Peter Friedman

I have not posted to this thread, but have been following it for some time. Finally decided to place an order yesterday for a bunch of Blue Note SHM-CDs from CD Japan.

What a treat! I bought J.R.'s Blue Note LP when it first came out and became an instant fan. After that I sought out the various other recordings with him as a sideman and then later as leader. I dug his Blue Note album so much, was disappointed that he only recorded that one as leader on that label.

Last evening attended a concert by the Auryn Quartet. They played Beethoven's Op.18/5 in the first half ot the program. following the intermission they played Beethoven's Op.130 and Op.133. They were at their very best in Op.130. The small Louis Rich Theatre was completely filled, and extra chairs were added on both sides of the stage to allow more people to attend. The audience response was highly enthusiastic and the Auryn Quartet responded with an encore of an Andante from a Quartet by Haydn. I was unable to hear which specific Haydn quartet it was from. This was another fine concert in the series put on by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music.

Here is my list of many of the jazz books I have enjoyed. I am certain to have forgotten some others. Jazz On Record : A Critical Guide To The First Fifty Years - McCarthy, Morgan, Oliver, Harrison The Essential Jazz Recordings : Vol.2 Modernism to Postmodernism - Harrison, Thacker, Nicho;son Bill Evans : How My Heart Sings - Pettinger Loose Shoes : The Story of Ralph Sutton - Shacter Take Five : The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond - Ramsey Before Motown : A History of Jazz in Detroit 1920-1960 - Bjorn with Gallert Ten Modern Jazzmen - M. James Jazz Masters of The Forties - Gitler Swing To Bop - Gitler Jazz Masters of the Fifties - Goldberg Rat Race Blues : The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce - Cohen & Fitzgerald An Unsung Cat : The Life and Music of Warne Marsh - Chamberlain The Jazz Tradition - Williams Where's The Melody - Williams Jazz Panorama - Williams Thelonious Monk : The Life and Times of an American Genius - Kelley Norman Granz : The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice - Hershorn Drummin' Men : The Heartbeat of Jazz : The bebop Years - Korall The Song of the Hawk - Chilton Roy Eldridge : Little Jazz Giant - Chilton Pee Wee Russell : The Life of a Jazzman - Hilbert Too Marvelous For Words - The Life & genius of Art Tatum - Lester Good Vibes : A Life in Jazz - Terry Gibbs with Ginell Raise Up Off me - Hawes

Thanks T.D.

This may have been clarified before? I am interested if John Meyers who is listed as the pianist on 3 tracks on Jackie Mclean's - Strange Blues - album is the same person as pianist Jon Mayer ?

We have lost another important link to the past. One of the very few to have spent time in both the Basie and Ellington Band. He will be missed. R.I.P.

I do tend to hear a closer relationship to jazz small groups in chamber music as compared to large symphony orchestras. For me personally, the intimate setting of a small venue for both jazz and classical music is very important. I much prefer to be close to the musicians and that way feel more directly involved in the music when attending a live performance. I do not, with only very very rare exceptions attend jazz concerts in large halls or go to huge festivals. I prefer clubs or the Jazz Party experience where the room and size of the audience is usually no more than two to three hundred and fifty people. I don't care to listen to a symphony concert in a hall that hold 2 to 3 thousand people. The chamber music series I attend typically has an audience of about 4 hundred people and is in a very nice small auditorium. Music by symphony orchestras is something I prefer to hear at home with my good quality sound system with me sitting about 10 feet away from the speakers. I usually have a cup pf coffee at my side.

Jim, though my experience is very different than yours, and I am one of the "Traditionalists" you mentioned, one point you made is one I can identify with very well. One reason I "stayed away" from classical music for many years was my frustration that classical music received so much institutional support in a variety of ways, while jazz was ignored by the political and economic power groups. Though you did not mention this, the formality of sitting stiffly with a suit on in a very large concert hall was a turn off. I found sitting in a smoke filled jazz club, dressed more casually with a drink on the table far more pleasant. When I returned to classical music in the mid 80's and began to attend concerts I found chamber music especially more to my taste. Not only did I really like the string quartets, piano trios, etc., but the much much smaller venues provided an intimacy that was more in line with the way I preferred to listen to jazz.

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.