The Magnificent Goldberg

Dick Barton James Bond Goldfinger

"Where it's at" is a great album. "Warm winds", his other album for Bock - WP1823 with Buddy Collette - is a nice affair; latin tinged stuff. Charles is one of my favourites. MG

Thanks for bringing Percy up Fasttrack. I love his playing. Percy was, I think, in the earliest Bill Doggett band. I have a Doggett album with "Early bird" which was recorded in 1952 and "Percy speaks" from 1953. Later, Irving "Skinny" Brown took over on tenor, then Frank Heppinstall (another fabulous player!). Percy came back to the band in 1955 and was then replaced by Clifford Scott. I have the Sir Charles Thompson on a home tape. It's very worn by now And of course the Freddie Roach. Interesting to hear about the Town Crier material and Allan Lowe's recording. I haven't seen Allan on the board much lately. Does anyone know if he is still around for me to e-mail him about that CD? MG

The three extra tracks with George Coleperson on "Accent": Buddy boy 2 J Sweet pea were recorded at the same session (9 June 1969) as the three extra tracks on "Memphis to New York spirit". (They were extra in the sense that they hadn't been intended for issue on either BN BST84366 or BST84418, which were successive planned releases for "Memphis..." but weren't issued.) The extra tracks on "Memphis..." were Man from Tanganyika Cissy Strut Dragon slayer One day, when I can get round to learning how to do it, I want to burn myself a CD with those six tracks on it. I just cannot imagine the rationale behind breaking up that album and issuing it as two extra bits to completely unrelated albums. MG

Piglet Pooh Eyeore MG

Smokey Hogg Leroy "Hog" Cooper Joe Porcano MG

I've got "Hear my blues" - it's OK; I give it house room. Jaws and Shirley are on it, which I think makes it quite interesting, and the reason I bought it. But I don't like his voice much. MG Hmm...now I'm kinda torn. This AMG review says Smith's voice is like Jimmy Witherspoon's, and I do love me some Witherspoon. Is his sound really reminiscent of Witherspoon's, or does the reviewer have his head up his arse? I don't think he sounds like Spoon. He has a rather small voice in my view. There's some Ray Charles influence in there, too. But there's a similarity of approach to Spoon's, which is probably emphasised by the backing. As I said earlier, it's OK. I bet there are a few Spoons in the sale, though. MG

Little Walter Booker Little Bukka White

Why would you wish to scratch a CD? Or do you give them to your cat? MG

Bobby Byrd Donald Byrd Charlie Byrd MG

Think that just shows that musicians don't go to hell. Not even rubbish musicians go to hell. Well, maybe Wagner... MG

Alex "Hurricane" Higgins Ken Doherty Graeme Dott MG

OK Patricia, I’ve had a chance to go through the sleeve notes for my two CDs and compare them to the track list you provided last week. Then I thought that, since top whack jazz musicians were on some of his sessions, I’d check Lord’s discography and have included what I’ve found in that (not much). Track List: Side 1 Texas Hop – David Lee Johnson (pno), Buddy Floyd (ts), Bill Davis (bs), Al “Cake” Witchard (d) Blues After Hours – as for “Texas hop” but omit Floyd Phone Call From My Baby – no info California Women – no info Side 2 Blues in My Heart – not in my CDs Pee Wee's Boogie – no info Old Fashioned Baby – poss as for “Blues after hours” Blues For My Baby - orig issue CLP5175 Jay McShann (pno), Witchard (d) unk others My Everything – orig issue CLP5175 there’s a hint that this may be same session as above The ones I’ve noted with “no info” were originally issued on Crown CLP5175. “No info” relates to what’s on the sleeve notes of my CDs; there is probably information available somewhere on these sessions. The sleeve notes mention the following names in relation to other tracks on the CDs: Ben Webster, Harry Edison, Jack La Rue (one of Pee Wee’s regular pianists) and Arnold Ross (the pianist who was in the original “Sounds of Synanon”). (According to Lord, which is not very helpful, Ernie Royal, Joe Comfort and Alvin Stoller were on the Edison/Webster session.) On some other tracks on the CD I’ve heard a tenor player who sounds a lot like Maxwell Davis (general factotum at Modern, Aladdin, Imperial and Specialty in this period). There’s also an alto player who is, to me, somewhat reminiscent in places of Sonny Criss. But in other places he doesn’t sound like him. Again according to Lord, Willard McDaniel was pianist on at least one session. Any of the CLP5175 tracks may have been recorded at the same sessions as these other tracks. Without the postwar blues discography, one simply can’t tell. Mind you, in the light of the paucity of info (some of which appears to be incorrect, some of which is definitely incorrect) in Lord, there might not be much to find in a blues discography. There appears to be another track on CLP5175 that you didn’t list. This is “Tired of travelin’”. That’s another for which there’s no info in my sleeve notes. The stuff appears to have been recorded between 1948 and 1951. Sorry there isn’t any more to say. Oh, except that I’m very pleased I’ve got these two CDs; thanks for bringing this up, Patricia. I might have waited a long time before deciding to get them (and missed them as I missed one of the Slim Harpo CDs). MG

Weather VERY humid today. It's been pouring since mid morning. One week after the schools break up and we're back to British summer weather. MG

Man, these look good. Very good. Very, very nice stuff. On first listen, though I've got some other Crayton stuff - Imperials and Blues Spectrum - this is really putting Pee Wee in the forefront of West Coast blues. Very different to T-Bone, despite his obvious and admitted debt. Much more jazzy on instrumentals (and a LOT more instrumentals than other bluesmen did) and showing a bit of another debt - CC. (T-Bone also owed something to CC, but didn't show it much.) I was reminded of some Kenny Burrell blues licks. I wonder if Kenny listened to Pee Wee when he was a lad. MG

If he did, it would damn soon have become heaven. MG

Bennie Green select disc 2 MG

Monster is my favorite REM date too!! Their worst selling album (or at least used copies can be found everywhere, for pennies on the dollar), and it only gets 2½ starts in the AMG review. But my favorite!! It sold more than 4 million. Two other REM albums sold over 4 mill. In my experience, the biggest selling albums are easiest to find second hand, because there were so many more of them sold. One percent of 4 mill is a lot more than one percent of 100,000. MG

Bennie Green Mosaic disc 1 MG

Duh Has this wandered in from "take three names"? Or "sexy album sleeves"? MG

I picked up the Pee Wee Crayton CDs this morning. No discography included in the sleeve notes of either, but some personnel details given. Some cuts with Harry Edison, Ben Webster, Jay McShann. Is your LP Crown 5175? I'll try to work out who's on which cuts later today. MG

MG

How about the ubiquitous Peruvian pan flute bands that play in shopping streets restricted to a two tune repertoire of James Taylor's "Everyday" and Gary Puckett's "Lady Willpower"? Or how about they play Puckett's pedophiliac "Young Girl" over and over... (Can you tell I hate Gary Puckett?) British fans of the TV programme "The fast show" will, of course, have a great affection for the Andean pipe street bands so wonderfully and hilariously parodied in the show (if not for their music). (Or was it only one band that circulated around all the major shopping centres of Britain?) Kalo, count yourself lucky you didn't live through the early fifties when pop music was REALLY at its worst. White teenagers would not have turned to R&B in the mid fifties, leading to the creation of Rock n Roll, had the pop music of that period been even slightly less insulting to one's intelligence. If you really want to torture yourself, try Guy Mitchell's early fifties hits. MG Sorry - forgot you were on our side Sidewinder... Hey MG Do you remember The Stargazers, Teddy & Pearl Carr, A White Sportscoat & A Pink Carnation, Alma Cogan & Mario Lanza etc ? Yeah, but that stuff was mid to late fifties. The stuff I'm talking about was even earlier, and even worse, than that. Even as a 7 or 8 year old, I thought it was crap. MG

Jeanne D'Arc Super Diamono Lemzo Diamono MG

I've got "Hear my blues" - it's OK; I give it house room. Jaws and Shirley are on it, which I think makes it quite interesting, and the reason I bought it. But I don't like his voice much. MG