jeffcrom

Barry Harris - Stay Right With It (Riverside). A nice late-seventies two-fer drawn from his 1960-61 Riverside sessions.

Benny Gooman in Moscow (RCA stereo). Because I'm suggestible, and because JSngry is right - this was a great band.

Doc Paulin's Marching Band (Folkways). A legendary non-union New Orleans brass band, recorded in 1980. Later: check this out - Doc Paulin's Long Goodbye.

Sunnyland Slim - Slim's Shout (Prestige)

Noah Howard - Patterns (Sun/Altsax)

A couple of near-mint 10-inchers: Sidney Bechet - La Nuit est une Sorciere (London) Jonah Jones - Jonah Wails (Second Wind) (Angel) I have the Bechet on CD, but just love this deluxe edition, with box, printed record sleeve, and liner notes in English and French. I know that I should care about the music, but I'm enough of a record collector to really enjoy this one as an object.

Chick Webb Duck Dunn Goose Gossage

A couple of nights ago in Bellingham, Washington, I went to the opening concert of the Bellingham Festival of Music, an annual two-week-long classical festival. My sister-in-law, an amateur cellist, wanted to go to hear young cello hotshot Joshua Roman, whom she apparently has a crush on. The nature of the concert wasn't explained to me, and I thought it was to be a cello recital, but it was a full symphonic concert, with Roman as soloist in two pieces. He was very impressive, although I didn't really care for the two pieces he was featured on - Aaron Jay Kernis' "Dreamsongs," basically a cello concerto, was a real compositional mess. But after the intermission, the Bellingham Festival Orchestra played Beethoven's Third. It had been awhile since I had heard it, and I had forgotten what an amazing piece it is. The orchestra was excellent - it consisted mostly of principal players from orchestra all over the country. The horn section in particular played like heroes, and I admit to feeling local pride when I saw that the principal horn was Brice Andrus, principal of the section in the Atlanta Symphony.

Yeah, but it still happens sometimes, especially if the store owner is not that into jazz. I've told this story before, but a friend who knows I'm a Steve Lacy freak called me from a suburban Atlanta record store a couple of years ago, saying there was a Lacy LP with a green cover there. I was so sure that it was nothing special that it took me a week to visit the store. It turned out to be The Kiss on Lunatic, a rare one from Japan. Ten bucks, mint condition, beautifully recorded, and stunning music. I've had a few other finds like that in recent years, but I agree that they've become more infrequent.

To most New Orleans musicians, music is music; they generally don't compartmentalize music by style. Many musicians I've heard at Preservation Hall, like Frog Joseph, Frank Fields, and Ernie Elly, played on lots of those great R & B records.

I don't know you, BeBop, but based on this and other posts, you seem like a remarkable person. I've always assumed that my wife will outlive me, and have told her to call a local record dealer who will buy it all. I know that she won't get what it's worth, but I have told her that the collection is worth thousands, not hundreds. For a lot of reasons, I hope I don't outlive my wife. (Jeez - how selfish is that?)

A good one, with Derek Bailey in the band - and not available in full on CD. Part of it is on the CD reissue of Saxophone Special, but I think that's all that's out there on CD.

A good one, with Derek Bailey in the band - and not available in full on CD.

That's a strange recording, even by Stockhausen's standards.

Sacred Harp Singing at the Old Country Church (Sacred Harp mono). One of two mint-condition, late-60s sacred harp albums I recently found. I grew up around sacred harp music, and I've got to say that this album is stunning. No performers are listed other than director Hugh McGraw, but it was apparently recorded in Birmingham, Alabama around 1968. Couldn't find a picture of the cover, but it's a stock photo of a wooden country church. These performances are the real deal, and are hair-raising.

Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet - Saxhouse. Includes the track "Bus Horn Concerto," featuring the ladies of the Quartet playing along with bus horns.

Bill Perkins - Bossa Nova with Strings Attached (Liberty mono)

Jimmy Smith - The Boss (Verve). Some very fine post-BN Smith, with George Benson; recorded at the legenday Paschal's La Carousel in the West End of Atlanta in 1968.

Heritage Hall Jazz Band (GNP/Dixieland Jubilee). My cover is in better shape than this.

Three thumbs up (er, something like that) for the three volumes.

Dave "Fat Man" Williams - I Ate Up the Apple Tree (New Orleans). As Paul Secor knows, a fabulous New Orleans album. I would go so far as to say that if you don't like this one, you don't understand New Orleans music. 72 hours or so from playing two night in my favorite city, and I'm starting to taste it. I could only find a partial scan of the cover online.

Music of New Orleans: The Brass Bands (Jazzology). The first recordings (1962) of the Olympia Brass Band on side one; a relatively late (1966) recording of the mighty Eureka Brass Band on side two. The Eureka side represents the only recording of all three Humphrey brothers (Percy, Willie, and Earl) playing together. And Willie's solo on "St. Louis Blues" represents the moment when I realized that he was a brilliant improviser - something more than just a good New Orleans clarinetist.

Complete Edmond Hall/James P. Johnson/Sidney de Paris/Vic Dickenson Blue Note Sessions; disc three. This is Jazz with a capitol "J."

Great record. Hell, yeah! Somebody needs to jump on that.