mikeweil

Same here!

Is that: It's About Time: The Dave Brubeck Story - Fred M. Hall ?

Lou Blackburn moved to Europe in the 1970's, to Berlin if my memory serves me right, played in radio big bands and founded a pretty popular Afro-Jazz band, Mombasa that recorded several LPs that didn't really catch the great feeling that band transported live - I saw them half a dozen times, their conga player Tom Nicholas (from Philadelphia) was my first teacher. Blackburn died about ten years ago.

One Way Records reissued it on CD, about ten years ago. I have it, but I think it has been OP for quite some time. Hammer plays also on Steve Grossman's "Some Shapes to Come", a P.M. from 1974, alongside Gene Perla and Don Alias. One Way reissued it too. Luca Oh yes I remember skipping the buy for lack of money, and because the Elvin Lp sounds good. The Grossman records had a weird sound ... but they are funky as hell!

I enjoyed reading about Brubeck's life in the liner to the 4-CD box on Columbia and would like to learn more. Is there any Brubeck biography or even autobiography? Thanks!

None of the jazz musicians turning to some heavily rock/pop/soul/fusion type of music has lost his jazz chops, not George Benson, nor Herbie Hancock or Jan Hammer. I think jazz fans hardly took notice when he played with Elvin back then, these records were not held in high regard, as the seemingly spectacular things in jazz were happening elsewhere. Hammer played very well, especially on a rare trio album "Elvin Jones Is On The Mountain" released on bassist Gene Perla's PM Records label. I hope he will do a CD of it soon (AMG link). I also dig Hammer's albums with percussionist David Earle Johnson, there were three of them, Johnson playing all kinds of Latin percussion and singing, Hammer handling keyboards and drums, playing grooves as meaty as can be - he fused the best of the great drummers he played with into his own style, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, and Don Alias - he was also associated with Perla and Alias in their great Latin fusion band Stone Alliance and played with them on Jeremy Steig and Steve Grossman records. This is all stuff I'd never part with. The last jazz affair Hammer did was the John Abercrombie Timeless reunion CD on ECM. As to my reaction on Dave Liebman's soprano playing, I am surprised at my own reaction. Maybe that track caught on the wrong ear. I'll get me the Elvin Mosaic anyway, and have enjoyed Liebman's playing on numerous occasions - I remember I once approached him after a gig and complimented him on a particularly impressive soprano solo! p.s. I just noticed David Earle Johnson did an album in 1983 with Abercrombie, Hammer and Perla, The Midweek Blues - must be a very rare bird as AMG doesn't even have label and number!

His name was Rodgers Grant, he joined Mongo Santamaria's band in late 1962 and stayed until the end of 1969. Laws joined that band in 1963 and left around the same time. Grant composed and arranged quite a number of tunes for the Santamaria band, Morning Star being the one that was recorded most often by others. His tunes are nice to play and improvise upon, I cannot understand why they are not used more often. Laws did - he too was one of those who understood best what Mongo's special mixture of Cuban rhythm with jazz and R & B was all about. What has become of Rodgers Grant? Very good question! That electronic device seems to be a simple octavider, picking up the sound from a mic and adding the same note one octave above or below. Laws is a thoroughly trained musician with many facets - he played lots of mean Texas tenor in Mongo's band - yes, he is from Texas, belonged to the Jazz Crusaders but got a grant to study at Julliard in New York shortly after their move to California. R & B, soul, Latin, jazz - he has it all down. His pieces for Mongo's band fit that style so well it is almost frightening. He has a new self-produced album out in Cuban style, but I couldn't get it so far.

Same here!

Please read about the lastest Master List changes here! Thanks!

Jazz musicians' wives rarely get credit for their support. Thanks, Lorraine! and R.I.P.! As I understand from Dizzy's autobiography, she did quite a few things to help get it together in difficult times.

Has anyone mentioned the Riverside album Jaspar made? Two more flute tracks ... The companion to Flute Flight, Flute Soufflé, is nice too! I think Herbie Mann was one who never feared comparison with other flutists, recorded with several of them, encouraged David Newman to pick up the flute more often when he was in his band. Without a doubt he was the one who did the most to popularize the flute. The Savoy LP by Johnny Rae has Jaspar flute, too.

Maybe they have some arrangement with EMI in Spain: the Disconforme website distributes some Spanish Blue Note releases just as well. AFAIK the only 10" Blue Notes not on US CD were the Urbie Green, the Lou Mecca and the two Best from the West.

Two days to Germany! Discs were dropped into my mailbox on Thursday morning. Muchas gracias, Agustín!!! I'm spinning Disc 1 right now ...

I see a parallel to Hank Mobley in the Miles Davis Quintet: Coltrane will always be considered greater etc. Harold Land will unfortunately take second place after Sonny Rollins as long as there are jazz fans. But although Rollins may be the more important saxist, and he and Brownie were breathing as one man, as he reported, Land was just as perfect a foil. I like him better with Brownie than Rollins.

I know one Bud Brisbois from a number of West Coast big band sessions - the Briswold is probably a typo. A search in Bruyninckx shows a Bud Brisbois playing in the orchestras of Onzy Mathews, Billy May, Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Chuck Sagle, Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini, and Ray Brown, as well as numerous studio dates - your typical prolific West Coast session player.

The original release was on A & M! Musically, not in the vein of Verve, not even the Creed Taylor produced stuff with strings. Kellaway is a great pianist, he plays nice here, but much of the focus is on the cellist, who play with a wide classical gesture, some pieces feature a string section. I would place this in the light classical bin. If you are interested in the fantastic very individual jazz stylistics of pianist Kellaway, I'd say go for any of the other recommended CDs mentioned above.

You're absolutely right about this, but something seems so thoroughly unprofessional about the whole thing: Is that really her? As narcistic as most clips are, at least they give the impression that it is what they want to do. Not that much of them is perfectly calculated.

... welcome in the rule club ....

.... and have Mosaic distribute them?

I could need some donation myself , but for Organissimo, I'd give some bucks anytime!

Isn't all of the Mile+Mobley stuff currently in print now that the Blackhawk stuff has been released? I'm not sure why box sets are such a big deal for Hank's legacy. Of course you're right. I was just pointing out that these are the only studio cuts from a decade and half of Mile's Columbia recordings that aren't getting the royal treatment. At least Mobley's solos have now now been re-inserted into the recordings. I think that's the most important aspect of this! It seems to me Michael Cuscuna and Columbia want each box set to have some musical focus beyond the personnel involved, and the sessions with Mobley are somewhat diverse: A 2/3 studio album with a guest saxophonist, a live recording of the quintet with lengthy solos and a live recording with the Gil Evans orchestra added in not-so-brilliant sound. Besides, Mobley will never have the reputation and sales potential of a Coltrane, and that's a shame, and Miles is partly to blame for this. And Teo Macero - we probably would have viewed his contributions differently if his solos weren't edited on the initial releases.

I like the initial design combined with the web adress in the orange circle best. Could we make the logo available here and have some printed to save on postage etc. - I'd really love to have and wear some, but a hundred bucks is a little too much for my low budget right now. If I take the image on a floppy disk to my local copy shop, he makes me one on a high quality t-shirt for 25 - 30 Euro ... donation to the band not included ....

or should the last part read "jazz butt"? If that's on a thong, it wouldn't even be a lie ...

What's so unusual about this pairing? AFAIK Blakey was De Franco's drummer for some time in the first half of the 1950's.

Surely I'm not the only one here who buys Mosaic sets AND reads their liner notes, am I? But who of us was aware of it before he read the Mosaic liner?