Gheorghe

well I can´t say now if they gave it 100% or not, but I was a bit amused that everybody "laughed About Lou Donaldson" that he Always played the same tunes, the same set lists, when I saw Miles at least 4 or 5 times in different years and depending on the period of style, the live sets were very very similar. In the mid 70´s it was Always that fast funk tune in Eb with which they startet (Berlin, Montreux, Vienna, on the Albums "Dark Magus" and "Pangaea". And in the early 80´s it was Always first a fast funk tune, then a slow blues in Bb and from the mid 80s on it was Always "Time after Time" and "Human Nature".

A lesser known album of Mingus from 1965 , a year when he did not record as frequently as in 1964. This is the quintet with Charles McPherson, Lonnie Hillyer , Jakie Byard and Dannie Richmond. Great version of "So long Eric", a fantastic ballad medley and the funny "Cocktails for Two".

oh, yeah this is very possible. I just think I found the personnel once , and if I remember right, Ronnie Burrage was on it. It´s interesting that they played "The Seeker" which is not on the Horizon album, but it´s on the "4 Quartets" album done with Bobby Hutcherson in the Beginning of March 1980. And about 3 weeks later it was the tour with the mentioned sextet and maybe they just played it, it seemed to be a brandnew composition then. I remember "The Seeker" as something like a healing song for me, since I had a bad cold at that time and after a few bars there was no cold anymore, I just started to feel really fine ! As I wrote, "The Seeker" was the first tune the sextet played in Vienna March 1980 and it was recorded just before that tour on the famous double CD "4 Quartets". I mean....."Quartet 4 x 4" it´s four LP sides: One with Freddie Hubbard, one with John Abercrombie, one with Bobby Hutcherson, and the last one with Athur Blythe.

Yes, thank you. It could have been Wilby Fletcher. Joe Ford must have been on saxophone.

Hello Bill ! I have the sessions, but with other Album covers, actually the 1949 dates (with or without Tommy Turk) were on "Jazz Perennial" (I think it was Vol. 7) and the Swedish Schnapps session from 1951 on the LP with that Title (Vol. 8). About the quality of the compositions on the Swedish Schnapps Dates, well I think "Si Si" is a very nice blues line and "Schnapps" is a very nice rhythm changes line. "Si Si" has nice augmented blues changes, as has "Blues for Alice". Maybe "Back Home Blues" and "K C Blues" are not as interesting, at least for the time the record was done. I know those tunes quite well since I had a chance to play with Mr. Allen Praskin in the late 70´s and he loved to play all those rare performed bop tunes. We did "Segment" , we did "Si Si" and I remember "Bloomdido" (from the Bird ´n Diz Album). It was a great experience to hear those old tunes with that fantastic new alto voice, that´s how I felt About it, I was still almost a kid and had a lot to learn, but it was a great honour for me to get the chance to play with such a great musician who really knew that music .

This one has John Blake on violin. He was the big surprise for me in the 1980 band, I had not seen or heard a fiddle much until then, besides gypsy music of course....., and yeah, the little features of Ornette Coleman that are quite funny but ok, But I don´t know who was the drummer then. I know it was McCoy the master, a Saxophone Player , John Blake on violin, Avery Sharpe I think was on bass, but who was the Drummer. I know it was not Al Foster, and I think there was a percussionist also. They played an almost 20 minutes or longer running tune that I later discovered as being titled "The Seeker". I loved and still love that tune so much. It has the essence of McCoy Tyners composing style.

What´s the story behind "I Fall In Love Too Easily" ? I mean, Miles once knew and played hundreds of ballads, he had such a huge repertory of ballads it was incredible. Why did he keep exactly this one ballad in his set list. Anyway, for a man who bragged that "he never looked back" and "always had to move forwards" he didn´t change his set lists very much. Don´t misunderstand me, I like everything he recorded and played but let´s say, during his "Electric period" almost every concert had the same music. And even before, during the famous second quintet almost every recorded concert had quite the same tunes recorded (see "Miles in Europe" "Miles in Tokyo" "Miles in Berlin"...….)

Oh really, today is his Birthday ! Such a great musician. When I was a Youngster, I became Aware of him very quickly due to his tenure with Miles. And as early as 1979 I had the Chance to see him live, with a Quartet Hilton Ruiz, Ray Drummond and Billy Higgins. Mostly material from the fantastic Album "Amsterdam after dark".

That´s what I have ! This is the most enjoyable Version, you can listen to all the master takes in a chronological order. So you really have the most representative Studio work of Charlie Parker from 1944-1948.

Such a great pianist and teacher !

Yes, I also had in mind to post Miles´Birth of the Cool", I have the CD "The Complete Birth of the Cool", that´s the famous Studio records and the broadcasts from Royal Roost. Also very fine the vocal Features with Kenny Haggood

He is fantastic on those classic Hank Mobley Albums like "Soul Station". Wynton Kelly Always was great, fantastic, but I think he never played better than on those Hank Mobley Albums. And sure, with Wes Montgomery, not only Half Note, but "Full House" also. Wes with Griff and the then Miles Davis Rhythm section.

RIP ! During the late 70´s he was among our favourites, thanks Milestone records his then recent Albums were easy to purchase and very much discussed. Super Trios was great and still gets much Spinning here. And that famous Encounter with Sonny Rollins, Ron Carter and Al Foster (Milestone Allstars) . I saw him live excactly 40 years ago in March 1980 with his sextet, the Edition with John Blake on violin, a Saxophone Player...…, they really cooked. The most representative record then was "Horizon", and "4 Quartets"...….. And of Course I love all his BN records and needless to say everything with Trane.

oh that´s really bad News. I saw her in 1989 in Prague. It was some Kind of Festival for Young musicians , I think she won a Price. What I heard, sure sounded good.

I haven´t heard much, but I think he is on two Extended tracks on the Impulse Album "Americans in Europe", and what I heard on that, sure sounds good.

Very interesting thoughts !

Ben Webster in "Quiet Days in Clichy" belongs in that category ?

Thank you so much ! I also hope they will re-schedule it.

Sorry to say Dave Liebman - Richie Beirach have chancelled their scheduled concert here in Vienna , it would have been the coming Sunday and me and my wife had tickets. Due to the corona virus Mr. Liebman decided not to take the trip to Europe. I really can understand that. But it´s sad news we were looking forward to that concert, since Mr. Liebman was one of my first idols......

I purchased this in the late 70´s as a quite expensive Japan Import. Very fine ! And I like most the two ballads "I Surrender Dear" and "Don´t Blame Me" , those two ballads were also featured on the 1947 broadcast "Bands for Bonds" done by Barry Ulanov.

I have this one.

Hello Bill ! I first saw the Lester Young with another cover (BN double LP LA-Series), and also in the record stores was the Musidisc LP "Royal Roost", very fine live recording and quite bop influenced, fitting for the "House that Bop built" or how they said about Royal Roost.

Yes, those Alladin Sessions were available in the late 70´s as a double LP on Bluenote LA-Series. Another one, which I like very much, was the Musidisc LP live at the Royal Roost 1948, also very much bop influenced. This must be the Lester Young who influenced Brew Moore so much.

Very interesting for me to read your impressions about those early sides with Sadik Hakim on piano. I had exactly the same Impression, that here someone tries to play what he thought that it might be "hip or weird" and might sound "like bop". I know excactly how this happens, since when I first heard "bop" as a teenager, I loved what I heard, but I still didn´t understand WHAT happens. We had a combo of four kids who tried "to play jazz" and the most painful Thing was when we listened back to what we had recorded on tape. Especially for me, I played those stiff collar syncopated strictly chromatic lines since I thought that this is the essence of bop, but it sounded …….. how can I explain it, it didn´t mean nothing, it was just a dull syncopated chromatic line. I mean, maybe Sadik Hakim wanted to be influenced by Monk, but even if Monk played in a more abstractical manner than Bud or Hank Jones or Walter Bishop, he always could tell "a Little Story" in his solos, which I don´t hear when I listen to those Sadik Hakim solos on the Savoy sessions. One guy who sounds similar to this early Sadik Hakim is George Handy on the westcoast session 1946 "Diggin´ Diz" (I think it was called Ross Russel´s Tempo Jazzmen) and that´s the same piano style: Weird and Abstract and very much sounding like european experimental music. Even Al Haig at the beginning ….. he had the technique, but he also sounds very "stiff collard" and edgy on the early 1945 sides. But listen to Al Haig 3 or 4 years later how he Plays!!! He really learned it by listening to Bird and Diz….. The piano of Bud Powell really "changed my life" , I heard those Beautiful Things that you can Play Pretty even if it´s fast tempo and bop. You hear it on those early 1949 sides for BN with Fats and Sonny, all those tunes "Bouncing with Bud" "Dance of the Infidels" "Wail", that it´s fast, it is played with great virtuosity and it still is "pretty". Same with Al Haig on the 1949 Roost Sides with Bird. He gets enough solo space and really sounds pretty.

Great 1949 sessions by Stan Getz at an early stage of his career, a great quartet with Al Haig, Gene Ramey and Roy Haynes. Getz in bop surroundings can also be found on a 1950 Birdland encounter with Miles, J.J. Johnson , Tadd Dameron, Art Blakey.