lasted a year before they told me to take a year off (flunked out - could be reinstated in a year). Got married, moved back to Iowa City in the fall of 1964 to try school again. In the meantime, JR, on the road with Jay and the Americans, sat in at the Tender Trap (key club in Cedar Rapids), felt at home, quit the road and became the star attraction at the TT. JR's motive was to kick his smack habit. In Action was recorded during that year. By the time I moved to IC JR had moved there and had pressings but no covers. I gave him 5 bucks and he promised a cover later, which he did give me. We became very good friends - my wife (Ann) was back home trying to sell her business, and I was BROKE. Each morning JR would drive his MG Midget to my place and we would go to the Airline Bar and have 2 Bloody Marys to start the day. Then we would get in the Midget so JR could watch the chickies and sip on his bottle of codine cough syrup. This would take about 2 hours. Then we'd go to "Little Bill's" the local club he played (Mon -Sat plus afternoons on Fri and Sat). The rhythm section was hipper than the Studio 4 record. John Wilmeth on bass and Rusty Jones on drums. Anyway, for 6 months, part of JRs deal at the bar was that I always had a plate of food and a beer in front of me. I ate 2 meals a day at Little Bill's for 6 months thanks to JR. The point I was trying to get to: Studio 4 recorded a second album with the Iowa City quartet and it was FAR SUPERIOR to the issued date. I remember a great version of Out of This World. The tapes are lost. Tons more JR stories, like going to hear Trane's quartet at the Plugged Nickel, but I'm tired of typing.

Some years ago I helped our local NPR station write a recommended listening book. I said Face To Face was the reason God let Mr. Hammond desecrate the organ.

The old Chess studio may have been a dump, but the studio McDuff recorded "The Natural Thing" in was state of the art in 1968. I did some sessions there and wish it still existed. The Chess studios were called Ter-Mar after the 2 Chess kids, Terry and Marshall.

Sound engineers with the greatest loss of high frequencies were working in the '70s and '80s - heavy coke use dulled the auditory nerves. Most of them were under 40.

Jim, try lifting the lid on your system. That's where I found my turntable - 3 speeds and everything you need. Be sure to wipe off the needle after 100 plays.

JR Monterose told me they did record a second date, and it was better than the first (musicians often claim their unissued work is better than the material you can hear ). Cuscuna is a HUGE KD fan and the second date was high on his priority list when he got in the ABC vaults over 25 years ago, but he assured me it was lost. Mike is such a fan he hired KD to play his high school prom. If he says the stuff is rejected (an unissuable), I'd take his word for it. KD had chops problems around this time and Charles Davis's intonation is always a "sometime thing". Everyone else in the band had personality/substance problems - looks like a recipe for a bummer to me. Sometimes producers protect artists' reputations by not releasing the stuff in spite of fans "right to make their own decisions". I respect this. I understand why writers burn manuscripts.

The '51 listing is a 78 by vocalist Frankie Passions. Rouse didn't think it was him. Rouse said he didn't play with Monk 'til years later.

Don't think anyone mentioned Motion by Leek Onitz.

I have neither the Japanese cd nor a scanner. I do have a domestic cd and will loan it to you if needed.

Does this disc now really have 3 alternates? The cms site repeats 3 titles giving a total of 9 tracks. This must be an error.

Last October I was contacted by Patrick Roques (BN cover artist) about licensing my catalog. He was working for this outfit.

Yup, that'd be my priorities.

Bob's his uncle?! That explains a bunch.