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Yesterday I purchased a rare Max Roach album, recorded in Amsterdam in 1977 with the great quartet Roach had during the late 70´s: Max Roach, Cecil Bridgewater, Billy Harper, Reggie Workman. It has two extended versions of "It´s Time" and "Call of Wild/Peaceful Heart". Brings beautiful memories back, since I´ve seen that quartet in 1978 and it was one of my greatest live concerts I ever saw. I still remember every aspect of it, of course they also played that ultra-fast version of "It´s Time" and the really great Billy Harper composition "Peaceful Heart", along with an extended version of "Round Midnite" in 3/4 time, which I never saw on record..... To see Max Roach at the peak of his career and virtuosity was one of the most exiting moments in my lifelong love-affair with jazz. That quarted with Billy Harper and Reggie Workman, and one year later replaced by Odeon Pope and Calvin Hill..... The album (LP) is an expensive japanese LP, it was almost new, completly unused, the label something obscure (Baystate or something like that). There were so many small labels during the late 70´s. Maybe I should have postet that topic in the "Vinyl Front" but I hope it will be accepted here, since it´s not about the vinyl, it´s about the music.

Male: Billy Eckstine, Kenny "Pancho" Haggood, Earl Coleman Female: Lady Day, Sarah, Ernestine Anderson About more obscure female singers: I like the voice of Kay Penton, who did some sides with Tadd Dameron and Fats Navarro in the forties.

well, I know there are different opions about his writing style. Just let me say I´m glad I got the book and I enjoy reading it. My English is a mixture of half forgotten high school stuff, cultivated by reading liner notes, jazz biographies and talkin to musicians, about the music..... It´s a great thing for me to read this book, I´ve already read 3 books about Bud, first the Francis Paudras book in the original french version that came out 1986, than another book, which kinda disapointed me, and the great Carl Smith book about all of Bud´s recordings). And of course, Ira Gitler in his book "Jazz Masters of the Forties" has a chapter about Bud Powell.

Such a great musician! Heard him first in the late 70´s and the next day I purchase one of his ECM albums "Drum Ode" with also has Richie Beirach on it. Later I got "Lookout Farm" too. I liked Dave Liebman from the first moment on. Too bad I missed the tour when he played with Chick Corea´s Return to Forever, but heard him later with his group with Terumaso Hino tp, John Scofield g, Ron McLure b and Adam Nussbaum dr.

For many years, Benny Golson has played at least once the year in my hometown. As you said it, fantastic! And such a great person. May he live another 100 years!

I liked him from the first moment on. Together with Diz, Max,he was one of the few key figures of bop who were still alive and active in the 70´s. Most of the Dexter on record was available on the Steeplechase label, all those great nites from Montmatre of the 60´s and early 70´. So, I somehow "grew up" listening to Dexter. Me and some of my youth friends. Always looking at tour schedules, festivals, etc. just to catch him live. I love every aspect of his playing, his sound, his laid back phrasing, the way he developes his solos, just everything. Even my wife - not a jazz fan - can listen to some of his music, and she always said he has such a nice smile, even when he was quite old he had that kind of boyish smile.

Well I wouldn't say loudspeakers sound hollow to me, but I also noticed, that yesterday I heard the sounds better from the car speakers than at home with my big speakers. But it also depends on the sound, how the album was recorded: For example: In the morning hours I drove my car and heard Wayne Shorter's "All Seeing Eye". Now you know that's RVG sound, and Joe Chambers on drums, really nice I heard all the stuff he did, almost could feel how the sticks touch the cymbal, and all the drum gimmicks how he reacts differently to Freddie, to Wayne, to Herbie, how he "creates sound and rhythm". Later in the evening I tried to listen to music at home and chose the "Red Clay" Freddie Hubbard stuff. It was much harder for me to hear Lennie White, and I mean HEAR what he does. But maybe that's also the producer's touch. In this case, allthough it's also done at the RVG Studio, it's a Creed Taylor production, and above all reissued on the japanese "King" label. I think, it was somehow "darker" recorded. Only when I went up with the treble, it got better for my tastes. HeadPhones might be a solution, but as they say about Blakey. I have to feel it from the bottom also. Well yeah, a good hearing aid costs a fortune, yesterday I talked to a friend (not musiclover but quite deaf and 15 years older than me) and he also said take the best one. You pay 2400 bucks and the health ensurance plays the other 1600 (800 for each ear they say). He told me it's worth it and I'd not be happy with a cheaper model, if I want to hear music also.

Thank you so much, Larry Kart, Dan Gould, and impossible! Yes, I will have to do it. Well, I didn´t have problems with my job, since I´m lucky to be in the position to tell people to talk louder, rather than hide behind my problem or worry about my job. But I think I got it settled, will make another visit to my audiologist and then to a good dealer and try out the best stuff, which is almost invisible and I´m confident things will be better. Now it´s still in the planning phase since I´ll have my vacation after two weeks and until then I´m too busy, but looking at it rite now I´m lookin forward to get an improvement. And yeah, I dont care for backgrounds that much, but I´m a drum addict. Whatever kind of jazz I listen, I have to hear what the drummer does and how he sounds, how Bu sounds, how Max sounds, Elvin, Tony, Joe Chambers, all of them, give the drummer some.....

Hi! I´m starting to have serious problems since my hearing, which never was the best, starts slowly disappearing. I never cared about that, since I never needed to hear the high frequences. Jazz usually does not touch that ultra high notes I can´t hear, like a violin high up or a piccolo flute. I don´t care for a violin or a piccolo flute, but now I got about 50% in the rite ear and about 40 % in the left ear. What really sets me up is that I start to have problems to hear everything the drummers do. On some records I got to get very near to the speakers to hear the ride cymbal. And the sound of the drums, I mean the whole sound of the drums is the most important thing for me to enjoy music. I manage to hear quite well drummers who really play loud and hit the cymbals the way Blakey would have done it. Tony Williams, I can hear everything he does, but if somebody also got the same problem, does a hearing aid help to catch all that sounds I start to miss? I never thought about it, but a few days ago my ear doctor told me I should think seriosly about gettin a hearing aid. I fluffed it off, but after some sleepless nites and turning up the volume higher and higher I start to think about it. Reminds me about Art Blakey, he had the same problems and I wonder how he managed to play at the end. Did he "feel" the music from the stage vibrations?

Hello JSngry: Thank you for sharing that video with us. You made my day. Great think, wow! Hello BigTiny: Must have been a wonderful experience, Kai Winding doing a high school clinic. Fantastic!

After Eddie Lockjaw Davis had died, Red Holloway who used to play with Jaws came to Vienna quite often. I remember him well. Very good musician, and such a nice guy. Once I took a person who before that was unfamiliar to jazz, to the club to catch a show with Red Holloway and he sure liked it.

Brad: Yes, I did listen to Bill Harris. the first time I heard him on record was the WNEW Saturday Night Swing Session, where he is featured with Fats Navarro, Allen Eager, Charlie Ventura, Buddy Rich and others. Heard some good stuff with Flip Phillips also.... BillF: Yes, great outfit. Also got a DVD of one of their concerts.....

thank you so much, Brad! It took me some time to think if that story could be worth reading. You know, my knowledge of English is quite limited to the half forgotten school lessons, and a lifelong reading of sleevenotes from jazz albums, biografies on musicians, or talking to musicians if I am lucky....

thanks for your answer, king ubu, and good to hear other opinions. Well that "Kai Winding too" has become something like a personal play on words, if you like. But nevertheless, maybe it´s just that little rough sound that I dig. I heard it first on the live dates from Royal Roost, and like it on that early studio recordings like "Bop City", and above all on his solos with the Giants of Jazz, his solos on "I Mean You" of "Tour de Force" really knocked me out. Bennie Green, yes sure, I like him. But I must admit I don´t have much more as a leader than his 3 BlueNote albums. They good stuff, makes me happy listening to it......yeah, the very very.......slippery trombonist .....Benny Green...

Hello! Maybe some of you remember a thread I had started on the „Discography“ forum , titled „Mingus Question“. It was about the last session on which Mingus played bass in a studio, his group augmented by Lionel Hampton who produced the album, an Woody Shaw, Gerry Mulligan. As I had noticed, on of the tracks „It might as well be spring“ didn´t sound as belonging to that session and I got great help from you, telling me that this track actually belongs to the Kai Winding album „Jazz Showcase“, also recorded in 1977. You also were so kind to give me a track list. So I wanted to purchase that album since I love the way Kai plays, I was lucky to see him playing at the Viennese Club „Jazzland“ with a great local trio (Fritz Pauer, Bert Thompson, Fritz Ozmec) about the time when this album was recorded. That was one of those great evenings, where I finally met that great musician who´s trombone I had enjoyed on some bop sessions with Tadd Dameron at Royal Roost, on the Jay&Kay albums and last not least together with Diz, Stitt, Monk on the „Giants of Jazz Tour“. So, that special album brings some great memories back, it was recorded around the time I heard him and the track list is like a typical set how he did it on club dates. He even manages to play a fine version of „Epistrophy“, is great and strong as ever on faster tracks as well as playing beautiful soft on ballads. Beautiful memories: I remember during that time I was just about finishing High School, and I enjoyed to have that reputation of being a jazz expert. Jazz during the second half of the 70s was much more popular than now even among very young people, who – maybe starting with some more popular „fusion“ stuff like Return to Forever, Headhunters, Billy Cobham-George Duke and last not least the electric Miles, just began to dig into fine, timeless acoustic jazz, names like Rollins, Joe Henderson, Dexter, Griffin, Diz, McCoy Tyner, the more straight ahead playing Archie Shepp etc. As I told you, I had that reputation of being a first hand information to other kids at school who started to get interested in jazz. I remember a boy from one of the lower grades. During intermissions he would try to meet me and ask me questions about the musicians, would ask me to give him tapes from LPs I had collected etc. Since he liked the trombone so much, once I taped that „J.J. Johnson-Nat Adderly“ Yokohama Concert for him and from then on I he´d hum the theme of „Horace“ and „Walkin“ all the time. Once he asked me to come into his class room and believe it or not, he had carved all the names of the musicians (Miles, Rollins, Mingus, etc. ) into his school desk, and in big letters there was carved: „J.J. Johnson is the best!!!!!“. Few days later, Kai Winding was in town. I told my young fried „watch out, watch out, if you like J.J. Johnson you might like Kai Winding also“ . Naturally, he was underage and couldn´t get to the clubs, but I was 18, had got my first car and could do what I want, especially going the jazz clubs. So, the next morning at school I´d tell him how it was, how great sounded Kai Winding etc. He just nodded, intermission ended and everybody attended his classes. The next day, that boy again asked me to visit his class room, and believe it or not, under that carved „J.J. Johnson is the best!!“ I could read the carved letters „Kai Winding too“. The boy hadn´t even heard him, but trusted my opinion, just picking up another name of a jazz great. Can you imagine that kind of high school live nowadays? Did it happen? Anyway, yesterday I got my CD „Kai Winding Jazz Showcase“ , and before listening to it, I looked at the cover and said…more to myself „Kai Winding, too“. My wife: „pardon?“ and I just said: „well that´s simple to understand: J.J. Johnson is the best, and Kai Winding too!. My wife, who´s not really a jazz enthusiast, gave me that sweet smile and said „that´s it, as you say it….well….enjoy your music….“

As has been mentioned above, you can download a free app for whatever device you want to use (e.g., tablet, computer, phone). Here's the link to the book from both Amazon and Amazon.de. Both have links on the right side to download the free reader app. http://www.amazon.com/Wail-Life-Bud-Powell-ebook/dp/B0079NR9IC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329863417&sr=8-2 http://www.amazon.de/Wail-Life-Bud-Powell-ebook/dp/B0079NR9IC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329863247&sr=1-1 So if you have an Amazon account, the app will link to any e-books you buy, as well as public domain works that are free through Amazon and Project Gutenberg. Thanks Pete! actually I knew the amazon link, I got an amazon account since I purchase my CDs, books and DVDs from amazon which I do since we don´t have record stores anymore, about since 1999 or so. Actually , I was aware about that forthcoming "kindle" book about Bud and I had a look at amazon every day to see if it´s finally published. Well, the other things, "download a free app" etc. it´s all greek to me, but I got somebody who will check it for me. I just purchase the stuff and he will fix it for me so I can finally read it... What can I do? All I know is the music, that´s the important thing....

I also got a mail yesterday that the book is finished. I must admit, until I heard about the book as being released as a kindle, I didn´t even know what kindle is. I also must admit I like to read a book in the traditional manner, the way I read since I can read. But I´m such a big fan of Bud I got to get this. Since my knowledge of all that "modern stuff" incl. "kindle" is zero, I got to get an advice how to do it, how to order, how to use it, anything. I´m lazy learning new technologies, but I´ll manage it with the help of someone I know. But as I said, if it´s for Bud.... I´d do anything....

Now that you say it I remember it very well: The lineup during march 1980 must have been George Adams, Joe Ford (I hadn´t heard his name before, the only Ford I know is Ricky Ford who was with Mingus few years before) and that "mistery violin player" John Blake. I said "mistery" since I wasn´t really aware of violin players, something ´bout the sound that I couldn´t get with, ....but that violin with McCoy was cool. Yes, I also remember how I saw Fambrough a few month later, it must have been in autumn 1980 with Blakey (with Valery Ponomarev, Billy Pierce, Bobby Watson, James Williams!) : And believe me or not, I remember how Blakey announced him as "composer, arranger, bass player" (Bu introduced everybody like that, but with all due respect to Fambrough I doubt he might be remembered as a composer and arranger, he´s a helluva bassplayer and sure rote some tunes, but "composer, arranger" ....not really) . And Blakey made some remarks about Fambrough former with Tyner. Blakey´s comment about "wanted to play some JAZZ" is typical Blakey of that time. I think he didn´t like the more popular 70´s evolutions, the succesful Milestone Albums with that wider range of music. Blakey then believed that Jazz must be just straight ahead hardbop like "Blues March" and "Moanin´" maybe. But I heard him do quite open and "free" stuff also with a later edition with Blanchard and Harrison and those guys.

Thank you jay2b2! So....I was right guessing that it might have been in the late 70´s . I´ve read much about that 1978 concert at the White Houses. Mostly in context with Mingus, but also with Diz, Dex, and Cecil Taylor.

Hello! I had the possibility to listen to a broadcast with Dexter , Dizzy , George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams all together on stage, doing fantastic versions of two extended tunes "I Remember April" and "Caravan". I have no idea when and were it was recorded. The only thing is I suppose it was in the late 70s, Dizzy still had great chops, Dexter is just Dexter the way I love him most, and the rhythm section is really cooking, sounds very exiting like those V.S.O.P concerts. I think that was one of those very rare moments when a "dreamband" was put together, I don´t know whether it was planned or just happened. Couldn´t find discographical sources or informations, I just suppose it might have been somehow around 1978, deducing from the way they played.

Car accidence. That´s what I heard. By the way: Another bass player from the Farmer family is Julius Farmer (el-b), I saw him once on stage in 1979 with Larry Coryell. I think he was announced as a nephew of Art Farmer.

Yeah, that´s the way how he did it. A topnotch musician, he had it all.

I first heard him on that Miles at Antibes album and it became one of my favourite albums. I saw him once in Vienna around 1979 with about the same group as his famous "Amsterdam at Dark". Hilton Ruiz on piano, Billy Higgins on drums (I was a huge Billy Higgins fan) and I think Ray Drummond on bass instead of Sam Jones who is on the album. George Colman was in his prime when I saw him, like everybody else I saw during that time. All those great tenor players, Joe Henderson, George Coleman, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, they all were in their late forties, early fifties and playing on the peak of their powers, so I really heard some music. I remember George Coleman played a lot of music from his "Amsterdam" album, his latest album, and he was great, and his sidemen too. And he was such a nice person.

Miles did a session with Stan Getz in 1950: Miles, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Tadd Dameron, Gene Ramey and Art Blakey : Conception, Max is Makin Wax, Woody´n You, Ray´s Idea, and Old Black Magic (with Stan Getz featured)

In the mid sixties: Maybe Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Roy Haynes? And about Miles after his comeback 1981: Well I like that band with Mike Stern, and I´m not necessarly a patriot who would push people just because they from my country, but .... the austrian guitarist Karl Ratzer.....he got it all, I often wondered how the Miles from the early 80´s would have liked him. Dave Liebman, well he was with Miles in 1973/74, but I would have liked to see him back with Miles after his comeback, at least for a period....