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I think I posted it some times ago. Fritz Pauer was my mentor. I was a shy teenager at hi school and his niece went to the same school and got me in touch with him (of course I knew before who he is). What an honour for me that this great musician said I got a lot of talent. He was the one who encouraged me to play and was the first one who let me sit in with some fast company when I was 18 years old. I had the occasion to see that trio on several occasions, and the hi light was when they played with Johnny Griffin. I miss him.

I like George Cables very much and my favourite record is that with Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Lewis and Philly J.J., "Four Seasons". And of course I saw him on several occasions. Too bad I never saw Pepper Adams, he was scheduled on the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band in 1978 but it seems they had changed the personnel. 1985 was quite late in his career, yes? I had seen a photo of him from Toronto 1986 and he had cancer and only few month more to live. I don´t know who Pierre Dorge is, but that doesn´t mean nothing....

Same here. I like it much more with horns. Though I don´t have many, I like those with Clifford Jordan done for Steeple Chase, and that Art Farmer album with the Cedar Walton Trio doing Ellington Standards....., but I think those were from the 70´s

I saw Jimmy Witherspoon once in 1985 and it was a most interesting group, it also had Dee Dee Bridgewater , on piano was the Germany born but live long parisian pianist Siegfried Kessler, who played and toured and recorded a lot with Archie Shepp, on bass I think was Dexter´s bassist David Eubanks, too bad I don´t remember who was on drums. I´m not necessarly a vocal jazz fan, but this was really really great, and it really had a great trio who acompanied Dee Dee and "Spoon"....

would be worth a topic in the forum jazz literature. I thought the most bitter is the interview with Hampton Hawes. And there is a very unusual interview with Eddie Lockjaw Davis...

It also must have to do with the environment I grew up. My mentors were active musicians or listeners of more demanding music like Trane, Mingus, Ornette etc. and of course also "back to Bird". Decent trios were the bass and drum have more suportive roles, like those Oscar Peterson trios or those Erroll Garner trios you mostly saw in not strictly jazz upper middleclass households, oh yeah and usually they also had those Jaques Louissiere "Play Bach" ..... And even after the re-birth of BN with all those RVG-Series albums starting to come out in the late 90´s I don´t remember there was "Three Sounds" included..... so even then I didn´t have no idea who Gene Harris is....

Yes, I also read that interview with Griffin. Griffin had a great start in Europe when he came to Paris but maybe he missed the old days.

I somehow became much lesser interested in trio albums with the years, but that Horace Parlan on Steeplechase I have, I like it very much, mostly because it´s not such a dull trio album where bass and drums only have a supporting role. It has Danny Richmond on drums and I think that´s the reason why I bought it and love it so much. It has "Like Someone in Love" on it, and Mingus´ "Duke Ellingtons Sound of Love". As for Gene Harris, is it possible that he belonged to other jazz-cliques that those where I was part of ? I mean, until around 40 I didn´t know who Gene Harris was, none of my fellow musicians or musical mentors ever mentioned him. Same with let´s say Houston Pearson: I don´t know why but I didn´t even hear his name until a guy who was maybe 13 years older than me mentioned Gene Harris and Houston Pearson as some of his favourites.

Very interesting story, didn´t know that. Anyway, for me looking chronologically at the BN Story (and again I mention I´m a player, not a colletor) I always thought that some of those things in the early 60´s were a step back, I mean you had new artists for BN, you had older artists who started to explore new areas, and then you had a batch of very very straight ahead swing albums with let´s say Tommy Turrentine, with the Three Sounds, with Horace Parlan (and I love Parlan, but much more in the Mingus context and with drummers like Danny Richmond ).

Great photo, yes those were the days, wonderful time then.....

Maybe I´m not the greatest fan of Woody Herman since it never did thrill me the way the contemporanious Billy Eckstine Big Band or Dizzy Gillespie Big Band did, I would like to hear some from this, it has some famous players and I think Sonny Berman was mentioned in Ira Gitler´s book "Jazz Masters of the 40´s ". I also heard some of that "Bird with the Herd" which is fun, but for my tastes it´s a bit too tough and straight big band sound, very very well played but something I hear in the two mentioned big bands that I could associate with Bird, is missing or not fitting to Birds melodical and rhythmical concepts....., far from racial, but maybe african american musicians from that generation would have said it sounds "white"... I saw Woody Herman twice, one in 1979 where the played some Chick Corea compositions, and an all star small group 6 or 7 years later. I enjoyed both of them.

I´m not sure if I will buy this one. I liked John Scofield more before he joined Miles. I saw him with the Dave Liebman band of the late 70´s and before that he had recorded with Mingus, but in the Davis Group he somehow played more behind the beat, it was not as wild and fresh like Mike Stern was before in 1981,82. And though I saw every Miles Davis Show in the 80´s in Viena, now looking backward I can´t listen to the stuff after Al Foster was replaced by Vincent Wilburn and the increasing use of "programming".

Strange, the cover photo looks more like someone like Bill Evans. I don´t have very very much of Art Tatum, I have some 1941 "God is in the House" which is great, though the piano is of poor quality, it´s live. I also have 2 of the Pablo "Master Solo Pieces" and one from an obscure label "20th Century" or so with recordings from 1956, but obviously not in N.Y. but in L.A.... I also have a "Group Masterpieces" with Buddy de Franco on clarinet I remember..... Is this a later photography of Larry Young ? I only know those from the BN years, I think he died in the late 70´s but it seems he was quite obscure then. Dpn´t know the death causes, did he have a similar end like Tina Brooks, who also died in obscurity in the 70´s ?

But what has it to do with jazz artists ? Is this not something for that category "non musicical, non politics non religious"...... ???

Now I saw the video. It´s quite a sad aspect from 2000 on for us who witnessed greatest tenorists in their prime, to see him in the latest stages of their splendid careers. There were dozens of them. I all saw them when they were in their prime, mostly in the 1970´s maybe early 80´s.... Well, when I saw Wayne Shorter in 2004 or so, he still was full in action and looked much younger than past 70. Johnny Griffin in the same year was a frail old man with a weak sound, having to sit down while playing. Sonny Rollins also was short of breath in later years. Pharoah Sanders also had slowed down and was in obvious discomfort when I saw him. Archie Shepp the same. Others lost their abilities due to booze and drugs and died in their 60´s like Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt.....really sad..... Here, George Coleman has to be led on stage and has to sit down. He is short of breath which is mostly obvious on ballads, where he tries to play fast runs to cover his breathlessness. But what shocked me most was that fact that he seemed so isolated, paying no heed to the rousing rounds of applause, with a vacant look when not playing. But they shouldn´t have filmed the whole intermission with that bald headed guy with the photo camera, who is always standing there....

I had to google what "dungarees" means. Oh my God, my fashion nightmare if women wear that stuff........, Yeah, as much as I remember, those Messengers in the late 70´s did wear that kind of casual wear, Blakey himself had dungarees jeans which made him look even shorter than he was. I remember those bands with Bobby Watson (I think he was the "musical director"), David Schnitter, and the great russian trumpetist Valeriu Ponomarev , James Williams on piano, Dennis Irvin on bass, they really cooked and brought the Messengers back for top billing after a weaker period in the earlier 70´s. My favourite LP was "In This Korner". I think, one year later David Schnitter was replaced by Billy Pierce, and on bass was Charles Fambrough, so I saw those Bobby Watson featured Messengers on more ocasions....

Is this the one with Earl Coleman on it. I´m not really a fan of vocal jazz, but I love Earl Coleman, Billy Eckstine, Johnny Hartman etc......, and it´s great to hear Sonny in that rare context..... Interesting all star thing. I heard Dizzy about the same time with an All Star Band, I don´t remember exactly the personnel, but it was Diz with Phil Woods, maybe Steve Turré , I don´t remember who was on piano, Rufus Reid was on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. Well I would have liked Jackie McLean more than Phil Woods, but he is also okay. Maybe Diz due to advanced age did not hit every note the way he wanted but it was pure bop, you still could learn very much from listening to him. I remember they played "Tour de Force" or this was the only track that was recorded for television than.....

I have the two volumes as individual CDs, Japan Toshiba Series, it was very much around in the late 90´s early 2000´s . It´s really an exiting, albeit sometimes rough thing. On my Vol. II CD there is a wrong listing of the 2 tunes played. Breakin Point is the latin beat thing in A natural, and Jodi is the fast modal tune. Freddie Hubbard seems to be in better form than Lee Morgan, all are great, and the combination Pete La Roca and "Big Black" is a dream team. But I didn´t really like the liner notes, it seems it is written by some college kid who doesn´t really know what´s goin´n on. I don´t read liner notes while listening to music, but sometimes after having listened to it I read them...... Maybe for some not so hard core fans the outworks of the tunes are a bit too long and go too far out. Let´s say on Vol. 1 that Clare Fisher bossa. When my wife heard the beginning she said "Gee, sounds like holiday, having sun at the pool and so..." but when it got more into improvisation she said "bye bye" and left the room.... On Walkin´ , Lee´s feature: Why do they speed up. It´s okay to play Walkin quite fast like Miles did it in the 60´s , but I think they are almost on double speed at the end, and I don´t mean "double time"..... They play Bud´s "Glass Enclosure". During my youth some students had to play this or to transcribe it I don´t know exactly what, I thing it´s more a pseudo classical thing. But that "V.S.O.P" irritated me, I thought about my then favourite band with all them greats. I must admit I don´t know who Danny D Imperio is....

From the 80´s stuff I like "We Want Miles" most since you hear a band workin at Miles played a lot of open horn on those, I think most from Kix and Kool. But later that year he played to much muted solos and it´s hard to hear him. The Band of the first part of 1983 still was great , when Mike Stern still was there. Scofield as much as many like him more than Stern, he had a tendence to play more laid back and I liked more the wild rough thing Mike Stern did. When Miles played some keyboard I like it more than Robert IrvingIII, since Miles had that specific Milesian chords. After that, it started to bore me. For some years always the same things, that "New Blues", that "Time after Time" and "Human Nature". I think the last time I saw him live there was a bit more music you can improvise on, and Kei Akagi was a hell of a keyboard player since he was not only a background role, he could really "blow" on solos, a very good choice. When I heard Miles for the first time after his 5 years hiatus it was very exiting, but then it started to become a parody. And I don´t know who made Miles outfit, but it somehow became a parody of himself. Those wide trousers make him look even shorter than he is, and that artificial "afro" where he looks like a king-poodle also looks funny...... When he came back in 1981 they told he was quite sick, but he looked more handsome and played more than later in the 80´s ......

Don´t know how to remove that quote up there, since I had posted already but when I write something else it´s still here. But whatever...... My question: What is a "Flamingo´s " song. I knew the ballad "Flamingo" and could it play right now. Sure I also know "I Only Have Eyes for You" ... a Billy Eckstine thing isn´t it, I got it in my head ..... About the other records, at this time I can´t say much. Wynton......I liked to hear him with VSOPII or what it was, at least three original masters and the two young brothers to play since they couldnt afford to book Freddie or Wayne or Freddie and Wayne didn´t want to do that for more years.....Heard him once again in the same year 1983 with his then quintet, young neat guys, some kind of acoustic 60´s jazz, not more.... About the not strictly jazz related Mambo ....I don´t know it. I heard some non jazz latin music at some peoples places and it is nice, but I couldnt say who played, When I was asked once about other genres like "Blues" (I don´t mean a jazz blues tune) or "Latin Music" I usually said look I like to eat a gulaș , it has meet, pepper, onions and all in it, so I like it. But I don´t have to eat separate the onions only , or the peppers only or the meat only.....

Yeah and I was in the middle of that Parker/bop kick. I discovered Parker from reading the liner notes of "Steamin" and from the title "Parkeriana" of Mingus, my only LPs then. And I noticed that saxophonists were crazy about Charlie Parker and if you listened to Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy AND Charlie Parker, you were hip. Later I got acquainted to Jackie McLean too, and those four alto players are the sound I have in my ears. But I also heard Arthur Blythe and Donald Harrison do great things....., what I don´t like are more syrop sounds on alto, I think the alto must be "sugar free" for my tastes .....

maybe some day I will save it on usb stick for the car, for a longer drive you can listen to such stuff. For really listening I prefer more demanding stuff.....

I don´t really know what is Tone Poet, but I had the Herbie Hancock album on the BN LA series with them ugly paper back covers and blue letters. But while other albums from that series where reissues of entire albums, this was only a sampler and had a few tracks from each of Hancocks LPs. The Prisoner is great, especially for the contributions of Joe Henderson. I bought individual CDs of the Hancock albums. I couldn´t read who is on it. I think I have somewhere a Charlie Parker Memorial 1965 (10 years after Charlie Parker´s death but it has more musicians form the generation before Bird (Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldrigde). Well I like "Whims of Chambers" more, because it has Trane and Philly J.J., but I have heard not for only one time that some do not really like Chambers with arco. Why ? The first arco I heard in my live was Chambers on Well you Needn´t from the "Steamin´album" and then on "Whims". It was incredible. I couldn´t believe that you can play something like that on a bass fiddle and Chambers was something like a "hero" for me . Well that BN album is nice and there are fantastic arco solos, but it´s a bit too much. A whole album mostly bass is a bit too much. That´s why I like "Whims" more. Bass player as leader yeah, like Paul on "Whims" and Mingus on all his albums, but leader does not mean you solo all the time.

This is my only Art Farmer album under his own name. I bought it about the time it came out since Art Farmer lived in Vienna if he was not touring and played a lot there. I got it signed by him with a dedication. About the same time in the 70´s some of the Supersax were bought by Bird fans and first we said "wow" , but while you can go back to Bird at any time and find inspiration, you won´t spin Supersax to much after that first "wow". And last but not least the rhythm section is too mainstream like, It almost sounds like it could be a machine, no live rhythm section. Most kids over here had the two MPS albums I think with Blue Mitchell and Frank Rosolino added. "SaltPeanuts" and "Koko" were more expensive and not found everywhere. Actually my second Miles LP then (after "Steamin´".....my third was "Agharta"). But it had another cover and was very cheap. But I loved it most. Soon I founded it much more interesting than "Steamin". Especially that fast "Walkin´" fascinated me, with Tony Williams drum solo.....

I must hear that , Gary Bartz playing "Misty Night". Strange but over here there are not many players who play that tune. I heard Pharoah Sanders do it. Gary Bartz, besides all his musical explorations starting with the great contributions to Miles Davis always had a big heart for be bop. On those two fantastic albums of "Heads of State" he plays many bop tunes.