The Magnificent Goldberg

Amy Winehouse Bea Booze Lunchtime O'booze

Tried looking for this - can't get it on download, from Amazon, iTunes or MeMusic. Space for new CDs almost exhausted. I'll wait until someone puts it on DL. MG

I don't deny anything you're saying, Scott. It's been clear since the fifties that there are two fairly separate jazz audiences. I happen to like Soul Jazz, of which smooth jazz is the rather lame descendant. You happen not to. OK. But it's all jazz, lame or great; it's not compulsory for jazz to be good. MG

Wasn't the case when most of my favourite jazz musicians were having R&B chart hits. I'm confident that smooth jazz is still represented. And gospel music frequently appears on the R&B album chart even in this day and age. To say there's a difference in musical tastes is not racist, young man. MG

Never HEARD of that one!!! MG Never HEARD of that one!!! MG I used to have this LP years ago but sold it because it did not really grab me much. I bought it because of Wheeler's presence but unfortunately the music struck me as rather so-so. Oh hell - I just realised it's not Jack McDuff but Jack Duff. What a duffer MG

Roy Gaines T-Bone Walker Guitar Crusher

At $.054 per album play you would have to had played Born to be Blue about 370 times to generate $20.00 of revenue. You must really like that album. At $.06 per song, a ten track album would have to be played all the way through 100 times to make $6.00. There are very few, if any, albums in my collection that I have listened to 100 times. Most jazz albums are considered successful if 1000 - 2000 copies are sold. For musicians who sell that few albums, the economics of Spotify do not make sense. Sure I like it! I'm surprised at someone playing their albums so little, but I don't know how old you are It takes me a LONG time to listen to an album many, many times. Only about 27% of my collection has more than 100 plays - but 60% of my collection is stuff I've bought since 2000 and that's too short a time for me to listen to anything as much as that. But returning to an album year in and year out for up to fifty odd years... it mounts up. And I still greatly enjoy those albums; I don't play them out of a sense of duty or getting value for money. I'm actually quite shocked to find you saying that 1-2000 copies are regarded as success for a jazz album. Do you think that reflects a perception on the part of the public that jazz isn't entertaining any more? Even in a small country like Senegal, NORMAL first runs of Mbalax albums are 25-30,000 and, since royalties have to be paid on numbers manufactured rather than number sold, those first runs are set conservatively. The black population of the US is several times that of Senegal and there are, in addition, a lot of white people who like jazz. MG

Porgy Bess Sporting Life

The House of Lords? MG

My old boss used to be called Hugh Brodie Not any more, he's dead. Miss Jean Brodie Vanessa Redgrave Zoe Caldwell

Never HEARD of that one!!! MG

Of course - on the web images come and go - here's the post where I listed a lot of what I got in July - MG

Well. a fair amount of my stuff I get on African K7s which aren't sold in the west (except in cities with a good-sized African population, like Paris, Brussels and, perhaps, Little Senegal in New York - the real reason I go to Paris every year and come home wit h40-50 albums). But anything you've seen me post an image for on the board SHOULD be gettable somehow, because I get the images from the web. Don't restrict yourself to Spotify - maybe it's somewhere else; Amazon are doing a lot of downloads of CK7 albums nowadays - course, you have to BUY those - and I have found stuff on iTunes and CD Baby that's not on Amazon. Do Google for a comprehensive search. MG

And your reason is.....? A debate about Apple and their skinning 30% off every music sale, and other things, would certainly derail the thread - and my issues are not entirely related to music. So I don't think such a debate would be fruitful. People who use Apple and like them will be pro - people like me anti. I can ssure you though, I will never buy an Apple product or service, so it's not an option for me. I hope you understand - I'm not avoiding the issue, it's just that I can predict the path any debate would take. It wasn't a rhetorical question. I'm seriously curious about your reasons. Apple's 30% is (I think) less than most brick and mortar stores take. Well, it's gone up a bit since the sixties, which isn't wholly surprising. Back then the shop I worked in was making between 20 and 25 percent margins. MG

Acme Road Runner Bo Diddley

I'm not at all sure that $0.006 IS an abysmal rate of pay per play. It's not .6 of a cent per album but per play - so a ten track album, which gets played through would earn 6 cents. If I'd have had to pay someone 6 cents every time I'd played Grant Green's 'Born to be blue' - oh it's a nine cut album, so that's 5.4 cents, it would have cost me getting on for twenty dollars by now. Of course, albums I don't listen to wouldn't have cost nearly as much as the hard copy versions in Spotify terms but, although I have a few of those, I keep them for discographical reasons. And, also of course, I haven't played my recent acquisitions hundreds of times - yet, and may never do so, as we inevitably die before we've got full value out of lots of the things we buy Oh well. What artists probably need to think about is making music that customers will want to come back to decade after decade. If they can do that, these tiny payments can add up to a good income. MG PS - like Ligeti, I don't watch TV or even know how to USE a mobile anything, so I have plenty of time for music. Decisions, decisions. Now, what shall I listen to next - Edmundo Ros 'Dance again' MG

Fred Jackson appears to be playing alto sax. Used to have this LP but sold it when I was EXTREMELY hard up. It's very nice, but not SO nice as you'd go without food to keep it. MG

Mack the Knife The Hatchet Man Butcher Pete

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Anne of Green Gables Lancelot of the Lake

Funnily enough, I don't I expect I will do, one day. MG

A friend sent me this bit of YouTube, featuring British comedian Peter Kay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yn-2YuWMUo MG

Oh, this is a long one! 1 Very country! Perhaps not as old as it seems and I think it’s based on something familiar in another context. Not my field, but fine musicianship and enjoyable. 2 Ooo, nice! Now this one does seem to be pretty old. Great trumpet player – can’t hazard a guess at who, though. The rhythm section is quite well recorded, perhaps this is more recent than it seems. I like this a lot. 3 Definite sixties flavour to this with a sound like The String-alongs. Not them, though, it swings. Actually, I’m not sure who would make a record like this except either as a gimmick or if they’re from Indonesia or somewhere. 4 Sounds like one of those strange flutes Herbie Mann plays, or makes himself, sometimes. Not Herbie I think. Nice. 5 Crikey, I can’t think of the name of the tune! An Eddie Harris line, I’m thinking. Anyway, I THINK the guitarist may be Orhan Demir, by the way his left hand fingers attack the fretboard. But I can’t find where he’s done any familiar tunes. So maybe it’s someone else. Well, tried again a few days later but still can’t recall the title. 6 Oh, this is a hard one! A big band with soloists who don’t seem to be on my regular listening list. And not one of my regular favourite big bands, either, though with a sixties sound. 7 Something very familiar about this, but I can’t make it out. I’ll take a guess and say Ramsey Lewis, maybe with Phil Upchurch; from one of his Columbia albums, perhaps. 8 A guitarist I feel I know well, but can’t identify. Nor the alto player. Trumpet player, too. All good but I can’t call them up in my mind. The groove is like ‘One cylinder’. Must listen to this again tomorrow. Still no clues a few days later, except I’m thinking of Sonny Red. But I know it’s not him. 9 It’s not Blue Mitchell, but reminds me of him a lot. And the alto player, something of Sonny Red in his lines. His sound is a lot clearer and more definite. The tune sounds like it was written for a film score. Something familiar about it, but… A few days later and I definitely know that I don’t know who or what this is. 10 Good Lord, a lot of this BFT is so nearly right for me, I don’t know why I’ve never heard any of it before! That was bleedin’ fantastic, but I’ve NO IDEA! Well, a few days later and it’s still fantastic and I still haven’t any ideas about it. 11 ‘Speak low’ by a lady singer with flute. And orchestra. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the words of this song before. Nice words. Really nice voice, nice phrasing. Quitting for a while. 12 AH!! Idris! I haven’t played this album for getting on for three years. OK, it’s ‘Wander’ from ‘Black rhythm revolution’, with Virgil Jones, Clarence Thomas (ts and a total GEEZER!), Harold Mabern, Mel Sparks, Jimmy Lewis and Buddy Caldwell. Great! 13 Oh, dem blues! I wish I knew who this was… Phew, he has some really nice ideas! And some chops underlying them. Live! Real! I keep thinking of Junior Mance but he’s got more chops and harder ideas than Mance. Maybe it’s Harold Mabern, though Mabern usually has a softer touch than this guy. 14 Interesting this. It seems like a library band making music for people to listen to while they’re waiting on the phone but, if I were listening on the blower, I wouldn’t want them to answer, even if the sax player does sound like David Sanborn. 15 I keep waiting for the tenor player to come back in and blast me into Tonypandy. Ah here he is. I don’t know him. But that’s OK, he doesn’t know me, either. He’s worth waiting for, though. The rest are there just to warm me up for him, although the piano player’s pretty nice. 16 This is kinda interesting but doesn’t feel completely realised. It’s as if they’ve got these good ideas but haven’t quite got them sorted out in their heads so there doesn’t appear to be any direction. 17 A tune I know. But I can’t remember the title. Fascinating drum solo. Sure I know this tenor player but can’t think… I think it may be Pharoah Sanders. And I think that’s where I know the tune from – one of his albums. But this isn’t one I’ve got. And it seems a bit professional for Pharoah, you know? I think the tune’s called ‘Origin’. No it isn’t – just checked. Well, I dunno, guv. 18 Nice tenor player. Very nice tenor player. Don’t know the tune, either. But this sometimes makes me think of Pharoah, too. Must be the mood I’m in. A few days later, it still sounds like Pharoah. 19 This sounds like the pianist in #13. Doing a boogaloo that reminds me of ‘One cylinder’. 20 This cut seems to be taking rather too long to get off the ground and makes me suspect, after 2 minutes, that it won’t. No, I don’t think it will; it’s as if there’s these guys waiting for Larry Mizell to come into the studio with the ‘leader’ and they’re laying down the backing track. 21 Hank Crawford! But one I’ve never heard before. Where the hell did this one come from? Oh, I must have it tucked away somewhere. No, I don’t think I’ve ever heard this trumpet solo. Sure I haven’t; it’s blindingly lyrical! Don’t for god’s sake tell me it’s David Sanborn! 22 I keep thinking (hoping) the drummer’s going to turn into Bernard Purdie and inject a bit of swing into this. But of course, it doesn’t happen. This one’s not happening with me, either. I half recognise the tune, though; bits of it sound like a Kool & the Gang number. The guitarist’s quite good, without having any real feeling for what he’s doing. 23 Ho Ho Houston Person! And another one I’ve never heard before! Where are you GETTING this stuff from? Oh, I think it’s a cut from one of Johnny Lytle’s Muse albums. Yeah, ‘After supper’. But it’s a different recording from the one on ‘Good vibes’. That one has Mel Sparks on guitar, and there’s no guitar on this. Oh, I see I never finished this. Phew, there’s a lot if it! Well, a few more tracks now. 24 Well, I certainly don’t know this one. Vintage mid seventies, I’d guess. The tenor player has quite some stuff to say and I’d be interested in hearing more of him, but hope the rest of the album hasn’t got all this ‘atmosphere’. 25 I think this is much more modern than it’s supposed to sound. ‘Smoke dreams’. I used to have a recording of this by Jo Stafford. Don’t know this singer. 26 I think this is ‘Black coffee’ by a solo pianist. It’s kind of disorienting with his left hand coming out of the left channel and the right out of the right – feels like I’m between his legs! I don’t think it’s anyone I know. 27 Starts off sounding like telephone waiting music, but somewhat more interesting than what you actually get from your dentist’s surgery. I keep wanting it to DO something, like have a roaring tenor player come in and piss all over the band. But it ain’t gonna happen, is it? No, it didn’t. 28 I do like the trombonist’s sound on this, and his lazy solo. No idea who it is – modernish, though, to judge by the background. 29 ‘Michelle’ played by a solo guitarist. I don’t quite recognise his sound. I’m sure there are others here who’ll pick it up instantly. Well, I was just going to review this, to see if I got any more ideas, and saw that for some reason I hadn’t ever heard the last three tracks!!!! So I had to listen to them and I’m going to post what I’ve got so far. Few answers. A lot of interesting stuff in here, Jon, though a lot of the rhythm sections seem to have, or are trying to imitate, drum machines. Not quite sure why. Good BFT, thanks.

Earlier Houston Person - Always on my mind - Muse MG

Well - my world, I find, is still being rocked. Earlier this year, by this first encounter with hot Meringue Felix Del Rosario - Felix Llego - Borinquen. When I saw the sleeve, I couldn't resist... Felix died a couple of years ago. He was lauded in the Dominican Republic as a hero of Meringue. MG

Well, she DEFINITELY got 'I no get eye for back' right!!!! OK. Let me know when she discovers 'Bar wars' MG