The Magnificent Goldberg

yes i didn't say it wasn't there. just a pain to find among all the text. imo. That's the album that was originally issued on Chiaroscuro, isn't it? Wonder how it's got onto CD Baby? MG

A few albums were delivered while my connection's been down. The Soul Stirrers - He's my rock: the early sides - P-Vine 2 CD set of their complete recordings from 1939 - 1948. Mostly their Aladdin material but a dozen earlier sides, too. Really great stuff! Only disappointment is that the sleeve notes are in Japanese. Though they print the words of all 55 songs in English Georgia Mass Choir - Tell it - Savoy The latest album (issued last year) from the GMC - a great session, with the incredible Dorothy Norwood guesting and still belting it out like a good 'un! Buika - Nina de fuego - DRO Atlantic Oh, entrancing! It will take me a long time to absorb everything in this CD. I was prepared for it to be not as good as her earlier albums, but it's a joy! MG

:lol MG

My connection's been out for a few days but, thank goodness, it's back today. Discs and downloads out tomorrow. Anyone else want a go? MG

Not Sammy Davis Jr, then? Not all those Ethiopians who've been Jewish for a couple of thousand years or so? MG

Yesterday, roast chicken stuffed with sage, rosemary and bay leaves all from our own garden. Where's the smiley for "yummy"? MG

No, Heid is not "moving on" from Larry Young. He's doing the same stuff as Larry Young circa '64 to '65. Heid never touches what Larry got into on later Blue Note albums like "Of Love And Peace", "Mothership", etc. And there's nothing wrong with that. If we can have a dozen modern Jimmy Smith imitators, then why not a Larry Young imitator, especially someone who was taught by Young himself? But he's definitely not "moving on" from what Larry was doing, not by a long shot. He's working within that context of Larry Young's playing during that small time period ('64 and '65), while also doing some greasy shuffles ala Don Patterson (another one of Heid's mentors). As far as no one having the skills to do what Larry Young did, I don't buy that at all. There's nothing mystical about Young's approach. I hear all the time that he's the "Coltrane of the organ". No, he's more like the McCoy Tyner of the organ during that time period. As he started taking things further out I guess you could compare him to Coltrane, but lots of people were experimenting with "free jazz" during that time. A contemporary of Young's that followed a similar path was Big John Patton. Obviously Patton has more blues in his playing, but his approach is very similar on his later Blue Note stuff. As for players who have used those approaches as a launching pad for their own style (ie, players taking those concepts and "moving on" from them), Dan Wall, Larry Goldings, and Sam Yahel are the names that immediately come to mind. None of this is meant as a put-down of Uncle Bill. I love his playing and his approach. I've been raving about his discs on this forum for years. I don't necessarily agree with his assessment of the current state of jazz; but so what? I sit corrected - thanks Jim. MG

Oh yes, I've re-read it now and see where I was confused. MG

No. Because it seems to me that Jimmy is being unceccesarily defensive about his music in this quote. It sounds a bit like, "well, the critics are right and really I'd have much preferred to play Hard Bop, but I could earn a living this way, so I did." But if Jimmy really thought like that, I think I'd sell all the albums of his that I have. Which is not to say that I don't think Jimmy and others in that business wanted to earn a decent living through their music, but that they had chosen where they wanted to be for reasons that weren't essentially financial. And to make the argument that Jimmy did is to demean those reasons. MG I think you're being unnecessarily defensive about the musical results when Jimmy "changed up to stay alive". Really, if Jimmy wasn't greatly pleased with what he was recording, why should that effect your reaction to the music? Its your reaction, not Jimmy's or the critics, that ought to matter. And you say you'd sell all of your copies of his music if you found out that he had chosen where he wanted to be for reasons that were essentially financial? You've expressed enthusiasm for a number of recordings from this era (say, mid to late 70s) that, of the ones I've heard, I consider to be complete or nearly competely putrid. (Like, for instance, the Blue Mitchell recordings before he got together with Harold Land, or I think there are one or two Sonny Criss records). Are you saying that in order to continue to enjoy those records, you need to know that it was "where their heads (and hearts) were at" at that time (so to speak) instead of knowing that they made a conscious decision to record what was popular at that time? No, you've got me wrong, Dan. What I was saying was that, if Jimmy would really have preferred to have played Hard Bop, then he should have done so. But were it so, almost the whole of his work would have been dishonest. As it was, Jimmy acceded to the underlying premise of whoever was interviewing him that what he did was less good than some "less commercial" stuff, not described but which it's implied receives critical plaudits, and that the only reason for playing Soul Jazz was to make money that one otherwise wouldn't/couldn't make. I think that premise is untrue, elitist and demeaning of the music that Jimmy played all his working life. It is much like the attitude of Abdullah Ibrahim, on returning to South Africa in 1975, who criticised the township jive/jazz played by musicians like Ntemi Piliso, Lulu Masilela and Zacks Nkosi, and described it as "not jazz". Sounds like jazz to me - but it's clearly jazz for the people, not the elite. (Now, I'm happy to hear guys like Sonny Criss, Charlie Parker, Blue Mitchell do the occasional thing with strings etc for dancing audiences. That isn't so significant that it affects their whole oeuvre.) MG

Morgan Le Fay Faye Dunaway Bullitt

Looks like you need to watch your "best before" dates. We let some Chinese Oolong go past its date and my wife said it was disgusting! We chucked the rest away. MG

Bump. MG

Many happy returns! MG

Jane Birkin Amos Burke Herschel Burke Gilbert (who wrote the music for "Burke's law)

Oh yes - I always thought that. The single got a lot of radio plays over here. Must get around to buying a bit more Peggy Lee. MG

Tea. PG Tips pyramid bags. OK. MG

Titles like "Groovadelphia" and "Senor Buffet" definitely start to work up the appetite for the newie. MG

No. Because it seems to me that Jimmy is being unceccesarily defensive about his music in this quote. It sounds a bit like, "well, the critics are right and really I'd have much preferred to play Hard Bop, but I could earn a living this way, so I did." But if Jimmy really thought like that, I think I'd sell all the albums of his that I have. Which is not to say that I don't think Jimmy and others in that business wanted to earn a decent living through their music, but that they had chosen where they wanted to be for reasons that weren't essentially financial. And to make the argument that Jimmy did is to demean those reasons. MG

I agree, Greg. But Heid himself is a lot more than a museum curator. Some months ago Larry started a thread about people who are happy to work within a previously existing framework because they see, for whatever reason, that that framework hasn't been worked out, in some important respects. Ruby Braff was one player I remember he particularly noted in this. Seems to me Heid is in the same boat and, in a way, in a way that's rather more important - or at least more interesting - than Braff's boat. Heid is moving on from Larry Young. Young was a very innovative player (understatement of the week) but there were two problems, it seems to me. First - no one had the skills to take up what he did, so the innovation faltered. Second - Larry got involved in Rock/Fusion, which was OK as far as it went (though I don't like it) but, in doing so, moved away from the main stream of jazz. So it seems to me that Heid is doing, whether he thinks of it this way or not, what might have been done, had things been different. This is not, it seems to me, work for museum curators. It's certainly also not work for people who want to be out there at the leading edge of their societies' musical needs and adventures. But between the two, there's a lot of room. I do agree with you about the remark about Kenny G undermining his argument. People do that all the time, though. MG

Lash Larue Tom Mix Hopalong Cassidy

What I miss in Britain, is African restaurants. Brussels and Paris are the best places I've found for them. There's even a Camerounian restaurant in Brussels run by a family living in London! MG

How extreme! And BillF missed this one. Ronnie Kray Reggie Kray Robert Cray

The packaging is a little odd: two CD single cases & booklet in a box. The single cases seem to be arranged backwards, with the label of the CD being the thing that has the detail. When you pull them out of the box, they appear to be upside down, so you turn them every which way to work out what you're looking at. Oh, the music? I'm listening to disc 1 and am on #10, the first one I didn't already have. And that's fine. There won't be a problem with the music, y'know. I hadn't realised there was another 2 disc set of Keletigui & ses Tambourins. I had better get that soon. MG

Thomas Hobbes Adam Smith David Ricardo

Jimmy Heath Heathcliff Charlotte Bronte