jeffcrom

You know, I don't really know Condon's 50s stuff that well; didn't know McPartland was part of that circle. No, that's not Evan Christopher.

Pretty Baby Soundtrack (ABC). Don't laugh. I've never seen the movie, but the soundtrack album is one of the great New Orleans jazz albums of the 1970s. Kid Thomas Valentine, Raymond Burke, Louis Cottrell, Louis Nelson, Bob Greene, and the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra with Lionel Ferbos are all on board. James Booker even contributes a vocal on Jelly's "Whinin' Boy." This is the third copy I've owned; the first two sounded terrible and not great, respectively. I just found a sealed copy; I'm playing it for the first time, and it sounds pretty good.

Yeah, I guess my statement that McPartland wasn't a Condonite was not really accurate - I was thinking of the Church of Latter-Day Condonites, and kind of forgot about one of the most important recording sessions of the 1920's, didn't I? You're right about the track, of course. And yes, Willie Humphrey, whose playing got quirkier, but remained creative to the end, is playing "China Boy," 1974.

It's signed - you can see the signature just below the piano, near the back leg. Even with a magnifying glass, though, I'm not sure about the name. The last four letters are definitely "hoff." The name might be Brielhoff.

Among other things, two four-disc solo piano albums: Oscar Levant in a Recital of Modern Music (Columbia). 1941-42 recordings of Gershwin, Debussy, Jeboninsky, Shostakovich, Ravel, and Levant. Art Tatum - Piano Impressions (ARA). From 1945. I enjoyed both albums, but the Tatum more.

I tend to go for the spring, 1960 tour with Coltrane, because I feel similarly about Stitt's playing on the fall tour. But years ago a friend pointed out something about the tour with Stitt, and I've found it to be true: Miles really bears down on the Stitt dates - he plays. My guess is the he didn't hear/feel much coming from Stitt and felt he had to make up for that. By contrast, there are moments from the spring Coltrane tour when Miles seems to be - well, not coasting; I wouldn't go that far - but not stretching himself, because he knows that Coltrane is pushing himself to the limit. Does this make any sense?

Cool, and well-deserved.

Don't know about the CD-ROM version. I have the 4th edition of the Jazz discography and refer to it at least once a week. I won't claim to be totally informed, but I know that the 4th edition is more accurate than previous editions, and that some people have complained about the layout of the final print edition, the 6th. So my semi-informed recommendation is to try for the 4th or 5th editions if you want actual books. The Dance Band Discography is flawed, but valuable. It's very incomplete as to issues on different labels and as to band pseudonyms used by various labels. And no wonder - the way record companies leased material to each other in the 1920s and 30s resulted in a bewilderingly complex situation. But again, I use it all the time, and combined with this online website and a degree of patience, I can almost always figure out who is really on my records.

Yes! This is probably Christian's least-known recorded solo. It's short, but really gorgeous, in my opinion. This track didn't make it to the "complete" Columbia Charlie Christian box; I transferred it from my copy of the 78 RPM record.. Christian plays the introduction to another tune from this session, but this is his only real solo.

Enjoyed reading that.

Yes - according to my reference books, Columbia started issuing one-sided discs in 1901, numbered consecutively. That series reached around #4000 by 1908, when Columbia intruced their double-sided records and started the "A" series, starting with A1. For what it's worth, Columbia 37 is "Waltz from 'Maid Marian'" - credited to "Orchestra." I was curious, so I looked up Maid Marian - it was a comic opera that was current at the time this record was made.

Listened to some very early 78s tonight - 1901-02. I won't go into detail, except to point out that one of the records was Columbia #37(!).

You may or may not know that he's a preacher here in Atlanta, as well as a theology professor at Emory University. He has remained involved in music, notably as composer/music director for many of August Wilson's plays.

Wadada Leo Smith - The Mass on the World (Moers)

Just got back from a fabulous concert at Spelman College in Atlanta, where my wife is a professor. Dwight Andrews has been "Visiting Distinguished Scholar" at Spelman for a year, and tonight's concert was the culminating event of his residency. There was chamber music (including two movements of a beautiful string quartet), art songs, dance pieces, and a couple of Dwight's jazz pieces for double quartet - jazz quartet plus string quartet. His friend Geri Allen came down to play in the jazz quartet, along with a great local bass/drums team. It was really inspiring - I want to start writing art songs tomorrow. And it was fun to watch the violist watch and listen to the jazz quartet interact - she was entranced. I expect her to quit the string quartet tomorrow to start a new career playing jazz.

Bill Jennings - Glide On. Prestige mono fireworks record in this Status cover.

The Legendary Buster Smith (Atlantic black label mono). A beautiful copy of a beautiful record.

Hamiet Bluiett - Endangered Species (India Navigation)

Atlanta has produced some great recording preachers - J.M. Gates in the 1920s and 30s, Jasper Williams, Sr. in the 1960s and 70s, and Rev. Johnny L Jones, The Hurricane, until yesterday. I heard about The Hurricane's death yesterday, but didn't want to post here until I read some "official" confirmation. Rev. Jones died on Monday, November 9, 2015, at the age of 79. The pastor of Second Mt. Olive Baptist Church made numerous albums for Jewel from the 1960s to the 80s, and late in his life was proud of the two albums released by Dust-to-Digital. I have five of his older albums on Jewel, as well as a couple of singles. The Hurricane was not afraid to use pop culture references to get his message across - right now I'm listening to his sermon "Secret Storm," and others were "If Loving You is Wrong," "I Don't Need No Doctor," and "You Upset Me, Baby." His sermons were long, slow burns, perfectly paced, and he was a fabulous singer. On all of his albums, there are songs before and after the sermon, and some of them are just hair-raising. I'll miss his 30-minute Saturday morning radio show on WYZE, Atlanta's AM gospel station. It was strange and unpredictable; I'm glad I recorded a few of them. I know that there's at least one other fan of Rev. Jones here, so I wanted to make sure his death was noted here. RIP, Hurricane.

Three albums which apparently, according to my pictures, get progressively larger: Muhal Richard Abrams - Things to Come From Those Now Gone (Delmark) Horace Parlan - Movin' & Groovin' (Classic). A nice audiophile pressing that was a birthday present from my wife Stanley Turrentine - Mr. Natural (BN Rainbow)