The Magnificent Goldberg

I don't play ANYTHING for company. No point in getting annoyed about other people. Good album though. MG

Thanks for that. A few people there surprised me. Mongezi Feza, whom I only know from his recordings with Dudu Puwana. Dizzy Reece is another. Did they change their style or have I been missing something? MG

I've played a couple of things that are very familiar to me but on which one cut really got through. Bembeya Jazz National - Sou - from "Parade Africaine" Sonny Cox - The retreat song - from "The wailer" Both tracks were immediate favourites when I bought the albums a long time back, so there's nothing really revelatory about hearing them again. And yet there was. MG

A little padding going on there, I see? Yeah - I've edited out the duplicates now, so there are only 100. MH

I used to play darts with a guy who was almost blind - he beat me every time. MG

Yay! (Though not gratuitously! That cheapens a good cuss.) MG

Oh, and I ditched nine compilations of material from the pre-LP era - kind of a pity, so here those are Ike Quebec - Complete Forties Recordings Of Ike Quebec & John Hardee -Mosaic - 7&9/1944,4&7/1945,1,5,8&9/1946 Illinois Jacquet - JATP: The First Concert - Clef - 7/1944 Illinois Jacquet - Illinois Jacquet & His Tenor Sax - Aladdin - 7/1945,1,4,9&11/1947 Arnett Cobb - Arnett Blows For 1300 - Delmark - 5&8/1947 Gene Ammons - Jug Sessions - Emarcy - 6,8,10&12/1947,2&10/1949 Gene Ammons - Early Visions - Cadet - 6&10/1948,1949,1950&1951 Willis Jackson - Call Of The Gators - Delmark - 12/1949,1&5/1950 Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis - Goodies From Eddie Davis - Roost - 1951 Wild Bill Davis - Here's Wild Bill Davis - Epic - 11/1951,4/1952&1/1953 MG

I knew I pressed a wrong key while I was posting, but I thought I'd got rid of all the duplicates MG

Well I did - just to see how hard it would be. Took damn near all day. http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=42970 MG

Ha ha! I did it! Not essential - we are dealing with luxury items, y'know - but kinda representative. Ray Charles/Milt Jackson - Soul Brothers - Atlantic - 9/1957 Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis - Cookbooks - Prestige - 6,9&12/1958 Jimmy Smith - Home Cookin' - Blue Note - 7/1958,5&6/1959 David Newman/Ray Charles - Fathead - Atlantic - 11/1958 Teddy Edwards/Les McCann - It's About Time - Pacific Jazz - 8/1959 Cannonball Adderley - Live In San Francisco - Riverside - 10/1959 John Wright - South Side Soul - Prestige - 8/1960 Baby Face Willette - Face To Face - Blue Note - 1/1961 Gene Ammons/Groove Holmes - Groovin' With Jug - Pacific Jazz - 8/1961 Grant Green - Remembering - Blue Note - 8/1961 Ike Quebec - Heavy Soul - Blue Note - 11/1961 Stanley Turrentine - That's Where It's At - Blue Note - 1/1962 Fred Jackson - Hootin' 'N Tootin' - Blue Note - 2/1962 Larry Young - Groove Street - Prestige - 2/1962 Don Wilkerson - Elder Don - Blue Note - 5/1962 Gene Ammons - Bad Bossa Nova - Prestige - 9/1962 Jack McDuff - Screamin’ - Prestige - 10/1962 Johnny 'Hammond' Smith - Black Coffee - Riverside - 11/1962 Paul Bryant – Something’s Happening - Fantasy - 1963 Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue - Blue Note - 1/1963 Clifford Scott/Les McCann - Out Front - Pacific Jazz - 2/1963 Curtis Amy - Katanga! - Pacific Jazz - 2/1963 Baby Face Willette - Mo' Rock - Argo - 2&4/1964 Eddie Chamblee - The Rockin' Tenor Sax - Prestige - 2/1964 James Brown - Grits & Soul - Smash - 5&8/1964 Don Patterson - Hip Cake Walk - Prestige - 5&7/1964 John Patton - The Way I Feel - Blue Note - 6/1964 Freddie Roach - All That's Good - Blue Note - 10/1964 Billy Larkin & The Delegates - Blue Lights - Aura - 1965 Freddie Mccoy - Lonely Avenue - Prestige - 1&2/1965 Jackie Ivory - Soul Discovery - Atco - 8/1965 Jazz Crusaders - Live At The Lighthouse '66 - Pacific Jazz - 1/1966 Illinois Jacquet - Go Power - Cadet - 3/1966 Groove Holmes - On Basie’s Bandstand - Prestige - 4/1966 Lou Donaldson - Alligator Bogaloo - Blue Note - 4/1967 Odell Brown & the Organizers - Mellow Yellow - Cadet - 4/1967 Willis Jackson - Star Bag - Prestige - 3/1968 Charles Kynard - Soul Brotherhood - Prestige - 3/1969 Illinois Jacquet - The Soul Explosion - Prestige - 3/1969 Les Mccann/Eddie Harris - Swiss Movement - Atlantic - 6/1969 Reuben Wilson - Blue Mode - Blue Note - 12/1969 Lonnie Smith - Live At Club Mozambique - Blue Note - 5/1970 Grant Green - Alive! - Blue Note - 8/1970 Charles Earland - Livin' Black - Prestige - 9/1970 Stanley Turrentine - Sugar - CTI - 11/1970 Sonny Stitt - Just The Way It Was: Live at the Left Bank - Label M - 3/1971 Blue Mitchell - Blue Mitchell - Mainstream - 3/1971 Charles Williams - Trees And Grass And Things - Mainstream - c1971/72 Jimmy McGriff - Black Pearl - Blue Note - 1971 Dakota Staton - Madame Foo Foo - Groove Merchant - 1972? Leon Spencer - Where I'm Comin' From - Prestige - 2/1972&1/1973 Johnny Lytle - People & Love - Milestone - 8/1972 Boogaloo Joe Jones - Snake Rhythm Rock - Prestige - 11/1972 Funk Inc - Hangin' Out - Prestige - 12/1972 Charles Earland - Leaving This Planet - Prestige - 12/1973 Rhoda Scott - Live At The Club Saint-Germain - Barclay - 5/1974 Shirley Scott - One For Me - Strata East - 11/1974 Idris Muhammad - The House Of The Rising Sun - Kudu - 6,9&10/1975 George Freeman - Frantic Diagnosis - Bam-Boo - c1976 Junior Mance - Holy Mama - East Wind - 5/1976 Houston Person - The Nearness Of You - Muse - 11/1977 Willis Jackson - Bar Wars - Muse - 12/1977 Al Grey/Jimmy Forrest - OD (Out 'Dere) - Greyforrest - 7/1980 Melvin Sparks - Sparkling - Muse - 2/1981 John Patton - Soul Connection - Nilva - 6/1983 Alvin Queen/Lonnie Smith - Lenox And Seventh - Black & Blue - 5/1985 Jimmy Ponder - To Reach A Dream - Muse - 7/1988&6/1989 Maceo Parker - Life On Planet Groove - Minor Music - 3/1992 Nat Adderley - Workin' - Timeless - 3/1992 Fred Wesley - Swing & Be Funky - Minor Music - 5/1992 Cornell Dupree - Bop'n'blues - Kokopelli - 11&12/1994 Calvin Newborn - Up City - Omnifarious - Mid 1996 & 1/1998 Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers - Groovin' High - Cannonball - c1997 Irene Reid - Million Dollar Secret - Savant - 2/1997 Etta Jones - My Buddy - HighNote - 12/1997 Hank Crawford - The World Of Hank Crawford - Milestone - 2/2000 David Newman - Keep The Spirits Singing - HighNote - 3/2000 Lonnie Smith & Crash - The Doctor Is In - Cellar Live - 9/2003 Rhoda Scott/Ricky Ford/Houston Person - Very Saxy - Ahead - 1&2/2004 I tell you what - it was bloody hard to cut it down to only 100! MG

This happened at ten o'clock at night! And people are concerned? Bleedin' 'ell! MG

Mountainous Maurice Dennis Geoff Simkins Benny Simkins

Louis Pasteur Shane Meadows Hugh Paddick Damn!

I guess, but it's such a sad state of affairs that she even "needed" to do that. I can't imagine that a day goes by when 90% of the American public doesn't use or at least hear that word. It's just silly ... Depends on what time of day it was. You get a lot of swearing - quite rightly in my opinion - on British TV, but not first thing in the morning etc. MG

We like to think that the colonial period cut Africa off from its past, but I'm not sure that's really so. Unlike Europe, Africa never developed a feudal system. One of the feudal system's by-products was an attitude amongst aristocrats that "trade" was a dirty word. So trade was carried on by the lower classes - and eventually gave rise to the middle classes. In Africa, instead of a feudal system, the various kingdoms and empires developed a tax and tribute system. Indeed, the Sahelian empires had a cash-based society, but it was one in which the aristocrats were deeply involved in trade - as monopolists. It seems not to have been until the third quarter of the nineteenth century that trading middle classes started developing in various states such as Asante, Kongo, Buganda and among the Igbo. And that development was deliberately cut off by colonialism, which, of course, imposed its own monopolistic practices. (The exception appears to have been along the east coast, in which trade was carried on by Swahili merchants. But much of the Indian Ocean trade - and particularly its African infrastructure - was destroyed by the Portugese in the early sixteenth century, then the British finished it off a bit later.) The way in which markets seem to be organised in Africa today doesn't look all that dissimilar from the monopolistic practices of the ruling classes in pre-European days. (Of course, there are two levels of market - the everyday, street markets, which in Africa are no different to Newark NJ; and the big markets, particularly commodity markets, which are what look like the old monopolistic markets - though these do feed through into the street markets.) The more I think about economic development in Africa, the more I'm inclined to the view that what we developed in the West is actually just a special case - though it's dominant. While it may well be the right way to organise things - and I'm pretty sure it is - cutting through a couple of thousand years of culturallly ingrained market habits may prove to be a difficult job. MG

I must say I'm torn on this. Thinking of the harm that Europeans - well-meaning or malign - have done in Africa, I think it's best to leave them to get on with it and sort things out themselves. I doubt what's going on in Darfur or Zim is a lot worse than what went on in Guinea under Sekou Toure, and Guinea seems to be putting that behind it now, without much in the way of outside intervention. But when I look at what's happening, that attitude seems hard and unfeeling and I want something done about those governments. MG

Par for the course. But, Soul Jazz addict though I am, I'd say that very little of it is essential, if you're looking for "authorised masters". That's part of the attraction, for me anyway. MG

Yes, apart from 2 ECM albums, that's right. "Essential" has certainly got something to do with "authority" and, you've got to admit, the majors do have "authority" on their side. Shrug. MG

I haven't read much Onion, but everything I have read has been very, very clever indeed. To quote Stitt, "this shit ain't easy, baby". MG

Barbara Bel Geddes Danny Kaye Red Nichols

The $3.98 price had held for quite some time. King LPs had catalogue numbers which incorporated the price up until 1956. The 12" 500 series were all $3.95 up to 532, when the price indicator was dropped. The 10" LPs had various prices - $1.59, $1.79, £1.99, $2.19, $2.65, $2.95. But from 295-76 to the end of the 10" series at 295-119, were all $2.95. The interesting thing was that there wasn't a price rise as such in the 10" series - each record seems to have been priced at what Sid Nathan thought the market would bear. MG

$3.98 was the norm, IIRC. Maybe $4.98 for stereo. Or maybe at one (earlier) point, a dollar less both ways. I bought my first LP in 1968, and that's what prices were then. I began buying LPs in the mid-50's when they first came out. The prices were what Jim said above. In the 60's one could find LP cutouts for $1.69 to $2.50 each. I recall going to a discount dept. store in Detroit in about 1964 and buying a large number of EmArcy LP cutouts for $1.69 each. Another time I went to an electronics store and found a bunch of original Blue Note LPs for $2.00 each. Typically on a saturday I would make the rounds of a number of discount stores and invariably come home with anywhere from 2 to 8 LPs I had bought at bargain prices. So how much was a pint of beer in those days? This is not an idle question. Someone must remember. MG

Yes, yes and yes. Oh, and yes, so did I. I've bought Newman albums automatically for several decades now - just haven't got round to his latest! MG

John Wells Graeme Garden Bill Oddie

Interesting. Thanks, Guy. This is kind of your subject, isn't it, Guy? MG