jazztrain

Several bios on the web say that he contracted polio at age 5.

Have you seen this: Don Freeman - The Musician The following appears at the end of that webpage: >>> You can see and hear Don playing his cornet on the documentary film “Storymaker” available from Clearvue/SVE. … and I still have his last cornet! >>> The following may also be of interest: Cartoon talk A quick search doesn't turn up any obvious references to recordings.

Nice entry Jeff. I was going to mention the Pee Wee Russell connection, but it's there already. I'll check out the audio tracks later.

Then there's this: White Mountain Music Festival The blurb says that he's currently the music director for Dee Dee Bridgewater.

This article would suggest that he still does play jazz on occasion: Ira Coleman/Sting

Good point. It was an unfortunate typo. Should have been 1989 (not 1979). Sorry for any confusion! Thanks for the info, but the CDs can't be from 1979 since the very first audio CDs were not released until 1982 and the EPM label was founded in 1986.

Excellent. Thanks for making this session available again (and for including the extra tune). You'll let us know when it's available, right?

All the music from the three Al Cohn albums that you show from Xanadu was contained on the following two CDs from 1979: - The Complete Al Cohn/Barry Harris Quartets - Volume 1 - Play It Now. EPM FDC 5171 - The Complete Al Cohn/Barry Harris Quarters - Volume 2 - No Problem. EPM FDC 5172 I agree with your opinion. His Xanadu sessions are among my favorites. There also is an issue on Gambit ("Barry Harris Trio with Barry Harris"). It looks like it's just one disk, so it wouldn't be all the music. Checking Amazon, I see that there's a new (2011) issue of "No Problem" available from them on demand in CD-R format. Those three are all excellent — my very favorite Al Cohn on record. A couple of years back, eMusic had a number of Xanadu titles (a lot of them needle drops), and this was the only way I could find to hear them. Finding the four Sam Noto titles this way was a gift.

Yes! Thank you Chuck. Great session. I may have asked you this before (forgive me if I did) -- will the unissued track from the session be included?

I checked for concerts in the Boston area thinking that I might have seen Shepp in that period (although it may have been slightly later -- I remember one concert in particular at the Decordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass.). There's only one listed in Boston and it shows "S. McCoy" as vocalist on one song. I suspect this is a mistake and that the vocalist was actually Semenya McCord.

How do you pronounce Joachim Mencel?

The drummer sure looks like Joe Hunt (which would also fit given the date).

BMI lists a composition called Pyramid with Roger C. Wiliams as composer. He's listed as composer for two other songs: "Good Luck Best Wishes to You" and "Sunny Day Girl." Some websites link the Williams credited as composer of the tune on the Horace Parlan album to the well known pianistic purveyor of arpeggios (sorry, couldn't resist the alliteration; been a long week). However, those sorts of links are often not reliable. Record companies often make mistakes regarding composer credits, so the name listed on the LP may not even be right. Do the notes in the Mosaic box say anything about the composer?

The booklet to Volume One lists Frank Driggs as producer with Michael Figlio credited for technical supervision. Original recordings loaned by Jeff Atterton, Stanley Dance, Harry N. Fein, Sidney Mills, Don Molinelli, and Jacob S. Schneider. The credits for Volume Two are to Frank Driggs as producer and to Milt Cherin for technical supervision. The original recordings were loaned by Stanley Dance, Frank Driggs, Harry Fein, Tom Lord, Don Molinelli, and Jacob S. Schneider.

Your welcome. Glad to help. As I had kind of remembered, it's also on a Spotlite LP: Al Haig Meets the Master Saxes Volume One.

I have it on cd on Classics 1136 (John Hardee, 1946-1948). I think I might also have it on a Spotlite LP but can't check until later.

It's not Hawkins. It sounds a lot like Jacquet, but it's not. It's John Hardee. The tune is Cobblestones. It was issued on the "Sittin' In With" label. Personnel: John Hardee(ts), Al Haig (p), Clyde Lombardi (b), Tiny Kahn (d). 1948.

Hersch and Moran are appearing tomorrow night (Tuesday, March 8) at New England Conservatory in Boston. The NEC website indicates that they'll be performing both in solo and in duo settings.

Bob Helm reportedly plays alto clarinet on some of his Stomp Off albums.

What a ridiculous load of crap (the original statement that's quoted, not JSngry's response). If something gets repeated enough times (and this opinion shows up again and again), people start to believe it. There are some stunningly beautiful Prez sessions from the post-war period. Very little left to say? Please! Maybe we should start a thread of ridiculous statements of this sort, like the ones that dismiss Stan Getz as a mere imitator of Prez. Don't people actually listen? Whoever wrote that is an unqualified, incompetent, soulless, and fully denatured fragment of a human being who maybe has a shard something to say, but absolutely nothing to tell. Ordinarily I'd add "just my opinion", but not this time.

An update on Jay Brandford. He also plays in Abdullah Ibrahim's New York version of Ekaya. That group played last week in Cape Town (alas, I was there on vacation but didn't hear of the concert until the day after).

FWIW, I remember that Volume 7 was the most elusive one of the lot. For some reason, it either went out of print or sold out before the others. Of course. Since I have the Masters of Jazz cds I never needed Vol 1 & 2 and thus the omission.

Agreed. The Razor & Tie compilation is well worth having if you don't want to spring for the box (which I eventually picked up).

Yes, it's definitely worth it. I picked this up about a month ago and have enjoyed it more than I expected. It includes a beautiful version of a rarely recorded Henry Mancini tune ("Silver Tears"). There's another version of that tune recorded around the same time by Shelly Manne. .