The Magnificent Goldberg

My favourite late Milts are 'Soul believer' on which he sings - beautifully - 'Night mist' with Jaws and CLeanhead and the 2 Kosei Nenkin albums with Teddy Edwards. MG

I haven't played vol 3 of Jimmy Smith's 'new sound, new star' albums nearly as much as the other volumes, so that solo on I water the front cover passed me by. But I just went back to it. He doesn't make nearly as much of it as McGriff (and Marr) did, but it's there all right. (Well, of course it is!) Thanks, CJ. MG

Could it be you've never heard this? I reckon this is the apogee of the heavily arranged soul/funk song. Etta James, 'All the way down'. Arranged by Trevor Lawrence, former Reuben WIlson tenor player. MG

Like other tenor players in the sixties, Land had what we used to call a 'Coltrane retread'. Frank Foster did, too. MG

Yes, so have I. Not horrendous covers, but just dull. I never heard of the one the video was taken from, before, though. MG

Thanks, Jim. MG

OH, just went down to #9 on that chart to find 'Snap your fingers' by Joe Henderson (a vocalist). And there's a photo of Joe Henderson, the jazz saxophonist, beside it. And beneath it is the news that 'Sax great Joe Henderson dies'. That Billboard would get that wrong is really something else! Good record. I still have it on a 45. They should have asked me MG

I think you're thinking of the Adult COntemporary chart. I don't think that was around in the sixties - I think it was later. Nope, wrong Just went onto the Billboard site and the Adult COntemporary chart and looked through the chart archives. There was no chart in June 1961, but there was in JUne 1962. Ray Charles' 'I can't stop loving you' was number one that week. http://www.billboard.com/charts/adult-contemporary#/charts/adult-contemporary?chartDate=1962-06-13 MG

What effin LP IS this? Picture won't show. Playing Etta James, with Cleanhead Vinson, Jack McDuff, Red Holloway, Shuggie Otis et al. Just finished the CD of set 1 , 'Blues in the night' and had to go onto this set. MG Edit to say, I bet it's LOu DOnaldson's "Sassy soul strut" or "Sweet Lou".

I agree about Stanley. He, like Jaws, Fathead and Teddy Edwards, never really 'improved' - they continued doing what they did suprbly all their lives. I don't agree about Milt Jackson, though. To me, Milt started out as pure Bebop player but, from the late fifties on, he expanded his horizons greatly, taking on Soul Jazz and swing and making wonderful records with Ray CHarles, Stanley Turrentine, Cannonball, Horace SIlver, Wes Montgomery, Gene Harris, Hawk and others. And, of course, in a different direction, the MJQ. The more Milt I hear, the more I hear a man with a completely open mind about music. And that's a later development. MG

That's pretty funny. It should be "Mose Allison Plays and Sings Cynical Songs for Lovers Who Are About to Break Up." Includes, I Told Ya I Loved Ya, Now Get Out. Prestige put out a fair number of '... plays for lovers' LPs. DIdn't know about this one, though. MG

Nice session, if not exactly magic. I think, like other BN musicians who felt they were undervalues (ie underpaid) at BN, he slid off to get more money. MG

Good. Actually, even better. MG

Thanks Jim, that was great! I didn't know that was a CD - one more Marr I haven't got. Must remedy that. I've never seen him in action, either. I loved the Jimmy McGriff 'MG blues' interpolation he gave. 'City lights' is of course, a McGriff tunel MG

Yes. A lot of tenor players. Arnett Cobb; Illinois Jacquet; Jug (though he was only 48 when he died, so does the sixties and seventies stuff count as being aged?); Jimmy Forrest; Willis Jackson; not sure about Jaws, but definitely Griff. Dr LOnnie SMith; Gene Ludwig; Wild Bill Davis; Big JOhn Patton. Lionel Hampton; Milt Jackson. MG Oh, about Teddy Edwards - I'm not sure he ever got old Or David Newman.

Been listening to lots of recently acquired 2CD sets of African stuff most of the day, but now two uproarious Hamps that I got a few weeks ago Lionel Hampton - Chicago jazz concert - Columbia (CBS) Lionel Hampton - Hamp - CLef (Music for Pleasure) MG

I'm toying with the idea of getting this, but I've got a 4 disc Quadromania set. Crap package, probably crap sound, too, but loads of good music. WHat do you think of this box, Jeff? MG

Oh, that's really appetising, thanks Steve. MG

The reason for crap food in schools is the primacy of market forces. 20 years ago school meals were regulated to ensure a balanced diet. Catering is now run privately (in my school we are locked into a company who won the tender to build a great new eating area but got X years providing the food in return). Although there are some limitations and 'healthy meal' options are available, kids now get 'choice'. Guess what they choose. We always had a choice, too. But I guess in the fifties the beefburger hadn't taken over the world, so no one offered it to us. But a couple of times a week, you could have sausage, mash & beans or peas if you didn't want S&K pie, mash & beans or similar MG

I had no idea who Bernie Brightman was, but your post made me laugh so much I could not resist a quick search. And I see he was responsible for 'Reefer Songs'. A classic LP in many a young persons jazz journey I suspect. And he never paid royalties - alledgedly BTW I wish Bob Porter would post here. I have really enjoyed his recollections on many re-issue liner notes he has written. I remember reading he was going to write a book, but I suppose it never eventuated. I keep meaning to check out his radio show over the net, but keep forgetting. I think I met Bob Porter in the mid '70s - maybe earlier. He hated the music I recorded (really hated) and was not an admirer of Von Freeman (he later bragged to me about all the edits he made to the Willis Jackson/Von Freeman date issued on Muse). In spite of this we became friends and probably ate/drank together around 3 times a year for quite a while. I even stayed in his basement for a night or two. Bob is a great guy who believes Roscoe, Lester, Braxton and more of my friends are a sign of the end of the world. Bob has a large, resonant voice as you might be able to tell from his radio shows. At one of these indie conventions he saw me across the hotel lobby and shouted "Nessa! After recording all the shit you put out, how could you make the record of the year!! The Warne Marsh is a Mother Fucker!!" Bob also wrote the notes for my Lucky Thompson release. I wish we lived closer together so we could have an occasional beer or two. Bob was the BEST producer of Soul Jazz albums. The musicians who recorded under his supervision generally made their best records with him. I think I have every Soul Jazz album he ever produced. MG

You're right for now. But maybe you're not old enough to remember when school meals were (for the most part - I hated semolina) pretty good - decent food and enough of it. And I think that, over the last fifty odd years, the price of food hasn't risen as fast as prices generally, so there seems no reason for crap food apart from disproportionate budget cuts. MG

Money sent with many thanks, Jim. MG

Thanks, I'll try that in a bit. MG

You mean, put that www.akhaba.com address in my browser? Will it work? Thanks Pete. MG

Well, I've done a bit of research into the Les McCann material. It looks, on the face of it, to be a bit of a potch, but thinking about it, Mr Pujol has done a reasonable job. The Truth This includes the whole ofthe LP 'The truth' plus: both sides of a 45 recorded at the first 'Truth' session but never issued on LP or CD; 3 tracks from the LP 'Bag of gold' (one of the few McCann LPs I don't have) which, according to the sleeve blurb, are supposed to have been recorded live (which doesn't fit in with the studio stuff which the rest of the set contains); and the two tacks featuring Booby Hutcherson (one with CUrtis Amy) issued on a VA compilation on PJ13 and the CD release of 'Les McCann in New York' The Shout This includes the whole of the LP 'The shout' plus: one more track from PJ13 (trio only); and 3 tracks from 'From the top of the barrel' (which I've always thought were part of his New York sessions at the Village Gate - so does RObert Freed, author of the Les McCann unofficial discography. Oh well, maybe Mr Pujol is correct.) In San Francisco This includes the whole of the LP 'In San Francisco' plus the other 4 tracks from 'From the top of the barrel', which I thought were recorded in the Jazz Workshop and are probably from the same session. This isn't too bad. There's a CD of early studio cuts (all from 1960, I think) and two live CDs, dealing with Los Angeles (maybe) and San Francisco (almost certainly). I'll certainly go for 'The truth'. My copy on Vogue was heavily second hand, when I got it in 1966, and I've played it a LOT since then. So it's no better than it should be I'll probably get the others, too. MG