John L

Very nice! I really liked listening to Armstrong reminiscing at length about his time with Oliver and the recordings.

I recall reading an interview with an old Jamaican musician who argued that the evolution of the ska beat from calypso came initially from Jamaican musicians trying to swing US style but not getting it right.

RIP - He was a truly fine artist.

It would be an interesting research project for someone like Lewis Porter to document as much as possible the emergence of a Philadelphia school of tenor saxophone. Unfortunately, most of the people who could have contributed new key information for this have already left us.

When we hear a tenor player sounding like Coltrane, we usually assume that it is because of the influence of Coltrane. But I wonder if, in the case of Jimmy Heath, some of the influence also went in the other direction.

The Jimmy Heath solo here at 1:42, particularly the entry, has always sounded very Coltranesque to me. But this was recorded in April, 1953. Was Coltrane himself that Coltranesque back then? Were they working this out together in Philadelphia? Thoughts?

Yes, the Savory set is a no brainer if you like swing era jazz at all.

I think that an early recordings of Mary Lou Williams set that includes everything with Andy Kirk would work in that regard. It could also include her 1940s recordings on Asch that are not widely known.

This will probably give more information about the age distribution of people here at the forum than about people who buy Mosaic boxes.

Sounds great. Congrats!

What I had in mind was something a bit different. The database would have a better, clearer and more elaborate format than discogs. One of the reasons for having a jazz database is the ability to search by musicians, arrangers, and composers as well as a headline artist or group. It can potentially call up sessions as well as albums, and also search (call up) artists and musicians in that medium. I now have a database like that, but I had to invest more time than I would have liked into entering artists, arrangers, sessions, session dates, etc. (Discogs does not offer these functions. It does not even have a listing of musicians, recording dates, or session information for every album). What I was suggesting is that it would be beautiful if you could buy such a database that is not just an empty shell but already populated for a large number of albums. That would allow us to mold it into representing our collections with a minimal amount of effort. Yes, I would think that it could certainly be done.

Yes. The easiest database to use would be one where there is already a preloaded comprehensive set of entries of albums with detailed discographical information. Then there could be a way to quickly create a subset of albums that are held one's collection from that base, including the option of adding manually sessions or concerts that might have been left out. That would save hours and hours of work that we probably duplicate with each other over and over again.

The English trad jazz scene was a bit different than on the continent due partly to the fact that the UK had tougher restrictions on allowing foreign musicians to come and work there. A central figure in the French trad jazz scene was Claude Luter, who continued the tradition into the 21st century. The scene received a big boost when Sidney Bechet moved to Paris.

Wow. That is.great site. Thanks

They are also on the earlier McMaster version. That trio session has always been one of my favorites, and as much for Philly Joe Jones as for Sonny Clark.

I mean that versions of these concerts have been circulating. I don't mean that Elemental bootlegged them. Sorry if the wording was ambiguous.

Looks good. From the track listing, it looks like LP 3 comes from Copenhagen 10/24/66 (Side 1) and Arhus 11/21/69 (Side 2). Those concerts have been bootlegged.

Very interesting! I look forward to seeing a discography.

I wish I had known you were going. We could have met there.

I would highly suggest getting the Monk in Philadelphia compilation. There are quite a number of great rare and unusual tracks on that one from various periods in Monk's career. I don't see Stockholm 1961 on your list. Maybe you already have it. That is a favorite of mine, released in good sound by Dragon. I really like the Palais Des Beaux-Arts & Copenhagen (M.O.N.K.) recordings from the 1963 Europe tour. They are in great (professional) sound and Monk is in very good form (IMO). If you only get one of them, I would recommend Palais Des Beaux-Arts. I am less thrilled by the Paris concert on this tour. The Village Gate 1963 is in somewhat muffled sound. But I have always really liked what Monk plays on this date. Paris Olympia 1965 is also not to be missed. But beware of the so-called "volume 4" which is actually tracks from some of the Riverside Europe 1961 records. I really like a lot of music that Monk played on the 1966 Europe tour. His approach to many of the songs was notably different to the previous tours. I have a difficult time recalling which of the many concerts from that tour are the best. But I would suggest getting a representative sample. John

RIP to one of the great original artists of his time. 😔

Not awful, but damn am I sick of Hotel California. Having lived and worked all over the globe, I can say that there doesn't seem to be a single place left that hasn't been infected with that song. When I would go to see my favorite highlife and Afro-beat bands in Nigeria, they would be sure and dedicate one song to me (their "white brother from another mother"), and it would always be frickin' Hotel California. When I was living in Alma-Aty, Kazakhstan, we created the only blues band in the country and had a regular gig every Saturday. One night, a heavily drunk teenager came up to us and requested Hotel California. We told him that we don't play that song. After we finished that night, the manager told us that we were fired. The drunk kid was the son of an Akim (regional political leader) and demanded that we never appear again. I could really enjoy the rest of my life without ever coming into contact with that song again.

Wow - a living legend songwriter of the 20th century. RIP Mr. Bacharach

Nice. I hope that this won't be one of those LP only deals.

That also puzzled me at first. But if you look at the fine print in the discography, you will see the explanation. It is apparently J.C. Heard's solo on The Challenges. So the discography lists only the challenges. I guess that they don't have a version that wasn't spliced by Norman Granz. The other drum solo tracks are similar.