Justin V

Terrell Stafford - BrotherLee Love: Celebrating Lee Morgan: One of a dozen albums I found for $1 apiece at a library sale on Satuday. For as active as he is, I think that I've somehow only seen Stafford once live (with Horizon) and have little of his sideman work. At any rate, this is a strong album.

i'm glad to hear this news. South Side Story is an unheralded modern classic, IMO. I spoke with him briefly after a gig last year and he seemed like a nice guy. I hope he comes around here again soon.

I am very sorry to hear this. I was born 26 years after Bird's death and Gitler's writing made an era come alive. Thank you, Mr. Gitler, and rest in peace.

Crap. I hope there wasn't an issue with them somehow selecting the wrong track for the alternate. They have reissued Moanin' and Free for All again and I have both on the way from Japan after missing the original reissues a few years ago.

I'd buy a Vanessa Rubin album of Dameron songs and I'd expect a local CD release show. In fact, Rubin sat in and sang 'Good Bait' with Benny Golson the last time he played in town. There have been a few tributes to Dameron here in the Cleveland area recently, with another coming up by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

I bought Culver's I'm Old Fashioned a few years ago for $1. It is an understated gem and probably the only trombone/piano/bass album in my collection. Two more I heartily recommend:

Disc 2. This was one of my greatest Mosaic bargains at under $40, although without the book.

Nice! I saw a good chunk of Afro Horn's set at the Detroit Jazz Fest years ago and enjoyed it a lot. I believe the lineup was JD Allen, Alex Harding, Aruan Ortiz, Rashaan Carter, Francisco Mora Catlett and Roman Diaz.

Nick Brignola - Baritone Madness: I am finally dedicating the time to take a deep dive into the Bee Hive set. I plan on listening to each album several times before moving on to the next.

I just ordered the single-disc compilation that has additional material because I don't do vinyl. What is frustrating is that the Cobb CD has all but one of the tracks issued under his name and the compilation repeats 4 of those tracks. Why not include the excluded Cobb track and more of the Vinson and Tate material instead? The sad thing is that the missing Cobb track would fit on a single disc nowadays. I don't know how many discs it would take for the Tate and Vinson tracks.

I just bought the five-disc Mobley set (which includes the alternates and not just the original release, unlike many in that series), so I'm a little bummed that I'll now be missing an alternate from No Room for Squares. With the new Mosaic being mostly a compilation of previously reissued material, I doubt that I'll be grabbing it.

Arnett Cobb - Keep On Pushin': Junior Mance was the perfect choice for this session.

It is hard to beat an immaculately recorded saxophone summit with an A+ rhythm section. More Cobb is coming up today.

Dick Berk and the Jazz Adoption Agency - Lover: Music of Rodgers and Hart: I am kicking myself for losing track of pianist Tad Weed in the 9 or 10 years between seeing him live and his death from cancer last year. This is the third time listening to this since yesterday.

Junior Mance - Truckin' and Trakin', from the Bee Hive Mosaic. I am embarrassed to admit that this is only my second listen through the whole set. Rather than treating it as this enormous chunk of music, I think I am going to listen to individual albums several times over the course of a few days before moving on to the next. It is a great set, so I need to take the time to listen to it more.

Those Bee Hive albums are nice. That Mosaic is the largest Mosaic I've bought new because it is such a treasure trove that I couldn't resist. I also like Spring Is Here, a lush date with the Metropole Orchestra, and What It Takes, a Reservoir date with Randy Brecker, Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Dick Berk. An album well worth tracking down is Lover: Music of Rodgers and Hart by Dick Berk's Jazz Adoption Agency. Besides Brignola and John Patitucci, it has lesser-known musicians like pianist Tad Weed, saxophonist Dave Pozzi, trombonist Mike Fahn and trumpeter Jeff Bunnell. I caught Weed locally probably 10 or 11 years ago and he was impressive. I never managed to see him play again before his untimely death last year.

Herman Foster - The Explosive Piano of Herman Foster: I picked this up after recently acquiring Blues Walk. The drummer, Grassella Oliphant, celebrated his 88th birthday in 2017 by playing at Dizzy's. I'm looking forward to listening to Have You Heard Herman Foster, the other half of the twofer on Collectables.

The first time I saw Roy Hargrove, it was with Hank Jones, Gerald Clayton, John Lee and Vincent Ector at Harlem Stage in 2008. It was one of two times that I saw Jones and the only time in a setting conducive to listening. Having gone specifically to see Jones, I was unfamiliar with the whole band other than Hargrove, whom I knew by name only. I knew that Clayton, who was in Hargrove's band at the time, was John Clayton's son. The evening progressed from the impressive Clayton playing solo to various configurations. I don't even know if Hargrove was originally supposed to be on the gig or if he showed up with his horn to have the chance to blow some with Jones and lend his talent to the benefit concert. I remember how focused he seemed, how effortless, how he closed his eyes and just blew. He played like he was ready to play all night, like it was an old-school jam session done for the joy of playing. That gig was about a month before Earfood came out. I think that I bought Earfood before seeing him lead his quintet from the album at the Detroit Jazz Fest that summer. Earfood is a great album. Seeing the group perform that material at the festival's waterfront stage before an enthusiastic crowd was absolutely electric and one of the best concerts I have ever seen. The years passed and I heard Hargrove on several albums but I didn't see him play. He didn't play locally and I didn't learn of a concert in Detroit until after the fact. I heard that he was on dialysis and had read about his drug arrest. I finally got to see him again at the Detroit Jazz Fest in 2016. He was playing with an orchestra and strings. Maybe my perception of it was affected by the knowledge of his health problems and battle with drugs, but he seemed disengaged and diminished somehow. Although he still had that gorgeous tone, his solos were short and didn't stray far from the melody. Having looked forward to the concert after not seeing him in years, I left during the set. My wife saw him with RH Factor on another day and said that he didn't play much. Since that concert, I have found it hard to listen to him. Even knowing of his problems, I was stunned to hear of his death at the Pittsburgh Jazz Seminar concert when Ingrid Jensen dedicated 'Soul Eyes' to him and joined Sean Jones in a memorable, moving tribute. I never would have guessed after seeing him with Hank Jones that he would only outlive Jones by 9 years. Although I feel some guilt for leaving that last concert early, I still hoped that it was an off night and that I would see him down the road, with his eyes closed, smiling the smile of someone doing what he was born to do, playing like he was the king of the world. I'll continue to try to focus on having been a witness to him at the top of his game, but it is difficult to think of someone so gifted and vibrant being gone. Thank you for the music, Mr. Hargrove, and rest in peace.

I was lucky to have seen him three times. The first time was with the house band of Claude Black, Clifford Murphy and Sean Dobbins at Murphy's Place in Toledo. For the second set, I sat a few feet in front of him and absorbed the full force of his intense playing. The second time I saw him was in Pittsburgh with 4 Generations of Miles (with Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams and Mike Stern), which was a rare treat. The last time I saw him was in Pittsburgh with his excellent working band of Michael Cochrane, David Williams and Steve Johns in a double bill with Buster Williams. I remember thinking during the short set that it was the closest I was ever going to get to seeing Trane. He was in the lobby meeting fans after the first set when I arrived and I mistakenly assumed that he would be in the lobby after the set I was attending. With the set ending kind of late, that didn't happen. I somehow missed a gig he did in Pittsburgh after that because I wasn't aware of it at the time. In fact, the day after he passed away before I heard the news, my wife and I were listening to From Now On and I told her how I hoped he would play close enough for me to see him again. Since his passing, I have thought of him often and have picked up the two Blue Notes I didn't have and the three albums he did for Konnex. Thank you for the music, Mr. Fortune, and rest in peace.

Kenny Drew Jr. - Winter Flower: This is only my second album of his. I've had his marvelous Maybeck album for years and a sideman appearance on an album by saxophonist Hal Melia, so I was overdue to hear more of his work. I stand by my earlier assertion that he was underrated.

Cedar Walton - Composer

Cedar Walton - The Maestro