Michael Fitzgerald

I could be wrong, but I don't believe Sebesky played trombone on anything past 1960. Mike

Wow - "great pop music" is devaluing the music? Those three words would be very high praise from me. I think that someone somewhere has just overinflated things so that every model is a "supermodel" and every performance gets a standing ovation and if the average is now great, then the great must be "genius". There are so many people out there who have done as much as Stevie Wonder in their own different ways. In my book, that large number CANNOT possibly ALL be geniuses. It devalues the term "genius". See - we're on totally different channels here. Mike

Kind of scary to know that there are folks who are expert in PhotoShop reading this thread. Mike

When I read "I believe Stevie is high quality pop music for a decade," that did not leave me with the impression of someone who doesn't like pop music. However, some people seem to want to define "genius" as "someone who makes music that I like." I appreciated the post that brought in Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. I agree that they, along with Wonder, did something to advance pop music in the 1970s. There were others as well. Now, just because they did this, does that make them "geniuses"? So, just how many "geniuses" were out there in the 1970s pop music scene? I think being more realistic says that we are dealing with, as Chuck said, good music, maybe great music. I do think it is valuable to step back and look at the big picture. What advanced pop in the 1970s can be viewed in relation to all American music, or all pop music, and in the end, all music - which seems to me to be the vantage point that Chuck is taking. On the radar screen that is so large that it includes Bach and the classical folks, let alone the never-to-be-known folks responsible for the non-Western traditions, is Stevie Wonder a towering figure? A couple thousand years makes a couple of great albums seem not so important. Which isn't to say they're not wonderful albums. Mike

Lord CDROM 5.0 has even fewer details, not naming the studio, and simply saying "Cal Tjader (vib) rest unknown". My Ruppli is at home - will check later if no one else comes through. Just out of curiosity - which Bruyninckx do you have? The little books by style or the full page condensed type 70 YORJ (or 60 YORJ or the single sided 50 YORJ)? The Bruyninckx CDROM doesn't even give the studio - is that really in your Bruyninckx or was that from the LP itself? Mike

Please remember that Stevie Wonder did not get the "genius" title after making those wonderful early 1970s albums. He got it a decade earlier on his very first LP - "Little Stevie Wonder - The 12 Year Old Genius" - so please let's not think that such obvious hyperbole isn't tainted. It was Motown marketing that attempted to hook him into the hype of Ray Charles. Mike

No, the "What genius are you listening to now" thread. Mike

Stevie Wonder's finest music happened during that brief moment when pop was free to dream. Experimentation and even excess were allowed because the folks running the show weren't sure whether or not it was useless to them (financially). Subsequently, they did figure out that creativity did not fit into their scheme of things and we ended up where we are now, i.e., with a b.s. TV show creating the next big thing out of next to nothing and everything being derivative and ultimately primitive and juvenile. Wonder was one of several over the course of a decade or so who advanced pop music, sometimes in huge steps, showing that it was possible to do things - and doing them well. Like many, I would be interested in hearing more from his early 1970s period. Apparently the word "genius" is reserved for the trite labeling of those who make names for themselves in spite of physical disability - Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ludwig von Beethoven - or am I now drifting into that other thread..... Mike

So, does that mean: "never read it" - that you've never read it, or: "never read it" - one should never read it? Mike

No, the Warwick version came out after the film (almost a year later). The original Bacharach version was with Cilla Black. From the Bacharach boxed set notes: "George Martin, who produced the session, claims the British filmmakers turned down the song (!) for inclusion on the movie soundtrack." BTW, a little websearch brings up the unconfirmed allegation that "the UK print of Alfie has jazz music over the closing credits" with no Cher. Mike

Let's not cut too much slack - a number of the pieces were previously published elsewhere. I recall some in Keyboard magazine and the book notes five other places where articles appeared earlier. Mike

Never recorded by Miles. First recording is Cannonball Adderley: Portrait Of Cannonball on Riverside. Mike

Lewis Gilbert (film director), not Lewis Porter (Coltrane biographer). I am told that the closing credits of the film were different depending on location, etc. So it wasn't always Cher - only in the USA. So, I'm not surprised by the idea of more Rollins. Mike

Was this the Halloween 1965 gig in Copenhagen that has been issued on Magnetic CD? Reportedly from a TV broadcast - band is the late NHOP and Alan Dawson. Mike

Understood. But even if it has, I don't think it's appropriate to say it went "gold". It is interesting to consider Chris's point regarding titles. One would think that would be some incentive in keeping albums as albums, rather than messing around with them when reissuing (a la the Prestige things which have seventeen titles depending on which issue - 10", first 12", reissue 12", New Jazz 12", Prestige 2-fer, complete boxed set, etc.). Mike

I don't see anything in the general discographies that matches the date or the instrumentation you gave. Is this an issued record or something else? Mike

Well, surely whether or not something was awarded a gold record is appropriate to confirm with RIAA since they are the ones who give out the gold/platinum awards. You may well have sold a billion copies but if RIAA doesn't give you a gold record then you can't claim that you got a gold record for it. When Watrous says MFT went gold - what is his proof if not RIAA? Mike

Yes, absolutely long-term. Mike

Here's info on Coltrane's contract with Impulse, from Ashley Kahn's book A Love Supreme, p. 50 - ============= Even before the full impact of "My Favorite Things" had been felt, ABC executives had bowed to [Creed] Taylor's wishes, loosened the purse strings, and bought out Coltrane's contract. As Atlantic had done to Prestige, so a deep-pocketed label poached one of Atlantic's top jazz artists. The saxophonist now merited a $10,000 advance for one year, with two-year options that soon rose to a $20,000 annual advance. ============= I agree with Allen that as a "hit", Saxophone Colossus was nowhere near My Favorite Things (which was even a 45 single). Perhaps Colossus was the 25,000 seller mentioned in the db article. From J.C. Thomas's book Chasin' The Trane, p.133 - ============= [...] My Favorite Things was in the record stores and on the radio stations within months; it sold more than 50,000 copies during its first year of release. For a jazz album to do better than 5,000, or twice that at most, is roughly equivalent to a million-seller by the Rolling Stones. ============= In Musician 7/87, Peter Watrous mentioned that "My Favorite Things went gold and Newsweek covered Coltrane's week-long stay in July [1961] at the Village Vanguard." However, in checking the RIAA database, the only Coltrane records listed are Blue Train and A Love Supreme, both gold. Mike

But Coltrane had "My Favorite Things" on Atlantic - I can't think of any Rollins performance that was that kind of hit. Mike

Here's the lowdown on the RCA deal, reported in db 3/1/62 p.10: ========= Sonny Rollins, fresh from retirement, much romanced by record companies, has signed an exclusive contract with RCA Victor. Company executive George Avakian made Victor's position clear, concise, and cheery by outlining a company program built around Rollins, Paul Desmond, and Joe Morello (both signed exclusively to Victor beyond records they will make with Dave Brubeck for Columbia). Also on the Victor list is the Jeanne Lee and Ran Blake Duo, part of what Avakian calls "an expansion into untried jazz talent" and which he said he feels will be made possible because the initial "big-name talent" will establish a Victor jazz line capable of supporting young jazz musicians and capable of cutting through the "overabundance of poor records swamping the market." Behind that news: the Rollins contract is said to guarantee him $90,000 over a 2 1/2-year period for five albums. Any additional albums made for Victor during that time call for a $10,000 guarantee for each. Veteran record men, nonveterans too, estimate that Victor must sell 40,000 of each Rollins record (or 200,000 all told) to break even on this contract. In effect, since all companies measure money carefully, the fact of the money, and the projected fact of sales (Rollins' biggest seller thus far is a Prestige 25,000 winner) assures Victor's new interest in jazz, quickly building because it cannot bide. ========== Mike

Well, yes, obviously, because Jamal plays what Gould wrote in 1938. Jimmie Lunceford and Charlie Barnet had versions in 1940 - maybe Glenn Miller in 1939. Mike

The "what about the small guy" argument is exactly what is going on in the USA with BMI and ASCAP fees collected from clubs, radio, etc. People aren't matching up the playlist when they're writing the checks. So the biggest ASCAP or BMI composers just get more. It's unbelievably unfair. Mike

Yes, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte and Morton Gould's Pavanne from his Symphonette No. 2 (kind of classical-pops). Put the two of these on top of So What harmonies and you've got Impressions. The Debussy is just titled "Reverie" and the Tchaikovsky is his "Melodie" Op. 42. Mike

That Steve Kuhn 3-CD set seems odd - why not keep the stuff with Sheila Jordan together (Playground and Last Year's Waltz) - exact same band. Maybe someone realized this. Anyway, I've got my vinyl. Mike