The Magnificent Goldberg

I remember having a conversation with a colleague in about '66 or '67, in which he was saying that people weren't making good jazz albums any more. I said, "come on, what about Blue Note? They're still churning out great albums." He responded by saying, "yes, they're churning them out. It's like a production line." Now, I thought it was a pretty strange production line that could come up with "One step beyond", "Brown sugar", "Along came John" and "Song for my father". But, as I found out more about BN, I came to realise that they did, indeed, have a production line. They made a record a week, more or less. They used mainly pickup bands consisting of a more or less standard set of players in New York who needed the money. Perhaps that didn't happen with regular working bands like Blakey's or Silver's, but I think those were the exceptions. So they preceded each session by a couple of days' rehearsals, supervised by Ike Quebec or Duke Pearson. And basically, that represented quality control. It's that quality control that actually did make Blue Note a company which consistently achieved very high standards, and in a number of different styles of the contemporary jazz of the period, and gave the albums a fair bit of their character. There is a difference between the albums recorded before and after Ike's death - you can pick this out if you concentrate on the ones featuring Grant Green either as sideman or leader. Given that the company was making records for several somewhat different markets, it's not surprising that, despite this quality control, there's less than unanimity about which are the classics and which are workaday albums, especially when, because of the quality control system, the workaday albums are generally almost indistinguishable from the classics. MG

All I can tell you about "Big bad Jug" is that it has a bilingual label and the catalogue number 9162-10070, which is also in the dead wax. So it can't have been taken from the original LP master. Further than that, it looks hard to go. MG

Surprised to find ANYONE who knows Freddie's work, Clem. A bit off your track, or am I reading you wrong? MG

Samson Delilah Tom Jones (of Pontypridd, that is)

Do you like Roland Kirk's version more than Aretha Franklin's? Edward, it's been years since I've heard Aretha's version. Thanks for the reminder! Comparing Aretha to an instrumentalist is a bit like apples and oranges, but I'll say that Aretha sings it straight while Roland plays it as a gag. Doesn't sound like a gag to me; 13 minutes of soul. Is his version of "Petite fleur" a gag, as well? MG

Listened to Sonny Stitt's Mosaic box disc 9 yesterday, so I'm just now starting on the other 8 discs - expect it will take me until bedtime MG

Cheri Blair Hilary CLlinton Laura Bush

I have a couple of Canadian Prestige LPs. "Big bad Jug" and something else. Good quality stuff, in my view. MG

Why not order it from Buy.com. It's only $32 if you check out using google checkout. This is a crazy low price for this set. I paid $40 and thought that was a good price. What it Is Thanks for the tip. $32 shipped! Struth! Buy.com does not ship to the UK! Bah! MG

Oh, 'It's A Quiet Thing' is my all-time favorite: still gives me goosebumps. it's great to know others feel as i do. Oh, and I remember now, my wife absolutely HATED the sound of her voice with furious passion. I'd have kept it but for that. MG

First Christmas record of December last night Rev Cleophas Robinson - Christmas carols and good gospel - Peacock orig (one side carols, the other straight Gospel, including a superb version of "Why am I treated so bad") MG

Last night (too tired to post!) A vinyl evening Bill Doggett - Honky tonk popcorn - Polydor reissue Inez Andrews - This is not the first time I've been last - Songbird (ABC) orig Rev Amos Waller & the Mercy Seat Missionary Baptist Church - Come to Jesus - Songbird (green label) orig Rev L W Williams - Doing your best in service for Jesus (sermon) - Landra orig (Landra is a strange little label; the LP sleeve opens at the top (?). Based in Greenville Miss; Williams leads a church in Helm, Miss.) MG

Bunker Hill Jessie Hill Frodo Baggins

Cheers, Jim MG

True, but it's like anything else - the more you do it, the easier it gets. And eventually, you do it without realizing it. Everything's copasetic until you run up against people who can't/don't/haven't/won't. But life goes on, and wasting time on people who can't/don't/haven't/won't is a game for young people who, statistically speaking, have more of it left to waste. And, by any reasonable standard, I've already lived over half of my life, so hey... All I'm saying is that it's a learned behavior for most folks, that the time to start is now, and the time to stop is never. Carpe diem. Save me digging out my dictionary, 'cos it's late. What does copasetic mean? Somthing that gets to you at the Copacabana? Like, a liking for Barry Manilow? MG

Wow! What a great and informative thread! And great interviews referenced with Von and Eddie. I've learned quite a bit. Thank you. MG

Yeah Shrink - I was going to say that I haven't got the last load of HighNote/Savant releases yet. MG

Renault think so, too. They were using it for Cleo adverts for ages. MG

Hal Singer A C Drummer Ray Pounds

I hope you're not disagreeing with me Jim, because I was saying that some of the greatest players got away from the connotations by redefining these tunes in their own terms, which is what I think musicians SHOULD be doing. But at the same time, not to know (or perhaps not to care) what effect certain choices are likely to have on your audience is, in my view, unprofessional. I think it's a mistake for musicians to limit the type of music they choose to play, as so many of them do. One thing I would really LOVE to hear is a modern band - McCoy Tyner's or Ahmad Jamal's groups for example, to make an album of New Orleans numbers like "West end blues", "Oh didn't he ramble", "Dr jazz", "Savoy blues" and so on. There's no reason why people should let these tunes drop, because there's scope within them for a musician to redefine them in a personal way; and to do so in a way that their audience can recognise that that is what's happening. Time has moved on since the days of Hot Lips Page; in the thirties, audiences had no problem with Basie or Hampton playing "Twelfth Street rag". They certainly would have a problem with Ahmad playing it now, unless it was presented right. So if he wanted to do it, he'd have to be sure of how he wanted it to get over and know that he was capable of doing that. So I think audiences, and musicians, have lost a lot in the last 70 years or so. And the music industry, in dividing people into niches that they can market more profitably, is, I think, largely to blame. And not just the majors, though they have more influence; companies like Blue Note were as guilty as Columbia. But they had to survive, too. MG

Sylvester Rocky Rambo

Ah - I've seen that. Didn't know it was it! Thanks. MG

Trust me, you will not be disappointed! This is a jazz album even your mother-in-law will find tolerable. Does that mean I have to look for a DG copy? MG

A friend had a Morgana King album on Mainstream called "A taste of honey". Some of the tracks at least appear on "Cuore di mama", though I think maybe it's a compilation of her Mainstream LPs. I could never find "A taste of honey", which had something quite ethereal about it. Eventually, I bought a Reprise LP she made called "It's a quiet thing", which was quite a disapointment. Not that it wasn't good - it was, but it was ordinarily good. MG

That sounds like an album I ought to have. Has it ever been out on CD? MG