The Magnificent Goldberg

Hell YEAH!!!! MG

Phew! Billy Harper smokes - but he doesn't smoke never has, he told me. I got put in a seat at the bar and, after a minute, someone addressed the guy sitting next to me as Mr Harper. So I said "Are you Billy Harper?" "Yes." @Sorry I didn't recognise you; I don't get out much." He thought that was funny. Eddie Henderson seemed to be having trouble with his lip and also to be fighting a cold. Nevertheless, he made effective music - not flashy, but effective. Azar Lawrence impressed me, too. I've never heard him play before. Looks like I made a mistake not listening before. Billy Hart drove the band like mad. He was heroic and Cecil McBee only slightly less so. My only regret is that the band is slightly too big for everyone to get solos. But it does enable rather interesting voicings to be written - George Cables seems to be responsible mainly. And I've made a HUGE mistake in not keeping up with Mr Harper after his recordings with Lee Morgan and Charles Earland. He was fire and had me jumping up and down on the stool, nearly falling off at one point. Oh, what an exciting player! Damn good gig. MG

Now I know which one you were talking about (I've got my list of tracks now ) I can say you'd have liked to have heard the piano even MORE when you see who's playing it. From what you say, it could be that the CD I took it off may not be the best version (cheapo reissue) and perhaps someone will know a better issue I can look for. MG

Never posted in this thread before, but here I am in NYC and just round the corner at Smoke, there's The Cookers, with Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Cecil McBee & Billy Hart. This isn't quite my stuff, but it'll be good music and really not to be passed up. Will report back. MG

Oh yes - R Davenport and Dr J have discs on the way. Any I don't know about haven't MG

I can't say I like the sound of the X-77 much. But it's live and the playing is fine. Thorny on guitar. MG

A quick SHAZAM! for bonus #4 Yes. It's Nan Wynn. Got to confess - I had the BFT on my ipod, so I could check what people were talking about while I'm here in the US, but I accidentally erased it. MG

I'm starting this thread off now so you all don't have to be hanging around waiting to post your thoughts. Anyone who wants a download but hasn't posted in the sign-up thread had better ask Big Al for one. He'll be sending links around in a day or two. I'll try and keep up with this while I'm on holiday. It'll be the first thread I look for when I sign back on. MG

Wow. Resentment towards individuals here based on...what, exactly? Differences of opinions? Strength of opinons? Courage of convictions! Just what causes one to be so...whatever as to make one so personally hostile towards those with whom one has fundamental disagreements? There's heated disagreement & then there's just flat-out weirdness, unresolved authority issues, something besides just "seeing things differently". Don't know, really don't care. I'm happy to discuss, argue, whatever from now until the cows come home (or don't) - but based on the music and one's personal opinions and passions stemming from that. But to take it there is...not nice. And it's really weak. I think you missed the humour there, Jim. Sometimes we English are a bit dry and may need to put in a smiley for foreigners MG

The only French one I have is Jug's "The 78 era" - a bit difficult to tell. MG

Then again, if I comb my hair a few strands at a time, I can always find "new twists"... Someone's splitting hairs. Couldn't resist, sorry. MG

Yes - I agree. As I said, it's an observable fact. Do you have any views on why this happens at different speeds in different places and times? If it were simply musicians getting bored because they felt they'd tried all the possibilities, why wouldn't this happen at about the same speed everywhere and everywhen? MG

First, I trust you don't mean that culture is different or separate from society and politics, 'cos that's just wrong. Culture is the way people live and that's also what politics is and what society is. But I'm sure you're simply expressing yourself poorly, so I won't make much of that. Now, this concept "culture and the elasticity of forms, which always need to change by reason of personal or expressive imperative (as prior forms tend to wear out their welcome, tend to exhaust themselves)" is very interesting. It is an observable (and observed) fact. But this change occurs at different speeds in different places and different times. This is also an observable (and observed) fact. Why? What is driving these differences? MG

Cannon Ball Thelonious Monk

A bit ov fine vinyl while packing Jimmy Dawkins - Blisterstring - Delmark Bill Easley - Wind inventions - Sunnyside (mostly clarinet - very lovely) next Bill Jennings & Leo Parker - Billy in the lion's den - King (Singtime Denmark) MG

Maybe so, but anybody who considers - or champions - one at the expense of the other is, dare I say it...wrong. Both are quite real enough on their own terms, and their intersection and divegence along the way is ultimately much more "true" than looking at them as either/or entitites. I certainly don't. But I know I have my leaning and I know you and Allen have yours. And I know you are well aware of the broader cultural/social etc aspects of the music and it's on that perception that I rely when taking a recommendation from you. Never failed me yet I also don't think Bev does. But I also think that his asking for a recommendation on this particular issue is a sucker bet MG

Yes, but it isn't entirely wrong. It's a way of seeing things and undoubtedly it, too, has its utility to those who want or need to see things that way. MG

It depends why one listens to music (or reads etc). To me, the social, cultural, geographical, political and temporal context is a large part of why I listen to music. I feel that societies make music through the agency of musicians. Some of those musicians are geniuses, most aren't. What interests me is what they have in common, rather than what sets a precious few apart. It's much more important to me than what you haven't quite described but nonetheless seems to be "Art". I don't want to ignore that, and try not to, but in the end it isn't what does it for me. So I can't really get too worked up about it. Perhaps if I were a trained musician I'd listen to music in a different way. Well, I suppose that, in a way, it would be my BUSINESS to do so. But that may imply simply a different kind of limitation from mine. So, well... MG

I think George is completely off to one side. I don't think he's like anyone or even any movement in jazz or other kind of music. MG

It's almost certainly a Hammond. But a year or so later, Groove was recording on an X-77. So maybe this is not a B3. On the other hand, Groove could make a B3 sound quite different. Which track are you thinking of? First pressing sounds pretty good to me. This LP is needed because one cut was cut from the CD issue. MG

Why haven't I got this record? (Don't answer that.) MG

I quite like them but I'm not greatly enamoured of Abercrombie's impressions of Hendrix. I think a different guitarist would have been more enjoyable for me. There's lots of Dr Lonnie that I greatly prefer. But props to Lonnie for doing this. MG Really? who do you think would have been better suited for the project? Scofield, Frissell maybe even Johnny Mac? Abercrombie is on fire on all three of them. Johnny Mac = John McLaughlin? I don't like any of those three. Basically, they all sound like Rock guitarists to me. No reason why you have to have a Rock guitarist there, just because it's Hendrix' music you're playing. If they'd got someone like George Freeman in there, you'd have had a quite different approach to that music, which I personally would have found more valuable. MG

Truck Parham Laurie Piper Bags

I have several - some are US versions, manufactured by Fantasy, others are UK versions, manufactured by RCA UK, Fantasy's UK licensee at the time, one is Musidisc Europe. I've no complaints about the sound on any of them and four of them are Gene Ammons sets, where decent sound is important. MG

Whilst I'm sure that you're right, Jim, I'm not perfectly certain for whom it's important that X was one of the People Who Changed The World Musically and Y wasn't. See, Dexter Johnson, the Nigerian sax player, also was one of the People Who Changed The World Musically - his work in Senegal led to Mbalax. There are all kinds of X's and Y's all over the world, past, present and, undoubtedly, future. Who should care? Who should care more about Dexter Johnson than about Edison? Or Voltaire? Or Alexander the Great? Or Adam Smith? Things are as they are and as they will become, partly because of these people, but probably just as much (or more) not because of them but because of general changes in one society or another. We know about the X's because that's what history is supposed to be - and generally is. But the rest is not recorded so no one talks about it - it's as if it doesn't and didn't and won't exist. But it seems to me more likely that it's simply not interesting or important to the people who say what history is supposed to be. But those people, it's always seemed to me, have an "interest" (particularly the historians of the past who developed the notion of what history was supposed to be) - who were/are the employers of historians? Of course, I'm a cynical anti-authoritarian (Now Bev is going to hammer me.) MG