Gheorghe

That´s really a good ability your wife has . Not many listeners have that . Well it also depends on what is the chord progressions. If it´s one of those hundreds of tunes based on rhythm changes in Bflat it is easier to check out, but if it´s a standard with another form and maybe more chords in it , it´s a little more difficult for beginning. Let´s say, tunes based on "Lover Come Back to Me" or on "Indiana" , or if it´s a combination of chords, let´s say one standard in the A section and another standard-section in the bridge. Eddie Lockjaw Davis´ "Hey Lock" is a good example for that: "Body and Soul" in the A section, and "Lover" in the B section..... But that´s the audience I like most, people who really know what you do. But I love to play for all who enjoy the music. For me as a musician it is also very important to figure out what it is, what not musically trained audiences thrills on jazz. Is it just the beat, is it the sound, I mean if they enjoy it without knowing who is doin what. Maybe it is more like if I look at a picture. I may enjoy it but don´t know how it was done. I also have invested much time in gettin the sound that might move people if it´s a ballad. So it reaches them, it must touch them...

With Ron McLure..... I remember Ron McLure was with a Dave Liebman Group in the late 70´s, a fantastic group. Was Ron McLure the replacement for Chambers after Chambers had died. I have somewhere a Kelly-George Coleman think with also McLure on bass, sorry to say it is a terrible recording sound. So, was this a late Kelly album ? I like his playing very much, but mostly together with other players like Wes, like Hank Mobley and so on. Is Tom Barney the same who played with Miles for a short period (between Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones ?).

I´m not really a Basie specialist, but I always liked that Basie Beat with Freddie Green on guitar. Only, sorry to say there are other guitarists even now who try to copy that style of 4 beat chords in combo playing and it doesn´t have that timbre Freddie Green had. With Freddie Green you more "felt" it than you "heard" it. But if you turn the volume up and do it, it´s too dominant and it covers other instruments or forces other players to go into a certain direction they otherwise wouldn´t go into. You can do it as a kinda gimmick but not keep doin it in a modern jazz combo.

I like his playing on Don Cherry´s "Complete Comunion". Before I heard that, I saw that there were many records under his name in the jazz sections of the record stores back then, but I didn´t know about his name. I mean for then avantgarde tenor I was looking for late Trane, Pharoah , Shepp and so on, but the name of Barbieri was not much mentioned among those circles. Then I heard the "Complete Communion" and it became one of my favourite jazz albums when I still was a beginner, and said "wow, so much good tenor" , but somehow I had the suspicion that those many records he made some years later was another music, maybe not really my music.....

I think Barry Harris was the next thing to Bud Powell. I don´t have records with him as a leader, but many where he is a sideman.

I must admit I didn´t even hear "arranged" Monk. For me, Monk always was quartet with Trane, Rollins, Griffin, Rouse. I think I heard that the last CBS album of Monk also was some big band stuff that sounded quite commercial......

I must admit I have no idea about what label later owned what former label. Verve owning Impulse ? Sounds strange to me, I always had associated Verve with more easier mainstream jazz like Oscar Peterson, I don´t have many Verve albums. Some of the Bird und Bud albums on Verve are a little disappointing. Impulse on the other hand, I saw so many reissues of Trane on CD, so it´s quite astonishing that they didn´t the same on the two important OC albums.

I have not heard him but I think I remember someone told me he even played Mingus´ composition "Good Bye Pork Pie Hat". Maybe this was around the time Mingus himself recorded it with electric guitars.

I think I read somewhere that those recordings were not made by Dean Benedetti. It seems like that others had copied his thing of recording only the Bird solos. I think Jimmy Knepper made the tapes of some of that material.

A wonderful thing and beautiful Walter Bishop here. And it´s beautiful how this album starts with a balld (Ghost of a Chance, I think I remember). I remember there is a Griffin-Original on it that is called "Fifty Six" or something like that. A beautiful stuff to play and improvise. I had bought the album as soon as it came out. It was in 1978 and in spring he was still in Europe where I saw him live.

I think I remember some guys of my generation had this, it was two discs and obviously an European edition. They all said "bad sound quality" and I asked to borrow it for casette making, and I thought if I got thru "Miles-Dameron in Paris" or "Bird-Fats-Bud" at Birdland, nothing can be more worse, but it was. So I didn´t make a cassete . If I´m right it is, or was those two records, which was also as separate records on another label (I think the french "Amerika" label. It was "Bird on 52nd Street, very poor recording sound, almost only the Parker solos, and the other I think was "Bird at San Nicks" also with only the Bird solos. So maybe they made the double album out of those two. I was a Bird fan after I got accquainted to him thru Mingus, and had those old live albums like "The Happy Bird" and "Bird is Free" etc. I still remember when I heard about "Bird is Free" that he plays "Free Jazz" on that😄

Interesting that I heard it much later than other albums. I was eager to learn the music of O.C. and my first album was the "Empty Foxhole" on BN and "Crisis" on Impulse. I think I heard THIS album much later and was astonished how conservative it is, it´s actually all through straight ahead swinging....., Even the key album "Free Jazz" is more a straight ahead thing...... Anyway all that was from the past when O.C. performed in my key years, the 70´s . Like Miles he had went electric, but Prime Time really was some fine stuff, and also a kind of "double quartet" with two guitars, two basses and two drummers.....

I don´t know this edition but Bitches Brew was still almost brand new when I was a kid and a fan of Miles. I remember there was only two tunes I didn´t like: It was the tune titled "John McLaughlin" that quite bored me a bit, and I thing there was another tune at the end called "Feia" or "Feira" or something like that, and though written by no one less than Wayne Shorter, it doesn´t mean anything to me. Not melodical, not rhytmical, but maybe those two tunes just isn´t my taste. I fell in love from first listening with "Voodoo", "Pharoah´s Dance" and the title tune and everything, even "Sanctuary". It was fresh music then, though at my listening time 1973 Miles had moved further with electrical jazz and the 1973 performance here in Viena really was something..... all that Al Foster, Michael Henderson and the wonderful Dave Liebman.....

I remember I saw a video of Lucky Thompson during that time around 1960 where he performs Anthropology or some such bop tune with Bud Powell, Michelot and Kenny Clarke, and I think there is also a fine guitarist Jimmy Gourley on it. That´s some first class tenor and piano and guitar there !

I love it though my very very first impression of Sam Rivers was the later recorded "Dimensions and Extensions".

So great. Though my main interest always has been acoustic jazz, this was the music of my youth too. It was brand new when I was a young fan and naturally I dug not only 50´s and 60´s Miles and 60´s Hancock, but also this one. We loved it , as we loved let´s say "Bitches Brew", "On the Corner"...., it was just the music of that time and it was still that kind of 10 years intervals of styles, as was swing in the 30´s, bop in the 40´s, hardbop in the 50´s, Free and Modal in the 60´s and Electrick Jazz in the 70´s .

Jack, you said it. I´d like to find one good baritone singer. You find a lot of female singers but it´s hard with male singers. But anyway I think working with vocalists is my weakest point. I even caught advice here some years ago when I had to do a gig with a female singer, I was a bit afraid of doing it, since I always have been the guy around them hot and fast players in the neo bop, post bop styles, playing strong instrumental music, and singers was quite an unusual thing for me and I was afraid that I wouldn´t please them if my comping is used to soloists on trumpet, trombone, saxophone. Very often when after the gig there was a jam and different players got up on stage, if I spotted a singer I´d get up to take a break....

Well, Byas left the States in the 40´s and stayed there for the rest of his live. He tried a comeback in the States in the early 70´s and actually played there with the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Orchestra and with Blakeys Jazz Messengers and I think he also did a Japan tour with the Jazz Messengers. But the difficulty must have been that acoustic jazz was no market in those years, even stars like Art Blakey had to struggle for gigs then. I think Verve was founded after Don Byas left the States in 1946/47. Sure, Verve would have payed him good money, but for me as a listener I´m just glad he did NOT record for Verve. All the Verve albums Bird did for Norman Granz, they are good but don´t have the same fire and imagination like the so called "small labels" , and Dizzy the same. So there was no time when Byas COULD have become a Verve artist . I was quite astonished why that Byas - Bud Powell collaboration was not released when those musicians were alive since it was a studio record. Byas also recorded with Bud in Germany for the Impulse album "Americans in Europe" but it´s strange there is almost only ballads, which is even more strange since it was a live event. One ballad is fine, but they should have cooked more on faster stuff, since they both were fast guns in jazz. I think there is also an unofficial recording of Byas with Bud in Denmark, I think it also has Brew Moore. I have heard that Byas was quite a difficult person and it was very very hard to please him as a European player. I think the short lived Ronny Scott book with memories about those musicians stated that Byas and Brew Moore where very difficult to handle and often cursed european fellow musicians on stage "if you must play crap play it low" or something like that.... Interesting, it was the same thing with me. Those Concord Young Lions of the time , those young guys who played pre bop stuff in the 70´s and 80´s never was my thing. Now that you say it it seems on that Woody Herman All Star it was also Varren Vaché on trumpet. I didn´t play much attention to him. About the Galaxy albums, I really would have liked to hear some of those live albums from Japan, but I think Galaxy was a very short lived label. I don´t know if it re-appeard on all those "original jazz classic" series...

I would have liked to be there. Just a few days before or after that, Miles also played in Viena and it´s a shame I was not there, but I was giggin´ in other towns. The last time I had seen Miles was one year before and it was magic, compared to the somehow silly shit of "Human Nature" and "Time after Time" from all those years between 84-88. Well I know more about the musical thing, but at some point, even if it is not associated with my thread here, I can share some of your opinions about Miles´ styling in the late 80´s. I liked the way Miles looked just in the first weeks after his comeback in 1981, it was honest, he looked like an aged Miles after 5 or 6 years of abuse of substances and all those illnesses like hip operations, bursitis and whatever...., but he was "Miles" , and then he just slicked his hair back or wore a cap. And he had his trousers tight to the legs, so it looks handsome and slim. I don´t know which japanese style icone he had consulted later, but he began to look like a sad parody of his old self. The exagerated afro (a hair wave) made him look like a poodle and make his head too big, while those wide trousers made him look even shorter than he actually was. About the release of that CD I think maybe it was difficult to release as an official album since there was so many musicians on it who where under contract by other labels. Same thing about a Dizzy All Stars think also done in Paris about the same time that also had Stan Getz and others, I couldn´t even find it on discogs....

I got it some years ago from my wife, it was two CDs, the other is "Misterioso" and has a very strange cover art. My wife said it looks "like Hamlet". The music is great and sounds very modern. I´m glad there is some players here in Viena who play with similar power, all them great tunes "Evidence" "In Walked Bud" and so on. I saw Buddy Tate in a Woody Herman All Stars combo. It was the only time I saw Woody Herman without his "Herd", I think it was Al Cohn, Scott Hamilton, Buddy Tate, maybe a trumpet player I don´t remember. I think they all were Concord label artists. Woody played a lot of clarinet and even sang a number "I´ve got the world on a string". The only sad thing was that George Duvivier was scheduled to be on bass but died exactly on that day. It must have been in July 1985. Jimmy Woode during my earlier times in the 70´s was a regular bassist on many nights I saw. I remember he played a lot with the great Austrian piano star Fritz Pauer, Tony Inzalaco was on drums, and I saw them also together with Johnny Griffin in spring 1978. Jimmy Woode was announced as "James Woody the Second". That´s how Griff announced musicians during those, he himself announced him as "Johnny Griffin III".

Any more love for that great date ? Anyone....

Great treatment of "You Stepped Out" here ! It´s such a nice tune to improvise on it. That Anthony Braxton version really sound great. It´s interesting that some of his phrasing (not his sound) reminds me of Lee Konitz. For me it would be a 100 stars record if there had been a drummer added. You know, a really good drummer, but it really swings. @Jack Pine: Yes that´s a fine thing that jazz is such a huge field that one can enjoy so many different styles. About "Cool Jazz" I think the most I heard besides "Birth of the Cool" was some Lennie Tristano stuff, if it was not too cerebral and not with those annoying gimmicks of overdubbing his piano lines. But especially those units with Billie Bauer on guitar and Lee Konitz on as are very nice. Maybe that the later 50´s records, I think they call them the "Pacific Jazz" was not so much available here in Austria during "my time". At least I fear this kind of music was not very much taught at the jazz institutes then. I fear I had "slept" when there was a "swing revival". I had thought this was the time of the "young lions" in jazz, who now are established masters. I fear I must admit that at some point in the 90s I became tired of all that touring, all that driving home in the small hours, all them terrible bean soups and coffees at Gas - Stations on highways...., all that carrying around them amps and tubs , that I decided to do leave it there and concentrate more on my anyway demanding day job. But you are right. Easy swing dancing was there and in the "non musical" period of my live I enjoyed very much dancing with my wife. Billy Eckstine is also a favourite of mine. I would like to find such a singer of that kind of stuff and play a gig, I mean to add such a guy to a good jazz combo, but there is much more female singers those days....

If I remember right, there were two volumes. Same photo, but one cover in yellow, and one in black. You might laugh at me, but this was about the first album of so called "Cool Jazz" I ever had. (with the exception of "Birth of the Cool". And the circumstances how I purchased it are also funny. I was at a jazz club and in the after hours after the gig the owner spinned his records as usually, he was famous for his records. And suddely I heard a male vocal "There will never be another you" but was completly fascinated by the strong bass sound (no wonder, it´s Ron Carter), and so I went to the record store and bought it (for Ron Carter´s bass ). But it has some nice playing on it. I think Bernie´s Tune even reached Charlie Parker and Wardell Gray who played it. Other songs like "Unfinished Woman" sound a bit boring, but okay, nice albums....

Those years were good years. We were very exited that J.J. Johnson recorded again. His last record, very much listened by us was his 1977 Yokohama Concert. So it was great to have him touring again and playing here in 1981 which anyway was a good year. Dexter had his "Gotham City" out and visited Austria every year for playing festivals, Miles Davis was back with "The Man with the Horn" with much more "jazz" than one might have expected, good old times....

Yes, in my youth, of course I didn´t have many records then, it was Miles Davis "Steamin", "Miles Davis in Europe 1963", "The Great Concert of Charles Mingus (with Dolphy), Charles Mingus "Blues and Roots", Charlie Parker "Savoy Master Takes", Dizzy Gillespie "Groovin High", Bud Powell "The Amazing Vol. 1 and 2", Fats Navarro Memorial (Savoy) , John Coltrane Good Bait, Sonny Rollins Prestige Sessions. I listened to them over and over again. Now I don´t listen very much anymore due to lack of time and because I´m playing myself....