The Magnificent Goldberg

Mosaic sent my invoice in a separate letter! No doubt they found it lying around the place. Their offices must be a bit tidier than mine used to be! So I now can inform the assembled multitudes that my box is 2411 - nearly half way through. MG

Kier Hardy Clement Atlee Hugh Gaitskell

I think I have all Mel's Criss Cross Jazz albums except "Aztec blues" and "Mel's spell". My favourite is "Classmasters". And don't forget "Remembering Wes" on Savant and "Organizing" on Jazzland/OJC. He plays piano on a couple of tracks of a Jimmy Coe album that's mostly big band, but for the two live cuts with Mel. V nazz, particularly "Now's the time". I think he's probably the coolest organist ever - in the sense of unflappable, calm and laid back. But he's always right there, making it happen - there's no coasting. MG

I bought several Clare Fischer albums in the '60s and early '70s. I like them a lot but I hardly ever feel like playing them. Dunno why; perhaps I'll get a few out and give them another bash. His first two are fantastic albums. "First time out" is an album that continually amazes with his rhythmic sensibility; I'm not much of a one to appreciate clever harmonic twists but the groove on these tracks is just incredible! "Surging ahead" is less rhythmically challenging, more laid back, and in many places very much funkier - particularly "Davenport blues" (I DO love modern musicians playing this very old stuff!). These two LPs, plus three bonus cutz, have been reissued on the Mosaic Pacific Jazz Piano Trios select (019). I am kind of toying with my scruples on this set because of those two albums. (Well, Twardzik's Satie-like material is another attraction.) I also have the lovely "Thesaurus", which is interesting, though no longer quite my cup of tea. I have two on Revelation - "Easy living" a nice set of solos and duets with Bobby West on bass. This is an album that sounds like background music - and can be - but it's so tuneful. The other is "Great white hope", an album of solos on Yamaha combo organ and Fender Rhodes. This is incredible! Can I get a image of the sleeve? No - Well the sleeve is worth the price of the album! And the music is a bonus. I also have a Cal Tjader featuring Clare which hasn't been mentioned. "Huracan" on Crystal Clear 8003. This was done in 1978 as a Direct Disc recording, which was the "new thing" then. It's a 45 album. And it effin' well LEAPS off the turntable! Clare did the arrangements and wrote the title track, which is as furious as its title, and the wonderfully named "Funquiado" - also aptly named. The other two trax are "Tres palabres" - very relaxed - and the good old standard "Ritmo caliente". The line-up on the album is nothing to be sneezed at: Cal - vibes Clare - electric piano Willie Bobo - timbales Rob Fisher - bass Gary Foster - alto sax, flute Ronald King - trumpet Kurt McGettrick - baritone sax - (Fantastic! Who is this man?) Victor Pantoja - bongos, cowbell Alex Rodriguez - trumpet Frank Rosolino - trombone Poncho Sanchez - conga Rick Zunigar - guitar I never really believed in hi fi until I heard this record. Its drawback is that, since it's a 45, the playing time is a bit short - 23:27. But it really is quality that counts in this. Glad this was upped - I'm feeling enthusiastic about Clare now MG

Steve McQueen Loretta King The artist formerly known as Prints

Before 1960, of course, but one track of "Soul brothers" by Ray Charles & Milt Jackson was only mono and issued only on the mono versions of the LP - that was "Bags guitar blues". All the other tracks were stereo. "Deed I do" appeared only on the stereo copies. The CD reissue, of course, had both tracks, but no explanation of why this happened. MG

Shit shit shit shit shit! MG

Just starting on another batch of Les McCann LPs The gospel truth - Pac Jazz original The shout - Liberty reissue The truth - Vogue orig UK issue Music box - Paladin UK issue The longer you wait - JAM original (but with Canadian jacket with colour separation all wrong) Les McCann & Houston Person - Road warriors - Greene Street original That should see me through 'til bedtime! MG

Cousin Joe Sister Rosetta Tharpe Brother John Sellars

Well SS1, I just found and ordered something that'll cheer you up plenty! The Bo-Keys is a band made up of Memphis players, who've worked with everyone - recorded at the Hi studios. It's gotta be great. Here's the full page link http://yellowdogrecords.com/bo-keys/index.html MG

I've got LOADS of African music recorded in mono post 1960. MG

Dobie Grey Lennie White Bill Black

Skyy Air Mighty Clouds of Joy

Well, I realised this afternoon that it was Les McCann's 71st birthday yesterday. So it's a belated happy birthday to Les. And I'm digging out a load of his LPs Live at Shelley's Mannehole - UK Mercury mono Live at Bohemian Caverns - Limelight mono (some kind of music club edition with a wrong Limelight number on it) The shampoo live at the Village Gate - Pac Jazz orig mono McCanna - Pac Jazz orig mono Much Les - Atlantic orig smelly-oh Beaux J Pooboo - Limelight orig mono Les McCann plays the hits - UK Mercury mono MG

Straight no chaser Flat beer Southern comfort

I was just looking at this album sleeve and I thought it seemed unusual for the guy to be playing organ the way he seems. Come on you B3 experts - has this photo been reversed? MG

Boutros Boutros Galli El Presidente Scorchio

Dude - I heard it today, and, uh....yeah. That's putting it mildy. You get the distoted AM sound, and on top of that, WHAT seems to have subscribed to the not-uncommon practice of setting their turntables at a faster speed than 45 RPM. So this is not a disc for "record collectors" But this is it, man. This is it. Ah! Something for my next month list. MG

I've scanned in the last page of my intro, since I no longer have the title page or the cover. It's clearly an earlier version of the book, with a somewhat different, and smaller, bunch of critics. In additon to the three signing off the intro, Alexis Korner did the Blues & R&B stuff. At the end, there's an appendix listing albums issued in Britain too late for inclusion, which includes "Sketches of Spain", so it's easily dateable to 1960. The rant towards the end of the into is very nice! And still topical! MG

I don't believe so. The chepness may manifeest itself in relativly bad sound, but I don't believe the pitch is affected. Thanks Harold. MG

Fred Jackson Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette Ben Dixon

I like Bernard Purdie's soundtrack to "Lialeh" best of the ones I've got. Next comes Charles Earland's "The dynamite brothers" and Jimbo's "Black Caesar". Grant Green's "The final comedown" has a few good cuts but overall it's not up to much. The Blackbyrds "Cornbread Earl & me" has some pretty good bits, too. MG

Well, I've got 25 which I thought were definitely good enough to be in the top 10 - the differences being so marginal as not to count. What I found interesting going through was that there is a concentration of really great stuff in the start of the decade and then things tail off a bit. 18 are from 1970-73, 7 from 1974-1979. Boogaloo Joe Jones – Right on brother (Feb 1970) Lonnie Smith – Live at Club Mozambique (May 1970) Grant Green – Alive (Aug 1970) David Newman – Captain Buckles (Nov 1970) Stanley Turrentine – Sugar (Nov 1970) Sonny Stitt – Just the way it was: Live at the Left Bank (Mar 1971) Jimmy McGriff – Black pearl (Summer? 1971) Jimmy McGriff & Junior Parker – Chicken fried soul (Summer 1971) Charles Williams – Trees & grass & things (late 1971 or early 1972) David Newman – Lonely Avenue (Nov 1971) Melvin Sparks – Akilah (Feb 1972) Leon Spencer – Where I’m comin’ from (Feb 1972) Johnny Lytle – People and love (Aug 1972) Charles Earland – Live at the Lighthouse (Oct 1972) Gene Ammons – Big bad Jug (Oct & Nov 1972) Boogaloo Joe Jones – Snake rhythm rock (Nov 1972) Cornell Dupree – Teasin’ (Nov 1973) Charles Earland – Leaving this planet (Dec 1973) David Newman – Newmanism (1974) Sonny Criss – Crisscraft (Feb 1975) Idris Muhammad – House of the rising sun (Jun-Oct 1975) Houston Person – Wildflower (Sep 1977) Willis Jackson – Bar wars (Dec 1977) Don Patterson – Why not (Jan 1978) Grant Green – Easy (Apr 1978) Another interesting thing is that comparatively few are presently available; just over half, I think. MG

It's clearly Ike Quebec's "It might as well be spring" side 2. You can tell because of the distance between the inter-track spaces. MG

Don't know if we're thinking of two different books because the "Jazz on Record" I know came out in 1968 -- "Jazz on Record: A Critical Guide to the First 50 Years, 1917-1967" --stuff from Max Harrison, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker, Jack Cooke (I believe), Michael James, Ronald Atkins, Paul Oliver, Alun Morgan (all Jazz Monthly people). IMO it's among the best seat of the pants jazz criticism there is. I can't find my copy any more, sad to say. Even better (because the entries are longer and focus on single recordings) if you can find a copy, is the second book from this crowd: "Modern Jazz: The Essential Records, 1945-70." Same book, but mine's an earlier edition. I've lost the title page and front cover, but I remember Harrison and Fox were two of the four contributors. Also Alexis Korner wrote the Blues & R&B bits. Maybe Morgan was the fourth. What you got in my edition was a short piece on the musicians, which incorporated refs to the albums listed at the end of each musician's piece. I found it very useful in identifying the "acknowledged masters" - ie people whose records I could safely avoid buying, because I wouldn't ever have trouble finding them, when the supply of interesting minor figures ran out. But that supply never has run out. MG