The Magnificent Goldberg

I would also be extremely interested in which albums LOSE - ie the ones that only get 1 vote. (Several of mine, I expect ) MG

Damn! That is GOOD! MG

I've always loved that title. MG

In alphabetical order Lou Donaldson – Alligator bogaloo Grant Green – Remembering Grant Green – Nigeria Fred Jackson – Hootin’ ‘n tootin’ John Patton – The way I feel Freddie Roach – All that’s good Jimmy Smith – At the organ vol 1 (the one with “Summertime”) Lonnie Smith – Live at Club Mozambique Don Wilkerson – Elder Don Don Wilkerson – Shoutin’ So, I’ve had to sacrifice Stanley Turrentine – Rough & tumble Kenny Burrell – Midnight blue Hank Mobley – Thinking of home Ike Quebec – Heavy soul Baby Face Willette – Stop & listen Sonny Clark trio All of which are near misses. And then all the other Greens, Pattons, Donaldsons, Lonnies, Stanleys etc etc This is all only possible on the basis that I'll be able to take 10 Prestiges, 10 Chesses, 10 Riversides, 10 Pac Jazzes, 10 Atlantics and 10 Muses. I could certainly live on a desert island with 70 albums MG Hm, only 10 Prestiges will be hard. Can I have 50?

Preachin! Rev W L Jones - Love and happiness (sermon) - Randy's Spiritual (orig) MG

Dick Clark Dick Nixon Biggus Diccus

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis & Wild Bill Davis - Live at Chateauneuf du Pape - Black & Blue (orig) Willis Jackson - Live at Chateauneuf du Pape - Black & Blue (orig) Willis Jackson - Single action - Muse orig MG

MG

Well, I've now found an e-mail address on the Concord site: buyjazz@concordrecords.com Not very subtle about it, are they? MG

Madonna Don Quixote Donkey Kong

Pat Martino has an entirely different view, of course. People affect others differently, don't they? MG

Er, yes - slip of the keyboard. Thanks Ubu. MG

Try to find - or listen to - The Excitement Of Trudy Pitts (PR 7583), a swinging live date recorded in NYC in 1968, with incredibly wild guitar by Wilbert Longmire. Well, I've ordered "Introducing Trudy Pitts", coming out in Japan on 21 Feb. That'll do for a start. MG

'cept you forgot about Riverside, which did a heck of a job documenting Hardbop, too, and recording artists that were also on Blue Note, as well as giving young and then unknown artists an opportunity to release their music (Bill Evans, Cannonball, Wes Montgomery...) For sheer quantity, leaving aside the quality issue, which is top rank, BN leaves Riv/Jzld quite a long way behind. Documenting is primarily a matter of quantity, I think. Chess documented Blues; Atlantic R&B & Soul; Specialty Gospel quartets; Savoy 40s Bebop, the honkers and non-quartet Gospel. And Riverside did splendid work on Soul Jazz, too. Lytle, Wes, Cannonball, Nat, JH Smith, Timmons, Mance - great Soul Jazz recordings. But the quantity pales beside Prestige's catalogue of Soul Jazz. MG

Muhammad Ali Joe Louis Battling Siki

Basically, though I love Blue Notes and have 301 of them at present, I'm a Prestige man. Prestige as a concept, a method of doing business, and an aesthetic, has been carried on by Joe Fields since Bob Weinstock sold the company to Fantasy. So if I add the 215 albums I have on Joe's labels to the 385 I have on Bob's labels, they come to 600. In a sense, that's a measure of how I DON'T overrate Blue Note, as a company. And, of course, Bebop and Hard Bop represent only 20% of my Blue Note collection (you know what the rest are, doncha?). So I actually have comparatively few of the albums y'all are talking about. Which means I don't rate them at all, because I have no basis for doing so. But Blue Note, as Jim says, is a great company because they documented this stuff, which largely no other firm was doing. Though there's certainly some overlap between BN and PR. From a Soul Jazz perspective, it's certainly BN's weaker suit. The company did very little exploration of what musicians might be around in other towns outside NY/NJ, which was certainly not the case with PR. But they did fine with the local musicians they had - Smith, Smith, Patton, Roach, Green, Byrd, Donaldson, Wilson, Silver, Mitchell and Turrentine. But really, those eleven guys, superb though they were, were about it. Yes, I know there were others, but those were the major characters. The difference with PR seems to me that, whereas BN was documenting Hard Bop and making good to great Soul Jazz albums as, possibly, a more profitable sideline to cross-subsidise the Hard Bop, PR was documenting Soul Jazz for its own sake (well, of course to make money). In other words, PR was doing the same job with Soul Jazz that BN was doing with Hard Bop. So, if you're a Hard Bop fan, BN is IT! And if you're a Soul Jazz fan, PR is IT! And that's it. MG

OK and here's a list of Gator Tail's recordings (Currently available material marked ** current cat no in brackets) Compilations: ** Chronological Willis Jackson 1950-1954 – Classics R&B 5135 ** Later for the Gator – Acrobat 4203 ** Call of the gators – Delmark 460 On my own - Whiskey, women and… RBD705 ** The remaining Willis Jackson 1951-1958 – Blue Moon MCD6048 ** Gentle Gator – Prestige 24158 (material from un-re-issued PR LPs) ** At large – Prestige 24243 (material from un-re-issued PR LPs) Harlem underground - Winley 127 (tracks from Trip & Big Chance LPs as backing) Albums ** Please Mr Jackson – Prestige 7162 (OJC321) ** Keep on a-blowin – Prestige 7172 (PR24218) ** Blue gator - Prestige 7183 (PR24198) ** Together again (with Jack McDuff) – Prestige 7364 (PR24284) ** Together again again (with Jack McDuff) – Prestige 7428 (PR24284) ** Cookin sherry - Prestige 7211 (PR24198) In my solitude – Moodsville 17 Really groovin’ - Prestige 7196 ** Thunderbird – Prestige 7232 (PR24218) ** Willis Jackson Cooks with Johnny “Hammond” Smith – Prestige 7239 (PR24282) Shuckin’ - Prestige 7260 Neapolitan nights – Prestige 7264 ** Loose - Prestige 7273 (PR24294) ** Grease ‘n gravy – Prestige 7285 (PR24254) ** The good life - Prestige 7296 (PR24254) ** More gravy – Prestige 7317 (PR24265) ** Boss shoutin’ - Prestige 7329 (PR24265) Gator tails – Verve 68589 ** Jackson’s action – Prestige 7348 (PR24161) ** Live action - Prestige 7380 (PR24161) ** Soul night live – Prestige 7396 (PR24273) ** Tell it - Prestige 7412 (PR24273) Smokin’ with Willis – Cadet 763 ** Soul grabber - Prestige 7551 (PR24294) Star bag – Prestige 7571 Swivelhips – Prestige 7602 Gators groove – Prestige 7648 Mellow blues – Trip 5007 Funky reggae – Trip 5028 Gatorade – Prestige MPP2516 Willis Jackson plays around with the hits - Big Chance 5003 West Africa – Muse 5036 Headed ‘n gutted – Muse 5048 ** The way we were – Atlantic 18145 (Collectables 6823) ** Plays with feeling - Cotillion 9908 (Collectables 6823) In the alley – Muse 5100 The Gator horn – Muse 5146 Bar wars - Muse 5162 Single action – Muse 5179 Lockin’ horns (with Von Freeman) - Muse 5200 ** Live in Chateauneuf du Pape - Black & Blue 33810 (BB957) Nothin’ butt – Muse 5294

Thinking about the Legends of Acid Jazz series made me decide it’s time for a thread on Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson. And I recently read a Von Freeman interview in which he said this: (If you want to hear Von grooving with Boogaloo Joe Jones, pick up “Lockin’ horns”!) Gator Tail was born in Miami. The AMG says this was in 1932; Oldies.com says it was 1928. When I first started listening to him, I’m sure I remember it as being 1930, but I can’t find that reference now. He died in 1987. Gator was one of the honking tenor sax heroes of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. He studied piano, clarinet and alto sax, but took up the tenor at the age of fifteen, playing in various bands at Booker T Washington High, then in the house band at the Rockland Palace with school friends Cannonball Adderley and Blue Mitchell. He pretty soon began attracting the attention of well known bandleaders; Lionel Hampton wanted to hire him, but Willis’ mother said he was too young to go out on the road. The following year, Cootie Williams made an offer she couldn’t turn down; wherever the band was, Cootie would fly Willis home on the fifteenth of every month. So, in 1948, Willis joined Cootie’s band. (If he was born in 1932, he’d have been 16, which seems a bit unlikely. If he was born in 1928, he’d have been 19 when his mother turned down Hamp’s offer; also unlikely.) Cootie’s band played everything. It had been a pioneer band during the development of Bebop and it was at the same time the most important R&B band with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson putting the band at the top of the R&B charts. As the forties progressed, the R&B side tended to take precedence, of course. And it was on the R&B side that Willis made his mark. His first appearance on record came in March 1949 – the title was “Gator Tail”, pts 1 & 2 and it was Willis honking and screaming all the way! Now a double-sided 78 was pretty unusual in those days. But a double-sided 78 to which the leader made hardly any contribution was completely unheard of. The record was a minor juke box hit and gave Willis a nickname that stayed with him for his whole career. Cootie’s band was hard work. Willis said, Willis left Cootie in 1950 and put his own band together, recording for Apollo. He also began touring with Ruth Brown; they married in 1954 and stayed together for eight years. Through Ruth, who insisted Atlantic let him accompany her, Willis began to record for Atlantic, under his own name and as a sideman, often on Ruth’s records, notably “Mama he treats your daughter mean”. Through the early fifties, he and Ruth toured. In 1953, he took his band out on a tour of ballrooms with Ruth and Charlie Parker (who was travelling with a string section at the time). Then, in 1954, Ray Charles changed the world and the honking business became played out. Willis re-evaluated his career. So Willis put a different band together. He began to use organists. Almost all of Willis’ subsequent recordings were made with organists. His first band featured Jack McDuff, with Bill Jennings on guitar. When Jack left to form his own band, Willis made two albums with pianists Richard Wyands and Jimmy Neely, then hired Freddie Roach for a short while before he, too, left to put his own band together. Then in 1963, Carl Wilson, a very under-rated organist joined him, and shortly after, Pat Martino, then aged 16. Carl worked with Willis, with a few periods off, until 1980. Willis had, for many years, two main gigs: Small’s Paradise in Harlem and Club Harlem in Atlantic City. He had a disciplined band; Pat Martino recalls that they wore uniforms; “silver jackets with oval lapels, black bow ties, and striped tuxedo pants.” It was a band that could do whatever was required. Willis recalled an occasion in Atlantic City, Pat Martino clearly loved his time with Willis. Though not generally an innovator, Willis was responsible for one innovation. He designed and played the Gator Horn, introducing it in 1967. It’s a strange instrument, with a bell hanging down almost to the floor and makes an other-worldly sound which Willis described as “somewhere between an alto sax, a soprano sax and a French horn”. Reportedly, John Coltrane was getting interested in the instrument, but died before he could take it up. Who knows what might have come of this? As it is, Willis remained the only musician to record with it. In the early 1970s, work became scarce for Willis. He was recording for the extremely dubious Paul Winley and his records were not publicised well. He was rescued from plans to leave music by Don Schlitten, who recorded him for Muse in 1973 and 1974. Then he made a couple of Disco albums for Atlantic, the first of which was his second hit album. And he was back on the road again, with a succession of recordings for Muse that were as good as anything he’d made. Indeed one, “Bar wars”, is among the greatest classics of Soul Jazz. Willis made 42 albums between May 1959 and June 1980 (and yes, I HAVE got them all). Most of his Prestige recordings are available on CD; none of his Muse albums are. For the most part, they’re great; not innovative in any way, but packed with personality and swing and funk and blues and remaining true to his origins in honk and Bebop. He has one of the most vocal styles of any tenor saxophonist; he really DOES tell stories on that sax. MG

What if I ask really nicely? Let me narrow down the criteria a bit: which have really good saxophone playing? Guy You want a recommendation for sax players? Prestige was THE label for sax players. But here's a rec from someone who warrants reapect: That's Von Freeman talking about Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson. And he's just one of the cats, indeed. Jug - the most beautiful sound man achieved on tenor sax. Stanley - so smooth, so funky! Rusty - with grits in it Houston - pure joy Stitt - lightweight sound but chops hanging down to his knees MG

Funny, Pitts is the one I really don't get. I've got "These blues of mine" on LP and hardly ever play it. And when I do, I never feel that she's swinging. Only time I've heard her really swing is on Willis Jackson's LP "Star bag" - but Willis could make the brain dead swing. MG

Edited the list to add in 3 I forgot last night - 2 BGPs and a Japan-only issue of Rhoda's 2 TruSound albums. (How could I forget them!) MG

Thanks for that advice - I haven't dealt with Hiroshi before. How long before issue would you recommend e-mailing him? MG

Well, you could be right - I never heard any edits when I had a few of Miles' Columbia albums, but perhaps there weren't any on those (KOB, Quiet nights, Carnegie, Miles Ahead), so I've no comparison. MG

LEGENDS OF ACID JAZZ Clem asked about this series and I thought we should have a thread. Here’s what came out. Legends of Acid Jazz series 24167 Boogaloo Joe Jones (Boogaloo Joe/Right on brother) 24168 Rusty Bryant (Night train now/Soul liberation) 24169 Sonny Stitt (Turn it on/Black vibrations) 24170 Idris Muhammad (Black rhythm revolution/Peace & rhythm) 24171 Melvin Sparks (Sparks/Spark plug) 24175 Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers – Best of Pucho & the LSB (bits & pieces) 24176 Bernard Purdie (Purdie good/Shaft) 24177 Johnny “Hammond” Smith (Soul talk/Black feelin') 24178 Don Patterson (Exciting new organ of DP + other trax from session – mainly “Hip cake walk”) 24179 Houston Person (Person to person/The Houston express) 24184 Jack McDuff (Bits & pieces 1965-1969) 24185 Leon Spencer (Sneak preview/Louisiana Slim) 24186 Sonny Phillips (Sure ‘nuff/Black on black) 24187 Richard “Groove” Holmes (The groover/That healin’ feelin’) 24188 Gene Ammons (Black cat/You talk that talk (w Stitt)) 24196 Various artists – Hammond heroes (some great stuff in here not issued in the series) 24197 Billy Butler (This is BB/Night life) 24198 Willis Jackson (Blue Gator/Cookin’ sherry) 24199 Red Holloway (The burner/Red soul) 24200 Shirley Scott & Stanley Turrentine (Hip soul/Hip twist) 24208 Trudy Pitts (These blues of mine/Introducing TP (most)) 24209 Boogaloo Joe Jones (No way/What it is) 24210 Sonny Stitt/Don Patterson (Funk you DP/Soul electricity SS) 24211 Rusty Bryant (Fire eater/Wild fire) 24212 Various artists – Tenor titans (ditto see 24196) 24218 Willis Jackson (Keep on a blowing/Thunderbird) 24219 Charles Kynard (Afro-disiac/Wa-tu-wa-zui) 24220 Jack McDuff (Brother Jack/Goodnight, it’s time to go) 24221 Houston Person (Truth/Soul dance) 24222 Richard “Groove” Holmes (Spicy/Livin’ soul) 24233 Shirley Scott (Soul sister/Travelin’ light (w K Burrell)) 24234 Bill Jennings & Jack McDuff (Enough said/Glide on) 24235 Johnny “Hammond” Smith (Soul flowers/Dirty grape) 24236 Sonny Stitt (Low flame/Shangri-la) 24237 Don Patterson (Four dimensions/(rest of) Hip cake walk + other bits from session) Related Fantasy twofers 24071 Gene Ammons – Organ combos (Twistin’ the Jug/Angel eyes/Velvet soul) 24118 Gene ammons, Sonny Stitt & Jack McDuff – Soul summit (vols 1 & 2) 24126 Shirley Scott – Workin’/Stompin’ 24127 Sonny Stitt/Ervin/Patterson – Soul people (plus bits) 24129 Gene Ammons – The boss is back/Brother jug 24131 Jack McDuff & Kenny Burrell – Crash/Somethin’ slick +1 24133 Richard “Groove” Holmes – Blue Groove (Get up and get it/Soul mist) 24138 Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers – Tough/Saffron & soul 24141 Red Holloway & Jack McDuff – Brother Red (Cookin’ together + extras) 24142 Shirley Scott & Stanley Turrentine – Soul shoutin’/The soul is willing 24147 Jack McDuff – Live/At Jazz Workshop 24149 Don Patterson – Dem New York dues (Opus de don/Oh happy day) 24150 Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis – Streetlights (I only have eyes for you/Trackin’) 24151 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - Talk that talk/Gettin' the message 24161 Willis Jackson – with Pat Martino (Jackson’s action/Live action) 24164 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - That good feelin'/All soul 24165 Sonny Stitt – Night letter/Soul shack (w McDuff) 24240 Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers – Cold shoulder (more bits) 24242 Jack McDuff – Silken soul (more bits & pieces) 24244 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - The soulful blues (Ebb tide/Nasty) 24253 Sonny Stitt & Don Patterson – The boss men/Night crawler + bits) 24254 Willis Jackson – Gravy (Grease & gravy/The good life) 24256 Jack McDuff – The soulful drums/Hot barbecue 24257 Charles Kynard – Soul Brotherhood/Reelin’ with the feelin’ 24260 Billy Butler – Night life (Guitar soul/Yesterday, today & tomorrow) 24261 Sonny Stitt – Brothers four/Donnybrook (actually a Don Patterson session) 24265 Willis Jackson – Nuther’n like thuther’n (Boss shoutin’/More gravy 24267 Charles Earland – In concert (Live at the Lighthouse/Kharma) 24268 Eric Kloss – About time (Introducing EK/Love and all that jazz) 24269 Rusty Bryant – For the good times/Until it’s time for you to go 24270 Jack McDuff – The concert McDuff plus other live bits 24273 Willis Jackson – Soul night live/Tell it 24274 Jack McDuff – The last good ‘un (On with it + bits) 24276 Sonny Stitt – Goin’ down slow/So doggone good 24277 Bobby Timmons – The (not quite) Prestige trio sessions (Little barefoot soul/Chun-king) 24281 Gene Ammons - Fine and mellow (Big bad Jug/Got my own) 24282 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - Good 'nuff (The stinger/Willis Jackson cooks with JHS) 24284 Willis Jackson & Jack McDuff – Together again/Together again, again 24289 Shirley Scott – Trio classics vol 1 (Great Scott!/Shirley’s sounds) 24290 Houston Person – Broken windows empty hallways/Sweet buns & barbeque 24291 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - Opus de funk/Stimulation 24292 Richard “Groove” Holmes – Super soul/Soul power 24294 Willis Jackson – After hours (Loose/Soul grabber) 47072 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - Black coffee/Mr Wonderful 47089 Johnny “Hammond” Smith - Open house/A little taste 47098 Wild Bill Moore - Bottom Groove/Wild Bill’s beat British issues on the Beat Goes Public label (Ace – all deleted since Concord) CDBGPD040 Funk inc – Funk inc/Chicken lickin’ CDBGPD043 Boogaloo Joe Jones – Snake rhythm rock/Black whip CDBGPD047 Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers - Heat/Jungle fire CDBGPD058 Funk inc – Hangin’ out/Superfunk CDBGPD063 Sonny Phillips – Sure ‘nuff/Black magic CDBGPD067 Boogaloo Joe Jones – The Mindbender/My fire CDBGPD093 Charles Earland – Black talk/Black drops CDBGPD117 Billy Hawks - New genius of the blues/More heavy soul CDBGPD119 Bobby Timmons – The soul man/Soul food CDBGPD122 Freddie Roach – The soul book/Mocha motion And one more essential item, from P-Vine PCD5621 Rhoda Scott - Hey! Hey! Hey!/Live at the Key Club I’ve included a lot more stuff, because the Legends of Acid Jazz series was simply a continuation of a programme that Fantasy started in 1977 with the issue of Gene Ammons’ “Organ combos”. And continued after the series had been discontinued. The numbers of the Acid Jazz series slot in nicely, as you see. Acid Jazz was simply a marketing tool used when convenient, then dropped, when it no longer commanded any premium. Fantasy simply rebranded its organ reissue programme – whether or not each individual issue was Acid Jazz (a term which generally refers to jazz albums made under the influence of James Brown’s development of Funk). I’ve also included 3 Milestone issues, as well as a few non-organ issues, all of which seem relevant to me. Also relevant, and although they’re deleted, copies are bound to be lurking around of the Ace BGP issues (which weren’t issues in the US) that I’ve listed. It seems to me that it doesn’t matter if you don’t like the funky stuff; this programme was a marvellous achievement for Fantasy in my view (of course, I’m a fan). And it reflects (not without a few gaps, of course) Prestige’s absolute pre-eminence in Soul Jazz. I’m not going to give y’all a rundown of what’s good here. Suffice it to say that I have every one of these except the Trudy Pitts (and I have one of the LPs). MG

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