The Magnificent Goldberg

Is this another round of emails between us then? Give me a shout when you are free

Lynn Hope Faith Charity MG

Soul sauce Cal Tjader Cal Collins MG

Ahmet Ertegun is 83 today. Happy birthday Ahmet! To list the achievements of Atlantic records is impossible and silly. Ahmet was my first hero. In 1959, at 15, I decided, as much by intuition as evidence, that I could rely on finding great records if I bought ones licensed from Atlantic, whether I knew anything else about them or not. So I started pre-release ordering Atlantic singles and discovered early soul music and Ray Charles. I thought it was very counter-intuitive that a business should be capable of making records to suit me. I’d been anti-authoritarian since the age of seven and associated big business with that authority. I guessed that the proprietors of Atlantic were people like me - fans and record collectors. If I’d lived in New York, I’d have sat outside Atlantic’s front door until they gave me a job. As it was, I let Ahmet, Nesuhi and Jerry Wexler educate me. Happy birthday Ahmet! And many more of them. MG

Yes indeedio! MG

Thanks Allen. Soon as I'm fixed up with Paypal, I'll be in touch. MG

Gooseneck Cold turkey Chicken wings

Nat Adderley Nat Hentoff Leonard Feather MG

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