The Magnificent Goldberg

But what about the comparison with Prestige? MG

Well, you're right. There's more than enough crap in the world to worry about. And yet... I just posted a little rant on AAJ, which I think I'll copy here, though the context is different. I think people have been increasingly encouraged to focus on specific things. And not just in relation to entertainment. Shortly before I retired, I realised that younger people at the office didn't think they were doing a job; they had "tasks". A task is a limited thing you're suposed to do. A job is a relationship with an organisation and, through it, the wider world that the organisation is trying to achieve something in - whether that be selling something or, as in my case, making economic changes for the better. If you have a job, the whole environment is suposed to stimulate you. If you do a task, you can object if someone asks you to do something that isn't written down in the spec. If you do a job, then when something odd happens - and something odd is ALWAYS happening in real life - you can make up a response to set things right (perhaps not on your own initiative). If you have a task, you're stumped when something comes off the wall. End of rant. I think I see all this stuff as being connected. MG

West London was always teribly hip (when I lived there) I'm gonna wait 'til you buy this, Jim, and tell us what it's like. MG

Birth Of The Cool retitled Kind Of White You wicked bugger! MG

BFT 38 Disc 2 This is a much more Bop/Hard Bop-oriented CD than disc 1, I think. If that’s the theme, then that’s the theme. 1 Is this Sonny Stitt in one of his Boppy moods? Well, I think it is, though I have more of his funky stuff. I’ve no ideas on the pianist, however, except that he’s familiar. There is a bunch of pianists with whom I’m not so familiar that it could be. 2 I have this one! I think I’m supposed to put a link to an AMG page so people don’t have to find out what it is if they don’t want to know yet. But I’m not clever enough to hide that under the word “here”. And in any case, it looks as if I’m about the last to post on this, so it’s Hank Mobley, “Pat n chat”, from the “Turnaround” album. (I’m going to have to edit all these bloody quotes and apostrophes when I post this – pain. Why'd it work OK this time and not last time?) This is, in a way, a slightly strange selection. Not one of Hank’s more celebrated titles, probably because the tune is not attention-grabbing like some of his others. It’s recognisable, of course; I knew it after about three notes. But I had to wait to hear Freddie Hubbard before I could narrow it down to that session, then go through the CD track by track to pick up the title. That makes me wonder why Matt picked it. Interesting to hear. 3 This had, I thought on the first listen, a slightly familiar tune. Second time around, I knew it wasn’t familiar at all, but it sounds like it’s based on “Sweet Georgia Brown”. Both the tenor player and the pianist are a bit familiar to me, though I haven’t heard much of them, I think. So I’ll guess that the tenor man is Charlie Rouse and the pianist is Monk. Can’t say I really like this much. 4 “More than you know”. I love the way the pianist played the verse. Then, when the clarinet entered, oh my! No idea who the pianist is, though it again sounds like someone I’ve heard a little bit of. There’s no drummer but the piece swung beautifully. This is one I like a lot. Don’t have a clue who’s on clarinet. Another one I’m looking forward to finding out about. 5 Here’s a good all round band. The tenor player reminds me of Golson, but isn’t him I think. Odd to have the bass man solo first, but right because it’s a good interesting solo. I liked the tenor player’s little growl at the end. An enjoyable track. 6 This one sounded like the same old stuff. Good playing all round but nothing really sparked. The tenor player sounds as if he might have something to say in a different context. 7 Lots of odd sounds in here. Trumpet, bass clarinet, tenor sax, was there a piccolo? I must have been in a Golson mood both times, because this guy reminded me of him, too. But this certainly ain’t him. The track goes on a bit. 8 The tambourine opening in 6/8 made me think of Jimmy Smith’s “Walk on the wild side”. Very churchy when the piano came in. Good preaching tenor solo that I enjoyed very much, though not gutrending. Piano solo sounded a bit ordinary by comparison. I think the tune was wrong for that preaching tenor solo. It was too complicated; sounded like someone’s idea of soul harnessed by intellect. 9 This is a very striking performance from the word go. Thought I wasn’t going to like this. Then the sax came in, with some very un-sax-like sounds, and just WAILED! I couldn’t get too involved with the guitar solo, though. The drummer was kicking all the way. I don’t know who these players are. On the first listen, I thought vaguely of Benny Maupin – hear he’s come a long way since the sixties. By coincidence, immediately after I’d played this, I listened to some Sabir Mateen, and then thought vaguely that it might be him, but second time round decided this guy is too organised. 10 Sounds like the same band, but mainly a drum solo. Same gig? MG

Is that the one where Art Taylor had a squeaky hit hat pedal? Good album that. MG

Yeah, is there? MG

I really do agree, Jim. But what's fairly symptomatic of the lack of appreciation is the elevation of some albums to cult status. At the same time as great albums by Big John were fetching horrendous prices, so were albums like this: Verve reissued this album earlier this year. I don't know what prices originals were fetching, but it was another cult item. I got it the other day. Frankly, I got it because I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. I dare say that's why Verve put it out. OK, Eddie Fisher is a better guitarist than Elizabeth Taylor's ex. No, that's not fair. He's a pretty reasonable guitarist with too much of a penchant for wah-wah. It's not a bad album. There's a long track on it that's fairly nice. And there are a few groove items. But as for it being of equal value to anything by Big John, GG or a hundred other great Soul Jazz musicians, no. Rarity value drove this. The DJs want to be able to play things no one else can. So they find something that's really hard to get and hype it. That can only work, in my view, if the demands of the audience are limited to the groove. Eddie Fisher is still around and has a couple of albums at CD Baby. I don't know what they're like. I'm not putting him down. But this is a good, and precisely contemporary, example of an attitude to music that is rather uncritical. "I don't care what it's like, so long as it's got a good groove." No, it's more than that. It's that the audience doesn't care about Eddie Fisher. MG

Help me out, Jim. What's the code for "spiritual"? I'm not clear from what DG say whether Pharoah is on every track or just the odd one or two. Ditto Bembe Segu(e). Nor do we know what BS plays; is it some kind of West African drum? I'm keen but hesitant, if you know what I mean. MG

Isn't what Reid Miles did on BN sleeves hand lettering? That seems to be the same as on the Miles Davis cover. Or am I looking at this wrong? MG

This album is actually a double LP called "The real thing" by Houston Person. It was issued on the Eastbound label (2EB9010). Bob Belden's sleeve note is somewhat ambiguous on this. It hasn't been reissued, but one track, plus two previously unreleased tracks - including a 15 minute version of "Lester leaps in" - were issued in Britain on a compilation of Eastbound jazz tracks. The compilation, which is deleted now, is called "Together" on the BGP label CDBGPD071. The album is a combination of straight ahead material and funk material. Grant Green does not appear on all tracks. It was recorded in March 1973 at Club Mozambique and produced by Bob Porter. MG

Good grief - I just converted that into pounds! Where do you get them for that price please? MG Courtesy of this man of course http://www.earlyrecords.com/listcd2.html Thanks very much Early. I need to talk to someone who understands Paypal. MG

Really! Were you into that scene at all? I ask because I've got more than a few American musician friends who not only refuse to believe that people were actually dancing to this stuff (in either pure or remixed form), but also that people can't and shouldn't dance to it! Not quite; I'd left Brighton 9 years by then. Though my second hand monos, when I stereofied them, may have fuelled some of the local DJs - so you could blame me and my mate. But it's true; people were dancing to this material; in England, not so much in Wales. And still do. This took off in '83 and really became big in '84. I remember when Jack McDuff's "Lift every voice and sing" and Jimmy Ponder's "Down here on the ground" came out, they got terrific reviews in "Blues and Soul", the magazine that, at the time, really represented this movement. And in the same issue, there was an account of the "Caister Weekender" (Caister being one of the old fashioned holiday camps which were out of style for holidays, but which kept going by encouraging weekend-long non-stop dance orgies). In this account, and I kid you not, appeared the following words: "Don Wilkerson is God". Personally, I've only come across it when I've been to see a visiting American Soul Jazz musician at a dance hall venue rather than a jazz club. I saw John Patton when he cme over and the two hours before he came on were absolutely filled with stuff like David Newman, Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Art Blakey. And the floor was packed with dancers (including me some of the time). Same thing when I saw Hank Crawford & Jimmy McGriff, and Charles Earland and Jimmy Smith at this type of venue. I have very mixed feelings about it, actually. On the negative side, I don't think the audiences are really appreciating what the musicians are doing; just the groove. And I believe that has led, in America and over here, to the creation of music that is all groove and no story - Smooth Jazz. Also on the negative side, my mate and I (practically the only people in the country who were buying it in the '60s and '70s) used to be able to pick this stuff up dead cheap - the DJs raised the prices of 2nd hand John Pattons etc to over 100 pounds. On the positive side, I always want the musicians I like to be successful. Many of them have said they earned more in this period than they ever had before. And positive or negative, whatever I think makes no difference to the way the world goes, so... MG

That's the colour my UK copy was in '64. MG

I asked Bob Porter once and he said it was Lie-tell. I thought it might be helpful to post a list of Johnny's albums (original issues). So here it is. John Patton fans (all of us?) should note that BJP plays electric piano on "Everything must change". I have all but 4 of these - a little bit of a fan, here . "Close enough for jazz" is pretty weak, but he turns in a nice version of "Embraceable you". That's the only Solid State I've got. "Swingin' at the Gate" done at the Village Gate, has more of Johnny's great showmanship on "I'm gonna get that boat", in which he talks about a poor man wanting to get the boat to the big city. And blows into a beer bottle to give the effect of a steamer blowing off. And all over a subtle, tight little groove. What a rap! And what a feeling he conveys. I haven't got the other PJ. If people heard it, "People and love" would suffice to place Johnny among the greats of the vibes. Not only is his playing beyond belief at times, but the album has Butch Cornell on kbds and Marvin Cabell on sax. All that is available at present are the later Jazzlands, the Rivs and the Tubas. MG

Don Patterson would have been 70 today. Had he lived, he would STILL have been driving us all mad! MG

They used the image on the poster for the LP cover. Well, they did in Britain anyway. But the colours were different. The background was red. That was the first Miles Davis I bought. MG

Tal Farlow? Must listen again soon. I just played "The Return of Tal Farlow" for the first time last night... love him! But Matt has mentioned that the guitarist had been id-d correctly, and Farlow wasn't mentioned so far... Oh yes - I think Jim Hall's name was mentioned. But I didn't cheat and look before I leaped into print MG

Remember it well... The first glimmer of Blue Note light on the horizon after that (and it seemed like a very bright beacon at the time, at least in the UK) was the first batch of DMMs from Pathe Marconi in France. Yeah - what was unusual about those early PM releases is that they brought out Don Wilkerson's "Preach brother" very early. That became the record that started the Brighton DJs going for "Acid jazz". Kurt Mohr worked for PM in those days; perhaps he had something to do with the selection of BNs. I used to hate those PM sleeves that were a little bigger than regular size. I've got shelves they won't quite fit in vertically. MG

Yeah, that's right. Gambling's a mug's game. My dad was a bookie; a very successful bookie. In the thirties, when my mother and he married, he was so rich he didn't have a house; they lived in top whack hotels. In the thirties! He was Hon Sec of the Victoria Club, a club in London where all the bookies hung out. Every night, except Saturdays, he would hold what was known as a "callover". In his obit in "The Sporting Life", he was called "The King of the Callovers". The callover was a bit of business that involved my dad working out, on the basis of what bets the bookies had already taken, what the odds on each horse in the following day's racing should be in order to ensure that, whichever horses won, the bookies didn't lose. It was a cartel. My dad had a trick brain and could do big sums in his head like anything. Then he'd give the results to the papers for the edification of their readers the following day. Of course, the callover didn't prevent an individual bookie from losing, if he didn't manage his liabilities well; nor did it prevent an individual gambler from winning. But overall, the system was that the bookies would win and the punters would lose. And my old man started gambling. Effectively, he was betting against his own professional best judgement. And he lost all his fucking money. MG

Just arrived in the post. Thanks to Hot Ptah for his little review of this! MG

I'll get my disc 2 comments written later today. I think the value of the BFT concept is demonstrated by whatever the tango at #3 on disc 1 is. There's no way in the world I would ever have picked up a trio of piano, clarinet and tenor from, I guess, somewhere like Khazakstan! Thanks again! MG

Good grief - I just converted that into pounds! Where do you get them for that price please? MG

Er, I seriously doubt that anyone would have air conditioning in a British home. MG

Rev Isaac Dougls & the Charles Fold Singers - Live in concert MG