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Gheorghe

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Everything posted by Gheorghe

  1. A very very good book. And it´s really into Paul Chamber´s music. The author really took much effort in it and reviewed almost everything that Paul Chambers recorded as a leader and as a sideman. Very very good writing.
  2. It must have been in the days before I got acquainted to jazz, that I may have heard one or the other song on radio. I think I heard the first jazz in 1973 (and saw Miles late in that year), so this must have been ´71 or ´72, there was a radio hour "The Big Ten of ORF3" were you could rate ´em . It was on Saturday and be sure on Monday, again at school, during intermissions we all discussed what was spinned. That´s were I heard Ike´n Tina Turner. I think we boys heard what we considered "hard rock", in any case not the soft side of pop music, it had to be "hard" and "loud". This is my only sure musical memory of non jazz music , or maybe the local "gipsy music" you´d hear at weddings, at restaurants etc. .....
  3. oh really ! I loved Tommy Potter´s bass in the bebop era. Those were the days when a bassist had the hardest work playing a whole night all them up tempos when there were no pickups for the bass. None of those unsung heroes was known for extended bass solos, but if they got a short spot it was good and had substance. I think there was a Parker CD with some live date at Café Society where Tommy Potter plays a solo version of "Talk of the Town" in course of a ballad medley. The album he made under his name, in Sweden is fine, but the title is confusing: "Hard Funk" would fit for 70´s electric jazz, not for an acoustic album. Nothing specatular here. It´s something of "Americans in Europe" with Freddie Redd, Joe Harris and the best swedish trumpetist Rolf Ericson who even played with Bird. My CD of it has the studio session plus a live set at some concert. oh thank you so much. I never saw this photo. Must have been a wonderful guy this Mr. Rossbach and it must have been a great day in Koblenz. Only that I still don´t understand, why the fastest guys played almost exclusively ballads. I love ballads, but I think one of them in the course of a set is enough. You don´t play "Can´t Get Started", "I Remember Clifford" and "Round Midnight" one after the other. Oh boy, the foto below must be the Oscar Peterson Trio. That sh....eating grin.....arghhh The only one I have is the Sarah Vaughan set. Would be a good idea to have all the music from Ronnie Scott on individual CDs, I mean so many great ones played there over the years, so something like those CDs live from "Onkel Poe" in Hamburg from which I have a lot of them (all with the exception of the not strictly jazz events).
  4. Somehow a somewhat strange concert. I have the CD that has both volums of the original LPs, omitting the Oldtime musicians, keeping only the "modernists". It´s strange that the Don Byas-Idrees Sulieman-Bud Powell unit played only the eternal "All the Things You Are" and 3 slow ballads. So there is not real range of tempos, those guys are supposed to play more fast tempo stuff and maybe one ballad during a set. And it is strange that they didn´t add Kenny Clarke who was their regular drummer in Paris. The organ player "Lou Bennett" is nice, it seems to be somehow in the vein of Jimmy Smith, but.....I´m not an organ specialist. The music of Bill Smith is quite nice, but somehow sounds very unusual to me, And actually I don´t know much about it or the musicians. Someone told me that Bill Smith was Brubeck´s horn player for many years, but Brubeck again is not a musician I´m really common with. And it´s really strange that this European concert happened in Koblenz, which is a nice town but you are supposed that some big event like this is in another bigger town like Berlin, Koln, Stuttgart or Essen, main jazz centers in the 60´s in Germany. It´s also strange that it was recorded by Impulse, a strictly American label I like very much because it´s involvement with Free Jazz, with late Coltrane etc. This must have been exactly when I heard George Coleman in Viena. Same personnel. But in Viena they played mostly originals from their latest album "Amsterdam by Dark". "Blues inside Out" is a composition and title tune of a contemporanous album by my own mentor Fritz Pauer. So it is possible that Fritz had given the sheet to Coleman here in Viena. It was 44 years ago, but I remember I was with Fritz Pauer at that concert, and Mr. Coleman announced him and urged him to sit in. Oh boy, those days that formed me.
  5. Oh yes, now I saw it. He plays some great bass on that ´69 concert in Paris, but it seems that he had remained quite obscure. Same with the drummer Paris Wright. Philly Joe Jones is great there. There is a nice interview Monk with Jacques Hess, a french bass player. And I liked most his answer when he is asked which of his compositions he likes most where he says "I didn´t rate them" . The end of the contract with CBS must have been a bitter experience for Monk. I think it was the same thing with Dexter more than 10 years later. CBS dropped him and I think something like that really hurts. He wasn not the same anymore after that, like Monk before.....
  6. Wow, Dewey Redman....would have sounded interesting. I didn´t know that Wilbur Ware played with Monk in the later years. I think I heard him on record with Monk earlier in the 50´s. Who were Monk´s later bass-players. For a short time it was Dave Holland that sounded good, then I think it was Larry Riddle if I remember right. On a 1969 video there is a bass player with a scandinavian name who I never had seen or heard before, and a kid on drums, who is not really ready and they don´t keep the time. I think some tunes became faster and faster during the solos.
  7. Another Sun Ra related saxophonist comes to my mind: Pat Patrick. I´m sure he played with Monk since he is mentioned in some liner notes, as he played some nights with Monk. Patrick also played bari, right ? Anyway I would have liked to hear more of the Monk with more avantgarde oriented players. Monk with Cherry would have been wonderful for me, and not to forget it´s mentioned that once Beaver Harris played the drums on a gig Monk had. I don´t know what period it was when Pat Patrick played with Monk, maybe after Rouse had left and before he got Paul Jeffrey. I think I would have preferred to hear Patrick.
  8. 100% agree with you ! I wrote in another context with some live Miles at Newport or Plaza, that Adderly is just not my thing, but to avoid to make "enemies" I stated that this may be a sacrilege. I have that strange thing with alto players. I like Jackie McLean, I like Jimmy Lyons, Donald Harrison, and yeah, I bought the BN "Somethin´Else" and while listening I said it is great because it´s supposed to be great, but I can assure you that I have listened 100s of times to other alto players who just appealed more to me. Yes, you are right: "Billy Boy" is rescued by Philly. Otherwise, I love everything Red Garland did, but beneath the tune that sounds banal to me and is to much piano-showcase, the sound of the piano at least on my old LP copy always was with too much treble.
  9. Great suggestion, dear Bill ! The very very first jazz tune I ever heard in my live was "Milestones", once heard "Milestones", hooked forever ! But I didn´t have the album itself. My first album I could purchase was "Steamin´" . I had asked at a record store about "Milestones", and during that time you got a strange look, if you wanted something from the past. There were many Miles records, but they were those pop art covered 70´s albums, it was in 1973. But one thing I can say. Miles, Trane, Garland, Paul, PhillyJ.J. became my heroes. Maybe like for most chicks it would be some actors or what they dig. Anyway it was in the pro-Travolta-era😄 The drumming of Philly on Two Bass Hit is fantastic. As well on "Salt Peanuts" which was my first drum experience from "Steamin". When I finally after years got the album "Milestones", I had known the title tune anyway, so I concentrated on the others and 2-Bass - Hit was a highligh, as well as Dr. Jackle and Straight No Chaser. But I think my favourite, or the favourite among my friends was "Sid´s Ahead", especially Trane´s solo ! And the Miles-chords comping Trane. Somehow in my gang it is strange that Cannonball got less attention. We all were Miles-Trane-Philly-boys. A pro pos boys.....the tune "Billy Boy" just the trio never appealed to me. Somehow it sounded silly for me as a tune, and it was just too much banging piano. I liked much more the more controlled way Garland played on medium tempos, that light thing alternating with block chords, but not the square block chords, but them hip Garlandish-voicings.
  10. I think I´m more an outsider if it comes about more easy listenable jazz. So much stuff that was celebrated by different fans all over the decades (Mulligan, Brubeck, mainstream swing, soul jazz like maybe Ramsey Lewis and Adderly stuff in the style of "Mercy Mercy" just didn´t enter in my collections. I´m glad for everybody who likes one or the other style of jazz, that´s true. Just, that to my ears or to my maybe more complex personality the more "easy listening" kind of it doesn´t appeal. I want Bop´n Bird/Diz, Mingus, Trane, Ornette, Jackie McLean or from the seventies mostly the electric Miles from 73-75, and most of all , all them fantastic drummers who would thrill me, Max. Elvin, Roy Haynes, Al Foster, Tony Williams and so on..... That´s not a good example for comfortable evenings, but that´s my musical personality. I did some years of listening to easier stuff like fifties hardbop, those BN´s of the Messengers, Horace, Hank, Lee Morgan, but have not listened much to them for some years...., and maybe the only organ I love is Larry Young.
  11. Johnny Griffin was the first US-musician I heard when I was around 15 and the story repeated itself when my younger son also heard him when he was 15, so it´s almost a family affair ... I love to listen to Griffin, but he is not my absolute favourite on tenor. Very much showcase, that´s true. Very very nice those two albums at Five Spot, really ! But for star saxophonists who had short tenures with Monk, I like Trane better. And for strictly Monk, which is my main purpose I love Charlie Rouse most, for his sound and for his phrasings because he really seems to be Monk´s alter ego on stage. For really getting inside Monk I prefer Charlie Rouse. Paul Jeffrey not as much. After Rouse he seems to be a disappointment for me. I heard extended live sets of Jeffrey with Monk from 1972 and 75 but Jeffrey seems to have a complete different style. I was not familiar with Jeffrey´s playing until then, had heard about him only from the years when he arranged for Mingus and sometimes was added on tenor in the studio, but I think without soloing....
  12. No, it´s another album or another cover. It doesn´t have Monk
  13. That´s why I said it will be a sacrilege what I will write.
  14. This is my favourite Don Byas album. It´s a fantastic experience to hear this vintage bebop set with the sound of Don Byas. And he doesn´t just play the bop themes, he creates his own brand of bop solos with his very individual sound and phrasings. On "Antrophology" he even quotes Bud´s "Wail". The rhythm section is also very fine.
  15. From the music it is quite similar to another live recording from Newport, also with Trane and Cannonball. I think I remember that Miles is barely audible on one track, maybe it was "If I Were A Bell". Maybe this is a sacrilege what I say now but from the saxophone I always have been listening mostly to Trane. Somehow Cannonball in that context didn´t get to me the same way Trane does. I don´t know what it is what I don´t like so much about Cannonballs alto style, he is a topnotch player and all, but....... (?). I think in my case I would have liked to hear that sextet with Jackie McLean on alto.
  16. Yes, I also saw that video and had thought it is the same material as the Copenhagen Coda . Well, I can compare directly. Compared to what I heard and saw in the same weeks this is very good and I think plays much better and looks better. When I saw that embarrassing performance from the same period, Dexter was shabbily dressed, no suit, no ties, and an extremly short performance, and it was a big venue, it was the Viennese Concerthaus, the audience really remained embarrassed and disappointed.
  17. Oh that sounds great !
  18. I just ordered both albums of Hubbard´s Keystone bop. Keystone must have been a fantastic venue. I think I have a few albums that were recorded there , one might be an Art Blakey thing "In this Korner", one is a fantastic Pharoah Sanders, I think for a short time there was also a Dexter Gordon album from Korner, and I read somewhere that Mingus also performed there, but I don´t think there is an album.
  19. I finally ordered it from Discogs. I´m curious how it might sound since I had seen Dexter in early 1983 and it was not a good night. It was difficult to look at and listen to Dexter on that occasion. I later purchased on from Vanguard also from 1983 that is a bit better than my own experience , so it remains to be seen if this one is a better night.
  20. Great ! I must get that Steeple Chase album. I didn´t see the Mingus Epitaph, but saw Mingus live twice, but heard Ronny Cuber only on Mingus last album "Me Myself and I" and "Something like Bird", but this is more blowing session .
  21. I listend to this one yesterday since I wanted to hear a recorded version of "Daahoud" which is a fine tune to play, I love the key and the changes. This is wonderful stuff, that version of "What´s New" and "Lover Man" . "April" is played at a very very fast tempo, IMHO a bit too fast. But it´s sad that the piano is barely audible. It´s clear it is just an amateur recording, but others even from earlier years, even those early Minton´s jams have better recording quality and you hear the piano and the bass. From those fragments I could hear from the piano it seems that Bud´s little brother sometimes got his ideas from his big brother, but doesn´t seem to have that unique "touch" that Bud has. And sometimes he sounds more like Elmo Hope. Sonny Rollins sometimes is a bit subdued on that album, there are fine examples of good drumming of Max Roach, the drums is quite well recorded . But some stuff is just too fast played for comfortable listening and playing. 52´nd street theme IS a fast tune, and I think the way Bird or Bud did it up tempo is very enjoyable, but here it is over fast, so the bassist just cannot play a walking line at that tempo. I think George Morrow was a very good bebop bassist. His solo on "Lover Man" is wonderful. After Clifford Brown´s death I think he had settled in the L.A. area and became the mentor of a musician, who himself is my mentor.....
  22. I didn´t buy this when it came out because I was afraid this is a sampler and I bought only individual records, but now I think I would have liked to hear that last Tadd Dameron session with Sam Rivers on it.
  23. Too bad I didn´t buy this when it came out. I hate reading when all pages fall apart. I think about two books I would have liked to read. One of them is this one, and the other is the book Teddy Reig wrote about his time as a "Jazz Hustler".
  24. I started smoking like many of my buddies from that generation quite early. The first cigarettes at 13, and regular smoking at 15,16. That was the times. I quit in my early 20´s for 2 years, during a very very short marriage, when she was pregnant and stopped smoking so I also stopped. But that gaining weight was really bad. And it was also during that time that I caught colds even during spring or summer, and I was not a very well person. I wouldn´t say necessarly that this was due to non smoking but anyway. My first affair with a wild girl after that marriage was over.....I remember the shared cigarrete "after" , and I was on it again. One thing I have done: From 2 packs the day in my youth I reduced to the cigarette after meal, between sets, and of course after makin love. I stopped any kind of alcoolic beverage more than 10 years ago but I never was a strong drinker (with the exception of the usual drinking contests as the dumb teenies and twens we were) . And by the way: You read daily in newspapers about violence due to alcool, brawlings, beatings, abuse of women and all that. I never heard that someone got violent after smoking a cigarette.....
  25. I love it so much and it was a key record for me. Max Roach, together with Philly J.J. and Danny Richmond were my drum heroes when I was a young boy. I was so exited when I finally saw Roach live, an event I´ll never forget. It was shortly after I had seen Mingus, had seen Dizzy so I could say then that I had seen at least 3 members of the "Massey Hall Concert" in my early years. Roach did a 3/4 version of "Round Midnite", he did "It´s Time" and "Peaceful Heart" and solo "The Drum Waltzes" and "Mr. Hi Hat". The next day I bought the record. Mine has another cover than yours. Most stuff sold here in Europe was on that French Label "America"....most of the Mingus albums for example.... For me it was like "Mingus Family" since this Roach album has Cliff Jordan AND Mal Waldron, two musicians I had associated with Mingus since I had them on record with Mingus.
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