The Magnificent Goldberg

Just looked at one of the Mel Sparks' downloads. Looks like you have to download each track individually and they're about 80-90mb each! I suppose this means they're very good quality recordings or something. In addition, there are some other things on the page that I don't understand: Information Format Size msb2002-06-14.md5 Checksums 1.00 KB Other Files msb2002-06-14.shnf_files.xml 5.88 KB msb2002-06-14.shnf_meta.xml 3.33 KB msb2002-06-14.shnf_reviews.xml 179 B Do I need to download thses things? What are they? MG

Fuck me! Thanks Niko. MG

Yes, I've known a good few of these. The guy I buy organic nuts and stuff from - who turned me on to New Orleans jazz a few years ago, listens to nothing but that and swing bands; in his shop, which is nice. He has a little untidy pile of CDs and K7s there - perhaps 50-100, I never counted. I have NEVER known anyone like this. And I DON'T need to get out more MG

Damn! Lost my post when the connection vanished! Oh well. MG

Missed Charles Earland yesterday MG

But that would still mean there are but a few dozen left... do these sets sell so slowly that this is no reason yet to put them on the "running low" list? That's sad! Well, you figure that if they've sold 7000+ over the last 10 years, that ain't so bad, really. Probably more than any of the individual LPs sold, ever. There's only so many Hank Mobley fanatics in the world... Dunno - MC was quoted in David Rosenthal's book "Hard bop" as saying that "average initial (my emphasis)sales for more straight ahead LPs like Jackie McLean's New Soil, ... ran from 6000 to 8000 copies, the break even mark being about 2500." All the Hank fans have obviously kept their original DG mono copies MG

Had a good time this morning with Jimmie Lunceford - Life is fine - Quadromania MG

Hmmm. . . I wonder if you sent copies of those to the right person if we'd see an "Andorran" version on cd shortly thereafter. The two that the Andorrans would put out - which would fit together beautifully and also fit into their methodology, would be the two with The One and Only Herman Foster - "Coleslaw" and "Blowin' in the wind". No one seems to think "Coleslaw" was ever put on CD, however. MG

Yes, I know it's true. But was it an important factor, which is what I wondered about. I dunno. Paul Goodman was recording Don Patterson for Museand Bobby Pierce for Cobblestone. Michael DeLugg was recording Bu Pleasant for Muse. Malcolm Addey was recording Holmes & McGriff for Groove Merchant and Carl Wilson (with Gator Tail) for Muse. Richard Aderson rercorded Carl Wilson (with Gator Tail) for Muse. Eddie Harris recorded Earland in Berkeley. Eddie Korvin recorded Sonny Phillips (and with Houoston Person) for Muse. Someone called John Struthers recorded Gene Ludwig in Pittsburgh for Muse. I can't really see that the absence of RVG from the Soul Jazz scene meant a loss of quality in the Soul Jazz organ albums that were recorded. There were fewer of them, though. What might have been more important was the absence of Blue Note and, particularly, Prestige new releases. But that was to do with their takeovers, not RVG being snagged by CTI - though I guess it provided a window of opportunity for Taylor to step in. But it looks like the organ groups' time had passed, largely because of the other factors I mentioned. There is, possibly, another factor, though. Muse carried the Prestige flag from '72 and it seems to me that Joe Fields wasn't actually trying to get hit albums, possibly because of the cashflow implications, possibly because his distribution arrangements weren't up to it. In all the years since he started Cobblestone - four times longer than Lion & Wolf were in the LP market - he only had one album in the R&B charts and none on the pop charts. Soul Jazz is part of popular black music and it needs hit records to keep the musicians before the public's eyes. MG

There were all sorts of things going on in the late 70s/early 80s affecting Soul Jazz organ. Bob Porter has mentioned two points, each interesting. 1 CTI/Kudu exclusive contract with RVG. (I'm not sure how serious this was) 2 (on sleeve of "The scorpion") Kenneth Gibson's election as Mayor of Newark and reforming "peripheral activities" around the organ rooms. (how relevant to other places? Probably the same "peripheral activities" going on) But also 3 Blaxploitation movies. The black cinema audience was, at the time, the only growing part of the cinema audience. In terms of competition for entertainment dollars in the ghetto, this was a serious matter. The organ rooms everywhere would have been hurt by this. 4 Disco. Organ rooms were no cover no minimum local drinkeries, paying for live music. Discos were cheaper to run and people could dance to their favourite current hits. More competition for black entertainment dollars. 5 Manufacturing moving out of city centres to the suburbs and coincidentally the better paid black workers moving out there with them. Average earnings in the ghettos would have reduced. Jazz clubs had never been much of a place to find Soul Jazz organists, except JOS. So, if the organ rooms were getting knocked on the head through economics and the police, leaving only a few jazz clubs, people like Groove would have HURT. They were "saved" by the emergence of "Acid Jazz" in Europe, which started in about 1983, but didn't result in many gigs until the mid/late eighties, as I recall. MG

Yes - I always thought it odd. We had a shop in Cardiff called Buffalo that had LOADS of US cutouts. They sold new items - no second hand LPs but they also sold jeans. But so much that was in their racks was cutouts. I could never work out how anyone was making a profit on shipping tons of LPs accross the Atlantic and flogging them off at REALLY cheap prices to stores like Buffalo. I got a nice pile of Peacock/Songbird LPs for 0.50p and I reckon there was still a little bit of profit in that for the shop. Interesting to see the Dobre label mentioned. MG

This isn't one of his best, but it's bloody great! There are two things that really get me about it. "Mama Inez" - the swing on this is just beautiful. "Besame mucho" - Grant's time and phrasing, when he's just playing the tune, are so expressive - I never fail to stand still and just sway. MG

A GREAT album! Don't overlook the rest, just 'cos JB does a couple of BN titles. JB's jazz albums on Smash would make a decent Mosaic Select. I don't think they've ever been issued on CD. And there is lots of extra material - and some cuts were shortened, so longer ones might be around. MG

I agree. The other LP on the twofer, "Do you know the way to San Jose" is a good bit better. But "Soul food" and "Chicken & Dumplin's" kick the ass of all other Timmons LPs. MG

Clifton Webb Gloria Grahame Robert Flemyng

I remember seeing them in the fifties, doing the sand dance outside a cinema in Leicester Square, where my Dad and I were queuing up to go in. They were, essentially, buskers who got trendy for a while, then went back to busking. Thanks for the reminder, Chris. MG

This afternoon George Freeman - Frantic diagnosis - BamBoo Bloody BRILLIANT! Harrison Johnson & the Los Angeles Community Choir - God still stands - Creed Don't listen to this a lot but I'm always overwhelmed by the title track. MG

I'm still, apparently, collecting hard, but les and less of it is jazz. Just checked and acquisitions over the last 20 years have been running around the 150-250 mark, with a few outlying years. This year, it's 81 so far, so that's about the same. YR ACQ 1990 129 1991 121 1992 113 1993 128 1994 178 1995 187 1996 196 1997 210 1998 229 1999 186 2000 242 2001 295 (141 jazz) 2002 266 (192 jazz) 2003 253 (124 jazz) 2004 183 (121 jazz) 2005 127 (100 jazz) 2006 218 (143 jazz) 2007 183 (108 jazz) 2008 170 (111 jazz) 2009 216 (118 jazz) 2010 81 (23 jazz) A fair proportion of this lot is stuff I had before on LP or K7, which I replaced on CD - perhaps a quarter, though I don't really know. MG

Have I missed it? Well, happy birthday, anyway. MG

Earl Coleman MG

Yes - Trip did a lot of Mercury and Vee-Jay material - lots of VJ gospel stuff. Not boots, but cheapo pressings. I think Paul Winley had something to do with the firm. MG

I've been playing my Piltdown Men 45s McDonald's cave/Brontaosaurus stomp - Capitol UK Piltdown rides again/Bubbles in the tar - Capitol UK A pretty girl is like a melody/Big lizzard - Capitol UK I think "Piltdown rides again" is still a great R&R/pop single. I posted a youtube version here a few days ago But I still think that their masterpiece was a joyous arrangement of "A pretty girl is like a melody", done a la David Rose's "The stripper" and a HELLUVA lot better for a stripper to gyrate to. It may only be R&R/pop, but dammit, this is GOOD! MG