The Magnificent Goldberg

Bunker Hill Larry Bunker Arnold Palmer

This is "Tom Hark" by Elias & his Zig Zag Jive Flutes. It was #1 on the UK pop charts in 1957. And I think it must have been big in Jamaica, too. I can just hear this rhythm being pushed into a different shape in JA. And, in the early sixties, there were at least 2 Ska versions of it - one instrumental, one vocal. Here's the B side, "Ry ry" - rather similar. I think most people here thought of it as a novelty. But I thought it was WILD! MG

Chuck Norris Teddy Bunn Frosty Pyles

The Bash Street Kids Charlie Brown & Friends The Perishers

And another guitarist/singer (occasional) Melvin Sparks, Houston, TX, 1946 MG

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Old Man Mose Old Man River Old Father Thames

The Gospel Classics - A little bit of faith - Creed Willie Banks & the Messengers - Mother why - Black Label now Benny Cummings & the King's Temple Choir - Now! - Creed MG

Hm, 'tis a BIT greasy MG

Nice - haven't heard "Once a thief" before. Shirley Bassey was pretty influential in terms of a certain kind of film song after, which? - "Goldfinger"? MG

Minnie the Moocher The Mooche Moose the Mooch

A lot of vinyl today. Les McCann - Bucket o' grease - Limelight Groove Holmes - Shippin' out - Muse (French issue) now Mel Sparks - Sparkling - Muse MG

Time we had a thread for Irene, so here's a bit of video of her with the Basie band in 1961-62. One of my favourites. And keep going past "I got rhythm" for some blues. MG

Georgia Mass Choir - We've got the victory - Savoy MG

Busy yesterday, or I'd have mentioned Jimmy Coe - 20 March 1921, Tomkinsville, KY The last of the great honking sax players to emerge. MG

It's been an unusually cold winter here and very little has come through. We had only 3 snowdrops on the front lawn and St David's Day (1 March - when the Welsh wear dafodils in their lapels) came and went without a sign of daffs. They've been poking their heads through in the past couple of days. So the front lawn looks kind of there, just about. But the back garden's a disaster area so far. A little bit of new growth on the Acers. I spotted a bit of new growth on a thistle today. Oh well, we'd better have a nice summer, is all I can say, or I'll complain to the management. MG

As I'm sure you've experienced, a lot of jazz sessions for a couple of years were taped in stereo but originally came out on mono LPs. The stereo versions, for better or worse, began to show up on later LP pressings and/or CDs. True, actually it's interesting to listen to these later pressings... and deduce that the monos are better! In the late sixties, Transatlantic (UK) issued a lot of Prestige albums in stereo, without saying they were stereo on the sleeve or label. Some of those were early PR material, previously only in mono, as TTK said, others were stereo issues - eg Don Patterson's "Satisfaction", Groove Holmes' "Soul messaage" and "Spicy". Earlier, I had a listen to Harold Ashby & Paul Gonsalves - 2 from Duke - Columbia (UK) (A Lansdown prod) George Freeman - Frantic diagnosis - Bam-Boo (and if you really want to hear George & Von wail over a truly funky organ band - try and find one of these) MG

Peter May Dennis Compton W G Grace

MG

Calling all BFT-ers! BFT74 is ready and waiting. I’m starting this a little early, because I’m going on holiday on 1 April, but I’ll try to keep up with the posts on the discussion thread, as I travel around. There is one disc, with a theme, which you may or may not try to guess. In addition, there are four bonus tracks which don’t fit the theme, but which exhibit certain points of interest. Those will only be available on download, because they also don’t fit on the CD. (For those of you who, for reasons incomprehensible to me, don’t like organ stuff much, there are only 4 organ tracks in the BFT.) If you want a disc, please send me a PM good and early, so I can get it in the post by 26 March. Big Al will be able to distribute the download link on 1 April. MG

Machito - Ritmo caliente - Proper MG

Margaret Thatcher Golda Meir Sadie Stern

I don't think I'd know a trainwreck if it bit me on the ankle. MG

Last night Bill Leslie - Diggin' the chicks - Argo Interesting tracks - Ornette's "Lonely woman" sandwiched between "Margie" and "Got a date with an angel". Interesting band, too - Thornel Schwartz, Flanagan, Ben Tucker, Art Taylor. MG

Someone - I think it was Dan Gould - put Shelley Carroll in a BFT. Or maybe it was Jim Sangrey. Jim turned me on to the Treniers - though I'd heard them way back, I hadn't paid attention. Also Ursula Rucker. Also he persuaded me to go for the Roy Eldridge Mosaic box. Hot Ptah got me interested in Jay McShann - though I haven't pursued him as much as I should. I suspect it was Jazzbo who got me interested in Red Garland - another one I'd known about forever but never pursued. I forget who it was who got me interested in Budd Johnson, but it feels like Jim again. Chris Albrtson got me interested in Jim Robinson and other New Orleans players. EVERYBODY got me into Organissimo and Root Doctor MG