Gheorghe

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 !

I have read it in the Romanian media, really sad news. I hope he can make it next year. But good that we have the best doctors down there.

I agree totally. That Night at Birdland was the first Fats Navarro I ever heard. Then I didn´t even know his name and had to try to read the liner notes when my English still was very poor. Those solos from about the last time Fats was on stage, shortly before he died are so good. I think on this double LP is more Fats than on the few studio albums he made, where due to the short tracks there are only short solos. On Street Beat, even when Fats thinks he´s done, a fellow musician shouts "Play Fats !" and he plays another chorus. There are some tunes where Fats is layin out (Midnight, April I think), but who can play "Dizzy Atmosphere" at that speed ?!. This was pretty 45 or more years ago I bought that and the next day I went back to the record store and bought the Savoy Sessions album and the Blue Note Sessions album which I still have of course. And the book about Fats Navarro is one of the very best jazz books I ever read, since it´s especially for someone like me. Written mostly for musicians, with transcriptions, and very good analysis of his soloes, his quotes from other songs etc ......

That´s true ! And the first vibe player I really was impressed of was our Tom Henkes. He is also a great drummer and yeah I played with him but as drummer.

Thank you ! As you probably know anyway, I am not really an audiophile. So I didn´t make that move. Most of my albums are quite old, at least those that was recorded decades ago like those Miles albums, those Trane albums, so the ones I bought then still have a special meaning for me. They sound good musically and each of them has it´s own story for me, in any case what it meant for my musical developement, so I fear I must say I never did re-buy albums I already have. And my collection seems to be large for non jazz folks, but as I learned from this forum, it is very small in comparation with others, who really collect the records. As musically active with the gigs I have to play I seldom find the time to listen to a record, but if, it is always a special event where memories come back, and gettin a new CD, mostly made by fellow musicians, is also something I can´t wait to find to time to hear it.

Oh I didn´t really realize that. Most of my live was in the 20th century, but I was not aware that the vibes was the typical 20th century instrument. I think, the vibe hype here in Europe startet with the Hamp-hype, when the Generation before me went nuts when Hamp did his thing in his concerts. The first thing I heard a vibe I think was Hamp´s version of "Stardust". Well I dug it, even or because the instrument sounded funny to me. But as I said, the vibe players I really listened to or bought the one or other record of them was Bags , Bobby Hutcherson, oh yeah and I dug Teddy Charles with his interesting stuff on that Miles-Mingus collaboration or on some Prestige dates. But as a player......I really got to ask my fellow musicians, who are professors at the famous MUK here in Viena , if there is any student who chose vibes as his instrument. On the other hand it must be a hard job to carry that instrument around. I remember that in the 70´s with that "world music voque" some guys took Marimba, but I don´t like the Marimba as much as I like a good vibe solo. A friend of mine who is a good drummer had switched mostly to "marimba" for a group that says that it is "Ethno Jazz".....

I don´t really know what that SACD really is , but anyway, musically speaking I love that record. I like male vocal much more than female vocal, though I love Billie Holiday. Those ballad singers from the bop era, Billy Eckstine, Earl Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Kenny "Pancho" Haggod, they all great and this is a wonderful record if I just want to close my eyes and relax.

Well yes, but Fats Navarro is always in the mind of those, who play "modern" trumpet style. As much as I love Diz, I think many following trumpet player until today could not be where they are if there had not been Fats Navarro. I love his music and know it very very well and have learned from his style (and I am a piano player). He was on one of my first LPs when I learned that there is somebody like Charlie Parker. It was this stuff Bird, Bud and Fats at Birdland, and it was some of the best stuff I heard, even if the sound quality was lousy. So, if I don´t think about that anniversary in a special manner , nevertheless I think I learned much from him and am so glad that he WAS there !

Yeah, I said to me some days ago that I might listen to it again. It was while I was listening to the newer RTF live stuff with Jean Luc Ponty where they do "Spain" and play "Aranjuez" in the intro, that made me want to spin "Sketches" again, but ya know that´s a thing I have to play when I am a certain mood into. Like ....listen to something that I don´t listen for "study", but only for a certain mood, which happens more in winter time. When I became a Miles Fan from the very start on and started to get a few Miles albums from pocket money, it was one or two Prestige, it was Miles Round Midnite, it was above all Miles in the 60´s with Herbie and Tony, and of course the than brand new "Bitches Brew". Sketches was always around, but I was not marture enough for it. For me then, it was too little action, I was not cultivated enough to enjoy something where I don´t hear them ringin cymbals and that strong traps work.... Now, as I said there are moments I spin stuff like that.....