The Magnificent Goldberg

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Don Patterson - Mellow soul - Prestige green label MG

Dry today, with occasional sun poking through. In the cafe in Ton today, they were saying tomorrow will be dry here, Wednesday & Thursday wet. We'll see. MG

Groove's recordings in the eighties were: Willis Jackson - In Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Black & Blue (Jan 1980) (issued in US as "Y'understand me" - Muse) Broadway - Muse (Dec 1980) Swedish lullaby - Sison Music (Aug 1984) Blues all day long - Muse (Feb 1988) Hot tat - Muse (Sep 1989) Can't believe you didn't buy the last two for their covers, Chewy ) Yes, they're all back to the straight ahead Soul Jazz style, not unlike like McGriff's albums for JAM & Milestone. But they BURN!!!!!! MG

Sad news indeed. The last of the giants. I think the first Gospel album I ever bought was by the Dixie Hummingbirds. I was listening to one of their albums the other day. Will get a couple more on later. Definitely RIP Ira! MG

Very interesting article that. Thanks for posting it, Ted. I thought I'd copy the article into the board, so it would be more immediately available.. MG

Willis Jackson - Gator's groove - Prestige blue label Willis Jackson - In Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1980 - Black & Blue MG

I think several people could be mentioned. Let's try Tyrone Davis for a start. MG

OK - I can see this. But what happens if you take Kenny Burrell out of "Midnight special"/"Back at the Chicken Shack"? You get "Prayer meetin'". MG

Sorry to be so thick - which link do I use now? MG

That's a very interesting remark, but I'm not sure what it means. The jazz that was "in fashion" in the fifties seems to have been mainly revivals of big bands - Harry James, Les Brown etc - or easy listening jazz - Sinatra -> Les Baxter, via Gleason, Freshmen, Shearing, Fitzgerald - very little "hardcore" jazz appears to have been "in fashion" - Ahmad Jamal and Garner are about the only exceptions. If you mean "in fashion" with the jazz public, well I don't really know what was in fashion with the jazz public in the fifties. I think white audiences were probably going for West Coast stuff, as well as the output from Verve. Possibly black audiences were more focused on Hard Bop, though honking sax men remained popular until the mid-fifties. Gross generalisations these and I hope they'll be read as approximations. If something like this is what you intended, then I can see your point. MG Cats like Hawk, Eldridge, Webster, etc had a hard time getting gigs in the 50s. Fact. Not "modern" enough. Oh right. I didn't appreciate that. So perhaps it's not entirely surprising that Ben and others hopped it to Europe. I always thought it was more to get away from racism than for economic reasons. Oh, and also because they were truly appreciated as giants here (separate from the economic aspect, that is). Thanks. MG

That's about it. Thought it would have been obvious, so I didn't make it clear. MG

Honestly, MG; I don't quite get your initial post. What is that "on the other hand" list supposed to mean? Are there reservations about these artists compared to the first (longer) list? And what's that about not Verve taking chances or giving (relatively) unknowns a try? What about BERT DAHLANDER's "SKAL" LP (Nils-Bertil Dahlander, in fact, or "Bert Dale" for the linguistically lesser talented Yanks - BTW, anybody know of any reissue sources for this?), or what about that TONI HARPER LP (been a long time since she'd been a child singing star) or how about that obscurity by REX MIDDLETON'S Hi-Fi's (nice LP, BTW)? (And there were many more jazz-tinged vocal albums on Verve who did not make it to everlasting fame - probably about as many as on Bethlehem) Or how about LYLE RITZ on ukulele? And you even got SPIKE JONES on Verve. And who TF was that ERNIE HECKSCHER orchestra? So much for Verve not strainyg beyond the names of the "greats". Surely many of those recordings reflected those times but I doubt all of them were safe bets on becoming huge sellers (even by jazz/"jazzy" standards). In fact, overall I find Verve had a fairly homogeneous body of work. If Verve was a stronghold of jazzmen from the "Mainstream" field that gave them exposure then this is no mean achievement and not bad as a counterweight to all those up and coming all-out modernistic labels. But the first Verve artist that comes to MY mind when I pull out a Verve record remains TAL FARLOW. Never heard of most of that stuff, Steve Forgot Tal Farlow. MG

That's a very interesting remark, but I'm not sure what it means. The jazz that was "in fashion" in the fifties seems to have been mainly revivals of big bands - Harry James, Les Brown etc - or easy listening jazz - Sinatra -> Les Baxter, via Gleason, Freshmen, Shearing, Fitzgerald - very little "hardcore" jazz appears to have been "in fashion" - Ahmad Jamal and Garner are about the only exceptions. If you mean "in fashion" with the jazz public, well I don't really know what was in fashion with the jazz public in the fifties. I think white audiences were probably going for West Coast stuff, as well as the output from Verve. Possibly black audiences were more focused on Hard Bop, though honking sax men remained popular until the mid-fifties. Gross generalisations these and I hope they'll be read as approximations. If something like this is what you intended, then I can see your point. MG

That's the firm that owns Concord, isn't it? MG

Cleared up yesterday evening, but looks like rain again today. Brief shower already. MG

Yeah! MG

Really? Of course - TTK would buy them all - to give to his friends on Organissimo. MG

Scheherezade Salome Gustave Moreau

Oh yes, I need a lot of that, too! MG

Er... When did I miss your sign-up thread? Can I have some downloads please? I'll take the ones with the artists and titles on, if you like MG

Charlie Parker Dizzy Gillespie Count Basie Stan Getz Roy Eldridge Coleman Hawkins Illinois Jacquet Lester Young Ben Webster Billie Holiday Ella Fitzgerald Sonny Stitt Johnny Hodges Duke Elington Oscar Peterson Bud Powell Louis Armstrong Teddy Wilson Art Tatum Harry Edison Lionel Hampton Lee Konitz Gene Krupa Stuff Smith Gerry Mulligan John Lewis Kid Ory Red Allen on the other hand Junior Mance Flip Phillips Ruby Braff Buddy de Franco Joe Sullivan Ralph Sutton All of these performers recorded for Verve in the fifties. I may have missed a few but this is the bulk of Verve's jazz catalogue from that period. What strikes me immediately is how extremely skewed the artist roster is. The vast majority of leaders on Verve/Clef/Norgran were acknowleged masters. A mere handful of ordinary mortals made records for the label. And most of those had already made what reputation they have by the time they arrived at Verve. The only one in this list whose career seems to have been positively developed b Verve is Oscar Peterson. On this view, Verve was not much like the other independent jazz companies. The other companies took risks, recording people who weren't well known, helping their careers along. Norman Granz played it safe. In this, he seems to have been acting rather more like a major than an indie. Strangely enough, the firm became more adventurous after it had been sold to MGM and Creed Taylor came in. Sure, the firm still took on acknowledged masters Wes Montgomery Jimmy Smith Gene Ammons Cal Tjader but they also recorded George Benson Curtis Amy Wynton Kelly Willie Bobo Kai Winding Walter Wanderley Grant Green Donald Byrd (I expect there are quite a few I've missed, but I don't mind.) On the other hand... Suppose there had not been a Verve to take on these people? Quite likely they'd not have been beating a path to Blue Note, Atlantic, Chess, Riverside, Contemporary, Pacific Jazz, Roulette, Roost, King etc. More than likely most would have gone to a major. And have been put under the usual pressures to which jazz musicians at major companies are subject. So it's not all bad, is it? MG

Yeah, I dug out a few Malaco albums and loked for the great songs. And I found some that Al could have done with profit maybe. And they weren't all written by George Jackson Strugglin' lady - Little Milton (George Jackson) Walkin' on thin ice - Little Milton (Tommy Tate) I'm jealous of her husband - Little Milton (Little Milton) His old lady and my old lady - Little Milton (Larry Addison) This is your night - Johnnie Taylor (George Jackson) Still called the blues - Johnnie Taylor (George Jackson) Sweet surrender - Bobby Bland (George Jackson) Get your money where you spend your time - Bobby Bland (Tommy Tate) Angel - Bobby Bland (Larry Addison) Sunday morning love - Bobby Bland (Sam Mosely) MG

New Vaudeville Band Temperance Seven Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra

Al Green's OK, but I was never really into him in his heyday. He never stacked up against O V Wright, for me - or Tyrome Davis at his best, for that matter. And frankly, in the seventies, there was so much more interesting stuff about than Al - Clinton, Kool, JB and JBs, Fatbacks, Rick James, even Barry White was interesting in a different way. And I could afford hardly any of it "Green is blue" is a great album, though. MG