The Magnificent Goldberg

Where we used to live we had a load of crows in the neighbourhood. And every afternoon, they'd congregate in a neighbour's tree, a very mature beech - hundreds of 'em. Then, all together, they'd take off yelling like crazies, wheel around in a big black cloud, then settle back into the same tree. They'd do this several times as dusk was approaching. Most dramatic. No rain today, so far. Went shopping into Cardiff - on the way back, it was raining in the small village of Creigiau, but nowhere else - I think it was specially for the benefit of a friend of ours. MG

Thanks Jim. That's heartwarming news. MG

My thought as well. I do not know. From the NCA New York article: "AJAS produced its first jazz concert on December 24, 1956 at Small’s Paradise, with Lou Donaldson and the Bill English Quartet and a group of young budding jazz artists, George Braith, Bobby Capers, Vinnie McEwen, Oliver Beener, Pete LaRoca, Ray Draper and others." Vinnie McEwen = Vincent McEwan from John Patton's Boogaloo ?! what a band... Vincent was also a member of Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers, who played at the first Naturally concert in 1962. MG

Me too - from a second hand stall on London's Petticoat Lane market - followed by Midnight Blue. ( I guess it's pretty sad that I can actually remember where I bought albums! ) I can usually remember where I bought albums. It gets a bit confusing when I buy a hundred African cassettes within a few days at various market stalls in Africa, but otherwise I can. Oh, I can't generally remember where I buy stuff online, unless its stuff that only comes from one place, like CD Baby or various African sites. It's the physical being in a place and doing such and such that sets up the memory. MG

If it carries on this rate we'll get floods again ! Indeed. The area abot thirty miles north of here usually gets about ten feet a year. Dread to think what it'll be like this year. Rained all day yesterday until 10pm. Didn't start again until I went out for a ciggie this morning! MG

Very interesting that Lou Donaldson played the first AJASS/Grandassa gig in 1962. It must have been he who recommended Grandassa Models to Blue Note for the cover of "Natural soul" - and the TITLE means a lot more than I thought it did. One doesn't hear anything about this side of Lou's story - except when you listen to "Hot dog" MG

This is a story that needs a louder and more prominent telling! Thanks Jim. Deeply indebted to your research on this. Is George Braith related to any of those people involved in that movement? MG

First one I got was "Back at the Chicken Shack". Well, what else would you expect? MG

Great title! MG

Why would they have to have been on acid to make that music? Deep fried chicken wings, maybe Those Benson/Smith/Cuber albums for Columbia were just kind of normal Soul Jazz of the period - very good for what they were, though Columbia made them keep the tracks too short, which Prestige wouldn't have. If they'd been recorded for Cadet, Prestige or even Blue Note, I've always thought the results would have been even better. MG

OH MAN!!!!! WHAT AN AWESOME PICTURE!!!! THANKS!!! I've always wondered about those models and that agency! Wonderful! And will yer look at that line-up of LP sleeves! "Oh baby", "All that's good", "Natural soul", "Brown sugar" and "Good gracious"! Awesome! MG

Billy James Don Patterson Sonny Stitt

More rain today. Don't think I'll water the garden. MG

According to the news UK and most of Europe is having a 'mini monsoon' this Summer so that's the rest of the season written off I guess. Some very heavy rain yesterday (I need to de-clog my gutters). Raining well now. Hardly monsoon weather, 'cos it's bloody cold here Very dramatic. Can imagine a Gracie Fields song about that. Or George Formby - "Ladies' nighties, I have spied, I've often seen what goes inside..." MG

Andy Capp Flo Dyna-flo

"Brown Sugar" was the first Roach I bought. I'd like to say it was the cover that attracted me but, after the label was sold to Liberty, BNs became extremely hard to find in Britain, and I'd just started earning enough to afford them (BNs were VERY expensive here). So I picked this up because it was one of not too many organ BNs around. In the same shop, I got "Oh baby" and "Along came John", on a rare trip to London. And, when you get those three all on one day, well, how do you react when you get them home? By chance - because I hadn't heard any of those before - all three were quite different, so there was no feeling of X is better than Y with me. Immediately, "Oh baby" was a PLAYING album. "Along came John" was a RHYTHM album. And "Brown sugar" was a FEELING album. And "Brown sugar" has remained a feeling album for me. In fact, apart from "Good move", which is in my vew his least effective album, ALL Freddie's albums are about feeling. And specifically about black feeling. I think it was Rhoda Scott (or maybe Gloria Coleman) who described Freddie as, apart from Charles Mingus, the most Afro-centric person she knew. Freddie knew exactly how to convey that feeling. As well as an organist, Freddie was a playwright, and he knew all about how to tell a story with great dramatic effect - and he told it through the music as well as through his sleeve notes. One of the great things about BN, and later Prestige, was that they let him write his own notes (I just CAN'T see those sleeve notes coming out on RCA Victor or Columbia ) If I could go back in time and attend any recording session, this and "All that's good" would be my choices. MG

A masterpi MG

Yes, to that, too. MG

MG

Mann-Hugg Blues Menn Men at Work Men Without Hats

Being a sellout would imply that he's doing it only for the money. History says otherwise. Oh, Benson has pretty much admitted it himself. I recall interviews around the time of his crossover where he explicitly stated that he was doing it for the money. I even recall some precious quote of the sort "You want me to play jazz? Give me a million dollars and I'll play you the best jazz you've ever heard." It is true that Benson likes to sing. So the fact that he started singing is separate from the question of his selling out. I also like Breezin' quite a bit. It is certainly not Benson's best jazz album, but I still consider it to be one of Benson's best all around albums. Benson would have seemed to have had the potential to continue making great jazz/pop music, but for some reason didn't. I can't stand the likes of Weekend in L.A, etc. It is not the musical direction, but the material that really sucks. I think you've got the emphasis wrong, John. I've seen Benson interviewed saying he always wanted to be a pop star. But he was initially unsuccessful, so he took up jazz guitar, because he had to learn a trade and earn money somehow. So the selling out part of his life was playing jazz. The pop music part was being true to himself. MG Thanks, MG. That is interesting. Maybe Benson gives different stories depending on who is interviewing him, or maybe he has changed his story over time. The interviews that I recall were from jazz magazines that were intially less than thrilled about Benson's change of direction. Oh, I'm certain he changes the emphasis to suit needs. You'd hardly expect Down Beat to print something that indicated that he was selling out by playing jazz. The programme I saw him interviewed on was a religious talk show on a Sunday morning - not music-focused, so maybe less spin to his story. Maybe. MG

Being a sellout would imply that he's doing it only for the money. History says otherwise. Oh, Benson has pretty much admitted it himself. I recall interviews around the time of his crossover where he explicitly stated that he was doing it for the money. I even recall some precious quote of the sort "You want me to play jazz? Give me a million dollars and I'll play you the best jazz you've ever heard." It is true that Benson likes to sing. So the fact that he started singing is separate from the question of his selling out. I also like Breezin' quite a bit. It is certainly not Benson's best jazz album, but I still consider it to be one of Benson's best all around albums. Benson would have seemed to have had the potential to continue making great jazz/pop music, but for some reason didn't. I can't stand the likes of Weekend in L.A, etc. It is not the musical direction, but the material that really sucks. I think you've got the emphasis wrong, John. I've seen Benson interviewed saying he always wanted to be a pop star. But he was initially unsuccessful, so he took up jazz guitar, because he had to learn a trade and earn money somehow. So the selling out part of his life was playing jazz. The pop music part was being true to himself. MG

Most of yesterday was spent listening to "That devilin' tune" vol 3. Phew! MG

In my case, a lot of my purchases - most of which weren't available over here - came from a dealer who had an arrangement with a juke box operator in Birmingham, Alabama who sold him what, even in the early seventies, he described as "Race records" - from Dave Brubeck to the True Heavenly Spiritual Singers. I imagine Brubeck would be surprised to hear his music thus described. Except for a lot of the Gospel music, the records are in somewhat shitty condition, but I really like the atmosphere. MG

Bright morning, but it won't last. Black clouds gathering to the SW. MG