The Magnificent Goldberg

Kankawa Andrew Beals Randy Johnston MG

Bobby Broom Bobby Forrester (unfortunately, the late) Chris Foreman Jim Alfredson Joe Gloss (Can't say Randy, 'cos he's been around since the style was alive; I assume that doesn't count) Winard Harper Karl Denson (a bit uneven but on form a real bad mofo) Rodney Jones (another uneven one) Further thoughts after I've had a ciggie. MG

I was never able to do that. And I still can't. Some things never change. MG

Wales is doing rather well in the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament at present. We're top of the table; played 3, won 3 - England, Scotland and, this afternoon Italy. Ireland on 8 March and a maybe to win the Triple Crown. And France on 15 March for the Grand Slam. Now Rugby is REALLY important for Wales; desperately important. As far as I know, Wales is the only nation that erects statues of Rugby players on the street or in shopping centres. In fact, Wales may be the only nation that puts statues of sportsmen anywhere other than inside or outside sports facilities. I was wondering about this and thought I'd ask. So, have you got any in your locality? MG

This is very interesting. I wasn't aware that there was this feeling around in the late seventies. The idea that jazz was then turning its back on its audience, existing or potential, is quite extraordinary, since in that period hundreds of jazz LPs made the pop or R&B charts. Even Sonny Criss had a hit album! But of course, these hit albums were mostly disco, as was Sonny's, or fusion, and I can readily understand why that group of people wouldn't have been interested in that stuff (and much of it really is junk, by anybody's standards). But setting all that music aside with no further comment, if this bunch of audience was looking for musicians who could and did play their music the way this audience wanted it played, there was a whole raft of mucsicians who fitted - yes, Percy and Hal, but also Plas Johnson Kenny Burrell Al Grey Illinois Jacquet Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis Jimmy Forrest Milt Buckner Billy Mitchell Wild Bill Davis Red Holloway Houston Person Willis Jackson Eddie Chamblee Arnett Cobb Harry Edison Rhoda Scott Teddy Edwards Junior Mance Tiny Grimes Ray Bryant Lionel Hampton Benny Carter Johnny Lytle Lou Bennett Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson Slide Hampton Norman Simmons Bill Doggett Blue Mitchell Bobby Forrester Ronnie Cuber (Oh, and there were a few around who could play that way, but were making money making disco albums - Stanley Turrentine is a case in point.) Now the big problem is, most of those guys had been around for a while, some of them a very long while. Only the last two made their debut albums as leaders in the late seventies. Of that list, only Plas and Kenny recorded for Concord in the late seventies. A very large proportion of them had to go to Europe to find a record company willing to put out their material - thank heavens for Black & Blue and Barclay. Norman Simmons made a number of DIY jobs. So, if there was an audience - and I have to assume that was the audience Carl Jefferson thought he could tap into - why didn't it latch on to most of these guys? Why wasn't Concord rampaging through the US and Europe trying to pick up these musicians? I think Jim Sangrey nailed it when he mentioned Scott Henderson's "dirty little secret" - only it wasn't a secret in the cases of most of the musicians I've listed; they'd all done time - valuable time, as far as I'm concerned - in R&B. Indeed, some were great names in R&B, while others had contributed classic solos to R&B hits. (And should I point out that only two of them were white? - but Cuber had long hair at the time; don't know about Forrester's hair.) So, although this audience may have SAID that it wanted music such as you've described, Larry, one's forced to conclude, since they didn't in fact want so much of the really quite significant amount that was available, that they really wanted something else but didn't want to come right out and say so. Would such an attitude give conflicting signals to the musicians who were hired? I dunno. Someone else would have to answer that. MG

I also feel that Concord doesn't generally make records - even by people I like a lot - as good as I'd like them to make, though I don't have a great many (because they don't generally...) But there are exceptions: I love Kenny Burrell's "Tin tin deo", Red Holloway & Clark Terry "Locksmith blues" and Dan recently put me on to the Gene Harris Trio + Stanley and that can't be described as anywhere below the standard of anything he or Gene had ever put out on other labels. But it was live and it must be hard to apply a flavour remover to a live gig. My theory is that, just as there was strong quality control at Blue Note, there is, or has been, strong quality control at Concord, but it's aiming in a slightly different direction; the same direction, I think, that it was aiming at at Verve. But without people like Hawk, Ben, Illinois, Prez, Bird on the roster. MG

I got one from Burkina Faso the other day. No wonder the Nigerians are holding conferences on the scam business. MG

I think that's correct - there has been a great period of reissues - led by Fantasy, as far as I'm concerned, but others may find other sources nearer to their tastes. But it does look as if that period is comig to an end with the general problems of the majors and Fantasy's takeover by Concord. So there's a high degree of "get it now or regret it for another forty years", by which time, I'll probably be dead. And what one buys does tend to form a large part of what one listens to. MG

Hope I haven't got any of the bold bits mixed up, or this post will look crazy. MG

BFT54 disc 2 First, I’ve got to apologise for taking so long to get around to this disc. Only excuse is that I’ve bought so much new stuff in the past weeks that I’ve been all chonked up with listening to newies. Anyway, here we go – at least, I don’t have to be shy about posting any answers I happen to know. Part 1 1 Slightly Latin lilt with strings under a pretty alto player – sounds like it was recorded in the late sixties. Don’t know the tune. I think I’ve heard this alto player before, especially when he does down the bottom, but can’t find a name. The little quote at the end from “Goin’ out of my head” is a nice touch. This sounds like something Creed Taylor might have produced at Verve. 2 This is Blue Mitchell – a track from “Heads up”. “Togetherness”. 3 This is so quiet, even with my ear close to the laptop’s speakers, I’m making such an effort to hear it that I can’t hear it. I’d guess Joe Mooney. Ah, I can hear the trumpet player OK. But I don’t recognise him. Nor the pianist. Both are nice. Strange record… the singer sounds so uncertain (or maybe that’s the volume) while the musicians are positive. Maybe this is a singer who isn’t usually associated with jazz – like that pop singer who was on a Teddy Edwards album in the late eighties. Or maybe it’s a jazz musician who doesn’t usually sing – Kenny Burrell maybe? 4 “Mean to me” Nat Adderley, from “Work song”. 5 Nice little bossa nova from a guitarist who I’m sure I’ve never heard before. I like the groove the drummer is putting down; it’s kind of near to “Maiden voyage”. And here comes a trumpet player with a very pretty solo. I don’t think I’ve heard this guy before. No ideas, but very pleasant. 6 Something from a film background? But not a car chase – damn! “Shaft”? 7 This is nearly film music, too, but the alto solo takes it out of that sphere. But the Mantovani strings are overwhelming at the end. 8 “Too late now” by a swinging guitarist-led band. Oh and here comes a tenor player I should know. Although it’s short, this one is really all there – everything it needs to be. 9 This really not getting to me. Can I hear Freddie Hubbard in the ensemble? Now he’s soloing, I don’t think it’s him, just someone like him, but less forthright. Piano player could be someone like Cedar Walton. I don’t listen to much music like this and this track really makes it clear why. 10 Wes – “Road song”. This sounds like it’s the version from his album of the same name – certainly can’t hear JOS in here. But I also can’t hear the massed strings of Klaus Ogerman or whoever did that album – but it IS a bit quiet. No I think it’s a small band. So it’s someone doing a tribute to Wes. And when he starts soloing, it’s clear he’s not Wes. Ha! And there’s a great Grant Green lick, well placed, well sustained, at just over 2 mins, that Wes wouldn’t have done. And more. This is a guy who likes GG too! So, let’s guess Peter Bernstein. I like this, but. 11 Johnny Hodges – is he just breezing along with the breeze? That’s Duke Ellington on piano. Don’t know the trumpet player – well, I almost certainly do, but can’t dredge up a name. And a guitarist – that guy who wrote “Gemini”, whatever his name is. Oh and Duke’s piano playing ALWAYS kills me when he’s doing this sort of thing. The trumpet player’s second solo is a blast; I don’t know his work well, but I’ll guess Roy Eldridge. Wunnerful!! Is this from the LP “Side by side”? 12 Fats Waller? Sometimes the tune sounds like it’s “Honeysuckle Rose”, then it goes off into something else. I guess he’s not playing with his usual band here. 13 That JBs beat! Fred Wesley!!!!! I’m sure I’ve got this, but, without the intro/hook, well, they do sound a lot alike. I’m going to stick my neck out and say these are the solos from “Funky drummer” which I think you only got on the album “In the jungle groove”. Nicely faded! After going out for a fag, I decided it must be one of the several versions of either “Pass the peas” or “Hot pants”. 14 A Walter Bishop tune. Is it “Philadelphia bright”? (Don’t think so.) I haven’t got this recording, which sounds like something he did for Muse in the late seventies. I think Bish was the best pianist on the electric piano – I always hear his lines clearly. With most, what you gets is a tinkly kind of stuff that doesn’t have a melodic thrust (to my ears). Oooweeebaby! 15 That pianist is effin’ RAVISHIN’!!! I almost recognise him. Is this just piano/guitar/bass? I love this cut! I’m looking forward to hearing who this is… Definitely regret not giving this a go beforehand. Nice bunch of stuff, including a few old mates. Thanks. MG

Have a great one! MG

Thanks Mark MG

Me too. Perhaps you should have titled the thread "Estaban (not Estefan you cretins) World Tour" MG

Also cartoonist - wasn't it he and Wally Fawkes who were the original Trog? MG

What's better, though? MG

What's NARU? MG

I've got "Centerpiece" and if the Hampton is as good as that, I want that one, too. MG

The Burrell LP mid seventies compilation "Cool cookin'" (UK edition) has one of the unissued tracks - "How could you do a thing like that to me. I think the US edition of "Cool cookin'" was a double LP - maybe there was more on that. MG

MG

Thanks Allen. I agree with your view thus far But the next bit is, I think, somewhat over-charitable. I'd go on to say, "because it was obscure." At least, it was obscure considering the state of knowledge about these things in Britain at the time. There is a very great attraction in the obscure. It allows the "discoverer" of the obscurity to "claim" some kind of hip superiority over those not "in the know". And there was a hell of a lot of that around at the time. (Oh, and I was doing it, too - just as bad as the rest ) But of course, it's nonetheless true that it did speak . But I don't believe - and here I'm speaking from memory of how I felt at the time, because I can't tell how Jagger, Baldry, Clapton etc really felt - that this was what made it seem authentic. There was much other music around that conveyed the same feelings of excitement and self-recognition equally as well as the blues singers who were influential in those circles - and that music wasn't anything like obscure. When Jagger and Baldry did a duet with the Alexis Korner band on "I got a woman" they were (all) acting as if what they were doing was a slightly naff, slightly joky, concession to popular taste; not "the real thing". And yet they were clearly enjoying it greatly and inspired by it. But Soul and even proto-Soul were not obscure enough to be "authentic", even though it was music that grabbed them as it grabbed me. MG

Interesting. The first time I heard JJ was on the Impulse record Proof Positive and I found his sound to be highly emotional and personal, to the point that it greatly affected my concept of playing the instrument. I consider SOUND to be one of the two most critical elements of playing the instrument (the other being TIME), upon which all other aspects(like melody, harmony and rhythm) are dependent. I respect what you're saying, though, MG. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one! And I you, too. MG

He's burned them all onto 74 hard drives MG

Hm, thanks. Still too much to buy. MG

That's it; thanks Seeline. Now I've reread it, it sounds like the opposite to what Allen's saying, I think. MG

Talk about Dizzy... Goodness! Did that one come out on OJC? MG