The Magnificent Goldberg

Conte Candoli Count Basie The Count

'It could happen to you' is a strange song. It's generally sung or played as a ballad and this does bring out the beautiful melody. But it's sung too slowly for you to comprehend the words as a whole statement - which is witty and humorous. When I got Dakota Staton's album 'Dynamic' in which she sings the song at a pretty up tempo, I realised that the words NEED to be sung fast, so you can get that message. But you don't get the beauty of the tune. I wonder if anyone knows how the song was intended to be performed - or how it was on its first appearance? MG

Oh, that's a nice sleeve! I never saw that one before. Same artist who did 'Matador'. Now Toure Kunda - E'mma Africa - Celluloid MG

General Prince Adekunle General Johnson General Nuisance

Assagai - Zimbabwe - Philips MG

Roberto Duran Lucy Duran Duran Duran

As far as I know, CD Baby only sells albums on labels owned by musicians. MG

Well, so it WAS Oscar Peterson; I had half a feeling, because it sounded like a Verve gig. I've got him on organ with Roy Eldridge on the Eldridge Mosaic box but, as I said in the discussion thread, you can't really recognise someone who's playing the 'wrong' instrument because they don't have their usual style (or maybe not ANY style). Well, that was interesting. Thanks Tim. MG

I shouldn't really be starting this thread, but I note you said you were wall to wall busy for a while, so I hope you don't think me rude, Nick. But so much of this music has really intrigued me... 1 Bowed bass solo. The drums have stopped. Am I waiting for something to happen or is this it? Oh, I was waiting for something to happen. This is kind of peculiar, but pretty funky and nice. It’s a string quartet I think. There’s something like a trumpet in there but it turns out to be a tenor sax; and a nice one. Haven’t the foggiest idea of who or what this is, but it’s definitely OK. I don’t think I could listen to a whole album of it, but just a track is a good thing; particularly as an opener. 2 Is this a soprano sax or Rufus Thomas’ escaped funky chicken? Personally I’d have put this one in at #1. 3 WTF? This sounds like an advertising jingle set to music. I think it’s the same player as #2. 4 Something kinda filmic about this. At least it’s not a car chase; more like a young lady being stalked through the dark. Some sample of a not so young lady from the twenties seems to have been incorporated, rather well. I can’t quite make out the words she’s singing, however. The whole thing seems rather Ellington-ish, in the way that Duke painted pictures on your mind. Oh, it’s live. So not a sample of a twenties singeress but a singer actually present, if off-stage, or singing into a cup mute. This is really not my cup of tea at all, and yet I’m charmed by it and will be disappointed when it ends, in about a minute. Well, the pianist didn’t want it to finish, either. 5 Oh, I know this tune, but can’t think of the title. Is it a Benny Golson tune? Oh, it’s ‘I remember Clifford’, usually a vehicle for a trumpet player but now a tenor player. And played with such feeling! Do I know this guy? I think I probably don’t. Beautiful, just beautiful. 6 Violin, guitar, piano, bass & drums. Sounds like some kind of tribute to Django & Stephane but there’s a hardness to the swing that strikes me as a lot more modern than they’d have handled it. Damn good, though. Actually, I do wonder whether it isn’t Stephane with another guitarist; because the violinist is playing with great grace. Another one I didn’t want to end. 7 The circus has come to town; but there are only elephants. Oh, it really IS elephants on parade. The band vocal sounds like the Arkestra, but that’s silly. 8 Kind of a meandering tune – or was there a head there at all? Was it improv from the word go? Now a singer with something of Leon Thomas about him, but not the richness of his voice. I am not getting this. It’s so bare that I feel that, to really get it, one needs the context of the other tracks on the album, or performance. What I mean is, this feels to me like something that has life in contrast to something else and, without that something else (or elses) I can’t make progress into it. And there’s definitely something to make progress into. But it’s like ‘Old Man Mose’; you need those ‘seven dancing girls all around him, each one wore a smile’ (to quote Louis Prima). As it is, you’re peeping through a crack and seeing an armchair. 9 Western Swing, probably a modern rendition of it. With an accordion in there. Oh yes, into a rumba they go! I’m seriously digging the rhythm of this, but even Amadou Barry, le Super Accordeon du Fouta is more entertaining than this. (Must get that K7 out and give it another go.) 10 Well, here’s another one I don’t know anything about, but it seems to have nothing to draw me in. Reminds me vaguely of Ran Blake. Nipping downstairs to get a cup of tea. ‘Scuse. 11 Some serious avant stuff here but there’s not enough joy in it to get me involved. Some of the harmonies between trumpet and sax sound like avant clichés I’ve heard often before (and never really got on with). Actually, quite a lot of this sounds rather like a bunch of clichés joined together. It’s maybe because I don’t listen to a lot of avant music the right way, but, well… 12 Very Dukish intro. ‘I’ve found a new baby’ with scratching. Or is that a guitar? I’m finding that irritating. The trumpet player’s fine. Also the clarinet and trombone. And the pianist. Well, the scratching’s stopped and we just have music. Nice. Full of the tradition, yet very modern. I’m really liking this. But, again, I wonder what a whole album of this would be like – is this something else that lives because it’s different to its surroundings? Oh, live. 13 Solo piano? Two solo pianos? Doesn’t seem to quite swing. Or is it Earl Hines? Nah… Well, I didn’t expect to hear anything I’d have listened to by choice, but some of it has really drawn me in, and that’s a very good thing. Thank you very much Nick. MG

Yes, all sorts of stuff can have a bit of a run. This guy's trying to hype it as the next big thing. It's possibly the next little thing. OK, I guess critics don't get any kudos for mentioning the next little thing. MG

Thanks for that link, Ken. I see there's another Shelley Carroll I didn't know about. MG

Nice article, but I don't trust it. MG

Pleasant here. Rain late afternoon/early evening I think. MG

Yes, it does give you the CHANCE. We moved in 2005 and still haven't. MG

Yes, moving is hell on wheels. MG

The Anointed Pace Sisters Pastor Murphy Pace III LaShun Pace

Not Shuggie Otis, then? MG

Sandy Shaw The Coasters Pebbles

Nice article, bdamusic. Thanks, Must try to remember to get that Doodlin' album. MG

On tenterhooks about #12... MG

Oh goodnesssssss! You have some buying to do, Tim. Jimmy Liggins & his Drops of Joy - Specialty The first 5 sessions (10 tracks) on this CD were done between 9 Sept 1947 and 30 Dec 1947 and all feature Harold on tenor. Interestingly, they also feature John F 'Fred' Jackson on piano (first session only) and Leon Petties on drums. (Jimmy, a guitarist, was Joe Liggins' brother, by the way). I nearly bought that 'Black California twofer several times. Sorry I didn't. MG

Actually I think I bought it to hear Yardbird Suite. You're not wrong in what you say. I definitely identify the conception of this music as Basie era. There is a lot of interesting Organ configurations that cross-polinate that Ellington/Basie era minded players with hard bop-boogaloo players. Perhaps that further makes George Freeman sound extra funny on some of these tracks. Freeman whom I love by the way. Indeed wasn't Jimmy Lewis from one of the Basie bands? Perhaps these tunes are better served in vibe and atmosphere on their original vinyl releases - or in a club back in the day Nothing wrong with the playing itself. How could there be Yes, the classic album for getting the atmosphere (apart from the two McGriff's I mentioned above) is Jimmy Smith's 'The boss', done at Paschals Lounge in Atlanta. Two of the tracks seem to have been recorded early in the evening, before the party crowd got there. Once the place had filled up, it became clear that the purpose of the music was to accompany the party. MG

Baikida Carroll Joseph Bowie Luther Thomas

I didn't know he was still alive, either. His work - with Jug - on Bennie Green's 'Soul stirring' was soul stirring. RIP MG

I suspect bitmaps are forbidden because they're bloody huge compared to the others. What gets me with that is that you get this error message and it almost invariably happens when I've posted eight or nine images - and you don't know which one is the problem! Or how many problems there are. And they're all .jpg! I don't think it's really the image extension; it's that the board software sees the funny structure of some of these Google search addresses as having an extension that starts somewhere in the middle of the address. MG