The Magnificent Goldberg

Yes, that sounds right to me. I don't reckon any South African 'jazzmen' are really jazzmen, if they're true to the spirit of the music and society that nurtured them - and Masekela certainly is. But does the question of whether he's a jazz musician actually matter? MG

Buy the LPs Actually, I suspect Universal Japan may have issued them on CD way back. MG

'Home is where the music is' is a very, very nice album. Also worthwhile is this Waiting for the rain - Jive Afrika It hasn't been reissued on CD, as far as I know. The trumpet playing is not amazing, but the track 'Coal train (stimela)' SPEAKS. Well, it always seemed to me that that's what's wanted in music. MG

Gabriel Louis Armstrong John Davenport Siddley

PM on the way, Jeff. MG

Lincoln, Lincoln, Bo Binkun Banana-fana-fo Finkun Shirley Ellis Amazing how the rubbish one came across in the sixties comes in handy MG

Glad you liked so much of this. Here are answers - not THE answers but AN answers 11. This could only have been recorded by musicians who really know their "Crescent"/"A Love Supreme" era Coltrane. The drums sound like Ed Blackwell at times. Well, maybe. Oh well, sure, but one at least of these players predates Trane by a good many years. Which DOESN'T mean he didn't listen. But doesn't mean that he was greatly influenced, either. 12. Making Whoopee. The guitarist has that characteristic distorted sound that guitarists playing in a more bloodless style use sometimes, the ECM type guys. The organist and tenor sax player are really good. This one has me stumped. It is a mix of elements that don't often get used together, in my experience, but it works. Not 'Making Whoopie'. If JimR were in this, he'd get the guitarist like a shot. 13. A bop tune. I love the tenor saxophonist. I love his big, rough tone and the depth of his ideas. I could listen to him all day. Yes, a bop tune, but only recorded this once and quite a while after the end of the bebop era. 14. The vocal with the "ooo ooo" chorus at the beginning, and easy listening type ensemble singing at the end, really has me stumped. Who would put all of these ingredients together? A very good question - who would indeed? A very famous musician 15. The tenor sax player has a gritty sound, and uses the popping sound that George Adams and Roland Kirk used, but it is not them. It sounds like a blues guitar player who I can't place. Well, I can't deny Adams and Kirk used that sound, but it goes way back. The most immediate earlier master of it (relative to this recording) was Fred Jackson, "the greatest jazz musician of all time" as used to be written on the walls of some of the listening booths at Dobells. 16. Oh, I bet I have this and have enjoyed listening to it, but I just can't name it! I love this kind of 1940s/early 1950s rhythm and blues. At one point they play the head of "Night Train." The sax player, blues pianist and r&b guitarist are all fine. Yes, I feel sure you do have a copy of this knocking around amidst the multifarious compilations you have. 17, This is such a mystery to me. It sounds like McCoy Tyner playing the intro to "My Favorite Things", but it is not him. It sounds like someone trying to sound like Roland Kirk, but it is not him. I have heard this composition, it is familiar, but I can't name it. It has a recorded sound quality not like the Blue Notes or Impulses of the time period that I think this comes from, the 1968-74 period. I am really stumped, but I find this to be immensely appealing. The tune was, in fact, composed for a Blue Note session a little earlier than your time frame, one that is very well thought of around these parts, but identifying it won't help, as the producer of this album retitled it and snaffled the composer and publisher royalties. TMG, you have presented quite a treat. I love most of it, like the rest, and have no clue on any of it. Much of it sounds tantalizing just out of my mental reach to identify it--so close....but yet so far. It will be quite an enjoyable experience to read the rest of the comments, and the Reveal! Well, the big clue is that I'm not quite a jazz fan MG

Mercedes Lackey The Servant King The Grove Grovellers

Enjoy! MG

Fanny Brown Wynonie 'Mr Blues' Harris Grandma

The Miles set is two discs, Coltrane and Brownie are both three. These are not budget priced. I don't understand who they think is going to buy these. Not like the music they contain is hard to find. Indeed. I'm not going to and I have hardly any of it. All right for eighteen year old jazzfanzz - if there are such things. MG

Pussy Galore Puss in Boots Cat Anderson

The second Jimmy Dawkins on Fedora isn't as good as the first, but there are a few high spots. I like Big Al Dupree's album, 'Positive thinking'. He's a Dallas tenor player/pianner player/singer in a generally Kansas City style. Not gutbucket blues, but very nice. I also like Johnnie Bassett's 'Basset hound', which has Bill Heid on pianner, Dwayne Dolphin and R J Spangler. In the mid-fifties, Bassett's band was the house band for Fortune Records in Detroit. Not much work after a few gigs backing Motown acts in the early sixties, until the nineties. All the songs on this album were written by Bill Heid and don't sound ANYTHING like Larry Young MG

It's surely not THAT long-gone. Lonnie Smith made a GREAT album there, with a local band called Crash, in 2003. At the time, the club was run by Cory Weeds, alto player with Crash. MG

Rosie Jones Busty Von Tease Rusty Bryant

How many discs in these sets? Any sign of a Complete 3 sounds? Or a complete Les McCann PJ set? MG

I haven't bought any albums on HighNote/Savant/Fedora for over four years now. I don't think I got fed up with them; more that I generally have been buying less jazz over the period, because I've found so much else to get interested in. But I've got over a hundred albums on those labels (and another 100+ on Muse) so count me as a big Joe Fields/Houston Person fan. Some that may have passed you by, which I think are still available, are Arthur Blythe - Blythe bite - Savant Arthur Blythe - Exhale - Savant Bob DeVos - Shifting sands - Savant Bob DeVos - Playing for keeps - Savant Those two of DeVos are very interesting explorations of the Green/Young/Jones area. John Hicks - Music in the key of Clark - HighNote (and several explorations of the work of other pianists) Teddy Edwards - Close encounters (with Houston Person) Teddy Edwards - Midnight creeper Teddy Edwards - Ladies man Teddy Edwards - Smooth sailing Of course, there's plenty of soul jazz there, too, with lots of Houston Person take-offs of Jug, Jimmy Ponder, Mel Sparks, Charles Earland, Bill Heid, Reuben Wislon, Ernie Andrews, Irene Reid, Etta Jones and Randy Johnston, the only one of the newer jazz musicians who doesn't sound like anyone else I've heard, but plays with the enthusiasm of Grant Green. The world would be a poorer place without Joe Fields' labels. MG

Purple People Pan's People Legs & Co

Odd Man Out The Odds and Sods

Busty Von Tease Ernest Van Trease Philip Guilbeau

I keep meaning to explore the 3 Sounds more, but never seem to get round to it. Hm... Thanks folks. MG

The Chipmunks David Seville William of Orange

Anthony Barber Chris Barber Burberry

Looking forward to your thoughts on the rest. MG

The Temptations The Contours The Velvelettes