mikeweil

Took my wife to hear Scott Hamilton tonight. The German trio bakcing him was very competent, nice swinging and tasteful drummer, good balance without much amplification. But we left after the first half - there was something missing. He plays all those phrases we all know from the masters, he quotes quite a lot, which I usually like, but the whole music he plays sounds like a quote all the time, as if he played all those licks to get an idea of what the life and feeling of those jazz greats was all about. Among the tunes was Robbins' Nest, and back at home I played my wife Illinois Jacquet's 1959 version, and she immediately got the idea of what was missing. I dunno - am I beeing too critical? And yes, he frowned at his reed during eveyr other tune, and consumed a whole box of 'em, it seems ... Nice sidenote: I met an old aquaintance that I hadn't seen in years - back in 1980 our girlfriends lived two blocks apart, we had played a few sessions together. He's a saxist, spent about ten years in New York, his name is Chris Zimmer - any of the New Yorkers here every heard him?

Legal issues aside - how is that Sam Lazar ARGO LP?

I had similar thoughts after listening to it when the first Japanese reissue came out - the personnel had me expect much better music.

Sad news - although I never quite came to really liking his playing style, I appreciated how competent and tasteful and all he was. Great drummer, for sure. R.I.P., Joe ...

Type in Duke Ellington .... my own name becomes "while malice" ....

He's one of my favorurites in that respect - his recent records sound like he still uses the ride he had during his days with Miles.

My thoughts are with you. We had a small 3.5 quake here a few weeks ago, which is big for Germany, but 8.9 .... I sincerely hope they manage to keep the atomic plant in Fukushima under control.

Great article! I agree that discographies should be published online where they can be kept updated at any time.

Sorry - no .... but the reissue engieners probably made the best of it. I never liked RVGs sound on the CTI LPs - too much noise reduction, still a lot of hiss, very artificial instrument balance, drums too low in the mix, unpersonal bass pickup sound, uniform piano sound, hardly any natural room ambiance, you name it - for my ears, a low point in jazz audio engineering. You can hardly hear Cobham's cymbals - they probably mixed them down to avoid the high level of hiss on these tapes. The playing is very good, but the recording is ruined, IMO. Maybe the bad sound is the reason they left off this one from the first batch of CTI reissues many years ago?

Maybe Analogue Productions reissues them as a set of 45's ?

For me jazz is both the art of the soloist and the composer - it wouldn't exist without one or the other, just like classical musi wouldn't exist just as sheet music without a performer. At least I was always more interested in bands integrating both, like the Modern Jazz Quartet. I still can memorize most of John Lewis' solos from European Concert (disc one) or The Comedy, but also several solos by Wardell Gray or Lester Young and others put to words by Annie Ross, King Pleasure, or Jon Hendricks - e.g. Twisted, Jackie, Farmer's Market, Moody's Mood For Love etc.

Thanks - sounds interesting enough to give it a chance. Seems I will order a bunch of organ discs from CD Baby as soon as funds allow.

Thanks!

This is a tribute to Larry Young / Khalid Yasin's later Blue Note discs - didn't know Peterson was involved in this kind of thing. Has anybody here heard this? CD Baby

Fresh Sound released a twofer CD coupling The Blues Message with Curtis Amy and Burnin' with Jim Hall:

Can't wait ...

A good reed is hard to find ....

Just ordered a copy with the single - I need more Gene Ludwig!

Played this several times today - it's nice, but not more than that. I would like to hear a bit more punch and bite, it all sounds a little too much like a friendly evening jam after a day's work ... Rudy Van Gelder's engineering sounds too tame for me, to polite. The Herb Ellis CD I mentioned has a lot more punch and realism, just sound-wise. I'm very curious how Hamilton will sound live.

Listening to Across the Tracks right now - nice album. The groove reminds me of the album Melvin Rhyne made with Herb Ellis. I will get me Gene Ludwig's last recording as soon as funds allow ...

How about this one?

Happy B-Day, Pisces Brother!

Sad news - never got around to listen to some of his music. Any recommendations?