The Magnificent Goldberg

Thomas Hardy The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew

Les McCann - The truth - PJ Vogue UK release mono Les McCann - The gospel truth - PJ orig mono Les McCann - The longer you wait - JAM orig Les McCann - Music box - JAM Paladin UK release Slide Hampton - Explosion - Atlantic orig mono next Houston Person - Very Personal - Muse orig MG

Gene Ammons - The Gene Ammons story: Organ combos - Prestige RCA UK issue Gene Ammons - Free again - Prestige orig MG

Byron Gysin Goosey Goosey Gander Mahatma Ghandi

Thanks very much. MG

Too true! I've sent it to my daughter, who thinks it's bad enough with two. MG

I'm just listening to Lou Bennett's "Now hear my meaning", recorded in Barcelona in 1992 for a one-shot Spanish company. The personnel is Lou Bennett - org Ximo Tebar - g Idris Muhammad - d Abdu Salim - sax Abdu is a beast of a player! A bit outside - rather in the way Marvin Cabell used to be - a bit, but not really beyond the moon. I've never come across him on anything else. And I thought I'd ask you lot if you know of him; and any other recordings he's made, because he's really getting to me today. MG

Gene Ammons & Bennie Green - Juggin' around - VJ UK Atlantis pressing - not terribly good, I think. MG

You may be right, Joe. And, not really wishing to defend Cerritos, but this point is rather unusual. The general point about suburbs, since their beginnings in the 1930s, has been their dormitory status. Town planners seem to have this idea that you should section cities off into residential, shopping, factory and office areas. This has always seemed silly to me; chaos has always seemed a better option as far as I could see. So you allow people to build for whatever kind of use they see the need for, wherever they think they see the need. In this framework, town planning becomes more an aesthetic issue than an organisational issue; and this seems to be what Cerritos has gone for. And there's no doubt that aesthetics do influence property prices. Whether it works or not, of course you can't tell unless you live there. MG

Alice Alice Faye Alicia Keys

NOW we're gettin' to the other meat of the matter which is if we listen above grade-school level & consider so-called "swing" MORE-- lots more, in fact-- than a variable set of rhythmic relations... which on one level it is but on others... it ain't nearly enough. i'll take ya'll to a Brooklyn textile sweatshop if you wanna see a whole factory floor of Singers "swingin'"-- ain't a big deal, really. That wasn't a typo - it was a fuckin' joke! (Perhaps a fuckin' awful one ) And Clem, have you heard him behind Irene? Er - it's a bit like hearing Trudy Pitts behind Gator. There are some people who can make others do things so well you wouldn't believe it. Which reminds me - Irene = Gator (vocal version). MG

Lex Luthor Lex Humphries Code Napoleon

Well, I finished the last Harry Potter book. It was all right, but it's not stuff you can read more than once, as I found when reading the penultimate volume for the second time. Still at least, the grammar is correct. MG

Yes, I still miss both our cats and both our dogs. My wife's thinking of getting another dog when she comes back from Africa in October. But I'd be happy just to have another cat who'd knock on the door to come in. MG

Riley Hampton Slide Hampton Lionel Hampton

I GREATLY prefer him to his son. And Bootsie Barnes on "Hip cake walk" (and "All in the family" with Joey) is a particularly welcome bonus. Papa John sounds to me as if he's lived the chitlin' circuit, in the same way as Gene Ludwig, Pat Martino and Randy Johnston do and have. And Joey never needed to. And doesn't. Perhaps he isn't as great an organist as some, but he's a convincing person on that instrument. I think he's got a new one out, which I'll have to get soon. MG

Van McCoy Von Freeman Vinnie Burke

One way or another, I've got quite a bit of Eric Alexander; mainly because I like - a lot - some of the people he's recorded with. The ones I can lay my hands on readily are: Four of his own - Alexander the great; Mode for Mabes; Stablemates (with Lin Halliday); Summit meeting Earland - Unforgettable; I ain't Jivin' I'm jammin'; Ready 'n able; Blowin' the blues away; Cookin' with the mighty burner; Stomp Harold Mabern - Kiss of fire Junior Mance - Yesterdays; Groovin' blues Mel Rhyne - Tell it like it is (and yes, I can tell the three tenors apart - Eric doesn't sing); Stick to the kick; Classmasters Randy Johnston - Jubilation; In a-chord; Homage I really don't mind him. But I've always felt he wasn't really quite as good as he ought to have been running with that company. If you compare him with another young musician, Randy Johnston, who really does feel in place working with Houston Person; Jack McDuff etc. Where I do really quite like him is when he's backing up Irene Reid's vocals. Irene made four albums with Alexander Million $ secret; The uptown lowdown; I ain't doin' to bad; One monkey don't stop no show He WASN'T on "Movin' out", the first one after Earland died. I think he was missed on that album. Now, if you want to compare Alexander behind Reid with Houston Person behind Etta Jones; Jaws behind Arthur Prysock; Webster behind Carmen McRae or Spoon; Hawk behind Spoon; Newman behind Charles, or Prez behind Billie Holiday, we are definitely NOT talking about the same league. But I think he fits well behind Irene and, while this kind of stuff is not the first port of call for people who want to assess a jazz musician's work, there's something to be said for a guy who can handle what might be called a backwater with an excellence that makes you miss him when he ain't there. Dinner time. Not sure if I've said what I wanted. MG

I think I may have some Budd Johnson on R&B recordings from the forties & fifties, but that's all. Budd is a fucking HUGE gap in my collection. Thanks for this thread! MG

That's dedication, your going back to the club after escorting your wife "home" on your honeymoon. Who in the name of hell was playing!!!!???? MG

Slam Stewart Sly Stewart Sylvester Stallone

The Brothers Four The Brothers Johnson General Johnson

Not much in the way of images on the web for today’s haul Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis & Johnny Griffin – Tough tenors back again – Storyville Thanks Shawn! It turned up just before I left for a sweltering shopping trip to Pontypridd, so I listened to it on the way. Wow! Even hotter than the bus! In Ponty, my man Terry had this for me The complete recorded works of Rev J M Gates vol 9 1934-1941 This completes my set of all Gates’ work, which I started buying in February 2006! MG

Try "Christmas with Etta Jones", which I got a couple of weeks ago. Coles is BLASTIN! on "Merry Christmas baby". MG I never play x-mas music... evades me why people would want to listen to that stuff even as part of their jazz listening, too, when you can't escape it anywhere... will take a note though, just in case... thanks I like that stuff because it's very commercial. Signifies that musicians want to play stuff their audience is familiar with and identifies with. MG

Try "Christmas with Etta Jones", which I got a couple of weeks ago. Coles is BLASTIN! on "Merry Christmas baby". MG