Gheorghe

Great early work of the Little Giant ! I think this one was not so easy to purchase when I started collecting BN CDs in the 90´s . The most famous and easy to purchase Album was the "Blowin Session". This one is also very very fine ! I was lucky I saw Griffin on several occasions live. The first time was in spring 1978 in a small Viennese Club "Jazz-Freddie" , and the quartet was marvellous: Fritz Pauer on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass and Tony Inzalaco (who also recorded with Dexter) on drums. I think this was before Griff returned to the States. The last time I saw him must have been around 2004, 2005, he had slowed down a bit, but still a lot of great Music there……, on "Lester Leaps In" he was really back , sounding as sharp as 40 years earlier…... So many great memories with Griffin, I love him.

This one is just wonderful. That´s the great quintet I saw live, with Steve Turré , Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James and Tony Reedus. Wonderful compositions !

Right now I ´m listening to this.

A very fine double CD of a latterday performance of Woody Shaw with a fantastic quartet with Geri Allen, Robert Hurst and Roy Brooks. A great deal of Monk, and just a wonderful live performance.

It seems that Hank Mobley and Archie Shepp were quite close in Paris. A strange combination, here the hard bop Traditionalist, there the Forefront man of the Avantgarde "Angry Tenors"...…. I have read one Essay of Hank Mobley About one day he spent in Paris with Archie Shepp, Don Byas and Paul Gonsalves and that they cooked and prepared meals together. And that he stated that it was one of his most happy days. Strange, there is not much other evidence About Hank´s sojourn to Paris. While Bud was almost "overrecorded" there and you have dozens of Hours of live material and some Studio Albums, there is not very much of Hank Mobley. Did he Play at the Café Blue Note ? Was he recorded at some Paris club. Another strange Thing I´ve read About him is that in Paris or near Paris he got a room in a Kind of Hospital, a doctor who was a jazz fan arranged for Hank to stay there. Really strange, a world famous musician and he was forced to get help of that kind…...

A wonderful collection of Northsea Jazz Festival events with Dizzy.

Great ! First in 1978 I had the Brown paper 2-LP Blue Note (LA Series) of "Fats Navarro" with almost all the BN stuff from 1947-1949, and when the CD Era started I purchased this with the additional track of Kenny Haggood singing "I think I´ll go away", and the non BN tracks "Stealin Apples" with Goodman and Gray is very fine, as is the Capitol tracks…..

As I told earlier, I´m not really an Oscar Peterson fan, but as "We Get Requests" , this one is also a favourite of mine. "Georgia on my mind" is superb.

I´ve also read that and wondered what Music it could have been. Same with the movie score. Very strange.

Me too, for almost 45 years. My Funny Valentine really impressed me, until then I only had the "Steamin" Album from 1956 and this more open stuff and the fast Version of "All Blues" really was something to listen to.

Maybe some of you might find that listening to those two albums one after the other is strange and unusual, but when I was a young boy, another guy from one or to grades up borrowed me those two LPs , maybe the only 2 "jazz LPs" he had. So I taped them on a 90min Cassette, but of course bought the CDs decades later. The Miles album IMHO the best from the Prestige series, and also the Headhunters is really a classic, great music on both , and last not least, it shows how our generation was, we were open to good acoustic jazz as well to the then actual electric stuff.....

It is interesting how Stitt eventually recorded this "Bird Songs" Album. Usually he didn´t want to be too much associated with Bird, anyway he has his own unique style. I saw him live once and he played at least one tune that was on a Bird with Strings Album. The tune was "They can´t take that away from me" it sure is. I also have this Edition, but I also have the original separate 2 LPs.

Thank you. How About the two America LPs from 1970 Blue Bird and Pyticantropus Erectus ? They are also underappreciated but I think they are quite fine and as you say, the band is great. Maybe the trumpet Player is not my first choice, but Charles McPherson, Bobby Jones, Jakie Byard and Dannie is great.

Usually I share your enthusiasm for Albums we know both, but in this case I´m not so pleased with this record. The bass is barely audible and it´s a date from 1970 with a quite tired Mingus, the band is great but what misses is the cutting Edge of Mingus himself, his strong bass and his former fantastic bass solos. I have this record, it´s written it´s from 1969 in Amsterdam but I believe it was in 1970 since in 69 Mingus still was not touring , at least that´s what I believe. I´ve heard much better versions of "Orange" like on the 1964 tour...... Sorry to say this, but it´s not among my favourite Mingus Albums, I spinned it once, twice and that was it......

another one for @gmonahan

I wouldn´t say I am Oscar Peterson´s biggest fan, but this one is my favourite of him, because it´s more team work, he is not so overdoing the stuff, and really cute little tunes, a very very nice album.

you welcome ! Actually there are two books, the second one I post here is very rare, both are fine.

hi Greg, you also might like to read the great Tadd Dameron bio. Since they had such a close collaboration and played 39 weeks at the Royal Roost in 1948 and before that at the Onyx I think, it´s really a very fine Team. I think Tadd really got inspired to write for Fats, many of his tunes really are Fats´ favourites, like "Eb Bop", "Symphonette" , "Jahbeero" , "Tadd Walk", and so on......

One interesting Thing that I´d like to write About Ron Carter is that he often Plays the Contra-C, and first I thought he uses a 5 string bass (like Chubby Jackson did), but later I saw he had some kit on the neck of the bass which sure is a Contra-C Extension. You can see it on photos of Ron playing the bass. He didn´t use it when he was with Miles but used it in the 70´s when I saw and heard him live. Very very interesting and the Deep C sounds good .

It´s interesting how Hampton Hawes in his Autobiography states how much he has been influenced by Bud Powell, but I think Hampton Hawes definitly has his OWN STYLE. This must be great !

One Thing I really "learned" from Fats Navarro is the way he goes from the second A section of a song into the Bridge, so that´s this transitions from the A-Part into the Bridge were he really Plays. Before I noticed this, I was not pleased with my own playing, too many "holes" between the sections of the song structure, so when I started to Play more , Fats´ style helped me to make it Sound more "Pretty", not so stiff collared. I noticed the same Thing when I listened to Al Haig. When he first played on 52nd streed in 45, he still sounded "stiff", but listen to how he Plays a few years later, I think Fats was an influence for lot of musicians who Play other Instruments...... yes you are Right. But what helped me a lot was that I allready knew Fats Music and could "hum" quite a few of his solos . There´s Always a lot of Melody in them, they are sheer Beauty, and so they are easy to remember, at least for me, and so when i read the Analysis I already knew the tune, the solo.....

This is one of the greatests jazz bios I´ve read. Really good with all the tunes and Analysis of Fats´ solos, and much About his live that I didn´t know. I love everything Fats did, he is a true master, his solos are so great, so perfect, he never played a bad note…..

Incredible. I didn´t know Tina Brooks still played that late in his live. I thought after the BN Albums in the early 60s he stopped since there was no other recording evidence. I wonder how he might have sounded…...

I´ll Play his 1979 Album "Parade" which I love very much. It´s an Allstar quartet with and augmented mini big band...... I saw Ron Carter twice: Once with his quartet in 1979, and the second time with VSOP II in 1983.

Those America label discs, much of it Mingus associated as this Thad Jones Debut stuff !