The Magnificent Goldberg

Thanks DMP - that kind of two cents is worth a lot to those of us who never saw him in person. MG

BFT 38 Disc 1 By and large, this is a very enjoyable chunk of music. Thanks to you Matt, and to Rodney for copying it, too. I found it significantly easier to get into this BFT than into the last, perhaps because it wasn’t so odd. Not that I actually recognised much. Nor have I been able to detect whether there’s a theme to the disc. 1 I got a feeling of a Duke Pearson arrangement, with Donald Byrd in the ensemble. But the piano player seems to be the leader and it ain’t Duke. It sounds more like Cedar or McCoy, though I don’t really know. The drummer is really kicking this along in places. I liked the soprano solo, too; flows well. Don’t know who THAT is, either. Good stuff, though not devastating. 2 This sounds like an old fashioned swing type tune to start off with, when it’s just guitar over brushes. Once the ensemble comes in, playing the tune, it sounds more modern. Maybe it’s a modern tune on changes of an old swing number. The whole thing swings beautifully, particularly the muted trumpet solo by I don’t know (he plays a lot of stuff on this disc but I feel I should recognise him in this incarnation), and the drums beneath him are very persuasive. The guitarist, when he comes in for a solo, sounds a bit accomplished. Very nice ending to this. 3 Ah, the TANGO! It killed me! This is music that would be divine for dancing with your lady (assuming you and she can tango, of course). Dramatic piano intro. Ravishing clarinet solo. Romantic piano solo! It’s so beautiful, passionate, romantic, joyful, exultant it just fucking kills me! 4 First time I heard this, I wasn’t sure I liked it all that much. Second time, I liked it a lot more – perhaps because I wasn’t listening on the walkman but in the ambiance of a room. Very modern, very interesting all the way through. A standard tenor & rhythm quartet, but sounding nothing like it. Although I like it, I suspect the appeal is less visceral than intellectual. 5 Now this is visceral! It sounds like it’s in 10/8. And it bleeding wails! Maybe there are some of the same players in this and #4. What I wrote while I was hearing this for the first time (yelling in the park), was this. “Piano solo really hitting! Exciting? What! Bloody hell! MF!” Yes, I DID enjoy that one. 6 Two saxes & rhythm. Another interesting rhythm. It’s a bit modern and spiky. When we get to the exchange between the alto & tenor, I feel that the tenor player is in charge. His playing flows more, too. This sounds like the sort of thing European musicians do in order to establish street credibility. It’s OK, but nothing special for me. 7 Accordion! Must be French Violin. Violins. Big band, strings, Latin percussion. Must be Enoch Light & the Light Brigade OK serious now. Here comes a flugelhorn player. Nice sound. Nice solo when it gets going. But there’s too much arrangement – it forces him to be in certain places at certain times. I get a strong feeling that he’d like to break free of the arrangement and just blow, but he’s too disciplined for that. 8 Solo piano piece. Sounds like a classical piece, but there’s something about the changes that sounds like jazz. Good piano playing but it doesn’t get to me. 9 “These foolish things”, live, with a long intro. The intro is what my friend Alison calls jazz wanking. I’m too polite, of course So, after wasting five and a half minutes showing off with that little descending figure he keeps coming back to, he moves, not entirely smoothly, into the song. And it’s a good deal better, though he’s still showing off rather a lot. 10 Guitar. Lots of tape hiss. Is this a clue? I ask myself. “Skylark”. Warbling recording quality – another clue. Alto sax. Charlie Parker? Almost certainly, I think, though I’m no expert on Bird. Strangely, the bass solo seemed to get a bigger cheer than Bird. Back to the guitarist. If this is Bird, is the guitarist that guy who painted signs in a New England fishing village? (Can’t remember his name.) Nice discussion between alto & guitar about when and how we’re going to finish this. 11 Guitar, bass & drums. Possibly one of those West Coast guitarists whose work I haven’t heard much – Kessel or Hall or someone like that. Long bass solo. The tune, which is only hinted at, I think, reminds me of “Blues in the closet”. Nice swinging ending to the disc. There are two cuts in there that I simply MUST find out about and, probably, get. Thank you so much for those two!!! MG

Larry Young - Contrasts - BN Liberty Stereo MG

The last ISSUED Lion session was Bobby Hutcherson's "Oblique. 21 July 1967. The last one he supervised was by Stanley Turrentine - 28 July 1967. This had: Blue Mitchell, Garnett Brown, James Spaulding, McCoy Tyner, Duke Pearson (on organ would you believe?), Bob Cranshaw, Ray Lucas and Richard Landrum. What a band, eh? How could this be crummy? Tracks: The look of love You want me to stop loving you Dr Feelgood (I assume the Ree song) (two takes) Up up and away Georgie girl A foggy day Unfortunately, the BN discography doesn't identify who the producers were of the early post-Lion recordings. The first Wolff job was probably Lou Donaldson's "Mr Shing-a-ling" (27 October 1967). The sleeve note to Donald Byrd's "The creeper" (5 October 1967) says that it was produced by Lion, Wolff and Pearson, which is self-evidently rubbish. The BN discography is quite clear that the Turrentine was Lion's last stand. And I reckon it was Pearson. The sessions previous to the Lou Donaldson were McLean - "'Bout soul" Pearson - "Right touch" Young - "Contrasts" Wilson - "Easterly winds" Byrd - "Creeper" Mobley - "Hi voltage" I can't see any of these being Wolff jobs. The sleeve notes of the Liberty-issued LPs (at least, the few I've got) don't credit the producers, though the CD reissue of the Donaldson does come clean about Wolff producing it. MG

Do you know if that would have been generally, just for that type of recording, or did it reflect different producers' views? MG

Perhaps the words "jazz legend" were the only ones in English in the original version of the story. MG

GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD MG (Your friendly lo-fi fan)

Interesting question. I think he may have done, certainly in the period 68-70. I don't know if this helps - here's a list of Soul Jazz albums by organ combos recorded by BN and PR in those years. I've picked that period because, at BN, it represents the period in which Francis Wolff was producing the Soul Jazz, while at PR, it represents (mainly) the period in which Bob Porter was producing the Soul Jazz. Both were new to producing at the time (though they obviously had a lot of experience seeing how things were done), so one might feel that Rudy's advice would have been welcome to each. Obviously, I've picked organ combos because: I like 'em a lot; they're of general interest at Organissimo; Rudy is renowned for recording organists; and comparing the sound of Leon Spencer and Hank Mobley albums seemed a bit silly. I've excluded live sessions. Even within this limited range I've selected, there's a wide variation in sound. But, if you're at all familiar with these albums, I think you can notice a different sound between the PR and BN ones. BNs sound kind of cleaner, less grainy. There are exceptions, of course: "Blue mode" sounds very PR; the Don Pattersons sound a bit BN. However, maybe this was in the mix and dictated by the producers after the event. I don't know. MG

Actually, I'm wanting to hear a good jazz version of "Slip Away". Anybody know of one? No - perhaps you should play it at a gig. MG

Is "African Flower" hard to find? I bought a used copy in a local store recently for around $6. Come come, young sir; surely nothing can be hard to find in Japan. I found the riches of the Japanese second hand record dealers - especially the Disc Union shops - to be nothing short of AMAZING. MG True MG, there are worse places for a music lover to live than Tokyo. And yes, the various Disk Unions have a great used CD selection, often at very reasonable prices. I spend way too much time browsing there. I have never seen a TOCJ of "African Flower" though and it was the US version I found (strangely enough in a local shop with very little jazz). Tokyo is fine for music lovers, providing one has an almost unlimited supply of cash, and space to store the acquisitions. The latter is a BIG problem in Japan, as you know. MG

Is "African Flower" hard to find? I bought a used copy in a local store recently for around $6. Come come, young sir; surely nothing can be hard to find in Japan. I found the riches of the Japanese second hand record dealers - especially the Disc Union shops - to be nothing short of AMAZING. MG

I reckon this would have been released, had Francis Wolff not died two months later. MG

Just arrived this morning Two Jack McDuff compilations A rare slice of jazz/funk from the 60s, which I've been meaning to investigate for some time. And a Gene Ammons compilation, of which I have only the last 3 tracks on LP And two more packages from CD Universe still in transit. Have to cool down a bit now. MG

Nice thread folks. I'm not going to tell you what I do with mine. MG

It was 36 C here yesterday. Today is shaping up to be the same. Good thing there isn't ANOTHER Grant Green being issued today; I was soaked when I got home - we're a long way from the bus stop; all uphill. Spent the rest of the day in my swimming trunks (not a pretty sight). Same today. MG

Nelson George starts by saying that black musicians of all stripes have always said words to the effect of, "if you listen to our music, you can tell where we're coming from". But he says that no one has really tried to DO that. So he reviews black politics since the 19th century and uses the analysis to understand post war R&B, from Louis Jordan to Prince (it came out in 1988). It is, essentially, a book about politics, seen through music. MG

Ordered three days before Mosaic put their prices up. It could have SWUM the Atlantic quicker! Anyway, it's here. MG

Not only did they misjudge the market, but the relatively large number of copies they supplied to Spin in Newcastle, UK, had the wrong cds , And as a limited edition! Spin never received replacements, and so I never received my pre ordered copy. I bought this cd directly from Rhino when it came out. Didn't find it suited my tastes, and I sold it on this board. I think Bright Moments bought it from me, but I don't exactly remember. Sold it for like $18 or so. Looks like I could have held on to it longer for more $$$; but it works both ways. I've bought stuff cheap here too. So sell cheap; buy cheap. It all evens out. Well, if anyone wants to sell me the Parcy Mayfield cheap, I'll buy it. MG

Enjoy! Chew slowly for fullest delight! Two points I can make. First, you're right about the Houston Person Eastbound LP. It's not available at present. It's a crime that this hasn't been reissued on CD - it would need to be a 2 CD set, however, because it's long and some bonus cutz have come out on CD in Britain. That might price it out of the market (though not for a number of folks here, of course - but we aren't REALLY that many, are we?) Second, the socio-economic shifts were various. You can read quite a bit about them in Nelson George's book "The death of Rhythm & Blues", which is as relevant to Soul Jazz as to R&B, though George never recognises that. The main point, I think, is a shift of people out of the ghetto into the suburbs. What this meant was that, for the first time, the urban black audience was dispersed, not concentrated. More and more people lived farther away from the organ rooms like Club Mozambique, since it was not economic to move the venues to the periphery. And in the suburbs, other venues were available, such as golf and tennis clubs and similar places of entertainment. So the simple demographic shift of people had the effect of cutting the organ rooms’ audiences disproportionately. But it also had the effect of narrowing the audience; from catering to a wide range of people of all sorts of classes and incomes, the organ rooms' offerings had to focus on the rather more Afro-centric tastes of those left behind. This population movement had an impact on R&B and Soul Jazz. I think it's from this period that you get splits (the same split) appearing in the two musics. It's easier to see this in terms of R&B, however. What Belden calls the Inner City market can best be typified by James Brown & (later) George Clinton; an extremely Afro-centric music. Out in the suburbs, the people who had managed to escape tended, as has frequently been the case, to look down on the more "black" music. Motown typified the more mainstream/crossover music at the time. (Which is not to say that Brown wasn't popular generally at the time. He certainly was, but he, unlike many others, didn't compromise - because he could get away with not compromising.) The trend's typical equivalents in terms of Soul Jazz can be regarded as, on the one hand, the material Prestige were recording at the time with Earland, Person, Phillips, Bryant, Kynard, Boogaloo Joe (and also BN with GG and others produced by Francis Wolff, who let Duke Pearson tend to the modern jazz and largely concentrated on Soul Jazz himself after Alfred retired [but also McGriff & Holmes when Solid State had become BN]); on the other hand, as Bob Belden pointed out, CTI/Kudu material - there was a good reason why Motown wanted to buy CTI/Kudu. These trends, I think, became much more pronounced later in the '70s, as Disco and then Smooth developed in both R&B and Soul Jazz. They were just beginning at the time of which Bob Belden was writing. What he didn't mention, which is probably very significant, is that, between the Club Mozambique session and "Visions", Francis had died and been replaced by George Butler who was a United Artists man through and through - he had previously produced Ferrante & Teicher records. George was quite frank about admitting that he didn't know much about jazz and conceding that he'd been picked for the job because he was black. But George, of course, was part of the out of the ghetto movement. MG

The Lonnie Smith (and the True Blue Organ Trio) are winging their way to me from CD Universe at this present moment. I'm hoping True Blue Organ Trio turns up in a day or so. Smith will take a bit longer. These, and the recent Mel Sparks, are making this a fairly memorable year for the GROOVE. MG

Ah, I'll check again in a week or two. Thanks. MG

I guess it's more some kind of leftover sale - they get new stuff in now and then, it seems (when I did my second order - the above one is the third - I bought all I wanted, so most of the above wasn't in stock back then...). But I wouldn't wait too long, if there are things you really want... (Screams stage right from bank account) Thanks. (Screams stage left from hifi.) It's taking me three days to play through all my recent albums at present. Ah well. MG

If you like that one, you'll probably like "It's what's in the groove" even better. MG

Yup - Moses Davis was the organist in that band. See the thread on Davis here http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...=0entry528973 MG

Well, he's had an assistant, Maureen Sickler?, around for about twenty years. I should think she could take over with that amount of experience, couldn't she? MG Mmm, does that mean it will be the MS series, or will the "ghost" concept extend from bands to mastering engineers ? This already happens with the Grateful Dead's valut releases (Dick's Picks). "Dick" has been dead for years. Dead ear Dick? MG