John L

,This is a very good release. it has better sound quality than any previous releases of this music, and contains a dozen or so tracks that have never been released before in any form, and are not included in existing discographies. I highly recommend this set. I agree that it is unfortunate that they left off the Besman alternate sides previously released on Greene Bottle and United (Capitol),. All of these sides did appear on CD in the 12-CD French release of all the (then known) Detroit John Lee Hooker sides on Body and Soul records. The Body & Soul set also includes recordings from the time that were released on other labels like King, Gotham, Chance, and Savoy. This new set plus the Body & Soul discs plus "The Unknown John Lee Hooker" on Flyright will give you all the known early John Lee Hooker except maybe a few tracks (see below). For the tracks released on Specialty listed above that don't appear on Ace, Greene Bottle, or United (Capitol), I don't believe that Ace deliberately excluded Specialty-released tracks from the new set. Most of the tracks listed above that are only on the P-Vine release date from 1954, and were not even recorded by Besman. The new set only goes up to May, 1952. That said, the omission of Reach My Goal from the new set would seem to be a mistake. It was recorded in 1951 and has been included on a previous Ace CD. All of these tracks issued on P-Vine would appear to be on the Body & Soul set except for (curiously) the second take of I Been Done So Wrong.

I wonder if this was the last time Monk came to California? Living there as a jazz fan in the early-mid 70s, I held out the hope that he would visit sometime. It never happened.

I have always really loved Mal's work on those recordings, out of tune piano and all.

I imagine that there must be other people here in the same boat as me, with large digital music collections that they managed through iTunes, external hard drives, and iPods. I own five iPod classics that I paid over 1000 dollars for, and use to listen to music. I upgraded my Mac to Catalina last week. iTunes is automatically replaced with the new Apple Music App. The Apple Music App is no longer compatible with iPod classics or even iPod Touch other than the very last generation. Game ended. I can no longer use my music system. I called Apple and they just said, yea, sorry, you have obsolete technology that is no longer a part of the Apple system. :(((((

I agree that it would be very unlikely for army generals to support Trump staying in office after losing the election. But I don't think that would stop Trump from crying election fraud and doing everything in his power to nullify the election results. That could even include calling his "2nd amendment people" to go to the streets. It won't be pretty, but I PRAY that he does lose. Because America is finished if he doesn't.

Yea, I love his sax playing, but am a bit...indifferent...to his singing.

Very interesting record. I agree that it is not Charlie Parker. The rhythmic feel is different. But it's good.

When they played together, I can recall Billy usually looking straight at Cedar with that trademark huge smile on his face.

RIP

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.