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What a dream team. And when I think that Frank Morgan who has top billing here was completlly unknown to me during a time, when Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Mulgrew Miller, Ron Carter and Al Foster were some of my top favourites whom I had seen live in various surroundings. I´ll have to ask Allan more about Frank Morgan.....

I had purchased this some decades ago, I think it was shortly after Chet´s death. Mr. Lothar Lewien is a remarkable writer and his stories about the concerts he saw are great ! You almost can imagine those days in the best jazzclub of Berlin, with greats like Tete Montoliu, Peter Trunk and Joe Nay, Chet´s performances after his comeback in the late 70´s and 80´s . Mr. Lewien has a wonderful way to express his feelings as a young boy who just felt in love the the sound of Chet´s trumpet, and that this music was his best friend. He must have been a very very sensible guy too, with soft feelings. I recognized myself in the boy who fell in love with Jazz, in my case it was Miles, Mingus, Trane, Ornette Coleman and back to the bop stars. I also had an inner contemplative side, but outside I think I was not as soft as Mr. Lewien, more with a rauncious side of a hot blooded youngster. But this personality of Mr. Lewien is the stuff that makes good books. So, it´s a wonderful book and I enjoy reading it again.

Is it possible that Teddy Edwards was not playing in Europe, respectiv in Austria ? I don´t remember I would have seen him. But I heard him on some sides on Spotlite with Dexter I think, maybe it was original Dial sessions.....

This is one of my absolute top favourites. Billy Eckstine is my idea of a perfect singer. And this is the perfect band, never ever it happened again. Those incredible arrangements by Dameron and others, the approach of the songs, the ocasionally vintege bop like "Second Balcony Jump" or "Oo Bop Sh Bam" and all that . When I play a ballad, I THINK Billy Eckstine with Band, them great chord progressions, all that hip stuff. Maybe the last side doesn´t appeal to me as much as sides A-C , because it starts to get "Hollywood" with them strings and so on, but the songs still very fine, though the legendary band slowly disappears. All Stars you can give for that Double LP !

I have not seen him, maybe he had not toured Austria. I also was astonished when I read that thing that fellow musicians complained about him. Until then I also had thought he is articulate and grateful for the fact that he can play. So I also was quite astonished to read about him quite shitty on more than one occasion. Maybe it was like Sonny Stitt. Stitt could be ok on several performances but could be really shitty on other occasions. I saw him only once and it was almost a desaster...., the way he lectured the rhythm section on the bandstand.....

The only Frank Morgan I ever heard was on that Prestige Album Wardell Gray Vol. II on that session where he plays a very strong and emotional alto, and where you have the somehow strange but fascinating vibe sounds of Teddy Charles. I thing I wasn´t even familiar with the name of Frank Morgan then. It seems he got some publicity after having been released from jail, somewhere in the 80´s and he was feted in Jazz Podium as a Bird-like surviver, who playes first hand bop and there was a long story about him. But I also had heard statements from fellow musicians that he was very difficult to deal with, and though he claimed that he was clean after decades (which Chet Baker also said to Podium ) I think he was a bad junkey until the last moments of his live. I think I saw a you tube once where he let´s a young asiatic alto playin girl with the strange name "Grace Kelly" sit in and she was top, knewing the essence of bop from top to bottom, astonishing. But I heard that later she became more commercial and did singing also and so she lost me....

I had purchased this very early when about my first durable impression of so called "jazz" was the original Miles Davis Quintet. I didn´t know other musicians than Miles, Trane, Garland, Chambers and Phillly J.J. then, so all those five men were my "heroes" and I tried to find also records by the so called "sidemen". So my earliest discography had John Coltranes "Soultrane", Red Garlands "Rediscovered Masters", Paul Chambers´ "Whims of Chambers" and Philly J.J. "Blues for Dracula"........ And I discovered that it was almost "like a family": On "Soultrane" you also have Paul and Red, on "Rediscovered Masters you also have Paul, on "Whims" you have also Philly J.J, and so on....., (Dracula had Johnny Griffin) who was the first jazz musician I heard "live"......so it was "closing circles everywhere ......

I have heard only his 2 records for BN (and a rather sloppily played third one that was originally rejected). I love his unconventional style of piano playing. He didn´t seem to have much speed, but has a very original percussive and "two fisted" piano style, but above all I noticed his compositions which all are rare beauties. They have beautiful melodies and many of them were based on former bop standards with descending chords like Dizzy´s "Woody´n You" ( Gm7b5 C7 Fm7b5 Bb7....) or Bud´s "Oblivion" (Am7b5 D7 Gm7b5 C7...). Monk pretended that those chord changes were introduced by himself and that Dizzy learned it from him, or even Diz said that he had learned it from Monk..... . I don´t know classical music but once I heard some Rahmaninov and he used those chords ). I don´t have records of Redd from later years, but always wondered how he managed to survive, since his discography is quite scarce and even Jackie McLean stated that Freddie Redd is like some wonderful ghost that appears sometimes....., so I don´t know, did he teach to earn a living, or what else.....

Sounds interesting especially as Irving Berlin songs sounds good ! But I´m afraid it is with some nameless orchestra that might sound too much like "Hollywood" to me, like I had some disappointment when I got from my beloved wife one Ella CD with "Arlen Songbook" which has great songs on it, but it´s the kinda studio orchestra I don´t like. But for the same occasion she also bought me an Ella album with the Basie Orchestra, and that´s an album I like, and I´m sure you can understand why.

I also would have liked to read the essay. I always thought that the story of the "almost fight" in the studio was something that is invented and would be good for a movie. Maybe there was some discussion, why not. But never when I listened to those tracks, I had that story in mind, never ever ! And listen what Miles plays on "Bemsha Swing" . That solo is out of love for Monk, Miles has some typical Monk phrases in his trumpet solo and makes me wonder what would have been if Miles had recorded as a sideman for Monk, like Sonny Rollins did. Maybe at least for some time he would have been the ideal trumpet voice for Monk´s Music. And the story that Miles had asked Monk to lay out while he soloes, well that´s some good thing and Monk himself made a trademark out of it, layin out while the hornplayer was soloing, maybe having his typical "Monk Dance" and then hurry back to the piano exactly in the moment when his own solo starts......

Oh, then something must have been wrong with my LP-player or was it still a casetofon (during my high school days). Then maybe the speed of the casetofon was lower . Because the way I heard it it sounded like A natural. I´ll have to listen to the tune again, from a source that has it recorded with the normal speed. See, during that days I only had my pitch, but didn´t know nothing about different speeds on recordings. So: When some older guy spinned a Johnny Griffin-Bud Powell version of "Wee" which is in Bb, on that record the speed was up so it sounded a semitone up, as B natural. And I really thought they play it in B natural, a key that´s hard for me to play. I think there was also a fast Blues in what should be F, and it sounded like Gb, so I also wondered how fast they play that blues in such an unusual key.

Oh I see. Yes .... now as you said it, the pre - Haden bassist on record was Red Mitchell. Percy Heath, I think is on a Don Cherry - John Coltrane LP that has some Ornette Coleman compositions on it (maybe "The Blessing"). So what Miles Davis said really could have been from a live gig he heard, since he must have been in California in the fifties if Art Pepper recorded there with Miles´ Rhythm Section, and this maybe was in L.A. and yeah, maybe Miles had heard them. He was hip enough to dig some of this then "new music" , later he dissed Ornette mostly for his trying to play the trumpet, and called him "a selfish guy" ....

Thank you so much for sharing this review with us. It´s a quite critical review. But the description of "Klarinette als Flüsterrohr" may explain why I like his clarinet sound. I never could enjoy so called "old time jazz" with all them screaming clarinets and staccato trumpet and too stiff rhythm, but since I got posthum a chance to hear the original Giuffree trio with Bley and Swallow, I was surprised that I liked it. But I got to have time and "innere Ruhe" to enjoy it. I got to close my eyes and follow each aspect of the music otherwise you lost it.... "Loverman" I like much and like to play it, so I would have liked to hear that version. Well: "schwelgerisch wuchtige Phrase" can destroy much. Once I heard a jam of that too often played "All Blues", mostly preferred by amateurs who can´t play many chord changes, and the piano player "banged" on that goddamn piano like if he got paid for it . He did an heavy approach to it that is not meaned in the composition. Also, you have some amateur guitar players who turn it up loud and do their power "exercises" on let´s say a soft tune like "Footprints"..... Maybe the health problems of Giuffree started later. I remember I read a review .

Well I always had heard about Sonny Rollins movin a lot while playing, he would play while still not on the bandstand and come into the club and passing tables while he PLAYED. And sure he moved a lot around too when I finally saw him live. But Miles Davis did the same and they all had wireless mikes. The only time Miles was not walkin around was in the earlier electric days when he had the wah wah pedal, so then at Stadthalle 1973 he just stood there and did the trumpet with the wah wah. About the duo Sonny-Philly J.J. : "Surrey with the Fringe on top" seemed to be a tune wider used in the 50´s since it was the first tune I heard on my first own LP "Miles Davis Steamin´". Sonny plays it in Bb, but it seems that Miles played it in A natural. Can this be true or was the Miles version recorded with too low speed ? I was quite astonished because A natural is not really a typical key for tunes, maybe Miles liked it since his "Jean Pierre" also is in A natural. The Rollins - Jones duet is fantastic, since Philly J.J. is a whole orchestra himself. There are drummers like that, like the underrated Shadow Wilson: Hear Wilson and you hear the complete sound of the Basie Band.

It´s strange how little we knew about him here in Viena. When I started there was not much being talked about him. The first time I read his name was in an interview Miles Davis gave where he said about Ornette Coleman: "Everything was ok when he played with Don Cherrly, Billy Higgins and LEROY VINNEGAR". I thought "wait a minute......, who is Leroy Vinnegar". We had so many OC stuff with Cherry and Higgins, but it was Charlie Haden on bass or Scott LaFaro or David Izenzon. Later I saw that their must have been an earlier disc of OC where Vinnegar played bass. So, was he OC´s man before OC really became famous ?

I saw him only twice in the 80´s , one thing was the acoustic V.S.O.P. and one was something like "Headhunters II" with the original Wah Wah Watson on guitar, but with ex-Miles saxophonist Bill Evans on tenor, also very fine. It was tunes from the old days when we all bought them Headhunters, and at one point Herbie switched from the keyboards to the acoustic piano and played a long solo that was just incredible....the best Hancock I ever heard. I missed a thing "Herbie Hancock-Wayne Shorter" some years ago at the Viena Opera House. I think I half missed it half didn´t even intend to go since only p and sax without drums and bass is a bit thin for me, and the Opera is a quite strange surrounding for me. I thought, anyway I had seen Herbie and Wayne with other "full groups".

Sounds like a great personnel. When was it made ? I heard that Hubbard once made an album for Timeless at Bolleman´s studio in Monster, Netherlands. "Temptation" sound like a tune that would be worth tryin´ out. The only version I heard is on a not so interesting Charlie Parker Big Band record for Verve. There it sounds like one of those bombastic studio bands with brass and string, like for a kind of early 50´s LA movie....., not really a jazz context. And Bird quotes it in his solo on Anthropology on some 50´s live at Birdland broadcast.

I have this too, I was quite astonished, that Mintons still existed in the 60´s. I had some Charlie Christian 1941 Mintons, but I think nothing else from that joint between early fourties and early sixties. Grant Green and Horace Parlan are especially great here. Is this the album Philly J.J did in UK ? With a lot of great british player ? I have that album, but it seems to have another cover, maybe the older Black Lion covers, with white cover and just a little photo in the middle. From that series, besides the Philly J.J. album I think I have a Dexter Gordon at Montmatre, a Bud Powell "The Invisible Gage", and a Don Byas "Anthropology". They look like they were printed in the late 60´s or early 70´s.

I also spinned that recently (I have it on USB in my car) and I remember that I had bought it in the 70´s. What I didn´t understand then and don´t understand now is, why it´s titled "at Basin Street". It is not a live recording, it is a studio recording. I also remember my first impression of hearing the younger brother of Bud on piano. On faster tunes he sounds like a copy of Bud, but it seems he didn´t have the same tehnique and musical imaginations. It´s also strange that it has only Max on the cover, but Cliff and Max were co-leaders. I can refer only to the Philly J.J. album, since the other I don´t know and have a personal difficulty with ECM records, with two exceptions : Lieb´s "Outlook Farm" and "Drum Ode". The Philly J.J. album I would like to hear again, but those Galaxy albums were so short lived, if you didn´t buy them when they came out, you lost it. If I remember right, there was different personnel on that album and I think there was also some Dexter Gordon on it.

I remember this record as one of the most easy listening Ornette since it´s mostly straight ahead. I was astonished then, since the only other OC I had heard was "Empty Foxhole" and "Crisis" which I also love very very much.

Boston must have had a lot of attraction for Bird in the early Fifties , that´s my impression. I remember there was some old LP with red cover from the 70´s on some of those cheaper labels Bellaphone or Musidisc that was titled "The Happy Bird" and it was one of my favourites, above all for the great contributions of Wardell Gray too. And it seems there was another record on which Red Garland was the piano player, very nice. In my early days I had to chance to play with an US saxophonist and when I drove him to my place where we did a little rehearsal for the gig and he saw the streets of Vienna he said "nice Town, reminds me of Boston, fancy buldings....."

I think I saw him only with the Jazz Messengers about in the late 70´s , that band with Valery Ponomarev, the russian trumpet player. I think it was that band that brought Blakey back to more action and top billing. I think the earlier part of the 70´s was not such a good period for the band or it was the lack of interest of acoustic jazz then.......

I remember well when Water Babies came out, it must have been in the 70´s and it had a pop art cover very similar to the albums "On the Corner" or "In Concert", so we thought its an album of then contemporanous stuff and were a bit astonished when we heard a late sixties music with more straight ahead jazz. It sounded good, like the then "old" sixties albums, but we were mislead by the cover art. But why did they put a photo of 1980´s Miles on this edition, this again might let people think it is a 1980´s record. I think the biggest sorrow of us folks then in the late 70´s was "when or if Miles would come back and play". I think in 1979 there was even a rumour that he will do a tour. This was the time when those 3 LP sets with before unissued track came out, I think it was called "Circle in the Round" but I think I didn´t have that, especially when I saw it´s more like a sampler starting with stuff from the 50´s .....

I think I have mentioned it recently. Some said they are not happy with it, but I remember very well when it came out and had "cult status" over here. I had used a lot of my pocket money to buy a japanese 2 double album . It came out about the time when Miles was touring Europe, gut then his band was different, he didn´t have all them exotic instruments like tabla or sitar anymore, but had a fantastic band with Dave Liebman, Al Foster, Mike Henderson, Reggie Lucas Pete Cosey. That was really a great unit. I have that cover with Don Cherry with a strange flute on it, which doesn´t fit the the music that actually was played. This record was on the then famous french "America" label, that had most of the Mingus albums too. But the reason I had bought it was only Coleman and Cherryl, I think the piano is not really audible, you hear a glimpse of it on "I remember Harlem" which seemed to be Bley´s feature. But I think you don´t hear much of the piano. the most astonishing thing for us youngsters then was, that they play that old Parker Number "Klaktoveed......." which I think that Bird did only on the record, I don´t think it was in the repertory of the touring band. Blessing and "Free" is also great as I remember. I still was a boy and very much into progressive jazz like the gang I hanged out with. This I think was the most "conservative" Ornette Thing ever, practically a "swing record" as we would definete it in the early 70´s .

Yeah, I think I have that too, but I have a separate box for "CDs" that don´t have an official cover and I think those have very little written info. I heard it once at home and as a fan of good drumming I was exited and delighted by what Roy Haynes does. It´s interesting that Haynes sounds much more subdued on that famous "Modernists 1949 BN album with Bud, Sonny and Fats. I prefer the drums much louder. but I saw Roy Haynes only one time live, and this was in the 2000s already, but I would have expected more drum solos on it and more "action". As I remember, that Quartet, maybe titled "Fountain of Youth" was quite a tame thing, mostly standards and not much happenin.