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Is it possible that he was not so well known in European countries, or was he more popular for a certain community of fans than among musicians ? During my jazz education it seems that he was not mentioned, and I didn´t see his records in the collections of fellow musicians/jazz-lovers. I have not heard about the mentioned other members of that trio, not the bass player, not the drummer. I think I saw him on a festival schedule in Austria in the 80´s and until then I didn´t even know him. As much as I try to remember it was quite nice chamber music jazz, a bit of latin touch, I don´t know who was the personnel, but I remember an electric bass player who played a bass with two necks, and got the most solo space. Lewis´ statements where shorter inputs, but I think the crowd was spending very very much applause to that electric bass player.

incredible. Yes I remember, on that old Savoy disc "Fats-Kenny-Bud-Klook" I heard that fine baritone and wondered who he is and why he didn´t record further with bop stars, let´s say with Diz, with Tadd, with all of them..... It seems there were musicians you once heard on a record, like "Leonard Hawkins" on that old Savoy disc "Dexter Rides Again" , and wonder what happened to them.....

I had on several occasions dreams that I am on stage and have hand gloves so my articulation is not clear and while playing I try to take them gloves off but don´t succeed. Or I dream that there´s something funny with the keys, like if there is a blanket over them and I try to finger out my stuff but it doesn´t come off.... And long ago I dreamt I got a call that I have to make a one nighter with Al DiMeola and it was during the time of RTF. Well the music I was used to play might be acoustic jazz, and I wondered what will be the set list and if I know the tunes or at least can jump on it by listening.... During the time I played with an electric jazz/funk-jazz group sometimes the stuff I actually composed came out of a dream. So I think all the jazz dreams have been and will be about me involved in music.....

I just saw there is an Al McKibbon discography too. I had not known that Al McKibbon recorded under his own name. That´s really a rarety among the classic jazz bassists of the 40´s (Mc Kibbon, Tommy Potter, Curley Russel and Gene Ramey I think were the most recorded bassists then. I only once found to my astonishment a disc of Tommy Potter under his own name (hard funk in sweden). They all were strong bassists, better known for their sidemen roles than for own soloing. McKibbon had a strong tone and can be heard very very well on the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, I think he also recorded "One Bass Hit" as a solo feature with the band. I also like his strong, boppish sound on "Giants of Jazz" and his solo on Tin Tin Deo (I think it´s only a Dizzy-McKibbon duet).

I never saw so many Sonny Stitt recordings. I must admit my Stitt-discography is quite scarce. I heard him very very early when the record dealer recommended it to me since it has Bud on it and as all Bud records I like those most who have a horn player added. The Verve Years was not necessary what impressed me most. I think I heard one "Stitt for Starters" once at a friends place and he was delighted when I recognized Freddie Green on guitar. He had the record but had not read who is on it and when I said "Freddie Green is playiing" he looked at the personnel and said "f.... yeah !" The only time I saw Stitt live was in 1980 and I had caught a bad night. I witnessed a very ridiculous thing, about the way I had read only in "scandal story books of jazz" like some bizarre stories about Bird or Bud when they were completly stoned or drunk.....hard to listen to and hard to look at..... Shepp at Massy I have. I think I bought it in a small bus at some jazz festival where they sold records... I still have not understood what it is with Bird playing Afro Cuban. I have the quite weak "Fiesta" on Verve and I have some air shots of Bird with Machito on a Spotlite LP, and there is some little compositions like "Barbados" which is latin influenced but gets into swing as early as the solos start..... So what´s that unissued concert of Bird playing Latin only ?

One of my favourites especially for all his outputs of the 60´s, first as Miles´ saxophonist, and then as a leader. Fantastic. I didn´t hear much Shorter in "Weather Report" but might re-listen to it eventually. I had all his great compositions in mind when I saw him again in the early 2000´s but for me it was a bit harder to listen, it sounded a bit more like ECM-like music... I don´t remember I heard him talkin live , he was introduced by Joe Zawinul even after he had left Weather Report.... He can be heard commenting his time with Miles on some Miles documentary film, but he is not such a rhetoric speaker as were others. And the introduction of the book about him, where it starts with a conversation between him and the author it´s quite hard to understand it.... I´ll always love his music.

Very interesting story. Geoff Keezer I think was one of the pianists of Art Blakey´s Jazz Messengers. I think I heard on album, it may have been Art´s 70´s Birthday and Keezer sounds very fine. "Scene is Clean" is an album dedicated to Dameron - tunes ?

I must admit I paid attention only to the musicians I know and saw live, (Cobham. Clarke, Deron Jackson). I had not heard about Larry Carlton I think, and sure I have not heard about one "Najee" and sure no "smooth jazz". Thought it´s a solid jazz-rock formation. I must admit that I liked Mulgrew Miller much more as a pianist and Tony Reedus more than Victor Lewis. Steve Turré was in the Woody Shaw quintet I saw, and Stafford James was the bassist. That was one of the hottest bands. From the first half of the 70´s I was listening to all Miles I could find, the first quintet , the second quintet and the then current electric band of 1973, and did spread my knowledge thru buying the records of the so called "sidemen" also. Schizofrenia was my first Wayne Shorter album and I loved it and still love it, the first tune is a really catching tune, the fast "Schizofrenia" is similar to the stuff on "All Seeing Eye" and there´s a beautiful ballad on it as well. A wonderful album. I bought this quite late, I think in the early 2000´s when it came out on RVG. After "Schizofrenia" this is about the most exiting, best thing I heard. So much energy, it´s fantastic and the soloists are fantastic, one of my favourite albums of the 60´s. I like Schizofrenia and All Seeing Eye much more than "Adams Apple". This record was easy to purchase in the 70´s when most 60´s Mingus albums were available on the french "America" label. I was a constant buyer of "America" LPs since they were easy to purchase in Europe and were cheaper than let´s say CBS, BN or Impulse! . I bought this one after the great Paris Concert. From the original Mingus band only Cliff Jordan and Danny Richmond were left, so it was cut down to a quartet. I had never heard the name Jane Getz and had thought she might be the wife of Stan Getz. The music is fantastic. It´s even more "far out" than the version of Fables of Faubus from the Paris concert. Here it is titled "New Fables" I think. The then available America Albums of Mingus, besides the "Great Concert" and "Right Now" were "Mingus at Monterey" (then I thought "Monterey" is the English name for "Montreux" 😄) , "My Favourite Quintet", then the two old albums "Mingus Quintet with Max Roach", and "Chazz", as well as the then brand new 1970´s albums "Pyticantropus Erecturs" and "Blue Bird"......

Two heroes of my youth (Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham, and the last keyboardist of Miles. Must sound good.

Yeh, lukewarm reviews. The worst thing I ever heard was a LD record on BN from around 1974 with that mixture of studio band playing backbeat stuff. I had bought it since I had thought it is a newer album, but after one listening I literally threw it into the garbage can. The "Blues Walk" and the Japanese interest: YEAH. I had heard they had some tea houses were they did spin jazz records, and Japanese folks were crazy about BN stuff and hard bop, and "Blues Walk" as well as "Cool Struttin" were big hits over there. The last time I saw Lou live he had a Japanese Girl on organ, she was fine, and a Japanese drummer. But it was very simple drum style, the way it´s on more than one BN records with organ.....,

I missed that, I think when this came out the only Lou Donaldson on record I knew was from his session with Monk. He seemed to be quite a "forgottten Man" until the end of the 70´s . I heard him at least 3 or 4 times, two of them with Herman Foster on piano. He is great with them heavy block chords, but that´s all, he does it great, but that means that almost each tune get´s into that direction. That´s why I like the "Lou Take´s Off" with Sonny Clark much more than all the stuff with Herman Foster. I would have liked to hear him with another pianist in the 70´s or 80´s , maybe Cedar Walton or Kenny Drew... But I still remember the first time I saw him on a festival , he played "Cheek to Cheek" in a very fast tempo. I love that and I love to play it too. But I saw only a shorter part of the set, because like those huge festivals are: At the same time in 3 different halls there was Jackie McLean, Lou Donaldson, Pharoah Sanders, and I had to hurry to catch something from each one, I think I spent most of the time listening to the Jackie McLean group, little time (just that tune) Lou, and still enough time to hear some very fine Pharoah....

So I´m not alone with my impression. I had that "problem" with allround studio bands quite often. I don´t like the Big Band on Charlie Parker on Verve "Temptation", it sounds more like movie music from some typical 1950´s films. I have my thing with Big Bands: I love the Eckstine Band from the 40´s , the Dizzy Big Band , the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis, the Sun Ra Archestra, that´s some big band sounds that really thrills me.

I think I have that early Art Blakey. Is it possible that there is a strange version of "Tin Tin Deo" on it, with vocal and it sounds similar to the "Tin Tin Deo" we musicians play, but is more "traditional". The Ammons/Stitt combined with what I´d name an ultimate "dream band" (Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins). I think they also recorded as an own unit and named themself "Magic Triangle" . Fantastic Rhythm section, I have the live sessions with Cliff Jordan, and I think "Eastern Rebellion" was the same, but with another Hornplayer. And they recorded on Jackie McLeans last studio album "Nature Boy", but with another bass player, I think Sam Jones had died....

I have lost traces, I was a subscriber when I was very young and DB was my main info who is playin in the wonderful NY, the dream of us jazz playing teenagers.....

I think some late friend of me had made me a tape from this record. Is it possible that there is "Alexander´s Ragtime Band" on it, and "Cheek to Cheek" ? Recently a bassplayer with whom I work next week mentioned it. My eternal answer was, yeah, the voices great, the tunes nice, but the orchestra is too polished. But Cheek to Cheek is a wonderful vehicle to play or to blow on it, and very recommanded to more advanced students, to learn to play enlarged song forms, not only the usual 32 bars

Thank you ! That Miles in Espanol might be something I might purchase. Seems to be something nice. About speed-corrected albums. I think I bought those albums in a time when no speed correction was done. I purchased the Roost sessions via LP where the first session was not speed corrected, as well as I bought the Bird-Fats-Bud "One Night at Birdland" with a speed that sounds like a semitone up. Same was with the Bud Powell - Johnny Griffin encounter on "Hot House". But during that time I didn´t know that something can be recorded with higher speed. If I taped my playing or an LP with my cassette recorder it was always the correct speed. So I frankly believed that it´s not at wrong speed recorded, but PLAYED in a unusual key, just a semitone up. I have perfect pitch and if I hear something, I know what tone , what key it is what I´m listening, so I thought "wow, he can play so fast in F-sharp" and tried it out on my own instrument, having in mind that a good musician should play in any key. What hard school of self-learning, but not in vain. About moving from one album to another to not be stucked in a mood: Your suggestion is a reasonable one, but let´s say if I play a gig, you got the instrumentation, the set list and don´t change the players or the complete style with something else. We keep the set lists as variable as possible, having medium tempos, ballads, latin tunes, up tempo tunes and takin´care they all are in different keys. If I listen to an album, I think mostly about listening to a concert. Much of the stuff that I listen to if I HAVE the time for it, is live recordings of concerts, and it´s hard for me to listen to something completly else afterwards. It´s like the festivals in the past. Too much switching from one stuff to another for me. And as a player festivals are good money but the rest can be quite a mess, not enough time to stretch out, and anyway you seldom have the time to listen to the other acts too.

I wanted to read a bit more about Tadd Dameron´s most fruitful period, those 39 weeks at Royal Roost, but in the Paul Combs - book there is not much more than basic infos. I was pleased much more by the book about Fats Navarro, where the recorded tracks (broadcasts) are very well described.

Something I want to say about Billy Eckstine from my point of view as a musician: I really learned much about playing ballads from listening to Mr. B´s versions of it. All those fantastic things "I want to talk about You". "A Cottage for Sale", "All I sing is Blues" "Love is the Thing", "You Are my Everything", "Without a Song". To hear it sung by Mr.B, to learn a bit about the lyrics so you learn what you must know about a ballad, and also very important for me as a piano player: To dig the chords of the arrangements, the intros to the ballad. As was mentioned in the thread about a composition by @AllenLowe in "Miscellanious Music" I also like to play ballads not too slow. Some play it so slow it´s almost standing time, but you get the attention of the audience much quicker if you play it at the speed it was played when it was created and performed. I also listen to some versions of Nat King Cole, not that I like him more than Mr.B and his band, but it´s also very good for learning more about ballads.

I think I have both sessions of early Bud on a double LP from the 70´s titled "Best Years 1947-1964" . I think I remember the 1947 titles were recorded a semitone too sharp, so that "April" sounds like played in Ab rather than in the regular G. What I think is that Bud´s famous ballad style still was not completely developed. On "Everything Happens to Me" there is much more arpeggio. The best ballads are found on the 1953 session, above all "My Devotion" and of course "Embraceable You". And those wonderful faster tunes like "Woody´n You" and "Bean ´n the Boys" (I play Bean ´n the Boys quite often, it´s a favourite of mine but on jam sessions with youngsters you find that there is not many guys who can play the changes of "Lover Come Back to Me" (on which "Bean ´n the Boys" is based) if they don´t have sheet. Miles Espanol: Is this a record made after Miles´ death ? Might be interesting if it has a bit more modern sound and instrumentation than the original. But I admire you guys who can switch so fast from the mood of one record to another style. If I hear a record it creates a certain mood and it´s hard for me to switch from this to something that has another mood. Like reading books. If I finish a book and it leaves a certain impression, I have to take a break to read the next book...... As for the Rollins spinning those days: The first time I saw Rollins live was exactly after this record was done: Indeed a fine record, but when I heard it first about 2000 when it came out as RVG I think it was a bit too late for me to really enjoy it. See: When I was in my early teens, everything with Philly J.J and Paul Chambers was top for me, since my first record was "Steamin´" , but this one was done in the early 60´s when other musicians and other styles became predominant, so my first choice for KD in the 60´s is "Una Mas" with the then young talents of Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams...

Sorry I never know about the provenience of a certain disc. I have some from Japan when they were in the record stores and not available as indigen editions, but I really love the music itself. I think I had that BN-LA-Double Album of Herbie Hancock which had material from all his 60´s session. They all are great. This one is a special rarity for the participation of Hank Mobley, so the personnel spans from old masters to young lions of that generation (Tony Williams) . As much as I remember, besides the great title tune (strange for me that it is lesser known than Watermelon Man), there is a lot of older styled straight ahead stuff also on it. Just when I purchased it in my teenage years, I spinned it very often, especially that very very fast version of "Walkin´" at a high volume, to fully enjoy the sound, the sound of Tony Williams and all that..... During that time I stayed at my elder sister´s place when she had called a craftman to fix something downsteps. I didn´t know there is somebody else, but later in the evenig my sister told me "you know.....that craftman..... he liked what you spinned. While working he always said "wow......great music you have here ....". Those were the days when there was a much bigger audience for our music.... One of my all time favourites. So I didn´t know anything about any religion, this music has a very moving quality for me. I cannot and could not listen to such stuff every day, since I have to study more what will be played, but if I have the time and the patience, I love to listen to it. Love the sound of it !

i saw McShann in the mid 80´s, very fine

Sorry to hear that. I haven´t hear Ricky Ford since 1977 when he was with Mingus. The funny thing is that first I was disappointed that it´s not George Adams, but as soon as I heard him, wow........, he could play all styles, from pre bop sounds to boppish and the thing one or two steps beyond......, just great ! I love that early Art Blakey Messengers edition , and some of the compositions still can be heard "Mayree" , "Quicksilver" and the one that´s based on "Lover Come Back to Me" (Mayree is based on All God´s Chillun Got Rhythm". The Miles DAvis Quartet on Prestige: My favourite "Quartet Session" is "Musings of Miles" which seems to be a pre-birth of the first classic Quintet.

Those Gaskin Papers are wonderful ! I never saw photos of Leonard Hawkins (the trumpet player on the Savoy Session of Dex with Bud), the misterious Ebenezer Paul, Clyde Hart, of the early Eddie Lockjaw Davis and all of those great musicians. Never in my life I would have thought that there is a photo of Miles Davis having fun with an acoustic guitar. I wonder what he would have played....maybe some "Spanish Keys" ?

Is it possible that the bass player and drummer are the same like on some "Bird at the Hi-Hat" from the same time ?

Yes, me too ! I saw Schnitter only with the late 70´s Art Blakey Messengers personnel . Actually, this was the band that brought Blakey back to top billing after some difficult years in the early-mid seventies. He really can play, very very soulful, I think I even heard a version of "Georgia on My Mind" where he sings the tune, and I think the coda was a slight imitation of Leon Thomas. Dave Schnitter really looks cool. Somehow very similar to my brother in law (also black curly hair). So I would have liked to know more about his ethic background ? Is he a darker type of caucasian, or is he a light coloured afroamerican like Jackie McLean was ? I mean, it´s the music that counts, but nevertheless, I´m quite interested in ethnic backgrounds too since me myself I am a mixture of 3 or 4 different backgrounds 😄