mikeweil

Pat Martino joined the Blue Note artist roster three or so years ago. Please complete/correct the following list of artist currently with the label: Pat Martino Terence Blanchard Wynton Marsalis Greg Osby Jason Moran Norah Jones Van Morrisson Stefon Harris Jacky Terrasson Cassandra Wilson Chucho Valdes Jane Bunnett Ron Carter ... a similar shift towards singers and modern mainstream to that of Verve, I'm afraid ...

Not to offend you personally, DrJ, but sometimes I think the Blue Note myth catches up on us and we simply expect a little too much. We tend to forget that not all Blue Note sessions yielded ***** albums - Sonny Red, or John Jenkins or whoever was a young cat cutting his teeth when the album was made and thankful for the opportunity. I know this is close to blasphemy for most of you, but I find Sonny Red's tone much more listenable than Jackie Mac .....

Now that is one I go back to quite often with joy and pride that I was clever enough to buy a Japanese LP when it was freshly reissued. I like Boland's rhythmic writing on this one very very much! If you wanna get rid of it, drop me a PM, please!

Actually this is two LPs: VGM 0001 Live At Jorgies Volume One 1. All Of You 12:54 2. Heartstrings 6:05 3. Summertime 7:30 4. Back To Bach To Bock 14:03 (that's how they spell it on the cover ....) VGM 0008 Live At Jorgies Volume Two 1. (Stella By) Starlight 11:32 2. 'Round Midnight (incomplete) 3:32 all recorded on August 19, 1961 Wes Montgomery, guitar Buddy Montgomery, vibes or piano Monk Montgomery, basses Billy Hart, drums Sound is mono but very good for an amateur live recording, the mood is similar to the Half Note live recordings or the European live bootlegs from 1965. Billy Hart was very young then and plays it very straight, but the brothers are all in fine form - I wouldn't miss it. If I remember correctly there was a CD with all six tracks. 'Round Midnight is incomplete because the tape ran out, but the break before the solos is absolutely gorgeous! Volume Two also includes two radio interviews (15 and 25 minutes) from 1966 and 1968 obviously taped with a cheap cassette machine with automatic level control, plenty of tape hiss but rare - perhaps you remembered that sound ..... Considering there are too few live recordings of Wes, and that he played fantastic on all of them, I'd easily prefer these over any of the Verve or A&M studio dates.

Well, it may have made Monk sick, in the long run.

Oh you lucky people. At least you got them. My local dealer couldn't tell when EMI Germany will release them, perhaps by the end of the week ....

That's what I felt after listening through the Mosaic. Especially the last previously unissued session is strange - this has been discussed before. I miss some some harmonic/melodic focus in Redd's playing, it sounds all dissonant to me. I keep it for Tina Brooks, in the first place, and his compostions.

That's how I felt in the 1980's when most of his Blue Notes appeared on CD for the first time, it was my first chance to hear this music, as Shorter's music was practically unavailable in Germany, except for Super Nova, Odyssey of Iska, and Moto Grosso Feio - I had LPs of these. But his earlier Blue Notes were all out of print, surprisingly, as UA in Germany had a generous selection of Blue Notes in print. All young jazz musicians and collectors here seemed to grab every Shorter LP as soon as it showed up on a flee market or in second hand shops. The All Seeing Eye was all I could find in 15 years! I marvelled at the versatility and high level of composition AND improvisation on Adam's Apple. El Gaucho with its "additional" two bars in the form fools me every time I listen to it! I guess it was JUST BECAUSE he knew Coltrane's style and ideas so well - they reportedly practiced together - he HAD to do it a different way. You don't want to imitate a great concept if you're a great player yourself. Perhaps he didn't like the pitfalls along Coltrane's musical way. JSngry is right, it is very melodic, thematic variations all over the place, especially in the El Gaucho solo, very close to the theme. I wish some players would take that to their heart instead of running scales and changes!

Maybe the decision to change the font in your posts helped ..... ... or your player sympathizes with all the poor record collecting souls.

Considering they asked him for an album of Beatles tunes, Monk's Blues doesn't seem that bad ...

Thanks a lot, that clears it up. The number didn't make sense to me. Nothing to hunt for, as I see.

If he'd only read liner notes more carefully or do some research: here's his take on the new Criss Cross: Now this was Monk's second album for Columbia! and Underground was not the last, but Monk's Blues!

Here's what I found on the AMG website on the new Columbia CD reissue of Solo Monk: 1. "Alfred Lion's Black Lion label" ????? 2. "The first three were between 1954-1959 for the Riverside label and its affiliates" Now Vogue was or is an affiliate of Riverside???? This shouldn't happen on an information website. Do they expect customers to pay for such crap in the future? Any other badly researched AMG reviews? - I'm afraid this will become a GIGANTIC thread .....

AMG lists a Columbia LP 338, Monk's Miracles. Tracks: 1. Crepuscule With Nellie (Monk) 2. Four in One (Monk) 3. Stuffy Turkey (Monk) 4. I Mean You (Hawkins/Monk) 5. Well, You Needn't (Monk) 6. Bemsha Swing (Best/Monk) What the heck is this???

At last found the time to go out and buy the lastest Columbia reissues, find they sound very nice, this and the fact that we get the unedited versions is a great improvement on the previous US or French reissues - had them all and sold them after the new ones were out. I wholeheartedly agree to all what has been said in the posts above - the Columbia years were a period of consolidating the Monk sound with a stable working quartet. I always loved them! I have all these on the table before me and find Columbia and Orrin Keepnews have done an excellent job on these reissues: good sound, great photos, expanded versions with edited takes restored and added alternate takes or unissued/obscure tracks. What we have is: Monk's Dream Criss Cross It's Monk Time Monk Straight, No Chaser Underground These are all the Monk quartet studio albums! The solos, unless included in one of the beforementioned, are on: Solo Monk or, in one wants to have 'em all in one package including all releasable alternates: Monk Alone (2 CDs; the only missing item is a solo 'Round Midnight from Monk's very last Columbia sessions for Monk's Blues) Then there is the series of live recordings on double CDs: Monk In Tokyo Monk At Newport 1963 & 1965 Live at the It Club Live at the Jazz Workshop Still missing: - a new edition of Big Band and Quartet in Concert. This was well done by Keepnews in 1994, all they have to do is a new remastering. - a new edition of Monk's last Columbia studio album, Monk's Blues. Was on CD in 1994, new remaster is all that needs to be done, this included the solo 'Round Midnight. - Misterioso. Now this may be the opportunity where they ruin the good job. This album was a compilation of tracks from a number of concert recordings, most of which appeared on the live doubles listed above. The exceptions are: - Honeysuckle Rose, which is in fact a studio trio recorded March 2, 1965 from a session that otherwise poduced three piano solos, one of them included on the LP Solo Monk. Keepnews saved this one on the triple CD The Columbia Years, all solos are on Monk Alone. - Well You Needn't from an otherwise still unissued Brandeis University of February 27, 1965. Now these and the unissued concert recordings from a Mexican tour in May 1966 - including a jam on C Jam Blues with Dave Brubeck!!! - would make a glorious live double CD to complete this series of Monk's Columbia recordings!!!! (Keepnews included the piano solo "Don't blame me" on the triple CD set, indicating the tapes are all still there!!!)

I also found the "latin" series of recordings the did in the early 1960's somewhat disappointing: Ike Quebec's Bossa Nova Soul Samba Grant Green's The Latin Bit Charlie Rouse's Bossa Noca Bacchanal Even the album titles are hard to take! The Green is the best of them. To me they sound as if Alfred Lion tried to hit in the middle between jazz and latin but used the wrong means: Garvin Masseaux is a great shekere player, but this instrument tend to sound obtrusive withou t a conga underneath. Perhaps the budget was too low to hire a full Cuban rhythm section, or maybe he really didn't like it. Many jazz producers - even musicians - had only limited knowledge of "latin" rhythms at the time, mixing up Brazilian and Cuban concepts all the time, and this rarely works. On the other hand, the relatively few Blue Notes with conga player added - Candido Camero on Burrell's first LP, or Ray Barretto on most of the others, are very well done. As are Blakey's and Solomon Ilori's drum ensembles.

Sorry Jim, never heard it, and I think I can live without it, even though I reckon Gerald Wilson did a very good job - what would we have thought if he didn't? They probably emulated Verve's approach, who overdubbed even on those magnificent Half Note live recordings. Remember, it was the late 1960's .... if they shut down shortly after, they probably needed some money. Adrian Ingram's book on Wes says it was released in 1969, so it's obvious they wanted to cash in on Wes' sudden death. But there seems to have been only one identical reissue on British Liberty - that probably was the European issue at that time. So good taste rules, after all!

Hank Mobley - Reach Out even got me a vinyl copy! But it turned out to be the only Mobley that disappointed me.

Grant Green - Am I Blue? Was excited about the presence of Coles, but found it pretty dull and uninspired.

That seems the best way to me. I'd include the Grass Roots title tune, and Diddy Wah from the One For One twofer - these actually were the tunes that made Hill accessible for me, my personal admission ticket the musical world of Andrew Hill. Perhaps a track from the strings session, Poinsettia would be nice. On vol.1, a track from the Mobley session with Hill, that's as close as we will get to mainstream hardbop. John, could you make a Vol.1 and Vol.2 - perhaps with different photos - for the two albums?

Correct!

Yeah, the horns players Young had on the Prestige dates were in a rather conservative bag - Bill Leslie, Jimmy Forrest (although in a very good way), Joe Holiday - only Booker Ervin was as modern as Young, and that wasn't released at the time. All of his session mates at Blue Note were as modern as he was - compare Sam Rivers to Leslie, Holiday or Forrest - one of the most advanced tenors of the time (he still is today!). There is a comparatively long gap between the date with Booker Ervin for Prestige (February 28, 1963) and his first Blue Note session, Grant Green's Talkin' About (September 11, 1964) - a lot can happen in 18 months! No recording sessions in between, and his last dates for Prestige before the one with Ervin were sideman dates for Gildo Mahones and Etta Jones, a date with Thornel Schwartz for Argo, his own last session had been on February 27, 1962 Groove Street. Many things can happen in such a time span, really looks a lot like woodshedding.

David Wild's Coltrane disco confirms this - he doesn't even mention organ in the instrument abbreviations! Would have been interesting. One of the very few hard bop generation tenor saxists who never recorded with organists, well Rollins didn't either, did he? But name anybody else, and I'm sure he did. Doesn't that Coltrane interview linked in a different thread include a passing reference to a gig with Jimmy Smith?

Okay, AMG could help: 1. Margie (Conrad/Davis/Robinson) - 5:51 2. Lonesome Road (Austin/Shilkret) - 4:46 3. I Want a Little Girl (Mencher/Moll) - 5:14 4. Diane (Pollack/Rapee) - 6:25 5. Blue Lou (Mills/Sampson) - 3:51 6. Our Love Is Here to Stay (Gershwin/Gershwin) - 5:41 7. Danny Boy (Weatherly) - 7:24 8. Taking a Chance on Love (Duke/Fetter/Latouche) - 4:40 That's a different take of 2. Lonesome Road than the one recorded June 13, 1960. But what sessions is that stuff from? I'm not a Smith completist ... Anybody here with the Lord disco who could post a Smith Blue Note listing?