The Magnificent Goldberg

Thanks Jim; never gave a thought to alcoholism. Good to know. MG

I don't expect you to agree, but even trashy stuff by people I like a lot interests me greatly. Also, of course, the people who own the companies or produce for them. I generally find them a good deal more interesting than the musicians or the music. But you can hardly ever find much out about them. And as for the reasons they make the choices they do/did, well, go whistle. Or, as I do, go speculate. MG

Thinking about it, I remembered that the Moody stuff I really like a lot (nearly as much as this) is on Dizzy Gillespie's 'Swing low, sweet Cadillac'. Have you heard that one? It's a lot better known. MG

Yeah, this is like Sonny Stiff meets Deodato and they didn't like each other much. Truly, I was trying to see if I could fool Jim on Sonny Stiff, and did!!! MG I don't send Thom a CDR. I upload stuff to the web and send him a link. MG

Yeah, there are two formats: mp3 and mp4. Different chunks of software/machinery do different formats. Who knows why? Can you not listen to mp4 tracks in WMP? I never use it. Foobar all the time, because it also plays flacs so, when I want to listen to something, I don't give a toss what format it's in. I thought everyone did that... MG Track 01 - Fun. No guesses, but very fun. Track 02 - Reminds me of an old... Black Lion? record I had of Illinois Jacquet's organ band. Sounds like Harold Alexander's flute work. NOT ILLINOIS, NOT HAROLD ALEXANDER. Track 03 - Influences of Ibrahim, certainly in the spiritual vein. Pianist has a touch of Phineas, but not enough. Like Phineas played on a slower speed (love it, but there is only one Phineas!). I was going to guess Vince Guaraldi, but seems busier. YOU'LL HAVE SEEN WHO IT REALLY IS NOW. Track 04 - Sounds like an Ibrahim song, but that's unmistakably Phineas. Ah! Yes, THAT record. It's Harlem Blues from this. That drummer probably came from a very musical family. YES, SPOTTER ON THAN JIM S' GUESS. Track 05 - Starting to catch onto a theme, here. I like these, but I have no idea who it might be. Gut is telling me it's more of a blues record than a Jazz record. Something about the bass has me thinking Milt Hinton. WELL, YOU COULD BE RIGHT ABOUT HINTON; THE ACCOMPANISTS ARE UNIDENTIFIED. Track 06 - I like the singer's voice, but the stiffness of the rhythm (clearly intentional) is grating. Track 07 - Obvious guess is Horace Silver, but I have absolutely SIFTED my HS collection and this is not there. Could be he's a sideman (maybe for the bassist?) but I'm whiffing on this one. ONE OF THE GREAT OVERLOOKED GEEZERS, THIS IS. Track 08 - Aaaaw, yeah! My first thought was Lee Morgan, but that's an older sound (balls out playing!). Ah! There's Oliver Nelson. Sometimes, he didn't seem all that funky, this is not one of those times.:) George Tucker, for sure -- nobody lays down that walk like that. AH! Got it! It's Track 2 from this. I should have gotten the drummer, too. Trumpet player is a favorite, and completely under appreciated. FUNNILY ENOUGH, IT'S NOT EXACTLY FROM THAT, BUT NEARLY SO. Track 09 - Very interesting, but no idea what it is. I recently watched The Godfather again, and a couple of tracks here brought me to the wedding scene, but on a more musical level. I know this alto player, but it's not clicking for me. Could be Fathead, but doesn't seem strong enough (meaning the tone, not the music). I like this, but I feel very guilty about it. Track 10 - Huh... I assumed this was the outchorus of the previous song and it threw me off. I assume this is a soundtrack. NOT A SOUNDTRACK. FOR INCOMPREHENSIBLE REASONS, THAT DID THIS DELIBERATELY. Track 11 - This! All day long!!!! I haven't lobbed a Gene Harris guess out there, yet, so here it is. I could get lost in this for a long time. MUST have. Track 12 - AAAAAW YEAH!!! I swear this just showed up somewhere else recently, but I'm not placing what it was. I was thinking Joe Lee Wilson, but then the vocals didn't come in. Open chords have me thinking Harold Mabern, and whenever I do that, I'm dead wrong, so there's that. I am enough of a cheeseball that this knocks me out. I mean, it's *so* Kojak, but it just works. I *swear* I know this, but I can't get it. My wife is laughing at me. I SUSPECT YOU'LL LAUGH AT YOURSELF AT THE END OF THE MONTH. Track 13 - I should NOT like this as much as I do. It's got that high school Jazz band from the 1970s feel, but it TOTALLY freakin' works! LOVE it! I want more of this. My ears aren't bleeding, so it's not Maynard, but that's the era I'm thinking of. Because of the mellow quality of the horns, I want to lean Mike Westbrook, but it seems too straight ahead (meaning no electronica). I'm diggin' it! MUSIC DEFINITELY HITS DIFFERENT PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY. i'D NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF MAYNARD AND THE NAME WESTBROOK IS SO FAR AWAY FROM MY CONCERNS, HE'S NOT ON THE SAME PLANET. BUT i CAN GET THE ROUTE THIS IS REACHING YOU BY, SURPRISING TO ME THOUGH IT IS. Track 14 - To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Hi Fidelity, "Is that James F***ing Taylor?" Alto is biting the phrasing a bit hard. Could be George Braith -- he has a tendency to do that. Yeah, this one is kind of suffering from the things that should have bugged me more about the previous string. Alto is too scoopy. If it's a heavy hitter, it's an off day. Lots of goodies in this. Can't wait for the reveal so I can spend some more money that doesn't exist! Wow... shocked that was Moody. That one missed for me. Still waiting to see some of those 70s tunes get ID'd. Perhaps I've had too much pecan pie. GLAD YOU ENJOYED IT, THOM. MG

Perhaps in American English, but in English English the two spellings are optional. English is the most wonderful and most important language in the world because we let you lot win your War of Independence and lost control of the English language. So it now lies in the hands of Americans, Canadians, Australians, Jamaicans, Nigerians, Arabs - even the English. France and Spain have academic institutes to control the spelling, grammar etc of their languages which were started BEFORE the independence of their colonies, so they automatically followed those academies. But English is wildly out of control, which makes it more useful more quickly. One of the great unforeseen outcomes of history. MG

I'd like to listen to this but I'm listening to 'Groove funk soul' and I'm loth to interrupt it. I'll get back later. How come the spell check hasn't ever heard of 'loth'? MG

Correct Bill. It's an interesting album. Hank Crawford always acknowledged Moody as a big influence on him, but I always wondered about whether he got his alto style from him, rather than his bebop ideas. Until I heard this, I never heard Moody play like that, so I doubted. MG

I haven't THOUGHT of Don Shirley for decades. I used to have a couple of his LPs back in the mid-sixties; I bought 'Drown in my own tears' in about '62 as a single - he played organ and piano on it, as I recollect. But I ditched 'em all in about '66. No, it ain't him. I only have a personnel for the complete LP #9 comes from and there are three bass players on it with no indication of who's on which tracks. But, if it helps, of the three, one is on electric, the others on acoustic. Not Joe Sample. Yes, that title was identified in the first response posted to the BFT. Very soulful player, I agree. MG

That's correct, except it's a bonus track on the CD you referenced at Discogs. It was supposed to be part of 'Blue 7' but they played 'Wagon wheels' for twelve minutes. The version in my BFT was from the original LP which was an LP put together from odds and ends. Did you notice Shirley had retitled this tune? Later, it was called 'Blues everywhere'. I prefer 'How sweet', which is more redolent of Wild Bill Davis. #9 ain't Lou Donaldson. Obviously someone else on one of his worser 70s records #11 is American. #12 is not a Cedar Walton tune. #13 isn't on Columbia. I didn't know Freddie McCoy made any fusion albums And this ain't Cedar Walton either (nor did he write th is tune, either). You aren't doing NEARLY as well as I expected Jim. Funny, I didn't think this would be a hard BFT. MG

It's not Milt Buckner on #8. I think Jim S may know it, but is too busy to say It's not Hank on tenor. But it IS this kind of tenor playing that influenced his alto style. MG

No rush. My computer's so buggered I can hardly ever get on the web at present. Determined to hang on until December, then get a new one. G

Yes, Newborn, as I noted. But not the Atlantic album, which I had for a week or two in about 1970 but didn't like. Guess again. I'm surprised you didn't guess some others. MG

I wonder if this response will work... Oh well, Lou Johnson is in there. So is Mr Moody But if that white guy is actually what Oliver Nelson looksed like, I'll sell my soul to Santa. And yeah, Noslen was in there, too. MG (now, we'll see what you've dunn)

Have a great day, Jeff! MG

Phew a couple of days not being able to access the web and now my PC is most unhappy about me being here. Well, I'm very glad you're enjoying this Bill. I'm also not TOO displeased that you're finding some of it hard MG

My best mate has a copy of this on Tempo: the original issue. There must be all of 17 copies in the world! I had the Jasmine issue but is was a bit too much like a proper jazz record for me. MG

Yes, #3 is Ray Bryant. Boingggg! Yes, #4 is Phineas Newborn. Boingggg! Nope, #11 ain't Ray Charles. MG

Ah! I didn't look it up. Shoulda done. MG

Correct, there's zero Gene Harris. But don't step aside; there's stuff on which I'd welcome your comments, though not as a Gene Harris fan MG Well, that's half a point, young man MG

Yeah, never heard of it. What grabbed me was the dedication. SURELY Bob Azzara was Pat Martino's real name?????? And he AIN'T late yet. MG

That really SURPRISED me Mike! I've got it but I've found it quite boring. Very, very, low key; something I may play when I want to be engrossed in something else. OK, I know bossa nova is supposed to be self-deprecatory but this seems an extreme version of that. MG That's a very nice album. I picked it up in Paris Jazz Corner a coupuole of years ago. My sleeve's different though and the catalogue number - JSP8807. So there are two versions you all can look for. MG

Well, here we are again. I'd forgotten it would be Halloween and I've been busy all evening giving chocs to the local kids, of whom there seem to be scores! I always say I'd like a treat please but they never give me one! So I'm pinching a couple out of our box - BLEEEEEEAAHHHH! I dare say Thom, who's got all the tracks, will put 'em up tomorrow. Enjoy! MG

Two good 'uns, whom I couldn't have picked, but right. And Earl Bostic, too. He told Lou Donaldson that the secret of success was NOT to play his best stuff on record because people could and would copy it. " I’m telling you, Earl Bostic was the greatest saxophone player I ever knew. I didn’t like him ‘cause sometimes he’d play stuff that I’d consider corny, [with] that wide vibrato and the sound of growling in the mouthpiece. But the man could play three octaves. I mean play ’em, I don’t mean just hit the notes. He was bad. He was a technician you wouldn’t believe. But he never put those things on a record. And I asked him one time; “Earl, with all this stuff you can play”–and he said let me tell you something. “Don’t play anything you can play good on a record, [because] people will copy it.” And the man was dead right. Now you’d see him, we’d run up there and think that we’re going to blow him out, and he’d make you look like a fool. Cause he’d play three octaves, louder, stronger and faster. But he never put that on a record.(via https://larryappelbaum.wordpress.com/) MG

Just to mention one: courting. MG