Gheorghe

When I was a young man, I played in a short-lived jazz combo (as, tb, p, g, b, dr) and the trombone player was a huge guy with an respectable girth, and he was a freckled redhair. He was a funny guy, but concerning the rehearsals he made the most mistakes and we often had to interrupt the music just that he can play the line again. This was not necessarly his fault, the leader had written quite tricky compositions and let´s say the trombone is hard to play. But.....I must admit when he got it nailed he had a beautiful sound and nice ideas, so I called him separatly for other gigs, since he had that nice trombone sound and as I said, nice lines. But once when we had a rehearsal he again was the one who made a mistake, and I got bored and said I´d go upstairs and smoke a cigarette and have a beer until he got the theme. When I came back we played the stuff again and maybe because I wasn´t really concentrated I also made a mistake, my first mistake, and that guy got red at the face like a turkey and pointed to me and went "ha ha ha" ha ha ha " Now YOU made a mistake. His nick was "Specky" which means something like "Fats" in german. I liked him, always a funny guy and a goodenough musician.

I think the uncle of a schoolfried of mine was a bar pianist and had an album with Peter Nero, a jazz trio album with jazz standards. Sounded solid, as you say, a bit like Peterson without overdoing it. Sure a very very good pianist.

First of all I must say, I´m not a Peterson-Fan like many others. My kind of jazz is more advanced, but I must admit I kept 3 albums that I like to listen to , sometimes: Night Train, We Get Requests (I like them because they are not so overplayed, Peterson doesn´t dominate everything like he did later) , and In Tune: I think this was somehow en vogue in the 70´s. It sold well and many people would fredonate "Sesame Street". Everything has that ´70´s touch, Bonnie Herman on the foto looks like the 1970 dream girl, the music is a mixture of ballads , slow bossas like Gentle Rain and Shadow of Your Smile. The Singers Unlimited were great and the had great succes in those days, and Peterson who normally dominates everything, really fits into the whole stuff. I like to listen to this sometimes.

Has some great moments. Not necessarly reprezentative for Mingus´ Music, but an interesting jam session. I remember those Atlantic Mingus LPs sold quite well in the 70s. Much of the older stuff was OOP, but when you looked after Mingus albums in the record stores, it was very possible you might find this one

Same here: My wife did it the same way.

Yes, he sure deserved it. Though as a jazz-only-listener I´m not familiar with most of the stuff that maybe made him famous for broader non-jazz audiences , but I´m very very aware about his jazz-linked achievements. To me, that means his associatins with Dizzy and his great compositions. I also like the later collaboration from 1977 (Free Ride) with the great tune "Unicorn", a tune I love and heard Diz play on several occasions with his great pianoless quartet. It also has a great foto of Diz and Lalo on the cover. Fantastic !

If I remember right, Miles included "Maze" also in his life performances and since most material was also available on then current albums (You are under Arrest, Tutu) those few tunes that didn´t appear on albums, were unknown to us, since "Rubberband" still was in the shelves....

Great, I still remember the exitement in the jazzszene, when this formation was founded and we all had the chance to listen to those guys, who were our idols, especially for those who also preferred electric rock jazz. Hancock and Williams were in the 30´s , the others maybe in their early 40´s so it was still quite young men, we were youngsters of the "70´s generation" and for some of us this music was the link from what they listened "Headhunters" , "Lifetime"....., back to acoustic jazz. And for the older ones it was a great reunion of the men from the "2nd Great Quintet". As Soulpope said, I too prefer the harder to find "Tempest at the Colloseum". Many of us also listened (and still listen) to the very first VSOP from 1976, the one with 3 Hancock bands: 1 set the VSOP Quintet, 2nd set a reunion of the late 60´s early 70´s Hancock Sextet feat. Bennie Maupin. And the 3rd set the electric band with the famous Wah Wah Watson. All of us listend to that music, some preferred the electric band and "accepted" the acoustic because the men behind also played electric, others vice versa (myself). I listened mostly to those electric band where I had a connection to their acoustic past.

A lot about Lockjaw reading stuff you find in Art Taylors great book "Notes and Tones". But it seems, that Jaw´s cryptical comments did not amuse the interviewer Art Taylor. More Lockjaw in Valerie Vilmer´s book in the chapter "Lock the Fox". I´d say he´s one of the tenor players that can be very easy recognized. I don´t think one could be wrong on a blindfold test. It´s said that he stated he never was interested in changing his style. But he earned the deepest respect of his fellow musicians and even Miles, who seldom had kind words for "traditionalists" has only words of respect for Jaws. Don´t forget he played with Jaws and said about the 1951 Birdland recordings that it brought out the best of him, because with someone like Jaws you better don´t fool around.

That´s it. Tootie is such a fantastic drummer . I would have liked to hear him with George Cables. George Cables fascinates me much more than Gulda does.But it speaks much for Tootie that he tried it. Others wouldn´t have been so kind and patient. I think Al Foster might have got annoyed if a pianoplayer couldn´t swing. He refused to play with Milcho Levieff, but Milcho is much more into it than Gulda ever was. So I think it must have been hard work for Tootie to keep the stuff together, and maybe that´s what he remembers about that session......

Hard to find. I purchased it around 1978 and since then I´ve been very impressed by this, Sonny Rollins with Don Cherry, Henry Grimes and Billy Higgins. Then in 1978 I was much into 60´s "new thing" "avantgarde" and purchased it for the participation of Don Cherry and Billy Higgins. Sonny is fantastic on this. An Henry Grimes is one of the true masters on bass.

You got to have time to listen closely to this. The bad weather made it possible. I like Dark Magus even more than Aghartha or Panghea. Especially because of the participation of DAve Liebman, one of my all time favourites. The formation with DAve was in my hometown at STadthalle in 1973. This one of Carnegie Hall 1974

I remember the bass player J.A. Rettenbacher very well. Too bad he died too early. He and his younger brother were great bassists. One of J.A.´s last projects was a band called "So Near So Far". They were, as I was, regulars at the then very popular little jazz club "Spelunke".

Great video ! But I had to laugh when I saw the band members in that "silly" hippie-style shirts. This must have been early 70´s, right ? And an electric bass. Well this was the time when acoustic came out of fashion. I think during that time Woody kind of played a very mixed program, there were super old charts like "Woodchoppers Ball" and then "new" stuff, like Chick Coreas´s "Spain", I think there was also some tunes with a slight rock rhythm. I saw them in 1979 (the Thundering Heard) and it seems it was very similar to that video. Woody was wearing a white suit, and his band members more casually dressed, and they played for example "Caledonia" that very very old stuff, and some Chick Corea compositions. I remember the 1979 band had a very very fine virtuose baritone saxophonist. I liked it very much, but anyway I was on high spirits since just before Sonny Rollins had finished his set and I thought it will be hard for the next to impress me after Sonny Rollins, but they did ! I saw Woody again in 1985 but was quite astonished that he came without his Herd, then he had an allstar small group with both Buddy Tate and Al Cohn, with I think Warren Vaché, with John Bunch on piano I think, Jake Hanna on drums and .....aaah..... a very young kid on bass who played very good. The strange thing was that on bass was scheduled George Duvivier, but I think he was dying then..... I remember that Woody played only clarinet, played his best solo on a slow blues and did a vocal "I got the World on a String"

I´ve listened recently to the long track of "Sonnymoon for two" from 2010 , the only encounter of Rollins and Ornette Coleman, and also noticed, thev Christian McBride really is into that kind of "harmolodic playing", he follows Ornettes trademark modulations as sure as Charlie Haden or David Izenzon did.

This foto ist made in Vienna, Jazzland !

Can´t post the pic now, but I´ve been listenig to Sonny Rollins´ "Roadshows Vol. 1" again. I like very much the quartet performances with Marc Soskin, Jerome Harris and Al Foster. This was a tight working unit and they toured much and I saw them in that formation. Only the last track "Enchanting Evening" seems to lack inspiration and fire. I´ve heard it was the 50´s anniversary of Rollins at Carnegie Hall, but something went wrong that evening. The other newer tracks from 2000-2006 are very fine.

Fantastic ! Woody Shaw at Baker´s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit with Detroiter Roy Brooks, with Gary Allen and Robert Hurst. A must have record.

A typical live set of Pharoah´s great quartet in the early 80´s , the way I heard them , for example at Hollabrunn 1985. Like Archie Shepp, Sanders after the years of new thing avantgarde switched to a more traditional quartet format, playing his thing, but also some ballads and standards. Here, everything is perfect, Trane´s Ole, Dameron´s On a Misty Night, the great "Heart is a Melody" with voices, "Goin´to Africa with the audience chanting along with Pharoah, nice !

My favourite is "Rhythm X" by Charles Brackeen (sax) with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell on the Strata East Label. It´s from the late 60´s. And now again available as part of Cliff Jordan´s Mosaic Box .

This was the first "Jazz" LP I ever heard. I friend of mine had it, but another cover, and I had it on cassette. I think I heard it thousands of times. From that moment a new jazz fan was born.

Sam Rivers ! Such a great, such a fantastic musician. I like this album, which was my first Sam Rivers listening experience. The scores for the horns, the solos, the compositions, the personnel, fantastic !

Great, I´ve also listened to it last week. IMHO the best from the ´70s Steeplechase Gordon albums. All of them are great, but I like this best for the rhythm section, Al Foster is probably my favourite drummer.

Great ! And sure.....that´s the changes Diz used for "Tour de Force". Enjoyed it !

That´s the one with Roy Brooks also featured playing the musical saw ?