Michael Fitzgerald

Paul Bley - Charles Mingus - Art Blakey Introducing Paul Bley, 1953 Debut Records. Mike

I remember that Phil Woods broadcast. They do an Oliver Nelson piece called "111-44" and maybe also "Willow, Weep For Me" among others. That was a great series - superior to the watered-down "Jazzset" that's on nowadays. Mike

I don't have much interest at all in what MMW is doing, but I've enjoyed Medeski back from his days with the Either/Orchestra. I just spent the weekend checking out that stuff again. Some great playing there. He's on two E/O albums: The Half-Life Of Desire and The Calculus Of Pleasure. Also liked his stuff with the related projects - Ken Schaphorst big band, the Mandala Octet, etc. I'd forgotten that he's on two early Christopher Hollyday albums I have. I'll have to pull those out sometime. Mike

Slap a name on it and people will buy anything. Limited Edition! Act Now! Bridge (1), good location. This way to the Grand Egress! Disclosure: of course, I have all of the "collector's choice" series - most of them I bought before they went out of print the first time! And yes, I was glad to get the opportunity to fill the gaps back in 1995. Mike

The Savoy CD has the photo of Blakey, but reversed (so it appears that the hi hat is on the right side not the left - and you can't read the "Jazz Messengers" on the bass drum), and with everything else from the cover removed. The Savoy Jazz LP (Mirage) was part of a trilogy of album covers that had a photo of a face (Blakey) in a circular window. Mingus and Kenny Clarke were the others. Of all of the ones I've seen, the Elektra stereo is by far the best cover. Mike

The Elektric Band - a lapse in taste is now a relapse. Gee, Chick Corea decided to write an album based on a science fiction book - what author? Bradbury? Asimov? Verne? Clarke? Heinlein? Oh. Right. Gotta give this a big miss. Mike

The Who - have they YET put out something not flawed? Even the "deluxe" My Generation has problems. Mike

Zombie Heaven - wonderful, but not everything. You need the CD issue of Odessey and Oracle which has the album in both stereo and mono versions, plus 3 previously unreleased tracks. Mike

I have a photo here of the Elektra LP cover from the Jazz Heroes Data Bank book. The title shown is "A Midnight Session With The Jazz Messengers". It's also shown in the Goldmine Jazz Album Price Guide (by Neely). That was the title of the stereo issue. "Reflections Of Buhaina" must have been used by Elektra for the mono issue (which contained that tune - the stereo Elektra album had "Study In Rhythm" instead), but I can't recall seeing that cover. Ah, the good old days of early stereo - when you could buy the "same" album twice and get very different things - and not just different mixes. Then this album was titled "Mirage" when reissued as Savoy Jazz SJL-1112. "Reflections Of Buhaina" was the title of the butchered two-fer CD that Savoy did of this (along with part of the Bill Hardman Savoy album). That CD *does* have the elusive "Study In Rhythm" track, btw. Incidentally, the Tom Lord discography CD-ROM completely omits any mention of this tune - and that's *after* having a decade to make corrections. Bruyninckx misses it too, but he mentions an alternative take of "Reflections Of Buhaina" that only appears on a Vogue CD (650130). Very interesting. Someone should do a REAL reissue of this stuff, with all the tunes from the session (7 titles, plus one alternative take) and include all the covers. Mike

Oh, no, no. "That other board" is not AAJ. I've never posted there. I meant the Blue Note board. Here are some tidbits from the research I did on John Splawn: He was born on January 31, 1931 in Harrisburg, PA and he lived in Philadelphia for most of his life. He studied with Mike Guerra at Ornstein School of Music on Spruce Street in Philadelphia (this may be where he met John Coltrane). Clifford Brown admired him and the two played together in jam sessions in the area. Drummer and singer Bill "Mr.C" Carney had a band with Splawn, John Coltrane, and Albert Heath before Coltrane joined Miles Davis. Splawn performed at the Red Rooster club in Philadelphia with a Coltrane band that included McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Albert Heath. This was probably around May 1957. He recorded (playing good trumpet) with Coltrane (May 31, 1957). This was his only recording session, although he was not happy with it because he felt he didn't play well. He had very high standards. Bassist Art Davis worked with Splawn on several occasions. He played with Sonny Stitt's band in the late 1950's. He was crippled, due to infantile paralysis - possibly related to a flood in Harrisburg - and used crutches. He called himself the "crippled genius." He was bitter about his lot in life (understandably so). A drinking problem also made him difficult to deal with at times. He suffered a stroke a few years before his death that affected his facial muscles and forced him to stop playing. He died December 20, 2000, in Philadelphia. Don't know the cause of death. His brother took the body back to Harrisburg. Mike

Nope, I don't save anything from here. So if I ever say something worth remembering, somebody better make a note. Now, everything from USENET (rec.music.bluenote) I have - and it's up on groups.google.com. Mike

Absolutely not a pseudonym. Someone dig out the post that I made on this subject - I guess it was for that other board. Mike

Both labels were owned by Joel Dorn? Actually, none of the labels mentioned here were owned by Dorn. If I understand correctly, the only labels that he has actually owned have been Night and Hyena. He had nothing to do with Muse (Joe Fields), nothing to do with Evidence (Jerry Gordon), he was hired to run 32 Jazz and also Label M. Mike

Are there any Muse dates reissued by Evidence? 32Jazz had them for a while, yes. Label listing here: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Labels/muse.htm There are some albums on the label which sound "of their time" which isn't always a bad thing. Some other albums can stand their own against anything you can name. I think the Woody Shaw stuff would be a good example of that. There was quite a wide variety - Muse gave us the first recordings as a leader from Kenny Barron, a good helping of organ jazz, in addition to some fine Sonny Stitt albums. They had great singers, Brazilian, blues, free, some fusion, but a lot of straightahead stuff. They didn't seem to have a problem with older players - Hank Jones, Bill Hardman, Red Rodney, Ira Sullivan, Jaki Byard, even Buddy Tate, Earl Warren, and Art Hodes. They weren't just looking for the "new young stars", although they certainly did have their share of those (like Wallace Roney or Cindy Blackman). And they gave chances to folks who never had them before (and never got them again) - Tex Allen, Mitch Farber, Walt Barr. I give them credit for their open-mindedness. Muse also did some reissues from Douglas, Jazztime (and Cobblestone) and issued historical material for the first time (Tony Scott, for example). Mike

Nøw, Dexter Gørdøn, that's anøther støry. Mike

I guess folks were wondering why the heck you were telling us that some guy named Sjøgren did 150 radio broadcasts in 1986 when the rest of us were talking about Dexter Gordon............ Mike

Chris - Do you recall any specifics of this kind of research info? Mike ["Things that are trivial and meaningless are often of great significance to me...professionally." - Sgt. Hobson, B.A.]

Wasn't the Connoisseur concept supposed to be stuff that had NOT been (domestically) reissued before? I can understand their making exceptions for something like Sonny's Crib, where they fixed the takes. But are they abusing this concept and re-re-releasing anything? I hadn't thought so. That's what the RVG series is for..... Mike

Charles Tolliver, Joe Farrell, Victor Sproles, Billy Higgins. Mike

OK - lightning round: 1. Sonny Boy Williamson? 2. Clarence Shaw or Gene Shaw? (before or after D, E, F) 3. Hasaan Ibn Ali or William Henry Langford, Jr. - L? H? A? Mike

All occurrences of said alto player in discographies of mine are as: Sylvester 'Sonny Red' Kyner - that's how he's entered in the database. I have to remember to look for him under K when I need his name. Other odd ones to file are Big Maybelle and Red Rodney. Mike

Can anyone shed light on the fact that the Arnold Laubich discography of Tatum shows material from the January 19, 1955 session (I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues & If You Hadn't Gone Away) as having been issued? They are not on the Pablo CD set I own. There is a 4:05 take of the second title (from the December 28, 1953 session) but Laubich accounts for that. Laubich also shows material not included in the Group box as having been issued (a 6:11 take of Makin' Whoopee from the Benny Carter June 25, 1954 date). Is Laubich somehow mistaken? If someone has pre-Pablo issues and would like me to supply numbers, I'd be glad to. Mike

I am not an expert on the subject, but if I understand correctly (from the Linda Dahl bio), the first mass was recorded by Williams on a home tape recorder. The second mass (Mass for the Lenten Season aka Jazz For The Soul) has not been recorded at all. The third mass (Music For Peace aka Mary Lou's Mass) is the most famous and was recorded and issued as Mary M 102. It was subsequently choreographed by Alvin Ailey. There are different versions of the mass. At least parts (if not all) of the discographical information about M 102 have always been incorrect. I spent time in the MLW collection at Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies to get the correct information, now included in the Honi Gordon discography on my website. Gordon is not on everything, so I didn't investigate that material. Mike

There's a ton of these. Tommy Flanagan/Kenny Barron; Tommy Flanagan/Hank Jones; Hank Jones/John Lewis; Eliane Elias/Herbie Hancock; Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn; Ran Blake/Jaki Byard; Mary Lou Williams/Cecil Taylor; Albert Ammons/Meade Lux Lewis; Muhal Richard Abrams/Amina Claudine Myers; Oscar Peterson/Benny Green; Horace Parlan/Jan Kaspersen; Mal Waldron/Yosuke Yamashita; Ramsey Lewis/Billy Taylor; Chick Corea/Nicolas Economou; Chick Corea/Friedrich Gulda; Ralph Sutton/Jay McShann; Dick Hyman/Dick Wellstood; and on. Of course, the Marian McPartland stuff is ideal - for many years she only had pianists as guests when she started out. There are also things that aren't an entire album of the same two people: Geoff Keezer: Sublime - duets with Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Benny Green, Mulgrew Miller. Or Renee Rosnes & Herbie Hancock. If you like two pianos with bass and/or drums too, in addition to the Barron/Hicks album mentioned above, there's also a Kenny Barron/Barry Harris one; John Mehegan & Eddie Costa; Count Basie & Oscar Peterson, too. And if you want MORE than just two pianos - there's the "First Modern Jazz Piano Quartet" including Eddie Costa, Johnny Costa, Dick Marx, Hank Jones. Or the "Piano Choir" including Stanley Cowell, Nat Jones, Hugh Lawson, Webster Lewis, Harold Mabern, Danny Mixon, and Sonelius Smith. Or the "Contemporary Piano Ensemble" with James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, Geoff Keezer, Harold Mabern, and Donald Brown. Also investigate the "One Night Stand" album on Columbia with Kenny Barron, Bob James, George Duke, Eubie Blake, Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Rodney Franklin, Charles Earland, Bobby Hutcherson, and others. The tours of Japan called "100 Gold Fingers" feature (expectedly) 10 pianists, sometimes doing duos. I think that stuff has only ever been issued in Japan. As might be expected, full details on the Kenny Barron ones can be found in the KB discography on my website. Also some live things - KB & Mulgrew Miller, etc. And then there's the Bill Evans: Conversations With Myself stuff. And the Tristano overdubbed stuff. And the Buck Hammer. I don't know if there is stuff recorded one piano, four hands. I have heard some informal recordings of that kind of thing. But usually if people are going to bother to make a record, they get two pianos. Mike

The first edition of Cuscuna/Ruppli gives February 3, 1966. So does the second edition. So does the Bruyninckx CD-ROM and the Lord CD-ROM. So does the 1987 CD issue. Now, *all* of these sources *have* been wrong at one time or another, but in those cases there isn't this kind of agreement. My vote says February 3, 1966. Mike