The Magnificent Goldberg

My mate and I used to LUST after that Leo Parker, seeing it advertised all the time on BN inner sleeves. It's one of the GREAT BN covers in any colour. MG

Fopp's closed now - no doubt flogging cheap stuff to Niko MG

Rufus Thomas? MG

Another damn fine interview, telling it. Thanks Jim. It reminded me of what Nelson George said about the Dodgers signing Jackie Robinson. In the long run, all the great black players joined white (now integrated) teams and the National Negro League fell apart - and with it, went all the jobs - on the gates, groundsmen, ice cream salesmen etc etc - that black employees had done in those teams. Booker T washington had it right, it sems to me. And that's a lot of what Eddie Harris seemed to be saying. MG

There are some more. As far as I know, the numbers went up to 595. 586 Lightnin’ Hopkins – Straight blues (BV compilation apparently) 587 Pink Anderson – Medecine show man (BV1051) 588 Rev Gary Davis – Have a little faith (BV1032) 589 Sonny Terry – And his mouth harp (Riv 644) 590 Driftin’ Slim – Somebody hoo-doo’d the Hoo-Doo man (Miles 93004) 591 Jimmy Witherspoon – Blue Spoon (PR7327/7418) (seems to be a twofer) 592 Rev Gary Davis – Guitar & banjo of (PR Folklore 14033) 593 Arbee Stidham – Tired of wandering (BV1021) (I have this one) 594 Scrapper Blackwell – Mr Scrapper’s blues (BV1047) 595 Smokey Babe – Hottest brand goin’ (BV1063) MG

Is that in the Concord sale, or is that a mistaken thread? MG

I was thinking the same thing when I ordered today. I'm sure that next week someone will post something on the Listening thread or somewhere else; I'll think - hey, I don't have that - and I'll be back for another order. The OJC catalog was so vast at one time that, and still is pretty big, that it's hard to have everything worth getting. The highest non-limited edition OJC I have is no. 1108, and the highest limited edition OJC no. I have is 1955. I believe this means that there are 1108 regular OJCs and 256 limited edition OJCs (1700 to 1955), for a grand total of 1364 CDs in the OJC series (not counting of course all the non-OJC Fantasy reissues). There's a gap in the regular OJC numbering, to avoid the same numbers as were being used for the Original Blues Classics series. OJC numbers go to 499, then start again at 600. The OBC series was 500s - not sure how far they got with that. MG

Well, since my Ghanaian CDs came in the other day, I thought I'd get back to Kalahari. I got Bra Ntemi Piliso - at Teal Lulu Masilela "Cool down" both of which you found Flurin I also discovered how to work the search function. Above the search text box there's a dro down menu, with the word "keyword" in it. If you hit the down arrow, one of the options is "artist". If you select that, it finds artists OK. The trouble is, that menu ges back to "keyword" every time, so for each search you have to reset it to "artist". Pain in the arse! But, using it, I also found Lulu Masilela - Super jive hits Robbie Jansen - Nomad jez (Robbie used to play with Abdullah I - I have an earlier CD of his on the same label - he cooker! And great live - saw him on TV once) Zacks Nkosi (the guy who wrote the original "Mannenberg") - Our kind of jazz Zacks Nkosi - Tribute 6 CDs for about 23 quid (inc post) - very happy with this little lot. There are a few Jonas Gwangwas there, too - but I decided 6 was enough for one load. Funny, when you browse jazz, you don't get any Abdullah Ibrahim, but if you search for his name, you do... MG

Yes, vinyl is heavy. MG

Most of Dakota's Capitols are available on Collectables. And most are very good. Actually, most Dakota Statons on any label are good. But my fave is "Madame Foo Foo" with Groove Holmes (well, of course...) MG

MG

I like the first 2 Deodatos. Got them on an Australian twofer. Very influential stuff - course, you may not like the results of that influence... MG

MG

Good to know, Lon - thanks. But y'know, I've been about halfway through the list in the link posted earlier and, though I've found a dozen or so albums I want that are still around, frankly I just wan't getting a hard on over them. Except the Gonsalves/Eldridge. So, "fuck it," I said to myself, and went off to order half a dozen South African items from a Jo'burg firm, for about $8 each, inc postage. Now THAT was exciting! There are new David Newmans/Houston Persons/Jimmy Ponders/Maceo Parkers that I haven't been moved to order yet, as well. Fails to find smiley for shrugging shoulders elegantly... MG

Just seen this at Concord. Crazy cover & title. 1973 material. Never heard of it. Anyone know it? MG

I've got very little Moody, but that piques my attention. What is it? MG

Look back through this thread again. I don't have time to find and quote the right post(s) that I'm sure are there, but the info is there (from my memory). In short, the color negatives (or however they existed in the files) were LOST for these specific 9 covers --- 9 covers which weren't actually used back in the day. Only the B&W "negatives" (or "positives") were ever found. So then the only way to use these covers was to "colorize" them after the fact. They were originally in color, but decades later -- there was no way to know what the colors originally were -- so the modern EMI people had to just guess, and/or make good choices. Thanks - I see now. I must have read that before, but forgot. MG

Thanks for tipping me off about this thread, Jim. Never saw this back in the day - for obvious reasons. But I've almost always subscribed to Lou's views, even though I know he's wrong. I forget which band member said it but, "We carry the truth" was the key sentence in that piece, for me. It seems to me that the position of jazz in the black community is different to what it is in the white community (a crass generalisation, I know, but the best I can do). Lou's band carried a black truth into Ghetto clubs. Ornette etc carried a different truth into concert halls - not a white truth, but an everyone truth. Seems to me there's room for both truths in the world. Seems to me I need there to be both truths. What I don't like is the purveyors (or others with an interest) of either truth denigrating the other. So, in his way, Lou's as bad as Duck's Back. MG

I'm not sure if i agree. Lou was never a "concert" musician in the way Mingus or Ornette, Monk were. He was a working jazz musician playing ghetto clubs (his own description). As we all know, magazines like "Downbeat" look down their nose typically at what's going on at "street level." I think Lou and his band were just vocalizing a reality. I am pretty surprised that DB even THOUGHT about doing a piece like this. I've never subscribed to the view that DB was anything other than an open-minded organisation - but there's a difference between being reactively open-minded and creatively open-minded. (And it's not just the c being in a different place ) It is pretty creative, it seems to me, actively to seek out a person who is going to criticise and satirise you and everything your organisation stands for, and let them have a free hand to get on with it. So, mucho credit to DB for doing it. Unfortunately, what Lou and the band said was water off a DB... MG

Found it! It was in the pile I hadn't got around to refiling after playing some weeks ago (untidy bugger). So, it IS a DMM and it was manufactured by Pathe Marconi, France. Thinking about this business of EMI inventing the colours on those nine sleeves, it seems extraordinary that Blue Note would hire Reid Miles to do a cover but NOT ask him to do the colouring on it. So, he'd produce, for THIS LP, a white sleeve with white lines and blocks and just the words along the top and leave someone else to put the colours in? That seems to me so extraordinary a proposition that I really can't believe it. So, if Reid usually produced a finished article, why did EMI have to choose colours for those sleeves? MG

I've got the Parker. As far as I can remember, it IS a DMM job and I think it was manufactured in France. I just went to dig it out and find I've misfiled it! Arrrrgghhhh!!!! What the hell do you do when you mifile an LP? (sigh) I'll confirm this when I find the bugger. MG

Porter got into jazz through R&B, same way I did. And he's never lost his love for R&B; he's regarded as an authoritative figure in that field. Within the context of jazz, or perhaps any music, reviews, you could make a stab at a kind of general rule that conflicts of interest would only arise, and matter, if a reviewer was plugging something that he/she thought was rubbish but was doing so for purely commercial reasons. But, in Porter's case, I can only think of one album he produced which he probably doesn't think entirely met his expectations/requirements. As a producer, I think he was extremely successful in producing albums he liked (and probably still likes). So if someone says they like something/think it's good, and it's true, well, where's the conflict? Only that some cretin like me comes along and says, "Hey, foul!" MG

I never SAW a jazz organist live until Hank Crawford/Jimmy McGriff came over in the late eighties - not sure when that was, Bobby Broom was in the band at the time. I have the Acid Jazz movement to thank for most of what I did get to see. MG

Reminder to self - get on this tomorrow. MG

Thanks Jim. Technically, then, he was between jobs; out at Prestige, but not yet in at East/Westbound (where the Counts were recording - or going to, perhaps). MG