John L

I will just say this: I think that there is a huge difference between minstrelsy and most white people in urban areas today who carry themselves not in an entirely "white" way. The former is a stage show, where white people "blacken up" and pretend to be something that they are not. The latter is much more genuine, often white people who grew up exposed to, and sometimes surrounded by, African American culture and sensibilities. It becomes a part of them. That is not to say that there is no such thing as modern day minstrelsy. But it is not that simple

RIP

RIP

I am fairly sure that this is the only known recording of Bird playing White Christmas.

You may be right. My knowledge of the Butterfield Blues Band is limited. I have always thought that Butterfield was interested in fronting a pretty standard Chicago blues band, as reflected on the first album, and that it wasn't him that pushed in the direction of East-West. I guess I just base that on things that I have heard through the years, although I can't recall anything specific at this point. I certainly do agree with you that he was a great harmonica player.

When I think of Paul Butterfield, the word "originator" does not come to mind. The degree to which the Paul Butterfield Blues Band paved new ground, I don't think it was Butterfield who was really doing it - Bloomfield to somewhat a greater degree. I think of Paul Butterfield as a damn good Chicago bluesman and harmonica player who just happened to be white. Yes, he was much more authentic than Mayall. He embodied the Chicago blues in a serious way. But I don't see him as some kind of innovator.

The 70s are special to me since that was the time that I got interested in jazz. I remember that it was a strange feeling. Looking back at jazz history, the 20s-30s-40s-50s-60s felt like a strong progression headed somewhere. But where? Some argued that it was fusion. In reality, things were going in all sorts of different confusing directions: backwards, forwards, sideways, every which way. But in retrospect, damn was there a lot of great music being made!

Ron was a great and unique guy. I regret never having met him in the flesh, although we were in communication for more than 20 years. RIP

Very sad indeed. RIP

Some of his later records are quite worthwhile, including the one highlighted by Jim S above. When people used to request "Right Place, Wrong Time" at his shows since the 1980s, he would often reply "I don't play that shit no more." RIP. It feels like Mac took a piece of New Orleans with him when he left.

RIP. I really appreciated Chris. It is worth noting that the course of recorded jazz would have been a bit different without him. There would be no Ida Cox comeback album with Coleman Hawkins. There would not be those beautiful Lonnie Johnson albums with Elmer Snowden. "Bessie" is one of the truly great jazz books. Chris was a unique individual, always very generous and consistently intolerant of racism and injustice.

Jim S. - Well, I didn’t understand from the discussion that Branford was asserting his own importance in music. He was just expressing an opinion about Mile’s role, or lack thereof, in the 2nd quintet. I also disagree with his opinion, but don’t think that he needs to be chastised for it.

It was a perfect marriage. Yes, it was largely the accomplishments of Shorter, Williams, Hancock, & Carter. But I really don't think that they would have reached the heights that they did without Miles. It reminds me of how, in R&B, members of the Flames or the JBs would even sometimes think to themselves that they were doing it all. But without James Brown, it didn't happen. Conversely, James Brown could make it happen even without the best musicians.

Thanks, Д.Д. I had a program called CATRAXX for many years, but they discontinued it. I had tons of information there, can't access it any more.

Does Collectorz store information on musicians playing on the records in a searchable manner? For example, I want to see all the albums in my collection that Sam Jones plays bass on.

I just had a chance to hear this one. Very very nice! Kimbrough has a strong personal feel for Monk's music. The arrangements are imaginative, completely loyal to the compositional structures but also creative. I think that Monk himself would be pleased and honored with most of these interpretations.

RIP

I played that album to death back in the day.

Some of those 250-pound divas on the stage can ruin it for me. I often prefer a good recording and my own imagination. ))))))

I didn't even realize that there was a volume 3.

I love Kenny Dorham. If I could have only one KD album, it might be this one, but that probably has as much to do with Philly Joe as KD.

I don't remember that in the notes, but I am far away from my booklet right now. It is true that "Bird on 52nd Street" has some of the Onyx recordings on the Benedetti set. Are we sure that the Benedetti tape was the source, however? Someone else could have also recorded the concert(s). Alternatively Benedetti could have made a copy of it for somebody that got into the public domain. Until the tapes were discovered for the Mosaic set, my recollection is that it was not even clear that there were any Benedetti tapes that survived.

This video is interesting. I actually had an argument with Gioia on facebook on this subject about a year ago. I don't really find his argument very compelling. Yes, I also prefer owning music as a physical product, but that is only because I was brought up to enjoy hunting for and "acquiring" music in this way. If you think about it, the only really meaningful way that we can define "ownership" of music for listening purposes is the ability to access it any time a person wants. Tapes, records, CDs, 8tracks, MP3s, cassettes are just a medium for providing this access. They are not the music itself. Streaming is also a convenient medium. In fact, the advent of digital music has expanded opportunities for ownership. We no longer have to be home sitting in front of a record player with a record collection for this access. Spotify provides more immediate ownership of more music than record collectors could acquire in several lifetimes. Yes, we can deeply regret that technical progress at this stage has caused musicians and the music industry to lose a lot of money. But what is the solution? Technical progress is technical progress. We can't really stop it. The search for new ways to defend copyright on music goes on, but the solutions will have to be consistent with continuing to move forward with technology. The argument about preserving music also strikes me as odd. On the contrary, we are at the age where almost everything is preserved. There is a lot of space in the clouds.

RIP to one of the last true Chicago blues giants. Muddy

I'm also a fan of Van Morrison. My personal favorite Van Morrison song is Tupelo Honey. I've internalized that one, play it myself.