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He was very much in the jazz magazines in the early 80s as a young super bebopper, and did albums with Phil Woods and others, and named his quartet "Alto Madness" and one of his albums was named after his daughter something like Annie Alto or Alto Annie, and then he made a record with a kind of country tenor saxophonist Boots Randolph that was his name and it was called Yaketee Madness or so (I don´t know how to write it, it´s not jazz and I don´t know it or don´t have a relation to country). I saw him in 1983 with a solid quartet, but didn´t know the names of the players, it was nice it was mainstream alto with p,b,dr, but nothing more...... Anyway that was a festival and from alto sax what remained in my mind was Jackie McLean and from the young musicians Donald Harrison´s alto in the Blakey formation...

I haven´t heard the record, but it seems it has some spirit of Max Roach (as you mentioned him in context with Cecil Bridgewater). Well I like other trumpet players more, I never heard him in other context than the several times I saw him with Max Roach live. Calvin Hill..... I remember I heard Roach in 1978 with Reggie Workman, and one or two years later with Calvin Hill and thought, Workman had a better sound. I don´t know what pick-up he used but the bass had somehow an ugly sound then. Workman had a much warmer sound.

@medjuck: I also thought very very often about this. I´m used to "like buttons" from the forum of my second passion (fishing).They call it "thank you" buttons.

I understood some of it but had difficulties to read that strange spelling. It looks like some very very old english from hunderts of years ago..... at least to me who got to "learn" the language mostly from reading liner notes and jazz books. I used to play quite a lot of bass in the late 70´s (self taught) but my main instrument has been the piano and eventually I dropped the bass, though I still have the bass fiddle in my music room. I think the reason I played some gigs on bass was, that during that time sometimes there were difficulties to find an acoustic bass if some guys chose to play so called "straight ahead"....

From the mid-sixties albums "Dippin´" is my favourite. He made so many albums for the BN Label I lost the trace. Most mid-fifties albums under his name are very very similar, not only from the personnel, but also from the album titles. The Mobley from the fifties I like most is with the 1954-55 Messengers, and very very nice on "Date with Jimmy Smith", and he holds his own on "A Blowing Session".... If I choose one single album that I´d keep it would be "Soul Station". Many praise his last BN album "Thinking of Home" but I have the impression that you already hear that Hank has breathing problems that affect his playing....

I think I remember that somewhere in the 80´s a lot of people liked Paquito d´Rivera´s "Explosion". Some people I knew had that album and I copied it on tape and if I played the tape for parties with friends or drivin with some folks with the car, they all liked it, also people who otherwise don´t listen to "jazz". In my case it had that "wow" effect on first and second listening . I had known Paquito from his playing with Diz so he already had a name.

What happened to Cindy Blackman ? She was a fantastic drummer and had that thing, that powerful drumming I like most. She was also with Jackie McLean. I somewhere read that she married Santano, and since that time I didn´t hear anymore from her at least in the genre of music I know.....

Must find that. For me it looks like an absolute dream band. Those four stars, each one of them for itself have been my very favourites from what I heard and saw live on Festivals from the late 70´s to the early 80´s. Within only a year (79/80) I had seen Joe Henderson twice, Ron Carter with his own Quartet, McTyner sextet with the personnel of "Horizon" and Al Foster with Sonny Rollins......., great times when all of them were at the peak of their power and we saw them regularly and would wait for their next albums.... Ron Carter was something like a "Mr. Hip" for us, very very tall, and that incredible bass sound with all his gimmicks like those glissandos and double grips....., Ron´s sound on Milestone Records or with VSOP was the sound of our time...., and McCoy Tyner seemed to be one of the most influencial pianists of all times....

Jazz Giant and Genius were the first I had under Bud´s own name, but the best or at least most interesting Bud for me was the Birdland Stuff with Bird, Fats or Bird Dizzy from 1950/51 and the Massey Hall Quintet 1953. I like Be bop mostly as a group performance. About the other Verve trio recordings, yes: "Lonely One" has some great moments and by the way "Lonely One" has more interesting liner notes. "Blues in the Closet" I like most for those great ballad performances "I didn´t know what time it was" and "I Should Care", but on my copy the piano is recorded with too much treble and the bass is recorded too loud. I also have another from those Verve Series that is titled "Bud Powell ´57" which is the less interesting, it seems they are some remainders. Completly confusing since it was not recorded in 1957 but in late 1954 and seems to be a bit weird. "Like Someone in Love" doesn´t sound as good as it sounded on later performances, "That Old Black Magic" is not really together with Max Roach, and "Round Midnight" doesn´t have the exitement it had on the Performances with Bird and Diz, or the later performances in the 60´s. "Old Black Magic" sounds much better on his live recordings at Birdland from autumn 1964, where he also includes a stride-section, very fine. I have this also, but somehow I don´t spin all the Lou Donaldson albums. What keeps is "Blues Walk" and sometimes the very fine "Lou Takes Off" with the sextet. And my wife likes the "If I love again" on the first album (quartet, quintet, sextet).

Isn´t this the one with "Conception" as the first tune ? That´s one of Bud´s most fascinating performances. People say it´s a hard tune to play but I love it and performed it often. As I remember it is the tune that really is the most memorable stuff on the record. And this time the drums are well recorded. And the key in Db is also cool for me, love to play it in that key. There was another LP from the same period called "Bud Powell Moods", which as a similar abstract cover art but is not as interesting as the "Interpretations" album. What sucks a bit is the very short and not very interesting liner notes, I think they were written by Norman Granz himself. Yes, that´s it. In books about jazz in the 40´s like Ira Gitler´s book and others, the "Bop for the people" wasn´t mentioned very much. See, for dudes from Europe who were born after the 40´s , we didn´t know very much about groups that may have had a short time fame, but nevertheless the "Bop for the People" is something I had heard about. And that tune "High on an Open Mike" was for eternity through the 1947 "Saturday Night Jazz Session" which we all bought in the 70´s mostly for the participation of Fats Navarro. I remember my English was very weak and depended on my understanding of the liner notes. But the title "High on an Open Mike" was ununderstandable for me then. "Mike" was the english name for "Mihail" or "Michael" how I knew it and I translated it in "Hoch auf einem offenen Michael" (I think only Google-Translate can do worse), but it is an interesting Ventura original with some "swing to bop" elements. The A part is based on "If I had You" and the bridge is a descending chord thing, very very nice to play really...... Benny Green is really cool, but I think on that WNEW Saturday Night stuff it was Bill Harris on tb, who sounds more old fashioned for our understanding, a bit more Dixieland style if I´m right.

for Jackie McLean: I love his version of "Parker´s Mood" from 1972 at Montmatre.

Was that at Wiesen 1980. Too bad that 1980 was the only one I missed....

As I say, as a listener and spectator I didn´t see any signs of prima donna behaviour from Ricky Ford and it was only the interval of one year, late summer 1976-late summer 1977, and as much as I remember and I think it can also be seen on video clips, Mingus was more docile at that time. He was not anymore the "Angry Baron" . Sometimes you had the feeling that it was more Danny Richmond who pushed to players. Especially on those tunes where there is more ostinato bass ("For Harry Carney" and the first section of the suite "Cumbia and Jazz Fusion" as we observed, Mingus just plucked the ostinato bass figure and had a quite vacant look. He came a bit to live during the few short soloes he played (intro of "Noddin´ Ya Head Blues", the short bass solo after the Mingus´ vocal rap in the middle part of "Cumbia" after they switch from Db back to F, then that short Walter Page like bass line on "Three or Four Shades" , and I think instead of an encore he would let Danny Richmond play a drum solo. But it is also possible he played a very short closer too. Man, that happened 45 years ago, I say I think I remember Mingus didn´t have that dominant role he once had (and which I didn´t witness on stage) . But the music, I remember very very much of it, since the first thing I did when gettin home was to analize "Cumbia" and search posibilities to get it rehearsed together with some fellow friend musicians....

Bob Neloms must have been on schedule (I don´t remember in what context) at Wiesen Jazzfestival 1980. I remember this event very well, because the then budding fellow pianist Thomas Barth (I played bass for him on some occasions), who was only 15 years old then but had a lot of talent even then, met some of the musicians, especially pianists and asked them for some advices for a young budding jazz musician. He first asked Ronnie Matthews (with Griffin Quartet) and Matthew told him "don´t just play something, say something !". After that he met Bob Neloms, who seemed to be a bit juiced but made an astute statement: "well, and take care WHAT you say!".......

Thank you. "fame went to his head" is a good interpretation. It is interesting, that from the 76-77 band, I have not heard much about the players otherwise than with Mingus. Bob Neloms, Jack Walrath, Ricky Ford, (and Danny Mixon before Neloms)... I had not heard their names before it and not very very much after it. (Ricky Ford I think did an interview for DB about his time with Mingus, and that Mingus had given him the nick "Ricky Ticky".

Oh yes thank you ! I haven´t listened to the tracks for some time, but remember the Patanjali well and the Don´t Stop the Carnival is so groovy on this version, but very very short, it was only the closer. It has a bit another groove and is at a slower pace than the usual versions. On the other hand, I remember that I found the tune "Professor Paul" quite boring.

At first listening (and this was after hearing my first Mingus 3-LP with Dolphy in Paris, the albums with McPherson maybe were a bit a disappointment to me ("Mingus at Monterey" and "My Favourite Quintet", but now I really like them. He sounds like a more mellow Bird maybe with a softer reed (maybe in the later years 1953,54). Since Mingus played with Bird in that period I think he chose McPherson for that "Bird Sound". It´s very significant on his solos in the jam session "Mingus at Carnegie Hall 1974 ten years later.

Didn´t he play with Sonny Rollins ? Isn´t he on one of those Road Session albums ?

Dusk in Sandi, like Glass Enclosure seems to be a more classical aproach composition. They are very short compositions. It´s strange I have not played "Sandi" for 40 years but just writing now I still have it in the head and if I have it in the had I can play it. Though it never was part of my repertory (I don´t perform solo, I perform with combo) I had to play it since an expatriate US saxophonist always requestet it. After a gig, he asked me to get back on piano and play "Dusk in Sandi" just for him. Once I said "but I know so many other beautiful ballads" he insisted I play that one tune.... Those two tunes don´t appear on other recorded sources, though I think "Glass Enclosure" at least once was recorded with Mingus and Taylor at Birdland. It is possible it was such an ugly and cheap looking LP where date and personnel were on a little paper that was glued on the backcover (I once heard that Boris Rose "produced" records like that).... But I think the material is on the four ESP Disks "Spring-Summer-Autumn-Wintersessions)

Leo live in my hometown Viena in his later live. Sorry to say he had a stroke that left his fingers on one hand impaired. I used to meet him on many occasions at Jazz Spelunke where we talked and he was tellin me how he works to get back playing. He had that rubber ball to get back the strenght in his fingers. Eventually he got back playing. Played a gig with Clark Terry that was on video, can be heard on the second CD of Dizzy in Hamburg 1978. His wife Elly who is from Viena, is a very very fine singer.

Dear Walter ! Very nice what you did ! I didn´t know the Konitz solo and from hearing I thought you improvising and use some of the typical Konitz phrasing in your solo.

Pharoah Sanders "Healing Song" on "Live at the East" Ornette Coleman I already mentioned "Garden of Souls" and would like to add the theme of "New York" on "Ornette at 12" and the String Version on "Prime Design-Time Design". Mingus: Meditation on Integration, Orange is the Colour of her Dress Charlie Parker: "Parker´s Mood" Dizzy Gillespie: "I waited for you" Bud Powell: "Round Midnight" (on the 1962 video in Copenhaga, where he seems to play it exclusively for a girl in the audience). Miles Davis: "When I Fall in Love" (1956 Prestige), "My Funny Valentine" (1964) John Coltrane: "A Love Supreme" (the Seattle version), "Naima" (1966 Village Vanguard again) Dave Liebman: "Your Lady" (Coltrane tune on "Drum Ode"), this is 9 examples okay? And for the 10th my only non jazz input: "Hildegard Knef:Für mich soll es rote Rosen regnen"

What a pity there´s no record of Monk playing in Mexico. He did a long interview there, that´s what remained, but the music ?

good choice. Lonely Woman was a favourite of my mother until a few years ago. "He Loved Him Madly" is also a very interesting thing, I loved it but haven´t listen to it for many years, good idea to listen to it again.

I love that tune, heard it on many occasions live by Dizzy and like to play it myself. I like the arrangement of the out chorus, it´s wonderful to play. A trumpet player I worked with on several occasions (very fine, student of Ack Van Royen in Amsterdam, had played with greats like the late Barry Harris) loves that tune and I enjoy playing it with him in the group. He even once had a small group named "Ceora". Wonderful tune, A Flat.....yeah ! My input here: "Garden of Souls" by Ornette Coleman !!!!!!