The Magnificent Goldberg

Surely not the material from before 1943? MG

This afternoon Charles Earland - Boss organ - Choice (no image for this one) Florida Mass Choir - Let the holy ghost lead you - Malaco Paul Bryant - Something's happening - Fantasy (Vocalion UK) MG

Loadsa vinyl today! Nat Adderley - Blue autumn - Theresa (Bellaphon) Fats Domino - Rare Dominos vol 2 - Imperial (UA UK) Donald Byrd - Blackjack - BN (UA blue label) Rev Charles Nicks & the St James Choir of Detroit - I need him - Sound of Gospel Jimmy Forrest - Night train - United (Delmark) Bobby Timmons & Johnny Lytle - Workin' out - Prestige (green label) Roland Kirk with Brother Jack McDuff - Kirk's work - Prestige (Ace UK) That's enouigh vinyl for one day; now on to West African K7s MG

I saw him doing Babar in the music room at the Royal Pavillion, Brighton. Splendid! MG

By coincidence a couple of days ago I received a recent auction win - all 1964 issues of the Swedish jazz mag Orkester Journalen, and the March issue happens to have a (three-star) review of this record: Katie Bell Nubin's voice is well-suited to the gospel style. The orchestra is said to be under the direction of Dizzy Gillespie but he can be heard only in a scant few tracks and has a more prominent role only in Where's Adam and Come Over Here which thanks to his efforts turn out to be the best on this record. Gillespie is all himself here but the other orchestra members appear to be restrained so their playing lacks the personal touch. Katie Bell is no great singer, at any rate not in the class of her daughter Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but she presents her music competently. A nice and engaging record. Opinions do differ, as you can see. I don't disagree with the view that Rosetta is the better singer. I just greatly prefer Katie. She sounds more honest. MG

Couldn't resist this, either. MG

Most of the day spent with these two: Cab Calloway - The early years 1930-34 - JSP Cab Calloway - Vol 2 1935-40 - JSP Now on disc D of vol 2. I get more pure pleasure out of this band than any other, even Buddy Johnson's. MG

That token should be a Fat Cat. MG

According to last.fm (I don't know how reliable that is) the Pazant Brothers played with Hampton, Basie, Gillespie (they were on one (or more) of Dizzy's soul jazz album(s)), and Blakey (the bus inspector). Pucho always used good but not exceptional musicians. Dunno where Claude Bartee comes from. New York wouldn't surprise me. MG

Thanks, that's clear now. Except that the early fifties recordings of people like Billy Wright, Clyde McPhatter and Nappy Brown (and others, of course, then later, Ray Charles in the mid-fifties, and through him, Horace SIlver) seem to me to show gospel music influencing black pop music, not the other way round. And you'll know that Nappy Brown became Professor Napoleon Brown and Rev Cleophus Robinson's accompanist on Peacock albums. I think that black pop music influenced gospel music later, and this may be why so many people who like forties/fifties gospel don't like the gospel of the sixties and subsequent periods. MG

Ah... Thanks Mike. I saw Pucho in '93 or '94, at the Coal Exchange, in Cardiff The most disappointing gig I've ever been to; the only one I've ever walked right out of. I expected to see Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers, not Pucho and the English Pickup Band. Two tunes was enough for me. I expect he had the proper band with him when you saw him, Chewy. MG

On BOTH sides! MG

I did a search for 127, but there wasn't one. Pity Jazzdisco,org didn't put a 10" list in their site. Still sure it's around somewhere. Has anyone got the Atlantic discography by Michel Ruppli? MG

No sign of it on the Jazzdisco.org Atlantic discography, either. BSN are pretty reliable, so I'd say it exists somewhere. MG

Don't you mean Night life' Ken? Lovely album with the grossly under-recorded Jesse Powell in his only extended performances. MG

1 Oh, I didn't know that. He's not on any of the ones I've got. Which is he on? 2 Indeed! 3 It's OK, I should have done it to start off with MG

I was looking for something other than gospel choirs, but I figured you'd drop a mention or two and I was cool with that, so I didn't place a limitation. (Well, I guess I did post in in the classical forum.) Predictable as ever I gave up all that classical music when I could scarcely afford jazz & R&B, now I'm getting more interested, I don't have the space. MG

The ignorant leading the ignorant MG

MG

Sister Rosetta was really much more of an entertainer than a gospel singer, in my view. Gospel flavoured, I'd say, perhaps an early version of Curtis Mayfield. I'm sure you've heard oceans more gospel music than I have and I'm equally sure you recognise that much of that is entertainment, but there's a difference between Rosetta's work with Millinder and Sam Cooke's (to pick an obviously entertaining gospel singer) with the Soul Stirrers. Allen, the Jewish authorship of 'Lonesome road' is irrelevant because the song isn't tied to any specific religion so it makes sense either way. And there's no reason why a song shouldn't be allowed to form part of a canon, just on account of the ethnicity of its authors, or their usual employment, or even the undeniable fact that it's often performed by secular artists. So is 'Amazing grace'. MG Further thoughts on 'Lonesome road'. How would you stack it up against Paul Simon's 'Loves me like a rock' sung by the Dixie Hummingbirds, who I understand, did the backing vocals for Simon's version? Simon's position doesn't seem to me many miles away from Nat Schildkret's. Ditto Mick Jones, the writer of Foreigner's 'I want to know what love is', on which the New Jersey Mass Choir did backing vocals, but also recorded it on their own Savoy album. Further, why shouldn't Bob Marley record 'People get ready', even though I understand he wasn't a Christian? I'm really not sure what you were trying to get at in your post. MG

Sister Rosetta was really much more of an entertainer than a gospel singer, in my view. Gospel flavoured, I'd say, perhaps an early version of Curtis Mayfield. I'm sure you've heard oceans more gospel music than I have and I'm equally sure you recognise that much of that is entertainment, but there's a difference between Rosetta's work with Millinder and Sam Cooke's (to pick an obviously entertaining gospel singer) with the Soul Stirrers. Allen, the Jewish authorship of 'Lonesome road' is irrelevant because the song isn't tied to any specific religion so it makes sense either way. And there's no reason why a song shouldn't be allowed to form part of a canon, just on account of the ethnicity of its authors, or their usual employment, or even the undeniable fact that it's often performed by secular artists. So is 'Amazing grace'. MG

They give you less cheek than kids. You're winning! Pugs give you more cheek than kids. But they don't give you grandchildren. MG

Never heard that. I guess you didn't hear 'Soul believer'... MG

Florida Mass Choir - Lord, you keep on proving yourself to me - Savoy Yes, I know that's not what you meant, but I couldn't resist When I was into French camber music, I used to buy quite a bit of choral stuff. Some I liked a lot were Elgar - The dream of Gerontius Delius - Songs of sunset & Requiem Liszt - Via crucis Bernstein - Chichester Psalms - very dramatic and dynamic Faure - Requiem and for something a bit avant Penderscki - St Luke Passion Oh, and Carl Orff's 'Catulli carmina' which I preferred greatly to 'Carmina burana'. The percussion section in the Catulli is bleedin' fabulous! Ask Mike Weil MG

Ace's Fantasy reissues were always licensed for 'the world outside the US & Canada'. These are licensed for 'world', according to Ace's site. Concord has given up on soul jazz, by the looks of it. That surprises me not one whit. What does surprise me is public acknowledgement that this represents. MG Too many guests not fully clued, by the looks of the personnel. MG