Stereojack

Clarabelle Dilly Dally Phineas T. Bluster

Doohan, James Allman, Duane Wright, Orville

Thanks for the clip. Really nice!

Don't know a lot about him, except that he's been called Boppin' Bob Jones in some quarters. May still be involved with Ace, who continue to release high quality reissues.

Let me just start off by saying that I dearly love the MJQ, all periods, early and late, although I haven't always felt this way. In my younger days I was drawn to harder edged, more overt jazz, and found the MJQ's music too genteel. I resented that they played concert halls and wore tuxedos. However, as I began to learn more about the individual members - John Lewis, who had recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis; Milt Jackson, who had also recorded with Dizzy and Miles, and Ray Charles and John Coltrane, and was generally regarded as the leading vibraphonist in jazz in the 1950's and 60's; Percy Heath, who had played on about half of the records made in New York in the early-mid 50's, including some of my favorites by Miles; and Kenny Clarke, largely considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern jazz drumming; and when I began to form opinions of my own without totally relying on those of others who I thought knew more than I did, I slowly began to find merit in their music. At first I dismissed anything after Connie Kay joined, and found his style a little too precise and boring. Eventually as I began to discover their musical universe, which is theirs and theirs alone, I became more enamored and intrigued, first by the records they made with Sonny Rollins and Jimmy Giuffre, figuring that they must be hip if these guys played with them , and gradually I became a huge fan, eventually acquiring all of their records, early and late. And finally I actually came to prefer Connie Kay, whose style is an integral part of what makes the MJQ unique. My personal favorites: Django (Prestige, 1955) Fontessa (Atlantic, 1956) Blues At Carnegie Hall (Atlantic, 1966) For Ellington (East West, 1988) There are plenty more really good ones! (edited for typo)

Bono Dion Fabian

Sterling Hayden Horace Silver Milt Gold

Sam the Sham Willy the Shake Ptah, the El Daoud

Funny you should bring this up - I just watched the film the other night, and was also puzzled as to the identity of some of the acts, particularly those on the riverboat. I wonder if the vocal group might have been the Spirits of Rhythm. The featured singer sounds like Leo Watson, but I haven't seen enough pictures of him to make a positive ID. The personnel of Waller's band in the nightclub scene is Benny Carter (tp), Alton Moore (tb), Gene Porter (cl/ts), Fats Waller (p/vo), Irving Ashby (g), Slam Stewart (b), Zutty Singleton (d), all of whom are on the soundtrack, but I could only recognize Slam and Zutty (and Fats) on screen. I agree about the commentary - thoroughly useless! I dumped out after about 15 minutes of his drivel.

Pat Boone Robert Blake Son House

Scott Joplin Janis Joplin Big Brother

Unlikely, since Mosaic usually focuses on material that is not currently available elsewhere, and, also, this set is not primarily a jazz set. Much of the material would most likely be categorized as "pop". There is a fair amount of Nat Cole already available on Capitol, including, I believe, a lot of what's on this set. Bear Family's approach is not necessarily to offer rare or unavailable material, but to provide an exhaustive and comprehensive package for the hard core fan. These sets invariably include outtakes, breakdowns, non-LP singles, good and sometimes bad.

Fascinating article - a good read. Thanks for posting it.

Otha Clark Clark Kent Kent Smith

Bear Family sets are always expensive, but they are lavish in the extreme. Generally, the pricing is about $20.00 per disc, and there is usually a hard cover "coffee table" style book which is priced as an additional 1 or 2 CD's. The books in recent sets I've seen are amazing - 100 or more pages loaded with full color pictures, album covers, label shots, foreign releases. lengthy essays by well known writers, full discographical details, etc. I've got many other Bear Family sets, and they are the last word on any given artist. As much as I love Nat, I've got so much of this already on vinyl and CD that I won't be springing for this.

Yes, it was. IIRC, both it and the later Embryo label were Herbie Mann "production" ventures. William Fischer was also involved in Embryo pretty heavily, it seems. Embryo was certainly Herbie Mann's baby, but I think most of the Vortex sessions were supervised by George Avakian, some by Nesuhi Ertegun, and at least one (Corea's) by Mann.

BFT 34 I usually listen straight through to these BFT discs twice in the car over a couple of days, and then bring the disc inside and play it on my computer through earphones while typing up my responses. Sometimes on the third play through I hear things I missed the first two times, like the countoff at the beginning of track 1! 1. Trumpet sounds like Kenny Dorham a bit, but I can’t identify the performance. A very nice intro to this baffling set! 2. Bass intro, nice sound. The whole thing has an early-60’s feel, but by the drum sound it seems like it might be a more recent recording. Again, a nice track, although I haven’t a clue who’s playing. 3. A nice light trio performance. My first thought was Roland Hanna with George Mraz. What is this tune? I’m sure I’ve heard it before. 4. This didn’t kill me – a little too aggressive for my tastes. Pianist has got chops, don’t care for the alto player. Interesting chart. 5. Well, this certainly sounds like vintage hard bop side, with the horns panned hard left & right. Both the trumpet have nice, if brief, solo spots, but they don’t seem familiar to me. During the second play of this BFT I began to suspect that maybe we are listening to primarily European (or perhaps all French) recordings. This has all the earmarks of an original US session, but I’m frustrated that I can’t pin down the players. 6. “My Romance”. The alto might be Gary Foster, which blows my all-Euro theory out of the water. Nice lyrical tenor. I’d like to hear more tracks like this on BFT’s, and fewer of the modal tunes, old fart that I am! 7. This starts out like “House of the Rising Sun”. A pretty, folksy melody. I think the trumpet may be Bill Coleman, and maybe Guy Lafitte on tenor? Liked this more each time I heard it. 8. A nice tenor player. The tune starts out like “Crazy He Calls Me”, but then goes elsewhere. They must be well known, because it sounds like they’re playing in a theater to a pretty large audience. 9. Sorry, this does nothing for me. Some French hipster, with a little alto solo to tease us. No thanks. -_- 10. Semi-free tenor & piano, not too enticing. (yawn) 11. Now here’s a vintage track, 1950’s. Can’t place the trumpet, but I swear the trombone sounds like Jimmy Knepper, and the tenor is very reminiscent of Yusef Lateef. I know they both played with Mingus, but this ain’t Mingus! Or is it??? 12. “How About Me”. The singer enunciates nicely, has good intonation, but is a little bland. Aside from the giants, I’m not good at identifying singers. 13. Well, this certainly recalls many mid-1960’s sides groove-wise, and the guitar is very much in a Jimmy Raney (or possibly Jim Hall) bag, but I have no idea who this is. The tenor didn’t do much for me, but I like the guitar. 14. Another 1950’s track, and a familiar tune, I think. The organ took me by surprise. Nice tenor, with that swinging old feel. Oh yes, there’s another tenor! These guys have very similar styles. Hmm, maybe an early Ronnie Scott & Tubby Hayes side? 15. This one is not recorded very well, or perhaps remastered badly. Now that I’m hearing it on headphones, I can hear voices during the performance, but no audience. Maybe this is a demo or rehearsal recording, issued many years later. It sounds like some early “cool” jazz, with a trumpet that might be Tony Fruscella, the alto has got elements of Lee Konitz. 16. Another French guy, or maybe it’s the same guy as #9. I think they are the same. Nothing to grab me here. A challenging set, Brownie! Now that I’ve weighed in, I can go back and read the responses from others.

Otto Preminger Moe Howard Beal, Eddie

Boston Blackie Buffalo Bill Philly Joe Jones

I googled Van Eps. The photo does look like him. Not only does it look like him, but it sounds like him.

Moore, Garry Orr, Bobby Les Brown

Well, almost. Albert Ammons died in 1949.

I think that's the point. There is no "West Coast" style - the term covers too many varied artists.

This series was very helpful to me as a kid learning about jazz in the early 1960's. I've still got my set of 12.

Bern Nix Baby Cox Byrne, Brendan