The Magnificent Goldberg

This afternoon Only my version is on the Colortune label - a Decca subsidiary with the Decca catalogue number on it. DG mono. Gene Russell - Talk to my lady - Black Jazz Jackie Ivory - Soul discovery - Atco (London UK) ------ THE GREATEST SOUL JAZZ ORGAN RECORD EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!!! MG

Or here! MG

Sorry to disagree but while I have no doubt about the excellence of the Hawkins date I really have no complaints about the enjoyable standards of the Buddy Tate and Budd Johnson dates either. As for the producers being too "deferential" (won't look it up right now but IIRC they explained their approach in more appropriate - and quite plausible - terms in contemporary issues of "Jazz Monthly"), I cannot really see what's wrong with letting the old men have their way instead of trying to coax them into a mold that may not always have been 100% theirs outside the recording studio. Which is maybe what left me a bit puzzled with some of those Swingville dates (some of those I have heard more closely anyway). I can see the appeal of those Swingville dates to those who at the same time have explored the Prestige/Riverside etc. catalogs from the Hard Bop end of jazz, so sessions where (except on sessions like the "Basie Reunion" dates) the producers' rule seemed to have been to "let's make those oldsters show off to what extent - comparatively speaking - they have absorbed their hard bop" certainly will be fine for that target audience. Yet if you aproach "middle jazz" from a chronological/evolutionary point of departure of late 30s and 40s swing then the reaction would rather be "What's the point?". So the Felsted dates sound more like a logical evolution to me, but of course I can see why those weaned on Prestige/Swingville etc. will find them just not quite adventurous enough. But in the end it all boils down to a matter of personal taste, I guess. I think I don't agree with both of you (Except for Steve's last line, of course ) I got the Hawk in 1970. Now I was one who really was weaned on Prestige/SV/MV/NJ/TruSound. So Steve won't be surprised at me saying that 'High & mighty' didn't get to me the way 'Night Hawk', 'Soul', 'Hawk eyes', 'Blues groove', 'Hawkins/Garland', 'At ease', 'Hawk relaxes', 'Hawkins all stars' and the SV jam session albums. So I ditched it after a short time. Got a CD a year ago and did, indeed, like it better. I'm not going to say it ain't great stuff. But I still think it's weak compared to the Prestige material. However, I got the 5CD boxed set yesterday and spent pretty well all day listening to it. The only session that kind of passed me by was the Cozy Cole; that kept calling to mind the old joke : "The drums! The drums! I can't stand the drums!" "Keep cool, white man. You have nothing to worry about as long as the drums keep playing; it's when they stop you have to worry." "What happens then?" "Bass solo." Well, OK, so I'll give the Cole another go next weekend and pay more attention this time. But, by and large, I found the other albums MUCH better than the Hawkins. Apart from Strayhorn/Hodges (and on their album it was Russell Procope who really knocked me out, anyway), and Rex Stewart, who seemed to record a bit, those guys really were being ignored in the fifties. I did have a strong feeling that the Felsted sessions may have been to them an opportunity of putting themselves forward, resulting in a high level of intensity in the proceedings. Oh, and whose idea was it to put an organ with four effin' trombones? Well, Dance fingered Wells in the sleeve note, so maybe it's true. Anyway, I lurved it! (What would RVG have said?) Putting 4 trombones together sounds like nonsense, but they all had remarkably individual voices and really pointed up how bland almost all modern trombonists (apart from Tricky Lofton, Bennie Green and Fred Wesley) are. Earl Hines is a man I've listened to much less than I'd have liked to. The only album I have of him is one with Hodges - 'Stride right' - and I suspect it really doesn't show him in his true light. He's certainly nothing like the dirty funly blues player he is on the half LP devoted to him. On the strength of these 3 cuts, I must get more Hines. Buddy Tate and Budd Johnson are among my favourite tenor players (well, yes, I do like a very great MANY tenor players very much). This album really WAS the start of a Buddy Tate comeback. Ditto for Budd, though he didn't come back as far as Buddy. And you can hear why these guys got more sessions after this. Rex Stewart - well, I'd never knowingly heard him before, though I probably have heard him. He really got to me. Again, an utterly personal sound and ideas. And he was really pushing on this session. I must try to get his Swingville stuff. I've knowingly heard plenty of Russell Procope before and liked him a lot. But in the Strayhorn session, he really caught my attention something powerful. I was waiting for the next clarinet solo, through all the other guys - sorry! But it was Buster Bailey who REALLY got me. I've heard quite a lot of Buster over the last few years, with one band or another and I've always liked him, but this session was different. Not just his playing on 'Memphis blues', though that's something like a funk masterpiece, but the whole session was just commanding. Compared with the Prestige material Esmond Edwards producing at about the same time, I think Steve's right in saying that there was a feeling at Prestige to show what these old guys could do. But also, Bobby Weinstock liked tenor players. (Quite right too!!!) These Felsted records don't have such a limited focus and are, perhaps, more representative of what was going on at large amongst these older players. The other thing that's interesting is that the Hawkins is about the only session on which Dance, or the musicians themselves, didn't try to put together a band (or use one already in existence as with Tate). That session is just a routine two horn + rhythm deal, which is what you got most of the time with Prestige (and many other jazz labels, of course). Finally, one funny thing. On 3 Feb 1958l, Dance produced the first session of Dicky Wells' 'Bones for the king'; then he flew to San Francisco, gaining four or five hours, and produced the Earl Hines, also on 3 Feb '58; then flew back to New York, (losing the time he'd gained on the westbound flight) and produced the second session of the Dicky Wells LP, on 4 Feb 1958. I've checked in Lord, and those are the dates given there, too. Was this possible in 1958? MG

A Bob Porter production I don't have - indeed never heard of!!!! Interesting tracklist. Playing Jimmy Smith - House party - BN (Pathe Marconi) MG

In Britain, it was And now for a list of albums you can't find on the Internet Nanou Coul - La revelation de la chanson Malienne - Maikano Damba Kate - Tosogue - DSV (Diane Sanoussy Vibration) Amazing! Looking for an obscure item, found a link to Lampe Fall - a shop in Paris where I've often got a heap of K7s and CDs. Must explore. MG

The streets of Cardiff were all dug up, as part of the Government scheme for congesting traffic, and a motor cycle race had been organised, in which Duke Ellington was competing. Duke passed us on the High Street, outside Howells Department Store. He was in his early thirties and looked very debonair, riding a bike with a kneehole desk where the handlebars should have been, his aquamarine-lined cape streaming out behind him, his black top hat perched rakishly on his head, a glass of red wine on the desk. He smiled and waved to the people as he passed, taking occasional sips of his wine. Past Howells, the High Street was completely chocked, so Duke turned left. We followed, everyone on the bus saying, “Did you see him? Did you see him? Wasn’t he suave? Isn’t he handsome?” At the other end of Howells, there was a huge hole, looking to be about thirty feet deep, taking up almost the whole of the road and Hayes Island Snack Bar, with just a narrow gap beside Waterstone’s bookshop, through which Duke slipped, turning right down The Hayes, still waving and smiling and sipping his wine. The gap was too narrow for the bus, however, which stopped. All the traffic that had followed us, thinking that the driver knew what he was doing, stopped behind us, so he couldn’t back out. A ticket inspector boarded and started to give the driver a bollocking. “I didn’t think they’d put a hole this size by here,” the driver protested. “It’s blocking the main entrance to Howells. I’m taking this farther, you see if I don’t. I won’t let this go. I know a driver in Bristol who’s very familiar with this type of event…” I woke up and found I’d overslept forty minutes. Well, you can’t blame me, can you? MG

Been a busy few weeks with birthdays and sick friends, but I have managed to get a few goodies from Amazon (and my typing on the new machine is better ) These two turned up yesterday Big Joe Turner - Boss of the blues - Atlantic (Upfront) Thie is the 1956 LP, plus all but 1 track from the 1955-56 sessions following the Proper box. The LP has been remastered in stereo and isn't up to much - I odn't think Atlantic's early stereo recordings were actually done the way they were later - well, it's OK, but there's too much bass, which is fine for the R&B material. I used to have a mono LP and it sounded fine. Oh well, it's still a brilliant album. Sun Ra - Four classic albums plus bonus singles - Real Gone Jazz. Includes Jazz by Sun Ra - Transition Futuristic sounds of - Savoy Supersonic jazz - Saturn Jazz in silhouette - Saturn Really, realy nice. I used to have the Savoy and have the Transition on Delmark. I'm so glad I read the recent Sun Ra thread and took a copy of the recommendations for Rabeginners. And today's batch of goodies was Various (great) Artists - The complete Felsted Mainstram collection - Felsted (Solar) A decently packaged 5 CD set including 9 LPs Rex Stewart - Rendezvouswith Rex Dicky Wells - Bones for the king Dicky Wells - Trombone four-in-hand Earl Hines - Earl's backroom/Cozy COle - Cozy's Caravan Buster Bailey - All about Memphis Budd Johnson - Blues a la mode Buddy Tate - Swinging like Tate Coleman Hawkins - The high and mighty Hawk Billy Strayhorn - Cue for saxophone I've spent all day listening to most of this - now on the Strayhorn. The sound sounds GREAT! First thing I noticed was how great Rex Stewart was. Then, on his 'Danzon d'amor', I thought - Hey! I'm listening to SUn Ra! Well, there's a big resemblance. And some interesting organ in the DIcky Wells albums. Then there was some filthy playing from Earl Hines that stopped me in my tracks. And on and on, until at last, Buster Bailey['s 'Memphis blues' laid me out comPLETEly. Russell Procope is killing me just now. Amazingly cheap price - the local second hand shop has (or had) the Tate for £35. The whole package cost significantly less than that! Really loving it! Finally Sun Ra - Angels and demons at play/The Nubians of Plutonia (aka The lady with the golden stockings) - Saturn (Evidence) More from your recommendations. Haven't started on this one yet. All this lot cost only about 50 quid! I do like cheap records! MG

Indeed, and his sound is so huge! SO many sax players (including Bird) sacrifice sound for speed. There was never any issue for Sonny, it seems - a sound as big as Jug's or Grant Green's - the speed of a Sonny Stitt - and the funkiness of no one else. MG

MG

There is one but I don't have it. Well, thanks! I just checked Amazon UK. They have one, but it's a bit expensive. I'll pick it up next month. MG

MG

Anyone ever seen a CD of 'ZT's blues'? One of my favourite ST albums, with GG & Tommy Flanagan. MG

I'll have a download, too, please. MG

Today's vinyl Eddie Boyd - Midnight special - Circle Atlanta sax player influenced strongly by Stanley Turrentine with Butch Cornell (org) Jerry Byrd (g) Sam Florence (d) Get it for 9Euros here http://www.parisjazzcorner.com/en/dis_fiche.php?ArtNum=82906&LANGUE=uk Billy Larkin & the Delegates - Dr Feelgood - World Pacific Bill DOggett - Candle glow - King - Deep groove MG Harrison Johnson & Los Angeles Community Choir - DOn't make war - Creed

There's a shop in Windhoek, Namibia, called 'American Imports'. But they have no American imports. WHole lot of South African imports, though In Paris, there is, or was a few years ago, a record shop, with its own record label of the same name, called TAT Audio Visual! African stuff, of course. Another record shop in Paris was Drame Afrique Tissus - partly a cloth merchant. MG

Hm. Can't say as I like Hound DOg Taylor much. Not keen on Elmore James, anyway. But I can definitely hear mucho rock influence there. Many thanks. MG

Isn't there a Thelonious MOnk sleeve like this? WHich came first, I wonder? MG

You're talking to the ignorant, don't forget (that's me, in case you don't recognise me). WHen did Stevie Ray Vaughn become an influence? I know zilch about him, other than his name. I can't pinpoint a change in COllins' presentation, except that his first 2 LPs for Imperial had short tracks, which was understandable; even Sonny Criss Imperial LPs had short tracks Is that what you mean? I hardly think so. I think I nearly get what you mean by 'harder edge' - it's what I said about the Muddy record my daughter bought produced by Johnny WInter. Now, was the guitar playing in that by Muddy or by Winter? I suspect Winter, but really don't know. But, if it was WInter, what changed in Muddy, apart from stepping back and letting someone else do the work? Is that what happened to Freddie King with Leon Russell? MG

That's really dramatic! Oh, a blogger. Well, lots of sleeve designers would be proud of having done that. MG

I've got a helluva lot of K7s, but only one single, I think, which is by Hadja Soumano - Les Aigles du Mali - a football song praising the national team of Mali. Not jazz, though. MG

Now Oliver Nelson, Jimmy Forrest and King Curtis - Soul Battle - Prestige (Ace) next COleman Hawkins & Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis - Night Hawk - Swingville (Transatlantic Xtra) MG

Well, not to mention about a hundred disco jazz records with vocal groups, which I don't think anyone wants to hear about there are several tracks with vocal chorus on David Newman's 'Many facets of" on Atlantic. Also the Sweet Inspirations backed some cuts on his later 'The weapon', which was not a good LP. Also yet another LP entitled 'Lift every voice' - this one by Jack McDuff, on JAM, featuring the Mt Pisgah (misspelt Pisque) Baptist Church Choir of Chicago. Interesting tunes. As well as the title cut, there were Gil Scott-Heron's 'This is a prayer for everybody', Jeff Lorber's 'Night love' apparently with McDuff's words, and Trane's 'Naima'. A very interesting album. George Braith had a vocal chorus on one track of 'Musart' (Prestige) and the whole of Boptronics (Excellence) features a vocal chorus and some solo singing. I'm surprised no one mentioned the 2 albums by DOnald Byrd - 'A new perspective' and 'I'm tryin' to get home', both of which had a chorus arranged by Coleridge Perkinson. I greatly prefer the first one, despite the appearances of Grant Green and Freddie Roach on the latter. Oh, Pharoah Sanders (or the proprietors of Theresa Records) overdubbed a chorus, including Flame Braithwaite (George Braith's daughter) on the title track of 'Heart is a melody' recorded live at Keystone Korner, for some reason to me incomprehensible. (ANdy Bey was in the chorus, too.) 'The gospel soul of Houston Person' (Savoy) features the Atlanta Philharmonic Choir and the Ogletree Brothers, arranged by Horace Ott. A very nice album, which straddles the boundary between Soul Jazz and Gospel very well. The absolute best one, in my view, has got to be Freddie Roach's 'All that's good'. That's a totaly wunnerful album, in every way, including the Grandassa girls on the cover. Can't think of any more just now. MG

Yes. In '69 and early '70 I worked in a record shop - so that was easy. Later, I developed relationships with shop owners. The ones who'd let me know what was going down were the people who ran the best shops anyway. It was a matter of some difficulty when my wife started giving birth in the middle of the night before Grant Green's 'Shades of Green' was coming out. But, despite no sleep, I made it to the shop MG

This afternoon and evening Lou Donaldson - Midnight sun - BN LT series Nice sleeve, nice music Fela Kuti - Gentleman - EMI Nigeria (Creole UK) Inez Andrews - Lord lift us up - Savoy Fats Domino - Rare dominos vol 2 - Imperial (UA UK) (Sorry, couldn't find a smaller pic) Houston Person - Suspicions - Muse now Pharoah Sanders - Rejoice - Theresa It's really great having a new deck to play with MG

I didn't like it when it came out - didn't buy it. Never tried to see if I was wrong. I like late sixties Byrd but after this one, not much. I agree with Paul and Dan. MG