Gheorghe

Great for historical reasons. Bud is in great form here, and I love the drummer J.C. Moses. The Speech at the beginnig is quite strange. Sonny Rollins "Movin´ Out". Sonny sounds fantastic, Kenny Dorham too, really a great combination, and a good occasion to hear Elmo Hope. And maybe the most interesting track is the long version of "More than you know" with Thelonious Monk

Yes, "Biting the Apple" is really a great album, much better sounding and much better organized than "Homecoming" . And I love the rhythm section Barry Harris, Sam Jones Al Foster very much, and the choice of tunes.... Sophisticated Giant didn´t really become my favourite, maybe I thought it´s a bit too arranged. But I might listen again to it. Great Encounters has good music on it, especially the Gordon-Griffin encounter, and the Eddie Jefferson encounter is fun, but the whole album isn´t really a unity, more a compilation.

Yeah, on the Mythic Sounds there is the Zoot Sims material. About the IMHO much better album of Bud in Paris playing a lot of Monk : This here is the first edition of LP I bought in Germany in 1979. But Francis was a master in making errors about recording dates. I´m sure it was done in 1961 and not 1962. On the other hand, he pre-dated a lot of home made recordings to make people believe that his friendship with Bud lasted much longer.

For further material from about the same period, also in Paris and also featuring a lot of Monk´s compositions I´d recommand the live album from "At Blue Note Cafe 1961". This has the same personnel Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke (Clarke not with brushes, but with sticks, even on the ballads !!) , and the Monk tunes on that album are: Thelonious (a faster version), Round Midnight (fantastic !!!!), Monks Mood (fantastic !!!) and 52´nd Street Theme. There have been several issues of that stuff. In the late 70´s I had an LP and it was titled "Inedits 1962" and had a neatly dressed and slim Bud sittin in a sports car and french album lines written by Francis Paudras, and later the CD on ESP which also adds a set of the trio together with Zoot Sims ! Highly recommended, and I like it much more than the CBS album.

Bill Cole: Miles Davis, a musical biography. Actually this was my first book about Miles. I was a youngster and my only other book about jazz was the german "Jazzbuch". But this one really gave more informations about the recordings I allready knew, especially the 50´s and 60´s stuff. Some of it reads funny if I think about it. About his appearance in 1949 at the Paris Festival, Bill Cole writes that Miles was "bored". For sure: Miles doesn´t sound like a bored man on that, and he himself stated that he was fascinated by Paris and fell in love with Juiliette Greco. And about the now old, then "new" stuff from the early 70´s. Bill Cole dares to say that the stuff is "an insult on the intelect of people" ...... But I always like to read a few passages from it just for historical points.....

Same here ! I really agree to you, always had the same impression. I think I purchased it about 2 years after it came out in 1976. Dexter is at his best on "Manhattan Symphony" from 1978 which included most of the material he played live then. Don´t misunderstand me: I love Woody Shaw and his groups, but as you said it, it was not the right choice to add Dexter to the Woody Shaw Group and make a Dexter-album out of it. On the other hand, Dexter and Woody COULD play very fine music together, but with another rhythm section, like on "Great Encounters", and I think on "Gotham City", and on the 1977 Montreux Summit .......

Thelonious Monk : The Prestige sessions from Friday 13th 1953 and from 1954, featuring Julius Watkins, Frank Copeland, Sonny Rollins, Frank Foster etc. Great music ! I´ve always loved it, together with the trio recordings 1952 .

Purchased it in the 70´s . Never forgot the interview with Miles, he seems to like Leonard but is difficult and contradictory as ever. Leonard asking those personal questions whether if Miles would help out his familiy , if he has family ties and all that , and Miles first saying "I live for myself" "bull....sh like sittin down at tea..." and then telling Leonard that if he would need money he would give it to him if he can afford it......very funny...... There´s two Dameron books , one was published in more recent years, and another one is older and I think it´s a british author. I have both of them

With all kinds of editions and reissues, the Spotlite was the best one. Spotlite was THE Label for Bird- and Bop-fans. Great ! Brings memories back, all the Dial´s with the alternate tracks and bonus tracks from private recordings, the other rare stuff "Appartment Sessions" "The Band That Never was" "Bird in Paris" "Bird in Sweden", "Early Bird" , and the incredible "Afro Cuban" and above all the Billy Eckstine Bigband with Fats on it, "Together"...... , those guys from Spotlite were the best !

Fantastic those live sessions from the Royal Roost. I love that Roost Band Fats, Allen Eager, Tadd, Curley Russel and Kenny Clarke. My first encounter with this music was on one of those "Musidisc" LPs from the 70s with some of it , and two vocals with Kenny Hagood included "Pennies from Heaven" and "The Kitchenette across the Hall". Everybody plays great on this, Fats at his best, Allen Eager with his softer Lester Young influenced approach, very relaxed, some fine Dameron piano in his unique style. Also great Milt Jackson sittin in, and Kai Winding on the tracks where Fats doesn´t play

Both Tony Williams albums for BN are great. It´s astonishing how this young boy, he was 18 or 19 managed to make an album so perfectly organized. It´s not a showcase for drum artistics as you would expect, it´s a thing you have to listen to as a whole art work. And the second album "Spring" is also great, and has Sam River AND Wayne Shorter on it.

Same here. The Latin Session is incredible, but the second side is some really relaxed hardbop type stuff and shows the more tentative lyric side of Dorham. And Hank Mobley is also great on it.

Great that you like Philly J.J so much. He is also one of my favourite drummers. And since my first jazzalbum was Miles´"Steamin´" , his solo on Salt Peanuts also was about the first drum solo I heard .

Yes, that´s a great album. This, together with the Bohemia 1956 live album are my favourites, and Una Mas from the later period.

on september 27th it had to be a Bud Powell LP, since it would have been Bud´s Birthday: "Bud", the Roost Recordings, 1947/1953.

I continue with my very personal LP spinning, the motto is "40 years of uninterrupted love for jazz". In 1978 I started seriously to collect records and now I´m spinning the records I bought and listened to and loved during that year. At the end of september 78 I bought the Wes Montgomery-Wynton Kelly "Smokin at the Half Note", and that´s on the turntable right now. I know there have been reissues with further unreleased material, but this is the core and I love it the way I purchased it then.....

Very interesting to read. I knew about his great musicianship and love his recordings, but didn´t know about his personal life. He will always remain one of my favourites. All the albums he made and all the albums were he was a sideman are among my favourite records.

Right now Miles Davis "Blue Haze". Sometimes I like to listen to those old pre-quinted Davis recordings. The strange thing is, that the sessions are not chronologically. On "Blue Haze" you have "April" which is from the session with Dave Schildkraut, and the remainder tracks from that session where Miles sounds a bit strange with the cup mute are on the second half of "Walkin". And the tracks with Monk and Milt Jackson are splitted among "Bags Groove" and "Miles DAvis and the Modern Jazz Giants". I have all the records, but when I heard them first, they were (not completely) on 2-LP Prestige sets with some strange covers (Miles in the 70s boxing, not related to the early 50´s music).

Of course ! I have forgotten to mention this one. I love it. It´s probably one of the few occasions where you here Ornette Coleman playing a Parker Tune, and Klactoveesedstene is not the easiest of them. And though the piano is underrecorded, I love those dark colours of "I Remember Harlem" and Ornettes Originals are great. I think, the best playing of Coleman is on "The Blessing", he plays beautiful stuff here. And "Free" was equally fascinating. We were a small bunch of guys who were very much into that music on the edge from hardbop to avantgarde, Mingus´ music was part of it, and Ornette Coleman/Don Cherry/Paul Bley of course.

REally a great one. Love it !

Yeah. In my just budding knowledge about jazz, but already being an avid fan of modern jazz, with very much interest in Mingus´ music, I just titled that "America" Label a "Charles Mingus label" because from all various artists I think the largest amount was on Mingus albums. I had and still have: 1) Charles Mingus Quintet with Max Roach (I remember I was disappointed because I had hoped it will be the regular quinted with Roach added as a second drummer, making the stuff even more heavy and dense, but it´s only Max sittin in on two tunes, the rest is a quite tame Mingus playing mostly standards). 2) "Chazz" , which is the second part of the "Bohemia 1955" sessions 3) Above all: The Great Concert of Charles Mingus (with Dolphy in Paris) 4) Mingus at Monterey 5) Right Now, Mingus at the Jazz Workshop 6) My Favourite Quintet 7) and 8) Pyticantropus Erectus and Blue Bird, those are the America Sessions from 1970 And besides that I had the mostly Mingus-associated other stuff: Massey Hall Concert, Bud Powell Trio (same date, both with Mingus), The Fabulous Thad Jones (also with Mingus), Max Roach Speak Brother Speak (my impression then was "Mingus associated" because of the political message, and because of Mingus Alumni Cliff Jordan and Mal Waldron). And of course "Saturday Night" Jazz Session (not Mingus, but I had the opinion that it might have been "recomandated by Mingus as worth listening Smile : Mingus was kind of "God" to me in 1977,78. I was just an impressed kid and thought if others are on that "Mingus Label", it´s because Mingus brought them to it or considered that "we" (the audience) should listen to it. So "Mingus" indirectly pulled my coat to Bird, to Bud, to Fats......, that´s how it was in those years for me.....

I remember this record, it was done in Vienna. And to mention: Karl Ratzer is just fantastic ! Some years before this record was made, Eddie Lockjaw Davis was so nice to sign for me a record that I had brought to be signed: It was the 1974 Jaws with the Tommy Flanagan Trio

The Tristano stuff is great. I remember I purchased the LP "A Guiding Light in the 40´s" it was a very very expensive japanese LP with a painting on the cover and a very very short LP, only a few minutes on each side. Just the 2 sessions 1946+47 Tristano did.

Thank you @optatio for posting the cover of the Saturday Night Jazz Session. And today I spinned also from the America Label Max Roach´s "Speak Brother Speak". It was my first Max Roach album, I purchased it after I saw them live. Never forgot how delighted I was about Max´ drum solo on Speak Brother Speak, it was similar to his famous solo "The Drum also Waltzes". Those America label LPs were great, I collected them, they had good music, mostly Mingus, and they were easy to purchase in Europe and not expensive, so it was ideal for jazz youngsters like I was.

Yes, I remember Wiesen 1984 was the first time I heard "Mrs. Morrisine", that C-minor track that later was on "Your Are Under Arest" , then it was for me an untitled mystery tune. And I remember Chick Corea sat in on "Speak" but either I´m too dumb to hear somethin happenin there or Chick Corea simply didn´t have anything to say on it. I just repeats one figure in a quite hesitant manner. Miles still could have his great moments, but I remember the album "Decoy" was a big disappointment for me. I liked Star People since it still had some jazz approach and was carrying further on the 1981 stuff with still the best men in his group, jazz orientated players. I think "Decoy" came out in 1984 and was the greatest disappointment for me.