The Magnificent Goldberg

Blue Side Records was evidently a branch of Upside Records. Blue Side is the name on the label & cover. The copyright is Upside records & in small print - "Manufactured and Marketed by Upside records, Inc.". Thanks very much Dan & Paul. I'll have a look round for this one. MG

Lionel Hampton Victors disc 2 over brekkers MG

Is that Demon release a UK issue? MG

Sometimes it's hard to know if Chewy's being sarcastic MG

Lennie Hayton Heighton StClair StClair Pinckney

Roy Gaines Roy Acuff Roy Rogers

What WAS that album? There's some other album with Harold Ousley on it on which Earl plays, but I can't think which. MG, its One More For The Road on Demon Records. Never HEARD of that! Must be another, as well... MG Oh, I see - that's the Charles Brown...

Lou Donaldson - Cole slaw - Argo (GRT repress) (RIP Earl May) MG

Of course, I have "Jug and Dodo" - and like it very much. Also some Dodo with Bird. That's not bad MG

What WAS that album? There's some other album with Harold Ousley on it on which Earl plays, but I can't think which. Earl May was also on the two albums the one and only Herman Foster made for Epic in 1961 - "The explosive piano of Herman Foster" and "Have you heard". He's also (and Herman) on Lou Donaldson's "Coleslaw", from 1964. Foster worked a lot with Gloria Lynne, when he wasn't working for Lou, so maybe more Earl is to be found on her albums. RIP. MG

Eddie Floyd Sir Mack Rice Joe Stubbs

Joe Louis Battling Siki (World heavyweight champ, from St Louis, Senegal) Louis Sclavis (and here's the shadow of Sclavis in the Bar Battling Siki, St Louis, Senegal ) MG

Wow! It is REALLY nice to see that Hog is still about and active. How is he playing? MG He was seated for the concert and played fairly short solos, and it appeared his stamina was limited, but he still had his sound on the baritone. It was an enjoyable evening; he was very gregarious and told lots of anecdotes about Dallas jazz legends, especially Buster Smith. I hadn't seen him perform since the Return to the Wide Open Spaces concert at the Caravan of Dreams. Thanks, and WOW! You were AT that gig. Can I hear you on the CD? MG

'Ang on a tick - it's only eighteen quid per LP. And how many LPs have we all got that we paid more for? A bloody lot, I KNOW. MG

Bleu Michel MG

Mostly recreational, but also purposive. 2007 has been, and 2008 will be a bit more, a time when I've consciously tried to explore pre-war styles. Lucky Millinder (thanks to the Big John Greer CD ), Andy Kirk and Teddy Wilson are at the top of my list for that. I go on so much about jazz being showbiz but I listen to so little of the music from the period when jazz was most explicitly showbiz. Also Zouglou music, if I can find any. But I don't listen to any music with the intention of finding out how it's done, but mainly what it offers me. MG

Santa Claus Father Christmas St Nicholas

As above: www.jazzdisco.org Thanks. I'll look it up. MG

Onzy Matthews Select MG

This is just a guess on my part, but I have a feeling that the percentage of real "listeners" is much lower among those who download and never buy than among those who actually shell out for the music. That's one of the reasons they don't consider paying for music to be a good use of their money: they don't see music as something rewarding, but as just a soundtrack for their other activities. Again, I have no evidence; this is just a guess. When people bought 78s, they didn't get sleeve notes. Yet large numbers of people knew who Duke Ellington's sidemen were (and of course those of other bandleaders). It was the wide dissemination of that kind of knowledge that made it a viable career path for a sideman to start his own band, as large numbers did - because his name was well known. So, how did this information get disseminated in those days? And why can't it work now? MG

MG

Yes, they are. But the LP doesn't have the personnel - or that personnel. What's the source of that info? MG

Yes, and so did I MG

Yes - that's where the industry has to break through the present system, not jazz or classical music - or a few other types of music. Changing THAT ethos seems to me the key point. If that CAN be done, then the major element of incentive for the illegal download system is likely to collapse, with consequent impacts on other types of music. Basically, Chuck's feeling that the RIAA, which stands mainly for the majors, is the only game in town for him, is right. Because they're the only firms in the pop music business with the clout to possibly do it. MG

Hm, let's go a bit further. The business of the record business is to supply the public with the music it wants; not music it doesn't want. Suppose the album paradgm is over or running down, in terms of popular music (though it's still probably useful for classical music and jazz and some other kinds of stuff). Suppose record companies in the pop business - basically the majors and some R&B oriented firms - stop making albums and just concentrate on singles, and one-sided singles if we're now talking downloads. In that situation, costs fall terrifically (though there may well be a small premium for good songwriters - the new Cole Porters etc so to speak). Do costs fall sufficiently to enable those companies to make profits by selling downloads at a price that no one would mind paying? Suppose they were charged at 10c, but you could get ten million 10c, which could be more profitable than selling half a million 75 minute CDs? Could that be a future? On the other hand, what of the collection costs of that 10c? Is there a system in existence which would allow ten million 10c to be collected without each transaction costing a dollar or whatever? Could there ever be such a system? And how could kids of, say 10-15 years be part of it? MG