Peter Friedman

These would be my top choices too.

My take on Junior Mance is that he is a solid journeyman jazz piano player, but not one of my true favorites. Where I differ from Chuck is that I see him at his best as a blues player. His blues sound very "natural" to me. In fact Junior does his best to bring the blues or a blues feeling into most of what he plays. I attended one of his recording sessions for the Sackville label, and the blues feeling permeated the entire afternoon. On non-blues jazz tunes and standards, Junior's solos don't raise to the level I hear in many other piano players. He is definitely a very nice guy.

Yep, I agree with Chuck on this, the earlier recordings are a little better. I don't know if they are available on cd. Yes, this is a very good set. I have it on a 4 CD set as follows - Sony Classical SM4K 46738

I am especially partial to the JVC XRCD remasterings. Among my XRCD favorites are: The Poll Winners Sarah Vaughan - Crazy and Mixed Up Miles Davis All-Stars - Walkin' Miles Davis - Bag's Groove

Some other good small group sessions with Idrees Sulieman: Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk Flies High - Riverside/Milestone Horace Parlan Quintet - Arrival - Steeplechase Red Mitchell Quintet - Chocolate Cadillac - Steeplechase

I hear this entire issue rather differently than Larry. Perhaps it is in part because the number of players who had a strong Coltrane influence seemed to number in the hundreds or maybe even thousands. For a while I got very tired of hearing countless tenor players doing their Trane thing. It was hard to get a sense of much, if any, individuality from many of them. It almost seemed as if they had been produced by a cookie cutter method and the goal was to make them all as much alike as possible. Of course, as time went on some players did emerge from the group and did begin to develop a bit of individuality. I have made this point before, and there are those who clearly disagree, but I believe the Coltrane influence had a negative influence on many players. My best example is Harold Land. Land's playing with Clifford Brown, with the Curtis Counce Group, and on his own albums on Contemporary showed his own individual sound and phrasing. I considered it wonderful tenor work. Once the Trane influence hit him, Land no longer sounded the same. He lost that special Harold Land style, and became just one more tenor man who was overwhelmed by Coltrane.The recordings Land made with Bobby Hutcherson for Blue Note and a few other labels are examples of what I mean. Younger listeners who came to jazz via Coltrane or later will likely hear things differently. But I was listening to Harold Land before the huge Trane influence spread across the jazz horizon. Land is just one of many established players who, to my ears, lost a part of their individuality as a result of the impact Coltrane made on the jazz scene. Don't misunderstand, I love and respect a significant portion of John Coltrane's music. My concern was not with Coltrane's music, but rather with the way his music , in some ways, became a force throughout the jazz world. With Rollins, the number of people who seem strongly influenced by him( in the sense that they sound a bit like him at times) is rather small. The players who I find to be very influenced by Sonny are Tabackin and Grant Stewart. Some of Steve Grossman's recordings also fall into that category. As an aside, I didn't at all care for Grossman's playing when he was one of the Trane disciples, but once he moved into a Rollins approach I found his playing highly enjoyable. Ralph Lalama strikes me as less directly influenced by Rollins compared to the others i just named. Ralph to my ears shows influence from Dexter, Rollins, and a smaller amount from Trane. Early Frank Foster on the Prestige sessions also has a bit of Rollins influence in his playing. In later years a Trane influence became evident in Foster's tenor work. It is, of course a personal preference, but I find the players such as Tabackin, Grant Stewart and Steve Grossman to be among my favorite living tenor men. That early period Rollins style is one that grabs me deeply. Each of them brings their own personal essence to the music. I have heard Lew Tabackin live a few times recently and while the Rollins influence is definitely there, Lew also has a lot of Coleman Hawkins in his style, and even gets into a "free jazz' thing at times. Watching Lew Tabackin play is a special treat in itself. He gets extremely physical when he plays. Lew moves around constantly and his feet are never still for more than a brief second or two. Tabackin's entire physical and mental self seem to be strongly engaged when he is playing, and this seems to be very authentic, and by no means some sort of act for the audience.

Add my support for "There Goes The Neighborhood" on Candid. An interesting duo CD that has not been mentioned is "Gary Bartz & Peter Leitch - The Montreal Concert - DSM 3037". Bartz can also be heard on these two CDs under Peter Leitch's leadership: "Another Perspective - Concord 4535" "Colours & Dimensions - Reservoir 140" Don't miss "Sphere - Verve 314 557 796-2" with Bartz, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams and Ben Riley. That same group, with Ray Drummond in place of Buster Williams, can be found on: "The Jet All Star Quartet - Live at Jazz En Tete - Space Time BG9704"

There is so much great recorded music by Dizzy that it is hard to know what to say. But a great starting point would be the 2 cd set called "Dizzy Gillespie - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings". I don't think anyone mentioned the very good 3 cd volumes on the CAP label of Dizzy's big band called "Dizzy in South America". "Sonny Side Of The Street" on Verve is a strong favorite of mine. I also very much like the "Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie" date on Verve. Have been listening of late to the recently released Dizzy Gillespie set on Mosiac which has reacquainted me with a lot of lovely music. Don't pass this one by!

Here some that I enjoy. Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto - Stern/Ormandy - Sony Bruch - Violin Concerto - Heifetz/Sargent - RCA The 5 Beethoven Piano Concerts - Fleisher/Szell - Columbia Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 & Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 - Van Cliburn/Kondrashin/Reiner - RCA Brahms Piano Concert No.1 - Rubinstein/ Reiner - RCA Chopin Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - Rubinstein/Skrowaczewski/Wallenstein - RCA

I read this while enjoying Willis's "Bar Wars". A favorite around here. I made an interesting (maybe only to me) discovery a few minutes ago. My listening was interrupted by a call for help with yard work and when I returned and heard the music I had forgotten what was on the player. For an instant I thought the radio was on and identified the players as Guy Lafitte and Wild Bill! They were playing "The Breeze and I" (alt) and within a couple of seconds I knew reality, but the connection was surprising. Now Peter is going to have to reconsider his Lafitte recordings. Ok, I have to admit it has been a long long time since I heard anything by Willis Jackson. I will have to go to Amazon and listen to some segments of his recordings to refresh my memory.

The Mainstrean sessions being issued on CD are not the ones that interest me. I would like to see the Sonny Red, the 2 Charles McPherson's and the Harold Land Bobby/Hutcherson for starters.

Personally, I would rather buy "Full House" 5 or 6 times than buy one Willis Jackson recording. Different strokes....

Larry, Would you define what you mean by "shaggy".

I am with Garth on this one. It is a good one, but I would not consider it to be among the very best MJQ recordings. My advice would be to get this one after you have most of the other MJQ recordings.

This is a very good 2 CD set. I read a post from Laurie Pepper on another site that explained why Billie's Bounce was not included. She indicated that the sound quality on that track was sub-par so decided to leave it off. That was not a big deal for me as the material on this set is first rate for "late period' Art Pepper. Not only does Art play very well, but George Cables is also terrific. Laurie has more Art Pepper material that she hopes to eventually release.

I remember buying this when it was first issued on LP. Have always liked it. Now have the Japanese CD re-issue.

Kyo, This one has been issued on CD. I have a copy on Savoy/Denon. The spine says: The Trio / Kenny Clarke - SV-0184 The front of the booklet says: "The Jazz Trio of HANK JONES Wendell Marshall, Bass Kenny Clarke, Drums"

One of the times I was in Bradley's I was fortunate to sit at a table with Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan and Sadik Hakim. Needless to say it was a memorable evening for me.

I was there about 4 times. Saw Jimmy Rowles one evening, Kenny Barron another time, and Tommy Flanagan a couple of times. It could be noisey on a busy night, so it was very helpful to sit as close to the piano as possible.

I have 4 CDs on the MM label that include all 91 tracks of the great RCA Hampton small group material.These French CDs released in 1990 & 1991 have very good sound. Don't overlook the Impulse recording titled "You Better Know It!!!" that has Hampton joined by Ben Webster, Clark Terry, Hank Jones, Milt Hinton, and Osie Johnson. There is also a Hampton Japanese CD that was released not too long ago on the FOA label called "Mack The Knife". On this one the sidemen are Gene Harris, Ron Eschete, Ray Brown and Grady Tate. My CD copy of the Hampton session with Lucky Thompson, Jimmy Cleveland, Ray Copeland, Oscar Dennard, Oscar Pettiford and Gus Johnson is on the Excelsior label and titled "My Man". It has 10 tracks.

These are some excellent Ray Bryant CDs that have not been mentioned in this thread. Now's The Time - Doctor Jazz WK 40525 Ray's Tribute To His Jazz Piano friends - JMI/JVC 7503-2 Alone At Montreux - Atlantic Hot Turkey - Black & Blue 233089 Plays Blues and Ballads - jazz Connaisseur Inimitable - Jazz Connaisseur

Elvin was already with Coltrane (and had made some recordings with him for Atlantic and Impulse) when the Riverside date titled "Elvin" was recorded in 1961. After becoming associated with Trane, it is interesting to hear him with his two brothers Thad and Hank, as well as the two Franks - Wess and Foster. I find this session highly enjoyable.

Was that in the fall of 1986 perhaps? I caught that group In New York at the Mark Morganelli club on 23rd Street. Must have been in the early '80s. Walter Bishop was on piano, Leroy Williams on drums. Can't remember who was on bass! Very nice band. The Hardman-Cook group were regulars at the place! And I was privileged to enjoy the brand new Horace Silver group with Cook, Blue Mitchell and a very young Louis Hayes when they played at the Club Saint-Germain in 1959. Cook and the Silver bandmates were really cookin'... Interesting coincidence Brownie. As best I can recall I saw Junior Cook twice, and they were almost identical to the two situations you mentioned above. I caught the Horace Silver Quintet with Junior Cook and Blue Mitchell at the Sutherland Lounge in Chicago in 1957. I saw the very same Cook/Hardman Quintet in NYC that had Leroy Williams and Walter Bishop,Jr in the group. The bass player may have been Paul Brown? The night I saw them Bill Hardman was especially impressive! Junior Cook was a very good tenor player. I can't think of any recordings with him that are less than enjoyable.

I suspect you are thinking of tenor player Frank Haynes. He plays on some tracks on the Walter Bishop, Jr. album on Xanadu.