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This comes from Fats Waller discographer Stephen Taylor:

From today's Independent:

George Cables Healing Fund Just received this email from the official Dexter Gordon website: This is from George Cables' website [News section]: And on the upper right side of his website, there's a "Healing Fund" link that leads you to this message:

Duke Ellington - Duke's Mixture/At The Ball Masque (Collectables), for EUR 6,00 at amazon.fr marketplace.

Sad news indeed! Here's a nice picture by Spanish photographer Esther Cidoncha (her website + her blog), taken in 1992:

Then to top things off, this earth-shaking band... Brötz on tenor (beginning & encore), alto (most of the time in between) and clarinet (for just one "track"), he was in his loudest mode, what with this earth-shattering band (they even managed to kill a beer glass standing next to me and my friend... the vibrations made it fall off a table and break in hundred pieces...). Wertmüller was astonishing... definitely not from any jazz drumming tradition, rather influenced I assume by hard rock or heavy metal. And Pliakas is playing very fast stuff that you can't actually hear, just feel, paired with Wertmüller's speedy bass drum. Pretty extreme! And on top of that add Brötz in his screaming mode... on alto, he really did hurt the ears... I'm not sure what this was, nor if it was anything much... but it was definitely an experience! Somehow it all felt very static to me, the only big difference being in some rather beautiful alto sax solo passages, or some slow build-ups by Wertmüller with Pliakas laying out. Other than that, nuance and development is not part of this music... Caught this Full Blast Trio ten days ago, at the CMU San Juan Evangelista. IMHO it was disgustingly noisy, boring & uncouth, to say the least. Wertmüller sounded like a German metal drummer, absolutely repetitive and without any idea or sublety (maybe this is his role in this trio). As for Brötmann, without being any expert at all, I have heard several other projects and this is the worst I've heard from him ever. He played four tunes here (tarogato, tenor, metal B flat clarinet and alto) and one encore (alto). He sounded like the same noise the whole 75 minutes. I gotta recognize, though, that I have NEVER heard THAT huge stream of sound coming from a tenor saxophone. It was absolutely impressive (I was at the second row and almost could "touch" that sound... and feel the entrails coming out of the horn). Just my two cents.

On Friday, at the CMU San Juan Evangelista: -Tri-ez (Agustín Fernández (p); Baldo Martínez (b); Ramón López (d)) On Saturday, double program at the Centro Cultural de la Villa: -Gilson Peranzetta (p) -Lee Konitz New Nonet

In fact he would have been 103. .... and very angry with you, as he was always trying to look younger than he was. His mates, like Roy Eldridge, were always teasing him with jokes on his age.

Larry: The BMI online database shows two different entries for "Slan": one by John Zorn (alternative title "Zorn-Slan") and one by Charlie Mariano.

I'll order it elsewhere now...

I ordered the Ellington from Jazz Messengers a few weeks ago... and it was backordered (or better I'm afraid that "they still haven't received it but they're showing it as if it was in stock")

This was reissued on a 1996 Verve "threefer" called Swing Trumpet Kings This double CD may look like a compilation, but actually contains three complete Verve albums, in addition to the Allen also Harry Edison Swings Buck Clayton And Vice Versa (Verve MGV 8293) from 1958 and Roy Eldridge's Swing Goes Dixie (Verve MGV 1010) from 1956. Je, je, je... just found (and bought!) a NEW copy at amazon.co.uk marketplace for the very reasonable price of GBP 15... thanks again, SwSu!

Thanks, Swinging Swede and Tommy T! The "Swing Trumpet Kings" compilation I didn't know about, but the "Hot Trumpets...." CD containing "Mr. Allen" I knew... and in fact it's currently on its way to my place! My mistake.

I'd also be very grateful if someone could help me with some of his later albums, to my knowledge never reissued on CD (except for those two Kid Ory co-leaded albums included in Ory's Verve Mosaic) : -Red Allen Plays King Oliver (Verve 1025) (recorded 1960) -Red Allen Meets Kid Ory (Verve MGVS 6076) (recorded 1960) -yes, I know it's on the Kid Ory Verve Mosaic- -We've Got Rhythm (Verve MGVS 6121) (recorded 1960) -same here- -Henry Red Allen Quartet Live (Fanfare 24-124) (recorded 1961) -Mr. Allen (Prestige/Swingville 2034) (recorded 1962) -Rare Red Allen Trio Performances (FluteGroove 6) (recorded 1962&63) -Feeling Good (Columbia CS-9247) (recorded 1965)

Still searching for reasonably priced copies of those CDs, except for 1937-1941 that I have already got.

That will be a very spiritual experience, for sure! Saw him two or three years ago, solo, and it was a great concert. Hired him once for a festival gig. National broadcast, 10,000 fans waiting and the band stands for about 5 minutes in the wings. We nudge a band member and say "you have to go on". The guy says "the master is waiting for the planets to be in the correct spaces". An associate says, "Tell him the check won't clear unless he hits the stage now"! He was at the piano in 30 seconds. Now that's a strong conviction!

Just won Sam Lanin and his many bands 1923-1931 (Vintage Music Productions) on ebay.

From the NYTimes:

This Google Search shows a few Japanese sellers (supposedly) offering this disc.

Oops, sorry, just saw it's sold out!