The Magnificent Goldberg

I bet there's a decent 2nd hand vinyl shop in Cambridge. The shop in Cardiff has been there since the sixties, I think, but it's a rare visit when I don't find something interesting. Because it's an hour and a half each way by bus, I only go about once every month or 6 weeks, when I need to buy more muesli from Wally's deli, and I usually manage a look through Kelly's and the 2nd hand bookshop. There's a lot of pleasure in just looking, of course, which you can't really do on the web. MG

Yes, funds were always a problem. But I was promoted in '79, so the stringent measures of the earlier period could be lifted. It was the bonus tracks that really converted me to CD; particularly Grant Green material on BN. In the mid eighties, my wife was on at me to get a CD player because, she said, everything was out on CD. I laughed. I'm still laughing; perhaps half my collection has come out on CD. Very little gospel music from the 60s to the early 90s has issued on CD. Almost no west African recordings, though the position is improving a bit now, nearly 30 years later. MG

Oh, and let's not forget JAM. Lots of good stuff came out in the eighties on JAM. McGriff, McCann, Arnold Sterling, McDuff, Red Holloway, Upchurch. And Gene Harris, whose albums I overlooked. MG

That is true. Most of the Miles Davis CBS LPs I have from back then were Italian imports - not cheap either ! Other than that it was mainly 2LP reissue compilations in the UK. As for Coltrane - other than the mid-70s Impulse reissue series here in the UK with 'Africa Brass' and 'Coltrane', the Impulses were tricky to get and most of my LPs ('Sun Ship' for example) were acquired at Zweitausendeins vinyl store in Munich ! I don’t know about a jazz release dearth in the late seventies/eighties – at least, not one that I felt. OK, I know I already had most of the soul jazz BN had issued from quite some time earlier. And the new soul jazz releases were OK at best – ‘Go for what you know’, ‘Straight ahead’, ‘Life flight’ – or pretty dull – ‘Wonderland’, ‘Togethering’. And at the same time, Muse and Milestone were issuing wonderful new albums by such giants as Willis Jackson, Houston Person, Jimmy Ponder, Charles Earland, Hank Crawford, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, Johnny Lytle, Jack McDuff and Groove Holmes. Smaller labels were issuing new interesting stuff, too, by people like David Newman, Clifford Scott and Nat Adderley. And Savoy, Malaco and Atlanta International were issuing loads of great new gospel music. For reissues, Fantasy’s OJC LPs (and reissues here on Ace) were fine; I caught up on some Sonny Criss, who I never appreciated until he recorded for Muse. They even put out some OJCs described as Original Soul Classics, including Harold Mabern’s ‘Rakin’ and scrapin’’, which I’d missed. And I was able to get nice copies of albums that you only saw as trashed by people like Jimmy Forrest, Gene Ammons, and Arnett Cobb. So there was plenty of prime stuff for me to buy, as well as music from Senegal, Guinea and Mali, which I was just getting into. Who cared about those mouldy old Blue Note hard bop albums? Not me Yeah, the late seventies/eighties/early nineties were a great time for collecting music. MG

That's got something to do with a thread here a few years ago about how some (most?) people can't recognise a well known song if it has different words; they don't pick up on the tune itself, even though they know it, or the instrumental intro, so when they do get to a point where it's recognisable, they applaud. I always thought this was peculiar, until I read that thread. MG

Happy Birthday Guy! MG

Never seen or heard of any of 'em on CD. I guess I'll spring for 'Spider man'. Thanks Jim. MG

Dunno - see Freelancer Just realised I posted that I'd just remembered I have a complete collection of Freddie McCoy in the wrong thread, so here it is, here, now. MG

There aren't any either. No rubbishy and not many dubious ones, that is (IMO ). And even those that are dubious are only marred by some over-sugary crooning vocals (signs of the times) or by some uncommonly pop-ish tunes sung by Jimmy Rushing. But these just reflected the musical scene of the day (Lunceford and Kirk had many more like this, and some early pop vocal ditties sung by Ella with Webb aren't always high points in artistic sophistication and achievement either ) and you are totally right in wanting these too in order to get the overall picture. They do have their charm and appeal, even today. "Bad" or "rubbishy" is a highly subjective criterion anyway. By strict criteria of artistry and musicianship Bird's Lover Man session falls far, far short IMO, but knowing the context, would we consider it poor? It's a unique document in the artistic biography of the man. Or take Ernie Henry's LPs that strictly speaking are not exactly supreme masterpieces of musicianship either (listening to them, for once I'd believe contemporary reviewers who point out poor Ernie wasn't even nearly able to put into notes what he heard in his mind) yet they are acknolwedged by many today who evidently have other criteria. To each his own ... Yes, I think I agree with all that, except Ernie Henry, whom I've never heard as a leader, and the 'Lover man' session, which I also haven't heard, but don't doubt you, on either. That's why I'm going to get the Lunceford and Webb boxes eventually. MG

Goodness! Do you have all the records he made with Lloyd Price for ABC? Johnny Griffin/MatthewGee 'Soul groove'? Johnny Lytle's 'Everything must change'? The two Jimmy Ponders - 'Mean streets, no bridges' & 'Jump'? Art Blakey's 'Hold on, I'm coming' (under the name of Malcolm Bass)? A lot of these aren't obvious targets for a Patton collector. MG Actually MG you've made me realise I have a couple of holes in the collection. I haven't got any of the Lioyd Price, not that I wouldn't enjoy it, but I guess I see the discography starting with Along Came John. I know that's wrong, but still... I haven't got/heard of the Griffin...I would love to have/hear that. The Ponders I have on 32Jazz re-issue, but in all honesty I think I sold it off and made a digital copy. Now the Blakey I ordered from Japan on cd years ago, before the internet, but it never came through, so I settled on a jazzblog download. I genuinely forgot I didn't have a hard copy of that. Not one I return to for listening much actually. Possibly why I never bothered to track down the expensive Japanese cd after the internet made it much easier. (Is it true it was recorded on the same day as The Grass Is Greener? or was that Laughing Soul?). I also haven't got the Jimmy Smith with Patton playing tambourine either So you have exposed my incomplete completism However you won't be able to find any holes in my GG or JBU btw, do the Lloyd Price band sessions identify the players. So many great players passed through that band, I would love to hear Pat Martino playing for instance. But I have never begun to do any google research into it. Oh yes, I forgot about 'Rockin' the boat' Price. All I have is the single of 'Where were you on our wedding day'. I've never seen any original Price LPs from '59-'61, but my mate had one (title not known), in the sleeve note of which Price forecast that Patton would become a major player. One I sold when I was desperately poor was 'This is my band' (Double L, 1963), arranged by Slide Hampton and with Fred Jackson pictured among the band on alto! And hey! The Griffin/Gee is on Collectables! MG

Good threadslide But I do agree with you. More on Fantasy's labels in my collection than any other company - and, as with you, a lot of it is stuff I'd never hoped to be able to get back in the day. Also about Collectables, even if they do have some strange twofers. Also the 'grey' firms like Lonehill. No matter how well the 'regular' companies have covered the field, they've wittingly or unwittingly left openings for those firms. I would definitely spring for a 3 CD set of Freddie McCoy's 7 Prestige albums, none of which have come out on CD. Oh, that reminds me, I have everything Freddie McCoy ever recorded, as a leader and sideman. MG

Don't doubt you for a second. It's the dubious or rubbishy Basies I want. MG

Goodness! Do you have all the records he made with Lloyd Price for ABC late 50s/early 60s? (Patton's on piano. He composed at least one of the songs; 'Where were you on our wedding day'.) If you've got these, please let me have the details; I'd love to get them. Johnny Griffin/MatthewGee 'Soul groove'? Johnny Lytle's 'Everything must change' (on electric piano)? The two Jimmy Ponders - 'Mean streets, no bridges' & 'Jump'? Art Blakey's 'Hold on, I'm coming' (under the name of Malcolm Bass)? Fred Jackson's 'Cowbell boogie' - the sole usable track from a BN session - included in 'The lost sessions'? (Patton's on piano.) A lot of these aren't obvious targets for a Patton collector. MG

Chuck recommended this one to me. Point From Which Creation Begins: The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis by Ben Looker. I found it very interesting. I have the Valerie Wilmer but haven't read it yet. I have gained, from a few TV appearances, the impression of an extremely drearily committed lady. I expect I'll get around to it in due course. MG

This is the first time I've heard of a 'self-imposed 7-cd limit'. The Sonny Stitt and Ahmad Jamal boxes have 9 CDs. MG

Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Original album series - Warner Bros (Rhino) - Discs 1-4, can't be bothered with disc 5 today Finish on 'Express yourself'. MG

I don't think everyone makes financial calculations when they're contemplating a Mosaic box. The reason I DIDN'T buy the Prez/Basie box was because it wasn't a 7 or even 9 CD set. It's hard to get with a music that you didn't grow up with; the American past is even more foreign to me than the American present. The way I find best is to get everything - the good, the dubious, the poor and the rubbish - for context. Unfortunately Mr Cuscuna seems to have objections to bad jazz, which I don't share. MG

Brunswick and Decca sides included ? . I'm guessing yes and no respectively. Only Sony-owned material. No stuff that is owned by Universal. The Brunswick material should be within Sony's ownership. It was part of ARC, same as Vocalion, which was Brunswick's subsidiary before ARC bought the company from Warner Bros. (Unless it's European Brunswick, which was a part of UK Decca and now Universal.) MG Not the complete story. ARC did not buy Brunswick and Vocalion from Warner Bros. They leased the labels for al long as ARC sold a minimum of 250,000. Brunswick records a year. In 1940 CBS who now owned ARC failed to do so and the rights reverted back to Warner Bros.. When ARC leased Brunswick/Vocalion all masters up to December 3, 1931 remained with Warner Bros.. Decca bought Brunswick/Vocalion including pre December 3, 1931 masters in 1941. The Brunswick masters recorded by ARC/CBS remained with CBS. US Decca also acquired some post 1931 Brunswick masters in 1934, when the firm was set up. A number of Brunswick artists were contracted personally to Jack Kapp, not Brunswick, and he took them and their masters to Decca when he and Sir Ted Lewis set it up. I think that Bing Crosby was among these artists. So the germane point is, to which lot do Earl Hines' Brunswick recordings belong? MG

Nonsense - sex has always been for sale. And has never made any difference to anything. MG I think you misunderstood, Jim. Sex is for sale, always has been, always will be - it's part of the way life is and will continue to be. And what is a sale? Polygamy is generally regarded as an attractive option for women in societies in which there's a huge disparity between men's earning capability; thus women prefer to share a relationship with a prosperous man, who's totally responsible for their upkeep and that of their kids (and the women concerned, if they earn any money, it's their own, not part of the family income), than an exclusive relationship with a pauper. In Senegal, where poor is really poor, 47% of all marriages are polygamous; which means that over a third of all men must be unmarried. So this proportion must be abstemious, rapists or buy sex. But the other almost two thirds - aren't they also paying for sex? (Don't ask me how polygamous Senegalese men feel about their wives; I only know two.) Prostitution is not something that would be chosen by anyone with anything more than extremely limited options but, to some, it's certainly better than available alternatives. Pricing whores is not something I know anything about, but that some people, both pimps and customers, are able to do this is undeniable and it's likely that price will sometimes depend on other factors besides looks. As in this case. MG

This morning Al Grey - Struttin' and shoutin' - Columbia MG

Brunswick and Decca sides included ? . I'm guessing yes and no respectively. Only Sony-owned material. No stuff that is owned by Universal. The Brunswick material should be within Sony's ownership. It was part of ARC, same as Vocalion, which was Brunswick's subsidiary before ARC bought the company from Warner Bros. (Unless it's European Brunswick, which was a part of UK Decca and now Universal.) MG

Nonsense - sex has always been for sale. And has never made any difference to anything. MG

Cooooooo; good thing I'm not a jazz fan By the way, what happened in 1968? 'House of David'? MG

Illinois Jacquet - Genius at work - Black Lion MG

Good lord, that Sinatra collection must be HUMUNGOUS!!!! MG