jeffcrom

If the label says "RCA Victor" it's from 1946 or later.

Thanks for making me aware of this, Ghost! I'm enjoying it thoroughly - I love the warts-and-all completeness.

Yes - same piece, same personnel, different takes. The Musical Prohpet booklet devotes two pages to the history and circumstances of the piece. Bob James (who started as an avant-garde guy) wrote it for the ONCE Festival at the University of Michigan in 1964. James wrote it for his trio (Ron Brooks, bass; Bob Pozar, drums) with guests Dolphy and counter-tenor David Schwartz - that's a male singer, not a female. The day after it was performed at the festival, James took the group into the University of Michigan radio station and recorded two takes. When it was issued on Other Aspects, nobody knew anything about it except that it had been found in Dolphy's tape collection. It was assumed to be a Dolphy composition and given the title "Jim Crow," but James' actual title was "A Personal Statement." The notes make a point of saying that there was more material from the sessions. "For the record, we're not releasing every take. There are still some that remain 'in the vaults.' We only wanted to include the best of the best." I get that, but everybody hears things differently, and I think the take of "Iron Man" on Muses is fascinating. I would have loved to hear that in the excellent sound of Musical Prophet.

Bessie Smith's last session, on master-pressed UK Parlophone: Gimme a Pigfoot / Take Me For a Buggy Ride Do Your Duty / Down In the Dumps I bought the second record in England. It came in a nice dealer sleeve from the Relialite Wireless, Cycle & Gramophone Store ("All the Latest Records in Stock"), located on Wick Road in Hackney, London.

A Symposium of Swing (Victor). I found a nice copy of this 12" four-record album five or six years ago, and posted about it once before here. It's a really excellent collection, released in 1937: Benny Goodman - Sing, Sing Sing, parts 1 & 2 Fats Waller and His Rhythm - Honeysuckle Rose / Blue, Turning Grey Over You Tommy Dorsey - Stop, Look and Listen / Beale Street Blues (Some nice Bud Freeman on both sides of this one.) Bunny Berigan - I Can't Get Started / The Prisoner's Song

Johnny Dodds - Blue Clarinet Stomp (RCA Bluebird)

Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster (Verve) Bill Dixon - November 1981 (Soul Note)

Thanks - I'll be spending some time there. I can't say that I love most West Coast trad, but I sometimes am in the mood for that particular flavor and pull out my Lu Watters or Turk Murphy discs.

The new entry in my 78 blog might be of interest to New Orleans trad and swing fans. https://78rpmblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/punch-miller-in-1944.html

Well, I hardly knew who anyone was, but I really enjoyed most of the tracks. A big-toned alto player whom I don't know is playing Mr. Ellington's “Jump for Joy.” A really nice quartet version; I particularly like the bass player's pacing. I thought the alto player might be Sonny Criss, but I can't find any evidence that he ever recorded this tune. “Jumpin' With Symphony Sid” by another quartet I can't identify. For a hot minute I thought the tenor player might be Budd Johnson, but then he played some very un-Budd-like licks. Whoever he is, he's tasty. The organ player reminded me of Shirley Scott. Wow, this is hot! I may be totally off base, but the tenor player sounds older than the rhythm section – at least maybe from a later generation than the pianist. I love the pianist's harmonic imagination. The tenor player is more conservative, but swings hard, and builds a nice solo. The drummer is something else, too. Oh, the tune is what Charle Parker called “The Hymn.” I love the energetic organ playing and drumming. The guitar and tenor weren't quite on the same level, in my opinion. This one drove me nuts, because I know it's either something in my collection or something I used to have. Whoever it is, it sounds like one of those younger New Orleans trumpeters who have one foot in traditional jazz, like Leroy Jones, Nicholas Payton, or Wendell Brunious. It's simple, but I like it a lot. Great second-line funk groove by the drummer. The pianist reminded me of Marcus Roberts when he went into the stride stuff. This track will continue to vex me until the reveal. I have two tracks labeled “Track 6,” so I assume one is supposed to be track 7. This one is a swinging “Bye Bye Backbird.” The tenor player is a delight. I feel that I should know who it is, but I don't. The piano and bass soloists weren't as interesting to me. “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” - a little sprightlier than I usually like it. An older trumpet player, I'm pretty sure. The piano solo gets more interesting as it progresses. This is good, but I really think the tempo detracts from the effectiveness. A beautiful “Easy Living.” Once again, I don't who the tenor player is, but every nuance is just right, down to the subtle use of vibrato. I'll probably be horrified by my comments when I find out who this is, but this is the first track that I really didn't enjoy. The soloists are good brass players, but this performance seems reined-in and just doesn't go anywhere for me. It's just not interesting enough to justify yet another recording of this tune. Ha! I see what you did there with that transition. “St. Louis Blues,” not “Summertime,” but the same key. I didn't know this recording, but I recognized Ben Webster right away. His playing is just beautiful. The Dutch rhythm section gives me pain, though. The piano player is pretty cliché, and that's some of the most vertical jazz drumming I've ever heard – straight up and down, as opposed to horizontal – moving the pulse forward. But hooray for Frog. This is very good, swinging jazz, where everything is done just right. But it's so much that that it's kind of anonymous and uninteresting to me. I feel bad saying that, in a way, because Dan and others probably love these musicians – and again, it's very good. It just doesn't get to me. See above, plus tambourine. Very nice. Pretty straightforward big band arranging, but very well done. I particularly like the very melodic piano solo. Trombone soloist is good, too. This is hot. Is this Dr. Lonnie? The alto solo should have been last – in spite of the fact that the alto doesn't have as much “weight” as the tenor, the altoist really built his solo in an exciting way, and the rhythm section was right there with him. I like this a lot. I was going to say something like I said about tracks 11 and 12, but the tenor player generates so much heat that he won me over. I like the guitarist's wiry sound – more string than amplifier. He knows all the tricks. Again, same old same old good bluesy jazz – except that I like this a lot more than 10 and 11. The guitarist has more of an original voice, somehow, and the organist definitely does, even though he sounds like he's in the next room. This was a pleasure. I turned this off pretty quickly. Premature exasperation, I guess. Thanks for the enjoyable listen.

Blakey / JM - A Night in Tunisia (RCA mono)

Severino Gazzelloni - Music for the Flute (Audio Fidelity) Boccherini - Concerto in D, op. 27 Bach - Sonata in G Minor Debussy - Syrinx Prokofiev - Sonata in D, op. 94

I picked up the CD edition of Musical Prophet today, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. There has been some speculation earlier in this thread about the relationship of the new takes here to those issued on the 2014 Japanese Muses CD. I got curious and compared the tracks today; here's the deal: "Alone Together" on Muses is the same as the alternate take on Musical Prophet. "Love Me" on Muses is the same as alternate take 2 on Musical Prophet. "Iron Man" on Muses is unique - no alternate take of this tune appears Musical Prophet. "Muses" and "Mandrake" on Muses are different takes from those on Musical Prophet - even though there are two takes of "Muses" on the new album, the Muses take is a third, different version. Muses is obviously sourced from a tape several generations removed from Dolphy's tapes that were used for Musical Prophet, but the additional unique material makes it well worth keeping, in my opinion. And by the way, the take of Bob James' "A Personal Statement" (aka "Jim Crow") on the Musical Prophet album is a different take from the one released on Other Aspects 30 years ago. Hope this info is helpful.

Arthur Blythe - Light Blue: Arthur Blythe Plays Thelonious Monk (Columbia)

Course I did! No such luck. Late night listening: Arthur Blythe - Blythe Spirit (Columbia). I can't remember the last time I spun this one. I had it in my mind that it was one of Blythe's lesser Columbia's - and it's not the equal of Illusions, but none of the others are - but it's really good. Johnny Hodges/Earl Hines - Stride Right (Verve)

I've never experienced anything like that. My copy of Way Out Wardell has the usual hiss all my handful of Crowns have, but doesn't have the muffled sound you describe.

The Beatles - Yesterday and Today (Capitol mono). In the canon, this is an odd US collection of singles and tracks left off the American versions of several British albums. But if there were someone who only had one Beatles album (like me), this is just about perfect - prime 1965-66 Beatles in glorious mono.

Donny Hathaway - Extension of a Man (Atco)

Chu Berry - The Calloway Years: 1937-1941 (Merritt). Side three of this double LP, with a complete 1938 broadcast by the Calloway band recorded by Jerry Newman.

Circle - Gathering (CBS/Sony Japan)

NIce! And well-deserved. Mr. Mitchell has been on fire lately.

Randy Newman's Faust (Reprise). Not for the faint of heart. Joe Farrell Quartet (CTI)

Not bad. About what you would expect from a Crown.

Wardell Gray - Way Out Wardell (Crown)

Don't remember the circumstances of where and how I found this, but I've had it for around 40 years.