John L

The landscape is changing rapidly. Other than Mosaic, Nessa, and a few others, labels like Lonehill are becoming the only game in town for CD reissues of relatively obscure jazz recordings. The choice is usually either to by a pirate reissue or download. What is a jazz lover to do?

It is also on a boot of a concert from Rotterdam (October, 1967). It is true that Monk did not play Ruby, My Dear very often in concert.

Jazz is still getting id-ed? It must sound younger than it really is.

That's because it is being taken over by lame local blues societies and foundations that have very limited ideas as to what "real" blues is. It's the same problem with jazz. You box it in, away from sunlight and air, and it dies. The lameness of local blues societies may be more of a symptom rather than the disease. If you go to the heart of the blues where there is still air and sunlight left - the Mississippi Delta - and ask the local blues musicians, THEY will tell you that it is dying.

I like that one! Jazz isn't dead. it's just in labor. I guess that Nick Payton doesn't spend too much time in "blues' circles. As a blues lover, I can sympathize with his position. But it seems to me that jazz and blues are headed in very similar directions. In fact, it may be the blues that are dying, not jazz. Jazz is sick with the weakening of the blues, but may ultimately recover without the "burden of preservation" of the blues. For now, jazz is in labor.

Actually, the 1940 Bird solo on Lady Be Good examined by Iverson is from the one and only Lady Be Good track on both the "Early Bird" LP and CD (Nov. 30, 1940 from the Trocadero Ballroom, Witchita) Iverson calls it a "small group." I guess than the Witchita Octet might barely qualify as "small." If there is any other Bird performance of Lady Be Good with McShann, it must have been discovered VERY recently.

Yes, yes, and yes! Thank you very much for your inputs. The mystery is solved. I was looking only for tracks with Benny Goodman, and therefore did not think to listen through all the live versions of Lady Be Good from the Basie band. This Pres solo indeed comes from a live recording of the Basie band without Benny Goodman, and was included on the Count Basie Masters of Jazz series. Jeff is absolutely correct about Ti-Pi-Tin being a studio recording. I don't know why I had in my mind that it was a live broadcast. I assume that Pres does not solo on any of the other tracks from this session, as they would have otherwise also been included in the Lester Young Masters of Jazz series. Thanks again for the inputs.

I am virtually positive that there were no studio recordings of Lester Young sitting in with the Goodman big band. Looking through my collection, I believe that this is all that I have with Benny Goodman and Lester Young together: Benny Goodman big band (1937: live) Tin-Pin-Tin Bennie Goodman Carnegie Hall Jam (1938): Honeysuckle Rose Spirituals to Swing Carnegie Hall Jam (1938) Oh, Lady Be Good Benny Goodman small group: I Know that You Know (1938) Small group with Charlie Christian (studio: 1940): Ad Lib Blues, Charlie's Dream, I Never Knew, Lester's Dream, Wholly Cats With Billie Holiday: He Ain't Got Rhythm, I Must Have That Man, This Year's Kisses, Why Was I Born? Not very much, indeed. That additional Lady Be Good that Iverson posted can be added to this list. Is there anything else?

I am too! I don't seem to have this version in my collection either, and I thought that my early Pres collection was virtually complete. Does anybody know anything about this track? It is not included on either the Lester Young or Count Basie Masters of Jazz series. I imagine that it was probably in the Benny Goodman Masters of Jazz series, and was therefore left off of the other two.

Great stuff! Thanks for the link. I wonder what Iverson had in mind with his initial comments about Pres sounding great with "New Orleans-style musicians." I have no doubt that he would have sounded great in a New Orleans-style context. But are there any such recordings? Or maybe he just had in mind "Swing-era musicians." The sadly out-of-print Count Basie and Lester Young Masters of Jazz series presented a complete collection of these recordings from 1937-mid-1939, and a few later ones. Now you can find quite a few of them as downloads on iTunes and the like under Count Basie's name. Quite a lot of live recordings of early Basie exist, especially from the Chatterbox. That is a somewhat hidden and underappreciated source of great and classic jazz, including fabulous Pres.

This is the CD that I have. It was released quite a while ago, I believe

I just missed the Last Waltz. Arrived in town a few weeks later on my first ocerseas experience and soon hooked up with the nice folks from Bay Area Music magaizine, who set me up with great Grateful Dead tickets and gots me into see Stoneground at Keystone Berkley and so on. I was below the then drinking age, so I had to manually deface/doctor my NZ driving licence! The BAM folks told me they coulda got me into the Band show, no probs. But as far as Muddy Waters goes, I did much better. His 1973 NZ/Aussie tour is still talked about as a life-changing experience by many - me included. Sammy Lawhorn, Pee Wee Madison, Mojo Buford, Pinetop Perkins and Muddy in great form, vocally and stinging guitar. I had to take time off school to get there - amazingly, my parents allowed it, seeing as I had already booked my ticket and bus fares and so on. Fait accompli and all that ... At that point I had two blues albums - one apiece by Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker - so hadn't actually heard any Muddy Waters music! But that didn't stop me dancing like a teenage fool and going backstage to kneel in awe at the feet of the Great Man and ask him stupid questions.. I envy you that experience. I did see Muddy Waters two times after that, once with the band with Johnny Winters. But I never got that close up to him again. As for Dead connections, I actually got my ticket to the Last Waltz from David Gans, who, as you probably know, was very close to the Dead and Bill Graham at the time.

His recordings made little impact on me, but then I heard him live with his son Matt, and that was a really fine experience. RIP

Well, given that CD reissues have been released over and over again for more than 20 years already, with changing technology, the idea of "new" and "old" reissues makes sense. No?

Yes, the only advance announcement was that there would be guest "friends" of the Band. Who they would be was a matter of speculation. Toward the end of the concert, Bill Graham introduced "one last friend" and Dylan finally hit the stage. At that time, we were already beginning to doubt if he would show. That was the closest I physically ever got to another one of my idols - Muddy Waters.

could you see the snowball hanging from Neil Young's nose? Mercifully, I don't remember.

:tup It's about time!

I was there, right up in front near the stage. It was a blast. I was there, right up in front near the stage. It was a blast.

Yes. Since this is the US Government (Library of Congress), why can't they just release a disc themselves, perhaps through the Smithsonian? That would be a beautiful way to celebrate Pres' 100th birthday.

That is definitely true, both for Trane and Miles. They had both gone as far as they could with Red. I think that's definitely true, no doubt about that--but the original story seems to be referring to the 1955-57 period--a period in which Coltrane himself was fired twice by Miles, iirc. I've posted the claim to the Coltrane listserv, and so far it's been met with great skepticism from David Wild and a couple of others, but no substantiation for or against. And I think there's a difference between moving on, as Trane did after 1958, and actively disliking somebody's playing so much that you'd try to get them fired--especially while you yourself are struggling so mightily with your own demons that you're unable to hold down your own position in the band. And then turning around and recording so prolifically with said player! By the time Trane formed his first band in 59-60, many would suggest that he had already moved "beyond" Red Garland and the like. Yet, it is interesting that he tried (unsuccessfully) to hire Lee Morgan for that band, and DID hire Wes Montgomery in 61.

...of Lester Young.

I remember that there was a Discount Records store on the first block of Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in the 60s. A young Tracy Nelson supported her music career by working as a salesperson there.

I felt somewhat the same way when all I had listened to was essentially early Bill Evans. After "Everybody Digs," the first disc that really got me was "You Have to Believe in Spring." I have come around to enjoying most of the other early recordings as well, but the post 1974 material still has the biggest emotional impact on me, and by far. (I guess that means that I like Bill better on Cocaine than Smack. )

Damn! Sad and unexpected. I saw him last year, and he was as alive as anybody I've ever seen or heard. RIP

Thanks, Shawn. That made my day as well: pure jazz at its finest. If I am not mistaken, Philology released a whole CD of live recordings from this band. That clip makes me want to track it down.