The Magnificent Goldberg

Yeah!!!! One of my favourite Gene Ammons albums is the compilation 'Gentle Jug vol 3'. It's only just over an hour but Bob Porter's selection of material for it is absolutely perfect, but misses a couple of things. He was probably told how long it had to be. MG

This morning, first thing Papa Wemba & Viva la Musica - Beau goss ya Paris - Veve International 1986 (as part of a Nyangarto compilation) Here's the original sleeve MG

This morning Orchestre Septentrional - Nouvelle vague/La Folie - Cosept 1979 Leo Parker - New sounds in modern music - Savoy 1947-48 Leo Parker - New trends of jazz - Savoy 1947-48 Now Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey - Around the world - Decca (West Africa) 1974 MG

Fantasy did do a pretty decent bunch of boxed sets but did they ever put out any boxes of Gene Ammons? Prestige had access to 18 albums from his best period, between his prison terms, seventeen after the second term, and even 8 jam session albums (which to me are mostly unsatisfactory, but I know some like them very much) from the fifties. And Jug was surely more important to the company than any other musician. MG

Fantasy also had an R&B subsidiary, Galaxy, which had a good number of hit singles, including Little Johnny Taylor's magnificent 'Part time love' which was an R&B #1 while the Vince Guaraldi single was a pop hit, jumping in and out of the Hot 100 over a period of about a year. A long-lasting low hit single can sell a hell of a lot of copies. MG

Ibro Diabate - Allah Nana - Gris Gris 1994 Les Soeurs Sidibe - Ni la kani - Maikano 1992 That's it! Nope - forgot the jazz Leo Parker - 1947-50 - Chrono Classics MG

Got a big bunch over the last 24 hours. Tam Tam 2000 - Tchico Branco - Syllart 1983 Tam Tam 2000 - Symbiose - Syllart 1987 Sam Mangwana - Megamix - Syllart 1988 Kade Diawara - Djinan Mousso - DDU 1995 Mama Kouyate (La Biche du Mandingue) - Dabanko - AMC Mid 90's I think More to follow Solo Cissokho - Alal - PCS 1995 Bamba Dembele & Djoliba Percussion vols 1 & 2 - Syllart c 1986 Un moment...

Don't tell me that's the organist in Willis Jackson's mid sixties band!!!! MG

Well, I adore the one and only Herman Foster. He's as crazy as Hamp and only Hamp can say that. MG I love Dakota. The first soul jazz albums I bought - before I even heard the words - were by her. Spring 1960. She's a professional song-disrespecter Even disrespects her own stuff. Can't go wrong with her, Houston Person or not. MG

I have a 45 of this on Skylark My mate gave it to me a good many decades ago. I'm sure Chewy knows that Bob Scherman also owned Atlas and Tampa. A fair amount of proper R&B on those labels. He surely knew what was what. MG

Oh, and Weinstock wanted Esmond Edwards' gritty photos and designs on his covers, not Francis Woolf's and Reid Miles' sharp, artistic stuff. And then Don Schlitten following the same line - and Don COULD and DID make magnificent photos for his own label, so he was clearly under instruction at Prestige. MG

Jim, that WAS soul jazz, and I'm sure you know that. You can say the same about Grant Green, Hank Crawford, Houston Person, Gator, Milt Buckner, Wild Bill Davis and so on and so on. It wasn't supposed to be a pushing the envelope music; it was supposed to be entertainment for black adults. Bob Weinstock used to say that the difference between Blue Note and Prestige was two days of rehearsals. Most people would be led to believe that the description meant that Weinstock thought Blue Note was better. I think it means that Prestige was better and I think Weinstock thought so, too, because he COULD have done it if he'd wanted to. Prestige was selling all kinds of records - even Irish, Greek and folk records. There was surely enough cashflow there to have paid for rehearsals that would, and did in Blue Note's case, focus the musicians on stretching their imaginations a bit more. But he didn't want that kind of music. He wanted Sonny Stitt behaviour, which Alfred couldn't live with. MG

All those Donaldsons are very nice. Bologna was, to my ears, a bit lamely recorded - funny that there was no RVG studio in Bologna. But it's live and quite a long album, with lots of stretching out. The one I like less than the others is Back street. But it's all down to personal preference. I think I'll agree that there was a slight unevenness to Houston's productions. But in my view he understood much better than anyone else how to record vocalists singing real jazz - and how he as bandleader should support them, which he usually did on the records. Of course, he was working with Etta Jones for so many years that he couldn't NOT have got those messages firmly in his soul. MG

For me, the 1980s signified the end of the seventies. The death of CTI and, particularly, Kudu signified an and to ersatz disco-jazz for all those musicians like Hank Crawford, Lou Donaldson, Groove Holmes etc etc who managed to avoid heading for major labels who wanted to carry it on. I think the first guy who got back into straight soul jazz was Lou Donaldson, whose 'Fine & dandy' album, done live in Japan with Red Garland in Feb 1980, was a flag waving item. Four more, damn good, albums with the one and only Herman Foster followed. The following year, Jam Records started and made first class soul Jazz albums with Jimmy McGriff, Red Holloway, Gene Harris and Les McCann. In '82, Muse, having picked up the baton from Prestige in the early 70's, began to record Melvin Sparks and David Newman, but Joe Fields also realised that, in Houston Person, he had a producer as good as Bob Porter. And Bob Porter began to produce for Milestone, with Hank Crawford, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Ponder and Arthur Prysock all making very fine albums. But one of the downsides was Black & Blue walking with a stick in the eighties after having produced during the seventies so many great recordings of people who just WOULDN'T do disco - Milt Buckner, Arnett Cobb, Buddy Tate, Jaws, Illinois Jacquet, Candy Johnson, Wild Bill Davis and many others, though they DID manage Groove Holmes & Willis Jackson at Chateauneuf du Paper in 1980, but only three more class albums before they closed in the nineties. Another downside was Fantasy. Stanley Turrentine's Fantasy albums in the seventies weren't brilliant, with the exceptions of 'Nightwings' and 'West side highway', and in the 1980s, 'Use the stairs', though none of 'em are actually BAD. But 'Use the stairs' in 1980 seems to have been the end of Fantasy as a soul jazz label. But the 80s still had plenty of good stuff as people began to go back to the roots of Soul Jazz. MG

Ah, timing is everything. Earlier Conjunto Matamoros with Beny More - RCA Victor (Tumbao) 1946 Now Osdalgia Lemnes - Contigo live - Mimisma Productions One of the great voices of this century, I'm sure. Next Nemours Jean-Baptiste - Musical tour of Haiti - Ansonia 1960 MG

Mike, I posted an Earland discography here some years ago in which I'm SURE I noted this. MG

Fabulous album, but for the CD edition, some of the fade endings had to be cut. Fantasy should have issued it as a two CD set. MG

Also got two compilations of material recorded for AMC in the nineties by Sekouba Kandia Kouyate (who is Kouyate Sory Kandia's son). Not cheap at a tenner a go and I've already got most of it on the original K7s, but there's a bit that's new to me. And there's a lot of music there! MG

Found a few more of Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey's albums on sale in Amazon; got five Ara nbada owo oje - Decca (West Africa) 1972 Inter Reformers - Decca (West Africa) 1974 Special release for HRM Oba Michael Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo - Obey 2013 Special Release for Otunba Dr. Alex Adetola Banjo @ 70 - Obey 2020 Special Release for Rev Mother Esther Abimbola Ajayi - Obey 2020 I loves me some Ebenezer Obey! Also got two tracks there to complete Tabu Ley Rochereau - Seigneur Ley on tour - Isa 1978 MG

Breakfast with Maaskool - Massa Thiono - KSF 2000 Lobi Traore - Bambara blues vol 1 - Oubien Productions 1990 (electric) Lobi Traore - Bambara blues vol 2 - Oubien Productions 1990 (accoustic) MG

Breakfast with Koko Taylor - Checker Dizzy Gillespie - Diz delights - RCA Victor Now Alphadio Dara - Ko weli warata - Clipson 1999 No image on web MG

Indeed! MG

Thanks very much. I'll look into getting the two I haven't already got. MG

This afternoon Erskine Hawkins - Swingin' in Harlem - Vocalion (Tax) 1936-38 Vera Zorina - Debussy: Chansons de Bilitis/Paul Hindemith: Herodiade - Coumbia 1966 Slim & the Supreme Angels - More than alive - Nashboro 1982 Next Amos Milburn - Just one more drink - Aladdin (Route 66) MG

Breakfast with Tchico - Afro festival - Namaco 1979 Tchico - Amie Clara - Namaco 1979 Abdoulaye Diabate - Bende - Mali K7 1998 Next Mango Santamania - All strung out - Columbia 1970 MG