mikeweil

Dan, no need to justify yourself - I just went through all that myself and really know how hard it can be to chose ..... E-mail sent!

I have that Italian LP - they had that other Groove Merchant LP as well. The missing track "Aliyah" is included on the Beast Retro 12052 CD reissue (I Offer You). This CD sounds excellent - I bought it a few weeks ago from CD Connection for $ 9.39. Lucky's last session are very nice - I still have to get the three live cuts.

Singers always are an acquired taste - you have to like the voice in the first place. Beyond that you can appreciate what they are doing, but they won't send chills down your spine ..... I appreciate Ella and Sarah, but they don't give me the chills. Other singers do, or make me groove and swing. Or make you dream. They either touch you or they don't. Jimmy Scott is an individual stylist that deserves every bit of the recognition he at last got in recent years. IMHO we always should distinguish between appreciation and personal tastes.

And both of you have yet to convince me that African cultural patterns and the way other, non-African-Americans perceive them do not play an important part of this!

Pirchner-Pepl Jazz-Zwio: Gegenwind (Mood, 1979) Werner Pirchner vibes, marimba & whistling Harry Pepl ovation guitar Werner Pirchner was one of the most amazing musicians emerging from the Austrain scene in the 20th century .....

This is one of my favorite Andrew Cyrille sessions. On one of the takes of the title tune, he builds his solo entirely on the rhythm of the bass pattern, which is a Cuban conga de comparsa rhythm, and gives a master class in thematic variation.

The music from this album was my introduction to Lady Day, AFA conscious listening is concerned. My girlfriend at the time had a license pressing bought in Eastern Berlin. After I bought the Verve box, this session remined one of my favourites. Some appropriate masterful backing by Oscar Peterson, inspired horns, kicking rhythm, and the star of the show in fine form. Contrary to the commentary in the box I find Charlie Shavers' playing very good and not showing off at all, just expressing his exitement about Lady's good vocals and being on the date.

Yes, but Percy kept calling it his baby bass. The shape to me looks slightly different from that of a cello, and I remember reading he tunes it in 4ths like a bass, not in 5ths like a cello.

I remember reading favourable reviews in Jazz Podium about the Four For Jazz records - curiously enough I never had a chance to hear them. I know Peter Giger pretty well, worked as a roadie for his percussion band for two weeks in 1979 or 1980, and he lived in the town where I still reside for several years. He played in Albert Mangelsdorff's group after Haider's, was one of the avant-garde drummers of these days in Germany. He now lives near Dresden after marrying a rich woman and builds up a percussion museum. It was a wild and interesting jazz scene in Germany in the 1970's, much more varied than today.

He was on Eddie Harris' 1964 Columbia LP "Cool Sax From Hollywood to Broadway". There is one track of Eddie Davis with Cedar Walton, Kenny Burrell, Bob Cranshaw and Brooks from the same year on a Columbia sampler. These are the only pre-European recordings I could find.

The only hint in the liner notes of the LPs I have says he hails from New Jersey. Must have been in Europe since the mid-1960's - IIRC he belonged to that group of musicians that moved to Europe with Woody Shaw, Nathan Davis, etc. that recorded that MPS date.

the school was founded by Heinz Bigler.....Joe was one of the first teachers on the school...i know him pretty good (we eat dinner together a few years ago....he's a nice guy and impressive pianist!) hmm.... I stand corrected. I remember an interview with Haider when he retired from that school a few years ago, where it sounded like he was the founder ..... they played together in that "Four For Jazz" quartet.

Tom Scott - Rural Still Life - Impulse His 2nd LP, he was only 18 or 19 then, and IMHO his best effort still. With Michael Lang, Chuck Domanico and John Guerin.

I'm with you here! She failed to develop her own style, I have another LP of her with Sir Roland Hanna which is nice, but she's not a top class jazz singer. Not a trace of her anymore on the scene here ...

Some research tells me he still is teaching at the Swiss Jazz School in Berne and has eductaed a host of young jazz drummers. That school was founded by Joe Haider, and he re-released several of his old recordings with Brooks on the school's label, JHM, including the Hampton/Haider Big Band double CD!!!!! Highly recommended!!!! link - there is an English version, too.

Sal Nistico, Jazz Workshop Wengen, Switzerland, 1984 Follow this link.

Well, he seems to be alive and kicking, as this photo from a Swiss festival with on of your favorite saxists ( ) shows: Reggie Johnson, Eric Alexander, Billy Brooks, Jazz-Nights Langnau, 19 July 2001

Nuria Feliu seems to be a Catalonian name, so go figure ..... That Billy Brooks was an absolutely amazing drummer, I once saw him in a club in a combo co-led by Sal Nistico and Benny Bailey, with Joe Haider and Isla Eckinger rounding out the ryhthm section. Every nuance of his playing showed in his facial expression, he breathed and lived his drums, every tiny bit of 'em! He was a pretty prominent figure on the European scene in the 1970's, especially in German speaking countries, but I'm afraid all of the records I have are OOP: Fritz Pauer Trio - Waterplants - EGO 4007 Pauer p, Isla Eckinger b, Brooks dr, 1977 Vince Benedetti - The Dwellers On The High Plateau - EGO 4005 Andy Scherrer ts & ss, Benedetti p, Eric Peter b, Brooks dr, 1977 East of Isar (no leader) - EGO 4010 Sal Nistico ts, Benny Bailey tp, Joe Haider p, Eckinger b, Brooks dr, 1978 Slide Hampton / Joe Haider Big Band - Give Me A Double - MPS 29 22311-6 Bailey, Idrees Sulieman, Ack Van Rooyen tp, flgh Bobby Burgess, Slide Hampton, Eric Van Lier tb, b-tb, tuba Ferdinand Povel, Andy Scherrer, Dexter Gordon saxes Haider p, Eckinger b, Brooks dr, 1974 Miriam Klein - Ladylike - MPS 21-21886-6 Klein voc, Oscar Klein g, Roy Eldridge tp, Dexter Gordon ts, Slide Hampton tb, Benedetti p, Eckinger b, Brooks dr, 1973 (this singer does an amazingly close Billie Holiday imitation - the US boys on the session had nothing but praise for her) El Babaku - Live At The Jazz Galerie Berlin - MPS 21 20894-1 Brooks dr, voc, fl, Carlos Santa Cruz, Donald Coleman, Charles Campbell congas, perc, voc, Burt Thompson b, 1971 Brooks' percussion band with some African and Afro-Cuban inflections. EGO was Joe Haider's own label. As soon as I have the technological facilities to do so, I guess I will have to transfer some of these to CD .... Last thing I heard of him was a teching job in Switzerlnad in the 1980's or 90's. Never understood why he didn't make it large-scale - he could scare the shit out of 90% of the drummers I have seen!

It seems to me there are, at least in part, differing attitudes and approaches towards a recording and a live performance. Part of it is to give the audience familiar tunes. Ever noticed how few of Coltrane's compositions showed up in his working band's repertoire?

Now, that I know that, it doesn't any more ..... -_-

..... and here's an album no fusion basher would have participated in: Arcana - The Last Wave Bill Laswell, Derek Bailey & Tony Williams

He also drew pretty much on his 1960's style with Miles for Wallace Roney's leader debut LP on Muse.

This site gives a comprehensive listing of her activities.

While I can follow your thoughts as seen from the psychiatrist's point of view, the features you described can tell us something entirely different if seen from an ethnomusicologist's point of view. All these musical features are common practice in African music - the African influence on Jazz as an important aspect of Afro-American culture is still heavily underestimated, IMHO. While these features might sound "childlike", this is only if seen from a European musical cultural viewpoint. We project our musical expectations to African cultural elements, where they have different importance and functions. This lead generations of social scientists to categorize African culture as childlike or close to states of madness (if you think of trance phenomenons in ritual contexts) - and it still does! This also applies to Monk's mastery of rhythm, which is the most important feature in African musical practice, and here African music has developped far beyond European music. I think your points are totally valid on their own, but should be enhanced by an intra-cultural African-American point of view - I think this applies to any discussion of jazz, BTW.