jeffcrom

I'm far from home, in Bellingham, Washington, which is halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. I visited an independent CD store in town and was very impressed by their jazz section. Even after putting half of my original stack back, I walked out with these used CDs: Archie Shepp - Steam (Enja) Don Patterson - Boppin' & Burnin' (Prestige OJC) When I had fewer than ten jazz albums, Don Patterson played on one of them - a Verve Gene Ammons/Sonny Stitt. Albert Ayler - At Slugs' Saloon (ESP) Joe McPhee Po Music - Linear B (Hat Art) Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet - The Year of the Elephant (Pi) Don Cherry - Live at Cafe Montmarte, Vol. 2 My favorite Atlanta CD store always has Vol. 1 & 3, but I've never seen Vol. 2. Coleman Hawkins - Big Band 1940 (Jazz Anthology) David Newman - Captain Buckles (Label M) Recommended by The Magnificent Goldberg. Several of these have been on my want list for some time, so this was a fun afternoon.

Classic jazz in two flavors: George Lewis at Dixieland Hall (Nobility) A 1965 recording from Preservation Hall's short-lived competitor. The little-remembered New Orleans trumpeter Josh Willis played with Lewis for much of the 1960s. I love his playing; he was a generation younger than Lewis, and showed an awareness of both Bobby Hackett and Dizzy Gillespie. Lester Young/JATP - Carnegie Blues (Verve) Prez sounds good on the 1946 tracks, fabulous in 1953, and kind of sad in 1957.

She'll always be Ms. "I'm Beginning to See the Light" for me.

George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet - Life Line (Timeless)

Stanley Turrentine - Another Story (BN) This one has been much discussed here lately. It really is a great album - right now it's my favorite Turrentine record, although that can change at any time, of course.

Okay, I had just posted a Roy Haynes album, but mjzee beat me by seconds with this one, so... My first Dave Holland album was Conference of the Birds: Holland, Barry Altschul, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers.

Okay, maybe this will take things in another direction. I had admired Art Farmer on other folks' records, but my first Art Farmer album was the Art Farmer/Jim Hall Big Blues album on CTI. Also on board were Mike Mainieri on vibes, the great, underrated Michael Moore on bass, and Steve Gadd (!) on drums.

I think I was inspired by feelings of jealousy of papsrus - he's in New Orleans and I'm not! Spring green/cucumber salad Grilled turkey smoked sausage (way less fat than the regular stuff, and really nice flavor) Red beans and rice I wish I was on Frenchmen Street right now....

My first Ron Carter - Where? It was actually half of an Eric Dolphy Prestige two-fer. On board were Dolphy, Mal Waldron, Charlie Persip, and George Duvivier (when Ron was playing cello, which he did for most of the album). And colinmce, Laymon Jackson is not considered obscure in Atlanta, where he was from. He was a much-beloved figure around here.

Abe Ellstein's Orchestra with Dave Tarras - Frailach Music (Banner) Another of those wonderful klezmer albums Dave Tarras made for cheap labels. Cheap pressing, crappy sound, wonderful music.

My first Bobby Hutcherson record was "Cirrus," which I no longer have, regrettably. It had Woody Shaw on trumpet and Harold Land and Manny Boyd on tenors, but I don't remember who else was on it.

Post deleted after reading the rules more carefully. I'll try again.

A great loss to Chicago and the world. My thoughts are with his family and friends, especially his friends here.

Without really trying to, I have accumulated four late-20s 78s by Boyd Senter, "Jazzologist Supreme," as some of the labels state. Boyd wasn't a very good clarinetist, but he hired good musicians for his records, so I enjoyed listening to them all today: Eniale Blues/Somebody's Wrong (Okeh) Original Chinese Blues/Prickly Heat (Okeh) No More/Original Stack O'Lee Blues (British Parlophone) Shine/Doin' You Good (Victor) Three of the sides are clarinet solos accompanied by Jack Russell on piano and Eddie Lang on guitar. Lang sounds great, and is mentioned by name (as Ed. Lang) on a couple of the labels. The other sides are by "The Senterpedes," which usually included the Dorsey brothers and drummer Vic Berton. Both of the Dorseys play really nice solos, and there is one clarinet duet between Senter and Jimmy Dorsey - it makes you wonder what Boyd was thinking. Could he not hear how bad Jimmy Dorsey made him sound? Anyway, I enjoyed this 24 minutes of music. Senter's playing hasn't survived the passage of time, but I'm glad to hear the other guys' contributions.

Dave Brubeck - Gone With the Wind (Columbia 6 eye stereo)

John Carter - Night Fire (Black Saint) The "horns" are Carter, Bobby Bradford, and James Newton - fabulous!

Happy Birthday, paps. Have a great time in New Orleans.

That's a great, raw record. It's got one of the only versions of "When the Saints" that I actually like listening to. Jazzology bought the session from Icon and used up all the leftover covers before printing their own. The Icon covers were really beautiful.

Kenny Dorham - Jazz Prophets, Vol. 1 - reissued on Impulse as half of The Bop Masters

I've cleaned and listened to about 50 of my new stash of 78s. Some more of the highlights so far: Carter Family - Worried Man Blues/The Cannon-Ball (Victor) Of all the old-time country in the collection I bought, I'm find that I'm responding to the Carter Family the most, and this is my favorite of the half-dozen of their records I bought. Carson Robison - Poor Man's Heaven/So I Joined the Navy (Champion) Robison was on the more commercial side of country music at the time, but this is a fun record with a fabulous musician (probably Frank Novak) who "triples" on clarinet, bass sax, and accordion. And the collector in me knows that the Champion 16000 series was pressed in very small quantities - the records are hard to find. Jarvis and Justice - Muskrat Rag/Poca River Blues (Brunswick) I know very little about these guys, but these are beautiful late-20s fiddle/guitar duets. Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Get Low-Down Blues/Kansas City Breakdown (Victor) I've said before how good Victor 78s sound, even when they're pretty worn, as this one is. Ethel Waters - Am I Blue?/Birmingham Bertha (Columbia) With the Dorsey brothers, among others. Whatever your definition of a jazz singer is, Ethel would have to make the list - fabulous singing. Earl Hines Swingtette - Lazy Mornin'/Keyboard Kapers (MGM) I've been concentrating on the earlier records in the collection I bought, but there are plenty of discs from the 1940s. This is from 1947 - it's a quartet with Sid Catlett on drums. He has a great solo on "Kapers." The Halfway House Orchestra - Let Me Call You Sweetheart/Maple Leaf Rag (Columbia) This one by a great little New Orleans band would be about my favorite of the entire bunch, except that it's so worn that the surface noise overpowers the music. That's okay - I've got the Frog CD of all the Halfway House material. I can listen to that while looking at the label of this record, which I'll be keeping as a cool object, not as a record I'll ever play again.

After my big 78 score on Friday, I've mostly been listening to old music that spins around really fast, but I wanted to hear some somewhat more recent music tonight. It was alto sax night: Sonny Stitt - I Remember Bird (Catalyst promo) Marshal Royal - Royal Blue (Concord)

Very interesting BFT! I was glad to know who everyone was, even on the tracks I wasn't crazy about. Once again, I missed an ID on a track I have - I've got the Charlie Kohlhase CD, but I haven't listened to it for awhile.

Well, I've listened to the first 20 discs. So far the winners are: West Virginia Night Owls - I'm Goin' to Walk on the Streets of Glory/Blind Alfred Reed - Fate of Chris Lively and Wife (Victor, 1927) Pretty worn, but Victor records were so good to start with that it still sounds pretty good. Rev. J. M. Gates and Congregation - Are You Bound for Heaven or Hell?/The California Kidnapping (Okeh, 1927/28) I have the first side on CD, but the "Kidnapping" sermon is new to me, and it's brilliant. He starts talking about recent (at the time) kidnappings, then suddenly shifts to how his grandfather and grandmother were kidnapped from Africa and brought here. An amazing performance. Several Carter Family records on Victor and Montgomery Ward. Really sweet Virginia country music - 1929-1934. Henry Whitter - Rabbit Race/Farewell to Thee (Okeh, 1924) Beautiful country harmonica playing.

This is one of my favorite Turrentine albums, not that I've heard them all. Mine has the Van Gelder stamp.

I went a little nuts today and bought a collection of 78s. There are around 250 records, including lots of junk that I'll dispose of, but I decided to go for it after I had looked through half of the first box. The heart of it was some jaw-dropping early country, including a Henry Whitter on Okeh, a Billy Cox on Gennett, and lots of early Carter Family stuff. There was also a Rev. J. M. Gates sermon on Okeh in nice condition, and a couple of skits from Shuffle Along by Miller and Lyles, who wrote the script for that groundbreaking show. There's jazz scattered through the records as well, from early stuff like a Bennie Moten and a Halfway House Orchestra to Charlie Parker and the Mulligan Quartet on Fantasy. I have cleaned the first dozen and am about to start spinning. I probably won't leave my house for a week.