BillF

Always loved that one. Acquired my (used) vinyl copy c.1965. Highlights for me: the sumptuous voicings on "Body and Soul" and "Come Rain or Come Shine".

Blakey (3 times), Griffin (twice), Clayton, Kaminsky, Silver (twice), Rushing, Emmett Berry, Monk (twice), Gillespie (3 times), Basie (twice), Dicky Wells - and all in the UK.

I saw Arturo twice: once in a quartet and then in the Dizzy Gillespie United Nations Orchestra.

A bit of googling reveals that, yes, it was at the Dominion Theatre concert that Ronnie said, "And now from a brand new LP which you may have seen in the shops, entitled Elvis Presley Sings Thelonious Monk ..." Ronnie the incomparable! Incidentally, it was at a Manchester club called the Bodega that I saw the Jazz Couriers in the autumn of 1958. The only other group I recall seeing at that venue was led by Wally Fawkes with Lennie Felix on piano. When I asked Lennie if he'd play "My Monday Date", he exclaimed, "You've been listening to Earl!" and took off with gusto. So, quite broad listening tastes as an 18 year old!

My first was in '57 in Leeds Town Hall with Lyttelton's controversial (among the traddies) new band with a saxophone section of Tony Coe, Jimmy Skidmore and Joe Temperley. I saw them again in the same venue touring with Jimmy Rushing and later Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Was it on that one that Ronnie announced an album called "Elvis Presley Meets Thelonious Monk"?

Besides which, they can tell you what it was like to see Teagarden, Rushing, Webster, Hodges, Timmons, Desmond, Kirk, Lee Morgan, etc.

(I saw them!)

Track 4 Richie Cole? Track 10 "Straighten Up and Fly Right"