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Gheorghe

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  1. I think I have this as a Prestige Cliff Brown Memorial Cd. The first half is in Sweden with Art Farmer, and the second half is the Atlantic City Band Tadd Dameron had in 1953.
  2. Gheorghe

    Ornette

    Don´t forget Sonny Rollins "Road Shows Vol. 2) where Ornette has a guest performance on "Sonny Moon For Two". This was on Sonny´s 80th Birthday and I think Ornette was also an octogenar.
  3. I have this also. That´s about how they sounded when I heard them. Fantastic live album.
  4. I think shortly after I heard them, Workman was replaced by Calvin Hill. Somehow I had liked Workman´s bass sound more then Calvin´s . And even a year later, Billy Harper was replaced by Odean Pope. Many like Odean Pope, sure he is great, but I liked Billy Harper more. Pope has a strange tenor sound, it sounded more like some strange instrument, maybe a bassoon or something like that.
  5. Well, I have Jutta Hipp´s two trio recordings from the Hickory House and the one with Zoot Sims, very nice, she could play, but nothing revolutionary. I read an interview with her in the 80´s when she wasn´t active anymore and when she was asked about her time in Europ with Hans Koller she said she doesn´t like that kind of music anymore. I have read those rumours with Leonard Feather. But you mention there were other reasons for the demise of Hipp´s musical career. What reasons was it. Why did she disappear from the scene. I heard, she was quite struggling for living. She could have returned to Europe to continue her career. Really a mistery to me.
  6. The first recordings were with drummer James Zitro on the ESP label in NY 1967. I think, Allen was only 19 years old then. About the age I had when I played with him for the first time. Later in the 80´s, when we had a gig, he brought the album "Zig Zag" where he is featured. Such a great musician !
  7. I saw them in the late 70´s and it was FANTASTIC. I was so exited before the concert, I mean, THE GREAT MAX ROACH. As much as I remember, one of the tunes was "It´s Time", and there was "Peaceful heart" and a very very interesting version of "Round Midnight", were I think they played the A-parts in 3/4 and changed into 4/4 in the brigde, very fast. This was one of the craziest versions of "Midnight" I ever heard. And there was some Roach drum solo: "The drum waltzes" and "Mr. Hi Hat". The next day I hurried to the record dealer to ask for Max Roach LPs. The above mentioned LPs were not available, he gave me "Speak Brother Speak" because the "America" Label was very present then and easy to purchase. On "Speak Brother Speak", the drum solo of Roach really reminded me of the solo he played the night before at "Kongresshaus". That´s was the place were they played.
  8. Allen Praskin "Just Friends - Just Jazz" from 1979 live at a Jazzclub in Mannheim Germany. I had the honour to play several dates with the great Allen Praskin, when I just was a beginner. It started around 1978, after the great late Austrian Jazzpianist and composer Fritz Pauer asked me during intermission, if I would like to sit in for one number. It was fast company: Praskin, Karl Ratzer, Fritz Pauer, Paolo Cardoso and Fritz Ozmec.
  9. This was in the record shops in the late 70´s. I really don´t know why I didn´t purchase it. There would have been a lot of Galaxy albums that I would have liked. Ron Carter: Well I can understand your point of view. Ron Carter usually was recorded quite loud and he had a very modern sound, very "electric" due to the pickup, I think I remember we used "Underwood Pickups" then. Ron Carter also had a lot of gimmicks with glissando, with double grips and so on. I can imagine that this maybe didn´t fit to Red Garland´s music. But during that time, we loved Ron Carter very much for the more modern sounding so called "acoustic" jazz, like let´s say the "Milestone Allstars" and above all "VSOP". Anyway I was much more a Ron Carter fan than let´s say all that super fast high note stuff that Eddie Gomez did on solos. You can compare it on McCoy Tyner´s "Super Trios" from 1977.
  10. One of the best hard bop albums of all time. I heard sometimes, that it was almost a signature theme in japanese tea houses where they played jazz. "Cool Struttin" and Lou Donaldson´s "Blues Walk". And last not least: One of the best album covers ever.
  11. Yes, the later band with Turre, Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James and Tony Reedus was the one I saw. Fantastic ! Years later I saw Woody Shaw as a single with some picked up rhythm section and it was a very embarrassing and disappointing performance. All those great originals like "Moon Train" "To kill a brick" etc. had disappeared and he played stuff like "Tea for Two". Now, nothing wrong with "Tea for Two" but I had expected something else....., Woody Shaw was very thin and skinny then.
  12. Yeah, that´s how we kids looked around 1965,66 Most boys looked the same, and that terrible haircut all boys had. I have many memories about my childhood, but everything seems to be a black-white film or black white fotos. Ugly kids and ugly adults
  13. Another post war german artist might be Freddy Quinn. Also very very teutonic voice, Maybe you know this one: "Junge, komm bald wieder " or even "better" "Seemann, lass das träumen"
  14. Time flies. I saw Steve Coleman when he was with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band and he was so young, he still had almost a baby face, but was a major soloist in that great band.
  15. I purchased "At Monterey" after "Great Concert" and especially liked that Duke Ellington Medley, but found that "Orange was the Color" can´t match with the Paris version with Dolphy, and on "Great Concert", Mingus plays one of his best solos, on "Monterey" he does not solo and "Orange" is played more in a kind of rubato at the beginning. "Meditations": I like it more with the small group than that group augmented with studio musicians. Most Mingus LPs during my youth were on the french "America" label. There were so much, that I thought this is a label especially dedicated to Mingus. On the back cover there were always advertised "Other Mingus LPs of interest" and there was a list of them: Mingus with Max Roach (1955 Bohemia) Chazz (same date 1955 Bohemia) Town Hall concert (1964 before the European tour started) Great Concert (Paris, 3 LPs) Right Now (with Cliff Jordan, Jane Getz and Danny) Mingus at Monterey which you mentioned (Then in the 70´s I thought its Montreux and I thought "Monterey" is the english translation of "Montreux". My Favourite Quintet (Minneapolis 1965). Especially about "My Favourite Quintet": This was for long time OOP, until it was reissued on the Mosaic Box "Workshops 64/65). It´s fine with Mc Pherson, Lonnie Hillyer, especially Byard, and Danny) but of course it is not as strong as the things with Dolphy. But "So long Eric" is very fine with many tempo changes, some stride piano by Jakie Byard and so. The ballad Medley is fine, Mingus great as always when it comes to play bass solos on ballads. "Cocktails for Two" seems to be some pre-swing stuff from the 20´s . The best thing is Jakie Byards stride piano, he is always great on that. One strange thing: If Mingus chose to play some funny oldtime stuff, it reminds me of Sun Ra when he does some oldtime between his usual avantgarde program. It sounds like "Oldtime Jazz with a Space-Sound". Same with Mingus. I have difficulties hearing old time jazz in general, can´t get with that funny duck like sound of the alto and that screaming trumpets and that simple beat of old time drummers, but if someone like Mingus or Sun Ra gives some parody aspect to it, I can have a little fun with it.
  16. The "Hot House" is a funny thing. Bird and Diz are in top form, the piano player Dick Hyman is ok, but doesn´t really sound as if he was used to play that style. It sounds more like a classical trained musician, who plays "jazz". And you only see his hands, which is annoying, why don´t you see him play. And the bass and drums is just terrible. That bass player jumping up and down while playing and that drummer with that silly grin, who plays more like a kind of Gene Krupa style.
  17. The very first time I saw him live was in maybe 1978 and the group was: Shepp on tenor and soprano, the great Siegfried Kessler on piano (born in Germany, lived in Paris), Bob Cunningham on bass, and Clifford Jarvis on drums. I´ll never forget that concert, though the performance hall was a very very ugly hall in a very ugly district. It was called "Kongresshaus", now there´s a food market (Billa) in the building. And about the same time, Shepp recorded "Bird Fire" with the same group for a french label . But they had a completely unkown trumpet player added on it and it would have been better without that trumpet, who anyway didn´t get much space.
  18. Agreed: I love those two extended tracks above all. This is Bud Powell at his best, no one could say that Bud was in decline after 1953 or so, if he listen to this. This is top Bud Powell even within his own high demands. And I always said there are too many trio performances of Bud recorded. Maybe the usual trio settings started to bore him, since it is known, that Bud came to his old form, if he could play with fellow Americans, especially with horn players. This one was originally "Blakey in Paris". There are other interesting recordings of Bud with horn players like "Our Man in Paris" with Dex, "Dizzy with the Double Six of Paris", "Americans in Europe" (Impulse), "Hawk in Germany", and I also have some unissued stuff of Bud with Don Byas and Brew Moore from 1962 in Denmark.
  19. Great, I saw him many times, mostly as a quartet, but the last time (already in the 2000´s ) with a trio with bass and drums. Shepp naturally played mostly tenor and still great enough, albeit due to age a little more slowed down. And he also played piano, a Monk ballad from the BN 40´s trio recordings, and he really did it very Monkish, if you closed your eyes you might have thought it´s Monk himself.
  20. Yes, that Jazz Icons Series with Oslo, Stockholm and Leige. Oh I love that band so much. Only one thing, maybe it´s a question of tastes, but since I first heard the "Great Concert of Charles Mingus" from Paris (the 3 LP set from the America Label) which then was the only recorded stuff of Mingus from that tour, with the exception of "Townhall" in NY just before they went on tour, I must admit I have some difficulties with listening to Johnny Coles´ trumpet. My impression is, that the band, with such strong members as Dolphy, Byard and of course also Cifford Jordan, there is not much place for Coles´ trumpet. Maybe in the lead of "Orange" , which was meant to be for trumpet, but I can´t really get with Coles´ solos in context with Mingus. Coles somehow has a quite thin, plaintative sound and approach, somehow his sound reminds me of Ornette Coleman playing trumpet. I know there are lot fans of Johnny Coles, and I also like his BN "Little Johnny C." but not necessarly for his trumpet.
  21. Sure. Anyway, he can be easily identified by his sound and aproach, and John Handy also.
  22. Yes, agreed. Really, when writing my review I also had "Speak Brother Speak" in my mind, and I love it an Cliff´s playing is similar strong like on that Mingus at Workshop. Actually I bought both LP´s about the same time in 1978. They were very easy to purchase here in Europe, as reissiues on the french America Label. And I bought Speak Brother Speak after I heard Roach at the beginning of september 1978. Anyway, it was the only album of Roach under his own name, that was in the record store then, because it was from the in general availaible "America" label, from which they had all albums, much stuff from the original Debut label.
  23. This album is also from 1964, but after the tour with Dolphy and Byard. Only Cliff Jordan and Dannie Richmond left, but with an only 16 year old female pianist Jane Getz. You might miss Dolphy, but I want to say that Clifford Jordan is extremely strong on this, and the band of only 4 members is very very strong, Danny Richmond is such a fantastic drummer and I like it to hear him much. Mingus on bass maybe was one of the very best bass players of his time, it´s incredible how strong is his sound and his solos, really telling something, not just doing exercices as some bass players do when soloing. On "Fables of Faubus", here titled "New Fables" those different moods, at one point some really spanish sounding stuff, very similar to "Ysabel´s Table Dance" from "Tijuana Moods", only much more impressive and powerful. During the end John Handy sit´s in and does a very fine slow blues in F, and somehow his sound reminds me of Jackie McLean. On "Meditations" we can hear Jane Getz soloing. Maybe she can not be compared with Jakie Byard, but it´s incredible, how easy she adapts to all the tempo and key changes. And very good technical. She must have been a child wonder, if she could play like that, only being 16 years old. But I also wonder how she was allowed to play at night clubs being underage, with such a difficult personality like Mingus. But Mingus really gives her much support and they sound great together. So, maybe not Mingus´ most important album, but nevertheless a very interesting one.
  24. Oh yes, agreed ! I saw Jay McShann in the mid 80´s I think, at Jazzland in Vienna. Very very fine to hear some Kansas City styled music. And at one point on the last set, the sicilian female blues singer Etta Scollo sat in for some blues vocals, it was very very nice and Mr. McShann also liked it. I saw Buddy Tate around the same time in other surroundings. It was a Woody Herman All-Stars. That was the first time I saw Woody Herman without the Herd, just a smaller group. Buddy Tate, Al Cohn and Scott Hamilton were on tenor, I think it was Warren Vaché on trumpet, John Bunch on piano, a young unknown bass player (George Duvivier was scheduled but was sick, I think he died a few days later), and if I remember right, it was Jake Hanna on drums.
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