Gheorghe

Thank you for your help !

Maybe @Michael Weiss can tell us more about it ? I never saw a picture of the older Hank Mobley.

Oh, the Belgrade live set I must have, also for the Dizzy quintet stuff. I had seen the green album "Tour de Force" in a record shop but didn´t buy it since I had some doubts about it: First, in 1969, that George Wein All Star "Giants of Jazz" did not exist, it was a band from the early 70s. And Al Gafa belongs more into another context, he is a leading voice on let´s say "Bahia", Dizzy´s Latin album from the 70´s . The Title "Kush" is a later Diz composition and I don´t think that it was on the "Giants of Jazz" set list. I have this also, it was in the record store somewhere in the late 70´s or so, or early 80´s . I have it also on USB for listening in the car and I love it. All those tunes are great and it´s wonderfully recorded (I really play it loud to hear Blakey´s drums). But nobody knows when it was recorded. One of my very favourite BN albums of the 60´s . I like all those really powerful modern stuff albums they did in that decade, let´s say Wayne Shorter´s "All Seeing Eye", Don Cherry´s "Complete Communion", McCoy Tyner´s album with Joe Henderson, and so on. I never listen to the more easy listening albums they also made, and all those different more obscure organ players that followed after Jimmy Smith´s leaving the label. The only organ I can stand is Larry Young´s , he does not play that typical "Hammond Sound", he plays modal jazz and plays with the guys, the heavy guys like Sam Rivers, Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and above all Elvin Jones.

somehow I never could find this. It was for a short time on a mainstream label called Concorde or so, but I never saw it again. I would like to have it since I heard that they play more Monk tunes here. Strange that on the cover photos all musicians seem to be photographed during that time 1972, but the monk photo seems to be much older. As much as I remember, Monk with the Giants didn´t wear a hat anymore. But he still plays in a very creative manner and seemed to respond enthusiastically to Diz composition "Tour de Force" and "Woody´n You".

I am from the generation where jazz rock just started and still there was that air of NY avantgarde. Trane was just dead for 4 years but there was Pharoah Sanders, there were Ornette Colman, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor , Sun Ra and all of them whom I loved. Some of the Free Jazz got smoothed a little like "Karma" "Live at the East" and there was a lot of hippie style audience, who loved this and loved early 70´s Miles. I got acquainted to Jimmy Giuffree only as late as 3 years ago when my wife picked a fine live album from Graz (I think a Hat Hut release) and it was a birthday present. She just had seen "live" on the cover and bought it. I must admit, that it´s a very very fine album. Maybe I must be in a certain mood and have time, mostly on long winter evenings, than I love to listen to it very attent on what happens. I would not buy much more from that stuff, but it has a good place in my collection.

One of my favourite McLean albums. From LD´s BN records I think I like this one most, since it is more the kind of "jazz" that I like. I like his first album, this one, the omnipresent "Blues Walk" (for easy listening) and his sideman playing with Cliff Brown and Art Blakey and the Jimmy Smith date with also Blakey, Mobley, Donald Bird. Many others seem to be outright smooth to me with lesser interesting drummers, or tons of albums with organ...

I don´t hear no banging in Monk´s music. He is rhythm, and what some call banging is sounds. Do you think a snare or a ride cymbal or whatever is "banging". It´s jazz, man. And Monk always has a little story in his compositions, he has a lot of musical humour and also really deep stuff. And even my wife, who is not really a jazz listener likes Monk, she says it´s so natural to hear and watch him on videos (which are the faster acces to music for not so really fans). I heard Twardzik only on some old records, I got to dig Baker only from 1978 on. Twardzik sounds very academically to me, something like twelftone or so. It didn´t give me the happiness I get when listening to Monk. Sure that´s a question of taste but I think nobody who becomes alive when he hears Monk thinks about his playing as "banging".

Great statements ! I have not been reading jazz books lately, but I can say I bought Art Taylor´s book as soon as it came out. I think the interviews were done during a time that was quite a bitter times for most of the interviewed musicians (late 60´s early 70´s ) . I was quite astonished about the angry Johnny Griffin, whom I always knew as a very optimistic man. I had seen both Griffin and Lockjaw so many times in my live . The answers of Jaws seem to be an insult on the mentality of a sensitive and creative musician. It reads much more the points of view of a clerk with an 8 ours job. But I love Jaws for his specific style, from all mainstream musicians he might be a favourite of mine, especially if I want to hear some easy listening relaxing music just to have a good time and fun listening. Gordon ? I don´t remember that Dexter Gordon was interviewed for that book ? I don´t have "Swing to Bop" but I have "Jazz Masters of the 40´s" since I was a bop-newbie and it was my source of informations. During my youth I had the chance to do a trip with the "Orient Expres" to Elvetia (Bazel near the French Borderline) and that´s where I found that book in a bookstore, and also found some of the rarest things that otherwise wouldn´t have been available for me (the Xanadu album "Bud in Paris" and the "Mingus Changes 1 + 2). I like the way Gitler writes. He must have been almost a kid when he was a regular of the 52nd Street venues and knew all those musicians personally. From his book I also learned more about Bud Powell, who then was a secret spirit to me who practically changed my live regarding to piano though he was a completly misterious person, one about elders rumored that he was a "difficult and abusive artist".

Sounds like a lot of former sidemen I saw in varous groups: Gary Smulyan I think I saw as a leading bari-soloist in Woody Herman´s Thundering Herd. I saw Dennis Irwin with Art Blakey´s Messengers, Kenny Washington many times with Johnny Griffin, Dick Oatts with the still real "Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band" (1978 shortly before Thad Jones left for good). Now that I see him on the pic, he looked the same then 45 years ago !!! Since Bird was one of my earliest musical influences, I should have some of his LPs (Savoy, Dial, Verve, the Massey Hall Concert and 3 Columbia albums of live broadcasts from Birdland) , but this one seems unknown to me. The photo seems to be the same like the painted picture of Bird on the cover of the Columbia release "One Night at Birdland 1950). I´m not a collector of remainders or false starts or studio talk, but if it is some live set with a good group (not a moment´s pick up with players unfamiliar with Bird´s music), I might buy it.

Yes, it´s strange there was such a long gap after "Changes". During those years I was buying all new albums of musicians I saw live, and there was two years of no new Mingus album. And then came 2 in one year. At first hearing I was also a bit puzzled about the use of fusion guitarists like Larry Coryell and most of all, I didn´t understand why they used a second bass on some tracks (with all due respect to Ron Carter, but his interfering with Mingus´ fast walking bass on "Nobody Knows" is just disturbing. I still remember the live performances of both "Three or Four Shades of the Blues" and "Cumbia". But I think I remember "Cumbia" was releast a bit later so I wondered what that tune is, which Mingus announced as "something from a Movie Score we just recorded". The live versions were more exiting than the studio versions !!!

How is it ? I only have Richard Cook´s Blue Note book.

I´ve seen Ed Cherry on so many occasions with Diz, or great records he made with Diz. The last time I saw him live was a few years ago, it was a Dizzy Gillespie Memorial band lead by Diz´s bassist John Lee , it had Candy Finch on drums, the son of Mario Bauza on percussion (or was it the son of Machito ?) , and trumpet and alto sax. Such a great concert.....

I have a black Miles Davis sweater from the early 80´s and I still wear it. And I have a black long-arm shirt SUN RA which I often wear, but not on gigs, where I prefer casual business, but when I go to a club just to listen....

It´s written in Mr. Peter Pullman´s book "Wail-The Life of Bud Powell". As @T.D. said it, it refers to substance abuse. It´s documented in many letters that Bud´s mother Pearl wrote to Oscar Goodstein. The very last meeting between them two happened when Bud during his 1964 schedule at Birdland missed a show and went out on his own to search Elmo Hope, were he went to Elmo´s old adress in the Bronx, where he was told the new adress in Harlem and Bud managed to get there in very bad shape and was brought back to his hotel. That´s what I have read.

ESP covers somehow the zeitgeist of my youth. Sun Ra´s "Nothing Is" was one of my first LPs , like the "Ornette Coleman Townhall". And though they were on the forefront of avantgarde, they had a deep respect for Bird, Bud, Lady Day, since besides the avantgarde albums they had rare live stuff of Bop Artists. Somehow for all modernists of the late 60´s and 70´s Bird was a hero. But I might admit I´m not a real collector. Some of the stuff here I might have, interviews are not so interesting for me, and I listened to this music more for learning the tunes and how to play in that style, so I limited it to more essential commercial Savoys and Dials or some of them....

I really admire Elmo Hope, he was not only a great pianist, he was a great composer ! But maybe his live was one of the tragedies of post war jazz. And people who were near to Bud Powell said that Hope was "Bud´s worst friend" . there are also reports of an occasion where Bud wanted to visit Hope very late in both´s lives.

indeed ! Same here. I bought the DVD-documentary since my wife was interested in seeing his live, but she also stated without any statement from me "not your kind of music or piano style". Are they doing a fast version of Conception in Db ? I love that tune. Early this year a Spanish trumpet player was visiting Viena and sat in in the second set and called "Conception" and counted it of in a quite fast tempo. I was delighted to do it with him. First I was afraid of him because he had such a mad look and very strange stage behaviour, he was loaded with some harmful stuff and that scared me, but the playing was tops and he loved what I did too. This spring I had a very interesting discussion with Mr. Peter Pullman about the tune "Conception". He is sure that it was not George Shearing who composed it, but Bud Powell. Bud loved that tune too, and Mr. Pullman says that Al McKibbon who was working with him or/and Shearing at Birdland had told him that. He said that Shearing had stolen the idea from Bud. I can´t confirm it, but it´s so fitting for Bop musicians with those fine changes and you got some knowledge about improvising to master it.

I think if it is about completists or non-completists, I might be the most non-non guy on this board. In any case I don´t need more than one album from a certain period, I have from the early days a 1) "Mingus Quintet with Max Roach" (a misunderstanding by me when I bought it, since I had hoped that it has TWO drummers , I mean Willie Jones AND Max Roach together, and was quite disappointed that it is a pretty fair straight ahead thing. I have 2) Blues and Roots, 3) Black Saint and Sinner Lady, 4) The Great Paris Concert 1964, 5) Blue Bird (very very weak and disappointing), and the Atlantic recordings each of them since I have been a huge Mingus fan since the first half of the 70´s and enjoyed the times when you bought each year a new record from your idols whom you saw live. I nevertheless think I understand Mingus´ music. I heard other stuff at somebody´s places too, and saw Mingus on TV and above all saw him live, and more than that, checked out his voicings on certain tunes, playing some "Mingus" on piano, and in my youth as a part time contrabassist too, and though the bass fiddle was never my main instrument, I practiced hard on it and astonished some bass players by doing "Mingus like" solos on the bass. P.S: I had to google Taylor Swift, one positive thing: Her´s a woman who wears pantyhose , I like that.

Very fine, but I must admit, from Tadd´s two Prestige recordings I like "Mating Call" even more. But both albums are very fine late Dameron. I think he didn´t record any more album after that with the exception of the "Magic Touch" which I don´t really like. Who are the all star guests ? I think I heard that they also recorded with Mingus and Monk in the early 70´s .

Well, in my case it was 1964 with the touring band Dolphy, Jordan, Byard. And this was only my 2nd jazz LP (actualle a 3 LP-set) that I owned when I was a kid. But you are right, my second Mingus LP was something my mother bought for me "Wendesday Night Prayer Meeting" and it gave me similar fascination, maybe the Dolphy material exited me even more, but Wendesday Night Paryer Meeting still remains my favourite earlier Mingus Stuff. But don´t forget I´m from the younger generation and Mingus was top billing when I was young. That´s the two musicians I heard live in the 70´s: Miles (electric) and Mingus, every hipster here in Vienna mentioned Mingus. I´d say Mingus was a main inspiration for my musical developement.....

But the point should also be Dexter himself. Yesterday I listened again to that record and again I say it´s some of the best latterday-Dexter I ever heard, if not the best. Cables, well with the exception of his f.....ing up Dexter´s ballad featurs (mostly "More than you Know" and "As Time Goes By"), I might say he is really a grooving and swinging pianist and his solo on "Moment´s Notice" from a private recording from Vanguard that I heard, is amazing, like his own "I Told You So". The best Cables I heard myself was a Dizzy All Star Quintet" (Diz with Harold Land, George Cables, Herbie Lewis and Louis Hayes), and it started with a trio tune, "I Mean You", which he just had recorded for Timeless (the album "Four Seasons", Cables with Hutcherson, again Herbie Lewis, and Philly J.J. ). Dexter´s alcool abuse may have deteriorated after his comeback in the States (like 12 years earlier Bud Powell´s !), but he had better rhythm sections. Now Europe has fantastic bassists and drummers, but back in the 70´s it was still hard to find a bassist or drummer who could be equal to N.Y. rhythm sections. As I said, I have a special scepticism with the "eternal" Nils Hennig Osted Pederson, he had a hell of a technique, but to sound and the beat cannot equal to let´s say Buster Williams, Stafford James, John Heard, and here David Eubanks. And drummers, it was also very difficult to find good drummers in Europe. I can imagine how Americans in Europe, though enjoying a more comfortable live, were longing to return to the States because after some times it must have become boring to not have good rhythm sections..... well, Alex Riel in Danemarca, or Tony Crombie in Anglia was fine..., but Eddie Gladden is top.

Thank you ! I had thought later because from the Paul Chambers bio "Mr. P.C." (very good book) Chambers was in the trio until very short time before his death. I think the one that I have with George Coleman, also from Baltimore was after P.C.´s death. But I fear, that Wynton Kelly after his great times of success, recording mostly as sideman for great labels in the early 60´s became quite low profile, he still played fantastically, but due to other patterns in jazz it seems to have become out of fashion then.

When and where was this recorded. I have a "Clear Day" with George Coleman on and obscure LP, not well recorded. It must have been after P.C.´s departure, since it had Ron McLure on bass. Late 60´s ?

Considering the octet: The only time I saw Woody without the Herd was in 1985, when he came with an octet (Buddy Tate, Al Cohn and Scott Hamilton on ts, Warren Vaché on tp, Woody on cl. + one vocal (I got the World on a String), John Bunch on piano, an unidentified bass player (what a pity that the scheduled George Duvivier did not appear due to illness shortly before his death), and Jake Hanna on dr.

Hello friends ! I know there is a thread about that album on "New Releases" but since finally I had the time to listen to the album I thought to review it and recommend it for listening. First I was sceptic, since that period (early 1983) was the end of Dexter´s active playing career (with the exception of his film presence in 1985 and a handful of selected gigs as "Mr. Round Midnight", which were not recorded for CD. Their was a general report about his weak performances and how he had slowed down, and honestly, the set I saw in Vienna just a few days before or after the recording of this CD was one of the saddest memories I have in jazz. But, as an alcool-adicted bop veteran his situation might have been similar to the situation of the last performances of Bud Powell after his comeback to NY. All books about him describe that "depending on what day or in which set you caught him, he would sound wonderful or really sad". This is also documented in tape recordings from Birdland 1964, where he sometimes is great and daring, and others where he practically was unable to play. I think at that point of advanced alcoolism the artist may still give a great performance if he somehow could have been kept away from booze, at least before and during the concert. And.....my impression is, that this recording of Dexter in Copenhaga 1983 is just wonderful, I was just mesmerized when I heard it. It´s the most beautiful version of "More than you know" I ever heard, and his playing on the faster tracks is strong and sure and not even as much behind the beat as it was sometimes. His sound is great as ever and his inspiration the same, his talent to quote from other songs, his wonderful ability to build up the tension from the start of his solo to the end of it and so on. Dexter had lived almost 15 years in Europe, mostly in Copenhaga, Danemarca and his live and studio recordings mostly for Steeplechase are well documented. But what they miss, is a really good NY-ish rhyhtm section. Listening to NHOP on many occasions between 1964-76 can become tedious sometimes. He is ok while just walking, but his solos are just tehnical exercises with many clichés like those double grips with glissando, and even if he walks it does not have the pulsation which this wonderful bassist David Eubanks has. You don´t have to overdo it and get so much solo spot like NHOP did. I also heard on many occasions the first NY quartet with George Cables, Rufus Reid and Eddie Gladden. George Cables is a fine player, one of the finest of the post war generation, but maybe on ballads he always got into a certain schema which is not always the essence of the ballad. I like Kirk Lightsey better, especially on ballads. Eddie Gladden anyway is one of the best drummers you can think about. So, my opinion is, that 40,50 years ago American rhythm sections were much better than ours. You got to have that NY impulse in it, at least that´s how I feel it. Now in the 2020´s we have very very fine drummers and bassists here in Europe too, who really got it. A special thing is the including of "Hanky Pranky". I must admit I didn´t know it until I heard it here, since I´m not a big collector and have a few albums from each period, maybe the old Savoy and Spotlite things, 2 or 3 from the BN era and some live sets from the 60´s/70´s on Steeplechase. Listen to that "Blue March" beat , that Messengers Beat done by Eubanks. He is wonderful, he plays the bass in that more percussive way that I like so much, not that too long tone, you can´t do that if you play a soft "dooom dooom dooom dooom" on the bass, it got to be cut shorter "doop doop doop" to be a rhytmic element. So, this might have been one of the last occasions to hear Dexter in top form. Highly recommended by me !