The Magnificent Goldberg

Brussels has some superb African restaurants - in the African quarter. And there's a good record shop called Musicanova, also in the African quarter, where you can get lots of African CDs (and a few K7s if you're lucky). MG PS Musicanova has a big Latin section, too.

Johnny Lytle - Blue vibes (Orpheum stereo) MG

I don't think you're hearing a koto; I think you're hearing a kora, a West African harp/lute, which Pharoah always calls a balapone or bailaphone, because he was confused. (He made the same mistake n "Thembi".) The bala or balafon is a West African marimba-like instrument. So that's accounted for in the sleeve notes; Pharoah and Larry are both credited as playing that. Thembi says in the sleeve notes that Pharoah sometimes includes a koto in the band, but he doesn't actually go so far as to say they're used on THIS album. (And he avoids mentioning balafons ) I wonder if the harmonium-like sound is the two basses bowed in a strange way. It's a while since I listened to this LP. MG

That's them zweitausendeins guys that's to blame, really! Me, I haven't done anything! Yeah, I had a look at that site last week and was cheesed off to find that most of what I was interested in, I had already bought at the regular prices. There are a few, however, so I'll be back soon. Is this E2.99 deal time limited? MG

Rev J M Gates complete recorded works vol 8 - December 1930-August 1934 Richard M Jones complete recorded works vol 1 - 1923-1927 MG

And arrived this morning. Thanks Tooter MG

And from the ice man himself MG

??????????????? ???????????????? You're getting your classic rock sax appearances mixed up. Curtis Amy is on 2 Doors albums. Without looking them up I'm going to guess The Soft Parade and maybe L.A. Woman. Or would that be Morrison Hotel? I'm on a 15 year sabbatical from The Doors so it's hard to remember the horn songs. Steve Gregory and Greg Beadle handle the sax on Honky Tonk Women.* *page 338 of Bill Wyman's Rolling With The Stones Thanks - you're right. I haven't seen or heard any of those records since 1969. Memory going. "Soft parade" was the one that was out when I worked in a record shop. MG

What a BAND! MG

I've been meaning to plug this book here for the last four years... An excellent read, and one that rings truer than many. The story of a young man who wanted to play jazz but ended up getting sidetracked from doing it by the financial lure/needs of going into R&B is one that I've seen happen god knows how many times (and one that I've participated in myself to a certain extent...). What also rings true is Wesley's simultaneous respect and disgust for the various leaders he's worked with over the years (Basie excepted...). This is a very common phenomenon among career sidemen, as they see people with less "talent" but more "charisma" than them go into the spotlight, while they end up playing a crucial but less glamorous role. I've seen reviews of this book that describe it as "bitter". Well, maybe it is. But that doesn't make it any less true. It's truly a "view from the inside" of what it's like to always be somebody else's employee, somebody who you want to think needs you more than you need them, while at the same time realizing that no matter how true that might be, if they weren't who/what they were in the first place, you'd not have a gig. Highly recommended reading. Thanks Jim. I didn't know about the book until I did the research for that piece today. I'll get that soon. MG

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I can’t imagine any musician who’s had a more interesting career than the great Fred Wesley, whose 63rd birthday it is today. (I tell you, it’s a shock to find a classic musician who’s only a couple of months older than me!) But anyway, Happy Birthday Fred! Fred was born on 14 July 1943, in Columbus, GA, but brought up in Mobile Alabama. He studied classical piano at a young age, with his grandmother. Then he studied trumpet, then trombone at school under the influence of his father, Fred Wesley Sr, who chaired the music department at Mobile Central High School and was a big band man. Fred Jr made his professional debut at the age of 12. After graduation, while still at University, Fred worked with Ike & Tina Turner and Hank Ballard & the Midnighters. He played with the 55th Army Band during military service, graduating from the Armed Forces School of Music. Back in civvy street in 1967, Fred formed his own band – playing a fusion of Funk with Hard Bop. A friend, Waymon Reed, recommended him to James Brown. He joined James Brown in the summer of 1968, first recording on “Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud”. He didn’t get on well with Brown, who was in every sense the boss, and made sure his musicians knew it damn well. Fred left Brown in 1969, then returned in 1971, to become the straw boss of the Brown band. It was under Wesley that the JBs were formed, producing instrumentals – some of which were huge hits; Fred Wesley & the JBs’ “Doin’ it to death” was the last jazz recording to make #1 on the R&B singles chart. Once again, Brown and Wesley fell out. Brown fired Fred in 1975. You can hear what Fred has to say about this; “I love you like a brother” on Fred’s most recent album “Wuda cuda shuda” tells the story. Fred, along with a number of other Brown band men, joined George Clinton. “Mothership connection” by Parliament was the first album Fred and the new recruits worked on, producing a classic of funk, “P-Funk (wants to get funked up)”. Fred’s noodling trombone solo on that is worth the price of admission; so is Maceo’s alto solo. Like Brown, Clinton set up Fred with his own band within the P-Funk organisation; Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns. It was while he was at P-Funk that Fred developed his contrapuntal funk style of arranging, a style that Clinton’s bands still carry on. While working with Clinton, Fred made a fair number of albums as a sideman for Creed Taylor’s CTI and Kudu labels with George Benson, Hank Crawford, Idris Muhammad and David Matthews (a subsequent arranger with the Brown band). At the beginning of 1978, Fred went further into jazz, replacing Al Grey in the Basie band. He moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and got a good deal of work once more in R&B, with Earth Wind and Fire, The Gap Band, Barry White and Curtis Mayfield. At the same time, Fred capitalised on huge street credibility, beginning to make his own solo albums, starting with “House party” in 1980. All his jazz albums have been made for small companies, many for Minor Music, a German firm for whom Maceo and Pee Wee Ellis also recorded, spearheading the funk revival in Europe. If you want to hear some really blistering, swinging jazz, try Fred’s “Swing and be funky” on Minor Music, a live album that leaps out of the speakers. In 2002, he published his autobiography, “Hit me, Fred: recollections of a sideman” (Duke Univ ISBN 0-8223-2909-3). While continuing to tour, he is also adjunct professor (what’s an adjunct professor?) of jazz studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Pay him a visit at his website; it’s full of good photos. And you can buy downloads from some of the rarer albums in his discography from him (he says). http://www.fredwesley.com/ MG

LOL LOL MG

Taylor, like most, if not all, of the honkers, was an excellent ballad player. Which is not to say that it's necessarily him on "True love ways"; it's merely to say that being a honker is no necessary disqualification. That said, I must say it was with some surprise that I learned, many years ago, that he was credited with this solo. But Sam was a versatile musician, so I accepted it. Plenty of good people have done good solos on pop records; Curtis Amy's solo on Carole King's "It's too late" comes to mind immediately, as does his solo on the Stones' "Honky tonk women". MG

I think it's Sam "The Man" Taylor. MG It is. I said so in the original message. I wasn't asking who played it. Just remarking on how good it is. OBO110X I should learn to read. MG

Just did a Google search. I think I was right. http://www.mmguide.musicmatch.com/album/al...?ALBUMID=500823 There's a thread in a sax forum where someone was speculating on whether it was Taylor or someone called "Boomie Richmond", but when I tried to get that up, the forum had moved and, doing a search brought up so many threads I couldn't be asked. Here's the search result, if anyone else wants to try. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22buddy+...r=&start=0&sa=N It's the www.saxontheweb.net result. MG

I think it's Sam "The Man" Taylor. MG

We have that in Britain, too; it's called shandy here. I can understand (I think) serving American beer, in America, in very humid weather, with a slice of some citrous fruit. American beer, I've found when I've been over there, is very sharp and hard edged, which is great in hot, humid weather. I can imagine a slice might improve that edge for some people. In Britain, where we like our beer warm and soft, and have the weather for it, bits of anything floating in our beer, other than flies, are completely unacceptable. And flies are only acceptable after about nine pints. MG And only if they're dead. We're not beasts, y'know.

Well, if Yehudi could do it... Kennedy always used to look like a pratt, though, which you could never say about Yehudi. MG

I kind of agree; I like the painting on the cover of the LP. However, if there's a previously unpublished photo of Hank... If there was ever one guy who completely had "the look". MG

It's Big John's birthday today. I've been playing a lot of John lately, so I'm just celebrating with MG

Sometimes you can say, "this music changed my life". This is one of those times. MG

Nope - NY USA/43W61st ! And an inner sleeve saying "27 years of Blue Note"? MG

Johnny Griffin and Sonny Clark at their prime! The Conn sounded blah, so hopefully the RVG will be eons better. Spun the Conn last night and thought it sounded pretty good, great session but then you can hardly go wrong with early Griff Apart from some of the stuff he did with Joe Morris, I haven't anything earlier than "The big soul band" by him. That's why I wondered about this. MG

But that's what you get when you go to a gig, Chewy. MG