Gheorghe

Love it and saw it played live by Mingus with Bob Neloms, Jack Walrath , Ricky Ford and Danny Richmond. Wonderful event. It was played a bit faster than the studio recording and I think that the record wasn´t out for sale. It came out a bit later, but Mingus announced the tune as "something they just had recorded ", and that´s from a Movie Score. The second side "Todo Modo" I think was never played live.

I would like to add to your collection this one : Spontanuity | Allan Praskin Quintet | Allan Praskin (bandcamp.com) It´s a wonderful version of that ballad and I also have played it with Allan Praskin earlier this year. Here it is in Db as I told you. Allan is my favourite alto saxophonist, my idol since 1978 and though I never was a student, his musical advices or just listenig to him on the bandstand is my most beautiful experiences.....

Steve, do you remember those Verve double albums. In our youth they where quite cheap and were not samplers, and usually united to original LPs. I think there were two of them of Bird, one of the earlier stuff from the 40´s to early 50´s, and one of the midfifties. Like Bud Powell: There was one Double album which united the first Verve LP with "Tempus Fugit, and the second with the solo tracks, and two trio tracks. And the second double album was the mid fifties sessions, where a small portion may have been a bit uneven...... I think it was a mode of the 70´s both for Verve and Blue Note to release them double albums. And for kid with pocket money or student with need of beer and cigarettes, they where not to expensive and had more hours of music.

"Crazy he Calls me" is a wonderful ballad like all ballads originally sung by Billie Holiday. We play it quite often and it is fine in D-flat, the key Lady Day sung it. It seams that it is not played very often. I heard Gary Bartz-Buster Williams-Al Foster do it, but I think they did it in F .

Well yes, I had or still have those 8 Volumes of individual Verve LPs, I think they were Japanese Pressing where the cover is a bit harder than on most national editions of LPs. But the strange thing is that they was not in chronological order. Vol. 1 was not the earliest studio date and Vol. 8 was not the last studio date. I think the first mentioned "Now´s the Time" and "Swedisch Schnapps" are the most autentic vintage bop recordings. Those together with maybe "Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter" are the ones where Norman Grantz didn´t interfere with the personnel and it seems to be Bird´s personal choice of musicians, who knew his music. On "Bird ´n Diz" , though I love it to have Monk on it, there are two faults on it: Norman Grantz choose Buddy Rich on drums. Why not Max or Art Taylor or Roy Haynes ??? And the tunes are not so interesting like vintage bop standards, it seems that they just were penned down in the studio or didn´t even have a "head" . "Relaxin´ with Lee" sounds like a good old blues in Db, but it doesn´t really have a theme. "Jazz Perennial" is also small group, but what drove Norman Grantz to add this "Tommy Turk" on trombone. From the few stuff I heard, he had a helluva tehnique, but musically it just doesnt make me feel good. Why didn´t he take J.J. or Kai Winding ???? If I must listen to Bird with Strings, okay then the earlier things like "Just Friends" etc., but one 1952 string date with "Temptation" , good as the tune is, it sounds like a movie score of some old black white kitschy early 1950´s film, and the "big band" just sounds like a square studio band", no musical tension like charts written by Tadd or Gil Fuller would be...... Facit: To really learn from Bird what I have to know about him, other labels like Savoy and Dial were much more helpful to me.

I agree with you on more than one point, even if I am not a Peterson fan and never was. But I don´t like drumless trios since I´m a drum addict and the first thing I consider if I play or go out to listen is about who plays the drums. But Peterson as one thing and no drums as the other thing is double punishment for me 😄, though I must admit I heard some stuff where he is not so selfih as usual and leaves more space for the others. That´s why strange to say my favourite Peterson record is the one with the Singers Unlimited which is strange for me since I m no Peterson fan and vocal jazz also is not my most secret love. From the Pablo records I like mostly the Eddie Lockjaw Davis with the OP-Trio, that´s a fine little record. I don´t have others. Okay I heard a Montreux Jam once but listened to it mostly because it had Diz, Clark Terry and I think also Jaws, but one thing about Pablo often is the choice of the drummers. They just didn´t use drummers that I like, for example Klook, Max, Philly J.J,., Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, Al Foster etc........

Maybe one of the last public performances of Kenny Dorham. His recording career ended much earlier and I think his last album was "Trompeta Toccata" Nickelsdorf is not far away from Vienna. I think the Sun Ra presentations from the late 70´s and the 80´s where more straight ahead stuff including and as that it might have been the more conservative performances on the mainly freejazz and post avantgarde festival Nickelsdorf. This one, and once the Max Roach Double Quartet. Joe Newman may have been a quite nice sounding pre bop trumpet player, but at least for us musicians in Vienna his unpleasant stage appearance, where he tried to lecture the local rhythm sections about how to play jazz was annoying and it came that nobody here in town would like to play with him anymore. There were other musicians of much more fame with whom it was a pleasure to play.

Great photo. Never saw a colour photo of Art Tatum !

When was this made ? I have only one "Charlie Parker Memorial Concert" from March 1965 which is not necessarly the best but quite interesting since it also features elder statesmen like Roy Eldrige and Coleman Hawkins, but that kind of fugue like piano playing of Billy Taylor on two blues tunes gets a bit on my nerves. On that night there was also a Bud Powell solo performance which is not on the record, I think it was published on an ESP album (Bud´s last album).

In my case, the boogaloo stuff doesn´t really exite me. It´s the Mobley on medium, fast tempo and ballads where I really can get inspirations what what I have learned. And yeah, the Prestige dates are not so exiting. With one exception: Those where he not the leader like "Tenor Conclave" and one that I think was led by Elmo Hope, which also has two tenors if I remember right. Though I think, "Three or Four Shades of the Blues" is a bit overproduced, it has a special meaning to me, since those Mingus albums came out when he was still alive and touring. Both "Three of Four..." and "Cumbia". I heard the title tunes done by the last Mingus group just before the albums came out. But then, it was just played with his working band, without all those guitars like on "Three or Four Shades of the Blues" or the etnic flutes, oboe and bassoon on "Cumbia". Both pieces in the live versions were faster and more exiting. I remember that Mingus announced them as tunes they just had recorded" and was eagerly waiting to find them finally in the record store. I never did understand why they needed to replace Bob Neloms with Jimmy Rowles just for those few bars of that little square piano solo waltz. On the live performance I saw, Neloms played it himself, he was a very good piano player and replacing him for those few bars seems to me like an insult of his person.

I wonder how Miles was in those years, where he still sometimes had to play with pick up local rhythm sections...... Somehow I have the feeling that it must have been astonishing easy and comfortable. If you could play and understood his music , it might be beautiful gigs..... It would be interesting what surviving musicians who played with him under such surroundings would tell, if there still are some alive. Like that Robert Reisner book about Bird, where a lot of people who played with him on few occasions said that he was very articulate and nice and helpful.....

oh, this one I think was the first Tristano I ever heard. I must have picked it up in my teen years. I was quite astonished since the title tune sounded almost like Cecil Taylor to me. Then I began to understand, what Miles had stated about free jazz, that the thing was discoverd years before by Tristano. There are also two long trio tracks from much later, mid 60´s I think, but it seems that Lennie never had the patience to play the theme. What he does on the faster tune is based on "You Stepped out of a Dream", as I remember. And if I remember right there is also some live solo tracks from late sixties in Paris, where I think he plays a version of "Darn that Dream"......

That´s interesting, didn´t know about it. I saw the Sun Ra Arkestra 2 month later and they were one of the highlights of the festival. Ra also played a lot of solos, but on acoustic piano. One of the tunes was Lady Bird into Half Nelson, and Ra played an almost Tatumesque solo introduction, great ! And his stride on the Fletcher Henderson tunes......., he really could play and most important, the Arkestra always was a gas...... I was a fan of him since my early youth, when someone gave me the ESP disk "Nothing Is".

I love Hank Mobley, his phrasings, his sound, everything. I think I learned a lot from him even if I´m only a piano player. But somehow I can´t listen to all of his records very often. Many of his lesser known 50´s records mostly from 1957 with their similar titles (Hank Mobley Quartet, Hank Mobley Quintet, Hank Mobley All Stars, Hank, Hank Mobley) are quite similar, the all are great little records but you won´t listen to them every day, + Same with his later BN´s from the mid sixties on. They all start with a more or less "boogaloo" first tune. This is a great record, no question, but if I might keep only one from that mid sixties period I´d keep "Dippin´". But too many of the mainstream mid sixties records of BN ran in the same groove. Starting with "Sidewinder" most started with a boogaloo in the hope to land another hit....

This is mine. I had heard Woody just around that time (1979) but without those stars. I liked what I heard, it was the last set of a three days festival. Remember still ,that I went there to see cats like Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, Sonny Rollins, Larry Coryell, Alphonse Mouzon, and even Chet Baker, but as a young longhaired hipster I was a bit sceptical about what would be "Woody Herman Herd". I mean I didn´t know, if an "old, all white Big Band" would be compatible with my tastes and conceptions then". But though I found it a bit straight and the attempts to play Chick Corea´s tunes sounded a bit ridicoulous to me, I nevertheless enjoyed it. So I bought this album, mostly because of the guests..... Usually I don´t listen much to those typical mainstream Blue Notes that came out in the 60´s . All those organ things, all those boogaloo things, not my taste, not the instrument, not the groove, but THIS one I like, because never did I see a frontline of non horn players, I mean organ, guitar, vibes. And the Hank Mobley tune "Turnaround" is the best from that groove I ever heard. I mean , I find it much much much better than Morgan´s "Sidewinder" and so on. Though my BN tastes are the Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard things, I still like "Let ém roll", if I want to listen to some more easy music.

It seems I have another one with another cover. It´s the Woody Herman Herd with guest artists Diz, Woody Shaw and Stan Getz.

oh very interesting, I would have liked to see that edition. In my case it was in the late 80´s and it was Javon Jackson if I remember right, and it was Peter Washington I think, but no Roney and no Julian Priester which I would have liked to hear. I don´t remember who was the trumpet player , the trombone player I think was a very young guy, but they all was great and yeah, Benny Green. The only white guy I had seen until then in a Blakey band was the Russian trumpet player Valeriu Ponomarev.

I like mostly those Max Roach recordings that come very near to the Max Roach I saw live, that means quartet recordings, in the best case with Bridgwater, Harper, Workman, that was the best edition I heard. The later Calvin Hill and Odeon Pope stuff was good too, but the sound of Calvin Hill´s bass was not so natural like Reggie Workman´s sound. And I don´t know why Roach later started to use an electric bass. Other albums have to little similar to live music on it. I think I have one that has Roach with a quite atonal sounding String Quartet, that sounds much more like western abstract music. And the famous "Double Quartet", well some of it is nice sometimes, but , of course it´s my fault, but strings sounds somehow "funny" to my ears in most of the cases......

Funny how I got acquainted with the music of Charlie Parker: I hadn´t even heard his name when my second of all jazz albums was a Mingus record with Dolphy with a tune "Parkeriana" with a lot of Bird Songs in the augmented bridge. This was my thing and made me become curious who is that man Charlie Parker. My first thing was the Savoy Mastertakes, really great, but my second Bird Record was that 1950 Birdland live session with Fats and Bud, and yeah.....live Bird is the greatest. So naturyll the third Bird I had was also with Bud, and with Diz from 1951 also at Birdland ! And then the Massey Hall Concert, again with Bud and Diz. But I had and have some difficulties if it was that recording tehnique that started with Dean Benedetti, I mean cuttin out the solos of the others. So my favourite live Bird recordings always will be complete sets or evenings, with a good group of musicians he was familiar with, from the NY scene. One great little thing I also like, also because it has all the solos of all the musicians is that old musidisc LP "The Happy Bird", but I dare to say that the musician who got the most attention from me here is Wardell Gray !

Ray Brown was one of the leaders of post war bass, maybe the greatest. I´m mostly interested in his work before he jumped on the "Granz-Wagon" , with Diz, Bird and so on. In his later years I had the impression that he turned up his amp on a very loud volume. I like a good bass sound, but I think that was a bit too much of volume for the bass. I had seen Benny Green when he was with Art Blakey. That was a helluva band, but most of us listeners here in Viena was quite surprised that a little guy who looked much more like a college boy plays so much piano, and fast and hip and quick. He was the surprise of the evening. I don´t really know about drummer Jeff Hamilton, maybe he worked in other contexts than what I usually listen to.

I can´t say I heard her often. But she was the big surprise for me and many others when she played with Joe Henderson Quartet 45 years ago here in Vienna. She was a fantastic pianist. Later I think I saw her once again in a strange setting with Joe Farrell as leader, where Chet Baker was booked as co-leader and was "great" in not showing up at all. During that set with Farrell, which was fine, but in no way compareable to Henderson, Joanne Brackeen also did some duo work with Bassist Clint Houston or I think that was his name. But piano-bass duo just isn´t my thing so I don´t remember much about it. No horns, no drums, that´s a bit hard for me.....

Since this thread was completly unknown to me and I don´t know what was the reason that it was brought to live after almost a decade, I just can say that I got to hear Charles Brackeen´s "Rhythm X" about 45 years ago at a friends place. This guy, as all my friends back then, was some years older than me and had a huge collection mostly of Free Jazz as most of my buddies. I think, everything that was round and had a hole in the middle AND had Billy Higgins or Ed Blackwell , Charlie Haden or Henry Grimes, and most of all Don Cherry on it, was in his collection. I was an Ornette-Cherry freak too and so he did spin "Rhythm X", which seemed to be an extremly rare record that I never had seen in the record stores. I made a tape of it. I think, it was so near to Ornette Coleman´s music, so I did and do like it very much. Since I eventually lost the tape (casette) or it got destroyed after so many decades, I re-bought the Mozaic box of Strata East recordings just for that one record. It was the only reason I bought that 5 CD set.

It was the first Griff I heard on record. I wanted to buy a Griffin record after I had seen him live the first time, but back them there was not much available, you know it was the seventies and you cound buy tons of electric jazz which is also fine for me, but many acoustic albums were OOP or the labels did not exist any more. The Blowing Session was on a two-fer album and had as the second disc the "Blowin in from Chicago" with Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore which was also cool for me since I had known Clifford Jordan from my early Mingus albums. Try to play "The Way You Look Tonight" at that tempo !!!! I did and somehow managed to get thru , it was the star of the evening who called it, right on stage and there we went....., I tried it later solo at home and it didn´t run as easily as it did on the spontanous thing on the gig..... I didn´t have sheet but knew the tune anyway from THIS RECORD.

I don´t know too many records or live tapes from Ronnie Scott´s . Once I did read a book, I think it was Ronnie Scotts autobiography or something like that. I mean, all those greats who performed there: Mostly tenor saxophonists if I think about it. I friend of mine, who was 5 years older, was in London when I still couldn´t travel and saw Dizzy there, he told me it was with the band with Al Gafa and all that stuff, that I think I have on a Pablo record from the mid seventies. Johnny Griffin was so great, and he traveled so much in Europe. So I had the opportunity to see him in different venues. Actually, Griff was the first US Jazzman I saw life, not in a concert but in a small club, with the Fritz Pauer Trio. Stan Tracey......sure he was one of the most important figures of jazz in UK. But somehow he sounds quite too individual if he comps for a more mainstream tenorist like let´s say Ben Webster. I also did read that some US musicians were not so pleased with his comping.....(Byas, Thompson)..... Anyway, I must admit that from all European pianists I heard over here, I liked Fritz Pauer most, and Tete Montoliu. IMHO they were the greatest European jazz pianists ready to play with US Greats.....

What a wonderful record. I bought it in the 70´s, but it has another cover, a colour photo of Max. It is on the America Label, which published most of Mingus´ albums. Since this album also has Cliff Joran and Mal Waldron, who had played many times with Mingus, at that time I really associated it with Mingus´ music, and actually it has some of that message. I love it, it´s one of my favourite records and about the same time I saw Roach live, one of the best musical experiences I ever had. I wonderful little album !