The Magnificent Goldberg

This afternoon Benny Golson - California message - Baystate Freddie Hubbard - Backlash - Atlantic (80s pressing, I think) Etta James - Tell mama - Cadet (Pye UK) Earl Grant - Nothin' but the blues - Decca (Brunswick France) Getting two of Earl's LPs the other week, made me go back to this one - damn fine. Lovely Plas. MG

My vinyl doesn't stick. Nor does the Mosaic When I used to get this back in the day, I bunged half a crown or a florin on the tone arm. That always did the trick MG

The last 2 of my Dakota Staton order turned up Ms Soul - Groove merchant (Beast Retro) Dakota st Storyville - Capitol (Collectables) Terrific stuff!!!! Glad I'm getting back into Dakota. Got 13 now! MG

George Braith. Anything. MG

It's unusual for a typo to be repeated nine times on the original LP and again in the sleeve note to the follow-up MG

Does Lloyd sing "Take out the papers and the trash!"? MG

Derailment coming! "Googa mooga", though credited to Roach, was actually written by Lou Bennett and recorded for Dawn in the fifties, before he went to France. MG

I love this session. It came out in Europe as a 2 LP set on Vogue called "Hey Lock!" That starts off with some of Jaws' first tenor/organ recordings done for Royal Roost in about 1950 (date uncertain). Then 3 sides of the Birdland session. I quite like Doc Bagby. But I do like the pre-Smith players a lot and Doc had a lot of gospel in his soul - he'd been the musical director for Gotham Records in Philly and supervised a lot of their gospel recordings. And don't forget when this was recorded - 1954. Shirley wasn't in the picture at all. She hadn't even joined that trio with Trane then. Who was there around in the New York area who could have laid some other kind of backing down? Wild Bill was back and forth between NY & LA and contracted to OkeH/Epic anyway. Milt was doing the same and feels quite wrong for this type of thing anyway. Doggett was all over the country and contracted to King. Hank Marr was out in Columbus (and may not have taken up the organ at that stage). Tommy Dean was the only one I think who would have made the session really FLY - and he was in St Louis. Doc was almost certainly the best guy available in the area at the time. MG

Tam O'shanter The Television Toppers Trilby

Dakota Staton - Darling please save your love for me - Muse (Posting two, because they're small ) This is a 1991 album produced by Houston Person with Bill Easley on sax and Bross Townsend on piano. Very nice! Wish I'd bought these Muse albums when they came out. Dakota's chops are still what they were in 1957! Dakota Staton - Time to swing - Capitol (DRG) Another terrific set of small bands behind Dakota - including Taft Jordan, Joe Wilder, Phil Woods, Budd Johnson, Jerome Richardson, Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones, George Duvivier, DOn Lamond. This is from summer of 1959. Dakota Staton - More than the most - Capitol (Collectables) No personnel listed on this, but good alto and tenor sax solos. Perhaps Budd Johnson is on this but not Woods, I'd guess. Autumn of 1959, this was done. This one was the first Soul Jazz album I ever bought, back in 1960. My landlady's cat thought it was wonderful to watch the record going around and jumped on it one day. It's taken me a long time to get around to buying a replacement Two more Dakotas still in the post! MG

Nice. Thanks for sharing, Chuck. MG

Little & Large Morecambe & Wise The Two Ronnies

The Chakachas Chaka Kahn Rufus

I wish there was a complete Bobby Bland Duke compilation. I've never heard anything from this period that's not very well worth listening to. One for Mosaic? MG

I'm just down from you in Cardiff I expect we've rubbed shoulders in Spillers, then MG

Glad it wasn't just me. I almost wonder if it was a tongue-in-cheek thing... a little joke... maybe an inside joke... but as you said, to me, all these years later and miles away, it was just a WTF? moment. I hadn't heard that track before, but the band singing that little "Johnny Otis, Johnny Otis" thing is kind of a cliché with him. I can't remember any titles offhand, but I've got one or two, maybe more, of Johnny's cuts with that sung at the end. Recognised it immediately. MG

Speaking of Roberta Flack, the "best track" I've heard lately (in fact, I've been somewhat _obsessed_ with it lately): Hampton Hawes, "At The Piano", "Killing Me Softly With His Song"... Credit where credit is due: Ethan Iverson's blog (Do The Math) has mentioned this record more than once.... also, see (via DTM): JazzWax That's one of my favourite Hamp albums. MG

Missed it! But I hope you have a good year. MG

I'm not a prospective buyer, but where the heck are you, Phil? MG

Playing my new Earl Grants The versatile Earl Grant - Decca (Colortune DG) This one is definitely a good Earl Grant to pick up cheap; even better on a second listen. Some real nice Plas Johnson and a nice solo by unidentified guitarist who may have been one of the West Coast well known players (1958) or perhaps someone in the Ernie Freeman ambit. Trade winds - Decca (Brunswick UK) This too is even better second time around. The treatment of "Quiet village" is definitely appropriate to accompany a stripper - and so is "Sweet Leilani", would you believe? Lots of nice Plas in this one, too. But the overall message is pretty lounge, still, but with quirks. I bet TTK would go for this one. MG

Looks good. Is Betty Harris' "Nearer to you" on that? Crazy if it ain't. Don't know about routinely. I have 3 now and he's on them all. I checked the Lord discography but mostly they don't state personnel on the sleeves, so he follows that. A long time ago, I saw a video of Earl and his band playing a long number in a black dance hall. He was sure moving those dancers around! And Plas was there, too. There's a LOT more to Earl Grant than lounge; but ignoring the lounge isn't necessarily a good idea, I've found. Oh, and if you find his 1962 45 on Decca of "Sweet sixteen bars" (yes, the Ray Charles number), don't fail to buy it, will you? Wish I'd kept mine. MG

Victoria Hart Dora, the Singing Waitress The Singing Waitresses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvGGzxcSal0

Struth! MG

Gene Ludwig - 4 September 1937, Twin Rocks, PA MG