The Magnificent Goldberg

I suspect Ace's CDs have undermined the market for the original compilations. I think they include everything he recorded before ABC took Duke over. You can certainly put all his issued LPs together from their contents. MG

Not top rank stuff, but very nice. For top rank choirs on Savoy, you want the Georgia Mass Choir, the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Choir, or the Florida Mass Choir. Donald Vails Choraleers and Rev Clay Evans with either the AARC Mass Choir or his own church choir - the Fellowship Choir - are both very, very good indeed. But you can buy gospel choirs on Savoy with the assurance that they'll be good. Also on Malaco. Not ALL of Savoy's gospel albums are available on streaming. None of Solomon Burke's four gospel albums are on there. Only about half of James Cleveland's are there. MG

Breakfast with some old favourites Louis Armstrong plays W C Handy - Columbia (the CD with all the alternative takes) Blibby Blond - Ain't nothing you can do - Duke and Spotlighting the man - Duke Two GREAT compilations next Blue Mitchell - Down with it - BN MG

Yes of course; one was issued twice. And I always take the Simon album as a joint effort. MG

I got a couple of gospel albums I've already got on LP from Amazon to save the trouble of ripping them. Revival Temple Mass Choir - Touch me lord Jesus - Savoy (1986) Keith Pringle & the Pentacostal Community Choir - Prayer & faith - Savoy (1983) MG

Yeah - I returned to say that myself, but saw the Gator thread. Joe Fields was definitely there from about 1971 until he died. He didn't have quite so many old geezers as Norman got working for him, but a sufficient number, I reckon. Here's a list of all the people who recorded more than one album for him as a leader on Cobblestone or Muse. The old geezers didn't make so many albums as the younger geezers, so you'll find them towards the bottom, but this is a damn good bunch of musicians spanning all aspects of the mainstream of jazz at the time. Person, Houston 18 Murphy, Mark 16 Jones, Etta 12 Stitt, Sonny 12 Rodney, Red 11 Shaw, Woody 11 Ford, Ricky 10 Jackson, Willis 9 Cole, Richie 9 Earland, Charles 8 King, Morgana 8 Martino, Pat 8 Kloss, Eric 8 Burrell, Kenny 7 Roney, Wallace 7 Davis, Richard 6 Garnett, Carlos 6 Hoggard, Jay 6 Lytle, Johnny 6 Don Patterson 6 Ponder, Jimmy 6 Walton, Cedar 6 Barron, Kenny 5 Brown, Donald 5 Holmes, Groove 5 Jordan, Clifford 5 Vinson, Eddie 5 Bishop, Walter Jr. 4 Blackman, Cindy 4 Carvin, Michael 4 Catalyst 4 Coryell, Larry 4 Forman, Bruce 4 Hill, Buck 4 Jordan, Sheila 4 Pike, Dave 4 Plaxico, Lonnie 4 Schnitter, David 4 Spaulding, James 4 Visitors, The 4 Walrath, Jack 4 Adams, Pepper 3 Alexandria, Lorez 3 Barr, Walt 3 Barron, Bill 3 Bowie, Lester 3 Brooks, Cecil III 3 Cobb, Arnett 3 Cook, Junior 3 Edwards, Teddy 3 Hardman, Bill 3 Hendricks, Michele 3 Humes, Helen 3 Jefferson, Eddie 3 Johnston, Randy 3 Jones, Hank 3 Juris, Vic 3 Sasajima, Akio 3 Staton, Dakota 3 Tate, Buddy 3 Williams, Buster 3 Altschul, Barry 2 Andrews, Ernie 2 Bonner, Joe 2 Bronstein, Stan 2 Byard, Jaki 2 Chamberland, Linc 2 Cohn, Al & Zoot Sims 2 Creative Construction Company 2 Creque, Neal 2 Criss, Sonny 2 DeFrancesco, John 2 Donaldson, Lou 2 Eschete, Ron 2 Farber, Mitch 2 Friesen, David 2 Garland, Red 2 Goldstein, Gil 2 Green, Grant 2 Griffin, Della 2 Hayes, Louis 2 Heath, Jimmy 2 Hodes, Art 2 Jackson, Ron 2 Kenyatta, Robin 2 Lynne, Gloria 2 Matthews, David 2 McDuff, Jack 2 McGhee, Brownie & Sonny Terry 2 Members Only 2 Moody, James 2 Muddy Waters Blues Band 2 Newman, David 2 Ousley, Harold 2 Phillips, Sonny 2 Pierce, Bobby 2 Romao, Dom Um 2 Roney, Antoine 2 Schwartz, Jonathan 2 Scott, Shirley 2 Shaw, Charles "Bobo" 2 Tarrés, Fernando 2 Tucker, Mickey 2 Witherspoon, Jimmy 2 Woods, Phil 2 (Can't say I like all these musicians - and some I've never heard of, though there are many of my heroes here - but as far as I can see, it's mainstream stuff.) Joe fields didn't depart from this line of work, with the HighNote and Savant labels until he died, and Barney is carrying on, by the looks of it. It is relevant to note that before he started Cobblestone in partnership with Don Schlitten, Joe worked for Bobby Weinstock at Prestige. Very likely, the sale of Prestige to Fantasy left the two of them (and Bob Porter, who was Westbound) needing gainful employment. But all those labels carried the banner of Prestige. Joe is another of my heroes. MG

I like your blog on Gator. You touched my heart, so I'm sending you a PM about 'Neapolitan nights'. As the material from Club Allegro was produced by Ozzie Cadena, my guess it would have been in Newark,, NJ. MG

Well, well! So the Arrow record was the original. That dates the session at 1958. The Gen Manager of Arrow (which had a subsidiary called Bow!) was Fred Mendelsohn. Pres was Herman Pollock. "Imagination" was issued as a two-part single. It also came out on an EP with two of the shorter cuts from the LP on the flip. Another EP, "Ecstasy" was issued, again with two short cuts on the flip. So six of the eight tracks came out on 45. MG

And, making their second appearance, the Oriental Brothers International Band MG MG

I checked in my 2002 edition of Whitburn's Top Pop Albums 1955-2001. The only jazz album that had been on the pop charts (A love supreme never got on any other than the Catalogue chart - and then only in Feb 2001!!!! ) that was certified platinum by RIAA at the time of publication was Dave Brubeck's 'Time out'. One has to assume that Universal don't count any Columbia record as real jazz Of course, some albums that weren't platinum in 2002 may be now, but it's a bloody long way to a million and not all the big jazz hits got half a million in sales. Ahmad Jamal's 'But not for me/Live at the Pershing', which was on the rather shorter pop charts from Sep 1958, got to #3 and stayed in the chart for just over 2 years. And that got bugger all in RIAA awards (though that may have been down to Leonard Chess not registering- Motown didn't until the seventies sometime. And Ramsey Lewis didn't get one for the 'In crowd' which sold big in R&B market's as well as in pop). The only other jazz album from around those days that got a platinum award was 'Kind of blue', which was on the catalogue chart for two and a half years in the nineties. That, too, was never a pop hit. Nor was 'Sketches of Spain' only the catalogue chart for one week (which MAY be the last week reported in Whitburn - it's the same week as 'A love supreme'). That got a gold. Oh, the Catalogue chart was created to get rid of the rock albums that were staying on the top 200 for too many years to stop the whole thing getting boring. An album qualified if it was selling enough to make the top 200, and had been on that chart for two years but had fallen below #100, or was a reissue. MG

I love it at Paris Jazz Corner. Gilbert Joseph is pretty good for classical material but, for classics, I really like Melomania, 36 Bd St Germaine. Beautiful shop; material well displayed; friendly staff; I don't think it's terribly cheap, but not too expensive for my pocket either. What I miss about Covid is not being able to go to Paris. MG

Just posted on best track you've heard all week Orquesta Ritmo Oriental - Egrem 1975 MG

I've got loads of versions of this song, from west and central Africa, as well as the Caribbean, but I was listening to this just now and it really hit me. MG

Breakfast today with The Harmonizing Four - Where he leads me - Gotham (Hob) Big Jay McNeely - Big Jay in 3D - Federal (King) Bobby Timmons - Do you know the way - Milestone 1968 Now Bobby Timmons - Got to get it - Milestone 1968 Next Kenny Burrell - Both feet on the ground - Fantasy 1973 Terrible sleeve, horrid boots, nice music MG

Yeah. Any UK jazz fan will have seen it if they bought records at Dobells. MG

Oh, what about Fred Jackson? Back in the day, in a Dobells listening booth, someone had crossed out Charlie Parker as the world's greatest jazz musician and put in Fred Jackson. It wasn't me, or my mate. Did you ever get to Dobells, Chewy? MG

Charles Earland - Infant eyes - Muse 1978 Charles Earland - In the pocket - Muse 1982 Ramsey Lewis - Never on Sunday - Argo 1961 MG

MG

MG

MG

MG

MG

Woya - La tradition en mouvement - Pathe Marconi 1992 Jack McDuff - Check this out - Cadet 1972 Ray Bryant - Godfather - M&I 2002 MG

Is two lines OK? And sitting in line, with their legs crossed backwards? (the one on the far end is having difficulty and needs to hold his leg in place) MG

Yeah, it's a classic self-deprecatory sleeve. Sure it's intended to be funny. Here's another. The bandleader is the one in red, getting toughed up by a rozzer. MG