Jim R

Well, 1988 was a long time ago, and I don't have the greatest memory in the world, but I would think more like $2000 (maybe $2500 for an exceptional specimen) at that time. Of course, we ARE talking about NYC- the "mecca" of high prices. People are always talking about how rare 150's are (the notes on the LP cover of Rene Thomas' "Guitar Groove" stated that only a few existed in the world), but that's a misconception. You can almost always find one for sale if you know where to look. The truly rare model was the ES250, of which only a few dozen were ever made. Those are well into 5 figures now (and yes, I sold mine for a lot less ).

hbj, I think $3K might have been a little ambitious for an ES150 (unless it had been really clean) back at that time. Of course, it was probably worth a little more than $400! (sorry ). At any rate, we've all done things like that, I'm sure. I once traded 2 guitars plus some cash to George Gruhn for an ES250, and when I saw the prices he put on my guitars I almost fell down. Live and learn indeed. I also think back to some guitars I sold for lower-market value, which are now worth ten times what I sold them for. Ah well... Lon, As far as I know, Gourley has used an ES150 for most of his career. There were so many players that used those (or other models with that pickup added) due to Christian's influence. Charlie used the 150 and the 250, BTW). I still say you should try out the Tiny Grimes 4-string version (ETG150). Every bit as loveable as a digital piano!

I never met a Gibson I didn't like. B) What do folks think of the new D Angelicos? I think they're ok, but those headstocks are huge! I haven't had the pleasure yet, but I've heard nothing but good reviews.

First of all, let me say that I consider myself lucky, for a couple of reasons. I've been able to afford some nice guitars, and I started "collecting" (although I've never owned more than a few at any given time) back in the 70's, before vintage archtops became major investments and museum pieces on an international level). I've always had a serious "thing" for vintage Gibson archtops, and I've bought/sold/traded a few dozen over the past 30 years. I was also very fortunate to own an old noncutaway D'Angelico New Yorker back in the 80's (eventually decided to trade it away). To me, every archtop guitar has it's own personality, especially if you experiment with different models. I love that about them. I also love the way they sound, feel, look, and yes, even smell (okay, I'm odd). Anyway, it's hard to choose a favorite, because each model has it's own design factors that make it special. I love the sound of 18" guitars like the Super 400 and the D'A NY, but they're not as comfortable to hold and play. The Johnny Smith model is great, with its wider fingerboard, slightly shorter scale, and that great mini-humbucking pickup. And speaking of pickups, it's pretty hard (IMO) to beat the sound of the old Charlie Christian pickup. The ES-175 is probably the quintessential affordable/reliable/workhorse type Gibson archtop, but for an axe with a P90 (single coil) pickup, I always liked the ES-350. Despite what you see in my avatar, I guess if I had to pick an all-time favorite, it would be my L5CT(ES), or "George Gobel" model. It's an L5 with a thinner body (about an inch thinner than a standard L5), and a cherry red finish. Mine was modified with humbuckers before I got it, but even unplugged it just sings, and it practically plays itself. 24 3/4" scale, and so comfortable to play. Adrian Ingram, who wrote "The Gibson L5: It's History And Players" (as well as Wes Montgomery's bio) asked me for photos, so it actually ended up being included in his book (b&w, unfortunately, although the color photos in that book were generally screwed up somehow).

I was going to mention, five tracks on the Smith were originally released on the (LT series) LP "ON THE SUNNY SIDE". I like the fact that the whole CD is Smith/Burrell/Bailey, even though from three different sessions.

The track 11 vocalist is definitely not Abbey Lincoln. The way she plays with the time might be somewhat in Abbey's bag in some ways, but the sound of the voice just isn't Abbey, who has a lot more character and texture, I think. Tonally, this vocalist reminded me of Cassandra Wilson at first, but I haven't really familiarized myself with Wilson (don't dig her, from what I've heard). Edit: Now that I've gotten through the whole thread, I see Mike has come up with an answer. I've heard about that singer, but heard very little of her. I wonder if this arrangement was out (or even way out) of character for her...

Checking in very late here, for a variety of reasons (one of which is that these discs stumped my ass). I'm going to be brief, because I struggled with most of this, and I'm sure a lot of answers (or hot leads) have already taken place. I haven't really finished listening to Disc 2, but I think I'll have to bail on that anyway, so... Disc 1: track 4 - Reminds me of Flora Purim. I know I've heard this before, but it's been awhile. track 9- The piano/vibes combination made me think immediately of a particular pair, and lucky for me it was the right one. I have this recording (it's on Blue Note), and this pianist has appeared on BF tests before. This was (hands down) my favorite track on this test. track 11 - Obviously it's "Nature Boy", but I don't recognize the singer (and don't care for her style). track 12 - I've heard this on KCSM so many times (it was used as a theme for one of their shows, I think). I should know the title, but I don't. I think it's McCoy Tyner's big band. Now to go read this thread and see if I can add anything else to the discussion. Thanks, "Da da"!

I voted for the Morgan. It was a thrill to get such a great CD of previously unissued material. The Three Sounds was also p.i., the Jimmy Smith was about half p.i., while the Clark and the Green had been released years before on Japanese vinyl ("Remembering Grant Green" and Clark's Trio volumes). I never thought the Green was among his best. I'd probably give second place to the Smith, with all those p.i. tracks with Burrell.

Besides the heavyweight Columbia 50's dates, my personal favorite (which rarely even gets mentioned on these threads) is BLUE HAZE. I also love the Blue Notes, and I'm with Garth in terms of the Gil Evans collaberations.

I'm in. Will PM you shortly...

I found something to enjoy by all those listed (and of course others), but for me The Beatles get the vote without any hesitation whatsoever.

Al, Al, Al... recorded comedy? Come on, now. Don't you have enough puns to last you to Austin? Seeing as you'll be driving through Texas, I think the Jeff Foxworthy suggestion makes good sense. He's very funny, and you may actually pass some "visuals" to go along with the audio.

Well, since Al (Joe) already wished Joe (Al) a happy birthday on Al's (Al's) birthday thread, and since this sort of thing confuses me tremendously, I'm simply going to say... HAPPY BIRTHDAY Free For Al.

Congratulations, Jim!! Wow, a new baby AND running a Blindfold Test to boot. You da man! All the best.

I don't know how many were produced, but I understand Jackie Mac's quintet LP on Ad Lib is pretty rare

You'd think 9 am would be late enough on the west coast for everybody to be up... -_- (that's a yawn) Well, due to circumstances beyond my control, I dozed on the first hour of the bash. But I'm awake now!! Hey, pass me some of that cake- I haven't had breakfast yet! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ORGANISSIMO BOARD !! Many thanks to Jim, and to everyone here who makes this place such a great place to hang out. :rsmile:

Maxine, Thank you for posting, and for contacting me. I tried to respond to your e-mail, but my message was intercepted by the Earthlink spam blocker. I found the above photo by searching the internet using Google. The photo came from a Brazilian website: http://www.jazzclub.com.br/images/foto-Dexter%20Gordon.gif Unfortunately, I just tried looking for more by going to their homepage (http://www.jazzclub.com.br) and trying different links, but so far I haven't even found the photo there (and no references at all to Dexter)...

Interesting. I don't recall whether I've ever come across this information before (not even in Adrian Ingram's bio/discography of Wes), and I've been a jazz guitar fanatic for years. A search turned this up in at least two sources on the web, and although they seem fairly reliable, I would reserve just a touch of doubt, since this info was not mentioned by Ingram. Perhaps some of our members with extensive discographical resources can offer info as to whether Lord and others list this session: Almost Forgotten - Various-Instrumentalists / various artists (Columbia FC 38509) Alonzo Johnson (ts) Buddy Montgomery (p) Wes Montgomery (g) Monk Montgomery ( b ) Robert Johnson (d) NYC, June 15, 1955 Love for Sale So yes, it was a compilation, apparently with only one track including the Montgomerys. ======== Edit: It just occurred to me that this is listed in an old (1991) Japanese discography collection called "Jazz Hero's Data Bank", which further tempers my doubt about this being accurate. The Ingram book dates from 1985, BTW, and I don't know whether this info was available to him at that time...

Thanks for reviving some memories, Jim. A lot of people have called Mays the greatest all-around player ever, and as a person who grew up a Giants fan in the 60's, it's hard for me to argue with them. My older brothers had some cards (including the '66 Mays), and I collected Topps in '67, '68, and '69. The one high-series card that I wanted but never got (never got to the mail-order level, so I pretty much satisfied myself with the earlier series stuff) was the '67 Brooks Robinson. I've got a few great memories of going to Candlestick, in fact something great seemed to happen every time I went (which wasn't all that often). My uncle was visiting in June of 1963, and my dad took everybody to the game on June 15th (no, my memory isn't that good- I was only 7 at the time... I looked it up)- the historic no-hitter (1st Giants' no-hitter since Hubbel in 1929; first by a Latin-American pitcher in the ML) by Juan "The Dominican Dandy" Marichal against the Astros. Also, there was "Willie McCovey Day" at Candlestick toward the end of his career. I don't remember many details, except that Stretch came up as a pinch hitter and won the game with an extra base hit. But I digress... for me, Mays has always been and always will be the man.

Thanks John. I just remembered the thing that first made me start to wonder about this. Years ago, I heard about a rare 1954 (10") Rene Thomas LP (on Barclay, as I understand it) called RENE' THOMAS AND HIS ORCHESTRA. As far as I know, this was a quintet recording.

Perhaps this is a good place to ask a question I've wondered about for some time. I've seen other european jazz recordings where the word "orchestra" was used to refer to a smaller group of musicians than I'm accustomed to thinking of as an "orchestra". In fact, I've probably seen the same thing occur on a few american recordings as well, but it seems more prevalent in europe. Is it a matter of language, or custom, or an "inside joke", or am I just confused, or...? My dictionary doesn't give anything more specific than "a group of musicians playing together", but the typical usage would seem to be somewhat different in the U.S. as compared to (for example) France, yes? No?

You gotta love it. Anyway, yeah, go ahead and increase the drip rate! Al, have a nice turkey & avocorcovado sambawich, and some copacabanabanana cream pie, too!

Pretty shellfish, saying happy birthday to yourself on Al's thread.

Yyyyyyyyyyyeah! I... ...knew... ... the big day was... ... app... ...roaching! Really! I... ... DID! ... ... Um... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AL!!

Wow, thank you very much FrancoisD. I've been looking for this data online for some time. I eventually got the booklet for the set, but have never gotten around to entering all of this data into my database file. Since I do have the booklet, I can offer the following correction/addition. On the above list, toward the end of DISC IV, I see an error beginning at session (S) and the omission of session (T). Here is how it's listed in my booklet: (S) same personnel as ( R ): Chicago, September 25, 1959 14373-6.....Ain't No Use vJW....................52033, 52093, 52111 14374-8.....Shake, Rattle And Roll vJW.....52033 14375-1.....Good Morning Blues vJW.........52033, 52093 14376-3.....Just A Dream vJW aFF............52033 ________________________________________________ (T) same personnel as (D) or ( R ) exact date and location unknown 14471.....It's A Low Down Dirty Shame vJW.....52033