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A very good record ! I´m also in the Blue Note Groove, listening to this

not tonight, and not tomorrow or next month, but I just got my ticket for april 28 to see the "Sun Ra Arkestra" under the direction of Marshall Allen. Saw the original Sun Ra Arkestra with Sun Ra himself in 1980.

I saw him a few years ago, maybe 2014 , anyway in that period. He sounded wonderful, sure he wouldn´t play with the power he had in the 80´s when I heard him first, but that´s not the point, anyway the music was of highest quality. But on the same time I was a bit in sorrow because it was obvious that Mr. Sanders was in physical discomfort. But as for playing the saxophone he really came to live, especially in the second half of the concert. I think his set´s became a stage routine, they start with a kind of rubato ballad, some uptempo straight ahead stuff with a very long piano solo by Henderson , the tune might have been "Dr. Pitt", a Sanders original from the early 80´s, a Coltrane-style standard ballad, and a powerful "The Creator has a Masterplan". That´s how it was....... Anyway you must be glad to have still the occasion to see one of the last "living legends" live in action. At that concert I even had with me my old LP "Live at the East" , the first Sanders LP I had decades ago. Maybe I had the hope I could tell him that I purchased that 40 years ago and if he would sign it for me, but I was too shy, and didn´t have the impression that Mr. Sanders is the kind of man you get in touch with him and say "Please, Mr. Sanders, would you be so kind to give me an autograph, you know I´m a big fan and this was my first record I bought, you know......"

Great ! I always have been fascinated by the music of Pharoah Sanders and was lucky to see him live twice, always a great experience .

It was composed by Denzil Best, who also composed "Move" and other bop tune´s . I remember I heard a recorded studio version of Dee Dee´s dance" on a Xanadu LP , one of those compilations "Bop Revisited". I think it was some guys from the Woody Herman Band who did some sides, I´m not sure it may have been Conte Candoli on trumpet, anyway a recorded version on that Xanadu LP exists. I haven´t listened to it for some decades, so I´m not sure who´s playing. Maybe it was a group around Chubby Jackson, that´s it is I think I remember. Chubby Jackson led a group of boppers to Sweden some months before Bird went to Sweden.....

Great, I was born in 1959 and I´m pleased that so much happened in jazz in the year when I was born. Not to forget Ornette Coleman, who was the rising star and played at Five Spot if I´m right. I think 1959 was a year of transition in jazz. Hard Bop still was very much in demand, but along came those who created other forms to get beyond the boundaries of hard bop. Charles Mingus´ Workshops, Ornette with Don Cherry, a lot of things was happening. Two major figures of jazz died in that year: Prez and Lady Day, others who would have the same fate, found more comfortable settings in Paris like Bud. It took me some years from my birth and thru my childhood to get acquainted to that music called jazz, but as a teenie in the 70´s I still could hear and see live a lot of the artists who were active in 1959.

I didn´t know until now what is "workmanlike" writing, but I can imagine what you mean. Somehow very often the writing lacks emotion. I hoped there will be told much more from the personal way of it, since it´s supposed she was his last wife. No word about this, how the professional relation changed into a personal relation, how it was to change husbands, from an erratic Woody Shaw to a super erratic Dexter Gordon plus raising Woody´s child . She mentiones that Dexter took antabuse before returning to the States to keep off drinking, but I don´t think that it helped for much time. By the way, I saw both Woody and Dexter on the same schedule about a month before Dexter´s 60´s birthday, and Woody was really takin care of business and played an exiting set with his great group and was very articulate, while Dexter was late, played only three tunes, sounded weak and was stone drunk. I heard about other incidents from that early 1983 tour from other countries too (Germany, Netherlands). Nothing mentioned in the book about that tour.

Chet Baker live at "Uncle Poe´s Carnegie Hall" Hamburg 1979. That´s one of my favourite Baker records, I like the really long and extended tracks on all records from that NDR series. Chet Baker ist in top form, and Phil Marcovitz is a great pianist and ideal partner for Chet. And it´s great to have the legendary Mr. Rassinfosse on bass, and a rare occasion to hear Chet Baker with a drummer. I´m a drums freak and actually Baker is the only musician I´d listen to when playing without drums. I hope there will be further albums from that NDR Uncle Poe´s Series, I allready have most of them with exception of those who are not typical jazz musicians so it might be music I´m not listenig to.....

I had the same thoughts about the relationships, that I couldn´t find no answer. Besides that, she tells that Dexter stopped playing right after his 60th Birthday. There is a record of the music Dexter played on his birthday party and though he had lost some of his power, he still has some to play. But I must admit the Dexter we saw in Europe early in 1983 left us a bit embarrassed and wondering how long he will go on, mostly because he was evidently almost destroyed by booze. He had difficulties even to make stage announcements....... And another book about Dexter, written by Stan Britt tells another story, that Dexter still played until in 1984 when he became ill in Finland where he played with a radio orchestra. And that after that the quartet together with Maxine Gordon made a trip to Marocco, where the didn´t get paid and had to fly home on own expenses. This might be important first hand infos from Maxine but in her book it seems that Dexter just retired because he wanted to retire.....

Interesting thoughts. Of course Blue´n Boogie with Diz and Dex is a classic and I´m glad I have the Groovin High with Dexter also, and indeed it was hard to find for some time. About the piano style. I noticed, that many young piano players who started to play "Bop" had difficulties to play flowing lines, many of them seemed to think about "Bop" as a more abstract form of "jazz". It sounds like those pianists thought "Gee that´s something weird, we don´t really understand it but let´s try to play "weird" also. When Bud played with other bop stars like Bird, Dex, J.J., it never sounded abstract or weird, he had the same ideas like those bop giants. But listen to Al Haig when he started with Diz. He sounded "stiff", but 2 years later he sounded beautiful. He sounds like a piano novice in 1945 and doesn´t really know to play a bop solo but later with Wardell Gray in 1949 or with Bird in 1949/50 or with Getz about the same period, he had learned a lot and sounds great. Others .... I have difficulties listening to them. One is a Georgy Handy who plays on a 1946 track, something like "Tempo Allstars" but it sounds terrible to me, stiff and withouth melody. But I must admit when I started to play, I also sounded terrible. I Wanted to sound like Bud and didn´t have no idea how to finger it. When I wanted to play a solo, it seemed to sound like someone practicing chromatic scales. I felt something is wrong with it, and especially when listening back to it, took a lot of listening to good music to get it together, those learning years were hard....

I have that also on LP, not on CD. Interesting the 1953 sides that have much darker colours than the early ones. In general, as the years went on, I started to begin to have difficulties listening to some very early Bud stuff, since I have difficulties listening to piano runs in the highest register. First I can´t hear the high notes very well starts to sound "thin". As others I started to appreciate much more the later stuff which maybe has lost some virtuosity, but sounds really "deep", especially the way he played the chords on ballads. His "Embraceable You" here is a classic, But still he had all his virtuosity as his flashy runs on "Woodyn You" shows. This 1953 session together with the BN with Fats and Sonny or the 1953 is the greatest early Bud.

Fantastic choice. Lou Donaldson was best on his BN-albums Sometimes I like to listen to this Freddy Redd even more than to his first album "Connection". I love Freddie Redd´s compositions. Here on this I love most the first tune which starts slow and then goes into a brisk tempo. And finally Money Jungle, the greatest of them all

I think this is the "Open Door" I have.

I´m not sure but I think I have it on CD with another cover. Is that from tapes from Chan Parker, mostly with the other soloes cut out. I think I haven´t been listening too much to this, but should give it another try.

I remember this Pablo LP very well. I think at "Bebop" they play a rock-rhythm fade out, very fine idea ! Diz also was deep into backbeat rhythms during that time ! Here what I´m listening to now. Fantastic group, I saw them live with that personnel. Hope there will soon appear Vol. II.

Right now I have been listening to CD´s I got yesterday on my birthday: Elvin Jones Jazz Machine at Uncle Pö´s , 1981 Hamburg : Fantastic Johnny Griffin/Eddie Lockjaw Davis same lplace 1975. Solid, but not so well recorded.

Thank you very much !

Happy Birthday, Jim !

You are right, this is a particular interesting album of Sam Rivers. The first Sam River I ever heard decades ago was "Inventions and Dimension".

again happy birthday to one of the most important pianists of jazz history

Great reading, thank you. I don´t have very much , the most significant things are his solos on Billy Eckstine´s "Blowin´the Blues aways" together with Gene Ammons ( lyrics by Eckstine: "blow Mr. Gene, blow Mr. Johnson too, maybe you can help me blowin´the blues away....." )

Great Joe Henderson with fantastic personnel, KD of course, McCoy Tyner, Richard Davis and Elvin Jones. Great music, and the studio version of KD´s Short Story which I first heard on the STeeplechase album with the same title. I´ve always been a great fan of Joe Henderson.

Must be great. Saw Woody Shaw with this group (Steve Turre, Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James and Tony Reedus) at "Konzerthaus" early in 1983. At Bremen I think Steve Turre had left the band. I remember especially Tony Reedus as a top drummer, a very exiting group that worked together for serveral years. Later, the situation was much unhappier for Woody since he was forced to work as a single with local picked up rhythm sections.......

A great album. Remember the exitement when it came out, around 1978. This together with "The Milestone Allstars" and other similar albums was tops then. All those who like Supertrios, might also love the 1980 album "Four Quartets", where you have on trio and on each side of the then existing double LP another soloist, one with Hubbard, one more abstract one with Abercrombie, one with Bobby Hutcherson and on with Athur Blythe.

I think I saw that album, it´s a Concord , right ? I saw Woody twice , the first time with the Herd in 1979 and the second time with an allstar combo 1985 which indeed had Al Cohn, and also the pianist John Bunch. George Duvivier was scheduled but was replaced to my disappointement but later I heard he died around the same time. As you say, Al Cohn was fantastic. On that occasion he shared the tenor soloes with Buddy Tate and if I remember right, Scott Hamilton also, and I think Varren Vaché was on trumpet and Jake Hanna might have been on drums. But Woody also contributed with some short but fine clarinet solos.