The Magnificent Goldberg

Dear. Oh dear. MG

Thanks Guy. Two questions, if you don't mind. What's the story on this? Why is inactivity rising in America? (I understand that benefits are nothing to write home about over there - so the incentives to find work are a good deal stronger than over here.) Is that a historically high level? I had a feeling that overseas tourism in the US fell off remarkably after the invasion of Iraq. MG

There was a nice little market in Namibia for SA Blue Notes. I have one or two. "Mr Shing-a-ling" is one. Can't remember what the other is. I saw a fair few Soul Jazz stuff out there in the ordinary shops (ie, not the ones with a largely African clientele). MG

Etta James Etta Jones Letta Mbulu

They probably just didn't get on with Willie Dixon. Who else was there? MG

Thanks Fer. I think, for our American friends who probably didn't see the show, you could start a thread for this. Few will look at this one. MG

You're right, Mama. Duvivier was, I think, on "Sweet buns & barbecue" and the title track is a killer largely because of him. Leroy Vinnegar on some of those Les McCann Atlantics Chuck Rainey, with Dupree & Tee & Purdie Marvin Bronson also made a good feeling but most of all Wilbur Bascombe MG

A little bit. Lewis was an ex-Ellington man. Then he joined the King Curtis band in the early sixties. That may have been when he got in with Prestige, for whom Curtis was recording then. MG

Two billion compilations, recycling (mostly) the same dreary old classics MG

Just a bump to remind myself to read this after dinner. MG

I agree - I've listened to the first two volumes so far. Tremendously interesting. The world should be grateful. MG

LOVE your new avatar, Fer. (This post dedicated to The Fast Show) MG

Allan, I couldn't tell a 9th on the bottom if it was MY bottom it was biting MG

Interesting. And I have always thought that all kinds of alternative histories emerge when writers examine progressions and relationships of the artists that tend to receive less coverage. So many music histories focus on the "the greats" or "the hits." There is a certain logic to this, as these categories produce the biggest splashes. But when you get into artists who work outside of the usual conventions, fall between genres, and/or have made less of an overt impact, all sorts of interesting threads emerge. I don't think that's alternative history; I think it's the same history looked at from a different angle. Like you can study European history or American or African etc, but it's all the same history; it deals with things that really happen in the outside world. I think Allen means that looking at the great artists can produce a history of things that really happen in the inside world, but which aren't really noticeable in the outside context; or are noticeable in a different, and not quite matching, and possibly later, framework in the outside context. So, maybe, John Coltrane and New Age stuff are related but not quite matching... MG

My list isn't really in order but like you Grant is one of my all time favorite artists and I can listen to Grant soloing over Idris drumbeats till the cows come home. Grant's Live at Club Mozambique isn't the greatest thing in the world but those moments on it where Idris and Grant are locked into each other is heavenly. What I meant is, you put it in twice! So you have a spare place to give the album of your choice! MG

Being a bit hilly you mean??? Or all the trees??? Both actually - though I should really not be surprised by the number of trees in America; it's one of the great delights. Is a subdivision a suburb? MG

Just got two CDs by Ntemi Piliso, who played all the saxes up from baritone to soprano, filled in occasionally on piano, flute, mouth organ and drums, and was also a very competent string bass player - it sez 'ere. MG

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;#entry761708 Got my package from Kalahari in South Africa today - only took about three weeks to get here These two are 1975 recordings by Ntemi Piliso, who later founded the African Jazz Pioneers. They were originally issued as four 12" LPs, one long track per side, as a sort of counter-inspiration to Abdullah Ibrahim's "Mannenberg", also a short LP. This is wonderful stuff! Piliso started playing in big bands in about 1950 (he died in 2000) and is a bit of a multi-instrumentalist. "He played all the saxes up from baritone to soprano, filled in occasionally on piano, flute, mouth organ and drums, and he was also a very competent string bass player." These recordings are very much in the vein of Ibrahim's work at the time. All the band members were working in Mbqanga and Piliso himself did arrangements for the Mahotella Queens. And that feeling pervades. And how can you not admire tracks with titles like "Whole day bump" and "Whole night bump", eh? And I also got Linda Kekana - Kodumela - Gallo. I got her 2002 album, "I am an African" last year. This, from 2005, seems every bit as great as that one. MG

Got my package from Kalahari in South Africa today - only took about three weeks to get here These two are 1975 recordings by Ntemi Piliso, who later founded the African Jazz Pioneers. They were originally issued as four 12" LPs, one long track per side, as a sort of counter-inspiration to Abdullah Ibrahim's "Mannenberg", also a short LP. The sleeve notes are terribly interesting. I'll try to read them all in through the scanner later because they throw a lot of light on the SA reaction to Abdullah Ibrahim's return there. Apparently he was criticising SA jazz musicians left, right and centre. The notes quote Lulu Masilela, a saxophonist and organist. Ibrahim and his wife Apprently Masilela's band The Movers did record Mannenburg for Teal records (must get that in my next order) and had Wow! Wow! Anyway, this is wonderful stuff! Piliso started playing in big bands in about 1950 (he died in 2000) and is a bit of a multi-instrumentalist. "He played all the saxes up from baritone to soprano, filled in occasionally on piano, flute, mouth organ and drums, and he was also a very competent string bass player." These recordings are very much in the vein of Ibrahim's work at the time, but much more related to the community, much as, in the US, Soul Jazz was more closely related to the community than Hard Bop. (And these recordings were originally made for a Gallo subsidiary label called "Soul Jazz Pop"!) All the band members were working in Mbqanga and Piliso himself did arrangements for the Mahotella Queens. And that feeling pervades. And how can you not admire an album with two tracks - "Whole day bump" and "Whole night bump", eh? And I also got It's a bit faint - Linda Kekana - Kodumela - Gallo. I got her 2002 album, "I am an African" last year. This, from 2005, seems every bit as great as that one. I think the interesting sax player here is different from the guy on the earlier album, but I haven't checked in detail. MG

Yes, I thought they were about contemporary. I got the same kind of feeling from Faure's chamber music as from ACD's. MG

Nice view, even in the snow. Didn't think Atlanta looked anything like that. MG

Caligula Claudius Robert Graves

Two things. Gloria Lynne is fine - though I've got a few of her Everest albums and find her approach on those rather brittle for my taste, particularly compared to her more recent work - particularly "This one's on me". But I don't see her work as being more real than that of Irene Reid, Dakota Staton or Etta Jones, to take a few examples nearly at random. (But I wish I had some of Gloria with the one and only Herman Foster.) Second, your linking of this with "real old blues and hillbily" rings the wrong bell with me. One of the things I've definitely concluded about myself after 50 odd years of listening to music is that I have no interest in rural music. Not even the traditional types of music from Africa that I have in my collection are rural; they're all from urban traditions. So, from my point of view, and I don't think I'm notably eccentric - at least not in this - rural music is in no way a substitute for urban music. I'm sure there are people who would say exactly the opposite. And I'm sure there are people for whom both rural and urban traditions are grist to their mill. But whichever way you want to cut that cake doesn't make one better or worse than the other; just different and, certainly, more to an individal's taste. MG

Missy Elliott Mississippi Fred McDowell Mississippi John Hurt

Thanks Lon. A bit of a mish-mosh but it seems to be what I want. Pity they didn't include the LP Hodges did with Billy Gardner and Jimmy Ponder - "Rippin' & runnin'". Can't have everything, I guess. I see they're out of stock at present, for which my savings account is grateful (And my source for Ghanaian records will be, too ) MG