The Magnificent Goldberg

I don't know Yusef's music as well as I might, is that name he gives it serious or just mumbo-jumbo meant as an alternative to "jazz"? Perhaps self-publicising. MG

Thanks Jim, you're right. And I myself say stuff like, "why should a man who can play incredible hard bop guitar be compelled to do so, if what he'd really prefer to do, and what he's always wanted to do, is sing smooth R&B songs? Just 'cos he's making millions instead of hundreds, doesn't mean he's selling out, if he's being true to himself." And what I don't know with GP (as I do know with GB) is whether he's being true to himself. So, OK; no evidence; no reason to make judgements. MG

Charles "Packy" Axton Mae Axton Hoyt Axton

You can't buy everything you want, so sometimes you put off getting something you know will be good. Then, when you DO get round to it, you think, "hell, I could have been listening to that for twenty (or whatever) years, if I'd bought it when I first wanted to." So, really, your expectations were too low to start off with, otherwise you WOULD have bought it before. That's happened to me with Jack McDuff - The honeydripper Horace Silver - The Cape Verdean blues Freddie Roach - Good move Then there are albums where your expectations have been conditioned by what you've heard before, but which are a good bit beyond that. Cheikh Lo - Doxandeme (actually his first album, but I'd heard later material earlier) Youssou N'dour - St Louis (after several years of making ordinarily great albums, out comes a masterpie!) Maceo Parker - Life on Planet Groove (his more jazz-related issues on Minor Music didn't prepare me for this one at all!) Groove Holmes - On Basie's bandstand (so much more electrifying than "Livin' soul") Sonny Stitt - Live at the Left Bank (well, so many of Sonny's albums are so-so, aren't they? But when you get a blisterer, it really peels the flesh off your face!) Then there are some where you really don't know what you're buying and, when you get them home, you're NAILED! The Drifters - There goes my baby (45) Ray Charles - What'd I say (45) (bought these two unheard on the day they came out in UK. I'd never heard of either artist at the time.) The miseducation of Lauryn Hill Harold Mabern - Kiss of fire Milt Jackson - Soul believer MG

I thought Richard M Jones was a pianist and composer of an old an extremely well known blues song, which I can't remember at the moment What did he have to do with that LP? MG

And when you can't, I guess you tell it to fuck off. We all have days like that... MG

I know that; you know that; quite probably Gilles Peterson knows it; but it's not clear to me that their customers do. It's well possible that GP, whatever his taste and the breadth of his understanding, has been suborned by the Masters of Business and compelled to focus on what the ruling classes think that the masses should concern themselves with. As such, he becomes part of the problem, not part of the solution. MG

Note to Chewy - there are no airholes MG

Bugsy Malone Buddy Holly Spider Man

I have a copy of Eric Dolphy's Outward Bound on a gold label Prestige. It's not mentioned in the Goldmine book. That's 7311, another with no release date listed. MG FWIW, the Schwann listings were dated when first published. The issue date was often 2 months earlier. Schwann also asked for promo copies to "verify information". If you sent the record the details were printed, if you didn't they only listed the record. In the early '70s while managing a chain of record stores in Boston I discovered the reason for the demand of promos - William Schwann would drive up to the store's front door and sell the records out of the trunk/boot. What a creep. What a shyster! MG

Guitar Junior Junior Parker Junior Mance

In recent months, I've bought a few albums and boxes by 1930s/40s big bands: Cab Calloway Chick Webb Jimmie Lunceford Count Basie Lionel Hampton I already had a box of Duke Ellington's Victor material from the early '40s. And some albums by Cootie Willams, Erskine Hawkins and Buddy Johnson. But that's about it for swing bands of that era. While I'm enjoying all this new stuff a lot, I've felt that something was missing and, while I was doing the washing up this evening, realised it was blues ballads. There are a few from the '40s by Duke - "Rocks in my bed" and "I got it bad" - but before Buddy Johnson, there don't seem to be any. So it seems to me that Buddy Johnson was the pioneer of this form. But have I accidentally got hold of an unrepresentative sample? If I were actively looking for blues ballads among swing bands, which other bands should I be looking at? MG

R for Haines Roy Haynes Peter Hain

I have a copy of Eric Dolphy's Outward Bound on a gold label Prestige. It's not mentioned in the Goldmine book. That's 7311, another with no release date listed. MG

Note to myself to try this after dinner. MG

Hadn't seen the earlier threads. Although Aric was right that BN has abandoned the Rare Groove series, they've still reissued "Think" and "Turning point" and issued, at long last, GG's Club Mozambique gig. In addition, Water has put out "Say it loud", "A groovy situation" and "Brown sugar". So, little by little, stuff is getting out. Yes, I want "Visions" and "Shades of Green" to come out. Also "Black pearl" - that might have additional unreleased tracks, or could be combined with "Chicken fried soul", by Junior Parker and McGriff, which I reckon was from the same gig. Possibly, however, Sonny Lester owns the masters, and we all know what THAT means. Another possibility is to reissue some PJ funk. My vote would go to Billy Larkin & the Delegates albums - preferably all of them But, rather than BN, should we switch our attention to Water and does anyone on the board have any "in" with that company? MG

Yes, that was what I always felt - not imitating Hendrix but just doing what he thought JH might have done if he were in Prince's position, then. MG

Some relation of Griptyte-Thynne, no doubt. "Open your wallet and repeat after me, 'help yourself'." MG

That, I think is right and is a problem for me, too. I've always felt that slow dancing was terribly important and very nice, too. The few gigs I've been to where there was a guest DJ - and I think GP was the DJ at John Patton's gig in Brighton in the 90s, now I come to think of it - there has been no opportunity allowed for the kind of dancing where you both just stand there, swaying and feeling each other closely, listening, perhaps not closely to Stanley Turrentine's "Willow weep for me" or Willis Jackson's "Evergreen" or anything by Ben Webster. I think something wonderful is lost by the concentration on the fast and funky. MG

Well, the postman bought four distinct packages this morning, all from different places in different countries! Thierno is Senegal’s #1 saxophonist Well, finally! Thanks to Jim for a top whack recommendation! I’ve been meaning to get around to Helen’s Contemporary albums for a long time. MG

I hope those LPs didn't stay out in the sun too long MG

Bruno Carr also played on Lou Donaldson - Coleslaw David Newman - Fathead comes on David Newman - The many facets of Ray Charles/Betty Carter (yes, he DID!) Ray Charles - Genius + Soul = Jazz Live (Paris Oct '61) Ray Charles - Rock + Soul = Genius (Next evening) Ray Charles - Berlin 1962 Eddie Harris - Silver cycles Nat Adderley - Autobiography Curtis Amy - Mustang (another fabulous one - and Bruno makes it!) MG

Lorenzo Music Nancy Walker Mary Tyler Moore

Much though I respect your views, Soulstream - and I really DO - that is a bleeding terrible thing to say about a musician one admires. What you're saying is, "he wasn't good enough to communicate with the whole world". Well I don't believe it. MG I guess what I really meant by that MG is that there are a certain amount of technical aspects that John excelled at. These wouldn't be apparent to a listener in general. For instance, some of his organ basslines are the most difficult ever recorded as far as their rhythmic demands for left and right hands. These are especially true from "Let 'Em Roll" on. Songs such as Latona, Early A.M., Man From Tanganyika....the counter rhythms of the bass patterns are just more difficult than anything Larry Young or Groove Holmes ever did in that department. OK - I see what you mean. Though I think should try to make their technique transparent to the listener. Er, unnoticeable, that is. MG

Managed to avoid the rain (but not the wind) on a quick shopping trip to Pontypridd and picked up This material is all 1927 and is some of the best preaching I've heard from Gates - and that's saying summat! MG