Gheorghe

Indeed, but I didn´t mean that they should play the bass notes with the right hand, it was more a question about style and Interpretation. It came out of a personal experience I had during last summer when we visited a piano bar and the pianists who worked there, if they played a 4/4 straight ahead tune they did almost exclusivly those walking bass lines . This may sound nice sometimes, but it can be exaggerated….especially if it´s those bass notes banging on piano, they Sound great if you got a Bassist and he walks, but IMHO not so fine if the pianist does the "job" with those walking bass lines.

A fantastic Collection, I also have this. IMHO the best stuff is the Big Band from 1947-48, all those great arrangements of bop classics. It´s interesting that in 1949 they had more vocal stuff , but also very very fine.

Yes, those were the days. The stuff on "Silent Way" is really great, I listen to it more often than to "Bitches Brew", but of course both are great. Back to Bird: Somehow, even if it was Long before their time, the hipsters from the 70´s very often dug Bird. They listened to free stuff like Ornette Coleman and beyond, to all the Electric stuff, and to Bird. I´m kind of a product of that times, bop, free, and some of the Electric jazz as Electric Miles, Headhunters, RTF, and so on......

Good Point ! I couldn´t have said it in words, but I also think the soprano is a separate "departement" . I was astonished how many Tenor saxophonists "did" also some stuff on soprano: Archie Shepp, and even Dexter Gordon (I heard a live Version of the George Cables bossa tune "I told you so" played exclusivly on soprano, and it sound´s somehow funny how Dexter plays the soprano with his laid back style. Sonny Rollins, also some tunes on soprano. I got more conscious About the unique role of the soprano when I read Dave Liebman´s autobio "What it Is". He really concentrated on soprano and for some time played it exclusivly.

Oh I remember this but never had it. Is this the solo album. It was spinned in the Austrian Radio Show "Jazz Shop" in 1977/78 and if I remember right it had that great version of "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" on it. Very bluesy, gospel type piano. I later heard Ray Bryant live in a combo setting and he had a lighter touch, More like on the Miles album from 1955......

Especially that bossa tune on it. And the rare occasion to hear Jackie McLean playing a bossa solo. I think I like that tune most from that album.

There is a great live version of Red Clay on the VSOP "Tempest in the Colloseum" . This was an album that was discussed in my classes at high school. And THIS was also PART of the 70´s : If some one among the bunch of guys we was got some pocket money, he would spend it at the vinyl shops and the next day he would bring it and we would listen and discuss. It was like "Organissimo Forum Live".

Nice list, but in my case THE historical release of 2019 is Dave Liebman´s "Lookout Farm" live at Hamburg.

Great, I always perferred the records where Bud has the opportunity to play with congenial horn players. This with Don Byas, others with Hawk in Germany, with Griffin in Edenville (a bit marred by the weak drumming), and again Byas-Idrees Suleiman on "Americans in Europe".

But it was released on CD, only I´m not sure if there´s also a RVG edition of it. I have this with the original cover: And the same cover photo/design is on the next BN Album "Horace Silver with Jazz Messengers", the one with "The Preacher" on it...…. I think I have all Horace Silver albums from the 50´s in cronological order but somehow actually I´m listening to other stuff.

on first view you might not think this is Chrismas related, but it is. Dexter Plays a whole chorus of "Chrismas Song" as a cadenza after a (quite rambling) Body and Soul. And during that kind of rambling set closers that were part of Dexter´s shows, he attempts to quote "White Chrismas" which has to be completed by Kirk Leightsey, and same Thing with "Have yourself a Merry Chrismas".

What a fantastic band that was. I was lucky I saw them live in the 70´s.

Thank you all for your great answers. Really interesting points, especially that he didn´t have distinct solo talent, more talent in organization.

I must admit I have not been really familiar with Stan Kenton´s work, my fault. Now, for Chrismas my wife bought me a CD "Stuttgart Experience" 1972 live, that´s really fanscinating. Besides the great Arrangements and the very much Percussion input, great soloists etc , I noticed the way Mr. Kenton plays the piano : He doesn´t seem to play much during the big band sections, at least he does not solo, maybe he´s conducting ? But he does some incredible intros in what I might say is a kind of arpeggio style . I never heard anything like that. It seems very virtuoso-like, Incredible. I couldn´t do that even if I´d practice. And they are kind of mood intros, out of time until the band starts. And the only "in time" intro seems to be his intro on the swinging like hell "Intermission Riff" . He´s focussed on the deepest bass keys the piano has, I only heard something like that done by Monk on "Jacky-ing" , that´s were Monk at one point plays lays similar to this Kenton intro …..

I don´t know if this is a legit . It´s a mediocre set of music at a relativly late stage of Dexter´s career. Moment´s Notice can´t match the Wonderful version from "Manhattan Symphony", then follows a rather rambling performance of the too often played "Body and Soul" with a "Chrismas Song" cadenza. The only really strong track is the medium tempo blues "Dexter Dig´s In" but I think it´s another line from the early Savoy sessions, they all had titles with referenzes to "Dexter" and maybe this one was "Blow Mr. Dexter". This, actually could have been longer, since it´s really fine played. Than follows a quite rambling ending with some attempts to play "White Chrismas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Chrismas". The liner notes say it´s an 80 Minute set, but it runs only 48 minutes. Well, it´s a nice Chrismas present I got from my wife, so it´s most welcome…...

Happy Birthday

The original "Lookout Farm". Elvin Jones "Remembrance" I really regret that I sold those. Maybe I´ll try to find them again but I have heard that "Lookout Farm" is not available on CD, I really don´t understand why…...

My wife and me visited the "Albrecht Duerer" Exhibition at the famous Viennes "Albertina" .

Thank you for you great answer, @Shrdlu. Maybe the switch from alto to tenor and soprano was just something about the times we lived in. I think in the 70´s the alto was not so much in fashion. It was mainly tenor and increasingly much soprano, that was the sound that fitted to modal stuff, to fusion etc. And yes, the "striped series" had a lot of the Dial tracks. But then came the "Spotlite" label, also british and IMHO one of the best. They really published some hidden treasures then. A great label. And ha ha , we Boys tried to Imitate the voice of "Ernie "Bubbles" Whitman, you know the guy who talks on "Bird in Lotus Land" and on Billy Eckstine´s "Together" and I think also on "Early Bird"...….

I also noticed that when I saw Dave Liebman made a new Album "On the Corner Live" and I can´t find it as a CD ? That´s strange, because one year earlier I purchased "Chi" also by Liebman, on CD. I have no idea how to purchase that "On the Corner Live!" . I just CAN´T listen otherwise than CD or LP, and by the way, if it´s not available as a CD how can I get Musical presents for Birthday, Father´s day, Chrismas etc...…?

I was a bit astonished that some didn´t know about this book. I also got it as soon as it was published. It´s really very detailed and for example: I didn´t know nothing about Monk´s live in later years, didn´t know why he had stopped playing etc. and the book reveals a lot about Monk´s private live......

Great story and it reflects the times I also lived in. Yeah, those low budget LPs, all those musidisc, and italian "Rare of all Rarest Performances" And there was a british one, I don´t know the Name of the label, it had a Bird image on it with Stripes on it. I remember "Bird is Free" was a cult. That LP with that white bird on it. About the Bird/Bud/Fats, I got this only when it was published as a double LP on CBS. That was a great time when CBS issued so much bop stuff, like also "Summit Meeting at Birdland" and "Bird with Strings" (also live at Birdland), or the Miles-Dameron in Paris 1949. About your telling that you switched to tenor to get away from Bird´s influence: I can understand that. In my case I play piano. At one point I also tried to get rid of my Bud Powell influence but I can´t switch to another Instrument......oh …. I did switch to Electric when some guys founded an Electric-jazz band and invited me to be on it. That´s the only time I didn´t think Bud when I played keys. Or…...if it´s tunes that couldn´t be played in a boppish manner, let´s say "Freedom Jazzdance" or "Afro Blue"....you Play this in a modal manner not built on standard jazz changes. But if it´s a Standard or of Course a bop tune, it´s impossible for me not to sound similar to Bud.

I don´t know what was the reason he was so "omnipresent" in record collections in "middleclass/upper middleclass" households in my hometown. But that´s how I heard "jazz piano" for the first time when still a kid. It took me one more year to know who Miles Davis, who Charles Mingus are. But as I said, Peterson was so omnipresent in some musical houses I thought he might be "the most famous pianist of all times" and when I got my first "Jazz Book" (Joachim Ernst Behrendt) I had expected there might be a "whole chapter about Oscar Peterson" but was astonished that he´s hardly mentioned. But it was the same Thing in other jazz books too "Arrigo Pollilo "Jazz" …….the same Thing. It seems that book writers, critics didn´t really like him. May I have been influenced by those book authors or not, later I got tired of listenig to Oscar Peterson, at least most of the time. I found it more exiting to listen to the "sidemen" pianists on other Albums I had and I had few. I had "Steamin´ from Miles" and learned all the "Red Garland solos" on it. I had "Great Concert of Mingus" and learned all the stuff Jackie Byard Plays, and I had "Miles in Europe" and learned all the stuff Herbie Hancock plays on it. So ironically I became a "sideman piano" listener more than a listener of lead pianos.

Referring to the Diz on Spotlite, yes you can hear Monk, but he does not get much space. He´s audible on Round Midnight and on "Our Delight". I like that Spotlite double CD very much. But it´s early Diz Big Band. It took another year to incorporate the latin Thing, with Chano Pozo. Here it´s straight ahead swing mostly. Milt Jackson is also great on the ballads. Right now this one is Spinning. I heard this Edition of the Messengers live at the Metropole, but Studio Recordings of the Messengers don´t Always live up the the live atmosphere.

Another thing I got from my wife for Chrismas ! Wonderful free-spirit music. Jimmy Giuffree with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow. They even go "bluesy" on "Cry, Want"...... , wonderful, really deep !