mikeweil

Jeremy Steig - Wayfaring Stranger (Blue Note) after that the Capitol double that followed

Oh - I forgot he indeed was on the first session. Yes, I'd love to have more - I'm biased, of course, as I like his playing much more than Blakey's ...

Maybe Wilson's career would have taken a different turn without being drafted while he was with the Eckstine band - had he been able to stay and record, he could have become the prototype bebop drummer.

If you send two copies to me it would be fine - I will have to return the master recorder next week, and I'm pretty sure the devil will do his tricks to keep us from meeting once they arrived here or whatever - to cut a long story short: If you send two, I can drop one in Mr. Bassman's mailbox any time ..... thanks!

Cal Tjader - Mambo with Tjader - Fantasy F-2012 currently up on eBay. I didn't know there was a 2000 Lp series by Fantasy .....

I always thought Shadow Wilson's playing on Kenny Burrell's (chronologically) first Blue Note session with Frank Foster, Tommy Flanagan and Oscar Pettiford was the epitome of good taste. He and Pettiford were even greater than Kenny Clarke and Pettiford, methinks. He sounded so elastic, and powerful at the same time on all levels, soft or loud. Drummerworld doesn't yet have a feature page, he's only on the wish list - duh, I thought I had got the photo from them - it must have been from some drummers page.

Who's credited as composer?

#4 - Well, great minds still think alike at times .... I understand that's Charli Persip ... never thought of a stylistic connection between Elvin and Persip, but they may share some influences. This is another one for the wish list. #14 - I, too, hear a weird sound on # 14 - and of course I heard this before: will check my 1985 Musicraft LP of this session tomorrow. #9 - Never heard those ..... #5 - Now can somebody tell why I sold this LP ???? #6 - I need the name of this tune!!!!!!

A curse lingers over my blindfold test discs since this summer: I get them, listen instantly and gather my thoughts, put them aside for a second round, and then a thousand things distract me from them ... Anyway, here are my two cents without consulting any external information. Track 1: Two Lestorian tenors - very good relaxed players, but don't ask me for names. Those unison passages during the piano solo are very nice! Track 2: Oh, some more of the same ... again they sound familiar, but ... calling West Coast tenors is not one of my strong sides. Only complaint is that, rhythm-wise, this is just straightforward - nothing spectacular ... but this seems to be part of the game, which I enjoy every now and then. Familiar names, I'm certain. Track 3: "I'm beginning to see the light" - but this version is too two-beat for me. This is a difficult tune to play - if you don't wtch out, it will sound bland or pedestrian - the mood of this is not easy to capture. I argued for half an hour about the right tempo with the members of one band I played this with, but no, they wouldn't get the idea .... Oh my stars, this could even be one of the later Ellington bands, with that Webster-style tenor .... can't recall the names of that pair of 'bonists Duke employed at the time. OTOH the trumpet is a little too much Eldridgean, but the groove could be a tired Sam Woodyard, or juiced up a little bit or playing it safe. I dunno ... they know that tune by heart, that's for sure. Track 4: Piccolo and double bass - I hear some glasses crushing. Nice idea: Herbie Mann did similar things with trombone, guitar, and piano on one of his Riversides, but he never played a piccolo. Drums remind of Elvin - very young Elvin, just arrived in New York. One of the Frank Wess Savoys I don't have? But Wess played somewhat cleaner ..... Is this a Van Gelder recording? Track 5: Great drum introduction! Nice thunderous drum sound! Trumpet sounds terribly familiar, although I am sure I never heard this track before. This style sounds terribly familiar .... I'm repeating myself. Harold Land on tenor! Is that the Contemporary Jimmy Woods disc with Elvin? But I had this one .... Or from the Carmell Jones with Land on the Mosaic Select. My favourite so far. Great spirit on this one. Nice Spanish touches in the theme without getting superficial. Track 6: I know that theme from a different record - a version I liked better, because it was more to the point, and they played the last 4 bars of the theme as strict triplets, which makes for great contrast and moment of surprise in the theme. Wish I could recall who it was, it's probably buried deeply among many other LPs that cry out for a spin. Tenor plays nicely. Well, that other version made it memorable for me, not this one. I will remember once I get the name of this tune ..... Track 7: If I didn't know I wouldn't guess this tune was called "In My Solitude" ..... I am for keeping the original mood of a piece. This here sounds as if he thinks he will get rid of that unpleasant feeling sooner if he plays it faster - two Ellington hat tricks quoted, running through the changes, that's it. Could be any other piece without the theme. He failed to connect to the essence of that piece, IMHO. Track 8: Cool alto ..... very cool. But not too cool. Somehow this touches me, his personality touches me. Some very honest quality about this alto cat. Wonder who it is. The rhythm section gets hotter by the bar - pianist plays a maxture of older styles, it seems. Not a must buy item for me, but nice and interesting. Something of a hybrid. Now who is that alto man? Track 9: Oh ..... Like Jaki Byard's wide ranging conglomeration of styles expanded to quartet size. Great spirit throughout. No idea who they are - wild! Like it very much! They go for it, definitely! Nice unexpected turn to 5/4 in the theme. Track 10: This should be Vonski ..... nobody plays like him. I need some of his more recent records, it seems. Bought the first Atlantic on Rahsaan's recommendation ;-) and the two Nessa LPs, some Dutch live LP, but nothing since. My fault. Track 11: Hah! This is priceless! I never would have expected a tune like this on a meeting of these two specific giants. The drummer singing along on this tune is worth the price of admission alone. My wife happened to be listening when this track started and wanted a copy of the whole album when she learned I had it. Ding-da-ding-ding .... Da-Ding-Da-Ding-Ding ..... They used to call this dance a Limbo .... Track 12: A more recent recording, judging by the awful bass pickup sound. Drums mixed to low, bass drum muffled down to tonelessness. Some older cats on a late career mainstream recording. Nice, but not really convincing. Track 13: "More Than you Know". Hm ... Clarinettists going that much for the upper range are not my favourite cup of tea, though this sounds very competent. No idea. Track 14: "How High The Moon" - a 1940's recording? Hamp? The Goodman Sextet with a trumpet subbing for the leader? No - this is not Christian. Could it be I heard this before? Norvo, not Hamp? Track 15: Erroll Garner, no doubt! Great! Oh the days when all pianists were individuals on that level ..... Track 16: Off we sail ..... trumpets only? Very interesting! Never heard of a band called Supertrumpet ..... The spirit of these guys makes it work, although I'm not that much of a trumpet fan. Uh - last track? Great closer! Thanks, Chris, for these insights into your collection - some very nice items among this! Now off to the others' guesses!

The three Steigs all clock in at about 42 minutes, so a Connoisseur twofer would be nice. But as I said, the two Capitol LPs (Jan Hammer on them) really belong into the batch. So Mighty Quinn will go for the Roy Ayers West Coast Vibes? Excellent news!!!!!!

# 60 in April, 2008, that is ......

Only 12 so far? Blindfold Test fatigue? Or are the US boys just behind schedule and still dealing with # 30, like myself?

Same here!

Finally got hold of the SACD version - just the CD layer sounds terrific, Colin Bailey's bassdrum is almost too prominent (but push the low cut button and everything is okay). It includes a long version of Fly Me To The Moon as bonus track. Very nice music - it brightens up your house, makes its presence felt but doesn't need constant attention - like the ideal pet. But it merits close attention as well - Guaraldi had something to say but obviously was not mad at the world ...

He really seems to live up to his nickname here ..... this is the only one I have found so far:

Not pyrotechnic? He sure had his technique down - there are some solo breaks that could send any drummer into the practice room. But his focus was on swing, and he did it with taste and zest. I'm glad he is so prominent on the new Monk/Trane disc - he was recorded rather low (for my taste) on most sessions. This man was on hundreds of sessions - one of the greatest! Does anyone have a good photo?

A masterpiece - even Hoe Down has its place within its design. Nelson's single pick. A true all-star date. His tenor solo on the title tune is one that never - never - fails to move me to tears. I don't know anybody else playing tenor that way.

Please keep us informed! The Steig was the only Blue Note, but intended for release on Sonny Lester's Solid State label and transferred to Blue Note (like others, incl. Thad Jones/Mel Lewis) after Liberty bought both labels. I'd rather opt for a Mosaic or a Mosaic Select with the total of five Jeremy Steig LPs for Solid State, Blue Note and Capitol, all produced by Lester. If you add the Mike Mainieri Solid State that was Steig's first major recording, it's probably too much for a Select. I always wondered about the degree of familiarity with the Steig LPs among Organissimo members .....

Thanks for the love peace you gave through your music, and R.I.P.

I recently got the Candid with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow - recommended. He knows what he wants to do with those standards. Looking forward to getting Essence - being a dedicated Ellis fan from the first time I ever heard him - way back as a teenager when a recording of the Monterey performance was boradcast on German TV - I got everything except Essence, which was very rare back then.

The Ellis on Muza is legit 'cause I have it...somewhere. I used to really be into the Muza modern classical and discovered at the same time some of their jazz titles. Hokey covers - I think the word "jamboree" was used somewhere for the series titles, so you can imagine what they looked like! ← "Jazz Jamboree" was the name of Warsaw's annual jazz festival. The recordings of that series were made live at the festival or during the musicians' stay in Poland at that occasion.

Good news in every respect - and best wishes for Hill's health! I hope Blue Note will sign more than one elder jazz master to justify the less jazzy stuff they have been focussing on recently. Enough singers - more instrumentalists of all generations!

Live long and prosper, and may words never fail you whenever you pick up the pen (or hit the keyboard )!

The Roach was reissued on CD and, according to the Candid Records website, it is still available. The Russell was reissued in GRP's Chessmates series, but is probably OOP (GRP 18262).

You're right, the sound wasn't very good. I had the LP (Blue Note LT-1057), didn't like the date, hated the sound and got rid of it. ← Same here - but many LT series albums sounded much better when reissued as Connoisseurs or on Mosaic. That Leonard Feather produced Land LP is somewhat odd in the Blue Note catalog, musically - Land plays okay, but the rest of the band is so-so.