Ted O'Reilly

I'm way behind on everything. Can someone 'splain Felser?

Wasn't the Brown band referred to as "the milkshake band" as opposed to a drinking/drugging/girl-chasing band? The did some very fine jazz work on a 1959 Coral LP (CRL 57311) "Jazz Song Book" with guests Buddy De Franco, Terry Gibbs, Frank Rosolino, Zoot Sims, Don Fagerquist and Ronnie Lang. As well, there was lots of jazz playing on another Coral release "Concert At The Palladium" (Double LP CRL 57000/01) from mostly-performance recordings at (of all places) the Palladium and some studio things from the same period.

Can't get it: "This video is not available" it says, for Toronto at least. (Interesting you still have a car radio -- I hear it's next off the list, following the cassette player and CD player...)

Is it possible that it's the same mix that was used for the actual theatre-mix soundtrack? I've often noticed that the sound for cinema is a bit 'tubby', and more reverberant, possibly to tune or compensate the sound for the large space of the theatre... It was all recorded on Hollywood sound stages, I believe. None of the music was ever recorded just for album use, that I'm aware of.

He was an annual visitor to the club (which is one of the oldest and best jazz rooms in the world!) and loved Vienna, even getting married there. Canada's national newspaper, the Globe & Mail, published an obit today... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/musician-james-galloway-was-a-foundational-figure-in-canadian-jazz/article22692409/

Barney told me that, too...

My vote's for Orville, too: the original. And follow Orv's proportions of kernels VS. oil. I use peanut oil, a neutral taste, and it'll get hotter before any kind of smoking. Put the oil in the pan (an old dutch oven thing in my case), add half a dozen kernels and put the lid on. When they pop you know the oil's hot enough, so dump the rest in and shake the whole thing. Now, leave the lid slightly askew to vent the steam and keep shaking the pot. When the popping has just about stopped, take it off the heat and remove the lid. Toss it into a bowl with some salt and butter if you wish... Yummy!

Many thanks for this, Uli! Beautifully played, great sound and picture, creative ‘contemporary jazz’ without being weird or off-putting. If one pays attention and goes with it, I can’t imagine anyone not being pulled along. I watched it on my TV hookup to YouTube...looks great on a big screen, and the sound is beautifully done, too. Intensely played by a real trio: Michel Portal, reeds/accordion; Bruno Chevillon, bass; Daniel Humair, drums. (It’s a perfect illustration of why I include Humair on my list of Top 5 drummers). (As an aside, is Portal playing a bandoneon-type of accordion/concertina?) I recall George Shearing saying "A gentleman is someone who can play accordion, but doesn't". And further, "Perfect Pitch" is when you throw an accordion in the garbage and hit a banjo". Any more 'cordeen jokes?

I heartily agree!

Young Cassidy: the introduction to my eyes of the glowing Julie Christie.

Gheorghe, Soulpope... Nice to see the reference to "Jazzland", the venerable Vienna jazz club. A great spot, one that I'll put on my list of great places to hear Jazz Music. Much thanks to Axel and Tilly Melhardt for keeping it going for decades... (edited for spelling error)

Jim Galloway, the Toronto soprano saxist and jazz promoter (in the truest sense) died at year's end. Here's a biography from the Canadian Jazz Archive.... Jim Galloway Biography JAMES (JIM) BRAIDIE GALLOWAY (saxophonist. clarinetist) was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, 25 miles southwest of Glasgow, Scotland, on July 28, 1936. One of the international jazz scenes most significant proponents of swing, Galloway has remained one of the most popular players on the international jazz circuit for the past few decades. He studied at the Glasgow School of Fine Arts, and worked with some of Scotland’s all-star jazz bands and ensembles before moving to Canada in 1964 to gain wide acclaim in this country for his performances of swing, traditional, and mainstream jazz. With a well-warranted reputation as one of the leading soprano saxophonists anywhere, accomplished musician and bandleader is known for his ability to play the difficult soprano with remarkable skill and sensitivity. He joined bassist Jim McHarg’s Metro Stompers in 1966, taking over leadership of the band two years later, touring and performing locally with them for the next two decades. Frequently demonstrating his penchant for mainstream swing in Toronto jazz clubs throughout the ‘70s, he played with visiting greats including Wild Bill Davison, Vic Dickenson, Art Hodes, Jay McShann, Ralph Sutton, Buddy Tate, and Dick Wellstood. It was in the late ‘70s, too, that he began an international touring career which continues today, with Galloway making guest appearances, by invitation, at jazz festivals in Edinburgh, Nice, Bern, and Los Angeles, and at jazz parties across the United States. He has recorded albums in Austria, Canada, Holland, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the U.S. In 1979, Jim Galloway introduced his 17-piece Wee Big Band as a repertory band specializing in the music of the great bands of the swing era. Today reputed to have the most extensive repertoire of any big band in Canada, Jim Galloway’s Wee Big Band recently released Blue Reverie (Sackville), the last CD to be recorded at the famous Montreal Bistro & Jazz Club in Toronto. Since 1974, Galloway has also led a smaller swing group (known today as the Echoes of Swing sextet) entertaining on an annual Jazz Cruise aboard Holland-America cruise ships. He was host and music director for CKFM Radio's Toronto Alive! from 1981 through 1987, a weekly broadcast featuring U.S. and Canadian soloists with a stellar Toronto rhythm section. Parallel to his performing career, Galloway has worked in jazz in journalistic, programming, and adminstrative capacities. He has served as an agent for several leading Toronto jazz clubs. Jim was instrumental in establishing the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival and served as the festival's Artistic Director from its inception in 1976 until 2010. In 2002, Jim Galloway was honoured by the Government of France with a Chevalier, one of three "Order of Arts and Letters" Awards presented to just a few hundred people worldwide each year, an elite list which also includes American recipients Ornette Coleman, Marilyn Horn, Robert Redford, and Meryl Streep. Jim Galloway passed away on December 30, 2014.

I met Buddy and interviewed him for radio in the years when he directed the Glenn Miller Orchestra. (He always worked in a short real jazz quartet set with the rhythm section, just for self-satisfaction I suppose.) I recall he seemed quite surprised, as though he'd never thought of it, when I pointed out he had led the GMO longer than Miller had!

The Scots-born Toronto musician Jim Galloway plays a curved soprano -- a real old one from the 1020's. It has a real saxophone sound, compared to the (older) straight sopranos, aka The Fishorn. The newer ones play in tune much better. Galloway can be heard on lots of Sackville records... And by the way, he's in pretty bad health these days, getting weaker and weaker from 'internal problems', not cancer...

What an interesting observation! I've noticed such a thing once or twice, but couldn't have stated it so succinctly...

I think we may have an answer! I don't know nuthin' 'bout no Woods "huffing and puffing" but as I recall it's damned good swinging jazz, and Marky Markowitz sounds great -- an under-acknowledged trumpeter...

I wonder whether the Cohn Colpix will be mono or stereo. I was told there was something wrong with the stereo version (phasing? bad balances?) and got the mono years ago. It's a terrific record, with great clarinet work by Phil Woods. And this is the Bill Crow reminiscence: http://www.billcrowbass.com/billcrowbass.com/To_Russia_Without_Love.html

So do I. It was more of a trio, rather than duo + drummer, which I felt it had been for a long while. Joe LaBarbera was great for Evans, I think. Too bad it was only 18 months or so we had that group.

Is anyone else fond of the last BE trio with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera? They played Toronto just a couple of weeks before Evans' death, and it was intense...

That band has gone through a lot of changes over the years, breaking up and reforming. Here's a 2013 You Tube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WbwhE7Lk6c It's all great fun....

My good friend Arild Wideroe has been presenting jazz concerts in Baden Switzerland for 50 Years (!) and is shortly wrapping up that part of his life with a Jubilee Weekend, featuring the Anachronic Jazz Band. Here's a Google translation to English of the webpage: http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://jazzinderaula.ch/&prev=search And for those who can follow, here's the original : http://jazzinderaula.ch/page.php?13 Wideroe's done an amazing number of fine concerts with international stars, many of the events appearing on records: http://jazzinderaula.ch/page.php?13

Toronto has a slew of great bassists, among them Steve Wallace, who has shown another side of his talents with an always-interesting blog about "Jazz, Baseball, Life and other Ephemera" at http://wallacebass.com/ Late in the summer of 2013 he wrote a fine 5-part series on bassists that offers a particularly good insight into some under-recognized players, and why they're good. Look for the entries of August 9, 16, 23 and Sept. 3 and 17, 2013.

Might this not be what you'[re looking for? http://www.amazon.com/Moonlight-serenade-bio-discography-Miller-civilian/dp/0870001612

From the UK paper The Telegraph, an uncredited and undated picture of Kenny which seems to capture him especially well: his being-in-the-shadows, air of melancholy, yet with the beauty of the light and the roses (one them away from the others, yet part of the bunch)...

This was not unexpected, but still a shock. A remarkable musician and a lovely man, I knew Kenny and Doreen, and his Canadian family for decades, and will miss him...