bertrand

An excellent question. It is my understanding (from Cuscuna among others) that a lot of of the great tunes from the Blue Note albums were never performed live, probably because the bands on the records were assembled specifically for the session and not working units. There are exceptions of course, such as Horace Silver's groups. As a result, the live gigs usually did not include music from the records because the sidemen did not know them, and these groups didn't get to rehearse all that much. When I get to speak to some of the guys from this era, I try to ask about the repertoire from the live gigs as part of my research on jazz copyrights. Most of the time they don't remember (it has been 40 years or so). However, recently I was told that one musician (when shown my listing of unrecorded Lee Morgan songs) remembered playing some of them. I have not spoken to him directly yet, but I need to follow up on this. To answer your question specifically, I never saw Lee live of course, but the few live gigs from that era don't feature too many of the repertoire from the records. Off the top of my head, there's 'Ceora' and 'Sidewinder' on the two Lighthouse releases, and they play Mobley's 'Chain Reaction' (and call it 'The Vamp') on the Lee Morgan Live In Baltimore '68 Fresh Sound CD, but it's Clifford Jordan (not Mobley) on that date. I would love to hear from our board members who heard Lee live. In fact, I know a few people who saw him - I'll follow up. Bertrand.

In the case of 'Footprints', the extra material that is tagged on at the end of this piece in all recent performances is actually another composition called 'Ballroom In The Sky' which was part of the 1988 Santana/Shorter repertoire. For example, this is how it is performed on the Footprints Live! CD. This is not mentioned in the inventory to be published in the paperback version of Michelle Mercer's book (see thread elsewhere) because I did not have an official recording to confirm this fact. This piece is on the Montreux DVD scheduled for February. Bertrand.

Which 'Nutville'? Horace Silver's or Tina Brooks'? Bertrand.

You need to check out some Wayne Shorter - it'll change your life. Bertrand.

That's really tasteless if you actually know the answer. You might want to rethink your post. Bertrand.

Was it still sealed Bertrand.

I second that (see other thread). What do you play? Who do you listen to? Bertrand.

If being out of high school is automatically old in your book then, yes, most (if not all) of us are geezers. I know you've been given a rough greeting elsewhere, but I'm always fascinated by young people who actually have an interest in jazz - there aren't that many out there. What artists are you interested in? Bertrand.

3 guesses as to who this new member is

I think Lee Morgan is way behind on his dues Bertrand.

PS: I never said the 'or' in my original posting could not be an inclusive 'or'!

Phew... My 6-year old son was listening to Stanley's version as he was falling asleep last night, and since I just explained the concept of time signatures to him (he starts piano lessons in two weeks), we were trying to figure out the time signature for this tune. I had him convinced it was 4/4; I would have hated to find out I was wrong! Bertrand.

Grachan Moncur told me he learned a lot about harmony from Big John when he worked with him in the early 80s. Bertrand.

Damn. Lee Morgan's on the list. Bertrand.

Is the Tommy Turrentine composition 'Sara's Dance' in 4/4 time, or am I an idiot? Thanks, Bertrand.

What Donald Byrd is up to these days is not clear at all, so I'm very curious to see how this turns out. He is scheduled to play as a guest (along with Jimmy Heath) with the Ahmad Jamal trio later on this year at the Kennedy Center. Whether or not I attend will sort of depend on any feedback I hear about Byrd. I saw him with his students about 10 years ago and it was very weak, but then I saw him a couple of years later with Joe Chambers and it was much better. Let us know what you hear. Thanks, Bertrand.

It took me along time to figure out what I was going to do about this box. In general, I'm no fan of boxes, and I knew some of sessions were weak, but it's Joe... I finally decided to limit myself to the best of the individual records. So far, I bought: The Kicker Tetragon Live At The Lighthouse In Japan In Pursuit Of Blackness/Black Is The Color I knew I would be missing out on Power To The People, but now that's scheduled for later this year, so I'll be covered. Are there any of the other single CDs that are essential? I also have Relaxin' At Camarillo, but that was not part of the box since it's Contemporary, not Milestone. Here are the others that I know of: Multiple Canyon Lady The Elements Apart from Power To The People, what else is in the box that has not been out on single CD? If you believe AMG, it's just Black Narcissus and Black Miracle. Thanks, Bertrand.

Funny - the way the timings are listed on the back makes it look like they cut out all the drum solos! I have the complete European pressing. Bertrand.

It seems Butch is out there playing again! He has been at Twins Lounge in DC (uptown location) for the last two Thursdays, and is supposed to be there again tomorrow. I hope to be there at 8. There's always a risk he doesn't show, of course, but he's been storing his bass at the club, so I think that's a good sign. Note that he's been doing that for years (cf liner notes to Booker Ervin's Exultation). I hope to go regularly just to show my support. Maybe I'll see some organissimo members there one day. Bertrand.

If I were to send a check, should I still use the address on the contacts page? Thanks, Bertrand.

Seriously, I wasn't sure what Jim S. was talking about at first, and then I remembered what unpleasant thread he was alluding to. I thought we had killed that a few months ago (the postings are gone). Maybe it would be best for this thread as well if postings # 14-16 were to 'magically disappear'. Bertrand.

Thanks to everyone for their nice comments. I updated the posting above for clarity. Bertrand.

My understanding is that the errors are corrected within the body of the text. The only addendum is the Appendix containing the inventory of compositions. Sorry if that wasn't clear. Bertrand.

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly explain the nature of my involvement in the paperback version of this book (as I alluded to in another thread). As ISO alludes to in his post above, several us had some reservations concerning the hardcover edition of this book due to numerous errors that cropped up. After seeing this thread, Michelle (with whom I had spoken a couple of times concerning the research I have been conducting on Wayne's music at the Library of Congress) contacted me to explain what had happened, and also to see if there was anything I might like to suggest for the forthcoming paperback edition. I will not pretend to speak for Michelle, but from what I understand the publisher wanted to rush the hardcover through even though Michelle had submitted corrections. So, a lot of what was pointed out in the other thread had already been caught by Michelle even before the hardback came out and submitted for correction before the publication date. However, most (if not all) of the corrections were not made in their haste to get the book out the door, and probably a few errors slipped in which she was not given the opportunity to correct. Again, this is how I understand it. I will come back to edit this later if I am slightly off-base. In any case, as we were talking, I mentioned to Michelle how I thought that an inventory of Wayne's compositions would be a great addition to her book, especially as I had information concerning some obscure unrecorded pieces that Wayne himself had told me about. So we agreed that we would put this together, based on a first draft that I had from my research. I put together a list of questions that Michelle submitted to Wayne, and we got some very interesting (and of course non-linear) responses from him which we incorporated into the inventory as best we could. So I hope that this will be of interest to a few people here. I consider Wayne to be one of the greatest American composers in any style of music, and I think it's important to have some sort of guidepost to his work, especially as his music is scattered in several locations. For instance, there are several fascinating pieces that he copyrighted that he has never performed. I do not claim this inventory is complete. We tried our best to leave no stone unturned, but there are still several mysteries that we have not (yet) been able to clear up. Of course, one issue is the nature of the music played at the (rejected) Blue Note session from 10/13/70. Based on the sketchy song titles, it would seem that this music was totally improvised. However, after the final draft was submitted, I had a chance to talk to Alphonse Mouzon. Although he does not remember this exact session, his recollections of recording with Wayne is that he always brought some music to the sessions. So we still are in the dark about what this session is all about. Note that McCoy Tyner did not remember it at all when I asked him about 2 years ago; I've never met Barbara Burton, but I suspect she has a better memory of it since, unlike McCoy, she has not been on countless sessions. I can't even speculate as to what Miroslav Vitous might remember. It was a thrill to be involved in this project. Wayne has been my musical hero for about 20 years, and I can't describe what an honor it is to have been able to participate in his biography. I hope he got some pleasure out of reading this appendix, and I hope some of you will as well. I really enjoyed all the personal stories that Wayne shared with Michelle and that she related in her book. Even if there are more biographies of Wayne in my lifetime, and I certainly hope there will be (he's a subject of endless fascination), I don't think any other writer will be afforded the same access to Wayne as Michelle had. Bertrand.

I usually don't upgrade my McMaster Blue Notes to RVGs. However, I did get Point Of Departure, Speak No Evil and Juju because of the bonus cuts. Are there any other RVGs that have more tracks than the McMaster? The only other one I know is Johnny Griffin's A Blowing Session. Thanks, Bertrand.