Peter Friedman

I like the two CDs at Yoshi's. I have most if not all of Mulgrew's CDs but to honest, I usually prefer his playing as a sideman. For some reason he seems to generally play in a more relaxed and swinging manner when he is a sideman. I saw Mulgrew live about two years ago, and he was outstanding. None of his own CDs compared to the way he played when I saw him live. I do have one somewhat rare CD by Mulgrew that is very enjoyable. It was issued by the Bang and Olufsen stereo company as a demo for their products. As you might expect the sound quality on that CD is very very good. It's a duo session with Niels-Henning Orsted -Pedersen on bass. This CD is a dedication to Duke Ellington.

I have the JOHN HICKS - IN CONCERT compact disc on Theresa. It's a good one, but my favorite John Hicks CDs are: Beyond Expectations - Reservoir Is That So - Timeless

I am sure this will rile some people up, but Eddie Gomez is a strong example of the kind of bass player I don't (as a rule) like very much. He is very technically proficient, but plays long solos primarily in the upper register. His playing fits the phrase I recall hearing of " a butterfly in a cigar box". many bass players strike me as wishing they were playing a guitar, rather than a bass. To my ears, the bass should be primarily a lower register instrument. I want to hear big rich round swinging notes with a sense of the wood. My taste runs toward Ray Drummond, Rufus Reid, and George Mraz to mention just a few. This is of course just my personal opinion.

Impossible to limit my list to ten. Here are some of my favorite recordings from the '70's. Count Basie - Kansas City Five Zoot Sims - Warm Tenor Sonny Criss - Saturday Morning Tommy Flanagan Trio - Eclypso Art Farmer - To Duke With Love Paul Desmond Quartet - Live Charles McPherson - Beautiful Johnny Griffin - Bush Dance Jimmy Rushing - The You And Me That Used To Be Dolo Coker - California Hard (w. Art Pepper & Blue Mitchell) Modern Jazz Quartet - Last Concert Barry Harris Trio - Plays Barry Harris Warne Marsh - All Music Sarah Vaughan - How Long Has This Been Going On Dexter Gordon - The Panther Sonny Stitt - Constellation Al Cohn _ No Problem Benny Carter - The King Bill Evans - The Paris Concert, Edition One

Stanley Cowell is a truly marvelous piano player. The strange thing is that while I love many of his recordings, there are others that leave me cold. At times Cowell's playing takes on a clinical/sterile quality to my ears. I have 3 of his Steeplechase CDs that I like very much. There were a couple of other on that label that I didn't care for and sold. The ones I like are: Stanley Cowell Trio - Sienna Stanley Cowell Trio - Departure #2 Stanley Cowell (solo) - Angel Eyes The 2 Stanley Cowell Trio sessions on D.I.W. are excellent, in my view. Close To You We Three The two CDs on Concord are well worth having. Live At Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 5 Back To The Beautiful Cowell's most recent recording is a terrific trio date on the Japanese venus label. Dancers In Love

The Charlie Parker on Dial is my favorite . Another one I like not yet mentioned is the version by Stan Getz on the Verve recording titled West Coast Jazz.

Have you heard the new Barry Harris disc in this series? I haven't, but am considering it as well as "Hank and Frank." T.D. Yes, I also own and have heard the new Barry Harris CD on Lineage. It's a good one and labeled Vol. 1, so I hope there is a second volume in the future.

These two CDs were issued fairly recently and are both first rate. P.J. Perry - Time Flies - Justin Time Perry is a major saxophone player who is Canadian. He has been around for many years, but is not at all wellknown. I saw him live once in Toronto playing in a quintet with Jimmy Knepper. The music that evening was definitely memorable. Hank Jones & Frank Wess - Hank and Frank - Lineage A really delightful CD by two living jazz masters with a top level rhythm section. I heartily recommend both of these CDs.

My version is on a JVC XRCD. It has terrific sound. I would surprised if any of the other versions surpass the audio quality on this one.

I share the view that the soprano sax was a fine jazz instrument prior to the bebop period. I like Bechet, Bob Wilbur, Jim Galloway, and some others. Many of the modern soprano sax players get that piercing sound that at times reminds me of bagpies. I do like Lucky Thompson and Zoot Sims on soprano and often enjoy Gary Bartz. However I much prefer lucky and Zoot on tenor and Bartz on alto. Many soprano sax players are doubling on that horn and are really tenor or alto players. In every case I prefer them on their original horn -tenor or alto.

The late Charles Thomas was a legendary bop piano player from Memphis. He was a big influence on James Williams, Donald Brown and Mulgrew Miller. Thomas has three marvelous trio CDs on the French label - Space Time. The Legend Of Charles Thomas (Ray Drummond & Alan Dawson) Charles Thomas Trio - Live In Europe (Essiet Essiet & Ben Riley) Charles Thomas - The Finishing Touch (Ron Carter & Billy Higgins) *************************************************************************************** Dave Glasser is a fine "young" alto player who has been playing with Clark Terry quite frequently. Glasser has two very good CDs out that I greatly enjoy. Dave Glasser - Dreams Anew - Art Inis label (with Kurt Weiss, Barry Harris, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash) Dave Glasser - Begin Again - Chiaroscuro (Tardo Hammer, Lee Hudson, Tony Jefferson)

England had/has some good baritone sax players. The late Ronnie Ross has already been mentioned, but the late Harry Klein was not. Alan Barnes is a very fine baritone sax player, and he also plays most of the other reed instruments too. Both Bud Shank and Jimmy Giuffre were good baritone players, but Giuffre no longer plays at all, and Shank stays totally with the alto sax. My all time favorite baritone sax player is Pepper Adams. I have seen him play some blistering solos with Thad and Mels Band, and also in a variety of small group settings. Gary Smulyan and Scott Robinson are the baritone players I most enjoy who are currently on the scene.

Here are some of my favorites: Hank Mobley - Workout Jackie McLean - Bluesnik Horace Silver - Blowin' The Blues Away Sonny Rollins - Newk's Time

KH1958 it is under Steve Grossman's name as follows. Steve Grossman - In New York - Dreyfus 191 087-2 with McCoy Tyner, Avery Sharpe, Art Taylor

It is my sense that Steve Grossman's playing changed quite a bit after his time with Miles. In his earlier playing he struck me as a serious Coltrane oriented player. I really didn't care much for what I heard from him with Miles or with Elvin either. He seemed to lack a voice of his own. His 7 CDs on Dreyfus with Barry Harris, Cedar Walton,Willy Pickins, McCoy Tyner, Michel Petrucciani, the trio date, and the one with Johnny Griffin and Michael Weiss are another matter altogether. He plays tenor on almost everything and has a bigger sound with a strong Sonny Rollins influence. Based on his playing on these Dreyfus recordings plus some other things I have heard from him post-Miles, I have become a big fan of Grossman's tenor playing.

Nobody mentioned the 3 Charlap trio Criss Cross CDs. I like them better than the Blue Note's and they are as good if not better than the ones on Venus. My favorite Charlap Trio CD is: All Through The Night - Criss Cross 1153

I have # 3 and # 9. They are both enjoyable though not outstanding. There are many many non-Jam Session Steeplechase CDs that I consider clearly superior to these two.

I grew up in Detroit at a time when Yusef was a regular fixture on the local jazz scene. I had the good fortune to see him live countless times. In my view he is a marvelous tenor player that has been never given the respect he deserves as one of the best on that instrument. I very much like all his recordings on Savoy, Prestige, New Jazz, Riverside, Verve, Charlie Parker (now on Collectables), and Impulse. When he moved away from straight ahead jazz into the more new age style I lost interest in his playing.

Long ago (many many decades) when I first developed an interest in jazz I was a big fan of scat singing. Over time that interest strongly faded. There are very few examples of scat singing that I now enjoy hearing. Vocalese is a very different thing. I do very much like a large percentage of Eddie Jefferson's recordings. Yes, there is a novelty aspect to it, but there is nothing wrong with that. Singers such as Louis Jordan and many others performed novelty songs regularly and they were and still are a lot of fun. Does everything have to be deadly serious? Why not have some fun with the music every now and then. Among the many Eddie Jefferson vocalese songs I like are Dexter Digs In, When You're Smiling, Ornithology, Body And Soul, Parker's Mood, So What, and The Birdland Story. It can be fun to play the original instrumental version of the tune (for example, Bean's- Body And Soul), and then to play Eddie Jefferson's vocalese version.

I will be looking forward to the Steve Kuhn Trio CD. Steve has made a number of very fine trio CDs on the Japanese Venus label. There are also some very good trio CDs by Kuhn on Reservoir and Concord.

Back in the mid-50's the Prestige LP titled "Dig" was the first, followed soon after by "Blue Haze". and then "Walkin".

Here are just a few that I would love to see on CD: Charles McPherson - Free Bop - Xanadu (with Lou Levy, Peter Sprague, Monty Budwig) Dolo Coker - Dolo! - Xanadu (with Blue Mitchell, Harold Land, Leroy Vinnegar, Frank Butler) Art Farmer - Live In Tokyo - CTI (Japanese) with Jackie Mclean, Cedar Walton,Sam Jones, Billy Higgins Teddy Edwards - Feelin's - Muse (with Conte Candoli, Dolo Coker, Ray Brown, Frank Butler) Jimmy Knepper In L.A. - Disco Mate (Japanese) with Lew tabackin, Roger kellaway, Monty Budwig, Shelly Manne John Lewis - Lew Tabackin Duo - East World (Japanese) Johnny Griffin - NYC Underground - Galaxy (with Ronnie Mathews, Ray Drummond, Idris Muhammad)

Just was looking through my extensive collection of Coleman Hawkins CDs and noticed four different CDs titled - Bean And The Boys. They each have totally different music and different sidemen. They are on the following labels. Fresh Sound 1013 High Note 7075 Le Jazz 12 Prestige 24124-2

Sam Jones plays cello and is the leader on these two Riverside CDs/LPs Down Home The Soul Society

I bought my first CD player in 1984. There were very few jazz CDs available at the time. Almost all were imports from Japan or Europe. The first 2 jazz CDs I recall buying were: Don Menza & His '80's Big Band - RealTime Oscar Peterson Trio - Tristeza On Piano - MPS I still have both of them.