jeffcrom

I'm not an expert on Ms. Crispell's output, but out of the albums I've heard, I like Complicité on Victo the best. It's a three-CD set that documents one evening of the 2000 Victoriaville Festival. The other two CDs are by Paul Plimley with John Oswald and Cecil Taylor. I hope it's not sacrilegious to admit that I probably play the Crispell disc more that the Taylor.

Well, I've always known that I was weird. In spite of the strong pull from Tristano, Andrew Hill, Larry Young, & Giuffre (and others), I think my most essential Mosaic is the Blue Note Sidney Bechet. Bechet at his best played some of the most powerful music ever, and this set has one of the stone cold masterpieces of jazz, "Blue Horizon" - a perfect five minutes of music, in my opinion. And the session with Bunk Johnson demonstrates collective improvisation at its most subtle and highly developed. I know I'm weird. But listen to "Blue Horizon" and the session with Bunk. The other stuff is good, too.

I bought the Ember release in a U.S. CD store years ago. To me, there's something special about Bird's live recordings from the early fifties, say 1950-53. There is a controlled abandon, a willingness to take chances, that doesn't show up in his studio recordings, great as they are. By 1954-55, some of his live recordings sound kind of tired. I like the Open Door set, although I would like to hear more of Benny Harris.

Don Covay Aretha Franklin Jerry Wexler

Ptah, the El Daoud - Alice Coltrane (Impulse). Go, Joe and Pharaoh!

Score! Hey, I guessed Han Bennink! Um... just on a different track. Doesn't that count?

I was with Mosaic from the beginning - I pre-ordered their first set, the Monk Blue Notes. I have a bunch of their sets, but at one point I stopped following their issues. Somehow I just found about the Wayne Shorter/Lee Morgan Vee Jay set, which I completely missed. I'm kicking myself.

Not sure - I've found the Lord discography to be pretty incomplete and inaccurate in listing 78 and 45 releases. I have a Bud Shank Pacific Jazz 78 from the 3 trombones session as well as a few PJ 45s.

Ken McIntyre - Open Horizon (Inner City). I like it all except the amateurish bassoon. This judgment is from someone who has played amateurish bassoon.

I'm grateful that I discovered this forum. Here is Allen on Dave Schildkraut back in March: I thought this had to be an exaggeration. But I tracked down a copy of Handyland U.S.A. and listened to it today. And I've got to say that Schildkraut is great throughout, but absolutely brilliant on "Footnotes" and several other tracks, like "Recoil" and "Pegasus." Like so many discoveries we make, it was right there waiting for me if I had known. The album as a whole is excellent, but Schildkraut is on another level. Thanks for this thread, BeBop, and for your posts, Allen.

Li'l Abner Don Abney Ab Baars

The city of New Orleans.

Son House Sonny Boy Williamson Son Ford Thomas

Lost my mom four years ago. I made sure to play her favorite song, "These Foolish Things," at my gig today.

Very interesting man, Johnson. I once read Boswell's Life of Johnson. I had it as a bedside book and it took me two years to get through! A single paragraph used to have the same effect as a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. A wonderful sleep inducer! I have loved Johnson ever since picking up a collection of his letters at a book sale years ago. By chance, I opened the book to the page containing his famous letter to Lord Chesterfield - a masterful dismissal of someone much higher than Johnson on the social scale. I love Johnson, warts and all, and enjoyed Meyers' Samuel Johnson: The Struggle very much. It sent me back to Boswell's biography, which I'm reading for the second, and probably last time. I find it fascinating for the most part, but it puts in mind on Johnson's line about Paradise Lost: "No man ever wished it longer."

I recently picked up two Gil Melle recordings, a Blue Note 78 (Four Moons/The Gears) and the Prestige/OJC CD of Primitive Modern/Quadrama. I've been listening to jazz for over 35 years, and all I've got to say is, "Where has this guy been all my life?" My fault for not checking him out sooner, but I'm glad I did now. The first cut from Primitive Modern, "Dominica," made me a believer - what a striking piece of music. There was a whole group of jazz musicians in the fifties (and today, for that matter) who were not content to just blow solos over changes. Melle is one of those guys, like Giuffre, or John Graas, or Hal McKusick, who made sure there was an interesting compositional structure going on, not just strings of solos. And has Joe Cinderella, the guitarist on the Prestige CD, been talked about in this forum? Very interesting player. I just bought Tome IV from an Ebay vendor. I'm looking forward to hearing it, although I know it will be very different from the 50's stuff.

Booker T. Washington Booker T. Jones Donald "Duck" Dunn

To each his own. I've had Crossroads on vinyl for years and always found it sloppy, but very moving.

Yeah, Sonny's definitely one of those improvisers who can't fake it. When he's not feeling inspired, his "coasting" is pretty lame. But when he's on, it's an ecstatic experience. I've heard him both ways.

Fred Karger & Sidney Miller wrote the title song and presumably the musical cues for the film, none of which are on the album. The album is a various artists compilation, which fits the movie - a thin plot as an excuse for a whole bunch of music and dancing.

The MGM soundtrack album of the wonderfully bad movie I watched this past weekend: Get Yourself a College Girl. I decided that I had to have it, since a couple of the best pieces of music in the movie, like "Sweet Rain" by Stan Getz with Gary Burton and "The Sermon" by Jimmy Smith, have inane dialogue over and through them. The lyrics to the title song (sung my Mary Ann Mobley) are so bad that they could be by Spinal Tap: Get yourself a college girl: She knows how to love, And how to live, And how to love.... And the album reminds me that although the Dave Clark Five got first billing, their demise was no great loss. But The Animals were a tough band! They took their Chuck Berry/John Lee Hooker sources and added a real bad-ass, British working class swagger. Nice! "Sweet Rain" is on right now. Damn!

Jeez, you guys are too fast for me. I started formulating reply after reply, only to be beaten to the punch. Buster Smith Count Basie The Count of Monte Cristo

The Gazell is nice. It doesn't have a recording date, but the copyright is 1993. It was recorded in a suburb of Philly and presumably features some of Byard's regular collaborators, although the only name I recognize is percussionist Keno Speller. I also have a 1999 album, Byard Lancaster Trio, with Dave Gelting on bass and Jon Mueller on drums. It's a homemade CDr, but was commercially issued. It's Soultrane SRC 1004; the website listed on the back doesn't seem to exist anymore. I like this one a lot, even though it's more or less an EP - about 23 minutes long. I don't remember where I got it or how much I paid, but I think it was in some record store in Atlanta.

Jazz at Cal-Tech: Bud Shank Red Allen Meets Kid Ory