The Magnificent Goldberg

Oh yes, there's ESPM, the Reunion, recorded at Akbar Hall, in Philly in 1998. In St Louis, there was the Holy Barbarian Coffee House. There was also The Renaissance, in LA, where Spoon recorded this Also in LA, The Black Orchid There was The Bit, too, in LA, where Les did his first live album Jackie Ivory, Live at Jack's Bar, San Francisco Etta and Houston live at Salt Peanuts, NYC in 1980 Wes Montgomery at Tsubo, Berkeley Back to the London House, Chicago Done at the Mandrake Club, Berkeley MG

Another unknown organ room was the Bon Ton Club, in Buffalo, NY. Idris Muhammad made his first jazz recording here, paying his first visit to the United States, as Lou said, on this I've had this album for decades but I only just noticed the venue and cracked up This MUST be the only album recorded at the Bombay Bicycle Club, LA YAAAY for the Bombay Bicycle Club!!!!! Back to Atlantic City. This was done at Club Harlem, there Someone mentioned The Trianon in Chicago earlier. I think it wasn't a club but a pukka ballroom, but this was done there. I can't see a credit for the cover art, but it's great! And a Columbia album yet! MG

Oh, and HOW can any member of Organissimo forget Jimmy Forrest, Shirley Scott & Randy Marsh? Done at The Alibi Club, Grand Rapids, Mich More from Jimmy & Shirley - with Al Grey Done at Rick's on the Lake, Chicago. Like the Griff & Jaws session at Mintons, this is spread out in three albums. I've assembled the whole lot. with duplicates removed, it comes to an hour and 53 minutes. Small's Paradise hasn't had a mention, but not too many albums were made there. Jimmy Smith did two King Curtis made one But I just found this by Babs Gonzales on Discogs And this Roy Brooks MG

Easily! MG

Breakfast with Lord Nelson - Black gold - Richie's Music 1978 Milt Buckner & Marcel Zanini - Blues & bounce - Black & Blue 1976 Now Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey - Alo mi alo - Decca West Africa Next Monguito - El unico! - Toboga 1984 MG

There was also Rhoda Scott's second album. Other Newark venues included The Cliche Lounge The Cadillac Club The Front Room The Golden Slipper Most of those clubs were neighbours. The Cadillac was diagonally opposite the Key Club on Halsey & Williams Streets. The Cliche Lounge was a short distance along Halsey. And there were other clubs. Bob Porter gave me a guided tour of the old places where there were clubs when I visited Newark in '96. MG Other little places included Club Baron in New York, where Trudy Pitts made this GREAT album And of course, there was Jimmy Smith's Supper Club, in LA somewhere A GREAT live session with Teddy Edwards and Blue Mitchell. No one should be without it. Speaking of Jimmy Smith, this was done in Paschal's La Carousel, in Atlanta Also not to be forgotten is Grace's Little Belmont Club, in Atlantic City More later, when I can get round to it. MG

This evening Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey - Obey @ 70 - Obey 2012 Orquesta Reve - Suave suave - Areito 1990 Last one tonight Nemours Jean-Baptiste - Ti-Carole - IBO 1966 MG

I dare say you're right, as far as new jazz fans coming in after the early fifties. But surely the millions and millions around the world who came in after hearing the Goodman, Ellington, Basie bands would well outnumber those developing a taste for a music with a declining audience. MG

Nice! The other one 'The Fourmost return' is nice too. MG

STRUTH! I looked at Mayme watts in Discogs but she seemed a bit too early for this. And there was the best part of bugger all on her there, anyway. MG Oh, and Sid Wyche also wrote 'A woman, a lover, a friend' for Jackie Wislon. MG

This afternoon Ikenga Super Stars of Africa - Ikenga go marry me - Rogers All Stars 1981 Kenny Burrell (PR7008) - Prestige 1957 Arthur Prysock - Love makes it right - Old Town 1974 MG

I'm sure this can't be a Wild Bill Davis tune. I tried to get at it by looking on google for a songwriter called M Watts and didn't get anything looking likely. But there are plenty of people called M Watts, and some of them (Mike Watts) are musicians. But it's a song, not a tune. No tunesmith would EVER write an instrumental with that title. So don't look in jazz. It's a song that's so unsuccessful that it's not even celebrated for its lack of success. MG

Just ending Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis & Johnny Griffin - Ow! - Reel to Real 1962 Now Lee Dorsey - Yes we can - Polydor 1970 MG

Nice album. One of the last 3 Stitts in my to rip pretty soon list. MG

Kanaga de Mopti started off as the Orchestre Regional de Mopti. It was one of the original regional bands subsidised by the Ministry of Information of the post-colonial government of Mali. This is their first recording, from 1970, recorded by the Ministry of Information and released on Barentreiter-Musicaphon. The Mopti Region includes the Bandiagara Escarpment, the central part of the land of Do, home of the Dogon. Very important centre for tourism. The band's second album was made in 1977 for the Mali Kunkan label, owned by the Ministry of Information (apparently now owned by Syllart). This was recently reissued on CD. It's outstandingly brilliant. Pawi is one I recently found out about from the guy from whom I've been buying African records on and off for thirty-something years. He doesn't know when it issued. All three of these albums are very different. MG Breakfast this morning with The Soul Children - Open door policy - Stax 1978 (Made by Stax after the label had been acquired by Fantasy) Djeli Fode Kouyate - Sagesse - AMC 1998 No image on web; will upload it. Ben E King - Supernatural - Atlantic 1975 MG

Bet you doesn't haz the Kanaga de Mopti!! MG

This evening Osdalgia Lemnes - Osdalgia Contigo Live - Mimisma Prod Now coming to the end of Kanaga de Mopti - Pawi - Samassa No image on web. I'll be at the bottom, I reckon Orquesta Aragon - That Cuban Cha cha cha - RCA Victor 1956 (and you thought it started with Tea for two cha cha in 1959 )

I've got five. I like 'Como esta' a lot. The others are Holiday in Havana - cheapo on Design from 1960, but probably earlier material His piano and rhythm - Ansonia 1960 - very nice indeed Mambo with Noro - Palladium 1952 very nice indeed Mambo with Morales - Harmony (Most is with Humberto Morales) The cheapos are likeable, but I don't think they're as nice as the proper issues. But I bet they're a cinch to find in cutout bins. MG

I've always thought 'Close enough for jazz' to be his weakest album, though not without good spots. How do you find it? MG

Unlike most of you, I got into jazz through R&B. I got my first record player for Christmas 1958 and started buying singles. By the summer of '59, I looked through the 45s I'd got and decided most of them were shit. SO I looked again and picked out the ones that WEREN'T shit and got Clyde McPhatter, the Coasters, Chuck Willis, Bobby Darin, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Larry Williams. I read the labels! That stuff all came out here on the London label, with a credit to the original label, and you could identify that Atlantic and Atco were the same company, because their catalogue numbers were all HL-E, Imperial's were HL-P. But Specialty's were just HL. Radio was bad news in 1959 and full of the shitty stuff I'd been buying. So I decided to ignore it and what my friends at school said and go by labels. The New Musical Express published a list on Wednesdays of all the following Friday's single releases, with catalogue numbers so I decided to get anything with an HL-E number, whether I knew anything about it or, more likely, nothing whatever. As Imperial had Ricky Nelson, it was TOO dangerous to buy Imperial. The following week, out came 'There goes my baby' by the Drifters. So I took it to the record shop opposite Victoria station near my school and ordered it. When I got it home I put it on and heard the first real soul music I'd ever encountered. Phew! That was IT! But a couple of weeks later, out came Ray Charles' 'What I say'. And THAT was it, too! So when I started buying jazz, I started with the MJQ, because THEY were on Atlantic. And that was different. But, later, David Newman's 'Fathead' came my way, when I was working in Harrods - well I DID know something about him, of course. And during that period, I learned to avoid Columbia. And RCA Victor. And Brunswick (US Decca's label over here). And to focus on indies. I decided that indies HAD to be run by fans, and KNEW that couldn't be true of the majors. So that thought led me to Blue Note, Prestige, Pacific Jazz, Riverside and the Chess labels. I used the same parameters when I was exploring music from Africa. It worked there, too, and Syllart is the fourth biggest label in my collection. MG

Yeah, this is one of my favourite of Stanley's albums (along with Shirley's 'Soul song' and the one with Les McCann). It was also the first of his 16 hit albums; made #20 on the R&B album chart. 'The look of love' was his only other hit on Blue Note. Alfred Lion retired soon after these 1967 sessions and Francis Woolf took over production duties. I'm wondering if that caused some kind of chaotic hiccup at Blue Note, with Liberty pushing for hits and Francis feeling he had to make a name for himself. But, as Mike said, a hell of a lot of Stanley's records weren't released at the time. And Stanley ALWAYS played well. But, as we know, Stanley wasn't the only one whose records were treated thus. It leads to the speculation of what might have happened if the owners hadn't had t osell the label but had just carried on until they died. Would anyone EVER have heard all that stuff? Maybe not. MG

Breakfast with The Soul Children - Friction - Stax 1974 Mildred Clark & the Melodyaires - God's got everything you need (except the complete recordings of Perez Prado) - Savoy 1979 Abdoulaye Diabate - Bende - Cobalt 1998 Noro Morales - Como esta - Tico 1960 MG

Breakfast with Maaskool - Massa Thiono - KSF 1997 Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey - In the sixties vol 1 - Decca West Africa Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey - In the sixties vol 2 - Decca West Africa Erskine Hawkins - After hours - RCA Victor My favourite big band... MG

Yeah!!!!! Yeah AGAIN!!!! MG

This afternoon/evening Nemours Jean-Baptiste - Jouant pour la jeunesse - IBO 1963 Professional Uhuru Dance Band - Special Highlife numbers - Decca West Africa 1971 International Super 5 - Super 5 International vol 1 - Tabansi 1975 (There are NEVER five people on their sleeves - sometimes more, sometimes fewer ) Now The Caravans - The Caravans sing - Gospel 1958 MG More images