mikeweil

This online Kenny Dorham Discography has an index that serves nicely as a timeline for his activities. It underlines my assumption that his illness slowed him down considerably in the late 1960's.

Amazon France stills seems to have it, although they state it's a release from BMG Germany: If I don't succeed, I'll get back to you, couw!

Brownie or couw, is that double CD still available? Could you post an issue number? I only have the soundtrack and like it very much!

I forgot the Riverside date Dorham did with Ernie Henry. I suspect that the idea to have a band without a piano was discussed between Dorham and Roach, as they both practiced that at the same time! The Roach Dorham band recorded without piano for the "Max Roach plays Charlie Parker" LP (part of the Mosaic, but only partially released at the time), all dating from November/December 1957, with Mobley on tenor - the album was completed in April, 1958 with Dorham and George Coleman, who stayed with Max after Kenny left. Dorham died in 1972 at age 48, of kidney failure - it seems his illnes took its toll several years earlier, after the band with Henderson. I suspect that he and Alfred Lion didn't get along very well, despite the half-dozen albums as a leader for Blue Note - there is the possible disagreement (imagine the royalties Dorham would have got from "Blue Bossa" alone!) about song publishing, the one unreleased 1961 session ...

You wanted to say "Roach", didn't you? I read after my last post that he disbanded his own Jazz Prophets band with J.R. Monterose (which he led AFTER the Jazz Messengers) to join Max after Clifford Brown's death - that also may be a reason why the 2nd ABC LP remained unissued. That was the period when that Argo LP was recorded, a Rollins date for Prestige and then the first EmArcy sessions in the Mosaic, most of them with a Dorham/Rollins frontline that is also on a Dorham Riverside session. After leaving Max he had a band with Charles Davis that recorded two fine LPs for Time Records. "Whistle Stop", the unreleased Blue Note session with Charles Davis and Grant Green and the band with Jackie McLean that recorded for United Artists and Pacific Jazz also fall into this period before the quintet with Joe Henderson. He always had something going, that Kenny Dorham, if you count all his record dates, that's quite a number coming together ... with a great list of equally important players. Art Blakey appropriately called him "The King" on the Café Bohemia sessions! Claude's 1999 Kenny Dorham disco should clear some aspects of his career; I will get that next years if it's still available.

If these titles were recorded at the same session on a single day, these are take numbers for individual songs. That means they needed 17 (!) takes to complete a satisfactory version of "When Lights Are Low". All false starts and aborted takes were counted in this system, even if it was just an opening chord. Matrix numbers were placed before these takes numbers, when used. Blue Note used a system counting all takes of a session, no matter what the song title was, in one row, from beginning to end, so their take numbers are an indicator of the position at which a track was recorded during a session. But this is not the case here; Blue Note's system was the exception. Positions of tracks on LP sides are encoded with a system like this: A-1, A-2, etc., B-1, B2, etc.

Seriously, I love it! I'm really surprised there's five tracks on these two discs I instantly recognized. I get something out of every track and dig the diversity of styles - there are some tracks I'd really like to have! More details to come tomorrow - I just spent two hours at this f....ing machine trying to repair some acidentally deleted file and need some sleep ....

Got my copy today, had a listen to both discs. Some initial reactions:

The last few posts point into a direction that seems right to me: I wanna have some fun, 'cause I simply LOVE Blindfold Tests - they're always the first I read when I get a new copy of down beat or Jazz Times. I do that with a good friend regularly. (And I pass the disc on to him when I'm done.) I KNOW I will have fun just because I love it so much. And everything I heard so far is interesting in some way or another. Getting to know stuff I don't know about, yeah, testing myself, I can second all statements above. I can get something out of every type of music, and speaking frankly, I sometimes think this board can take a look or two over the Blue Note fence ...

About time for a jazz addicts's corner ... most of us will have a confession or two to contribute! -_-

If Claude cannot answer these questions, who can? Some speculative thoughts: Kenny Dorham appears to me as a pretty self-conscious man who wants to make sure he gets his due credit. He was the first to break out from the original Jazz Messengers after the first two Blue Note 10" LPs. Conflicts about leadership. His band was called "The Jazz Prophets". One of their albums for ABC remained unissued, the tapes are lost - bad luck sure was involved. The common practice of giving publishing rights to the labels' own company might be a reason. He was a good writer. He played with Max Roach's quintet after Clifford Brown's death, before Booker Little. He wanted to be his own man, and not be put into a bag. Too individualistic for your typical Blue Note pool of players. But the band with Joe Henderson, that worked! Five LPs, but three of them under Joe's name! Everybody remembers it was Joe's albums, but Kenny wrote the hit tunes! He never got the credit he deserved. Always was placed a notch below Dizzy or Brownie or Miles. Maybe he was not quite as great, but he certainly was his own man and was one of the top five bop trumpets!

R.I.P. Ruben and thanks for your playing and personality. As much as I like him, to put him in a league with Monk (a Cuban Monk, as Ry Cooder put it) does not show a deep knowledge of either Monk or Cuban music, and to call him the greatest Son pianist, is with all due respect, a little exaggerated. You have to put these names before him, and he would have been the first to admit this: Peruchín (Pedro Justíz) Luís Martinez (Lily Martinez, his predecessor in the Arsenio Rodriguez conjunto) There is another one whose name escapes me right now. These masters of Cuban music were late discoveries to the rest of the world, their "discovery" was overdue, and there are still more, dead and alive. That movie only scratched the surface, and only of Son, not even mentioning the other musical styles of Cuba - this is my main complaint about "Buena Vista Social Club".

Most of us will admit we were curious about the looks of each other, but some of the comments make me even more curious about the lives and stories behind ... seems our next larger project should be some organissimo convention.

I suggest you inherit your collection to some institution or some serious jazz lover you know - this is what will happen to my collection. I think this is the best - and least - one can do to keep it in circulation.

Don't wanna spoil your fun - I had this double LP too, but sold it after buying this box set: It has plenty of unreleased material, exhaustive annotation and better sound ...

... courtesy of the master couwatar, as always. Thanks a lot, couw!!!

Why not give Alsace to Switzerland? But not to Great Britain, I prithee!!!

I just received this e-mail from AAJ: Now whaddaya say ..... (red color added by yours truly ...)

Funktastic pic!!! p.s. I mean, congrats for being the first to reach that status!

Take your choice: # 3:

Take your choice: # 2:

Take your choice: # 1:

I have a photo in the booklet of a RCA Joe Newman reissue, just one mic (probably a Neumann) and the balance achieved by the distance to it: four horms, piano, guitar, bass, drums. Balance and sound are very natural and excellent! Wish they would do it like this today, but I'm afraid only few groups could play that way.