The Magnificent Goldberg

Yes, nice article. Thanks. MG

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Fantastic! MG

Thankfully, nothing like that has ever happened in my vicinity. I'm sure I speak for Bev, too. This just hasn't come over here at all. MG

Ah yes, I see what you were on about. I suspect the internet makes us not so sensitive to niceties of usage now, since people with all kinds of strange grasps of English (or other languages) are welcome pretty nearly everywhere. Even Chewy MG

Yes. MG

Well, language has a good bit to do with music. Listen to any French singer trying to sing Rock & Roll (well, it's just Johnny Halliday, really). For that matter, listen to a British Rock & Roll singer trying to do Rock & Roll, or most kinds of American music. There was a late sixties rock band - I forget the name now - who made their sole (I think) LP and led off with a piece called "Yorkshire blues" - a B B King style blues sung with a Yorkshire accent and dealing with Yorkshire type background events - which was deliberately hilarious. The way people speak has got something to do with the music they make. So I can see that, if you're trying to write music for French people to sing to in French, you need to write something different to what you'd write if you were expecting German people to sing in German. MG

Some lovely pics there Chris. Thank you! MG

They made Togo into an island?? Must have been quite a feat of engineering. Well, really it's a continent. MG

Salmon!? Battered and fried with chips? MG

It’s no secret that I’m not overly fussy about the sound on particular releases. But this time it’s a bit different. And I know this isn’t an album that is likely to appeal to many, as it’s generally regarded as commercial trash. But I like it, and have since it came out. Despite never having had a copy with decent sound. I got a copy of the original LP in July 1978. Well, it was OK, but side 2 was pressed off-centre. I think they all were. My mate bought about ten copies over the years and only found one that wasn’t off-centre. The sound was OK, without being as clear as I would have liked (all the Versatiles were like that). So, when Charly issued the album in the UK, on the Atlantis label in the mid eighties, I bought a copy of that one. Only to find that the sound was total crap! Very tinny, to use a technical term. So I snapped up the CD version issued by the Canadian firm Unidisc when that came out in 2001. This sounded pretty much like the LP; OK but not really clear. And this history of unsatisfactory issues is the reason I find this recent remastering of the album such a pleasure. It was issued by Essential Media Group last year and I’ve only recently caught up with it. And the sound is pretty good. I did a back to back comparison and both Grant Green and Hank Crawford seem a good bit clearer now; less swamped by the backings. It’s a real pleasure for me now to listen to this. My only complaint with the new issue is the sleeve. The original sleeve (and the Unidisc issue) looked somewhat washed out, which was absolutely right for the picture. This is it. The Essential release has been spruced up and looks a lot brighter and a bit greener (rather like the recording ). And more of the train (part of what was on the other end of the gatefold sleeve) has been included. This has meant that some extra clouds that weren’t in the original photo have had to be invented. See? Oh really… MG

Very neat, Bert - snagged a customer Charles Earland discography attached (I hope it works). CHARLES_EARLAND_DISCOG_V3.doc MG

The Apollo albums are all live. It's pretty much every other JB live album from back in the day that is either part or entirely fake. Ah - I knew there were dodgy things out there! MG

Depends. Don was a great, underappreciated, sax player. But not for everyone. If you like jazz played with great joy, exuberance and funk, all three of his BN albums are great. If you prefer more thoughtful stuff, it's possibly not for you. MG

"Freakin' off" is not poorly mixed - it is a completely fucked up version of some of the tracks from George Freeman's LP "Introducing George Freeman with Charlie Earland sitting in" on Giant Step GS005 (produced by Gus "Silk" Lacy, a Philly DJ). What the remixers have done is tried to cut George Freeman's part in the proceedings right down, so he's more or less inaudible, and make Earland's part more prominent. A couple of different tracks are included in "Freakin' off", I think, but I can't be sure as the thing's too effin' awful to do a back to back comparison. If you see the George Freeman issue, get that one, it sounds good. (And there are also a couple of tracks with Jimmy McGriff sittin' in uncredited.) MG

The McDuff is a definite. The original recording in the Front Room was duff, so they did it in the studio. B B King Live - Crown (well, what do you expect?) Has original studio singles with overdubbed, and very enthusiastic, crowd noises. I THINK I have heard that one of the James Brown Apollo recordings has a fake audience. I don't think it was the first one, though (but I could be wrong about that). It sounds to me as if Piano Red's "Underground Atlanta" (King) has an over dubbed audience, but I've never heard anyone say it's really a fake. There are a few occasions, like the Adderley "Mercy, mercy, mercy" album, where an album was recorded in the studio, with an invited audience. Cannonball Adderley & Ernie Andrews - Live session - Capitol Cannonball Adderley (again!) - Why am I treated so bad? - Capitol Della Reese Live - ABC B B King & Bobby Bland - Toether for the first time... live - ABC B B King & Bobby Bland - Toether again... live - ABC That's all I can think of - too early in the morning - my brain's gone funny. MG

Thanks folks. MG

Proper stuff! Hope this means some sales. MG

Is it me, or is there really no map on this sleeve? Well, there is on this one MG

They released also his BN recordings: Thanks Lon. I already have the BN "Jazz classics" vols 1 & 2 on LP. Have I already got the best part of the BN material or is there much more sensational music to explore in the set? MG

No - but Kankawa is a very interesting organist; I have a few of his CDs. He's also made an album with Gary Bartz, which I haven't got, as well as Soul Jazz albums with Jimmy Ponder and Hiram Bullock (not together; two different albums). I'd be interested in getting that one. But it is a bit pricey from Amazon UK. Perhaps I'll see how much Hiroshi is asking. MG

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This is a bit hard to see, but Lema's face is enclosed in a globe of lattitude and longitude lines. MG

Small map top left MG