mikeweil

This morning when I drove 'round the corner for my weekly dance improvisation class at the Frankfurt Music High School, I spotted Hille Perl and Lee Santana, the best viol and lute duet on the early music scene in Germany. Now this might not seem unusual for a music school, but they live 400 miles away and have no teaching appointment here, so ... nice surprise. I wonder what they were up to.

Dexter Gordon played Ben Webster's tenor - don't know what happened after Dexter's passing.

IIRC the René Thomas Riverside liner notes said it was the same model that Charlie Christian used.

... and he had George Duke play over the top bebop phrases in the piece where he uttered that sentence!

Geez - I sincerely hope you all get through this unharmed ...

Be careful, think before you think ....

This complete recording by Maria Lettberg has received good to enthusiastic reviews. The piano sound is very good, she is technically well equipped to handle everything without the slightest problems, but display of technical prowess is not her thing: she shows the modernity and musicality of these works with due reference to older composers. This box has 8 CDs with all solo piano works and a bonus DVD (english too, IIRC) - I am very satisfied with this edition.

Joyeux Anniversaire!

My copy says 4:38 - my mistake. I corrected my post above.

The more you dive into serious discography like I do, the more you care for accuracy of information and the less for looks. Have you ever worked with an interrelational database like BRIAN? The advantages are so many that the looks become secondary. Precise information is what is important. Any funny layout corrupts the display of the data. Start working with BRIAN, and you will get the idea. Once you do it will save you lots of time.

According to his "sessionography" Kelley does not seem to be aware that there are two takes recorded at the March 2, 1965 session. It's a lot of work, but why didn't he do it right, use BRIAN and type in all the information including master numbers and track timings? I don't get it ... Oh, and Sheridan also has only one studio take. Now that I went both ways, the text-based as most authors do, and the database way, like those discos on http://www.jazzdiscography.com I know the latter is the better.

Didn't have the time to look into Kelley's book, but listened to the records. There are three (!) recordings of Honeysuckle Rose Monk made for Columbia: >>> November 3, 1964, The Jazz Workshop, San Francisco >>> rel. on Always Know (Columbia JG 35720) This is faded in at the beginning. It was the last number recorded that evening, either the engineers had run out of tape or had already switched off and thus missed the first bars when the band resumed playing. That this take is incomplete and that it runs 10:00 probably is the reason why Keepnews did not include it in his "complete" double CD edition of the Jazz Workshop recordings - he had to omit something as the two CDs were filled. >>> March 2, 1965, 30th Street Studios, New York >>> rel. on Misterioso (Columbia CL 2416) The take on the Misterioso LP is take 2, running 9:39 4:38, and has applause overdubbed (Teo Macero wanted everything to sound live, as the LP was labelled "recorded on tour") - take 1 was released by Keepnews on the 3 CD box 'The Columbia Years", it runs 7:03 minutes - one more proof that in serious discographical work, one has to list every detail of a track, including running time. Seems now that the Tjader disco is done I will have to contemplate about a Monk disco, an accurate one, that is - a daunting task, but those many inaccuracies etc. drive me nuts.

My discographical work on Tjader taught me to never trust any information without having listened to the records themselves. I have both versions, will listen to them once more on the weekend and post here after that .... Several discographical credits on the Misterioso LP and its French CD counterpart are downright incorrect!

Julius recorded hundreds of sideman dates, although the session he solos on are not that numerous.

That Somethin' Else CD is the only issue ever! Nice session, though not earth shattering, but a unique document. I'd never part with it.

What Don Patterson's don't you have Mike? I believe I have them all (a couple courtesy of you ) It's only the one Stitt Roost LP I don't have - I just can't make up my mind to get the Mosaic box just for that one album ...

Are there some copies left of this? I would consider ordering one along with the new one ...

Phew ..... very tempting.

While researching his discography, I started collecting Cal Tjader - not every issue, but every recorded track. Up to his last years at Concord, only one track released only on a 78/45 rpm single is missing in my collection. From the Concord years, two sidemen dates with Rosemay Clooney, one with Eiji Kitamura (LP only), and one guest appearance with a Japanese big band (Japan LP only) are missing. Oh, and one Woody Herman Jam Session. I have almost everything by Don Patterson and Melvin Rhyne, too. I may complete these soon ....

A track list of the Dizzy box can be found here.

A complete list can be found on the website of harmonia munid UK, who distribute United Archives. They release classical stuff as well. The other item a bit tempting for me is the 7 CD Dizzy Gillespie box with all the big band studio sides from 1946 to 1960 - I have almost all of this, but not the Capitol sides and the Verves not included in the Verve twofer ....

As is Plenty, Plenty Soul, from which the last session is taken. With the Atlantics at least you got all tracks of a session (except for unissued lost material) on one disc, where Denon reissued the Savoy LPs one-to-one - late 1940's material and 1950's sessions with and without Lucky mixed together - four albums to get all the Lucky tracks, CDs using only half the potential playing time. I hate that.

United Archives seems to be located in the UK France, their website is offline as I write this. I got me their George Shearing Quintet box, as this is the only way to get all of Shearing's Quintet tracks with Cal Tjader. Positive thing is, you get all the quintet tracks from the first sides with Marjorie Hyams for Discovery (later on Savoy) and all of the MGM sides, including those with vocalists (Billy Eckstine, Teddi King, The Ray Charles Singers), but the handful of solo piano tracks recorded for MGM are missing, as are the sides with Shearing on accordion .... that's the negative point, along with a discographical error they would not have made had they consulted the MGM discography by Ruppli & Novitsky, and not just Lord. That take of Caravan with Toots Thielemans on harmonica is not from 1954 but was recorded at the September 2, 1953 session (there was some confusion with attributing master numbers). Universal so far released only single disc compilations focussing on the quintet with Hyams - of the 24 tracks with Tjader only two were on those, and a Thielemans harmonica feature on his Universal compilation. Sound is okay - I compared the two Tjader tracks Universal reissued with those on the box, and they sound identical, and like the others. United Archives must have had good sources - one of my MGM LPs has one track skipping, while it plays smoothly from the box .... I can live with this, especially when I consider that Universal probably never would have done a complete Shearing MGM box.

Closest I came was a live broadcast from the Berlin Jazz Festival - Herbie Mann's band was stuck at some airport, and when he found out Candido was around he asked him to play duo, which was wonderful, totally improvised. They should release a DVD of this. Of course this is in no way representative of what he played with his own band. I have to admit I like his sidemen dates much better than his albums as a leader ...too many pop tunes in rather bland arrangements. p.s. it was a tv broadcast, btw - there are lots of treasures in the vaults of Berlin tv stations as they recorded every minute of the Berlin Jazz Fest.