jeffcrom

No - I was a little young to see the Grease Band back in the day; I was around 11or 12. I've seen Bruce's bands at various times over the years. I remember one performance by The Late Bronze Age that was seemingly completely improvised. Chick Corea had played the club the previous night, and had apparently passed out flyers printed with his "Rules for Musicians." The band found one backstage. Throughout the evening, Ricky Keller, the bassist, read from the flyer while the band responded (in)appropriately. One of Chick's "rules" was "Do not beat or abuse your instrument." The two minutes following Ricky's reading of that one were truly epic.

And (so the legend goes) by the time it was cut out, Music to Eat was supposedly the second-lowest selling album in Columbia history. That might just be one of Colonel Bruce's stories.

I'm on the email list of Conundrum Music Hall, a tiny, but adventurous little venue in Columbia.

Wardell Gray - Way Out Wardell (Crown). My copy has the same price tag as the one in the picture. I thought for a minute it must be the same copy, but my price tag is positioned differently.

Bill Evans - The Secret Sessions (Milestone). Disc 5, with Philly Joe Jones on drums, and the session on disc 6 with Jack DeJohnette.

I'd like to second Milestones' endorsement of Portrait In Jazz - probably my favorite Evans album. If there is anyone who kind-of-likes-but-is-somewhat-bothered-by-the-VV-sessions and doesn't know Portrait, they should check it out. Even though it's the same trio as on the Vanguard dates, Portrait is more of a conventional piano trio - a really, really good one - with the piano firmly in the lead, rather than the equal-voiced dialogues of the VV albums. I'd also like to put in a "vote" for the short-lived Evans trio with Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette. As far as I know, the only recorded evidence is the 1968 Montreux album and four tracks in the Secret Sessions box. I would like to have heard what this trio could have become if they had been together long enough to jell a bit more, but it's an interesting group.

I figured that would be the case. And Papa Jazz Records, one of the southeast's great record stores, is in Columbia. Financially, I'm screwed on this trip.

Tomorrow night: Frode Gjersted Trio with Steve Swell. I'm driving 200 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, because they're not coming to Atlanta. Interesting avant jazz musicians seldom come to Atlanta these days.

Here's more or less what's going on: In the A sections, there are five even notes (or rests) in every four-beat measure. The bridge is mostly in three, but there are four even notes in every three-beat measure. There are a few little quirks, but that's more or less it. In my public school teaching days, I used to amuse myself when I had morning bus duty by practicing fours against threes and fives against fours with different hands.

There's one trumpet solo, on the tune "Sweetie," if I remember correctly. It's quite tasty - Banks or Preston or whoever, I don't know, but it's good. There's one guitar solo and several short piano solos, but (again, if I remember correctly), that's it except for the one trumpet solo, the four Booker organ features, and several tenor solos. There's also flute in the ensemble on the Booker tunes, like on "Gonzo," etc.

Father Guido Sarducci Lazlo Toth Michelangelo

Jim, your response was after I accidentally hit "post," but before I had finished going back and editing the post to put some actual words in it. Yes, James Booker, yes, Slide, and apparently Red Holloway.

I've got an interesting album from 1962 or so: Lloyd Price - This is My Band on Price's Double L label. This record has been mentioned here before - at least by the Magnificent Goldberg - but it remains mysterious. Price doesn't sing on it - it's primarily an instrumental showcase for his band, although there is one vocal by Norman Thrasher. No discography I've seen lists the personnel. The liner notes state that Slide Hampton arranged seven of the twelve tracks, and that James Booker is featured on organ on four tracks. Those four tracks are all credited to Booker as composer, and are in the style of "Gonzo" or "Cool Turkey." Most of the other tracks are credited to Price and his manager Harold Lloyd as composer. They're middle-of-the-road bluesy big band stuff. There's nothing profound here, but it's very well-done and enjoyable. This Price discography lists this personnel for sessions in 1962 and 1963: Bill Jones [gt], Charles Lindsay [bass], Larry Rice [drums], Charles Brooks [piano], Tommy Purkson, Eddie Preston, Martin Banks [trumpets], Wade Marcus, Sam Hurt [trombones], Charles Reeves [alto sax], James "Red" Holloway, Danny Turner [tenor sax], Numa "Pee Wee" Moore [baritone sax] Of the pictures on the cover, the only one I've been able to match up is Red Holloway - that's obviously him, second from left. And there are some excellent tenor solos on the record. Anyone else know this album, or have any insight into it?

Henri Renaud - Modern Sounds: France (Contemporary 10"). Some of the usual Paris modernists of the time (1953), including Jimmy Gourley, plus Sandy Mosse (spelled here "Moss") from Chicago.

Bill Black's Combo - Saxy Jazz (Hi). I'll bet the Magnificent Goldberg has this.

This discussion interests me, but I don't have time to write at length right now. But I did want to say that Wilber and Davern are pretty good if there's someone there to kick their asses.

This again.

Elmo Hope - The All-Star Sessions (Milestone two-fer). The 1956 Informal Jazz session, which I've loved for years. Le Jazz en France Volume 2: Black Bands in Paris 1929-1930 (French Pathe). A pretty amazing collection, with Eddie South, Sam Wooding, and others.

Symphony Hall in Atlanta is mediocre. (But at least the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will be back this weekend after the lockout!). But Spivey Hall, a small concert hall at Clayton State College south of Atlanta, is superb. I've heard chamber music, classical guitar, an organ recital, and jazz there. When Tashi played the hall, Richard Stoltzman played the solo clarinet movement from Quartet for the End of Time; he makes some of the phrases fade out so that you can't tell exactly when the sound disappears, and the hall's acoustics were good enough for the effect to work perfectly. But it also handled the David Murray Octet in full cry. And they have a very good organ.

Bunny Berigan - Bunny (Camden). One of these days I'll get a good CD compilation of Berigan's big band. Until then, my two cheap Camden albums from the turn of the 1960s will do.

Ernie Henry - Last Chorus (Riverside Japan)

Arnett Cobb - Ballads by Cobb (Prestige/Moodsville mono, with the awful Status cover)

Thanks, all. Nice, fairly low-key day, with records (including 78s, Clunky), Southern barbecue, and an art opening with music.

This was issued on CD, by the way, with a bonus track - a long version of McBee's "Blues on the Bottom."

Budd Johnson -Ya! Ya! (Argo) A trip down memory lane: this was the first jazz album I owned. It was a Christmas gift from my mother - Xmas, 1970. She presumably picked it out more or less at random at a local department store because it was by a saxophonist, and I had been playing saxophone about two months at the time. I still love it, and I also think that Richard Davis' atonal, quarter-tone arco solo in "Exotique" had a pretty profound affect on me. I think my thoughts at the time were something like, "Well that's strange, but kind of cool. I guess you can do that." Thanks, Mom.