The Magnificent Goldberg

Just finished playing Now starting I've liked Bill Black's Combo since 1959 - never sold 45s of 'Smokie', or 'Rollin'' MG

Los Virtuosos - El Brujo MG

This afternoon, ladies from Mali Two by Hawa Drame, one with a K7 sleeve And one without! Coumba Sidibe Sadio Kouyate And Sanoudie Kouyate MG

Breakfast with Abou Djouba Deh - Yewende Don Patterson - Mellow soul Dexter Gordon - At Montreux with Junior Mance MG

Thank you Joe. I think, for the sake of having a correct one, I might buy the CD. MG Recorded Aug 1961! It didn't come out until 1963. Looking at the master numbers on Discogs, 'Cool train' seems to have been recorded a lot later than that. Perhaps they were waiting for a suitable B side? That seems horrendously unlikely, though. Well, no wonder I didn't dig the A side as much as the B side. MG

Is your version from a CD or the LP? Mine's from the LP and has a fault. It's SUPPOSED to be there, as there's an apology for it on the sleeve - Dunno how to do this - I'm trying to upload 2 image files of 312KB and it tells me I'm only allowed to upload 4.88MB. Will try in another post No, it won't do it. Duh!!!! MG So, has yours got a skip at the beginning of (I seem to remember) side 2 (but maybe it's side 1)? Well, it does it if I edit the post!!!! MG

Had a jack McDuff afternoon I got a woman Live The concert McDuff Brother Jack at the Jazz Workshop live Screamin' The honeydripper Finishing up with and now Now going on to Johnny 'Hammond' Smith I haven't been playing any of these McDuff or JHS albums for a good while. An overdose of B3 is good for you, once in a while. MG

Yeah! MG

Can we only get it by streaming? I couldn't see a download when I looked just now. MG

Yes. And Save your love for me They all say I'm the greatest fool Please Mr Johnson I wonder where our love has gone Baby don't you cry You'll get them blues Let's beat out some love I don't care who knows (baby I'm yours) Let's start all over again etc etc MG Yes, I think it is. I don't think it came out on CD. I only started focusing on him in 2006. Until then, I'd only got one album he co-led with Lou Donaldson plus the odd sideman appearance. I decided, after a bit of exploration, that he was one of the great masters of the piano trio. I've got twenty-one of his now and enjoy them a lot. I just looked up mentions of Jimmy Smith in BFT's (phew, what a task!) And the funny thing is - of the six times his material has been included, I was responsible three times!!!!! But they were odd ones - one which was mainly a Marlena Shaw vocal, another which was mainly a Jimmy Smith vocal, and 'Summertime' as a duet with Lou Donaldson. So that's my excuse. The other three times have been pretty odd stuff, too. BFT's 137, 109, 74, 73, 58 and 39. MG

Well, Jimmy Smith would be too easy on a BFT. Has anyone ever put JOS into a BFT? Dunno. MG

Is it any good? MG She looks like she's on the sea, surfing on a bearskin. Surreal! Do we all know about this one? This was my first encounter with Gerald Wislon, in 1963. It was the B side of a minor hit also with Wislon - Frankie & Johnny'. I've always wished I hadn't got rid of it, but it's nice to listen on YouTube occasionally. MG

I'm glad you found that interesting. Buddy Johnson was one of the big name leaders of big bands that served mainly (though not exclusively) the black community in the thirties, forties and early fifties. The other big ones were Erskine Hawkins and Lucky Millinder (as leader of Mills Blue Rhythm Band and then his own band, that he bought from Bill Doggett). Lionel Hampton played both sides of the fence with equal success. Those bands were the main incubators of R&B musicians and the original R&B musical stylings. You may not have NOTICED the name Buddy Johnson in your record collection, but if you look at the composers, you'll find his name on quite a few, I'm pretty certain. Al Casey... You don't have any Fats Waller? Al was Fats' guitarist for years and years, until he died. Worked with Pete Brown later and loads of people. Then, in the late fifties, King Curtis. Guys who were guitarists for famous leaders don't seem to get a lot of recognition. Thornel Schwartz was in the original Jimmy Smith Trio and had been working with Smith for a while, in the period when Smith was getting it together, before Alfred Lion found him. He's also recorded with Groove Holmes, Reuben Wilson, Jack McDuff, Johnny 'Hammond' Smith, Lonnie Smith etc etc. Only Wild Bill Davis and Shirley Scott were off his map. OK, you KNEW him, but not Al... Anyway, there's a hell of a lot of jazz out there and none of us can know it all. MG PS - only three vocals out of fourteen in that one. Songs are important to the audience, because people like singing along, or in the bath or elsewhere.

Yes, the compilation has the same title as the LP but looks like this: I'm sure others have got a fair bit of the BFT. That's why I was surprised at getting so few correct answers. And you DON'T have any Coasters records? Disgusting!!! MG

Well, I'm amazed that this should have turned out to have been so difficult! Here we go, then. 1 The Drive – Let it be me – from LP ‘Slow drive to Soweto’ Atlas City AYL1009, 1971. Personnel aren’t listed but certainly include: Henry Sithole, (ldr, as), Bunny Luthuli (g), and probably also: David Sithole (tp), Stanley Sithole (ts, bars), Bheki Mseleku (kbds) (Now THERE’S a name you’ll all know!), Tony Sauli (b), Nelson Magwaza (d). The band was started in 1971 and this cut comes from their first album. They played non-African kinds of music, which in itself was a protest against Apartheid; soul jazz & R&B. It came to an end when Henry and Bunny, the founders, were killed in a car crash in 1976, two weeks after recording their final album. There’s a lot of background about the band and the social scene in which it existed here http://electricjive.blogspot.com/2015/01/slow-drive-to-soweto-1974.html 2 Nat Simkins, Buddy Tate & Houston Person – Ain’t misbehavin’ – from CD ‘Just friends’ Muse MCD5418 Nat Simpkins, Buddy Tate, Houston Person (ts), Stan Hope (p), Major Holley (b), Grady Tate (d) RVG’s 15 Feb 1990. Produced by Houston Person. This track is one I love to play to people who don’t really think much of soul jazz. It was Nat Simpkins’ first recording and he who took the cover photo – why he didn’t give the camera to Rudy, I don’t know. 3 Thornel Schwartz – You won’t let me go – from LP ‘Soul cookin’’ Argo LP704 Thornel Schwartz (g), Bill Leslie (ts), Larry Young (listed as Lawrence Olds) (org), Jerome Thomas (d) RVG’s 4 Sep 1962. Produced by Esmond Edwards. Well, some well known names here on an, apparently, unknown album. Thornel recorded with every major jazz organist except Wild Bill Davis and Shirley Scott. Except for the drummer, this is the same band that had made Larry Young’s ‘Groove Street’ LP for Prestige eight months earlier. 4 Red Garland – Halleloo-Y’all – from LP ‘Halleloo-Y’all’ Prestige PR7288 Red Garland (org), Sam Jones (b), Art Taylor (d) RVG’s 15 Jul 1960. Produced by Esmond Edwards. Anybody NOT know any of these guys very well indeed? Yeah, it’s not typical and Red’s organ playing does leave quite a lot to be desired. I can’t imagine Red actually volunteering to play Rudy’s organ off his own bat; Esmond probably said, ‘Hey Red, what about doing this on organ?’, to which Red’s response might have been, ‘Oh well, anything for a buck’. Or maybe not. As far as I know, he never tried it again J The question that occurs to me is that, as all organists left the organ with all the stops set to off or whatever it is, would Red have been playing it like that, or would someone have set the stops for him so it made more or less an organ sound? 5 Hank Crawford – Makin’ whoopee – from LP ‘After hours’ Atlantic SD1455 Hank Crawford (p), Charles ‘Flip’ Green (b), Milt Turner (d) New York, 17 Nov 1965. Produced by Nesuhi Ertegun & Arif Mardin. Wait for it… 6 So wonderful – Calvin Newborn – from LP ‘From the hip’ Rooster Jazz RJ0148 Calvin Newborn (g), Hank Crawford (p), Steve McCraven (d), Harvey Weston (b), Danny Adler (rh g) Wave Studios, London, 18 Aug 1982. Produced by Rooster Records & Calvin Newborn. ‘From the hip’ was recorded while Calvin and Hank were doing a European tour with David Newman. I saw them at the time at Ronnie Scott’s. If my memory serves, McCraven and Weston were in the band at Ronnie’s. Calvin tore the place up with a seemingly never-ending solo after David had played just the tune of ‘Everything must change’. David was grinning broadly, listening to Calvin wail for seven or eight minutes. I’ve always liked Hank’s piano playing which sounds absolutely basic to me with no clever stuff at all. I can’t remember when I first heard Calvin’s playing. It was in the mid sixties, either on Sun Ra’s ‘Secrets of the sun’ or Freddie Roach’s ‘All that’s good’. Either way, he made an immediate impression on me. 7 Willow weep for me – Al Casey – from the LP Jumpin’ with Al’ Black & Blue 33056 Al Casey (g), Jay McShann (p), Roland Lobligeois (b), Paul Gunther (d) Bordeaux, France, 18 Jul 1973. Al Casey’s another old favourite of mine, since the days he was working in the King Curtis band. But he was around forever; Lord has noted 210 sessions on which he was present, which probably doesn’t include a lot of R&B work in the forties. He goes back to well before any of Django’s records came out in the USA; his first recording session was in May 1934, with Fats Waller. 8 Huracan – Cal Tjader – From ‘Huracan’ Crystal Clear CCS8003 Cal Tjader (vib), Willie Bobo (timbales), Clare Fischer (el p), Rob Fisher (b), Gary Foster (as, fl), Ronald King (tp), Kurt McGettrick (bars), Victor Pantoja (bgo, cowbell), Alex Rodriguez (tp), Frank Rosolino (tbn), Pancho Sanchez (cga), Rick Zunigar (g) Filmways-Heider studios, LA, 22 or 23 Mar 1978. Produced by Ed Wodenjak. This was the first album I ever got by Cal Tjader. I got it in 1982 in Kelly’s secondhand shop in Cardiff Market. It was marked at five pounds. I opened it up and it was pristine! I also noticed that it was a 45, so I took it to the owner and said he’d priced it wrong; he ought to be charging what he charge for 12 in 45s – one pound. ‘Oh yes’ he said, and gave it to me for a pound! I’d never heard a direct disc record before. At home later, I put it on my turntable and WHAP!!!!! I’d never heard anything that LEAPED out of the speakers at me to match it. I think the world missed great sound in not buying these direct disc records, but they WERE expensive. And I don’t recall any other albums in which I had the very faintest interest. This is a rip from my own copy. I wish I could have ripped it as a .flac but I’m not set up so that would be possible even if I had the correct gear. So you’ve got an ordinary mp3. Still, it sounds wonderful to me, even on my computer. 9 Way back home – Gladys McFadden and the Loving Sisters – from ‘Gospel soul’ Peacock PY59236 Gladys McFadden lead voc, voc arr), Anna James, Josephine Dumas, Lorraine Leeks, Barbara Hyder (bk voc), Leonard C Givens (kbds, bk voc), John Malone (d), Larry James (Anna’s son) (b), Tonya Leeks (fl), Claude Snyder (tp), Willie Basso (sax), John Minnick (string & horn arr). Produced by Gladys McFadden. Pinnacle Sound, Little Rock, Ark, 1978. The Loving Sisters go way back. Gladys, Anna, Josephine and Lorraine were all daughters of Pastor Aaron Williams. Gladys (b 1934) formed the group in 1942. At that time, it included one of her sisters, as well as a friend and HER sister. The group worked around the Lonoke area (east of Little Rock) and did radio shows from there. They didn’t record until they were discovered in 1962 by one of the Pilgrim Jubilee Singers and brought to Peackock. ‘Gospel Soul’ was their last album. Gladys was still alive in 2010, when one of her tracks was included in a best selling gospel compilation. You can read a bit about the group here http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=8207 I first heard the group in the mid-sixties when I started getting gospel 45s acquired by a friend of a friend, through a dealer in ex-jukebox records in Birmingham, Ala. Their sound and style was really from the forties and fifties, but the time for acapella groups had gone, so they made the records that were selling in those days. 10 Bitter sweet – Buddy Johnson – single Mercury 70656 (ripped from Bear Family box ‘Buddy & Ella Johnson 1953-64’ BCD15479) Ricky Harper, Willis Nelson, Andrew Wood (tpt), Steve Pulliam, Julius Watson (tbn), Harold ‘Geezil’ Minerve (as), Johnny Burdine, Purvis Henson (ts), Teddy ‘Cherokee’ Conyers (bars), Buddy Johnson (p), Chauncey "Lord" Westbrook (g), Leon Spann (b), Emmanuel Simms (d) New York 15 Dec 1954 Well, I’ve put Buddy Johnson on a BFT or two before but no one guesses the band’s identity. I love that band; apart from Duke Ellington, it was the only big band that survived from the thirties into the sixties. Probably due, as with Ellington, to the royalties Buddy was getting from his songs. Like Ellington, Buddy’s band was still getting plenty of touring work in the fifties, but backing up R&B package shows. I think that’s not inappropriate because Buddy WAS the main developer of the blues ballad, which became a mainstay of the R&B of the forties and fifties. And, unlike Duke, he was having hit singles until 1957, which no doubt helped with the money. The alto player, Harold ‘Geezil’ Minerve, worked in the Ellington band later. Seems he didn’t need to be coached in Hodges lines J 11 Summertime - Julie London & the Gerald Wilson Big Band – from ‘Feeling good’ Liberty LRP3416 Julie London (vcl), Jack Wilson (p), Teddy Edwards (ts), John Gray (g), Jimmy Bond (b), Earl Palmer (d), Gerald Wilson (cond) + others Los Angeles, 1965 Well, Jim got this one bang to rights. 12 Mush mouth (instrumental version) (alt take) – Buddy Johnson – from Bear Family box ‘Buddy & Ella Johnson 1953-64’ BCD15479 Willie Nelson, Courtney Williams (tpt) Steve Pulliam, Julius Watson (tbn), Harold ‘Geezil’ Minerve (as), Dave Van Dyke, Purvis Henson (ts), William Crump (bars), Buddy Johnson (p), Jimmy Jackson (g), Leon Spann (b), Emmanuel Simms (d) Chicago Sep 1953 Yes, ANOTHER Buddy Johnson! Get used to it J 13 Gee baby, ain’t I good to you – The Coasters – from ‘The Coasters one by one’ Atco 33-123 Billy Guy (baritone/lead), Carl Gardner (tenor), Will "Dub" Jones (bass), Cornelius "Cornell" Gunter (tenor) with Stan Applebaum (arr/dir), Ellis Larkins (p), Sonny Forriest, Alan Hanlon (g), George Duvivier (b), Don Lamond (d), Phil Kraus (perc/vib), unknown strings New York 15 Jun 1960. I TOLD you, almost everyone in this BFT was well known J I think the Coasters were one of the greatest vocal groups of all time. I’m sure I have all (or damn near) their records. 14 Shake ‘em up – Buddy Johnson – from LP ‘Fine brown frame’ Decca single 27087 (ripped from ‘Buddy Johnson 1947-49’ Chronological Classics 1115) Frank Royal, Andrew Wood, Calvin Strickland, Willis Nelson (tp), Julius Watson, Donald Cole, Steve Pulliam (tb), Joe O'Laughlin, Harold "Geezil" Minerve (as) David Van Dyke, Purvis Henson (ts), Teddy "Cherokee" Conyers (bars), Buddy Johnson (p), Bernie MacKay (g), Leon Spann (b), Emmanuel Simms (d) New York, 27 Dec 1949 Will he EVER stop? J MG

Interesting. MG

Manny Riggins impressed the hell out of me. I wish he'd recorded more, especially with someone like Grant Green, who got him, because Riggins got HIM, too. I think Riggins is an undiscovered genius. MG

MG

You all been playing some damn nice albums this morning. MG

MG

Yes, the band on #10 has a number of interesting points of comparison to Ellington's. Yes, I agree with everything you've said about 12 & 14, Bill MG

The Colortune trade mark has been stuck on over the Decca one on the front. But the label says Colortune. Underneath it are the words 'Original recording and licensed by Decca Records Inc, New York, USA. But the edge says Colortune DL 8672. I don't think this was quite as expensive as a budget label I suspect it was made for racks. MG

That's very interesting - I never saw any of those orig cast albums over here. And I never saw any of those Duke Ellington LPs. Yeah, Lenny Dee!!!! MG PS - I've a lot of Earl Grant, but I prefer to get downloads so I don't run out of room. I only have one actual Decca LP, of anyone, and that's him. I have another of his on a Decca subsidiary called Colortune (deep groove yet!). It has a Decca number DL8672.

Oh, I assumed Johnny Guitar was a C&W singer. Never thought of Watson. Yes, he IS well known MG Nope. I'm not at all familiar with Raney's playing - it's likely I've NEVER heard him - so I don't know if that's a good guess or not. MG

I didn't know it was as early as 1962 Well, well. I also never had any Duke Ellington records on Decca. Never even KNEW Ellington ever recorded for Decca. Were those records reissues from the days when Brunswick was part of ARC? A lot of the Brunswick catalogue went to Decca, as Jack Kapp had signed artists like Crosby, Andrews sisters and several others to him personally, rather than to Brunswick and, when he started up the US subsidiary of UK Decca in 1934, took those people to US Decca with him. I've only got one LP on Decca; Earl Grant's 'Gently swingin'', which is from 1968. It seems to me that Decca, some time in the late fifties, had stopped behaving like a major. But I'm not sure they ever HAD behaved like a major. Got to remember, the record industry was in a continuous state of crisis from 1921 to 1949, when sales finally and permanently passed their 1921 level. Each time sales began to recover, another crisis would hit. 1921 Florida Land Boom collapses with big recession/depression 1925 Radio Christmas 1929-34 Stock Market crash; the great depression 1942 Shellac rationing 1942 First Musicians Union strike 1948 Second Musicians Union strike In a continuous crisis like this, a firm can only survive by concentrating on its most profitable work. Crisis management the whole way through. Even Columbia went bust and was purchased by its erstwhile UK subsidiary, then sold to ARC who closed it down and focused on Brunswick/Vocalion for sales rather than Columbia/Okeh. CBS bought it in 1938 and revived it. Plans for US Decca must have been made a long time before 1934, or Kapp wouldn't have been ready with those artists. But Kapp immediately started by undercutting the other two companies' prices and really focusing on the most popular material or artists with that potential. But that's NOT behaving like a major; it's behaving like an indie, finding a niche that you can fill well and working at it. And it's not how the other companies were behaving. A major record company has to do all things very well and quite a lot, not just make a token effort: Pop Classical Jazz R&B C&W Latin Original casts/soundtracks Was Decca making classical records in the thirties and forties? Latin? original casts? I think not. Great in pop and big in jazz, of course, good in the burgeoning R&B sector. Don't know about C&W, but I think the label was probably well visible there. During the forties, however, two things happened. MGM started a record company and it had oceans of loot. And was into everything, I think, particularly soundtracks of course. And two indies with aspirations - Capitol and Mercury - had started up. And, by the early fifties, the indies had pretty well knocked all the majors (except for Capitol which at that period hadn't been acquired by EMI and WAS still an indie, albeit one that behaved like a major) out of the jazz and R&B markets. (Yeah, OK, Columbia had Miles and Brubeck and made shed-loads of money from them - but that was LATER; THEN, Miles was at Prestige, Brubeck at Fantasy.) But LPs brought in new categories of music: easy listening/hi-fi (the latter of which Command seems to have sewn up); and what later became known as adult/contemporary. That period brought the start of TTK's preferred obsession. And ABC Paramount and Warner Bros came in at the end of the fifties, and Sinatra joined WB with Reprise in 1960. Reprise HAD the world's greatest in adult/contemporary. And Warner Bros GOT a group one would really have expected Decca to have gone for in a big way - The Everly Brothers. That WB could have put more cash on the table than Decca isn't surprising. Decca might also have been expected to go for Ray Charles in 1960. What were they doing? Not acting like a major. Perhaps they really weren't very good it that game. I think they DID pay big bucks for Ricky Nelson in 1963 and didn't make seven fortunes a week on THAT deal (though Nelson was always there - just not THERE). As you said Jim, they COULD make the big bucks, but they couldn't keep a stream of it coming along as the others could. Or couldn't be arsed, because MCA wasn't demanding it, being busy getting their feet under the table. I dunno. MG