jeffcrom

Bird - Possibly the most brilliant improviser to have graced this planet. Every time I think I'm getting close to really grasping his genius, I realize how far I have to go. About 30 years ago, just when I felt as if I was getting a handle on his playing, I came up against some note choices that baffled me - I couldn't figure out why he was playing those notes against that chord, and how it could possibly sound as good as it did. Now I know exactly why he played those notes, but I am no closer to understanding how his mind and musical instincts worked as fast and brilliantly as they did. After Charlie Parker, in no particular order: Johnny Hodges - A source of joy and beauty since I discovered him at age 16 or so. Benny Carter - Despite a dissenting opinion or two here, a masterful improviser. Some are put off by what they hear as the "detached" quality of his playing. That part is subjective, and I don't hear it that way. But listen to the structures he created as he played; listen to the macro-syncopation - the extremely varied phrase lengths that he somehow all tied together into a magnificent whole. Ornette Coleman - His conception changed the musical world for me and many others. Eric Dolphy - I always loved the friction between "inside" and "outside" in his music. Boyce Brown - Ahead of his time in the same way Bix Beiderbecke was. I wish he had recorded more. Anthony Braxton - I know Braxton is a lot of things, not just a jazz saxophonist. But alto is his strongest horn, and his playing showed me lots of possiblities. Roscoe Mitchell - Ditto the above. I would rather hear him play alto than anything else. Lee Konitz - A constant example. I am often chagrined when I compare the purity of his improvising to my playing. I could go on - Paul Desmond, Captain John Handy (mentioned by Allen above), Jimmy Lyons - but I've got to stop somewhere.

All Ted Brown's sessions are excellent IMO - can't go wrong, pity he's only been recorded so sparingly. This thread may help answer some questions : Thanks for posting that link. I haven't been around here as long as some of you guys, so I hadn't seen that thread, but I'm glad I did, just for Jim's post #21. That was brilliant.

After some Hank Mobley, one of those unpromising-looking 50s/60s Dave Tarras records - Jewish Melodies on Period. This one features an excellent little eight-piece klezmer band, with Tarras' son-in-law Sam Musiker on tenor sax (and probably arrangements).

Johnny Hodges - The Eleventh Hour (Verve mono) More "lounge" than jazz, really, with strings arranged by Oliver Nelson and Rabbit mostly just playing the melody. But what a great thing that is.

PM sent on Tina Brooks and conditionally (based on more info) on Ellington.

Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang - Swing Me With Rhythm (British Decca) 1934-35 recordings; Sidney Arodin plays clarinet on the earlier tracks, Pee Wee Russell on the later ones.

:tup It might be exaggerating to say this (but not by much): Howlin' Wolf got me through a divorce 15 years ago. Well, R. L. Burnside helped a lot, too.

Late last night I got the urge to hear the "Lonely Fire/Guinnevere" session from the Complete Bitches Brew box set, since I haven't heard those tracks for quite a while. It'll be another five years before I make that mistake again. To fair, there is about six good minutes of music among the 42 minutes that were recorded. Right now: The Complete Charlie Parker on Dial (Stash) Disc one. That's more like it.

The Lord discography has this session listed: Jack Parnell (British) [P1218-6] Jimmy Deuchar, Albert Hall, Joe Hunter (tp) Mac Minshull, Ken Wray (tb) Derek Humble (as) Ronnie Scott (ts) Peter King (ts,b-cl) Harry Klein (bar) Max Harris (p) Sammy Stokes (b) Jack Parnell (d) Phil Seamen (d,bgo-1) London, October 28, 1952 CE14307-1 Catherine wheel (1) Par (E)R3638, PMD1053 CE14308-3 The champ (E)R3607, - CE14309-1 Summertime - - Note: Parlophone (E)PAD1053 titled "Trip to Mars". For myself, played a bunch of 78s that I don't think I've mentioned here yet: Don Byas - Should I/You Call It Madness & Pennies From Heaven/Jamboree Jump (Jamboree) These two records are the complete output of Byas' January 23, 1945 recording session. Some really nice stuff here, especially from the underrated Joe Thomas on trumpet. Viola Watkins and The Super Jazzmen - You're In Love With Every One/It's Right Here For You (Super Disc) A mystery band - the Lord discography doesn't know who "The Super Jazzmen" were. I'm assuming that Watkins herself is playing piano, since she scats along with the piano solos. The other soloists are a bright-toned clarinetist (young Tony Scott?) and a good Hawkins-inspired tenor player. Watkins thinks she's Billie Holiday, but she ain't. Trummie Young and His Lucky Seven - Rattle and Roll/Behind the Eight Bar (Cosmo) A good one, with Buck Clayton & Ike Quebec also in the front line. Trummy was a pretty interesting player in his pre-Louis days. Hod Williams and His Orchestra - Old King Cole/Monopoly Swing (Bluebird) A territory band out of North Carolina who recorded in 1937. The soloists aren't great, but the band swings. Jack Teagarden and His Swingin' Gates - Big T Blues/Chinatown, My Chinatown (Commodore) Teagarden and Ernie Caceres on clarinet are the standouts. Rusty Bryand and the Carolyn Club Band - Pink Champagne/Slow Drag (Dot) Columbus, Ohio R & B from 1952. "Champagne" seems artifically hyped-up, but "Slow Drag" is nice.

The Coleman Hawkins title was an alternate of "Cattin' At Keynote" (Feb 17, 1944) - was on Meritt LP 25 & is not on the Hawkins 4CD set The omitted Hawkins track was in fact the master take which had been issued on 78. The box (and the subsequent CD set) only contained the alternate, and Dan Morgenstern in his otherwise excellent notes denies the existence of a second take as listed in discographies. Thanks for the info. I've enjoyed the 4-CD Complete Coleman Hawkins Keynote box for years, and didn't know about this missing take. This is when having a 78 rig helps - I just went on Ebay and found the Keynote 78 of "Cattin' at Keynote" for a good Buy It Now price. The seller also had a couple of Don Byas 78s I had been looking for. My 78 of "Cattin' at Keynote" finally arrived today - definitely a different take from the "Complete" Hawkins box. On the 78 master, Bean begins his solo with the same lick as on the CD take, but he finishes the phrase differently - and more creatively. The whole solo is more thoughtful and interesting than on the CD take, although it builds up a pretty good head of steam by the third chorus. It makes the more familiar CD take sound kind of forced. Just my opinion, of course, but I prefer the 78 take. I guess Hawkins and Harry Lim did, too, since that's the one they issued.

I'm a saxophone player, but I love the trombone. Bear that in mind while I repeat one of my favorite jokes: Q: How can you tell the trombone player's kids on the playground? A: They don't swing and they complain about the slide.

Gospel 78 time today. I've mentioned several of these before. Angelic Gospel Singers - If It Wasn't For the Lord/God's Roll (Gotham) Rev. B. C. Campbell and Congregation - Jesus Was Great/Let Me Go Back (Apollo) Reverend Cleophus Robinson - Moaning in the Morning/I Can See So Much (Peacock) Rev. J. M. Gates and Congregation - The California Kidnapping/Are You Bound for Heaven or Hell? (Okeh) Blind Willie Johnson - Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning/Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying (Columbia) This one is pretty worn, but I'm still glad to have it. I remember the first time I heard "I Just Can't Keep From Crying" - about 35 years ago, on a Folkways LP checked out from the library. Its intensity frightened me; the same intensity comes through the battered grooves of this record.

Abraham Laboriel Chuck Rainey Jaco Pastorius

Just heard from MG via email - he is suffering from a repetitive strain injury in his right arm and is limiting his computer use. Sorry to hear that, but I'm glad it's nothing more serious.

I was manufactured in the United States.

Tony Parenti - Jazz Goes Underground (Jazzology) Genial dixieland from 1969, recorded in Underground Atlanta - the entertainment district under the viaducts. Parenti is teamed mostly with local guys from the then-thriving Atlanta Dixieland scene. I was too young to catch much of that, although as a young man I did play a few gigs with Spider Ridgeway, who plays drums here. An interesting slice of history for an Atlanta guy.

Elvin Jones - Puttin' It Together (BN promo) A very nice sounding replacement for the battered copy I had for years.

Which I obviously didn't read very carefully....

I've got a book of Charlie Parker transcriptions I bought almost thirty years ago that includes six "unrecorded" Bird solos - presumably recorded by Bird on tape or acetate and transcribed by Gil Fuller. My book is in the Jazz Masters series, published by Amsco in 1979. In the forward is this paragraph: The first six solos in the book, "Oop Bop Sh-Bam," "Good Dues Blues," "One Bass Hit," "Ray's Idea," "That's Earl, Brother," and "Things to Come," are taken from a publication entitled Be Bop Instrumental Choruses for Alto Sax published by J. J. Robbins & Sons in 1949. These "6 original choruses on outstanding be-bop themes" were actually arranged by Charlie Parker and transcribed by Walter "Gil" Fuller. And it looks like Mr. Fuller selected six pieces for which he had a piece of the publishing action.

According to the Lord discography, it was reissued on IARJC, the label of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. I don't see any other Gillespie recordings on the Showcase label, although I just gave a quick look.

Too cool! I've been looking for a copy for years. Swedish trumpeter Bent Persson recorded these on four albums, now reissued on three CDs. This quote from Elmer Schoebel is from his website: " During the Chicago days I was sharing office with Walter Melrose of the Melrose Music Co.. One day, in 1927, Melrose said he was going to publish a set of Louis Armstrong breaks, but there was a technical problem of getting the Armstrong "hot" breaks down on paper. Finally, Melrose and I hit on the idea of having Armstrong record his breaks. We bought a $15 Edison cylinder phonograph and 50 wax cylinders, gave them to Louis and told him to play. The cylinders were duly filled up by Armstrong and the "breaks" were copied into written form. I transcribed the "breaks", which were published. These were not orchestrated at any time and were not made for that purpose. I had all the records (cylinders), later I turned them over to Melrose. When I was in Chicago, in 1949, a collector was offering £1.000 per cylinder but Melrose and I could not find them." The Elmer Schoebel story, Doctor Jazz No. 32 (Oct. 1968) Someone put some scans here.

King Oliver Oliver Cromwell Charles I

I can just hear Cecil's reply to this: "Whatever that means...."

John Graas - Premiere in Jazz (Andex) I really like Jazz Symphony No. 1.

Sonny Criss/Gerald Wiggins/Erroll Garner/Stan Getz - A Crown mishmash, with two tracks from 1947 Just Jazz concerts and two tracks by the Teddy Edwards Quartet (with Wiggins) from 1959/60. Garner is not even on any of these recordings, although he did play at least one of the Just Jazz concerts this is drawn from. This was the first issue of the Edwards tracks. Poorly recorded, poorly pressed, poorly put together - but some excellent music.