The Magnificent Goldberg

Josiah Wedgewood Brunswick-Balke-Callendar Jack Kapp

Internet explorer. But it can't be a browser problem, or it would affect the Blues forum the same. MG

Just listen to him wailing on the Grasella Oliphant version of "The yodel"! Always kills me that solo! Think I'll give it a spin later. MG

I'm very sorry to hear this. Joel's productions, of course, occupy a very honoured place in my collection - Hank Crawford, Les McCann, David Newman, Junior Mance, Oscar Brown Jr, Harold Vick, Clarence Wheeler & the Enforcers, The Neville Brothers, Roberta Flack, Eddie Harris, Shirley Scott. And much of this hit me before I'd bought much on Blue Note and Prestige and probably had a significant influence on the way I think about music. I spoke to him a couple of times in the Label M days and that enthusiasm came through most powerfully. The guy was plainly every bit as much a fan as I. I think he probably wasn't very good at the business end of things. He started Wolf Records after he left Atlantic. Then Night, after Wolf failed. Then 32 Records. Then Label M. Then Hyena. Talk about "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again"! Was there anyone in the business who was such a perfect example of the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit? Truly, without people like Joel, there would be nothing to say about music. There's a sense in which The Masked Announcer is responsible for The Magnificent Goldberg. Goodbye to The Masked Announcer. RIP. MG

Fair enough. Right off the bat, since you like Gabor Szabo, I would recommend you getting ASAP both "Impressions of the Middle East" and "The Wailing Dervishes," both on Atlantic, circa 66-67. They both have a groovy eastern vibe to them that I think you'd love. Also, the early bossa LPs - one on UA, and the other, "Do the Bossa Nova" are worthwhile. Generally, though, most of his LPs from the 60s - if not exactly groundbreaking or surprising - feature nice latin grooves and vibe work by Roy Ayers. Considering what these LPs go for (i.e. cheap), they've rarely disappointed me. Agree that his late 60s and 70s output is on the commercial side of the spectrum. I had an early Bossa Nova album with him and Joao Gilberto on Atlantic (I think). The album was split between the two of them, though not segregated by sides. I found it pretty lackluster. Neither artist sounded that great on the record. I don't like Push/Push or Memphis Underground either. I can't recall seeing the two mid sixties Atlantic albums you mentioned. I'll put them on my list. As you say, his records are usually very reasonable, so they aren't big financial gambles. In the seventies, he had David Newman with him - I started buying Mann LPs because of that, and have a few more now. And more planned. MG

"Up at Mintons" also featured Horace Parlan. Its only CD issues have been in Japan. I have JRVGs of them and I assume there was a previous TOCJ. MG there was a domestic "doubletime" 2CD set as well. Those with the ugly yellow/blue diagonal banner. Aha! MG

Im getting the same problem - but it's patchy - sometimes I find myself still logged in the next morning, sometimes I'm logged out if I don't come on the board for an hour. It isn't anything to do with cache & cookie cleanup or anything like that. For one thing, I don't know how to do that. And for another thing, I've NEVER been logged out of the Blindman Blues Forum, which I think uses the same software as Organissimo. It's just eccentric. MG

"Up at Mintons" also featured Horace Parlan. Its only CD issues have been in Japan. I have JRVGs of them and I assume there was a previous TOCJ. MG

How can you not have a good time when you're wearing white shoes? When you're playing cricket and losing. MG

Now that's the spirit! I see no reason for anyone here to hold Jim accountable for donations. Correct, but I can't see any reason because he shouldn't be refund for the debt he contracted for the board. Along the years Jim asked several times for donation in order to cover board's cost and, AFIK, these donations didn't so it wouldn't be such a great problem for me, if part of my donation would go in that way. Quite right. MG

Yes, call it "Baghdad" - or better still, "Darfur" MG

I'll calm down then. MG

Best of luck, Elissa - I hope it all goes OK. MG

Just notified of Marcello's post #5 in this thread - so that's 3 days & 14 hours behind MG

Yep, me too. Well, just ship us 16 Test Pressings, say to the mastering engineer that he is a useless and unqualified jerk and you'll never pay him for such shit. And go for the cd. MG

Let me be clear when I say "people" I mean it loosely to include all financial market participants. Everybody wants that magic asset that gives high yield with minimal risk (the modern equivalent of the money tree) and during bubbles they are willing to pretend that the risk simply doesn't exist. Guy In that sense, B-school majors (and even the Masters of Wall Street) are no different from the vast majority of people (even though they usually sound more impressive and can be very persuasive). Let's try a magic diet, instead of listening to the advice that to lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more. Unfortunately, the consequences are usually more dire (internet bubble and now the mortgage meltdown) compared to the trouble we mortals get up to. I think you're probably right there. No, I think you're certainly right there MG

Genius (-ish). I'll try it. Genius? Sorry, I don't think so. Burning gapless doesn't mean that the tracks are actually joined - they're still separate tracks. Burning audio CDs with select tracks gaplessly is a basic task. Oh, if they're not "really" joined, but only sound like it, the only option you've got it to treat the CD with the joined tracks as an analog LP and burn a new CD with it as if it were vinyl. If it sounds like one track and you do an analog burn, then it should come out on the computer as one track. MG

If you want a different result for some of an album from the other parts of it, you look like you need a two stage approach. Burn the bits you want to remove the gap from onto one R/W disc; the rest onto another. Then read the things back into your computer. So the joined tracks shoud appear as one track, the others as separate tracks. So when you do your final burn, you get separation when you want it and joined movements when you want it. Pain in the arse this way I know, but otherwise, you'll just end up joining everything together. MG

Yes, forgot to mention Sounds Inc; a very good band bringing together R&R and early Stax and a bit of jazz. I saw them a few times here and there; most notably in a warehouse in Southall backing Gene Vincent. That seems like 1962, but may have been 1961. Oh and by the way, the "Hoots mon" line was "there's a moose loose aboot this hoose" The B side, "Blue train" was a good bit better. Thanks for your rundown of some of these things that have been reissued Steve. Though I think I went past the interest in this stuff in 1963 I wouldn't refuse a Red Price 45 if someone gave me one, but I think I WOULD refuse pretty well anything else from that era. MG

Thanks Guy - my comments on the Goldman thread stand, I think. MG

Kurt Mohr died several weeks ago. Met Kurt shortly after his arrival in Paris from Switzerland when I was still in high school. He was living in my neighborhood. Very knowledgeable and friendly gentleman who kept his youthful enthusiasm until the end! Thank you, Brownie. MG

Grant Green (though sometimes I wonder whether he isn't just trying to think of the next line and whether he has enough technique to pull it off) MG

Steve's not wrong in suggesting the importance of looking at the environment into which those British recordings were thrust. But they were tame, all the time. We all knew they were tame in comparison with American recordings of the fifties, which they imitated. But people wanted imitation US R&R, because hardly any American acts were getting over here for gigs. If you can't get the real thing, an imitation serves. In a fairly short time, the British scene moved from a brief period in which "teen idols" were trying to imitate American R&R, to (in 1959) one in which those same singers were trying to imitate the real teen idols being developed in Philadelphia - Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Fabian and others. (So tameness is only relative.) While this was going on, the band which provided the backing for all these singers on TV (Lord Rockingham's XI), was a most interesting bunch, with Cherry Wainer (a South African) on B3 and Red Price (whose inspiration was Red Prysock) on tenor. The juxtaposition of these singers with a band who KNEW what really had been going down in America, was very interesting to say the least. If you can find any 45s of the Red Price Combo (and I don't have any), they can sit next to the Willis Jackson recordings of the fifties quite comfortably. Albums? Don't be silly! Also while the imitation Philly period was going on on TV and on records and in the British charts, R&R bands were being formed all over Britain; pub bands as I called them in an earlier post. They were mostly, no better. But, because they weren't homegrown "teen idols", and were appearing in local clubs, they were approachable. These local bands would listen to us, because they were, essentially the same sort of people as we were. And we'd talk with them about what records we'd bought and what was good and so on, and gradually, what they were doing on stage changed to reflect what we wanted to hear. This is not really any different to what had been going on for a long time in America; music being developed from the bottom up. But it was a revolution in Britain. And, of course, it was still an imitation - only instead of imitation Ricky Nelson, there was imitation Howlin' Wolf. Of course, British pop music had been imitating American for decades; probably since early in the century. So American imitations weren't exactly despised over here There was a longstanding thread of popular music in Britain that owed nothing (or hardly anything) to America. And in this period, quite a few records in this thread became very popular. The most popular was probably Lonnie Donegan's "My old man's a dustman", but there were a fair number of hit singles in that vein, by Tommy Steele, Max Bygraves, Joe Brown & the Bruvvers and Mike Sarne - a few that just popped into my head, no science attached. There was also Lionel Bart's first hit musical, "Things ain't what they used to be", much of which was written in that vein I think. I've always been uncertain whether this was an odd thing that happened to click for a couple of years then left the world or whether it had some impact in terms of showing the bands coming up that, in reality, all kinds of stuff could be done and could be acceptable. And, perhaps more importantly, that it wasn't ABSOLUTELY necessary to imitate US models perfectly. MG

Is you joking man!!!!!????? Zowie! MG

Jim There has been some talk in this thread about you using some of the cash to reduce your debts for the last Organissimo CD, since you've diverted some of the income that could have been used to reduce that debt to meeting the board's costs. I think that would be fair. I'm sure no one wants to see the band's progression to another CD halted, or even delayed further, because you've given financial priority to the board. MG