Peter Friedman

The early Brubeck Quartet recordings on Fantasy and the sessions on Columbia are the ones I like. Once Desmond was no longer in the group, my interest waned greatly. I would not consider Brubeck to be among the piano players I like best, but nonethless do enjoy hearing him play.

"Functional" is definitely one of my favorite Monk solos.

I also have just about all of them. The Milt Jackson sessions, especially the ones with Lucky Thompson are among my favorites.

For later day Sarah I would recommend this one: Crazy And Mixed Up - Pablo It's a beauty, and the backup group is first rate - Roland Hanna, Joe Pass, Andy Simpkins, and Harold Jones.

Late, You didn't indicate which Joe Newman recordings you have? I agree with Brownie that the Joe Wilder/Joe Newman CD is a good one. I also like the sessions he did for RCA that Brownie mentioned. I have all the RCA material on a French RCA 2 CD set titled "The Basie Days". Two others I strongly recommend are: Joe Newman with Frank Foster - Good 'N' Groovy - Prestige/Swingville The Joe Newman Quintet (with Frank Wess) - Jive At Five - Prestige/Swingville Both these sessions have Tommy Flanagan on piano and Eddie jones on bass. Billy English is the drummer on the date with Frank Foster, while Oliver Jackson is on the session with Frank Wess. Also enjoyable is "The Joe Newman Quintet - At Count Basie's - Mercury" with Oliver Nelson on tenor.

Is it possible to attach a year for this event? Chuck, I really can't recall the year. I attended this event with John Norris of Sackville Records. Perhaps he will be able to recall the year? I just read on a website that Jimmy Raney suffered from Minieres Disease which eventually led to complete deafness in both ears.

These came in the mail Saturday. Both have already exceeded my expectations, particularly the session with overdubbing. Nice! I imagine that Locking Horns with Joe Newman is also good. Anyone here have it? The only label to purchase it from is (perhaps unfortunately) Fresh Sounds, but their website says it's out-of-stock. Does Fresh Sounds let their inventory go out-of-print? I have "Locking Horns". It is not among my favorite Zoot Sims recordings. It is certainly ok, but it is just that there are many many others I would rank above that one. My recommendation would be to leave that until you have just about everything else by Zoot.

It is a shame that Allen Lowe feels the need to be so childishly nasty in his comments about O.P. It is one thing to indicate that you don't like a musician's playing, but the hatred he spews is unnecessary. If you don't care for Oscar's playing, then don't buy his recordings or attend his performances. It seems to be fashionable these days for some jazz fans to emphasize their dislike of Oscar Peterson's playing. That has always struck me as a bit strange. Oscar may not be everyone's cup of tea, but why does this one person bring out all that hostility? Over my 50 plus years of listening to jazz both live and on record there are certainly quite a few musicians whose playing I don't care for. We all have our own individual taste which is as it should be. If I was to list the jazz musicians whose playing I don't like very much, Oscar Peterson's name would NOT be on that list. I happen to very much enjoy Oscar's piano playing. One of the great pleasures I find in jazz is the diversity of styles and individual approaches to the music. My favorite jazz pianists include Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Sonny Clark, Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Bud Powell, and a few others. While I wouldn't place Oscar among my top level favorites, I do find his playing can be highly exciting and can swing like mad. I have a large number of his recordings and wouldn't want to be without them.

I had a strange experience listening to Jimmy Raney live late in his life. It was at a weekend jazz party in Harrisburg,PA The lineup was fantastic with players such as Jackie McLean, Ira Sullivan, Barry Harris, Arthur Taylor, George Mraz, Jay McShann, Shirley Horn, and quite a few others. Raney was very very hard of hearing at that point, so when he played with various other musicians over the weekend, his playing seemed to almost always be a bit "off" from what the other musicians were playing. It was clear that he wasn't hearing the other players properly which caused him to play in such an "off' manner.

I wouldn't say that there was really much direct copying of Raney in Grant's playing, just the general approach of playing the guitar like a horn (not often playing chords except when comping). To me, the only guitarist that really sounds much like Jimmy (even including his direct descendants who were contemporaries, such as Rene Thomas) is his son, Doug. At any rate, I don't think it's widely known outside jazz guitar circles, but Grant did specifically acknowledge Raney as an important influence on his playing. brownie, thanks for the heads up. That looks intriguing. I wonder if that's a typo in the personnel: "Eric" Diehl? I would have thought Eddie... I always thought the guitar player that was most influenced by Jimmy Raney was Jimmy Gourley. Gourley spent most of his career in Paris, but can be heard on quite a few recordings.

I still love that well known quote by Brew Moore. This may not be the exact wording, but it's close enough. "Anyone who does not play like Pres is wrong."

Here are some things from the 70's and 80's with Freddie Hubbard as a sideman that I like. Mel Lewis and Friends - A & M (1976) The Trumpet Summit Meets Oscar Peterson Big 4 - Pablo (1980) The Alternate Blues - Pablo (1980) Count Basie - Kansas City 7 - Pablo (1980) Oscar Peterson/Freddie Hubbard - Face To Face - Pablo

Just came across this Zoot Sims CD on the shelf when looking for something else. Zoot Sims with Special Guest Scott Hamilton - It Had To Be You - Gemini 101 This concert was recorded in Sweden on November 24,1984. The Swedish rhythm section has Claes Crona(p), Arne Wilhelmsson(b), Per Hulten(dr).

Let me add my endorsement of the Hep Teddy Wilson CDs. Absolutely great music by jazz masters. Every serious jazz collection should have this material. (Of course in my opinion.)

I also have both "Tranquility" and "Very Cool" on Japanese Verve CDs. In my view, "Very Cool" is the better of the two, though both are very good.

They were recorded about 3 months apart. Did you get the version of the Coral Cohn/Sims with a bonus track? The track "Gone with the Wind"? I missed that edition. My Japanese CD does not have the extra track. Is it worth getting another CD for that one track? What release has the extra track?

Don't forget that James Clay also recorded some things on the Jazz Mark label Here are two CDs with Clay that I have on that label. Bill Perkins/James Clay Quintet - The Right Chemistry - Jazz Mark 108 with Frank Strazzeri, Joel DiBartolo, Billy Mintz Saxophone Glory, Vol.1 - Jazz Mark 112 James Clay plays on 2 tracks joined by Marchel Ivery(on one track) and other Texas musicians. The rest of the CD has tracks with various other saxophone players such as John Park, Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper, Don Lanphere, Vicho Vicencio

The Al Cohn on Coral was reissued on CD in Japan. There are some othe things with Al Cohn on Xanadu that were not mentioned. Especially interesting is this CD reissue I have: DEXTER GORDON/AL COHN - TRUE BLUE. The rhythm section includes Barry Harris, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. Blue Mitchell and Sam Noto are on some of the tracks. There is one track where Dexter and Al play "On The Trail" without the rhythm section. Al Cohn is a very big favorite of mine. Here are a number of other very good CDs I have by Al that I don't recall anyone mentioning in this thread. Al Cohn & Zoot Sims - Motoring Along - Sonet Al Cohn - In Concert - IAJRC Al Cohn & Zoot Sims - Live At The Left bank - Label M Al Cohn - Skylark - Live At e.j's Al Cohn & Zoot Sims - Body & Soul - Muse Al Cohn Meets Al Porcino - Red Baron Al Cohn Meets The Jazz Seven - Keeper Of The Flame - Ronnie Scott's Jazz House Al Cohn - Rifftide - Timeless Xanadu At Montreux - Al Cohn/Barry Harris - Xanadu EPM

When I was living in Rochester,NY I had the opportunity to hear Joe Romano many times. He is not only a wonderful tenor player, but also plays terrific alto. There is an LP under Joe's name on Fresh Sound that I have never heard and would love to see it reissued on CD. Recently a CD by Joe came out, and I was able to find a copy. Joe Romano - This Is The Moment - Romano 928 with Joe Magnarelli, Dino Losito, Neal Miner, Mike Melito It's a good one. Sam Noto spent many years in Toronto. He played with the Rob McConnell Boss Brass for a while. I caught Sam a few times with small groups in both Toronto and Rochester and he was always impressive.

Undercurrent (Kenny Drew) is a terrific album. Probably because he spent so many years in Europe, Drew seems to have been overlooked when top level jazz piano players are discussed. Kenny Drew has a large number of recordings available under his own name, but the vast majority are not on American labels. He has many recordings on Steeplechase, and many on the Japanese Alfa and Baystate labels. I have most of them and enjoy them all immensely. I was in strong agreement with Dan Gould when discussing Joe Zawinul recently on another thread. However when it comes to the Bill Evans/Jim Hall recording Dan and I part ways. While 180 degrees different in style from the Kenny Drew session, the Evans/Hall is simply a great recording. As has been said, it is introspective, but filled with beautiful playing by both artists. There are lots wonderful cooking hard bop sessions out there, and I love an awful lot of them. But the number of low key jazz recordings played with great depth of feeling that results in classic beauty of very high quality is much less common.

Don't forget the jazz album that Frankie Laine made. It was reissued on CD Frankie Laine, Buck Clayton - Jazz Spectacular - Columbia CK 65507

Well, ya' know, some people's choices make other people uncomfortable because daring to dream, much less acting on the dream, scares the shit out of them... Jim, That may be true for some, but I find it to be a gross overgeneralization. I can only speak for myself, but it has nothing to do with being scared. Any musician certainly has the right to go in any direction that they choose. However, my concern is for the music to speak to me. If it does, I am pleased and continue to give it my listening time. If the music is not to my taste, then it will no longer get much, if any, attention from me. I don't begrudge Joe the right to go in a direction different from what I like. But I so very much enjoyed some of his playing with Cannonball and Ben Webster that I had hoped to hear much more of that playing I dug so much. It was disappointing to me that he never made a swinging trio album with perhaps the Cannonball rhythm section. However once Zawinul moved in a different direction I gave my attention to others that were far more to my personal taste. The only reason this diverse commentary has taken place is because it looked as if Joe was being disrespectful to Barry Harris (One of my alltime favorites) as well as to others who played in a style he no longer chose to pursue. A number of posts came to Joe's defense by, in a number of cases, suggesting that Joe was a marvelous innovator who made important contributions to the music. I don't happen to see him in that light, but hey, different strokes...

I find Zawinul's statement regarding Barry Harris to be both arrogant and insulting. If he didn't mean it to be insulting, he should have thought about the way he said it prior to putting his mouth in gear. I agree with Dan Gould. The only playing I have heard from Zawinul that spoke to me was his playing on some of Cannonball's albums, and the one session with Ben Webster. At that time I was expecting to hear a lot more music I liked from Joe. Unfortunately (in my view), he decided to go in a different direction that did not appeal to me.

I have two Japanese Sonny Clark Trio CDs that have all this material plus the three alternate tracks from the American Sony Clark Trio CD (RVG) . Blues In The Night - TOCJ-1618 The 45 Sessions - TOCJ-1617