The Magnificent Goldberg

Yeah, my Stepfather's Stepfather had one of those. And a load of jazz 78s his daughter had left when she went to become a professional ice skating chorus girl in South Africa. Also quite a bit of crap like 'Mairsy doates'. MG

Sorry, Larry, but I don't care about quality; I care about likeableness. You KNOW I have a load of crappy records in my collection that I love MG

I agree with Jim about dividers. And the thinner your wood, the closer together your dividers need to be. My main LP rack has half inch thick shelves and dividers every nine inches. It was made for me in 1980 and hasn't given a fraction. MG

I doubt it - I got 'First time out', 'Surging ahead' (my favourite), 'Thesaurus', 'Easy living' and 'Great white hope'. Must get round to ripping them some time, or they'll never get played again. MG

I never got that one. Thought 5 of his was enough. MG

This is down as by Red Holloway in Discogs. Is it REALLY by Red? Curious minds wish to be well informed. MG It's a Johnny Otis job and I know they were mates, and it's not improbable that Red would have worked for Ala. But his name is nowhere on the sleeve.

My copy of 'Shades of Grey' is signed by him. MG

I saw one going 'cheep cheep' in a remainders shop in London once and thought, '$6,000,000 man'? Come off it Groove! Well, If I see another I may get it. After all, I've got this, which I just finished ripping/ Star wars (1977 Versatile) Last, before I turn off the turntable for the evening, Red Holloway - Hittin' the road again. This one never fails to get a play at least once a year or sometimes more often. MG

I like that one, too. Never heard a Holmes I haven't liked. And I think I've got 'em all. MG No, I haven't got 'The 6,000,000 man'. Never heard it, either. Title doesn't seem terribly attractive.

Still rippin'. Now doing Groove Holmes - X77 (PJ, c1970) With Thornel Schwartz, Paul Humphrey and someone called Bob West on electric bass, presumably because the X77 didn't have bass pedals - but would have been more easily transported. It's definitely less groovy and the organ doesn't sound any too good, but... Haven't played THIS one since 2012. Actually, it's getting better than I remembered it Must be lowering my standards. MG

I couldn't agree more. Just been ripping Al Grey's "Struttin' & shoutin'' (Columbia, 1976) I don't think too much of Columbia, but this is a very nice one, with Waymon Reed!!! and Danny Moore, who probably is the trumpet player you can hear, Jimmy Forrest (YAY!) Cecil Payne, Ray Bryant, Milt Hinto and, again, Bobby Durham. And, continuing my ripping day, Al Grey - Shades of Grey (Tangerine, 1965) With Sweets, Jaws, Vi Redd, Grover Mitchell, William Hughes, Kirk Stuart, on piano and - sounding a lot like Ray Charles - I wonder if it's a non-de-date - Wyatt Ruther and Sonny Payne. Jim sent me a rip of this six years ago, but each side was all one track and I'm less keen on listening to albums like that. I got this and 'Strutting & shoutin'" from someone here whose name I know, but I've forgotten his ID, a few months later. MG

Now ripping Waymon Reed - 46th & 8th - Artists House (1977) I saw this in Mole Jazz in 1990 and grabbed it immediately - well, I knew who Waymon Reed was - a trumpet player with James Brown. And, looking at the back, it got better than THAT! With Jimmy Forrest, Tommy Flanagan, Keter Betts & Bobby Durham. Nice session, which I've not played since 2012 and MISSED it! MG

Al Grey & Jimmy Forrest - OD - with Don Patterson, Peter Leitch & Charlie Rice Just ripping this to my computer. One of the greatest Forrest recordings IMO. Earlier, I ripped this Groove Holmes' 'Dancing in the sun'. Not one of his best, by any means, but Groove grooves under all and any circumstances. MG

Not a name to conjure with but Khalid (Kenneth) Moss - who played organ on a couple of Rusty Bryant albums - wrote two tunes that Groove Holmes recorded. They were 'Dancing in the sun' and 'Highway of life', both of which were on the 'Dancing in the sun' LP on Versatile. MG

Sometimes, you've just GOT to OD. MG

Oh, I DO like that phrase, 'not particularly in need of remediation'. Heard a few samples of him and thought about the same, so I put all eight of those tracks together and messed around with the sleeve to wipe out Morris Lane. Here's the sleeve of an earlier issue of some of the material on Remington. (Curious minds here will wish to see this, I guess.) MG

I was playing that yesterday! Not the version with some Morris lane tracks but one I'd put together myself from compilations of Jaws' early recordings. I included all the recordings he'd made for Remington. Wonderful honking stuff!!!! MG

I got along with 'The soul of..." for years, but the O V Box is really the one to have. He's one of the few soul singers every bit of who's work is extremely worthwhile. MG

I never went In the seventies, I was recently married, with a low wage and a baby daughter. Mind you, even if I could have afforded it, I was thirty by then and probably too old for it. But it was advertised every year in 'Blues & Soul' magazine. And a lot of soul jazz was played there. More in the eighties, but still in the seventies. MG

Whitley Bay, dubious dance venues? Surely Caister, Norfolk? Every Easter, the Caister Weekender at some holiday camp hired by a DJ co-operative, is what I remember. Whitley Bay was supposed to be impeccably genteel MG

"Lord," I thought, "that looks like England!" And so it is. Gor blimey O'Reilley!!!! Is that the actual album sleeve? Nah, it's not square. But was it recorded there? MG

Funny that. Afro-Blues Q + was an interesting, if unspectacular band. They issued 6 LPs, on Mira and Crestview (a budget label of the owners of Mira) and Surrey. I THINK the order in which they were probably recorded was Introducing the Afro-Blues Quintet + 1 - Mira 3002 (issued 1966) New directions - Mira 3010 (issued 1966) Discovery 3 - Mira 3013 (issued 1967) Afro blues today - Crestview 3054 (issued 1969) Next Album - Mira 3016 (issued 1968) Guantanamera - Surrey 1037 (issued 1966 according to the not wholly reliable Both Sides Now site) There's also been a CD called 'Stratosphere unreleased tracks'. There was a decent compilation of their material issued by Ace on their BGP label in 2004. That's this There's a decent sleeve note which, among other things, says that their last album to apparently be recorded - Guantanamera, on Surrey - was followed up by two LPs made by earlier bands. One, they say, was managed by cutting bits and pieces of thier (quite long, I assume) material that had been lying around for some time. On Guantanamera, the note says Rene Bloch had replaced Joe De Aguera. Bloch was on the album before, too. No doubt there were other personnel changes. I never find Ace terribly good at presenting discographical details, even if they do cover them, which is far from always. I think their notes are frequently designed to titillate rather than inform. I have the CD. I also have 'Guantanameria' and it's not bad, as well as 'New directions' and 'Introducing ABQ+1'. The Ace CD is probably enough to have, and contains some pretty interesting tracks, some of which will have been from the cut up bits of retrieved stuff. One of those bits was what I used in BFT122. Anyway, here's a link to Discogs page on the band https://www.discogs.com/artist/529016-The-Afro-Blues-Quintet-Plus-One And one to AMG, for what it's worth - OK, it does have the CD issues and everything now appears to be out on CD - I don't think I'll bother https://www.allmusic.com/artist/afro-blues-quintet-1-mn0000928677/discography MG

1 Not Bayard, as you thought. No tuba either, I'm afraid. 2 Don't know what Major usually did - there are probably well over a hundred sessions he did, but I've never heard him singing in a different octave to what he's playing. 3 You DO know at least a couple of those people. Can't be any doubt about it. 4 Interesting guess; yes, it's a pianner player. 5 Another interesting guess, but wrong. 6 Yes you do know these people! 7 You know THIS one, too. Any Django influence is probably coincidental. 8 Bill F got this, as you've seen. 9 Well, it IS 'Way back home', but the JCs aren't the backing band. 10 This is a pretty hard one, I think, albeit a very well-known name. 11 Oh... I don't think she'd have been very happy to have seen your comment. 12 Yeah, great sound. 13 Well, I can see why you say O C Smith, but it's not him. 14 No, neither Louis nor Clifford I know this kind of stuff isn't well up your street, Thom, so I'm glad you found a lot of it enjoyable. MG

With David Schnitter tenor sax, Steve Giordano guitar, Idris Muhammed drums, Bobby Caldwell conga. June 1977, RVG. One of the few Muse albums produced by Joe Fields. MG