The Magnificent Goldberg

Postman brought this today Lonnie Smith - Rise up! Wow! The post is doing rather well - also got this gift from a friend MG

I'll order one at Christmas, so it's the first one I buy next year. MG

The thought that kept occurring to me as I was doing this was, "is there an 'ideal' way of listening to this material?" I don't know. If one has to stick to a bunch of separate CDs, then Fantasy didn't do too badly. Without that constraint - ie a big box - one could put the material in session order. But quite a lot of this material was probably issued in its apparently haphazard order with the direct involvement of McDuff's managers - and by implication McDuff himself - and represents their efforts to put together interesting programmes of music. So maybe album order is best. I'm going to rip this material onto my hard drive and reconstitute the original LPs, adding in some extra tracks that got put into compilations, and see how that sounds. And if I don't like it, I can put it into date order MG

Where's your Albert Ayler mouse pad? MG

My order from Hiroshi came today Leon Spencer - Bad walkin' woman Rusty Bryant - Friday night funk for Saturday night brothers Grant Green - Visions No great revelations here - I've been enjoying these albums since the seventies - but I'll keep my original LPs MG

Rahsaan Roland Kirk & Jack McDuff - Kirk's work - Prestige (Ace) MG

Teddy Bunn Bill Jennings Wild Bill Davis

I recently ordered two McDuff twofers in the Oldies.com sale and wondered the other day whether, when they turn up, I’ll have all of Jack’s recordings for Prestige. What a mess the McDuff Prestige discography is! It took me ages to work it out; and I had to list every track from every session and the LP and CD issues. And I found a whole LP I hadn’t known about before! That’s “Good times” by Shaky Jake, a Bluesville LP on which he’s accompanied only by McDuff and Bill Jennings. Apart from that, I’ve got all but three tracks that McDuff recorded for Prestige (or I shall have when my order turns up). Prestige split loads of sessions up into different LPs, giving Fantasy a bit of a headache in terms of reissuing them (not to mention a couple of unissued tracks, which haven’t seen the light of day at all). I think the chaps at Fantasy tried their best, but four tracks fell through the holes – unnecessarily, because there was room to have included them; usually in the “logical” CD. But looking through the list in session order, one certainly sees all sorts of other anomalies. This would probably be a good discography for the Mosaic treatment, if ever it came to it. Anyway, here’s the list. Hope you find it interesting. Jack_McDuff_on_Prestige_trax___issues.doc MG

Kid Ory - Mahogany Hall stomp - Quadromania MG

Kick yourself once from me, too MG

His hair's bigger than his waist! MG

Joe Doakes Fred Bloggs Google

And I'll go for a download, too - and hope the file isn't too big. MG

Dexter Gordon - Blues walk (The Montmartre Collection vol 2) - Black Lion - not THE "Blues walk" of course; "Loose walk"! Sonny Stitt - Blues for Duke - Muse MG

Ray Bryant - Groove house - Sue (DG mono) Ben Webster - Atmosphere for lovers and thieves - Black Lion (Polydor) now Crusaders - Scratch - Blue Thumb (MCA UK) MG

My connection's crap today, so I can't load this. So I'll try tomorrow. I want to see this!!!!! MG

The Mighty Clouds of Joy The Mighty Clouds of Harmony The Mighty Gospel Giants

Thanks folks - I'll try to remember this thread when I begin to get more than the 2 Blue Note LPs I have of his MG

It's on an album called "Etta James" on Chess. The LP before "Come a little closer" but it hasn't, as far as I know, been reissued. It's her best album, I reckon. She also does "God's song" and "Leave your hat on". If you find it on CD, let me know. MG I imagine you've heard Tell Mama, MG. That's my favorite E.J. album. Bought Etta James when it came out. Sounded like an attempt to appeal to the rock crowd to me - didn't like it & got rid of it back then. Different tastes. Yes, I have "Tell mama". I like it a lot. Still have my original copy on UK Chess. Another good 'un is "Etta James sings for lovers" - I have the CD issue ("These foolish things") with lots of bonus tracks. Big James Brown influence in her phrasing on many numbers. MG

I saw that one when I was doing a little search the other day. Didn't realise it was on Roulette. It didn't come out here in the sixties - well, I never saw it before. I didn't think she recorded for Roulette - only the one with Maynard Ferguson, which was a special deal between that label and Atlantic. when was the Village Gate album made? MG

I've got to say, Chuck's right. But I really like Mance and he's very consistent. Personally I like his Chiaroscuro albums, particularly "Blue Mance" - the only studio one among them. All the others were done on board ship and feature some nice guests, too. The material I've heard on Sackville is good, too. "Junior Mance special" is a solo set, part live. "Jubilation" is another solo set, all live. The OJCs are fine, too, but watch out for the twofer "Junior Mance trio & orchestra" - that's pretty duff, actually. But you should be able to pick up any of the OJC releases cheap from an Amazon seller. I also like his Atlantic material, though I suspect many won't. If you want some Junior that's really doing heavy Acid Jazz, "With a lotta help from my friends" is a hell of an album - Gale, Rainey, Cobham. There are some good albums on Japanese labels, too. "Opus de funk" with Frank Wess (Absord) "Holy mama" (East Wind) "Soul eyes" (M&I) is my favourite Mance. MG

Being a Grant Green completist, of course I've got this one And I do quite like to listen to it sometimes, but I agree it's not typical of Art's normal output. MG

That's it, now I see the sleeve. MG

The Little Engine that Could! Thomas Gordon