The Magnificent Goldberg

Rommel Monty Ike

Is that in the men's room? MG Wherever two or more are gathered in swing's name... MG

Dean Fraser - Pumpin' air - Island orig MG

The Four Blazes The Four Jacks The Four Tops

Forgot this one MG

That's only half the sleeve. Here's a small version of the complete sleeve. MG

Is that in the men's room? MG

Lamb is my favourite meat. We don't have it nearly as much as I'd like. Christmas, we nowadays go to our daughter's. My wife cooks a huge gammon ham the day before and we take that. And Tash does roast beef, or rarely a bird of some kind. We're having extra-special Christmas Crackers with real prizes inside this year, Tash tells me. Where she gets the money from I don't know (or rather, I do, but don't know how she pays off the credit card). Lamb sounds great to me. Yesterday, I suggested we have lamb Bobotie for Boxing Day lunch. No response. MG

Herbie Mann Cat Woman Boy Marone

Dusty Rhodes Slim Dusty Guitar Slim

I'm sure the Greyforrest label was set up by them specifically in order to provide product they could flog at gigs. But Jimmy died after only one issue - "O D (out dere)". MG

I think that's one reason Congolese music never attracted me all that much. The music's a bit like the clothes. MG

Yes, I forgot until you reminded me. Something like a third of all Gospel records have always been sold at churches (which is one reason why relatively few are hits). Many of these wil be at gigs, a tradition that seems to go back at least to the '50s and the coming of 45s. MG

Once K7s came in, in the early '70s, musicians were flogging them. I have only few; not many musicians I like came to Cardiff. MG

Atlantic changed my life. It's a sad, sad, day. MG

Well, that was an interesting read! Indeed Denis knew very little, when he started out, and was very lucky not to have been killed a few times. But hardly anyone knew much anyway. Denis had a big advantage in that he was a bit of an inventor on the side; one of his inventions was still (in 1963) the standard method used in the film industry to equalise film colouring if it was a bit variable. That background enabled him to lash up all sorts of gear to film animals in difficult situations. And, though he had a romantic view of the ecology, he did change the world (not enough yet). I think the guy is a hero. Now beginning to read my way (for the second and, in some cases, the third time) through Katharine Kerr's fantasies. MG

Ah, thanks Brownie. MG

Didn't realise it was a recent arrival. Perhaps it arrived from Francophone West Africa. I have a K7 of Pape Serigne Seck from 1995 in which it's used in the sleeve notes. MG

I agree with Jim about "Black Byrd". Real controversy there, because the critics in magazines like Blues & Soul thought it was great. It was only "jazz" people who thought it was shit. There's actually an awful lot of Soul Jazz for which that's true. Perhaps "Green is beautiful" was the first Soul Jazz album for which there was a sole good review (by Derek Stewart-Baxter), among a lot of pannings. One I've heard was controversial, though I've never seen any contemporary writing on it, was Sydney Bechet's "Summertime" on Blue Note. Leonard Feather's notes on "Jazz classics" says that lots of people apparently thought it was radical for a New Orleans jazzman to play a pop song. MG

I don't know about America, but in Britain, The Magnificent Goldberg was the only one who was slagging off "In a silent way" - mainly because everyone else was fawning over it. MG

It's not a typo or even a spelling error. It's a common usage in French. MG

Ahmet is my first musical hero. Hope he gets better. MG

It's his birthday! What do you expect? And it's still quite early in Texas, isn't it? MG

Most played artists so far have been 1 Sonny Stitt (thanks to the Mosaic box) 2 Jimmy Smith 3 Grant Green 4 Rev J M Gates (this year's main new discovery) 5 Jack McDuff 6 Jazz Crusaders (again Mosaic responsible) 7 Lonnie Smith 8 David Newman 9 Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis 10 Houston Person Most played albums this year have been (so far) 1 George Clinton - How late do UF2BB4UR absent 2 Calvin Newborn - Up city 3 Grant Green - Live at Club Mozambique 3 Hamid Drake & Sabir Mateen - Brothers together 3 Calvin Newborn - New born 3 Slim Harpo - Tip on in 7 Tiny Grimes - Food for thought 8 Gene Ludwig - Live in Las Vegas 8 Hank Marr - Blues'n 'n cruisin' 10 George Lewis - Live at Club Hangover vol 1 Most played reissue sets have been (so far) 1 Rev J M Gates - Complete recorded works 1926-1941 (of which I've only got 6 volumes so far) 2 New Orleans Guitar, featuring Smiley Lewis, Guitar Slim, Pee Wee Crayton & T-Bone Walker 3 Sonny Stitt - Mosaic box 4 Jazz Crusaders - Mosaic box 5 Big Joe Turner - Shout rattle & roll (1938-1954) 6 Rev J C Burnett - Complete recorded works 1926-1945 7 Rev F W McGee - Complete recorded works 1927-1930 7 Cousin Joe - Complete recordings 1945-1955 9 Lee "Scratch" Perry - Dubstrumentals 10 Albert Collins - Deep freeze MG

Second the mention of Griffin's big soul band. And Gerald Wislon, of course. Here's a few more Cannonball Adderley - African waltz Blue Mitchell - Smooth as the wind Melton Mustapha - Boiling point Louie Bellson with Blue Mitchell - Jam with Blue Mitchell Jimmy Smith - Bashin' Sonny Stitt & the Top Brass And what about Dizzy's great big band of the late '40s? Goodness me! MG