The Magnificent Goldberg

Well, there's a funny thing you can do with the Lord discography and that is find all sessions in which two tunes were recorded. So I put in 'Blue bossa' and 'Willow weep for me' and got only four albums. Richie Cole - Cool C - Seven seas & Muse. Not this, it was recorded with a Japanese big band in a Tokyo Studio. George Essihos - Extraordinary measures - Virga. Not this Canadian piano trio. Chris Flory with Duke Robillard & friends - Blues in my heart - Stoney Plain. Not this. No tenor player on these two tracks and Sugar Ray Norcia sings on 'Willow' Sigi Feigl - Meet Big Band Sud - Jazzette. Not this Yugoslavian big band, either, though it's the only live one. So what we heard is something that Lord doesn't know about, or which came out after the edition of Lord that I've got (2011), or one of those tunes has been spelt wrong in Lord. The first is most likely. MG

OK, I've got it now. It's a 45 I've never come across before. Didn't even know it existed. Sent you a message, Dan. Good pick! MG

Breakfast with Youssou Ndour - Djamil - Saprom The Caravans - Just like him - Vee-Jay (With bits of BFT202 shoved in between some tracks ) Sidney Bechet - Jazz Classics vols 1 & 2 - Blue Note

MG

Well, 6:40AM and I'm having a second try at #1. As suggested by someone, it's the Don Wilkerson tune, 'Camp meeting'. And the organist and rhythm section sound like Jimmy McGriff in his early days on Sue (or perhaps even earlier - though if it's earlier, I've certainly never heard it). But who's that tenor player? Trouble is, I know every note of this, but can't pin down that sax player. I'm thinking Fats Theus, but Theus is a bit smoother than this guy, I think. But in any case, how is it I know this note for note but can't get it? I KNOW I haven't got any version of 'Camp meeting' other than Wilkerson's. OK, let's assume this is McGriff, he COULD have recorded it under a different title... but wouldn't I have recognised the tune? I feel I would have. So let's say it's not McGriff on my third listen. The tenor player COULD be Rusty Bryant. He never worked with McGriff. But he DID work with Hank Marr. But sure this ain't Hank Marr. Nope, I'm bloomin' well stumped. Just tried 'Blue Bossa' and 'Willow weep for me' live again. Well, I must have been in the wrong mood last night. Now I'm sliding these tracks in between tracks on a Caravan's album, I'm hearing them a little better. No nearer putting a finger on the tenor player, but he IS sounding a bit better this morning. MG Ah! Rudy Johnson on #1. Rudy worked with Hank Marr AND Jimmy McGriff back in the day. MG

Good ears for recognizing the same band from #11. So nice I had to program twice. Damn me, that's what I thought and wrote it down. Then I thought "Nah, he wouldn't put two on one after the other," and wiped it out. But you did! NOT surprised I didn't get Bootsie. I don't have much of him, just Don Patterson's 'Why not?' and he doesn't sound like that on the first few minutes of that. But props for putting him in. MG

Well Dan, thanks or this, but I can’t say I enjoyed it much. Been listening to all kinds of music from |Africa for two days, but got myself ready for this by listening to Sam The Man Taylor – Music for melancholy babies, Wild Bill Davis – Lover, and Chris Connor – Lover come back to me. Not good enough I’m afraid. Any way, here are uncensored thoughts as I listened. 1 Damn I know this, but not the sound of the tenor player. Ah, I bet it’s Joey de Francesco with some new geezer on tenor. Need another listen to get the tune. 2 Imitation Herbie Hancock tune and approach. Drummer doesn’t seem to be swinging very much. Too busy. 3 It’s just hard bop without the feeling of excitement that the guys who were doing this kind of stuff in the sixties were feeling because it was new and they didn’t know where they were going. These guys know where it led and think it’s good enough to go again. Can’t say it was EVER my cup of tea, though I could get excited about it sometimes. Where’s Manu Dibango when you need him? 4 This is NOT Gene Harris. It sounds like someone I’ve heard before but put aside. 5 Hm. Definitely not my cup of tea. Time for a cough and drag. 6 I’ve got this. No I haven’t. I’ve got a much earlier version. No one I know had those stops during the head. Eric Alexander? His best point was that he was a mate of Harold Mabern, but this ain’t Harold. 7 This is an old Tiny Bradshaw tune (Soft) played by a band that wasn’t there and never knew what Bradshaw’s guys were trying to do because it’s a different world now. I don’t like the sound any of the musicians are using. Oh, and where’s Earl Bostic when you need him? 8 Lester Leaping in. Well, ditto. Where’s Plas when you need him, or Sam The Man Taylor? 9 Er… Less said the better. 10 Willow weep for me. And someone who knows what he’s doing with it. I don’t know this guy, but I’ll be happy to find out about him. The good thing about BFTs is you can listen to nine tracks you’d rather not have bothered with, then someone slugs you round the chops. Except that he’s got his message through in three minutes, so he only needed a 78. But he’s just doodling now. I think he needed a contrasting tenor player – a guy with some flow to his playing – to come in and make HIS points on the B side. But they’re all dead, ain’t they? 11 Live. Old bossa the title of which I’ve forgotten. Oh, Blue Bossa, the hard bopper’s excuse for World music. Well, I don’t like the tenor player’s sound one little bit. I don’t like the piano player’s sound much either. But it might be the recording. He’s playing some kinda nice notes. VERY over-enthusiastic audience. 12 Back under the willow again. This is live, too. Actually, there’s something rather Arnett Cobb-ish about him (but not the guy on 11), but not running on a full tank. One thing I like about this is that none of the c 8 people in the audience give a toss about what’s being played. They’re just there for the booze and chat. That’s what it’s REALLY about! 13 Well, here’s another hard bop tune I can’t put a title to. THIS audience seems to care. Someone said, “Play, play, play!” 14 Overlong. Well, not really, I went out for a cough and drag and didn’t miss anything at all. This reminds me of a gig I went to at Smoke. I forget who it was – Cables was the pianist but the others were all as well known. It all goes on too long for me. 15 WTF? Oh well, back to normality with Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey In the sixties pts 1 & 2. MG

During my 2015 expedition to Paris Jazz Corner I came across a fairly well cosseted copy of Perez Prado's first album, with sleeve notes by... Jerry Wexler, then a Billboard writer. Cost about 35 Euro, but there's always 20% discount in July, so the boss can go on holiday in August. LPM 21 !!!! MG

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Yes. And even a redefine normalcy won't apply to boring old farts like us. Dead is dead, keep away from it. MG

Having a Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey morning, playing a few I've got in the last month or so Mukulu muke - Decca Austerity - Decca Around the world - Decca Late General Murtala Muhammad - Decca Eni duro de railway - Decca Ambition - Decca MG

Al Grey - Last of the big plungers - Argo Nat 'King' Cole - Love is the thing - Capitol Eddy Gustave - Merengues #1 - Eddy'son Eddy was a sax player from Guadeloupe, but the owner of Eddy'son Records. Nice label name. MG

MG

Shleu Shleu - Haiti mon pays - Ibo Horace Silver - Jazz has a sense of humour - Verve Alhadji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister - Bismilai - African Songs MG

Yeah, happy New Year, though I don't think it's going to get better. MG

Who? Moses Davis was the organist and leader of the funk band The (Fabulous) Counts in the late sixties to mid seventies. The band made 4 albums. Jan Jan (the title track written by Mose, not Miles) – Cotillion – 1969 What’s upfront that Counts – Westbound – 1971 The band had moved to Atlanta by the time its next album was recorded. Love sign – Aware – 1973 Funk Pump – Aware – 1974 (of course, you all know the sleeve for this one) After that, the Counts broke up and Mose, still in Atlanta, made a solo album. The coming of Moses – Pure Silk – 1978 I never heard of this but found a rip on a blog earlier this year. So I looked on Discogs and found the address of Mose’s website. I wrote and asked if he was the same guy who’d made all those albums and also a 45 for Tollie in 1963. Yes, he was, but some other Moses Davis made the Tollie 45 (with a tenor player who sounds like Ray Abrams). Mose advertises two more recent albums, self produced and marketed, on his site, so I went to Amazon and bought them. They are: Sunshine – 2008 Let the music take you – 2016 These are both excellent albums, which you can get from Amazon and are also on Spotify. Mose has a very good band, which doesn’t quite sound like anyone else and works as well on ballads as (very) funky stuff. Unfortunately, when you buy downloads from Amazon, you get no sleeve notes so I’m attaching the two sleeve notes Mose kindly sent me. The guitarist on some tracks, Leroy Emmanuel, was with Mose in the Counts, way back in the day. He’s from Atlanta. Mose is from Birmingham, Ala, via Detroit. Enjoy folks. MG

Yeah, I've got that too. Didn't know it was neo-bop. MG

Oh right, Discogs is too far away for the postman for me nowadays. MG

How is he? MG

I was going to say that Chuck is a lot broader than he makes out After all, he was at Gator's 'Single action' session, which I play a few times more than once a year. MG

I don't know where you can get it ordered. Do tell, please. There's probably others I could get, as I've only 39 Obey albums MG

Like Dmitri, I never thought of this stuff as my music but, if it's relevant (and I'm not sure how to categorise it) I still play Ray Drummond's 'Camera in the bag', which of course, has Fathead on it, a good bit. MG

I haven't looked at the whole thread but surely the O community would have put on all those Reid Miles sleeves of Jaguars already. There's one with Alfred Lion's Missus in it. Does she count as a musician ? MG