Peter Friedman

Most of the Shorty Rogers RCA albums are very good as are all his Atlantic recordings. The out of print Mosaic set of all Shorty's Atlantic material is a gem. Also well worth getting are the two much later Shorty Rogers CDs on Candid which include many of the west coast luminaries such as Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Bill Perkins, Pete Jolly and Conte Candoli. Shorty Rogers/Bud Shank & The Lighthouse All Stars - America The Beautiful - Candid 79510 Shorty Rogers/Bud Shank & The Lighthouse All Stars - Eight Brothers - Candid 79521

Wonder if you are referring to this one? Zoot Sims Quartet - Live At Ronnie Scott's '61 It was originally on Fontana and I have a CD reissue on Fresh Sound.

So is this available on cd? I used to own it on Lp but have never seen a cd. Yes, I have a Japanese CD released on the Liberty label.

My definite preference is for "Walks". One reason is the presence of pianist Carl Perkins, who died young and is therefore on a very limited number of recordings. Carl Perkins playing almost always was something very special.

Other than "Blues And The Abstract Truth" (not sure I would call this a small group album?), my favorite Oliver Nelson small group album is: MEET OLIVER NELSON on Prestige/New Jazz with great playing by Oliver, Kenny Dorham & Ray Bryant. If you don't know this one I suggest you check it out.

I once had the Zoot Sims "Waiting Game" LP on Impulse. I thought it was the least interesting album by Zoot I ever heard. I disposed of it.

One of the last recordings Pete Jolly made was a duo piano recording on Fresh Sound with the excellent Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren. It is titled COLLABORATION, and has Chuck Berghofer and Joe Labarbera on bass and drums. It's a marvelous CD.

I don't share Larry Kart's view and am more in agreement with Stereojack. I do like Zoot's recordings from his early days through his final period. His early recordings swing beautifully, and are terrific. But it's his Pablo years where the maturity and musical depth comes though far more strongly in my opinion. However, the great thing is that we can have it all!!!!!!

Here are some other recordings where you can hear Tommy Turrentine. Paul Chambers - First Bassman - Vee Jay Booker Ervin - The Book Cooks - Bethlehem Jackie McLean - A Fickle Sonance - Blue Note Dexter Gordon - Landslide - Blue Note

Two that have not been mentioned that I like are the Maybeck solo performances by Barry Harris, and Roger Kellaway.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see Frank Wess live back in October 2006. He was playing in a quartet with Michael Weiss on piano. The music was excellent. Both Wess and Weiss played at the top of their game. The creativity and swing were simply outstanding. It was some of the best live jazz I have heard in a long long time.

Like many jazz musicians who had a reasonably lengthy career, Getz went through a number of different periods. The Getz of the quintet with Raney and Al Haig is different than the quintet with Brookmeyer and John Williams, which is different from the Verve recordings with Lou Levy, and then the Bossa Nova period, the time with Chick Corea, and then eventually on to the group with kenny Barron. I left out a number but you get the point. The sensibility of the quintet with Brookmeyer and John Williams as typified by the Shrine recording is a musical delight. I would not say it was better or worse than many (though not all) of the other Getz periods/groups. The great thing is that we have all of them to enjoy.

I recall one evening in Rochester ,New York spending a fair amount of time speaking with Bill Evans between sets at a local club. I asked Bill why he so rarely played the blues. Bill seemed a bit surprised and said to Eddie Gomez sitting nearby, Eddie, don't we play the blues often? Eddie wasn't sure what to say either, but the point seemed to be that neither Evans or Gomez seemed aware that they played the blues so infrequently.

I never cared for Bennie Maupin's playing. With all the fine bop/hard bop tenor players around" back in the day", Maupin sounded like a Minor Leaguer to me. His sound was unappealing, and he didn't swing hard - to my ears. Tenor players such as Hank Mobley, Junior Cook, Clifford Jordan, Joe Henderson, Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, J.R. Monterose, Frank Foster, Stanley Turrentine, Sonny Rollins, Booker Ervin, Jimmy Heath, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Sal Nistico, Yusef Lateef, Benny Golson and James Moody are just some of the most prominent examples of Major Leaguers who were a number of levels above Maupin.

I like the idea of everything they played on as sidemen as well as leader. Bird's recordings are limited, but I just wouldn't want to be without his great playing. Leaving out Lester Young is my major concern. I guess he would just have be No. 6 as an "illegal immigrant" to this island. Bird Paul Chambers Billy Higgins Tommy Flanagan Horace Silver

The negative comments about Mozart's piano music are strange in my opinion. It is easy to miss the depth in Mozart, but to my ears there is tremendous depth to be found there. Certainly, given the quantity of music he produced for a variety of purposes, some of his compositions are on the lighter side. However, I just listened to a fine recorded performance of Mozart's Piano Trio in E, K 542, and it is (in my view) a sparkling lovely piece that is full of musical substance.

Jazzhound, Stan Getz At The Shrine has been a favorite of mine for many decades. It's a definite winner in my book.

John, A wonderful choice. I recently pulled this CD off the shelf as I haven't heard it in quite some time. It has long been a favorite of mine. Will look forward to playing it soon. Peter

Another aspect of why I enjoyed Cannonball's Sextet with Yusef Lateef so much is the wonderful playing of Joe Zawinul. Damn but Joe was a great blues player. The strange thing for me though is how very few things I enjoy by him when he was not with Cannonball. The Riverside session with Ben Webster quickly comes to mind as a situation where I definitely dig Zawinul's playing. I am sure there must be a few more? When he turned electric my interest turned elsewhere. It was a great disappointment to me that Joe didn't record a few trio sessions with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes while with Cannonball. Had he done so I suspect they would have been fantastic.

All the Cannonball recordings with Yusef Lateef are terrific. For some reason Yusef added a special dimension to Cannonball's group that spiced up the music to a higher level. That's not to say that I didn't like Cannonball's earlier things. I did, but consider his sessions with Lateef a bit better. In my view Charles Lloyd joining the group was a comedown from the Lateef years. Lloyd played decently on some tunes, but lacked that deeprooted blues based feeling that Yusef brought to the proceedings. Cannonball's group lost interest for me when he entered his electric later period with people such as Michael Wolff on keyboards. His group ( to my ears) became an overly cliche ridden commercially oriented soul jazz entity. The creative juices unfortunately declined significantly.

Scott Hamilton - Christmas Love Song - Concord

Just checked my collection and found that I have the following CDs with Peter King. LEADER Speed Trap - Jazz House East 34th Street - Spotlite SIDEMAN Victor Feldman - In London, Vol.2 - Jasmine Al Haig - Bebop Live - Spotlite Philly Joe Jones - Mo' Joe - Black Lion Tony Kinsey Quintet - How To Succeed In Business... - Vocalion Tony Kinsey Big Band - Thames Suite - Spotlite Joe Temperley - Concerto For Joe - Hep Stan Tracey Octet - Portraits Plus - Blue Note Perfect Pitch - Tippin' The Scales - Spotlite

Monk, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery and Cannonball are obvious choices so I will pick SOME of my favorites by other musicians. RIVERSIDE Kenny Dorham Septet - Blue Spring Benny Golson Sextet - The Modern Touch Johnny Griffin Sextet Barry Harris Trio - At The Jazz Workshop Presenting Ernie Henry Elmo Hope Sextet And Trio - Homecoming Milt Jackson Sextet - Invitation Blue Mitchell - The Cup Bearers Clark Terry - Sernade To A Bus Seat Ben Webster and Joe Zawinul - Soulmates JAZZLAND Junior Cook - Junior's Cookin' Harold Land Sextet - West Coast Blues Lee Morgan - Take Twelve Charlie Rouse - Takin' Care Of Business Don Sleet - All Members Rene Thomas - Guitar Groove

Joe Pass - Six String Santa - LaserLight

Christmas With The George Shearing Quintet - Telarc