The Magnificent Goldberg

This morning it was Sonny Stitt's Roost recordings discs 7, 8 & 9 MG

Is that the sort of thing they do? No wonder everyone's got a down on them. MG

I've got that - I like it a lot - though I think their live one, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is slightly better. Jim Sangrey doesn't reckon this much, btw. MG

OK, THIS IS NOT THAT RECORDING, DURIUM!!! There really are no sax players in this, and none of them are either Al Sims or Zoot Cohn. (And by the way, I didn't realise Trane had written "Moment's notice" as early as 1956. I thought its first recording was in 1957, on "Blue train". So you learn something every day. Thanks.) MG

You're quite right - it's neither BJP nor Zorn. Everyone should know this sax player - but few do, unfortunately. There are so many great jazz musicians in that position, arent there? You're right about the rest of the band. The soloists were members of a small group which made a couple of albums, then this, with a bunch of studio musicians added. MG

The Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Andy Williams

Got mine today. Still listening to the two I got in from Cote d'Ivoire, so haven't got around to the 3 Sounds disc yet. MG

Today’s batch arrived while we were out visiting. Two from the Cote d’Ivoire (Via Amazon France) And a TOCJ going “cheep cheep cheep” MG

Glad you're liking it, John! Not Burrell. But the tune is "Moment's notice", as you say. MG

If it doesn't pick the dirt up off the carpet well enough to satisfy your fastidious taste, perhaps you need more static electricity. There are cloths that will do that for you. I think velvet is supposed to be good. MG

Don Byas Stephen Byers The Magnificent Goldberg

Sure your name isn't Oscar? MG

As the first sentence suggests, Ammons et al. is a whole different type of thing than that Green Mill yack-fest. Nothing wrong with a fair bit of talking back if it's actual talking back and within the code of the scene. Right. And when the chef brongs a birthday cake out to a front table and the band IMMEDIATELY switches into "Happy Birthday to you", that's when you know what it's about. And one of the reasons why jazz stopped being a popular music. "Code of the scene": you all take this stuff much too seriously. MG

Nice! MG

Yessir! One of the REALLY great regrets of my life is never having seen Jug (or Gator Tail, for that matter). In any case, from all accounts, Jug knew how to handle an audience - well, his audience, possibly not an up tight white audience. Why does audience look like it's spelt wrong? MG

Ah well. Parker and I were contemporaries for a while, too, so I know how you feel. I think you'll kick yourself when you see the answer. MG

I've just changed my desktop wallpaper, which made me wonder about other people's. Here's the old one - Blue Mitchell scanned a long time ago from the cover of True Blue And here's the new one; one of my favourite paintings, by John Martin - "Mad" Martin - which I found on the web a short while ago. It's not quite the right shape, which accounts for the black bits at top & bottom, which are where my icons and that blue bar at the bottom go. The title is "In the great day of his wrath". My wife prefers this one. What have you got? MG

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People go out to have a good time. Why shouldn't the music be secondary to that? Listen to Willis Jackson more. MG

Post a link, then, young sir! MG

Thus McDonalds. Absolutely. I can't stand McDonalds, myself, though I'm not irreconcilably opposed to KFC. MG Do you guys have Wendy's over in the UK? They have a pretty good spicy chicken sandwich. Guy I think we used to, but I haven't seen any for a while. In any event, I'd be surprised if the actual food was the same. Or, if the same recipe, actually tasted the same. (Though mind you, KFC in Namibia tastes the same as it does here.) MG

Thus McDonalds. Absolutely. I can't stand McDonalds, myself, though I'm not irreconcilably opposed to KFC. MG

Pretty near right there, Durium, though I don't know the particular guy you're referring to. Not Jackie Davis. I'm confused. I used to say that a person lacked self-confidence if he couldn't hear the sax solos in Beethoven's ninth. You must be very self-confident or you've got the track numbers mixed up (and maybe that's my fault). Nope to both, I'm afraid. A hit! Though I've got to say, it was others I thought would get this, not you (I thought you'd get #4 ). I assume you know who the organist is. MG

Quite right. You can't hype something for decades. Not even Kenny G. Easy to understand why he's popular. You can say that the mass of the public has bad taste, if you like. But the public WILL have what they want and they want it for reasons that are good and sufficient to them - individually and as a group. Basically, for someone to remain popular for an extended period, he/she has got to be filling a real need, in some way. OK. MG

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