The Magnificent Goldberg

Always liked Magritte MG

nice to see those photos, Chris. But how come they're only just getting around to inducting Ornette, Gil, Mary Lou and Bessie? MG

Not really the photos and notes. I miss having all the stuff I haven't got and my Apollo LP isn't too good anyway. If Mosaic bring out a Verve Jacquet, I'll leap on that - I've very little of his Verve material. MG

Yes, it is. What does "audition copy" mean? MG

Pic of Dansette (mine was slightly more modern, but only a bit) MG

Yeah, the old Dansette record players in the sixties used to behave like that sometimes. They didn't have much of a friction mat so, if the spindle hole was too tight, the disc could sometimes slow a bit. I use a nail file to make the holes bigger; just twist it around in the hole for a second or two. MG

Couldn't be put any more clearly than that. Funny, I said "YEAH" to Jim's original post, but your bringing this bit out, Larry, has made me think about it and it's not quite right. Ownership - particularly of these large firms - is vested in the shareholders and other investors in the company, in particular (in this context) Union funds, but also pension funds and the owners of other similar investment instruments. In other words, you, you, you and you. Management (and, really, I'm talking about top management) is what feels itself intrinsically more valuable to society than labour. Now it's true that, usually, these top managers own shares in their company (or share options) or in other companies, but that ownership stake is tiny compared to the stake of a trade union. Management is just a different kind of labour. Why management may very well feel itself justified in feeling itself intrinsically more valuable to society is because it gets a different rate of pay; a rate of pay that the members of the top echelon can decide on for themselves and have ratified by a tame AGM of shareholders whose representatives don't want to rock the boat. And all is in accord with the American Dream, isn't it? Or is it? MG

Oh, we ARE in a bad snip today, aren't we Mr Grumpy? MG

Unless theres a category "Garish", this seems to fit here. MG

I actually got "Boss organ" yesterday. Yes, it's good. The two Choice LPs have kind of been reissued, because most (not all) of the tracks were reissued on the Muse LPs "Smokin'" and "Mama Roots" (and some reappeared on 32Jazz). But there are differences. I'm still trying to sort this out. MG Wow! I have those two lps. When you figure this out, please let me know! I assume you mean you've got "Smokin'" and "Mama Roots". If I thought you had "Soul crib", I'd want to get your address and my burglar's uniform out. MG

Back in the 1960's, when it was hard to find many jazz LP's in Boston, my friends and I would venture down to Sam Goody's in New York to get the latest Prestiges, hard to find Verves, and the like. There was an Asian guy working there who was very helpful and extremely knowledgeable. Years later I found out it was Harry Lim! Struth! MG

YEAH! MG

My copy is on this - a blue/white Liberty issue. Somehow it appeared (new) in a record store sale in Liverpool in 1979 as a cutout ! That would have been just about when EMI bought United Music and Records Group. I think I've got a few BN cutouts from that period. Warehouse emptying of stuff the previous firm was no longer entitled to sell. MG

I actually got "Boss organ" yesterday. Yes, it's good. The two Choice LPs have kind of been reissued, because most (not all) of the tracks were reissued on the Muse LPs "Smokin'" and "Mama Roots" (and some reappeared on 32Jazz). But there are differences. I'm still trying to sort this out. MG

The letter writer's point is that we typically don't think (granting the Big 3's stupidities) about the fact that the Big 3's chief competitors are based in countries where there is universal health care; thus their competitors' employee health care costs don't end up on those companies' bottom lines. Yes, in the short term (which may be the only term that matters for the Big 3's survival) Jim's "Subtract my living expenses & I'd have a lot more money in the bank as well, so what does that prove, really? A more salient question might be this - how much revenue would they need now to maintain those health care costs & still remain profitable?" makes sense. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't wonder why Japan, Germany, France, and a lot of other countries have universal health care, and we don't. Those countries can afford it, and we can't? Indeed. Health care is paid for out of taxes (and a national insurance scheme which is more or less taxes) here and elsewhere, so it's not charged to businesses until after the bottom line is reached. There's no logical reason why a business should pay for the health care of its employees. The logic of looking after one's health is that either you pay your own way or you pay through the taxing system so as to achieve some kind of (imperfect) social justice which is generally agreed upon by society. If that agreement doesn't exist, then the only logical option you're left with is pay for your own health care. One of the problems is that the medical business has transformed itself into a big money earner through the private insurance scam. Insurance is, in principle, no different to taxes - in the end, the provision of medical services is free at the point of delivery. Thus, meeting all demands, which are infinite, becomes the criterion by which a medical service is judged. And, by heroic use of science and technology, the western medical services have by and large met this demand (not perfectly anywhere) and have been paid handsomely for it. A medical service that relied on services being paid for on delivery (actually before delivery), would be a much worse, but more affordable, service; a bit like what you have in the third world. Your experiences match mine; at least when I was working in the Civil Service. They DON'T match mine when I was working in factories. There is a difference which it's probably difficult to appreciate unless you've experienced both environments. MG

Which four more pages than the Best of 2008 Jazz list thread. While the op's writing style is very awkward it does seem strange that on a Jazz Discussion Forum their aren't a lot of people that support new Jazz artists. Seems to be more bashing of anybody that gets any type of positive press/ promotion than support. I know that isn't entirely true but it seems that way here sometimes. And four more pages than the thread about organissimo's videos on YouTube... you know, the band that actually owns this board. I have been frustrated by the lack of discussion of new artists on this board for years. What I have found is that younger people are generally more open to cross-pollination of musical ideas than older jazz fans, which is ironic considering jazz is supposed to be "free" and "expressive" and all that. Before anyone gets defensive, I'm not singling out anyone here. Just a general observation from being in the trenches, so to speak. You wait 'til you're sixty-five, young man. Then read that post again. MG

Never seen a photo of Harry Lim before. Looked him up after seeing it and found that, after Keynote, he was on the A&R side at Seeco. Was he producing jazz records there, or Latin material? MG

Which four more pages than the Best of 2008 Jazz list thread. While the op's writing style is very awkward it does seem strange that on a Jazz Discussion Forum their aren't a lot of people that support new Jazz artists. Seems to be more bashing of anybody that gets any type of positive press/ promotion than support. I know that isn't entirely true but it seems that way here sometimes. Well, see, we're all extremely jaded with Hard Bop and Blue Note's formulaic approach and prefer to talk about car manufacturers and politics - even to Weizen Jr MG

(Nods sagely, then spills tea on shoe.) MG

Ah, you're a dentist TOO!!!! MG

Hugh Masekela Waiting for the rain - Jve Afrika MG

One of the stranger album covers of all time. Especially because the title of the album is "Trout Mask Replica", but the cover depicts a Trout MASK, not a Trout Mask Replica. But how do you know it is indeed an actual trout mask and NOT a replica of an actual trout mask? It is a replica, because it's a photograph of a trout mask. Always seemed quite logical to me MG

Yes. I think Earland was the only organist who was REALLY into Hard Bop, more or less throughout his career. Well, kind of a mixture of Hard Bop and George Clinton But Jimmy Smith and Don Patterson seem far more oriented towards Bebop than Hard Bop and Larry Young moved outside after a while. Earland stuck to it and, after a period making synthesised music on the synthesiser, returned to it. But just the way Earland arranged the horns on "Black drops" - even on "Sing a simple song" - is so TUFF! Compare that with any hard bop arrangement of a contemporary black pop tune. Earland had a deep feeeling for soul and funk material and was better able to adapt it for Hard Bop than anyone else. After nearly forty years, that album still gets me more than "Black talk", "Intensity" and "Leaving this planet". But all this music seems to be the proud continuation of the Horace Silver & Jazz Messengers of the fifties. Music that was groovy, danceable, ground into the roots of the black community and also adventurous, exciting and burning hot! For me, Earland's personal take on Hard Bop is what Hard Bop could have been but usually wasn't. His period with Mercury has also got the occasonal gem. "Cosmic fever" on "Oddesey" is another burner where you least expect it. And I think there's another one or two on his other Mercury albums. But it's the albums he made for Joe Fields, on Muse, HighNote and Savant, that show that he hadn't lost his touch. "Pleasant Afternoon" and "Infant eyes" are both great LPs from around the same period as the Mercury and Columbia stuff. And with the nineties, he was back with Fields and made "Whip appeal" (with Johnny Coles on trumpet). And he even makes a Kenny G tune - "Songbird" - sound like a goddam masterpiece on that album. His later stuff isn't ALL great, but there's enough there - "Ready 'n able", "Blowing the blues away", "Slammin' & jammin'" and "Cookin' with the mighty burner" to satisfy anyone who thought the young lions weren't doing it. MG

MG

Advancing towards bed with Illinois Jacquet - Midnight slows vol 8 - Black & Blue Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis & Bill Doggett - Midnight slows vol 10 - Black & Blue (and yet again discovering what a wonder Major Holley is!!!!) These two both bear a sticker saying, "Distributed by Master Takes Inc, Whitehall, MI" - so I've got two LPs that Chuck Nessa has touched!!!!! MG