Peter Friedman

Just came across this version of Airegin. It comes from this CD. Stan Getz Quartet - Live In Paris - Dreyfus Jazz with Jim McNeely, Marc Johnson, Victor Lewis Recorded in 1982 This is terrific, I much prefer it to the 1961Getz version that Mark posted.

Very sorry to hear this bad news. Have long enjoyed Keith's playing on a large number of recordings in my collection.

There was no classical music in my home. However, my parents did subscribe to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra series. The Detroit Public Schools had a program where they took elementary school classes to some afternoon concerts to introduce them to classical music. I attended a number of those concerts, but for the most part wasn't crazy about them. As a young child my mother made me take piano lessons. I hated to practice so the lessons didn't last long, and I never really learned to play the piano. My actual serious entrance to classical music was when I attended Michigan State University and my roommate had an interest in classical music. He brought classical records to college and I brought jazz records. He learned to like jazz and i learned to appreciate classical music. I recall that among the very first of his records that I truly liked was music by Rachmaninoff, Greig and Tchaikovsky. But my interest in jazz was so dominant that I gradually lost any serious interest in classical music for many many years. A peculiar situation was responsible for reawakening my focus on classical music. In 1984 I bought my first CD player. There were very limited options of jazz CDs available at that time. The classical selection of CDs was much more extensive. So as I wanted new CDs to listen to on my new player, after buying the few jazz CDs of interest that were available I began to buy classical CDs. I soon became very interested in many of the classical CDs I had purchased. I have the collector gene, so it was"natural" for me to add collecting classical CDs to my lifelong collecting of jazz records/CDs. From that point on my interest continued to grow and my classical CD collection grew and grew. While jazz has always been and continues to be my first love, classical music became also a very important part of my life.

There have been many really good versions of Airegin. But I especially like the first 2 recordings by Miles Davis, both on Prestige. The first from 1954 with Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke. The second from 1956 with Coltrane, Red garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones.

Darn That Dream by Art Pepper, George Cables, Tony Dumas, John Dentz From the CD titled - Darn That Dream - Joe Farrell with Art Pepper on the Drive label. Recorded in 1982 Pepper and Cables both play excellent ballad solos.

Niki Harris has been leading a Sunday morning gospel session at the Labor Day weekend Vail Jazz Party for the past 3 or 4 years. A gospel choir comes in from Denver and 3 or 4 jazz musicians appearing at the Jazz Party also participate. The outdoor tent fills up and the music is uplifting and thrilling. Niki does an excellent job leading the event, and her singing fits in very well.

It would require some careful listening for me to select my one favorite Art Pepper album. Just listened to the quartet on Tampa/ Fresh Sound and it is certainly a very good one. By coincidence I had just played the CD - "South American Cookin'" by the Curtis Fuller Quintet with Zoot Sims, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Merritt and Dave Bailey. I mention this because the tune "Besame Mucho' is on this CD as well as on the Art Pepper CD. Both versions are damn nice, but I prefer the one by the Curtis Fuller quintet. Zoot plays a wonderful solo and Fuller is at his best.In fact the entire Fuller CD is top notch.

Larry said it well when he referred to Braden as "adept but rather generic". I have quite a few examples of Braden's playing, primarily as a sideman with a variety of different musicians. More often than not, his solos fail to do much for me. Though every so often I hear something interesting from him. The CD "Organic" that Larry mentioned is certainly one of the best things I have heard by Don. Not too long before Art Farmer died, I saw his quintet live with Dan Braden sharing the front line. Braden's playing was rather disappointing to me.

Paul, I am in complete agreement with you.

Dan, we agree on this one!

Nice memory. Nice record, too. Though I hope your copy was less than $710! ######################################################################################################### Bought it when it was first released. The retail price I paid was somewhere on the range of $3.95 Sold the LP many years later, after I had a CD copy. While I don't recall the exact amount I got for it, but It was somewhere around one thousand dollars.

Where were you buying your records in the 60's? You purchased Strange Blues around 1967? I didn't buy my first jazz record (vinyl) until 1986 — I was Ray Draper's age! Vancouver, British Columbia. I forget the name of the store. The record was Tenor Madness. My saxophone teacher at the time told me that I should check out Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. I saw that record and thought, hey, both guys! That began my fascination with Sonny Rollins' work. Coltrane hit me about a year or so later. Then, in 1988, compact discs were flooding the market, and I stopped buying vinyl. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I grew up in Detroit and bought most of my LPs in a shop called The Land Of Hi Fi. The woman who ran the record department became a good friend of mine. She carried all the newest jazz releases and was a friend of most of the Detroit musicians who were on the verge of moving to New York. She was especially close to Barry Harris. Charles McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer among others. I moved from Detroit to Rochester New York in the summer of 1967, so it is possible I bought Strange Blues in Rochester? It stays in my memory ,the day I wandered into the record shop in Detroit and found Jackie McLean's first LP on the Ad Lib label.

Dan, just finished listening to - Babe's Blues. To be honest, it was less than I had expected it to be. Most of the tunes were very short which did not allow the players to say much that I found to be of interest. Overall, the CD struck me as lacking substance and was on the dull side. This might be a CD useful for introducing a person to jazz? I will be placing it in my disposal box. I agree with your comments on how Gene's playing has evolved over the years. I took a look through many of my Concord CDs under the leadership of Gene Harris. In contrast with Babe's Blues, I saw no tracks under 4 minutes in length, and most were over 5 minutes long. This allowed Gene and his musical colleagues to stretch out a bit. I saw Gene Harris play live a couple of times and truly enjoyed it very much. The Three Sounds albums I have heard do not reflect the qualities i liked so much. Needless to say, all of this is just my personal opinion, and as is said here often - your mileage may vary.

Dan, haven't listened to it in a long time so just pulled "Babes Blues" and will play it soon. My recollection about hearing some of the Three Sounds albums years ago is that they lacked depth , which is difficult to describe. I suppose I was looking for more vitality / energy/ hard swinging. It all seemed a bit too superficial. In fairness, as this was a long time ago I need to do some fresh listening to see what I believe now. The strange thing is that over time I began to consider bass player Andy Simpkins to be really outstanding. I saw him live at a Jazz Party where a number of other fine bass players such as Peter Washington and John Clayton and others also performed. Andy was my favorite. Once Gene Harris began recording under his own name for Concord I started to like his playing a great deal. He swung hard, showed a deep love for the blues and exhibited far more energy than I recall when with the Three Sounds.

Missed this back when it began. I attended the Top of the Plaza jazz events many times. Defintely recall seeing Thad and Mel there. In fact, for some odd reason, they showed me sitting at a table next to the music on some of the TV broadcasts. They did some strange editing as i was shown sitting in the audience on a broadcast of Stephane Grapelli when I did not attend that one. Unfortunately I do not recall seeing Basie at the Top of the Plaza. Wish I had been there.

The one Three Sounds CD that I have enjoyed is - Babe's Blues - on Blue Note.

I was grabbed deep down by McLean back in my formative jazz years. Bought every one of his Prestige LPs when they were first released? Now have them all on CD. I share what Late said about how nobody plays the blues like Jackie. Though I differ slightly about Ray Draper. His ensemble contributions are fine, but was never a fan of his solo playing..

I have 12 of the CDs listed on Timeless. For me the Tommy Flanagan - Jazz Poet - is definitely essential. Three others I like very much are : Al Cohn - Rifftides Cedar Walton - Eastern Rebellion Kirk Lightsey/ Chet Baker - Everything Happens To Me

Dan, I see your point, but don't think Cables ruined the record. The booklet notes discuss Cables solo approach quite clearly. He plays many cadenza's influenced by both Art Tatum and Coltrane. And he credits Dexter for encouraging him to play however he likes. Cables is a piano player I generally like very much. On this particular session from 1977 (over 35 years ago), Cables seemed to be trying out a stylistic approach. Over the years Cables playing has evolved quite a bit. He plays beautifully on many recordings. Though Cables playing on Night Ballads is by no means my favorite example of his piano solo work, the album still is a success.

I am not a fan of most of the Three Sounds recordings (there are a couple of exceptions). I much prefer the recordings with Gene Harris as leader on Concord. Here are some I can recommend beyond the ones you already have. The Gene Harris Quartet at Ste. Chapelle Winery The Gene Harris Quartet - Funky Gene's The Gene Harris Quartet - Black And Blue The Gene Harris Quartet with Special Guest Frank Wess - It's The Real Soul

Sorry but, in my opinion, The Mastersounds were by no means the musical equal of the MJQ. The Mastersounds music was pleasant, but not anything more. The MJQ was better in pretty much every way.

Yes, this is a wonderful session.

Let me try one other example to make the point I along with Larry, and John L. have been trying to make. The Tristano School which is generally understood to be made of of the musicians who studied with and were heavily influenced by Lennie Tristano. Names most closely associated with the Tristano School include players such as Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Don Ferrara, Ted Brown Peter Ind, Ronnie Ball,Sal Mosca,Jeff Morton along with others. But here as with what I have been calling WCJ, the boundries were not rigid and were in fact very loose. Many other musicians studied briefly with Tristano, but veered away into other directions. To follow what Jim has been arguing, the definition of the Tristano School has to be inclusive of any and all who spent any time With Lennie and his closest disciples. So now Kenny Clarke and Oscar Pettiford and Philly Joe Jones and quite a large number of other should henceforth be defined as members of the Tristano School (style) of jazz. These layers are the equivilent of Soony Criss, Teddy Edwards, Erc Dolphy, etc. Or is, as with WCJ, the Tristano School label just another ilustration of marketing? I guess after this I need to call it quits on this WCJ topic as I have made my points and will just have to agree to disagree with those who see it quite differently.

Ever since the early 1950's - over 60 years ago - West Coast Jazz has been a recognized and reasonably well understood term within the jazz community. it had a certain stylistic sensibility, though not all example of WCJ were completely the same. Some examples of WCJ were more highly arranged than others, some of the arranged music has more obvious classical music influences. There were also WCJ musicians playing gigs and making records with very meager, if any, formal arrangements. That musical style was centered geographically in the Los Angeles area. Within the same time period, jazz was being played in California by a variety of musicians in styles not generally considered to be part of the WCJ style. It strikes me as an example of revisionist history to now, so many decades later, redefine the reality of what actually was a part of jazz history.