The Magnificent Goldberg

I have talk talk too. A couple of years ago, I had a crash and had to reload everything, and get reconnected again, with talk talk's help. It was so difficult that the angineer had to put me onto someone who actually knew what they were doing. And after trying to get a decent service through to me, he asked what brand of wireless dongle I was using (10+ year old technology). I told him and he said that it wasn't one they supported. So I asked which ones they did support and they told me, only one. Well, I can't get one of those. It's such a fag upgrading, but I suppose I'll have to do it one day... MG

I didn't know that was on CD. Anyone got details? MG

Years (perhaps decades) ago, I saw the Belter label mentioned in a list of something. Wasn't sure whether it was a misprint or what. Anyway, I thought Belter Records was a terrific name for a company. A name to file away in the bit of my mind where I keep mythical company names like Evan Escent Investments Inc; Corporal Motors Corp; and, recently, Nigerian Internet Scams Pty. You can almost hear the Proddy Belfast accent - "Sure, that's a belter!" Just before Christmas, I picked up in the Cardiff second hand shop a copy of Milt Buckner's 'Them there eyes' on Black & Blue; a wonderful album featuring Buddy Tate. To my surprise, when I opened it, it was on this Belter label. So it's not mythical. It's Spanish. So, do any of our Spanish members know anything about this firm? Did they concentrate on jazz? Are they still around? MG

I saw him in 1997 in St Louis, Senegal and he was DYNAMIC!!!!! I saw him a couple of years later (shortly after 'Mbeddemi' came out) at the Barbican, London, and he was weak as gnat's pee. I suspect he makes records specially for white people (as they say out there). MG

Since 2000, it's been SONNY STITT JIMMY SMITH HOUSTON PERSON JUNIOR MANCE GRANT GREEN DAVID NEWMAN BROTHER JACK MCDUFF LES MCCANN DR LONNIE SMITH WILLIS 'GATOR TAIL' JACKSON GENE AMMONS STANLEY TURRENTINE CHARLES EARLAND NAT ADDERLEY JIMMY MCGRIFF SHIRLEY SCOTT EDDIE 'LOCKJAW' DAVIS RICHARD 'GROOVE' HOLMES LOU DONALDSON MILT JACKSON A list like that really reflects 1 what I've been buying over the period and 2 which artists I have most records by anyway. Sidemen aren't counted in this list. I guess Idris Muhammad, Bernard Purdie and Grant Green would be at the top if they were. MG

In response to a request, I’ll put down a few more albums, that I hadn’t heard when I did the original list. The Fabulous Counts – Jan Jan – Cotillion Sonny Stitt – Primitivo soul – Prestige Ramsey Lewis – In Chicago – Argo Ramsey Lewis – Hang on Ramsey – Cadet Perri Lee – A night at Count Basie’s – Roulette Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis & Bill Doggett – Midnight slows vol 10 – Black & Blue Shirley Scott – Superstition – Cadet Groove Holmes – Onsaya joy Ramsey Lewis – Goin’ Latin – Cadet Jimmy McGriff – A bag full of blues – Solid State Milt Buckner & Buddy Tate – Them there eyes – Black & Blue I've been listening to a lot of Ramsey Lewis over the last year and I've found that I've under-appreciated him in the past. MG

Well, last year (2010) I got the Ahmad Jamal Mosaic and have been playing it tons during the year (also Argo/Cadet material by another famous pianist ) Will Mosaic issue a box of Ramsey Lewis' early stuff? Gerrrrcher! And I got the Armstrong Decca Mosaic in June. So I didn't bother with Mosaic this Christmas. I got Ray Charles - Singular genius: the complete ABC singles 1960-1972 I got a good few of Ray's early ABC singles, but then decided the Atlantic material was much better, so I gave up on him. While most of the tracks I decided were duff forty-something years ago are still just as duff now, what I missed, which this set provides, are the B sides. Some of those B sides are effin' masterpieces! I relish, in particular, his revival of Chuck Jackson's hit, 'I wake up crying' with an incredible arrangement by Gerald Wilson. Bert Bacharach could never have imagined this. 5 CDs and a not too bad note from Billy Vera, decent discographical info, good packaging. I could have done with the notes noting the pop and R&B chart positions of each cut, but that's a very minor quibble. And, amazingly, it's Concord who have brought this out. They've also brought out a two CD set of all 4 of Ray's jazz albums from the sixties-seventies - Genius+soul=jazz; My kind of jazz; Jazz II; and My kind of jazz part 3 (which was on Crossover not ABC). I've been looking for Jazz II for years. Some very nice Teddy Edwards in there. MG

This is a fave of mine - kinda old school, I think. (As far as I'm aware, that is...) Have you tried listening to any Ghanian highlife - E.T. Mensah, for one? The style started in Ghana; their version is a lot mellower than the Nigerian version, I think. Also: http://highlifeturntable.blogspot.com/ This blogger really knows his stuff! Thanks for that link, Seeline. I've been listening to a lot of Nigerian and Ghanaian music this year. Osadebe was the most played African artist in my collection last year. Followed by Chief Commander Ebeneezer Obey, Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou (from Benin), I K Dairo, Bembeya Jazz, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Admiral Dele Abiodun and Laba Sosseh (from the Gambia). I've been wonderfully thrilled recently by the Ghanaian band Jerry Hansen & the Ramblers (aka The Ramblers and Ramblers International). Though on one of their LPs, there's a version of Eddie Floyd's 'Knock on wood' that is so execrable that it's almost, but not quite, charming. MG

Savoy bought an Ammons session and maybe a Leo Parker - not at home to check. All the rest is owned by Delmark. You should check out their catalog. Savoy also bought a great wodge of gospel stuff from States - possibly all of the Caravans' material. That's now owned by Malaco. MG

Glad you like it, and you're right about one of the saxophonists - Sonny Stitt. The other one is not James Spaulding, but that's a great guess - that probably would have been my guess if I was hearing this cold. Is the other sac player Charles McPherson? Bunky Green, goddamn!!!! From Soul in the Night. OBO110X MG No it's not. It's Robin Kenyatta, In the bag, from Deuces wild. Well, I knew I had it. Encore OBO110X MG

BFT94 1 Sounds like Ammons. Gene, not Albert. I don’t quite recognise the tune and, without playing through seventy-three hours of Jug, I don’t know what it is. Except it’s probably not Jug. 2 ‘Ain’t misbehaving’ but surely not Fats Waller on piano. That would be a bit too obvious. Well, the guitarist does sound like Al Casey. And a nice tenor player. The whole thing’s really nice. The tenor player has something of a modern sound, so I think this isn’t what I think it is. 3 Not my cup of tea. Nice intro, but all that spiky stuff from the alto player gets on my nerves a bit. I think I’m often on Eddie Condon’s side – does it go down the ear like broken glass or like honey? But even when I want some broken glass, I don’t ever want this. Is the tune ‘Round midnight?’ 4 Oh, Klezmer! Well, I should have expected some, shouldn’t I? Now, let’s see if they go into a bit of Afrobeat. No; well I don’t know who it is, then. 5 Now, here’s a nice nervous bit of broken glass that I think I’d like rather a lot on those special days. On second thoughts, it lacks a certain presence – Big Jay McNeely’s, I think. 6 New Orleans early forties band, I suspect. Wunnerful!!!! Fabulous!!!!! 7 ‘You’ve changed’ by a nice trombonist. Is it Britt Woodman? Well, very pleasant but I think you had to be there. 8 Modern musicians pretending to be cheerful entertainer chappies. I can always do without this, sorry. It’s not Les Paul on guitar, is it – it’s someone pretending to be him. 9 Damn! The title escapes me. Is it ‘Clarinet marmalade’? Oh, a rather nice clarinet player, too. And trumpet player. Everyone’s good. Is that a different clarinet player or the same one having another go? An accordion? Sacré blue! Or Sacré orange, I suppose. 10 Well, pretty good musicians and a pretty good performance with nothing wrong with it, except it doesn’t sound like anything in particular. So my guess would be an academic band of some kind. 11 Time for a quick ciggie. 12 Interesting. I’ll guess Pee Wee Russell in his kind of modern phase. Haven’t heard any of his recordings in this vein, so I don’t really know. Damn good pianist, too. I think I want to buy this one. 13 Well, a different clarinet player. This is kind of interesting, too. Joe Henderson type tenor player but doesn’t have the right sound. Perhaps it’s Bennie Maupin. Well, I dunno. There was some marimba player – British I think, but from the West Indies somewhere – who used to play modern music wearing a bowler hat – other clothes as well. His music was interesting, too, but not really all that interesting. Like this. 14 Another accordion! This one must be French. I really like this quite a bit. Wonder who it is. It isn’t as old as it sounds. 15 Oh, I know this one. Well, I don’t, but I’ve got it. Somewhere. Come on organist, let’s hear ya! Well, he sounds like a somewhat hesitant Charles Earland. The tune is based on ‘Impressions’ I think. I dunno. It’s a mystery. Or maybe it’s a Charles Earland tribute band… 16 Oh, a groove thing! Sounds like Gil Scott-Heron. Now it doesn’t. Well, I doubt if Gil would have included all that gospel stuff, so I don’t know. Very nice, though. I’m looking forward to finding out who this is. Some really nice stuff in here, Jeff. Thanks very much. Now for a look at what everyone else has said... MG

Well, it is wrong! I just went back to my original spreadsheet on which I'd listed the albums and I found that the numbering of the rows (not my numbering, Excell's) skips from 51 - Lonnie SMith's Club Mozambique - to 73, which is Visions. And there's a thick line betwen them. So I fiddled and found out how to find out what's under the thick line and it's a bunch of John Wright and Johnny Griffin albums, left over from the original list which I copied into Excell. And of course, the last row in the spreadsheet is numbered 101, (there's a row of column headings, see?) so I assumed Excell was telling me that I had a hundred. No wonder it was so hard to cut the list down - I could have had twenty-one more If anyone wants my original spreadssheet, with 374 albums in it, send me a note: I'm not allowed to post Excell onto the board for some reason MG

Well, I'm back! Hey, this is interesting. I never heard of this album. Kossie recorded with David Newman on the 'House of David" album (Atlantic). He made two LOs under his own name, as far as I know, and I've never seen either of them. They were 'Modern as tomorrow' on White House and 'Pipes of blue' on Dot. He must be the most unknown organist ever. Even Lionel Pillay is better known MG

I've seen it too. I think it's either in "Honkers & shouters" by Arnold Shaw, or the sleeve notes to a compilation set of R&B records made in Nashville (which I haven't got - but I saved it on the computer but can't remember where). MG

Sorry - it wasn't a dig at you, Reiner. These Andorran firms seem always to rip stuff off other CDs but, if they didn't know MV6 had been on a CD, they must have pinched it off an LP. MG

Martina Martina Martina

Last night Bobby Pierce - Introducing Bobby Pierce - Cobblestone with Pat Martino, Booby Jones (ts), Roy Brooks & Bob Cranshaw on the two vocal tracks. Seems funny for an organist not to be able to handle the bass lines when he's singing. Not an album I play often but, every time I do, I think that I should play it more often. I reckon there are quite a few early seventies LPs in that category. MG

Thanks everyone! It was quiet and pleasant. MG

Also Mel Brown (Guitarist) 7 Oct 1939, Jackson, MS MG

John Chilton's Feetwarmers Ivy Benson and her Burners Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames

Looks good to me - the only album I've got from this set is "Groovy". Everything else I've got of Red is from after this period. Damn good price, too. MG Does that mean they DIDN'T rip tat album from the CD? So it's a vinyl rip? MG

Well, thank you, one and all! No plans for the day, just relaxing, as it's been a bit hair-raising here for a few days. MG

The Barrett Sisters - What shall I render unto God - New Birth MG

Billy Cotton Coffin Ed Johnson Gravedigger Jones

Have a good one! MG