BillF

Wow! Miles meets Sidney Bechet!! That must have been something!

Now I think I can place it. I saw the Ellington Orch in Leicester, England during the Easter holiday of that year, just after one of the coldest winters here of the century!

I saw the Ellington Orch when Ericson was with them. I remember Duke's introduction: "All the way from Sweden ..." What date is your album?

Now that's one I don't know! What's the sound quality like and who is he with? P.S. Googling it brings up this which I remember:

Yes, I heard it. It was good.

Track 5: Cal Tjader? Track 8: Chicago blues 1960s? Track9: Charles Mingus?

Where was Tower in Colombia? Bogotá? (I'm interested as there is a Colombian in my family.)

Your mention of Woody as a ballad singer in his earlier bands reminds me of his rendition of "Everything Happens to Me". Love the words of that song!

What is your favorite Herd? Although critical opinion swings behind the First Herd of 1945-46, as a bebopper I can't resist the Four Brothers band and would take this album to the desert island (though I could do without the novelty vocals). How about you?

This multi-session compilation from 1947-48 is well worth hearing. The high point for me are several tracks where Stan is joined by Wardell and Dodo.

Don't start me talking about jazz radio in the past or I'll be telling you about how I used to listen with my ear to the loudspeaker trying to hear Willis Conover introducing the Voice of America Jazz Hour or jazz on American Forces Network from Germany through a barrage of static! (Perhaps this is why I have little sympathy for people who bemoan the lack of present-day recording quality in those 40s bebop tracks! As far as listening goes, I was raised in the hard school!)

Too early to write off hip jazz radio presentation. I'd nominate David Brent Johnson on WFIU's Night Lights (our very own Ghost of Miles) as keeper of the flame where cool jazz radio is concerned.

A wonderful album, beginning with several radio-relayed live tracks from the Royal Roost which truly live up to Symphony Sid's description of "crazy", "gone" and "frantic". We then move to the cool beauty of a studio session with Sims, Cohn, Getz and Mulligan in the sax section before going on to a fascinating retrospective interview with Chubby and finishing with the (for me) more familiar sounds of the Conte, Socolow, Levy and Denzil outfit that visited Sweden. I take it Mr Nessa had a hand in the production of this one, in which case congratulations Chuck and many, many thanks!

Now diggin' "Fat Man's Scat". Never heard this one before!

Yes, of course you're right. And there was considerable overlap between bop and earlier styles. Don Byas, Big Sid Catlett, Teddy Wilson and Red Norvo were on Parker and/or Gillespie record dates and even T Bone Walker sounded like a bopper at the time.

Yes, a nice one!

Tower in Piccadilly Circus was also a magnet for me. In my final decade of work as a college lecturer (the 90s) I was always quick to volunteer to visit students on central London work placements as it meant an expenses covered trip to Tower for me. Judging from the number of guys of mature age browsing with briefcases many of those afternoon visits must have been work related. Probably it was you each time, Sidewinder, or maybe you were at Mole.

Now playing:

Your move, Gheorghe, to the Dizzy Big Band (perhaps like Basie we should call this the Old Testament band, as opposed to the New Testament band of c.1957) inspired me to give the 1946 big band studio sides another listen. I've always been particularly fond of "Our Delight", "One Bass Hit Pt 2", "Things to Come", "Ray's Idea" and "Emanon". Highlights for me are the arrangements (Dameron, certainly, Gil Fuller as well, I would guess) and Kenny Clarke's drumming (unmistakably Klook at such an early date), not to mention Diz's superlative soloing.

Yes, a controversial album, largely because of Granz's choice of Rich. Yet it remains one of my all-time favorites, ever since I bought it on a 10" LP around 1959 at the age of 19. Actually, I don't mind Rich on it. I could do without some of his loud, but fortunately brief, drum breaks and intros, but he brings a powerful swing to a very exciting session. And remember, this isn't a Parker quintet where he'd be as disastrous as Tommy Turk, it's a meeting of bop giants - Bird, Diz and Monk - with a very different atmosphere. I recently listened again and was struck by the astounding logic of Bird's solos, the staggering technical brilliance of Diz and the beauty of some rarely heard Bird compositions - "Mohawk", "An Oscar for Treadwell", "Bloomdido" - they don't get many covers.

Yes, that's a great one. Re Tommy Turk: I think he was better in this JATP setting than as an addition to the Parker quintet on the "Visa"/ "Passport" studio session where, as I opined in another thread, he was something of a disaster. Do you agree? In the list of giants on the above album cover, the name of Tommy Turk is likely to provoke the question, "Who?" and indeed I knew very little of him until a few moments ago when I was surprised to find quite a comprehensive Wikipedia entry which included a regrettably dramatic death: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Turk Now finding more stuff: