Gheorghe

Yeah that´s the one I got.

Hello Friends ! I want to introduce you to some of the greatest players here in Austria whom I know personally. The Group "Worry later" (namend after Monk´s composition with the same title) was founded some years ago and each member is a fantastic musician and each of them teach jazz at high level jazz academies here in town, and their students are some of the hottest young players around here. Oliver Kent (p) is my idea of a perfect pianist and a fantastic composer. Daniel Nösig (tp) and Thomas Kugi (ts) .....I can say onestly that I listen to them with the same fascination and pleasure I would listen to let´s say Lee Morgan with Hank Mobley, or let´s say Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter. Uli Langthaler (b) is also a fantastic composer and I love he bass sound soo much , he is my favourite bass player. Dusan Novakov (dr), oh you know how much I love good drummers and it´s just heaven on earth. They all are so wonderful human beings and I enjoy their concerts so much. This album has great compositions, all composed by Oliver Kent and Uli Langthaler. I could write about each composition but listen yourself, the music speaks for itself. And the recording sound is great. There is too many records where you just don´t hear what the drummer plays, because they cut it out and you wouldn´t hear the ride cymbal and stuff. But here it´s the sound I love, and almost like hearing them live . Highly recommended.

Oh yes, than it is the best of all, though it´s hard for me to choose. The "Tempest at Colosseum" is also top and was my favourite until I discovered "Under the Sky". On the other hand, the studio album from the same time as "Under The Sky" is a lame duck for me. By the way: You should also get Sonny Rollins "Under the Sky", it´s incredible !!!! This was my first Art Tatum album in the 70´s, it had another cover but I like it even more than the Verves. The "Begin the Beguine" is outa sight ! Oh yes wonderful, the rhythm section is tops, the album is very fine, though I alsways found that J.R.Monterose has a bit a strange way of phrasing. I´m no collector, but I think I have another one where he plays with Kenny Dorham.

Yes, this was the first VSOP I had. It was brand new then and I was still at high school and we all the guys who listened to jazz or played jazz loved it and shared it. This version of Red Clay is fantastic !

up: Please, anybody ? Any advices ?

I think I read some of his liner notes, but maybe it was mostly adding notes writtten by him about previously unreleased BN tracks. I didn´t know he wrote for ECM, I always had associated him with BN.

Which one is that ? I have some of the VSOP quintet. But it has another cover. I think two of them are from Japan.

Dear Bill ! Have a Happy Birthday and I´m glad to read you . You know so much music !

Looks like those old abstract Verve covers.

Wasn´t Benny Carter very much on those late Pablo albums ? There was one with Diz, but I never heard it, and one I think under his own name with "Mellow Tone" on it. But did he really play alto AND trumpet ? I don´t remember nothing special about that "Mellow Tone" but it swung.

I admire all people who can memorize lyrics of songs. I sometimes try to find lyrics to songs on google, but often it´s just the lyrics written and you don´t know how they insert it into the song, and sometimes the most part of the lyrics is the verse of the song. And many of us know the verse only on tunes, where it is usually played as an intro . On the other hand, I noticed that in any language I know, it´s hard to understand words if they are sung. And me and my wife can´t memorize even the simplest children songs, we might start with the first three words of the song if it start´s with the title of the song and than it turns into "hm hm hm" or in my case into some stupid scat with shou bah bee shou bah bop😄 Last year we had that nice little winter tree in the living room and when we stood in front of it, we said spontaniously "at that point it is supposed to sing some "colinde" (Weihnachtslieder) and we started "Stille Nacht Helige Nacht" and after that four words the lyrics turned into "hmmmm hm hmm, hmmm hm hmm" 😲 I can memorize all that music just from hearing it just one time, but a few words of lyrics and I´m lost.....

really a wealth of treasures. It will take some time for me to see them all. The gig at "inntöne" in Upper Austria I think was just a few days after I saw him for the last time at "Porgy and Bess". He still was strong, but seemed to have difficulties to walk, whatever it was. The last appearance in public is very moving. But who is the slim guy who also plays tenor, he´s okay but what does that flower on his head mean ?

Yeah that could be the transcription. Okay in my own case, if it is more musicians termenology, I would dig it because I play, but I think to remember that one was more about society or sociology and that is not really what I read.

Maybe also "The Milestone Allstars" Rollins-Tyner-Carter-Foster. I have only the record, but they toured the States in the late 70´s. And again Rollins with George Duke, Stanley Clark and Al Foster live in Japan, and there is also a live album and a studio album.

I have it on CD, but it doesn´t have the typical BN cover, somehow I picked it up at a little record store in a subway station, just by browsing thru the few jazz records. But I know much better McLean albums. From the "traditional side" maybe "Swing Swang Swining", but then above all "Let´s Freedom Ring", "One Step Beyond", "New and Old Gospel" and one more with Woody Shaw on it, it´s titled something like "Devil Dance" or "Dance of Death" with a strange woman face on the cover, but fantastic music. "Sharp Stuff". Well this is sure a question of taste. It´s what I love so much about Jackie McLean, his sound. He seems to be the alto sound I love to hear.

I must try to get the book since I had only the Kindle Book when it appeared. I had to buy a Kindle equipment exclusivly to read this book, but I have to read a paper book, I don´t feel well reading it like I read it. I must try to get the paper version if there still is any. As much as I remember, well I had to cut out some of it, mostly the psychiatric raports and so, since I´m a musician, not a medic . And I would have liked more about his music than about all the funky side of his life. I have some Bud books: 1) The Francis Paudras "La Danse Des Infidéles" in french: Paudras mostly stresses the fact that he is the only one who understood Bud and rescued him and all that Buttercup-bashing. In my eyes, he just exagerated the importance of his relation with Bud, and was too naive to see the reality, especially about Bud´s return to the State. 2) Alan Shipton "The Glass Enclosure", well it has some reviews of some records. 3) Carl Smith "All Recordings", which is quite interesting, though I´m not a real collector who must have everything. 4) Guthrey Ramsey "Black Genius", I can´t say much about it´s a bit too hard reading for me to understand..., don´t forget I learned English from reading liner notes and from talkin about music with musicians....

The best super band I ever saw was: Jackie McLean Bobby Hutcherson Herbie Lewis Billy Higgins. That´s something where you say that dreams came true.

I must say, that my critical comments are also self critical, because that´s how I sounded when I had my first gigs at the age from 18-21 years. I listened to the tapes back and was not satisfied, I found it has that "edge" in it, it does´t sound like that fantastic lines Bird or Bud would produce. I played let´s say "Bouncing with Bud" with a name saxophonist plus bass and drums, a great honour to be on stage with him, and after some gigs he told me: I generally like your playing, you got good ideas but you should work a little more on the phrasing. "Bouncin´with Bud".....I mean you know what "Bouncin´ " means ? And he was damn right.....

I listened to them on one of my USB sticks I have in the car. The Art Pepper album is very fine, I think I got it as soon as it came out. Especially that they have such a great rhythm section helps very much and Art Pepper seems to be inspired. There is only one strange thing: His long solo intro to "Over the Rainbow". Somehow it´s strange with that pentatonic lines, not really fitting to the mood of the song if you ask me, and maybe it would be better as a solo cadenza at the end of the song, not at the start. The Jazz Messengers "Lerner & Lowe" is very fine, some of the tunes are rarely played in jazz context. The musician that exites me most is of course Johnny Griffin. Sam Dockery seems to be Bud Powell influenced, but wait a minute......it´s more Elmo Hope thing in it. Bill Hardman is a very nice and articulate player, very easy to regocnize , but maybe after much listening I miss some more dramatic effect in his trumpet playing. It just "flows" with not many tensions as leaving space here or there or gettin different sound or phrasing approach into it. Thats only my impression after very very intense listening.

Yeah, it´s a shame I didn´t meet personally the two Vienese members, but maybe they´ll come to a gig so I´d meet them. So if you get there , we can go to one of the jazzclubs where there is live music.....

It´s strange but I have never been in the Blue Tomato, though this was not far from my place. It was in the 15th district. I´m not sure if it was a jazz-only club, but maybe they didn´t have a piano so I might not have been there. There was another club called "Miles Smiles" where I never was, I think it was maximal for duo, or anyway they didn´t have a piano or you couldn´t play drums or so. Besides the now existing venues , in the 80´s there was also "Jazz Gitti" in the 1th district, Jazz Freddie in the 6th district, "Opus One" in the 1st district, that´s joints where I played until they closed. Now somebody had told me there is another jazz club in the "Gürtel" Area (Stadtbahnbögen) which is called 1019 or so. But as I saw there is not only jazz and I didn´t see a piano on the stage photos, and it seems it is only "door money" so it might be hard to get professional musicians who would play for that. But nice you have been in my hometown.

It´s a wonderful album, I love it. Like all great tenor saxophonists, Pharoah was a great ballad player. When I heard him for the first time live in the early 80´s he also featured a ballad. If I remember right, on this one is also "I want to talk about you", the Billy Eckstine tune that Trane also recorded . Much later my wife bought me the Max Bollemann-Book (the sound engeneer form Timeless records) and I was surprised what horrible story was about the surroundings when this record was made......

I think I would have read that kind of books when I was young and tragical stories of self destructive fascinated me. All that "stories" about Bird, all those details about Bud as written by Francis Paudras with all the funky side of it. The last one I read was Laurie Peppers book, but I can´t say I enjoyed it. Tragic story, I scrolled up, and this thing of destroyed brain cells due to alcoolism that´s a drama. About the difficulties of players from the older generation if they try to play modal stuff, this was very often: As for Al Haig, you can hear it on that not very good album of Dex somewhere in Paris, where they play a modal tune I think...., anyway on that album Al Haig really sounds great only on the trio track "Round Midnite". Maybe because due to his destroyed brain cells he just played better what was part of his musical past. But as "wife" .......from all what I "hear" I doubt Al Haig was made for family live.

Thank you @AllenLowe for sharing this one. If I remember right, this was the first tune, where Don Byas plays the first solo (possibly because Bird was late on the band stand). Okay, yeah, I don´t doubt that Al had a brilliant touch and technique, but I like his solos more on the 1948 broadcasts with Bird from the Royal Roost. In those two years he learned more about bebop phrasing, at least that´s my impression. In the earlier examples from Town Hall and Billy Berg´s , he plays fine, but has to many "stops" from one A section to the other or from the second A to the bridge. It´s what you play there, that makes the thing into a natural "flow", like Bird always did, like Diz and Fats did and Bud Powell did. I just try to say that it is fascinating to hear how Haig at the beginning still had a bit of classical approach and obviously learned naturally played bebop playing every night with the bop leaders, so after maybe 2 years he got it. I´ll never say else, that the Al Haig of 1948/49 was fully developed. I have not heard much Haig after that. I regret he never came to Austria during his lifetime, I have heard that he had played in Hamburg, and in Londra and at some bop reunions with Diz and on one occasion with Dex in the late 70´s (not the best record, but a wonderful Haig solo on Round Midnight). Another piano player who really could play bop very fine was Lou Levy, he was underrated I think. P.S.: I love to play the tune "Be Bop". Usually we choose one up tempo number for each set, it may be "Be bop" "Salt Peanuts", "Dizzy Atmosphere" "52nd Street Theme" or a standard tune like "Get Happy" "Cherokee" , that kind of stuff.....

20 years ago.....time flies, but I hope that I´ll not feel old for the next decades , that´s what I hope. I have met only one member , it is @bichos, who did post very much but rarely posts now. He came to visit Vienna with his familily, got some hours off and I invited him for coffee in my place. Since at that time gigs were scarce I didn´t have the opportunity to offer him an evening at a club, so I just played some tunes just for him on piano. Now, maybe I´ll meet the one or other member in person, if they live in or near Viena or visit the town, when we play a gig at one of the about 3 jazz venues here in town.