Gheorghe

Swedish schnapps is probably the best Charlie Parker on Verve, since it´s a session of vintage Bird with the finest fellow musicians, and without Norman Granz behind them adding a "Tommy Turk" to a Charlie Parker Quintet or adding Buddy Rich to a Bird-Diz-Monk-Session. Okay, the album "Now ´s the Time" from 1953 is also very fine.....

I remember somewhere I read a 1973 interview with Hank Mobley (it must have been the time when he already was in bad shape and forgotten), that he had really bitter feelings about BN and that they didn´t record his movie score and didn´t release all his recordings. Well I thought they recorded him so much, it´s quite strange that he complained about them. On the other hand: Somewhere I have read that Mobley was present at the 1985 BN festival in NY, where almost all surviving BN artists performed, but of course he couldn´t play anymore, but it was reportet he made a speech. Is there any photos of him from that event ?

Just a masterpiece as all of Herbie´s BN albums. As many of my generation, we first had heard the versions of "Maiden" and "Eye of the Hurricane" with VSOP and it was later that I got the BN . With the exception of George Coleman this is the whole later VSOP band. Anyway I head George Coleman with his own group about the same time (around the making of "Amsterdam after Dark".....

Mine is also 1978 Japanese pressing ! Vol. 1 remains my favourite for the compositions and the participation of Fats and Sonny. From the later one, I keep Side B of Vol. 3, and the whole Vol. 4 "Time Waits" for the participation of Philly J.J. and the compositions, which are great. Vol. 5 is ok, but the drumming of A.T. is a bit too subdued. On the other hand, Bud plays great on Dexter´s "Our Man in Paris".....

During my youth it was almost impossible to find. It seems it was OOP until I found a japan import LP , mostly for side B with Curtis Fuller. I can´t say too much positive things about side A : Sounds quite uninspired . And the most annoying thing is how Bud interferes with Paul Chambers´ solos. It´s more a battle in the worst sense than giving support to the soloist. Sometimes at "Frantic Fancies" (which anyway is not a composition, but just playing on the chord progressions of "Strike Up the Band"...., it really seems to fall to pieces. So mostly I spin only side B, not only for Fuller, but also because Bud sounds better on it.

Yes, this is the one. I remember now, that "Clifford" and "Midnight" was on it as same as "Blue´n Boogie" and "52nd Street Theme". Heard it at the place of an avantgarde saxophonist who praised Rollins and McLean from the not so much avantgarde scene, and spinned it while we had dinner and beer together....

He arrived completly aggresive and as soon as he came into the studio he said to Max that he is an racist. Then he was completly uncooperative as playing into the right mike, and he threw his cigarette ends on the floor. The junkey woman who was with him, flooded the bathroom (threw all the toilet paper into the WC and thought it´s fun), they noticed it when the water entered the recording room...... ad infinitum.....

That´s a fantastic record, with Woody Shaw if I remember. I must spin it again. The cover looks a bit like those early electric Miles albums "Bitches Brew" or "Live Evil".... Yes, but what a terrible story about the making of the record, in Max Bolleman´s book "Sounds", since he had the recording studio in Monster/Netherlands, where the record was made. I was shocked when I read it..... On the other hand, I saw a whole concert video of Woody from the same year 1985 , leading the Paris Reunion with Graham Moncur III, Nat Adderly and Leo Wright, which is fantastic and were Woody is very articulate and taking care of business.... But reading the story about the recording date for Timeless it´s almost a wonder that some good music could be recorded......

I don´t remember the title of the album, but maybe it was the "Now´s the Time" or something but I remember there was some old bop tunes with a new face, very fine played and that "Afternoon in Paris" was on it, and wasn´t it with Miles´ rhythm section in 1966 during a time where Miles due to ill health couldn´t tour and eventually the band members worked with Rollins ?

Good answer by Miles, so hip, so quick. But take care where you scotch tape them together . Some starters leave holes, let´s say if it´s a 32 bar song form , I mean with a bridge. Take care how you play from the 16th bar into the bridge. No edges, no holes.... it has to flow .....

Miles Davis´ "My Funny Valentine" live from 1964 (much more than the 1956 Prestige Version). Charles Mingus: "Orange was the Colour of her Dress" from Paris 1964 (and in that context: Mingus´ solo on it, a beauty !)

I saw Jaws and Sweets in 1978 in Vienna and it was wonderful. I had a Pablo album I think it was called "Sweets and Jaws" from the same time and I think it had Dolo Coker on piano and I think I gave it someone and didn´t get it back, or didn´t think that the fender rhodes sound on some tunes fits to Jaws and Sweets, but never found that album again.

I think I head at somebody´s place a Richie Cole Phil Woods two alto album in the 80´s and I think it had a long version of a bop tune, maybe it was Donna Lee. Fine stuff, they know how to play, though my real love as an alto sound always has been Jackie McLean. Yes, this was the Woods-Cole album. I think it had a strange track on side B that had some strange title I couldn´t understand and to me it sounded like something "pseudo free". I mean I really like a lot of free jazz, but this sounded like if two guys who are not into that bag just try to do something "atonal" ....

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....