Hot Ptah

Track 2 is from "House Warmin'". This is the title track. I like that story about McCoy Tyner. I wonder how much sharing of jazz goes on between college students these days.

I saw him many times in the 1970s and 1980s. What struck me was how varied his live performances could be, although all were excellent. I recall a concert at the Civic Center in Madison, Wisconsin, in early 1982 when he was just ferocious, just as intense and on fire as any live performer I have ever seen. He was grimacing with fury, whipping his head around, as he played guitar as intensely as possible. Other times he was a bit more laid back but still very compelling. I heard a lot of great guitar playing live from him, and wonderful singing. Then there was the time at the Roxy in Los Angeles, when he did a soul music show, very different from every other concert of his which I attended. I am very glad that his 1950s and 1960s albums were reissued on CD and that I decided to spring for all of them. There are great riches in those earlier recordings.

Thank you! I really appreciate this information.

I saw the ICP Orchestra in Des Moines, Iowa on May 11. They were consistently superb. I think that they may be one of the best overall "real groups" out there today. By that I mean stable personnel touring and playing together regularly.

I have liked what I have heard of blues artists Lucky Peterson, both live and on his recordings. I think he is a very versatile musician. He plays piano and organ well. He recorded a credible version of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" on organ, for example. But his electric guitar soloing is where I think he is truly phenomenal, an excellent soloist by any standard. I have some of his albums. He seems to want to stay away from his blues electric guitar soloing, and present himself as a well rounded musician, with soulful vocals and tunes, some acoustic guitar stylings, and a lot of keyboards. I can respect all of that. But, does he have any albums where he records a lot of electric guitar solos? Does anyone know that? I would like to avoid buying twenty or more of his albums to find the few where he does a lot of electric guitar soloing. The online reviews of his albums do not seem to mention this fact one way or the other. Thanks.

Am I correct, that Paul McCartney and/or Morris Levy's estate own most of the copyrights for all songs written in the past 70 years? I thought I read that Paul bought a huge number of them from Michael Jackson at some point, and that Morris Levy basically stole them in huge quantities over the years. Jim Sangrey makes some good points. I have always had a burning desire to hear more music than I could afford. So I have bought a great many new LPs and CDs as soon as they were released. I also bought a great many used LPs and CDs, taped many albums owned by my friends, and bought whatever I could find, in any format, regardless of the legitimacy of the release. I never had much information about the legitimacy of any release, and did not care enough to want to investigate it. If I came across bootlegs at stores, I bought them. I have never considered the moral issues involved. I just wanted to hear the music. This makes me bad, I am sure. But I don't care.

No.

Thank you for posting these interviews!

Are you all joking or do you not know that he was the drummer in the Jimi Hendrix Experience?

That is very interesting to me. I am an attorney and most experienced attorneys I know are not very judgmental about right and wrong, legal and illegal. They have seen so many shades of gray in their careers that they are far more flexible. This is off the topic, I know.

Where are these remaining record stores with a sizable jazz department? Seriously, I would like to know. I have recently visited some of the big name stores of the past and noticed that they do not have a very large selection any more.

...and you still don't need the Weathermen to know which way the wind blows! This is going to seem ridiculous. But the first time I encountered this song (sort of), I was 10 or 11, watching Murphy Brown, and two of the characters were reflecting on their idealistic youth during the 60s and kept reciting lyrics from this song. It wasn't until a few years later that I heard the actual song. - Steven Snell I remember that scene really well. Murphy and the male reporter who was her friend, I can't think of his name, say the lyrics back and forth to each other. I think it might have been the first time they met.

My comments are in green. Thanks for a most enjoyable BFT, Dan!

My thoughts are in green. This was the single most entertaining comment ever posted on any of my BFTs. Thanks Jim, haven't laughed that hard in a long time! Track 003 ROBERT TURNER, 'IMROV FOR MULGREW' Blues for Gene (CDBaby) Turner, piano, composer Robert appears elsewhere on the BFT and I'll have more to say there but let me just note that this performance can be seen on youtube https://youtu.be/ZnpseQp6-5M As the scroll at the start describes, this tune was spontaneously created in the studio after hearing that Mulgrew Miller's condition was terminal. Wow, I have never even heard of Robert Turner, but I am very favorably impressed by his playing! Track 004 ARNETT COBB, “JUMPIN AT THE WOODSIDE” Funky Butt (Progressive) Cobb, tenor, composer Derek Smith, piano Ray Drummond, bass Ronnie Bedford, drums I don't have this Arnett Cobb album. It's time to rectify THAT! Track 005 Harold Ashby, “Pleadin'” Presenting Harold Ashby (Progressive) Ashby, tenor sax, composer Don Friedman, piano Ronnie Bedford, drums George Mraz, bass The Ashby LP and two Arnett Cobb Progressive LPs have been reissued and are available here, with extra tracks: Ashby: http://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=PCD-7040 Cobb:http://www.jazzology.com/search.php?search=cobb&submit.x=0&submit.y=0 Thanks for those links. I have quite a few Harold Ashby albums, but not this one. I need to get this one! The following two tracks were chosen mostly as a way to lead in to tracks 8 & 9, but I'm glad they were so well received. Track 006 Plas Johnson, Dungaree Hop Bop Me Daddy (Tampa) Johnson, tenor sax Ray Johnson, piano Duke Harris, bass Sharky Hall, drums This is a really fun track. I love it! Track 007 Phil Upchurch, “You Can't Sit Down (Part 1)” Upchurch, guitar, composer David “Bubba” Brooks, tenor sax This is also a very fun track, and so different from my mental image of Upchurch. I am really glad that I heard this! Track 008 Redd Foxx, “Real Pretty Mama” (Dootone) Stompin', Volume 34 I love this! I don't care if it's Redd, I just love it. Knowing that it is Redd makes it more intriguing. Track 009 Little George Benson, “It Shoulda Been Me” (RCE Groove) Benson, vocals Stompin' Volume 25 I had never heard any of these Little Benson recordings--really interesting. We didn't need Jeff to get the obscurities, we had Page for that. Actually a few other people got them before Page. Anyway wasn't it fascinating to hear the funnyman sing, and a ten year old future star? According to the liners the record producers wanted a teeny-bopper hit and commissioned new lyrics with kid topics instead of having a ten year sing Brother Ray's original lyrics. If you don't know them, those Stompin volumes, of which there were 34 out as CDs, are pretty cool if you can find them, if you think as I do that there is quality music to be found among the obscure non-charting hits. I will be checking this series out! Thanks for presenting it to us! Track 010 THE DIAMOND 5, “Sister Sadie” Montmartre Blues, Unreleased Hardbop Tracks 1960-63 (Sonorama Records) Cees Slinger, piano Cees Smal, trumpet Harry Verbeke, tenor sax Jacques Schols, bass John Engels, drums I really wanted to track this as the start of disc 2 but space forced it here where it ended up as a real orphan, separated from the rest of the hardbop tracks that followed. If you listened to Disc 2 right away it was OK but I imagine most took a break with the end of disc 1 and that really ruined the flow. Taking a break after the kiddie R&B and resuming with a set of hardbop would have been much better. Oh well. Anyway - an interesting track from a group from the Dutch jazz scene. I was interested to see if there would be comments about not quite 'getting' the vernacular but a lot of people thought it was Horace so I guess they did pretty good. I think it was fine at the end of Disc 1. It really fooled me. You sent me some live Horace Silver from the late 1950s and 1960 some time ago, so I was thinking it was from yet another Horace Silver live set.

My replies are in red. Absolutely correct. I had this on vinyl in 1979, the Inner City release titled "Ode to Duke Ellington". I have always liked this album a great deal.

BFT 134 is one disc long, 13 songs. Some of the songs may be too easy to guess, but I hope that those songs generate some discussion about the artists in any event. Let the discussion begin!

Oh, yes. I am looking forward to your comments.

BFT 134 Download Please click on that link to receive a download which Thom Keith prepared for me. Thanks, Thom!

This Blue Mitchell era is actually the John Mayall period which I like least. To me, Mayall himself is all right as a complement to strong players. Mayall is an O.K. vocalist, harmonica player and keyboard player. Also, I think Mayall does much better when he sticks to 1950s style Chicago blues, To me, his jazzier explorations are not nearly as interesting or successful. Personally I like his early small group blues albums with the British blues guitarists: Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, A Hard Road (with Peter Green)--the 2 CD Deluxe edition is far better than the single disc in my opinion, and Crusade, with Mick Taylor. He got those guitarists when they were young and hungry and playing their hearts out to try to make it. I find those albums to be quite successful. I also like his 1980s and 1990s albums with different guitarists featured, such as Walter Trout and Coco Montoya. He had a real resurgence in that period. I saw him live with Coco Montoya and it was an exciting blues concert. As for Blue Mitchell, I recall an interview with him in which he said something to the effect that when he first got off a plane with the Mayall band, he wondered who all the people were, who were standing there waiting to greet the plane.

page, It is fine to play this game through research. Often I try to research the music, armed with a few clues, but I do not find the answer.