Gheorghe

very very interesting inside information. He must have been a quite difficult person. I´ll have to read animal farm too. "Ferma Animalelor" , I order my books by libris.ro or cărturești.ro to have much to read, I love reading good books........ I heard that "1984" was also a film made out of it, but films is not really my thing. I saw some films based on books, but it doesn´t get inside like if you read it.

I´m no real collector and have only stuff that was available then, like the Double Album of Savoy Mastertakes 1944-46, and the boppish "Anthropology" on Black Lion, but those 1947 things must be quite astonishing where Byas plays some vintage bop titles like he did on the Black Lion LP. I think I also have the "Don Byas and the Girls" somewhere under "forgotten or not spinned LPs" and I vaguly remember it didn´t really exite me, somehow a bit too tame, while "Anthropology" is really cookin´ . I was a bit disappointed that they just issued ballads, I mean Don plays "Clifford", Indrees plays "Can´t get STarted" and Bud plays "Round Midnite" and there is a quite half hearted and over played "All the Things You Are". So I would have preferred let´s say each of them play a bit more drivin stuff, and besides that of course a Ballad Medley would have been cool. I had not heard about Lou Bennett before that , well it sounds nice, like Jimmy Smith I would say,but nothin special. I didn´t know who Bill Smith and Bob Carter are and think it sounds a bit funny for my ears, maybe because it is more western sounding very white sounding kind of jazz....."

Oh, those Garland albums on Galaxy came out when I was playin already , so maybe I didn´t have the time anymore to buy many records or might have thought I already have one or two 50´s Garland LPs, whatever. But now I regret I didn´t buy them. Sounds like a dream team with that line up, all of them favourites of mine. In that year 1979 I had seen Ron Carter with Ben Riley and Kenny Barron !!!! The "lousy" bass recording sound you describe, may have been just Ron´s style, he was THE acoustic bass player of the 70´s and that bass sound was the sound a bass had . Acustic purists might have found it ugly and would prefer let´s say Ray Brown, but that was the times and I must admit I still like it on those 70´s records. There were many Galaxy albums that would have interested me. I think it was also some Sadao Watanabe with Hank Jones, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, and so on....., the only Galaxy I have is "Return of the Griffin".

Hello Friends. As early as in the very beginnings of my live long love for jazz , 50 years ago one of the early figures I heard on albums or saw live was Ron Carter. I don´t know if I saw Mingus first and Ron later or vice versa, but it was very interesting for me to compare Ron´s style with others. Let´s say, the post war bass masters like Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers and of course Mingus had horn like phrases when they did a solo. Paul could play lines that were deeply rooted in be bop and he excelled on Parker compositions like "Dexterity" or "Ah-Leu-Cha" or "Chasin´ the Bird" and played it like a horn, fantastic. Same with Mingus, no one before had played solo on such difficult ballads like "Sophisticated Lady" with such dramatic sense. And Ron Carter, well he had such a strong sound you could feel it in your belly so strong it was. Like all the stuff he played as a sideman or leader from a then contemporanous label "Milestone Records" . But his solos were more oriented on the bass notes, he didn´t use speed like the former mentioned bassists, he used space and brought some new sounds to the bass, like his trade mark glissandos, or the playing more notes with just pluggin the string only one time. And some of his solos were more diatonic than chromatic I think. And he did it with such ease ! A fascinating figure, long, tall. Another trademark of him seemed to be the use of the contra C . First I had thought he uses a 5 string bass which has the contra C string and it took me time to find out that he used an extension for the deepest string that´s the deep E. Another thing I observed all the years was his use of decimes. And a secret must have been his sound. Never found out what pick up he used to produce that specific sound you hear let´s say on the VSOP albums and which I also witnessed live. I hope I get some answers from you, from folks who also like Ron Carter. P.S.: I think I never was really a fan of the piccolo bass stuff, I refer exclusivly to his playing on the regular bass .

oh that´s quite an honour to get praise from an Englishman for English literature mostly since I didn´t know I can make interesting comments on non-musical topics 😄 Attack from the feminist-lobby ? What for ? For the description of the "anti sex ligue" where the female hero "Julia" is member. Right now I came to the point, where she breaks the rules and becomes a passionate lover and had arranged to play her role in the Inner Party with all them rules and restrictions, and with her personal sexual desires.....very fine and exiting, but I´m sure there will not be a good end of the story. That´s it, now I understand. Uniunea Sovietică exited long before other European States became part of that system. So it must have been Stalin. Anyway, the big moustache which Orwell describes as the face of "Big Brother" (in my book: "Fratele cel Mare" ), Stalin also had such a moustache. Stalinism was common also in other European states in the early 50´s . In the birth certificate of my fatha in law as place of birth is written "Stalin" because they had changed to original name of the city from „Brașov” into "Stalin" , and like I think in Hollywood they have the name of the City written on the mountain, it was the same with "Stalin" , to be seen by anyone who traveled there😄

Last night I dreamed I was lookin at a lake, standing there and suddenly I hear a piano which sounds almost as great as Bud, same touch, familiar bop phrases and saw a guy who was just very young guy whith still a bit of baby fat, eyeglasses and he was sittin in a boat that was passin´ by and he had a portable piano on it. I thought wow never heard someone else than Bud blowin on the keyboard on "Bouncin" with Bud", "Move" and all that stuff. I waited until he got off the boat and asked him questions where he plays and so, but he didn´n mention the great jazz venues I had supposed he might play , as much piano as he knew....., and I wanted to help him a bit, especially on playin ballads, cause I think you got to have some time to play and to live, to really feel a ballad ....., that´s when I woke up....

George Orwell´s "1984" , but since my beyond jazz-english is very modest, I bought it in romanian language. Not bad, and some things not just unknown to who ever lived in Eastern Europe. Them filterless cigarretes, where a lot of tobacco is runnin´ out before you lit the cigarrette, some brands still existed for one or two years after 89, organized stuff like Mai 1th parade, leaders whose photo was on all newspapers, corrected history, it seems that Orwell had a quite realistic imagination for someone who didn´t live in the East and wrote that stuff almost 80 years ago......

Great thing, and I think the first thing is a slo blues or it is on some of those Garland Prestige things with Trane and Byrd on it, anyway. But I have learned a lot from Garland about piano voicings. He was a master in that. And actually, he was the first jazz pianist I ever heard in my live, on my first LP (Miles Davis "Steamin´" when I was maybe 13 or so, I knew all his solos on that LP, was very impressed by those chords on the two ballads, yeah !

I fear I don´t have much of Jo Jones but what I have heard is great. And like Roy Eldridge he must have been decades ahead of his time. Heard both of them recently on the Mingus album "Newport Rebels" and Jo Jones sounds really like a modern drummer, not that old swing "doof daff doof daff" thing. Roy Eldrige is also on this, and I heard Roy Eldrige replacing Diz recently on a later "Giants of Jazz" album, with Monk and all of ´em and he is fantastic, that "The Man I love" , incredible.... I don´t have much of Benny Carter but it seems that he was decades ahead of his time. Heard him often on record in more modern jazz environments. This here I didn´t know. Seems to be a top rhythm section. Well, I´m not really accquainted to Doc Cheatham, I heard him featured on that Dizzy Gillespie 75 Years, where he seems to be featured on a slo blues, but it sounds a bit funny to my ears.....

I have the oringinal LP, it´s maybe my favourite Wes Montgomery, with Miles ´ rhythm section plus Griff, just a dream team.

Yes, this is perfect way to hear all Savoy and Dial tracks, just his most important studio work in his most creative period. And to hear them chronologically all master takes, not all those alternate takes and stuff. Before that I had the double LP "Savoy Mastertakes" but didn´t have all the Dial tracks since those "Spotlite" LPs were well meant but those many alternate tracks got on my nerves.....

oh that´s great !

Well as a frequent concert goer mostly in the forming years Mingus live was some of the most fascinating things for me. From post mortem Mingus I only saw the George Adams - Don Pullen quartet shortly after Mingus´ death playing some of the stuff they had recorded with Mingus, but in general it was too painful for me to learn about Mingus´ death . And now even me had a look on internet in this context and saw and remembered, that "Sweet Sucker´s" Dance" was on the Joni Mitchell album "Mingus". I have it but again it was too painful for me to listen much to it as I was so depressed by Mingus death and the surroundings how that album was made..... The last compositions of Mingus which still was written for the touring band and recorded and seen live was those large suites "Cumbia" and "Three or Four Shades of the Blues"........, and........Danny Richmond......oh yeah !!!!!!

I´ve been listening a lot to Woody Shaw´s live recordings in the recent weeks. I liked the saxophone of Carter Jefferson. I hadn´t known him before, since he was not anymore in the group when I saw Woody for the first time. And I mostly heard him with Tony Reedus on drums, who was fantastic. From the group with Carter Jefferson I think I have on from live in Basel

I have the CD. Well intended, but with all my love for ballads, I never did understand, why the vintage bop group plays here only ballads with the exception of a medium tempo "All the Things You Are". The things played by the white boys is quite nice, but a clarinet just sounds funny to me. I hadn´t really known who is Bill Smith or Bob Carter.......

When was it recorded ? Or is Mingus Big Band one of those bands that was after Mingus´ death ? Sorry for the question but I don´t know very much about post Mingus works on his music, since I still caught him live and he was my idol.

This was the second Mingus LP I had, it had the same photo but a silver cover. I love it very much.

Of course everything of Art Tatum. I have one special I like very much, it was done somewhere in LA in 1956, but as I said, I love every solo record of Tatum. And I love solo Monk, especially those tunes done in stride. There is also a rare Bud Powell solo recording on Black Lion titled "Strictly Confidential" where Bud plays a lot of stride....

It´s wonderful, just wonderful. One of my few vocal albums. I mostly listen to male vocals and like very much Johnny Hartman, Earl Coleman and of course Billy Eckstine.

I have "Natural Soul" , it´s a nice easy listening album but I have not spinned it for decades. Some of my favourite Lou Donaldson is where he is a sideman, like the Art Blakey Quintet at Birdland with Clifford Brown, and some other earlier BN albums led by Horace Silver or Jimmy Smith (A Date with Jimmy Smith Vol. 1 and 2 with Donald Bird, Hank Mobley, Lou Donaldson and Art Blakey). Then very much the album "Lou Takes Off" . In general I like most those kind of albums. Okay, "Blues Walk" is very nice, it´s more easy listening like "Natural Soul". I also have "Midnight Creeper" which is also quite nice, but that´s about the last LD I listen to. I threw a 1974 album in the garbage can, so weak it was. After his comeback I heard him often in a quartet with his former pianist Herman Foster, than the last time a few years ago with a japanes girl on organ....

oh, that´s bad news. I´m not sure but I had noticed that he had difficulties to walk as early as in the 80´s . I saw him many times from the late 70´s to the early 2000´s . The very best and most exiting gig I saw was with a stellar quartet with Siegfried Kessler, Bob Cunningham and Clifford Jarvis. Also very good was a concert with Ken Werner, Santi Debriano and John Betsch.... The last time I saw him, he played a lot of piano also. He did a version of "Ask me Now" that sounded so near to the original that if you closed your eyes you might believe it´s Monk himself who plays.

I think it is one of the best trio albums Bud made. It has much more of the percussive touch I like so much, than the sometimes listless albums he made for Verve or Victor in the earlier decade. He must have been in very good form in Europe. Alas I was only 5 years old when he left Europe for good. So I didn´t have no chance to hear him.

It´s interesting that you also have the Miles Davis "Blue Haze". I think I also bought this in my first period of jazz listening, since I loved Miles Davis (starting with his rough bebop sides of the late fourties early fifties, which was available on several Italian bootlegs - to the then contemporanous electric style with the wah wah like on "In Concert" or "Dark Magus"...) . I think I got "Blue Haze" after some of the classic "First Quintet" stuff like "Round Midnite" or "Steaming", but found it outright tame for Miles or other featured artists like Max Roach or even Charles Mingus on one track on piano. It´s an interesting compilation, but I think it was more a period of transition for Miles, where he did not know if to play so called "Cool Jazz" or more the hard driving straight ahead stuff he did with Trane). I think I also have the Jackie McLean album but don´t remember what title it had. Is this the one with "Bean ´n the Boys" ? Yeah, the Jazz Messengers also was very important for me, I got the "Bohemia" later, but I think it would have been top for me as a kid.

I love it !

I love it, it´s one of my favourite Joe Henderson albums. Around that time in 1979 I saw him live with a quartet that featured Mal Waldron. In late 1978 I had seen him with another quartet featuring Joanne Brackeen on piano. He always has remained one of my favourite tenor saxophonists, and he has two fantastic quartets here.