The Magnificent Goldberg

No guarantees, but a maybe. Glad to see you're still around, Dan. MG

This year's goodie The Tabu Ley sleeve note says it's a Christmas present for his fans. Title appears to be 'Bonane na noel'. MG

Happy Christmas to one and all! MG

Dean Fraser - Nyabinghi Christmas MG

I was listening to this at breakfast today and enjoying it so much except it hasn't got a sleeve. So I put a search term (Michigan snow) into Google and found a nice photo which I've made into a sleeve. The pic's much better than my lettering, but I don't care. Here it is y'all. Well, it's somewhere there. Hope everyone is OK. Sarah and I are surviving in the most dangerous part of the UK. MG

Clemson's got a lot of interesting stuff. MG

What a nice find! Dr Jo Jo Adams was from Alabama but was well featured in Chicago through the forties up to 1958. That appearance would have been somewhere in the period after his recording for Hollywood in the late forties/early fifties (can't remember or find the date very quickly) up to '58. His recording for Vee-Jay was done I think in '55. I'd guess that the Jo Jo show would have featured him working up his organ style - one of the Vee-Jay sides has the same approach as 'Chances are few' on 'Stop & listen'. So if you'd been in the Hickory Pit that night... MG

This is the B side of Tyrone Davis' first hit, 'Can I change my mind', but when I got it home - back in '69 - I was totally knocked out by this. Got the album the other day and was knocked out again. MG

Don't know that. I kind of missed the O'Jays, because they were recording for Philadelphia Int. The only album I have (and have ever bought) on that label is Lou Rawls' 'Shades of blue'. Can't be bothered with Gamble/Huff stuff. MG

I try not to remember the music I listen to, so each time it's like a new record. So I dunno what the O'Jays' riff is. But I think the rhythm arrangement is about the same on the two albums but the St Louis session punches a lot more than the RVG job. Glad it's out on CD. Don't anyone miss it, for your own sakes. Bought the LP as soon as it came out. Ripped it a few months ago and have been playing it a good bit more lately. MG

Locally? Mass must be a good place for 78s. MG

Been ripping my new LP - L'archange du Manding, by Kade Diawara Pretty nice - a bit noisy but not so bad it spoils the pleasure of listening to very traditional Djeliya. Followed it up with something completely different - Lionel Hampton - Flying home. This is the 1954 version, recorded for Clef. The LP I have is a compilation of tracks that were issued on two earlier Clef LPs which were imaginatively called 'The Lionel Hampton Quintet' and 'The Lionel Hampton Quartet/Quintet' MG

Arrived fifteen minutes ago Kade Diawara - L'archange du Manding - Syliphone SLP62 I noticed this in Graeme Counsel's Syliphone discography a few days ago. I've three more recent K7s than this LP (1977), and didn't know about it. Looked on Discogs and found one not prohibitively expensive. A present to ME from myself. MG

Cataloguing prompts me to ask if that's all stuff you've got recently? MG

Finished writing my Christmas cards listening to Herman Foster - The one and only Ike Quebec - With a song in my heart Sonny Stitt - Just the way it was live at the Left Bank Probably the greatest live album ever made. MG

Breakfast music Empire Bakuba - Lassissi presente Sam Cooke - Night beat Gladstone Anderson - It may sound silly The Gladstone Anderson is one for TTK - Lounge Reggae MG

My favourite Hamp Hawes. MG

Get all the Charles Williams', without hesitation. If you like 'Trees & grass & things' you'll like the other two. Oh, I've got the Kora Jazz trio #2 but didn't recognise it. I didn't realise there were two further albums. Have to pick them up. Actually, I got 'em for Djali Moussa Diawara, not Diabate,and his sitting out on this one put me off my guessing the track. I naturally assumed it was something of Diabate's own. Lots of surprises in this. I have a few Weston albums, but he's not one of my favourites. I think perhaps I ought to get that Riverside album, though. MG

Breakfast with Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson - Cherry red blues Red Garland - The Politically Correct blues Dinah Washington - Dinah jams MG

I think that was a little while before I started buying Mosaics and maybe I had a bit too much of it on LP already. Ah well... MG

Oh, whoops, I didn't get it. Was it one of those LP only sets? MG

I agree, Steve. I have 14 Mosaic boxes lined up on top of a bookcase, with Grover Washington Jr's 'Soul box' next to them and they make a black block about 15 inches wide. But I can see what was driving that design; Francis Woolf's b&w photos. Can't put those on the front of a yellow, orange, green or any other coloured box. And - for the early Mosaics at lease, those photos were truly demanded for the fronts. Of course, Francis DID take coloured photos, but not in the early days, which is where the early Mosaics came from. They didn't have the same rationale for material from other labels, however, but they stuck to it as if it were a trademark, whereas it was only a trademark for a period in one label's issues. I think that was regrettable, but there you are. I do like the Mosaic concept of pulling everything from a period together. One has to hear the rubbish along with the magnificent stuff to get a true feel for what a player was like at that period. Trouble is, Mosaic missed too much stuff because of the rubbish. Where's the Lionel Hampton Decca box? Or the Erskine Hawkins one? Or Lucky Millinder? Or Buddy Johnson? Or Illinois Jacquet? Or Mills Blue Rhythm Band? Or Fats Waller? Others have done some of this stuff - usually pretty unsatisfactorily. Oh well, take what you can get. MG

V nice. MG

Breakfast with Franco & TPOK Jazz - Ekaba-kaba Mbilia Bel - Boya ye Milt Buckner - Block chords parade MG

Duke Ellington was at #1 on the R&B charts the day I was born MG