Gheorghe

Jackie McLean on tenor ? Looks like Jackie when he was older. He slicked his hair back then (I don´t know why, his naturally curled hair looked better). I didn´t know who is Eric Alexander until I saw him on TV when he played with Cecil Payne, I don´t remember the rest of the group, but Ron Carter was on bass that´s sure. Cecil Payne had visibility problems then and had to sit down while playing. It was Eric Alexander who led him on stage and first I thought this red hair student of law or economies might be his guard or butler, and was astonished when I saw and heard him play tenor. Didn´t know who he was until I later saw photos and it reminded me of the guy who had led Cecil Payne on stage.

Yeah maybe. There is almost no photo of Hank without a cigarette. You can enjoy tobacco, but you should not "eat" it like peanuts....., so maybe it was lung cancer or emphysema (Dexter also had emphysema and throat cancer and almost sure liver cirrhosis due to excessive drinking).

It´s solo only ? I have admired a lot of Cecil´s work, but like it most with the Unit and above all with Jimmy Lyons..... Poland in 1968......rough times and maybe completly another world for an american artist. But it seems that quite a few american artists liked Poland: Monk was there, Miles was there (okay maybe in 1983 it was better conditions....)... But I saw some very beautiful photos of towns with fancy buildings......, would be worth a city trip.....

Really fine music listed ! John Hicks with Pharoah Sanders was really some highlights in the 80´s. Gil Evans at Sweet Basil great. I have not heard the Chick Corea. Vitous-Haynes band but it sounds like a dream team, but if I read "ECM" label I always am afraid it is.....well how can I say it.....it´s ECM-music... but maybe this great trio is an exception.

How to say: It´s almost a miracle that Hank Mobley at that stage of health (only one lung, and bad teeth) could blow a single note. I also suppose that he didn´t have the money to buy a really good instrument. I remember that once he said he would look for a "decent saxophone"....... Of course, that bad sound quality doesn´t help much and some unsure intonations ar coroborated through the fact that the tape player wavers badly. I remember when I was a teenager and we had a club gig and I asked a friend to record the stuff on tape player it also sounded bad, because you don´t hear the real groove, it often sounds like mud. And this is not only due to poor musicians. A friend managed to get a little tape recorder with integrated mike into the 1976 Mingus performance in Vienna and it also sounds that way..... But even if Mobley´s saxophone sound is weak and unsure, you hear that his musical mind was intact and with more physical ability it would have sounded great. For someone who knows the secrets of Mobley´s imagination, he will recognice that a great musical mind is working, physically in terrible shape and with a bad axe, but yet he thinks music. When I lead a series of jam session there was a really weak saxophonist sittin in on each occasion and he had a similar sound .... not due to illness but to lack of knowledge of the instrument.....but other than Mobley his lines also were weak. He played "Softly like a morning sunrise" or "Footprints" from sheet and the improvisations was only the same "hoo-bah hoo-bah doo-bah". I could have killed that guy since he also placed his beer on the piano. Once I shouted at him that if he doesn´t know to play, at least he should have respect for the instrument.... I assume that Mobley didn´t even have a health insurance, with some good medical help, a new dantura and healthy food he could have had some more years. Man, to dye that way ....not in the 1920´s but in 1986 is really a drag.... P.S.: Does somebody know why he had only one lung ? (cancer ????). Once I have heard that Curtis Fuller also was operated on lung had remained with only one lung.

Nice, this is the pre-birth of cool, wonderful thing. But I think when I mentioned a Miles-Lee Konitz collaboration also from the Roost 1948 it was a small group thing, Miles, Konitz, Lewis, Curley Russel and Max Roach playing a vintage bop set with stuff like 52nd Street Theme and maybe a ballad sung also by Kenny Hagood.... I friend of mine who died had it, the second side was a set from 1952 Miles with Jackie McLean..... 2 days ago at a jam session during intermission a trumpet player and myself talked about bop tunes to play and as we mentioned Miles (he had played the old "Milestones" (not the famous tune but the bop line from a Savoy session with Bird on Tenor, he mentioned that Miles sometimes stole compositions from others. I mentioned "Dig" which actually was an original by Jackie McLean called "Donna" and as you sure know, based on "Sweet Georgia Brown". On the other hand, when I was a teenie and first heard Miles´ "Walkin´" I was astonished that the composer was not Miles, but a Richard Carpenter (later I got to know the story behind that dubious deal", but then I thought who is this "Richard Carpenter" who wrote that tune. What does he play, with whom does he play......

Those Prestige covers with a photo and with those stripes and the text "Historical series were around there in the early 70´s and from that series "Miles Davis - Steaming" was my first jazz listening ever and I got hooked for the rest of my live. Then I purchase "Coltrane-Soultrane" from the same series, the one with "Good Bait" and "I wanna talk about you", and while browsing thru the records I also found "Tadd Dameron - John Coltrane Mating Call". They were not expensive and could be purchased with the monthy pocket money. Ah, and actually my second self bought record was "Mingus in Concert" (3 LPs with Dolphy in Paris). So Miles and Mingus where my first "heroes" Fantastic ! Vintage bop with the very best performers. Stitt on tenor is great , the tunes are great, and IMHO it is one of Bud Powell´s very best performances. This and the BN with Fats Navarro and Rollins....

Yes I remember that. Very strange, since there was no evidence of other activities. I remember I was a DB subscriber until the mid 80´s and there was a narrow rubrica on the first pages titled "Big City Beat" and there was a note that "though Hank Mobley had or has some respiratory problems which impair his ability to perform, he ocasionally plays club dates in the Philly Area......, So maybe he was not completly inactive.

The "Nocturne" really sounds very strange. I must be in a certain mood for this.

Oh that´s bad news. I saw some films with him when he was younger. He often played a bad guy. Wasnt´there a film where he was a police man who stalked a married woman ? And there was another film where a young and married businessman is seduced by a blonde woman and her friend is a quite dubious character played by Liotta ? I don´t remember the titles of the films....

I have the Lee Konitz - Miles Davis album with the same cover, but on side B there is other tunes and musicians. It has a duo Konitz-Jimmy Raney, and some more abstract tunes featuring Teddy Charles. The last tune is a very very strange sounding version of "Night in Tunisia". There was an earlier Davis-Konitz collaboration in the late 40´s I think. With John Lewis and Max Roach I think...

Yes, but in 1983 when I saw Dexter the last time "performing" it was clear that the end was in sight. No one would have thought that he might get through the few tunes he played on the film. Hank Mobley also had a drinking problem. During those last years, Max Roach once told that he wanted to invite Mobley for a drink and was a bit embarrased when Mobley insistit on a triple hard drink. I think the great Max Roach had some traumatic experiences seeing great fellow musicians killed by accidents (both Clifford Brown and Woody Shaw), or down and out like Bird, Bud, Mobley.... Max Roach also was the last person to see Woody Shaw. He had invited him to listen to a gig he had in NY and sent a limo to Newark to drive Woody to the gig...

Bought it for a lot of money when it came out, Japan import. This was the time when we boys at school would imitate Miles during intermission. Some guys laying percussion patters on the school desks and one imitating the wah wah sound, making a little pantomine as if playin a horn and wearin huge sun glasses. We all bought those kind of sunglasses. We all had Agharta , and some guys who were a bit older and more insiders said "yeah, but do you have Pangeea" I was the first in my school class to have Pangeea.

Yeah, interesting record. Both Bird and Newks on tenors. Miles in very good form, and maybe the first occasion where Miles recorded with Philly J.J. Also the side B with Newks. Flanagan, Chambers and Taylor is nice. The best quartet Art Pepper ever had. Many like the quartet with Milcho Levieff too, but Cables swings more. But the artists would have deserved a cover photo with more dignity. It looks like if they pissin´. And somehow they caught Art with such a mean look, the cigarette in the mouth does not make it better....

That photo is not bad. Maybe late 70´s ? Yes, Hank Mobley ..... and Dexter Gordon too. The old masters. But it is interesting that Mobley later played one of his last gigs in NY at a joint called "Angry Squire". Far from his peak, but it seems that he wanted to play again. Same with Dexter: In some german review of the concert they wrote that it´s a pity that Dexter was feeling to unwell to play. But about the same time he made his performances in the Round Midnight film in Paris. Though also far from his peak, it´s a mircacle that suffering of emphisema and cronic alcoolism he could play a few tunes.....

I saw the photo and it was very very small and I didn´t even know it is Hank Mobley, I remember before I saw the saxophone I thought it is Slide Hampton in later years.....

It was standard reading repertory at high school and anyway many of our wild gang nevertheless had a fondness to read, to read good books. I had the same edition "ro ro ro". About reading in French : I never had French at high school but if you know Romanian language you have a very easy access to at least reading in French. That´s how I managed to read the original French version of Francis Paudras "Le Danse des Infidéles" . My wife also reads and understands French well for the same reasons, but though she had French at school, when the "profesoara de limba franceză" came into the classroom she said "anybody can do now what he/she want´s" (maybe a boycott because western european languages meant that you might listen to "forbidden" radio stations...., not a single word in french was spoken in the classroom On the other hand, since my mother in law was transsilvanian-hungarian origine I learned some Hungarian much to here pleasure. I never got perfect and have forgotten a lot, but she gave me Albert Camus´ "L´Etranger" in Hungarian language, hard to read for one who is happy if he at least can make some very simple hungarian discussion, but since I knew the content of the book I managed to get thru (the hungarian title is "Közöny" )

I like those Pharoah Sanders recordings of the early 70´s . The first I had was "Live at the East" and the long tune "Healing Song" with some vocals in the background is one of the most moving music I ever heard (though from the heart I´m more the bebop guy). It was one of my first albums when I was in my early teens. "Thembi" and "Love" etc. also very very fine, on Thembi it´s more percussion, and the theme of "Love is Us All" is similar moving as "Healing Song"..... Of course I don´t know the other two records.....

That´s really a beautiful painting ! And wonderful tunes. And it seems to be a good rhythm section as much as I try to read from the liner notes (Malachi on piano, Roy Haynes on drums).

If I listen to vocal jazz my first choice is Billy Eckstine. I haven´t heard him sing "Everything I have is yours" but it is on some Eckstine album where Sarah does it as a feature. Beautiful ballad. Maybe on MGM recordings I might miss the great orchestra. Short time ago during intermission I talked to a musician and he mentioned the "Billy and Sarah" album from the late 50´s and the great singing of them both (I think it´s the one that has "Alexander´s Ragtime Band" and "Cheek to Cheek" but we both admitted that we complain the anonymous studio band, that typical 50´s run of the mill swing bands that also marred on Charlie Parker album "Charlie Parker Big Band"..... Maybe I should look for this. I think I didn´t buy it when it came out since I thought it´s more the kind of a "sampler", but to hear Jackie McLean/Woody Shaw playing "Appointment in Ghana" and to hear Hubbard with Blakey and of course the Cecil Taylor solo would be something to enjoy. I remember I was irritated about the participation of Charles Lloyd and Michel Petrucciani, since they don´t have to do something with BN. Anyway as much as I remember they got less favourable write ups..... I´m sure it´s my fault but I never really could become warm with Charles Lloyd, when he was popular in the late 60´s I was too young (under 10 years) and when I started to listen I associated 60´s jazz with Ornette, Trane, Cecil Taylor etc. ) . But some of the a bit older guys on jam sessions always wanted to play "Forest Flower" so I had to play it.....too often....

I´m not really THE Guitar expert, I love to hear some good guitar solos in jazz combos of hard bop with let´s say Kenny Burrell or Wes, the guitar was not the most popular instrument in 1960´s free jazz, but in the 70´s when I grew up as a listener it was the fix part of fusion groups like Miles how I heard him then..... But nevertheless, though I don´t have heard about Norman Harris, I wish him well, it´s a drag to have a serious illness . I never had heard about chemo bath, but I hope very much that he will recover and don´t need chemo.

Thank you, that means my memory was right, that he only said something about who is the oldest, Lou or him. Thanks Dan Gould, I think some day I might purchase that CD. It´s always a bit difficult for me, since I´m more the musician type listener and less the collector. But Mraz-Al Foster sounds great. What a pity they chose "Atumn Leaves" as the only tune with Mobley: I mean nothing wrong with the tune and the Miles version with Wayne and Herbie is some of the greatest music ever, but I don´t like it , that on jam sessions so many of the not really good musicians want to play it..... , too bad they didn´t choose some of those fine Mobley compositions...... I read the old thread and one of the guys answers that he doesn´t like Al Foster . Different tastes, Foster is my favourite drummer and if I had those "three wishes" like in Pannonica´s book, one of them would be to play a gig with Al Foster on drums ..... I think I even saw that little photo of Hank Mobley on google pictures, I didn´t recognize him, a very old man with white hair.....

somewhere I heard or read that he said something a bit weird about the difficulties they had to find him and announce him the event. Then he said something that he thought he is the oldest member, but learned that Lou Donaldson was the oldest member. I´m not sure he said that, but maybe. I also hope someone has more recollection of the general content of his speech. And fotos. I heard somewhere that at the same time or later he played his last gig in NY. I heard some you tube of it but of course it is sad, but I never saw photos of Hank when he was a bit older. Almost all photos on album covers show a very young smiling man in his late 20´s, early 30´s..... Maybe the last photo I saw was on the back cover of a 1968 album, which strange to say shows Hank in Paris, though the album was done in NY. But he really looks handsome on it....

makes me feel that it might be time to smoke a cigar again. Normally I´m a (moderate) cigarette smoker, but once in a while , maybe now evenings are warm, sittin in the garden after sunset with some good music it might be cool.

Oh yes, I remember my enthusiasm when I first heard the album "Miles in Europe" . It was my third Miles album after "Milestones" and "Steamin´" and on first hearing I bursted with enthusiasm. If the first quintet was "my music", this was even more my music, that fast versions of "Milestones" and "Walkin´", those fantastic renditions of Autumn Leaves and All of You.... and lead to a live long admiration of Tony Williams...... During that time (I was a teenager) I stayed for a while at my sister´s and her husband´s place during summer vacation , and of course I had a batch of records with me and just spinned that "Miles in Europe" while one etaj down some craftman fixed something on the house, and later my sister told me that he had heard the music and all the time said "great, fantastic music you have here......."