P.D.

EKE.. I'm posting this due to yopur comments about your computer. I emailed info to your office address today, copied myself but it didn't arrive. Bewildering problems with the email accounts. Ultimately it'll get there.. one way or another.. Oh and I still have 5 more to send.. so read the emails carefully.. I think there'll be a bit duplication.

Just got back from my PO box , got the Daedalus catalog. There are some good items in those Past Perfect singles. They sem to have reissued some of the Candids The Benny Bailey " Hard Sock Dance" was the Candid " Big Brass" The Eric Dolphy Quiet Please" seems to be a culled from Candids Abbey Lincoln, Booker Litte and Mingus The Don Ellis is his Candid Quartet recording The Eldridge seems to have the Newport Rebels sides Others are taken from early Verves These seem worth investigating further to determine just what is on them.

These box sets show up in the Seattle area in a group of book stores calle " Half Price Books" they sell used books and lots of cut out books. I bought the Ella box as it had some Frankie Newton participation that I wanted and the price was right for those tracks. The packaging is " cheap" but OK.. but the main problem is that there is absolutely no discographical information. If this is important to you, you had better be aware of the tracks and the musicians involved, or have access to a discography of the people who interest you. Also the tracks, in the Ella, at least seem to be scattered across the discs randomly, no chronological sequence, which, considering she sang many of the songs moire than once, makes sorting the data out a bit difficult. All the tracks are over 50 years old though.. to escape copyright considerations.. which helps a bit. I suspect this is true of the other PP boxes and discs. Good cheap introduction to an artists you might want to try, but possibly "collectors" can find the same stuff better presented elsewhere.

Both the Cooper and Brookmeyer sets offer some hard to find sessions. Most have only been available on vinyl. Strangely some of the Coopers ( Jazz at Cal Tech etc) showed up recently in the local used vinyl bins... could there be a Mosaic purchaser dumping his vinyl in the neighborhood? JaDa from Traditionalism.. has been issued.. it is on the vinyl copy I have.. but for some reason it was left off the CD issue

Which only attests to the format of many of your avatars

O. K. just for EKE, Charlie Ventura does not rate high in the ranks of Jazz tenor saxophonists that I like to listen to. No doubt he could play his instruments.. tenor and baritone… he recorded on Bass sax about five times , which hardly makes him a promoter of that instrument. He recorded some “nice” solos, but rarely a “great” one. If someone would like to reference a “great” Ventura solo, I’d be glad to pull it of my shelves and give it another listen.. Ventura played to the crowd too much for me. Not necessarily in the Honking , squealing dept. but in general terms.. for example his overplaying and over emphasis of tunes like Dark Eyes. To some extent, he was the Kenny G of the Bebop era.. perhaps a bit of a stretched analogy, but his Bop for the People was little more than an attempt to popularize something that would never really be popular . ( If you think the Kenny G analogy is a stretch.. I was going to compare his playing to Eddie Murphy’s toilet humor in his latest movie.. Day Care Daddy) Most of the time he catered to the lowest common denominator, as does Kenny,( and Murphy) and as a result produced little of staying value in his own performances. . Such comments of course only count on how you visualize your interest in jazz. If you see it as an art form, then these comments may have substance. If you see it purely as entertainment, then ..hell yes…. Ventura is right up there. Please don’t get the idea that I only listen to Jazz for “intellectual” stimulation.. far from it most times its to get my feet moving and have me jumping round the house. But in the long run..Jazz to me is an Art Form and I rank the artists accordingly. Ventura rates with Keane’s big eyed kids.. if you remember them.. or perhaps Rodriguez Blue Dog paintings. Fortunately he had the insight to hire some excellent musicians a long the way. Bennie Green, Conte Candoli, Boots Mussulli.. Jackie and Roy. I buy Ventura records for the sidemen, not for Charlie himself, and yes these I feel represent his best period. After the Bop for the People group fell apart, Ventura produced little of lasting value. His work with the Gene Krupa Trio veers close to vulgarity ( Eddie Murphy again).. however as I tried to point out above.. I’m occasionally up for a dirty joke, and a bit of Jazz vulgarity. His later recordings, quintets with Billy Bean/ Richard Davis / Mousey Alexander and a piano player .. are OK.. again nothing special Once again, all jazz does not have to be “spectacular” if you enjoy something more power to you, enjoy it But Kenny G sells a lot of records, and I’m sure that the Eddie Murphy movie was very popular with a large segment of the population. The above post requires liberal does of “grinners”.. if you can’t figure out where they should be… oh well…..

1 I Like Helen... well represented in my collection 2 I dislike the stereo tricks in the intro to "It don't mean a Thing" the opening track to Feelin'... corny even when it was released and really sounds dated when you play it now.

Originally posted by EKE BBB and in some Lennie Tristano sides, too! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ventura & Tristano... the only recordings together were Overtime and Victory Ball from the metronome allstars of 49. Recordings generally that show up in Miles, Diz or Parker collections ( other than "Poll Winner" type sets) What else do you have featuring the two of them. Ventura's style was certainly not suited to Tristano type arrangements. As for my opinion on Charlie... I will reserve it... wouldn't want to be too persausive

Ow, that hurts.............

I'm not playing but #2 I'll go for Lou Rawls and Les McCann/ Leroy Vinnegar / Ron Jefferson.. Feb 1962

Wiil that be the Bop Out, Hardbop Out... or maybe they will add a banjo for a more traditional slant.

This came up on AAJ recently. Sweets and Ben made two albums for verve under Edison leadership ( they were together on others led by Rich, Billie etc) Sweets was the first.. it does not seem to have had a CD reissue. The second " Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You" was included in the 2CD set.. " The Soul Of Ben Webster" it was coupled with the Title album, plus the Hodges Blues A Plenty Wow 3LP's on 2CDs..INCLUDING unissued material !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All for about $15.00 at your friendly record emporium !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AH THOSE WERE THE DAYS What Happened verve???????

Interesting. Even when Verve does something right, they don't do it right, if you know what I mean. That's exactly what I meant..... I Just love the whole "lets make these look japanese so they'll sell" mentality of the packaging. In the Bush days... you'd think they'd be proud to be American BTW there is more than one extended drum solo on the Sweets album.. Barney's Bugle is about 9 mins long and but would be more appropriately titled "Rich's Rattle" Maybe Desertblues didn't get past the first track

However verve in their inimitable fashion left off Willow Weep for me that could have fit quite nicely on the disc, giving us the complete session. Probably left off the vinyl due to time limits, it could have easily fit on the CD.. It was issued on a variety of comps.. so it wasn't so bad it should be hidden. BTW Sweets at the Haig has been released in Europe by the Disconforme villains. No doubt soon to show up over here. It's a very nice Sweets set

Well his Mom was serious when she christened him Bernard Stanley Bilk. He was from Somerset region of England, and in the days of his youth " Acker" was a slang term for friend, or mate... or as in the USA Buddy. I guess his friends called him that and it stuck.. ( maybe Lester was around, he had a way of naming people ) I don't know any ethnic background to the Bilk part, but it was a genuine surname. Bilks band came to prominence in the british " TRAD " days and to some extent outfits were part of the trip. Bilk has a sense of humour that probably got him to put on the Bowler and waistcoat ( sorry... vest).. and somehow that stuck too. Stranger on the Shore was a 6 ( i think) part series on BBC tv, I remember watching it, a bit of a thriller.. I'm sure other musicians were approached.. but his tune got selected. The show was a big hit, so the theme song followed , taking Bilk into stardom and making most of his record appearances in a string backed easy listening mode... obviously seeking a follow up hit... never came Morrison obviously knows his musical roots..he probably watched the show too, but I was surprised to see the Bilk title in the above track list. It'll be interesting to see what is involved in the Acker Bilk track

Stranger on the Shore, which was the Theme to a TV series, became a hit and Bilk tended towards the Easy Listening side of the Music. He has in the last 10 years made some very nice record away from the Paramount Jazz Band, but in the company of Humphrey Lyttelton.. At Sundown from 1992.. a trumpet,clarinet, guitar, bass and drums set .. Humph also plays clarinet so you get some " Mezzrow/Bechet type duets. Three O'Clock in The Morning.. similar line up.. no piano, no drums and John Barnes on Baritone,alto and clarinet. Bruce Turner was to have been on the recording, but unfortunately he passed on. The cover depicts the musicians sitting around drinking ( at 3 AM?).. There's a bottle of milk on the table for Bruce. Then to top it off there's Azure from 2002 which features clarinet duets between Acker with another British Jazz legend.. Wally Fawkes. All or any of these three records will quickly dispense any misgivings about Ackers talent that the bowler, waistcoat and name might invoke.... I only wish he didn't feel he had to sing on the few tracks he does.. His singing seems to drive the music right back into the " TRAD" division. Worth checking out if you like solid mainstream type jazz.

According to Jazzmataz Fuel have released a two CD set called This is Eric Dolphy. It appears to be another reworking of the " Iron Man " sessions.. a must for Dolphy fans, and generally not well presented complete on CD. There have been some but generally extra material as on the Sounds version ( the Mingus track was OK, but the Hamilton addition was totally out of place.) Fuel seem to be offerring the original Douglas(?) tracks only. I have no experience with Fuel CDs.. but this might be the one to get.

it got you again Bev.. double post I got the error when I posted too, but the post appeared. Since I tried to reply to a PM and up came the Email error message Either it went through or it didn't but thanks Catesta.

So spake Bev "Very unfair. You appear to have forgotten the 'Banish _____' thread over here. " and I'm glad he did..I am amazed that the banishment poll was allowed to remain on the board. I understand Dan's reasons for starting it, the banished ones insults were a bit extreme, but the Poll was a cyber version of putting him in the stocks and letting the rest of you throw rocks at him. The thread should have been closed the moment it was opened.

Sad News, I hope the Label continues in the classy manner set by Mr. Knudsen, as a fiiting memorial to his position in the Jazz environment

I bought this when it came out. I believe it was around $200.00 at the time.. new. There is a lot of "essential" music in here from Hawkins especially, and lots of the key figures of the music of the period. Though quite a bit of the music can be found elswhere in sets designed around the partiucular artists. Obviously all the key recordings are in the Classics series under the leaders names There were Keynote CD sets featuring the main artists, and perhaps the Traditional sets by George Hartman were not included in these, and may never be reissued but you won't be missing much There are also many alternates which seem to upset some people, not me. Lim also seemed to like the 12" record therefore a lot of the performances extend beyond the normal 3 mins of the 10" disc. If you want it whole then $200.00 would seem to be a good price for a used set in reasonable condition.. but pretty much all the key recordings are scattered over cds of one kind or another. I just transfered mine to CDr it tokk up 15 discs to complete.

When I started it was with 78's and a clockwork gramaphone ( had a nice green felt cover on the turntable) . The amazing advancei n technology of LPs had barely been introduced. Now THAT"S depressing. Imagine Ornette's music if 78's were still the method of distributing recorded music. it would be short... but still sweet.

It IS possible. All things are possible in this best of all possible worlds Somebody said that.....

Dave Dee,Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich

Nothin' like startin' at or very close to, the top