Michael Fitzgerald

Credit where credit is due - "Jack Woker" is not a pseudonym of mine. He's a real person and he's the one responsible for the great resource I host on my site. Please forward this and any and all additions/corrections to him - stereoj@comcast.net - so that he can continue to update the information. Mike

side one: Bit of Heaven; Down Home; I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone side two: Bongo Pop (that's what it says); When Lights Are Low; C.T.A. Mike

Done!

No mention in the Chamberlain book - if the date is correct, this was like 2 days before he died! Mike

Thanks to Mike and Jim for the master & take numbers. The latest and greatest update for KB on Columbia 1960-62 is online now at the same URL. It will disappear in a few days, so if you want it, save it. Mike

No, not that particular tune, just in general. Without the final digit (X, as in CO12345-X), it's not possible to position the takes accurately to indicate which was recorded first. In many, but certainly not all cases, the master take is the final of the sequence. Kind of like how whatever you've lost is always found in the last place you look. So when there were multiple takes, I positioned the alternate as preceding the master. But there could well be a situation where the players do "one too many" and the master take is an earlier one. If there are take numbers (the final digit) for everything included in the CD set, I'd love to know them because that's something that hasn't been published. However, I'm still a bit wary of this CD since they got the wrong master number for that tune as well as getting the wrong composer. Did they get the date correct? I don't know. Should that -3 just be transferred to the correct master number? That doesn't seem like a sensible thing. I've put up a revised version at the same URL that incorporates some of what has been discussed. Mike

Hmmm - somewhere in the back of my mind, now I'm thinking I recall hearing that "HCYDATTTM" was Glenn's commentary on Ellington appropriating others' material. Don't quote me on that. I've tried to straighten out this and the earlier KB Columbia material. Please take a look and let me have comments. The vocal stuff seems to be a real mess, but Raben has much more complete info than Lord. http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Temp/burrell.htm I don't actually own the Euphoria CD - does it specify take numbers or sequence? I made the big assumption that the master was the final take. Mike

The Raben discography identifies the tune as "How Could You Do a Thing Like That to Me" - other sources tell me this is a tune by Tyree Glenn & Allan Roberts. BTW, there is a tune just called "How Could You" by Dubin and Warren. But that seems to be irrelevant here. Mike

Wow! This one slipped by me and just appeared at the record store. Apparently released on July 22. I knew the band had played at the IAJE Toronto and Riley's in Boston, and I guess I recall mention that they had recorded, but seems the Blue Note people don't hype piano players the way they do singers. I guess maybe it's not *really* on BN, but on EMI Music Canada. Hard to tell exactly. This is a magnificent set - 8 tunes, all but 3 by RR (new versions of pieces that were on earlier albums). Jim McNeely conducts the very tight DRBB, which in addition to having players who can read and execute the arrangements, has some very good soloists. Mike Mossman did 2 arrangements, McNeely did 3, Rosnes did 2 and trombonist Vincent Nilsson did 1 - a fantastic version of J.J. Johnson's "Lament" - done Latin style with some interesting metrical reworkings. Full details online now in the Renee Rosnes discography on my website. Mike

Costa discography - http://www.jazdiskat.co.uk/nstart.html Mike

The Henry Grimes "Musician's Show" has been pre-empted by WKCR-FM so that they may broadcast a memorial to another great bassist, Aaron Bell, best known for his work with Duke Ellington. Mike

Lee Morgan attended Mastbaum Vocational-Technical High School in Philadelphia. Their high school music program was the equivalent of a college program. He had thorough training in harmony, counterpoint, and four-part writing. Lee also had absolute pitch. He was an extremely well-prepared musician. Also, immediately after that, he got to hang around with one of the greatest jazz theorists and composer-arrangers, Dizzy Gillespie. Mike

That early Gerald Wilson stuff is amazing. There's a Classics CD that has all the Excelsior 78s. He did a big band version of Groovin' High within months of the Gillespie original. Not only did GW arrange for the band, but he had Melba Liston too! The story I heard is that he was offered a contract (RCA, if I remember correctly) and he turned it down because he didn't think he was ready yet. So after 1947, there's one session from the fifties and then comes the PJ stuff beginning in 1961. Definitely something to check out. Great players like Snooky Young and Hobart Dotson on trumpet, and tenor saxophonist Eddie Davis (not Lockjaw). Mike

It's all about consultants and demographic studies, listener loyalty, national public radio standing, consistency of format throughout the entire 24 hours of the day, etc. And it's useless to try to make them see reason. Believe me. I tried. Mike

The mention of WBGO is amusing. In Carter's memory, WBGO played his music in the following days, but only that from the 1950s on. As hinted at in the article, station policy prohibits the airing of 78-era music. (Of course just a bit down the dial, WKCR did 72 hours straight of only BC, covering the *entire* spectrum of his career.) Mike

The concept aspect of Empyrean Isles is the story by Nora Kelly. Admittedly, not something that would be apparent just through the music, but then again not a lot of programmatic works are obvious. Would anyone know Petroushka had a story? (Or think about when a completely unrelated programmatic element is grafted on afterwards - how many people think that The Rite of Spring is about dinosaurs?) But it seems that from reading what Herbie had to say on several of his Blue Note albums that he was concerned with something other than just a group of tunes. What is very frustrating is that the Blue Note Sixties boxed set includes the Maiden Voyage story by Nora Kelly, but NOT the Empyrean Isles story. It refers to them, but you CAN'T READ THEM!! "...the music was based on the images that Nora Kelly's story evoked in Herbie's mind. I asked Herbie if he envisioned a title or mood of a piece before he composes, and he said, 'Only when I'm finished and satisfied with the results does the title come to mind.' The 19th-century model for composers was for a story to have musically connected thematic material. Herbie decided that each piece should sustain its own mood and individual character. And the fact that three of the compositions have become jazz standards is a true testament to their individual strengths." - notes by Bob Belden. The story is, of course, in the single Blue Note CD. Mike

Mostly, yes - though it might be harder to defend IASW and Bitches Brew. "I'm Trying to Get Home," the follow-up to "A New Perspective," would probably qualify too. I don't see the blowing session argument - is anyone really supporting this? Where is the concept that makes the album a unified package? It's just a bunch of tunes. And the lack of concept can easily be seen by how the results of some of the blowing sessions were issued by Prestige - a tune on this album, a couple of tunes on that album. It's almost as bad as the Savoy recording process - put a bunch of guys in the studio and after it's done, whoever took the best solo of the date is the leader. Mike

Iowa, you mean.

Since Gryce recorded for so many labels (the Jazz Lab alone recorded for 5 different labels in 1957), it would be nigh on impossible to really collect everything. But I guess this thread isn't really about reality. Amazingly enough, the vast majority have made it to CD - here's a list, a bit outdated, perhaps. http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Gryce/ggcd.htm RCA and Verve still hold a few crucial albums that need to see reissue, and like with everything, stuff goes in and out of print. Mike

I am shocked. How you could sully the good name of Wendell Marshall with this unsubstantiated accusation is beyond me. Where do you think jazz guitar would be without the incredible influence of Wes? Though as bassists go, I'm personally a more a fan of his brother Red - that album with Jim Hall is beautiful. And in addition to being a fine trumpeter, Manone was a humorous singer, as well. Oh - wait - were you talking about Mozart? Never mind. Mike

It's one of the last recordings by Kenny Kirkland as well, if I'm not mistaken. Mike

Definitely not! Chills are the highest rating any music can get from me. That's stuff that penetrates right to the core and creates an irrefutable physical reaction. Mike

Complete with rip-off photo on the back from the 1978 "Electric Guitarist" sessions. There is at least one live Lifetime show that circulates. This could be it. Mike

Very much disagree about Dream Keeper - maybe that's because I've heard it done 3 or 4 times live (I've only heard BOTF done live once). But even disregarding the live shows, the record is wonderful - I get chills now even just thinking about the fifth movement of the suite, as the children's choir hits this amazing chord on the line "Only the shadow" - the first and final movements have similar points. For those who are not familiar, Carla Bley's "Dream Keeper" suite was inspired by an incredibly powerful poem by Langston Hughes called "As I Grew Older" which is set to music and sung at four points during the 17-minute performance. In between this are various folk pieces from South America, Central America, and Spain - and improvised solos, too. I would rank this album as one of the best of the 1990s. As BOTF is one of the best of the 1980s. (I get chills when Don Cherry enters on "Silence" too.) Mike

I suspect, though I haven't tried it, that the Bruyninckx is fully copy- and paste-able with the full version of Adobe Acrobat (not just the reader). Can someone confirm? Online is definitely the next step. In our own small way, some of us are already there...... Mike