mikeweil

He led a big band with his wife Mildred Bailey which takes up a lot of space on the Classics CDs - don't know enough of it to really make a judgment. I concentrated on his small group dates from any decade, and never was disappointed. His Capitol sides contained in the Mosaic set are great, but the sound is muddy compared to a 1970's LP reissue I have - same on a Definitive reissue. Hamp seems to get more credit, which is not quite fair - Norvo was every bit as good, and much more elegant. A Gentleman - like the Benny Carter of the vibes. His earliest sides include a great take on Bix' "In a Mist" on the xylophone.

Just a thought: Did Johnny Griffin ever comment on this "fastest horn in the west" cover?

Here's a bigger cover. This was probably the one that hipped me to Sonny's very personal sense of musical humor. I LOVE that cover - the folks in New York probably thought they were pretty cool when they dissed it, but IMO this was proof of the exact opposite: being dedicated to coolness sometimes led to overcritical hipness, which, of course, is plain square.

Her portrait of Michael Smithe: ... and her portrait of Fred Hopkins: Judging from the paintings she made for a hotel, she really loves jazz:

Sure I heard it - I have all of Tjader's Fantasy CDs. I like the studio version a little better - I dig Clare Fischer's orchestral layering of Rhodes parts and find Sanchez' solo on the live version a little too meandering. But on an average, the live stuff is excellent - it was a very good band. Too bad Carmelo didn't join on a regular basis - I like him better than Tito Puente!

The Minton's live recordings are the earliest Monk recordings we have; I found issue numbers of 7 different LPs on ONYX, Xanadu, Musidisc and Esoteric. The first studio date was the December 19, 1944 Coleman Hawkins date for Joe Davis, later sold to Prestige. It opens the 3 CD Prestige Monk box set and can be found on the Milestone Hawkins CD "Bean and the Boys".

Gisela von Eicken was married to conga player Michel Smithe (a Cal Tjader sideman in the early 1970's) and the partner of bassist Fred Hopkins for 20 years to his death. Click here for an interview with photos of her jewelry and other works including her portraits of both musicians. Very intersting jewelry, I must say.

I would divide his recording activities into five periods: Fantasy (1946 - 1961, including some sideman dates and two sessions as a leader for Savoy 1953/54) Verve (1961 - 1967) Skye (1968 - 1969) Fantasy & Galaxy (1970 - 1978) Concord (1979 - 1982) I like the first Fantasy period best, although there are very good items in every period. And you're right, there were stylistic differences between them making comparisons somewhat obsolete. Who would compare Getz' bossa nova records to his early quintets with Jimmy Raney?

Photo by Mickey Guzman - Salsaf.com.

(source)

I found this pic on the website of bassist Robb Fisher's family. (Sorry,link doesn't work anymore.)(link) From left to right: Cal Tjader (vibes), Pete Riso (drums), Poncho Sanchez (congas), Carmelo Garcia (timbales), Robb Fisher (bass), and Bob Redfield (guitar). This picture was taken at Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Hearst Theatre at U.C. Berkeley ("Cal") campus in 1978. Basically, Cal's band around the time he recorded the Guarabe album for Fantasy - Hungria "Carmelo" Garcia (one of the greatest timbaleros ever) was a special guest on the session, Clare Fischer played Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano.

For all the fans on the board, and all those to become, a thread dedicated to one of my favourite doorbellists, to share photos, comments about your favourites etc. I will post a review/description of a CD every now and then to make buying decisions easier for you. Click here: Cal Tjader album reference guide

Well, the "fusion" influence really started only after his next break, when he started recording for Milestone in the 1970's All the RCA stuff is very good IMHO, but I strongly advise to get the US Bluebird First Editions CD issue of The Bridge as well, 'cause it sounds much better. Hopefully they will unearth the original tapes of more of the other recordings as well. I had all the single CDs rather scatteredly compiled by Orrin Keepnews and exchanged them for the US box afterwards. I prefer the complete Bridge tracks on one CD (they're spread over two CDs of the box) but the box has a few tracks that never were on single CDs. Either way, I never regretted getting the RCA recordings. The Impulses are great, too, I strongly confirm the recommendation for Alfie, but the quartet album with Ray Bryant is a little underrated IMO.

I only ordered this a few months after it was out, but my reaction was similar.

John, seems like you have one more beer for each BFT before you write your guesses?

Same approach here. I always try to post more elaborate comments whenever time permits. PM sent. So you got your turn earlier than you thought

I have a great Glenn Ferris trio CD on enja, "face lift" - with Vincent Segal on cello nad Bruno Rousselet on bass - highly recommended! Very underrated trombonist!

# 23 - Rooster Ties # 24 - .:.impossible # 25 - king ubu # 26 - B3-er # 27 - John B ... these are the next. Anyone to step up? Besides that, MartyJazz (#36) offered to step in anytime - how about this?

No reason to be embarassed - I didn't know either until I heard Ginger's message!

One afterthought: If track 13 is a jazz cover of a British pop tune, could track 12 be by exactly that particular band?

That's exactly the reason why he did this track! Some info here.

Damn, I have that one. At least I fufill my own rules ...

Last week including the end of it was much busier than I thought, so I missed my chance to be the first to post guesses. Doesn't really matter - here are my 20 cents. The usual disclaimers apply. Track 1: What a surprise! This is a first for Organissimo Blindfold Tests: The new one starts like the old one closed. Great. Nice album - if you don't get it now, you never will. Track 2: Bobby Timmons' "Moanin'". Not sure about the organist - the arrangement sounds like some of the stuff Jimmy Smith recorded for Verve, but the registration does not. Nice track. Track 3: I instantly recognized the sound of that band! Almost forgot they did Herbie's tune, but a grasp into the funk department of my collection unearthed this CD. Sure is funky! Track 4: I'd say Bill Frisell and some horns I'm not familiar with. I find it is played a little too fast to achieve optimum effect. Not quite my cup of tea. Track 5: Sounds very much like something a twentieth century classical composer would write - only the guitar sounds like it was seriuosly rooted in jazz. That fast passage reminds me of Khatchaturians sable dance or whatever he called his piece. But there are too many Hollywood characteristics in it. Does not really sound like the work of any of the composers I'm familiar with - Milhaud, Martinu, you name it. A little too lightweight for my taste. Curious what this is. Track 6: El Gato! The orchestral part is very nicely composed around that 12/8 rhythm. Too short! Track 7: I've never heard Ivo Perelman, but this is how I always imgained his music could sound like. A little over the top, I'd say - just my taste. Track 8: One of my favourite Monk ballads, "Monk's Mood". In any other context I would say this band is way too loose, but here it transports the Monk mood very well. No idea who it is, though. Would like to hear more. Track 9: Very nice bluesy tenor I don't think I'm familiar with. No messing around, concise and to the point. Track 10: No idea. Nice arrangement. Not sure about the guitar player. Reminds me of the stuff Ginger Baker or Brian Blade did with semi-large groups - very American feeling. I like this somehow. The bass is very good. Track 11: Oh! I like this album very much, and dig the message in this track. This guy may be discusssed controversially in jazz circles as far as his chops are concerned, but in my eyes he is a seminal figure and has a very personal groove of his own, which is quite a lot. From this CD. Track 12: No idea. Nice and bluesy. One I'm really curious about - some white British rock band? Track 13: At first I thought this was Ramsey Lewis and Cleveland Eaton - but it is the opening track from this album. What can you say? Music for the people. Track 14: Another hard bop anthem done by rock musicians, very nice little subtheme on this BFT!!! From this CD of my favourite white blues guitarist. Track 15: Another one! "Sack o' woe". No idea who this is. Now if today's pop bands would play jazz tunes ....... ?! Track 16: So at last I get another chance for my Ramsey Lewis guess? "Willow weep the blues for me". Track 17: "America the beautiful" - nice but I would not buy this as I'm not that muchnof a guitar freak. Track 18: Another Ramsey Lewis track! Let's go to church, sister! A very popular style in thew 1960's, and I listened to a lot of this, but bought little of it on CD. Track 19: Yeah! If this was a little wilder I'd say Danny Gatton, but this may be some of his tamer predecessors - or he was still in his teens. I hate country music, but dig this kind of thing a lot. Track 20: I'm the last to really dislike some BFT track, but I never could stand this type of thing. But I get your message, Dana. Track 21: Hehe - we're balanced out radically. John Zorn? Not familiar with this style. This is more fun to me seeing live than hearing on CD. Okay, jazz wins? I like this jazz/pop crossover selection very very much, excellent conception. Thanks a lot - a very enjoyable disc for me. Now off to the guesses!

If you refer to Blue Note LPs 1512, 1514 and 1525 all titled "A new sound, a new star, Jimmy Smith at the organ: These were on a double CD in 1997 in the Doubletime series: