mikeweil

I can't tell how many times I have kicked myself for not buying these as long as they were around!!! And this Jimmy Gourley is a player I always like when I hear him!

Couw, the brother of the trumpet player that irritates so much so many people around here is the player on that tune. He is more interesting than his brother but his solo falls well beyond the composer's one on the original session. And besides the "brother of the trumpet player that irritates so much so many people around here" there´s ANOTHER saxophonist on this track, who plays the second solo. This second saxophonist has only made (AFAIK) two records as a leader but EVERYBODY at THIS FORUM should have HEARD him (note I don´t say "heard of him" ) Guess why? B) It's a shame they didn't print his name on the cover alongside the others!

So, finally, my guesses for Disc 1, without peeking at the previous posts, off the top of my head. # 1 - Cotton Tail - I find the singer is a little over the top, although she uses some mannerisms just like favourite New York singer (I'll have to ask her about this). Duke's orginal is impossible to top for me. No idea who it is, but a trifle too sloppy for my taste - on the original everything is in the right place. The spot for the baritone is much too short! # 2 - If that is not Elvin ..... the tenor sounds almost too much like Joe Henderson, but that ain't Joe - young Javon Jackson? Don't like the intonation on the head, but the trumpeter's solo is nice. That bass theme sounds like something I have heard one of Elvin's bands play. #3 - Jimmy Raney and Bobby Jaspar? - 'cause that ain't Stan here. # 4 - Have heard that one, too, or at least that theme - some cool boppish variations over the changes of "All the things you are". Sounds almost like one of those mid-fifties Prestige dates to me - Kenny Burrell? Very sweet guitar solo! Alto sounds familiar, but who is it? Al Haig or one of those bepoppers? # 5 - Ron Carter. Freddie Hubbard. I'm not too good at identifying JayJay-derived tombonists. No idea who's the leader here or whose band it is. # 6 - Definitely some pre-1940's player. Excellent - nice idea to start it in the slow tempo. I probably know this player - but .... # 7 Miles. Or not? There was a phrase at the beginning I never heard from Miles, but from Eddie Henderson! Almost too Miles-ish ... I smell a trap here! Not Miles - he plays in Miles' spirit, but is technically more assured. # 8 - Lester does not leap in here, but four great Hawkanians ... (AMG link) This is one of the greatest tenor battle albums ever made! Contrary to the AMG entry, this is available on CD. # 9 - Very nice, good singer, excellent remastering. Would like to know who. # 10 - Some classical piano technique involved here ... Wish he/she would take his time a little more. Very playful, but a little to restless for my taste. That he plays the tresillo figure in the left hand almost like a triplet is common among jazz players, but I like it better when played straight. Corea/Burton type theme, but otherwise IHAFC. Too long - he's out of ideas after five minutes. # 11 - "Valse Hot". The horns play that theme very cool and precisely, but the drummer is much too loose for me here. If they want to play that freely, they should write their own tunes. Not something I'd buy, although they're all good players. Just not my cup of tea. I'd like to hear them in a more straighahead context. # 12 - Some South African cats? That's more like it ... Wouldn't buy this either, but it conivinces me more. # 13 The opening phrase was enough: this album. Nice album, although she's not among my top tem favourite singers. # 14 What a nice and unexpected closer! Great tune by an underrated band: Track 15 on this CD - there are many other issues. That was FUN!!! Muchas gracias otra vez!

Of course you're right, Chuck - that's what I wanted to say. Pardon my English ... -_-

So the instrument Gus Mancuso played was a euphomium, too?

IIRC Schlitten started ONYX at the same time as Muse but had to stop soon after due to licensing problems. He ran ONYX for the historical issues, new productions were on Muse, with absolutely no crossing over. The XANADU GOLD SERIES was the follow-up to ONYX, ironically, whereas the XANADU SILVER SERIES was for new recordings with a cover design similar to the ONYX LPs. Now I have all three Hardman LPs on Muse, and the first, "Home" has the leader with a bright red turtleneck on an orange couch with blackcat and trumpet ... hmm ...

Here goes my Golden Rule # 1 item ... have that too, of course, but haven't listened to it for years ... too many good records, too little time!

You aware of the difference between Boogaloo Sisters and Bugaloo Sisters? P.S. As soon as I have some money on my Paypal account after my next Ebay auctions, you'll get some!

Randy, please !!! reconsider ...

This is a BFT disc compiled by a true jazz fan: music from all styles and periods. I really dig this versatility - muchas gracias otra vez! So here are my guesses for the bonus disc: #1 I have heard that, it may well still be hidden somewhere in the depths of my collection, but I don't have the time to dig it up right now. "Original Dixieland One-Step" or something like that? # 2 Knew the tenor after one phrase, this may be his best solo IMHO. Pretty wild idea to have a ballad of such extended length on a disc at the time it was released. Beautiful album with a timeless quality about it. (AMG link - track 1) # 3 Starts out as a typical Latin jazz hybrid, rhythmically, as the drummer plays a Brazilian samba, dtto. the bassist, but the piano riff is more Cuban. The horns play nice, but the pianist doesn't convince me. Would have liked it better if the drummer had left out the bass drum on the "one", which makes it sound more Brazilian, but this often confounds the horns and pianists. A nice track, but I like to hear a little more depth. # 4 Variations of/on a famous saxophone player. Probably a little known, i.e. rare track. (AMG link - track 1 - there are other issues, of course) # 5 Hmm ... an alto with a definite Trane vibe. Kenny Garrett. Drummer should be Brian Blade. Very competent cat, if this is Garrett he sure sounds more relaxed here than on the Trane studio record and the live date I saw on TV around the time that album was issued. ***1/2, **** for the drummer. # 6 Woody'n'you by X'n'YZ ... this is one instance where a star soloist and a working band thrown together worked out! (AMG link) # 7 Charlie Haden on bass? That flamenco strumming threw me off at first, because he doesn't play like that anymore. But overall, that must be him. The audience seems to know that tune - I do not. Should be Ornette and Dewey and Ed Blackwell. I can't listen to that in large doses, that's why I do not recognize the tune. # 8 Very nice! Krupa on drums? Very well organized drum solo. Eldridge? Some Hawk disciple on tenor, but not the Hawk himself. # 9 Sounds like these players had a lot of experience together, very loose and very together at the same time. Like the feathery beat of the drummer, almost like Frankie Dunlop, or rather a swing era Dunlop. Well, Dunlop played with Hamp a lot after Monk, but from the things I hear, that is not him. First trumpet soloist has me think of Harry Edison. Buddy Tate on tenor? Benny Carter on alto? Some latter day Norman Granz session issued on Pablo? These are all very experienced, personal swing era players having a good time without overdoing it. Something I really enjoy. # 10 Not quite my cup of tea. He plays some chords that are too far from the basic tune, for my taste, and tends to lose the meter, although he stays on some subjective rhythmic pulse. If one choses a groove like this, I think he should stay in the time. He doesn't get me here. No idea who it is. # 11 Same tune as # 1. Again, no idea. The horns are somewhat sloppy on the beat, the soprano just ondulates on top of it without a tight connection to the beat, the trumpet is a little better in that respect, and the trombonist almost has it down. If one compares that with the opening track one can see how competent these early jazz players were, much better, especially ryhthmically, than their latter day imitators. I go for the older version. Hope I find the time to take one more listen to the bonus disc this evening ...

I edited my guesses out here, as my discs seem to have been labeled correctly ... and Randy's are mislabeled, so I suggest Randy moves his post.

Ubu, try this: log out, clear browser cache and cookies (!), and log in again. Maybe this helps.

PM has reached me and has been answered. But I still do not get any notifications. Did not get error messages like you described, and did not have trouble posting etc. Everything works as usual except for the e-mail notifications.

Wonder why one of his longtime musical associates is named "Shorter"? And there is one Dick Hyman, which is a double .....

But they have the greatest young talent in European soccer with Ronaldo. Still, the many misses were painful. They certainly had sympathy on their side for being the host country. For the reputation and players they have, the Spaniards played not good enough. The same should happen to the Germans so they wake up.

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!

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