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to Wynton´s annoyment...Sure he must have been annoyed if he couldn´t lecture Hub and Faddis about what is jazz. I think he even would have lectured Diz about bop and that what he played in the 70´s 80´s "is not jazz, because he dared to use fender bass and would play "Alma" with a rock beat......). Wynton as I have the impression would have liked to be the "jazz police", the one who tells the others what´s jazz and what not...

John Heard the bass player ? Saw him with Dexter in March 1980. It seems he was a shorter repacement between Reid and Eubanks. But he was the best, he drove the band. Art Farmer had his home in Vienna and lived here when he was not touring. And he would play every year two or three times at Jazzland for some nights. So I can´t count the nights I saw him. Once, Max Roach came by. Saw Woody with a fantastic Herd in 1979 and with an Allstar Octet in 85. The others are a bit before my time. With Billy Taylor I had the wrong start. I had confused him with Cecil Taylor and had a Bellaphone 2 LP album "Echoes of and Era" with Tatum, Erroll, Bud, Taylor each on one side. After Side C with Bud I thought now there must be something new for me, placed the needle and close my eyes to concentrate on my first "Cecil Taylor Experience" and was disappointed when I heard some more conservative mainstream piano....., Heard some Billy Taylor again on a Philips LP "Charlie Parker Memorial Concert" with Diz, Roy, Hawk, and again there was Billy Taylor....but he played such a strange piano, sometimes trying to play fugues or how you call that Bach Style....., I had wondered why they had chosen Billy Taylor instead of a piano player who recorded with Bird (Bud who still lived, or Bishop or Haig) ..... With Desmond I also had a wrong start: When I started to become a jazz fan, someone told me I must get a Brubeck album because he is the greatest....., I borrowed one and thought well if he is the greatest, might he top Miles or Mingus (the only jazz I knew then), and he did not....., and above all, my mother (born 1921) who had listened to "Meditations on Integration" (Mingus) and said it is fantastic, and how fell in love with Ornette Coleman´s "Lonely Woman" ...... well she came in my boy´s room for I don´t know what, and by the way heard that Brubeck, I think it was Blue Rondo a la Turk and said "oh no, what´s that KITSCH you listenin´ to !!!!???. Never spinned it again.....

I must admit the first two is completely unknown to me.

It´s interesting that in my early youth, the only available Miles-First Quintet album available was "Steamin ´" while the others "Cookin´, Relaxin´, Workin´" we didn´t know about yet. "Steamin" was actually my first jazz LP and the music that turned me to a live long jazz fan. Cookin´ Relaxin´was later on a 2 LP thing as it was quite often those days. I might say, when I was a kid, goin to school etc. "Miles-Coltrane-Garland-Chambers-Philly J.J." were what I might say "my heroes". Garland the first real jazz pianist I heard (I heard Peterson before but forgot about him after hearing Garland) , and Chambers determined me to buy a bass fiddle with some money my Grandma had left for me..... ,made me practice that bass fiddle day and night and boy I had blisters on my fingers.... Is this all the 5 BN´s plus "Our Man in Paris" ? Roost means the 1947 session with "April" on it and the 1953 session with "Embraceable You" on it ? It´s interesting that people talk more about the BN 1953 session than the Roost session from the same period. I almost never read something my concrete about the 53 Roost session, it is great, both the ballads and the fantastic "Woody´n You" and the only version of "Bag´s Groove" I heard from Bud. But in General I like most the things with horn players added like the first BN and the side B of the third one, and the Dexter session... If I listen to vocal jazz, Billy Eckstine is my first choice, but in my case with the Big Band 1944-1947. I think the last side of the Savoy Double Album "Mr. B. and the Band" is allready something Hollywood-ish with those syropy strings added. I could listen for hours to Billy Eckstine and the bop bigband, but there is not so much material...., and I like Kenny Hagood, Johnny Hartman, well those male singers who worked with the boppers, and some Sarah from that time (Mean to Me, Don´t blame me), I saw at some friends place once a thing Billy and Sarah and said I must listen to it, and it was great singin, but the band sounded like some of those no name mainstream studio bands of the fifties...

Interested . I don´t think Hubbard was past prime, his contributions to VSOP (one of my all time favourite group combinations) You must love the McCoy Tyner double CD/LP "Four Quartets", all of them Tyner-McBee-Foster, and on each side another soloist: Hubbard, Athur Blythe, Bobby Hutcherson and John Abercrombie. I like them all, Hubbard most of it if I might rate it. I have some difficulties with the Abercrombie combination, strange electric mandoline and somehow not typical Tyner work, other direction.....

This here is the best of what Verve recorded of Bird. Two different great quintets. Because it is pure Bird, pure Bop. Other Verves are too bombastic and like 1950´s love films (Volume 1 Temptation), "Bird and Diz" is a disappointment compared with other Bird-Diz collaborations, "Perennial" would have been okay but without Tommy Turk. The one 1953 session with quartet where they play "I remember you" is a good one....

of course , that intro...... we always played it when we performed "Shaw Nuff". Maybe the inspiration is from some movie with south of the border, or Spanish or Near East references....? But listen to Night in Tunisia, also by Diz.....maybe it was some mode than to introduce a bit orientalic flair..... You also have that tinge in "Dee Dee´s Dance" composed by Denzil Best. And don´t forget the intro of Klactoveedsteene....

Anyway Mingus composed for Movie Scores: Todo Modo and Cumbia and Jazz Fusion. Todo Modo was never played live, but Cumbia was always anounced on stage as something "we just recorded, it´s from a Movie Score ....". When he played it live as we witnessed, the records still was not out. Maybe if he had lived longer, he might have done another music for a movie. In the late 70´s he had become very very popular and he was asked to compose for a ballet group (Pilobulus) and for Symphony with Jazz Sextet in Buenos Aires, where he had played in June. So, if he had not contracted that terminal desease, there would have been a lot of work for him besides touring....., The first person that told me about jazz music as a possible movie theme is my wife, when we saw the Blue Note Label Documentary Film and when there was Miles´ "Weird Blues" she said it might be for some of those old police film series back then....

Thanks for posting this one. As a fan of Tadd (starting with his arrangements for Billy Eckstine and Dizzy) as well as his unique piano style with those broad chords mixed with some typical single lines, I bought some of his albums, mostly the Royal Roost band, the Atlantic City Band and the two 56 records, the one with "Fountain Bleu" and the collaboration with Trane. So I was really lookin forward when I saw "the Magic Touch". Great players indeed, but somehow on some tunes it seems that his newer compositions didn´t have that catchy quality that I liked on his earlier compositions, and I played many of his compositions in my live. And I really miss Tadd himself on piano. Somehow it reminds me of those last two Mingus LPs when Mingus couldn´t play anymore and you miss his strong bass. So I miss Tadd´s piano comping and his short "solos". I read that he was very very sick in the 60´s and couldn´t play anymore.... Fritz Pauer was the first piano player I saw live when I was a high school kid and somehow a mentor for me. He encouraged me to play, to sit in and meet other musicians, which is remarkable since he was a jazz teacher at Jazz Conservatory, but I was not a student, he just said I got talent, and that was one of the greatest compliments I got in my life. And I remember Erich Bachträgl very well, but during the time I heard Pauer frequently, Tony Inzalaco was his drummer.

First I heard Tristano on the "Bands for Bonds" from 1947 and was very impressed. As for trio, I liked the 1946/47 thing with Billy Bauer, but some of his later studio recordings have a quite metronomic beat and I don´t like at all the things that were overdubbed.....

What other musicians are included.

I never counted seconds or looked on the cover to see how many minutes and seconds a tune has...., but maybe on one source the applause or the start proceedings are recorded and on the other they were cut of. I noticed that Mingus on the 64 tour sometimes took his sweet time to start a tune. You here how he fixes his bass, you here him tuning the bass, you here him givin intructions to the fellow musicians, once on "Sophisticated" (on the 3 record set from the America label) he starts two bars and stops and starts again. About "Orange": I like those versions from 1964 with Dolphy on the bass clarinet and that great Byard solo, and some of Mingus´ greatest bass solo. Later on his comeback in 1970 he still played the tune, but somehow it was not as exiting, there were more rubato sections. On the 64 tour though it´s ballad time, it really has that great drive, "Parkeriana" is something special: If I heard different versions I always liked to check out what other bop anathems they include in the bridge (Ornithology, 52nd Street Theme, Buzzy, that superb ballad excerpt of "If I should loose you" and a very good "Parker´s Mood". And Clifford quotes "Hot House" in the bridge of one chorus. I think on an other occasion they quoted "The Street Beat" too...... It was that record that made me curious how the legendary Charlie Parker and Be bop style might sound. I got into bop from Mingus´ "Parkeriana"....

Sure, if there were not different tastes, there would not be an audience for all that great music. And how is your impressions about "Sophisticated Giant" (the album, not the book) ? As you see, I also had my own impression, which may be different from other ones. How is your´s ?

I did know his name only from the picture in Jazz Master´s of the 40´s, where he with the Tadd Dameron group from Royal Roost. On the broadcasts from those sessions he does not appear. And right, I saw him .... I think it was in the mid 80´s with Arnette Cobb. As much as I remember he was a middle aged, a bit hefty guy with red hair, and played some really fine alto. I don´t know why I didn´t go to the bar and talk to him during intermission, maybe I would have asked him about his time with Tadd. I remember that was a three horn thing with Arnette Cobb, there was also a trumpet player, who´s name I don´t remember and he was not so great. Cobb of course was on crutches, but stood in front of the mike, didn´t sit down, played great and as much as I remember he drank whisky.... I´ll never forget when I bought it , I think it was 1977 and I was still at high school. Those years, when I was just exploring be bop, and at the same time free jazz and electric jazz. It was spring, and when I got home and spinned it, there was that french radio voice tellin somethin about Jean Sebastian Bach and Mozard, which I couldnt associate with the music, and then while this french man is still doin his bla bla, the group comes in with "Rifftide" , and those fast versions of Wee and Ornithology, and the first time I heard Good Bait and Lady Bird. I remember how much I loved Moody´s playing. Until then the only tenor players I knew and saw live were Griffin and Liebman. And Moody does some screams here, that sound more like post 60´s , 70´s tenor playing and I thought "almost like Liebman ". Miles is so great here, first class bop trumpet, equal to Diz and Fats and Kenny..

I didn´t know that the ability of playing really deep and moving ballads means "soul", but if it is so, I sure agree. Dexter could play great ballads from the start on. You can hear it as early as his solos in the Billy Eckstine Big Band. But if ballads are played too slow, I mean as slow as it´s almost stoppin´ time, it´s harder to listen to. Let´s say, in his last decade Dexter had a tendency to play ballads at an extremely slow tempo. But if he had a rhythm section that pushed things a bit more , he would play them a bit faster. That´s why I like his "Nightingale at Berkley Place" from "Gotham City" so much. Or his first version of Midnight on "Homecomin", though they cut the intro short...., By the way: I wrote that review about Homecoming here on Monday, where I try to write my impressions about it, and especially the fine rhythm section, much better than what came later. NO LOVE for "Homecoming" ????? Yesterday I listened to "Sophisticated Giant" after more than 40 years. I didn´t like it as much as Homecoming then and hoped I would like it more now. But it didn´t happen. Sure, the idea of a larger band is an interesting one, but in my case at least, I don´t like the arrangements so much, with all due respect for Mr. Slide Hampton. I just can´t fall in love with the flute sound, again with all due respect for Mr. Frank Wess, but I never was a fan of the sound of flute and here it´s extremly piercing. The recording sound is not the best. Dexter is at much lower volume than those bombastic arrangements, and get´s less showplace than on other records. I never really liked the bass sound of Rufus Reid, it´s too long and soft notes, I like it more, if the bass has a more percussive sound, like Stafford James who is fantastic on Homecoming. The drum´s also not well recorded, the bass drum is too loud and the cymbals is barely audible... And the arrangements for ballads like Laura and You´re blasé is too heavy weight.... So this record will have again a rest for the next 40 years ....

Had to google him. But if anyone had played with Diz, with Griffin, with Manhattan Transfer and with the Brecker Brothers ... he must be hot

Jasper van´t Hof was quite a familiar figure in the 70´s , his name figured often in the german jazz magazine "Jazz Podium" which I had subscribed for about 10-15 years. The record got very much attention here in Vienna in the early 80´s . That long improvisation in Ab, it was very often spinned at jazz clubs and jazz cafés and many young folks who usually would not listen to jazz, liked it. Sometimes I would take some girl to some club and many of them liked that thing. But it also may have mislead young amateur players who thought they must not know a theme and just go on. For example: A few years ago when I led the house band on a open jam session at some club, where we would play the first set and after intermission let other musicians sit in, there was a lonesome kid in his early 20´s who had a trumpet case. Since on that evening there were also some saxophonists and a guitar player who would like to sit in and jam, I went to the kid and said to him "got a horn? wanna play with us?" and he nodded and I said, don´t be afraid, come on, what tune would you like to start with ? The kid said, well ....... something like......, I asked again, what tune ? and he said "Do you know Archie Shepp-Jasper van´t Hof"? So my conclusion was, that he doesn´t know tunes or how to play solos based on tunes. Just for not embarrassing that kid I said just listen and if you know a tune, play it , but when we started the second set with guests, the kid packed his horn and left.

I think I have a Christopher Holliday album that someone gave me for birthday once. Very fine, but so much similar to Jackie McLean, but really fast company I think with Wallace Rooney and some hot young rhythm section. Sometimes I played it while driving....., sure they all can play. I saw a helluva female alto player with a Diz memorial band formed by Diz´s bassist John Lee. She was top. I knew her name but would have to google to find her....., too bad they didn´t make a record, it was with Diz´guitar player Ed Cherry, the drummer I think was Candy Finch, the trumpeter I don´t remember his name but he was not as good as the lady on alto was....... And yeah : Cindy Blackman, this was some of the best drums I ever heard. I think if it´s about "young lions" as they were called I paid most attention to the drummers, Jeff Tane Watts with the Marsalis Brothers...

I never heard Pee Wee Russell and records with clarinet are very scarce in my collection I must admit. But I had read a long time ago that Monk played with him at Newport, I know there must be an album. But if a veteran plays compositions of Monk, and even Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, he earns my deepest respect, and that a more modern orientated label like Impulse recorded him. I heard a few combinations of Oldtime Jazz with "then modern jazz" in my live: The jam session in Paris 1949, were Sidney Bechet meets Bird and Miles, some broadcast of Bird with Miles, where an oldtime trumpetist named Max Kaminsky plays with them on Bird´s tune "Big Foot", then the 1947 WNEW Broadcast were Fats Navarro plays with more oldtime sounding Bill Harris "Sweet Georgia Brown". That means they really were musicians, and music is the common language. But if amateur Old Time groups here around in Europe play, they would not accept a more modern player, at least in most of the cases. Once there was a beer garden and such a Trad Band with Banjo and Tuba played and someone told me to sit in on piano. I still regret I did it. They said, let´s play Sweet Georgia Brown - no problem - and I played my solo maybe with lines not far away from Fats or Bud (who also recorded "Brown"), maybe with some left hand stride at one point as a nod to the "oldies". There were two young or middle aged guys in the oldy band who smiled at me and liked it, but the boss, a fat white hair banjo player hated it. By the way, he was from some authority that gave permisson if a club wants after hour open time, and he made a deal with that club "you get your after hour thing and let us play one time every month

Thank you for that interesting info about Ronnie Scott´s . Such a famous club. I never was in UK, but a friend of mine heard Dizzy there in 1975, it was the band with Al Gafa, about the repertory from his studio album "Bahia". Best seats at clubs yeah. But in our clubs in Viena there were no reservations for seats. If you were early you got the best seat. I wrote an essay about a defunct famous Viennese Club , you can read it in Miscellanious Music "Mike´s Blues"...... Clubs helped me to get into the scene and get possibilities to start playing.....

That sounds great. So it must have been the same tour I saw, early 1983. In my case it was at the Vienna Concert Hall and it was titled "Bebop Supernight". First set Johnny Griffin Quartet, second set Woody Shaw quintet, and last set a very weak Dexter Gordon. It was advertised that after the Gordon set there will be an encounter of all three leaders, but it didn´t happen.....

A classic and a must in every jazz collection. But I never understood why they played the solos on "St Thomas" in swing rhythm here. Olinga.....Dizzy´s composition I think. Milt Jackson performed it with Diz in 1981 in Montreux. Great performance.

I don´t have Lotus Flower. Is it Woodys working group with Steve Turré , Mulgrew Miller, Stafford James and Tony Reedus ? When ended Woody´s contract with Columbia. In the same year like Dexter´s contract with Columbia ended ? The only Woody Shaw from that period I have is from Electra Musician with Bobby Hutcherson added to the group. I saw the band in early 1983 and it was one of the best concerts I ever saw. Dewey Redman is great ! I remember the "Old and New Dreams". Stan Getz from 1995 ? Should it be 1985 ? Didn´t know he recorded for Concord. The only time I saw him was with a quartet with Lou Levy on piano...... I think I have somewhere an LP of Getz from 1990. Getz would have been okay, but I didn´t like the album very much. Might give it another try sometimes.. ..

I´ve read somewhere that at Newport 1977 Mingus presented an augmented band that played "Cumbia", and it had bassoon and oboe like on the studio production, and there was also a duo set of Mingus with Neloms, where Mingus played a lot of bowed solos. THIS would be of interest,

I think I have not listened to this for decades. This is really very good playing by Dexter. I think they kept him sober for those nights, since it was most important for his further career. The combination with Woody Shaw and those superb players Ronny Matthews, Stafford James and Louis Hayes is the best, really a dream band. I like Stafford James much more than Rufus Reid. Stafford really has power and pulsation, I like it better than Rufus Reid, who sounded somehow laid back on certain points. Ronny Matthews was such a fantastic player. He became Johnny Griffin´s piano player, I also like his playing more than George Cables. Same with the great Louis Hayes, I like his drumming more than Eddie Gladden. Don´t misunderstand me, I don´t want to put them down, but the band here is just the best thing that could happen. Well, once I heard a fantastic bowed bass solo by Rufus on the bossa tune "I told you so", taped from Village Vanguard on July 4th 1978. Dexter with Shaw always was great. Some particularly great performance can be heard on the Montreux Summit from 1977 on the small band set Dexter with Woody and Slide Hampton playing "Fried Bananas" "Moontrane" . And also the 1981 "Gotham City" is astonishing good, since it has such superb players like Cedar Walton, Percy Heath and Art Blakey and even George Benson. And with this rhythm section, a ballad like "A Nightingale sang at Berkley Place" is not as extreme slow tempo as his usual ballad performances like his eternal "More than You Now", which is so slowly played that it´s almost rubato.