Gheorghe

Well jokes, yes, and parody: There was a great parody on german comedian Otto Waalkes "Otto, der Film" with "Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss" mixed with some Michael Jackson stuff. I think, Heine was not amused at all, and tried to sue Otto. Well, yeah, that´s a bit uncool. And yeah, maybe "cool" was the wrong expression I chose. It´s funny for people like me, I don´t take it so serious as shlager-Fans. Sometimes my wife and me do some little fun and play it loud in the garden. Wonder what the neighbours think about us at just a moment

Yes, Changes is fantastic. Only one thing I might mention from my own point of view: The "Orange ist the Colour of Her Dress" is not as great as the versions with Dolphy and Byard.

I´m also a "Leg´s Man", but I like with hoserie more than nude legs.....

The albums with McPherson, Bobby Jones ? Are you talking about the two 1970 albums for the french label "America". They are titled "Blue Bird" and "Pyticanthropus Erectus". But on those I think it´s not Lonnie Hillyer on trumpet, it´s an "Eddie Preston" who is somewhat below the other really giants McPherson, Bobby Jones and the great great Jakie Byard. I like those albums, even if they don´t have the fire of the 60´s or of the great bands from 1975 on. "I left my Heart in San Francisco" is really nice, Pyticantropus Erectus is somewhat more subdued that it was supposed to be played. "Love is a Dangerous Necessity" is really interesting, the hornes without other instruments, it sounds like a forerunner of "Music for Todo Modo" if you listen close to it. I haven´t listened to "Move" for a long time. There might be two compositions done by the other members, "Flowers to a Lady" by Adams, and "Newcomer" by Pullen. I liked "Newcomer" and heard it live in 1980 with George Adams-Don Pullen-Cameron Brown-Dannie Richmond. The other stuff........aaah, some "Opus" which is nothing else then something based on "Pyticantropus Erectus", "Canon" had bored me, and the vocals, not really my stuff. And I think it was the first album on which Richmond played again with Mingus after some years of Rock´n Roll or something like that.

You might wonder, why I aswer to this, since I´m strictly jazz and an absolute "nobody" if it´s about other genres of music. But "Heino" is cool. Once when I was a teenager, my then girlfriend an me took a cheap ticket for a bus to Southern Tirol (former Austria, now Italia) and we were the only youngsters, all the others were older people past 60,65 years and the bus driver had some cassetes to play music during the trip, and there were tons of melodies by Heino. It was a strange atmosphere, a young teenie couple and old old folks, and hours and hours of "Heino". "Blau Blau Blau blüht der Enzian" "Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss" "Oh Du schöner Westerwald". It was so "square" that it was "cool" again. He knows his stuff and has a great voice doin´ it. Hope he will live long and it´s really moving how much he and his nice wife are so much in love. The only strange thing was, when some years ago he tried to go "modern" and dressed in some leather outfit, something like "Heino goes Rock", and this really did not fit to him. It seems that he has returned to his act again.

Thanks Jim for your impressions, which are quite similar as I saw it. Especially about that period between " Let My Children Hear Music" and "Changes One/Two). That 1972 stuff , a double album also for Columbia is not really exiting. Same about "Mingus Moves". Well, the 1974 jam is quite fun and it was quite exiting for me when it came out. But the really great band, and when Mingus became "his old self" again, as Sue said, was the "Changes 1/2 band" and after that the "Walrath-Ford-Neloms-Mingus-Richmond band, that many of us saw live in 1977. Many other musicians of his generation kept the same songs for the rest of their career, but in 1977 he did brand new things like "Three or Four Shades of Blues" and "Cumbia", which sounded much more interesting live with the quintet, that was really, really together, and Walrath has become a fantastic trumpet player.

Yes, "Five o´Clock Whistle" is really nice, like everything on that album. The last side, as I remember is a quintet, also very fine, only I think I remember I didn´t like the sound of the trumpet. Those Prestige doublealbums were very easy to find in the 70´s. I bought the album especially since I was eager to get albums from each member of the Miles Davis quintet, which I loved and love so much. So it was Coltrane´s "Soultrane" (also with Garland), Philly J.J. "Blues for Drakula" and the BN paperbag cover double album "Paul Chambers and John Coltrane), also with Philly J.J. on drums.

This time disc IV: So, about the Amsterdam Concert I can say, that it has the same tunes like the "Great Concert in Paris", but "Paris" has a much better recording sound. One very nice thing is, that here on "Sophisticated Lady" it´s also 16 bars of Jakie Byard solo. There is much great stuff happenig, but I like the "Paris Concert" more. And I hope it´s not a sacrileg, but I´m not really happy with Johnny Coles on trumpet. Somehow, as we see from the Paris concert, the proceedings go even better without him. Somehow, he doesn´t really fit into that group of giants like Dolphy, Byard, and Clifford Jordan, who becomes greater and stronger every time. Johnny Coles has a more plaintative sound, it reminds me a bit of Ornette Coleman if he played trumpet. And on the Amsterdam section you sometimes have difficulties to hear the bass, which is a pity, since Mingus, as I think, was the most exiting bass player ever, with all due respect to Paul Chambers and Ron Carter and all of them. And Danny Richmond get´s more spotlight on the Paris Concert.

Wait a minute ! Since I couldn´t see any comentary or analysis, is that "You Are Under Arrest?". Since it seems this as another cover photo than mine. On the copy I have Miles with a gun. Well I don´t really like guns in combination with music and with live in general with the exception when I was in the army as a teenager and liked it, but how about a little talk about the music ? I remember those 80´s as a time when we all waited eagerly for the next Miles album. At least as long as there still was a kind of "jazz group" feeling in it, not only computeres with Miles overdubbed. As much as we loved "Man with the Horn", "We want Miles" and the third one, that one with the long blues on it "Star Eyes", but let´s say "Decoy" didn´t move me at all with the exception of "Code MD" which he also played live, much better than in the studio. "Arrest" was something else. I liked the bass intro because it reminded me of "Jack Johnson" and the Jack Johnson version on "Agartha", and even the pop tune "Time After Time" sounded good for me. Only John Scofield was not exactly what I wanted to hear on guitar, he is a bit behind the beat, I liked Mike Stern more. I heard Miles with the same group when it was brand new. It was imediatly after the release of "Arrest" and they played those tunes. Then it was fresh and new. But after that it started to become boring and a routine show. For the next years, he always repeated "Arrest", "Time after Time" and the silly "Human Nature". And the then so good blues on the 1983 "Star People" album became some dumb blues cliché (New Blues) . Only on a 1989 album there came a bit more stuff added and some more interesting tunes and real players instead of machines. I

Oh yeah, I also purchased this shortly after it came out. I think I bought it during an open air jazz festival were they sold records during intermission. They had more obscure labels, like this one. That great group ! And maybe this was the beginning of Shepps return from totally free to more straight ahead forms like "Blues for Donald Duck"

Thelonious section ? I remember, one of my school buddies had an ECM Album of solo I think and there was Monk´s "Trinkle Tinkle" on it. Really something. About Chick Corea during that time (second half of the 70´s ): There was a Chick Corea boom especially RTF. Though RTF may not be my first choice of spinning, I admit it sounded good, especially stuff like "Romantic Warrior". But many RTF or Chick Corea fans were somehow strange people. Some kind of post hippy philosophy with questions like "who am I, were am I coming from and where am I going". Maybe not exactly like this, but something I couldn´t get with. Well, I had long hair and stuff and maybe I looked for some like some kind of those post hippies, but it was only to look older and to get in the clubs still being underage. When I went to Jazzland one night to hear Art Farmer, some of those strange guys during intermission started to ask me stuff like "what kind of human being are you". I said I am a jazz fan and I am here to hear this stuff and have a beer and a cigarette during intermission. This is a jazz club and not a spiritual meeting".

Somehow I don´t really like this. Maybe it sounds dumb what I say, but my impression is that somebody wanted to do a "pseudo-modern" film. It´s too abstract. I think, strange films like that were something of film avantgarde during the 60´s. You watch it and ask yourself, was this really all ? If I want to see a good film about Bud, it´s the one they made after Francis Paudras death, with much more music and people talking about Bud, people who knew him, like Francis and Celia and the rare and interesting things that Margareta says, a swedish woman who was close to Bud in his last years. I think they tried to make another filme about Bud in 1963, it was a film maker from Jamaika as much as I think I remember that I read. Some well known fotos of Bud from 1963 seem to be made during that film projekt. Since it´s again Bud standing in front of a food store, , Bud sittin at a little table, it´s possible that this also was such a strange abstract film with very few things happening. One strange thing about the photos is that Bud, who always was quite heavy and short, looks very skinny on those fotos. Maybe this was because he conctracted TB ? Bud was at a french sanatorium but after his stay at the santatorium he was heavy again, almost bloated. Maybe some medication that causes puttin on weight ? There are still medications that makes you look heavier.

I love it. Really hot stuff. Only Tete Montoliu´s piano could have been recorded better.

I had the honour to play on several occasions with Allen Praskin. I learned so much from him when I was still almost a kid.

Oscar PETTIFORD Memorial Concert

Actually Disc III, the Amsterdam Concert. I must admit one thing: One of the first records I had in my teenage days was the Paris Concert. I enjoy the Amsterdam stuff but I must admit that the Paris material is much stronger. And maybe it´s my fault, but I don´t really enjoy Johnny Coles´ trumpet that much. Somehow, he has a very thin tone and does not really fit into the unit of that most powerful giants like Dolphy, Jordan, Jakie Byard. But maybe he was very sick, since he collapsed on stage in Paris, so the Paris material was only the quintet without Coles. And the Amsterdam concert is not very well recorded, it´s much better sound quality on the Paris concert. Somehow, the "drive" is much more powerful in Paris.....

Yes, that is how it was. I read this in Wayne Shorter´s book. Other than Wayne, Alan seems to have been a very difficult personality. I heard his playing and a very interesting compositon, I think it´s titled "Mephisto" on "The All Seeing Eye" , a really fantastic Wayne Shorter album.

Usually I´m not too fond of those N.G. Jam Sessions, but this one is very very fine, because it´s not mixing musicians from different styles, Everybody is great here. Dizzy at the peak of his power. He still had very good chops even after he was 60. Milt Jackson is fantastic as ever, and that great tenor tandem Griff and Jaws as on so many occasions. Tommy Flanagan is wonderful, oh man that solo on Lover Come Back to me..... Nils Hennig and Mikey Roker also very very fine. For the typical Montreux Jam Sessions this one is sure one of the very best.

I also had read about that, such a thing must be a terrible blow. But I have read, that even if someone has diabetes, such terrible things can be avoided if you take care what you eat and take insuline, Diabetes which is not treated can cause blindness and even leg amputation. I heard Cables on serveral occasions. One of them was an allstar quinted with Dizzy, Harold Land, Herbie Lewis and Louis Hayes. And as I remember, Cables only with the trio performed two tunes before Diz and Harold came on stage. And this was in Nov. 1983. Cables played Monk´s "I Mean You", and the swinging standard "All of You", and those tunes came out about the same time on "Four Seasons" also on the Timeless Label, again with Herbie Lewis on bass, and Bobby Hutcherson and Philly Joe Jones. Bolleman writes in his book "Sounds" about that session and that George Cabels was so nice and cooperative, and that Philly J.J. looked like an angry man, but was very very nice an cooperative in the studio, but Bobby Hutcherson was not. I love Bobby Hutcherson´s vibe very very very much, and saw him live, but I didn´t know that he had such a bad behaviour.

Very interesting to read. I didn´t know that Curtis Fuller had lung cancer. In most cases, I heard this is a terminal desease. He had been inactive for the last 5 years of his live I read. That means, that it may be that I saw him live just before he retired. Maybe, he didn´t have the speed of his early years, but still very much worth listenig. And above all, he was such a nice man. I was at that concert with my wife and had my "Bone and Bari" CD with me. Before the concert started, my wife said "look, the musicians are sitting down there, now go down and ask him to sign the record. He had a big, warm smile, shook my hand and was delighted when he saw the album, asked my name and wrote my name and "Peace from Curtis Fuller". Really a wonderful memory. I heard, that even when he made those great records in 1957 for BN, he still had a "day job".

This is an album I like to listen to after a hard day of work when I just close my eyes and relax. It swings, everybody´s great on it, and it is long tunes. It GROOVES. I have one wonderful memory about this album. Somewhere in the early 2000´s it was a really hot summer night. I was alone at home since my wife had some business in another country. And I also had lot of work had to work at home until after midnight. Then I finished and spinned "The Sermon" and it was so beautiful, so relaxing, with the windows open and looking out into the night and hear the groovy stuff. Maybe this Vol 2 is even more exiting that Vol 1. Vol 1 is strictly the Dameron Band with Dameron tunes, which is wonderful, fantastic. But on Vol. 2 there are those great encounters with others, like Howard McGhee, Milt Jackson, and the sides with Bud´s Modernists. Wonderful.

I also saw Harold Land only one time in person. And this was in 1983 with Dizzy Gillespie. It was scheduled as "Dizzy Gillespie All Star Quintet" and had Dizzy, Harold Land, George Cables, Herbie Lewis and Louis Hayes. Really all stars. But the interesting thing was, that I wouldn´t have associated Dizzy so much with Harold Land before. I think, this might have organized somehow by Timeless or WIM WIGT also from Netherlands, who booked a lot of Timeless Artists for Europe touring. So they might have combined Dizzy with musicians from the Timeless "pool". And it was strange, since it was the only time I saw Dizzy with an acoustic bass player. Usually, from the 70´s on, Diz performed with a quartet with guitar, electric bass and drums....

The last time I saw him live, a few years ago, he signed me this album "Bone and Bari". He was really very very nice .

Is this the Xanadu album from Paris ? I have it LP with the same photo, but a golden cover and it´s titled "Bud in Paris". Bud plays really great on this, fast like in his early days, (Shaw Nuff, Get Happy, John´s Abbey). And great the two tunes with Barney Wilen (Oleo, Autumn in New York). I like very much the 4 sections from the Oscar Pettiford Memorial Concert. There is only a wrong date on the two duos with Johnny Griffin. They are not from February 1960 (when Griffin was not in Paris), they are from February 1964 recorded at Francis Paudras´ home.

Never saw that. Pardon for a dumb question: Is this a woman or a man ?