The Magnificent Goldberg

Egad! And consecutive numbers, too! And I never noticed. Looking closely now, I think between 4238 and 4239 she'd had a hairdo and shortened the dress (also removed her trousers). MG

I don't know how tough it is to find or if Da Bastards re-stock, but my copy of Getting into Something came from an inexpensive vinyl reissue probably three or four years ago. As far as Lonehill goes, I do give them credit for being complete bootleggers, as the Bailey set includes "Brownie Speaks" which was only issued on Almost Forgotten, an almost forgotten 1983 comp of unissued Columbia tunes. Since then, most of the music has made it out on CD reissues, but Lonehill's the only place you can find that forgotten track. All tree LPs plus an extra track on one CD? Wow! MG Two cd set! I have steered clear. Thanks Lon MG

I don't know how tough it is to find or if Da Bastards re-stock, but my copy of Getting into Something came from an inexpensive vinyl reissue probably three or four years ago. As far as Lonehill goes, I do give them credit for being complete bootleggers, as the Bailey set includes "Brownie Speaks" which was only issued on Almost Forgotten, an almost forgotten 1983 comp of unissued Columbia tunes. Since then, most of the music has made it out on CD reissues, but Lonehill's the only place you can find that forgotten track. All tree LPs plus an extra track on one CD? Wow! MG

I didn't realise that; I've got "One foot" on the Koch Cd and "Two" on LP, but not the third, "Gettin' into something". Which of those are on Lonehill? MG

And England have won. Without having to do very much. Goes for the whole comp so far. No one knows what England have got that can go anywhere. MG

Dave Bailey made some good LPs for Epic in the early 60s. "One foot in the gutter" was reissued on CD by Koch a few years ago. As far as I know, "Two feet in the gutter", with the wonderful Frank Haynes has never come out on CD. And I think there was a third LP on Epic, but I'm not sure of this. I'd also like to see a decent reissue of the George Benson/Lonnie Smith band Columbia material. I guess there's something approaching 5 LPs' worth of material that's been issued - and I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't more tracks knocking around in the vaults. I also wouldn't be surprised if some of the material that issued wasn't faded out quite a significant time before the musicians stopped playing - Columbia kinda liked short tracks. I'd also like to see a complete Mongo Santamaria set of Columbia material. Mongo had fabulous sidemen in those days: Capers; Laws; Fortune; Gasca; Purdie... Think I'll dig out the three I've got and play them... MG

Please identify the specific bands/records which identified "soul jazz ... right from the start in the '40s". The early leaders were mainly tenor players: Illinois Jacquet, without whom there would have been no honkers; Gene Ammons; Ammons/Stitt (though half or maybe more of Stitt's career is Bebop); Arnett Cobb; Ike Quebec; Big Jay McNeely; Paul Williams; Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson; Hal "Cornbread" Singer; Wild Bill Moore; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (first tenor/organ records in '49). Other big names included Tiny Grimes & his Rockin' Highlanders. Among vocalists, Dinah was the Queen. In the early '50s, there was Wild Bill Davis and other pre-Smith organists like Milt Buckner & Bill Doggett. MG None of these people played "soul jazz" as the term is used. I'm not at all disputing that there is a continuum from those you mention to soul jazz as the term has been applied (by everyone I know save yourself). You might want to call those folks "pre-soul jazz". This is also the view of Bob Porter, a man whose views on this subject are not to be sneezed at, I reckon. MG I presume you mean that Bob Porter calls 40s R&B "soul jazz". Does this mean that everyone else doesn't count? The simple fact is that "soul jazz" was recognized and identified as such in the late 50s-early 60s. That does not mean that we go back to its antecedents and rename plain old R&B "soul jazz". I think it's very difficult to call the recordings of those musicians R&B. That would place them with Professor Longhair, Charles Brown, Amos Milburn etc, which doesn't seem to work for me - and I doubt that it would work for you, either. Certainly, they shared the objective of R&B, and it's also true that the boundary (if that's the right word) between the two groups of musicians was permeable (much more so in the forties than later), but they were nonetheless jazz musicians who were playing jazz. I think the key point is that there WAS a continuum, as you've so rightly said. The '60s and '70s recordings made by the musicians I mentioned in my earlier post - those that lasted that long, anyway - are clearly Soul Jazz, and I hope you'd agree. But these later recordings show both that the men were playing essentially the same music and that their objective in doing so was the same. To me, the point in time when a kind of music is generally recognised and identified is an important historical point only in terms of the critical appreciation/marketing of the music. That is, of course, not a negligible matter when dealing with commercial music. But it's frequently the case that those who make such distinctions stick are behind the general public and the musicians themselves. A good, and related, example is the recognition and identification of R&B, which occurred in 1949; a fair while after R&B developed. (And there were, of course, extraneous reasons why this identification was needed more quickly than that for Soul Jazz.) Further, it seems to me that the development of Soul Jazz can only be seen coherently in its whole development up to the Smooth Jazz of the present day if one looks at the music right from its origins in the forties, and traces its parallel development with R&B. MG

You were 3 weeks too late! MG

Please identify the specific bands/records which identified "soul jazz ... right from the start in the '40s". The early leaders were mainly tenor players: Illinois Jacquet, without whom there would have been no honkers; Gene Ammons; Ammons/Stitt (though half or maybe more of Stitt's career is Bebop); Arnett Cobb; Ike Quebec; Big Jay McNeely; Paul Williams; Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson; Hal "Cornbread" Singer; Wild Bill Moore; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (first tenor/organ records in '49). Other big names included Tiny Grimes & his Rockin' Highlanders. Among vocalists, Dinah was the Queen. In the early '50s, there was Wild Bill Davis and other pre-Smith organists like Milt Buckner & Bill Doggett. MG None of these people played "soul jazz" as the term is used. I'm not at all disputing that there is a continuum from those you mention to soul jazz as the term has been applied (by everyone I know save yourself). You might want to call those folks "pre-soul jazz". This is also the view of Bob Porter, a man whose views on this subject are not to be sneezed at, I reckon. MG

Jimmy McGriff - The big band (trying to make up my mind whether I want to buy the CD next month) MG

Yeah, I'll go for it, C-A. I enjoyed Mike's. I'll enjoy yours, too, I'm sure. PM on way. MG

Please identify the specific bands/records which identified "soul jazz ... right from the start in the '40s". The early leaders were mainly tenor players: Illinois Jacquet, without whom there would have been no honkers; Gene Ammons; Ammons/Stitt (though half or maybe more of Stitt's career is Bebop); Arnett Cobb; Ike Quebec; Big Jay McNeely; Paul Williams; Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson; Hal "Cornbread" Singer; Wild Bill Moore; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (first tenor/organ records in '49). Other big names included Tiny Grimes & his Rockin' Highlanders. Among vocalists, Dinah was the Queen. In the early '50s, there was Wild Bill Davis and other pre-Smith organists like Milt Buckner & Bill Doggett. MG

Yup, those two, plus "Slow drag", form a trilogy which I think is Byrd's peak. I've always loved the sleeve of "Mustang". The model seems to suggest both someone riding a Mustang horse, and the lines of a fast car. Reid Miles all the way; photo and design. Brilliant. MG

They weren't mediochre boogaloo albums; they were MFin' GREAT boogaloo albums. And YES ! I'm damn sure it's going to be in that vein. Looking forward to it greatly, thanks. MG Live at the Lighthouse is unsurpassed for intensity. The atmosphere captured on that recording is unbelievable IMHO.....and I love all Grant's music. matter of fact I think my favourite Grant Green period is the one from about 1959-1979. Thanks for the link. Looks like they've managed to represent all the tracks except the one called Glenda. I'm sure this session will have it's own unique vibe just like Alive and Lighthouse are both different. I think the presence of Houston Person on this will make it even more so. Also no Claude Bartee. No rub intended against Grant. I just think much of his commerical / boogaloo output during this period 1969-1979 was below his abilities. The presence of Houston Person on this Mozambique date looks promising--as he is an amazing soul-jazz saxophonist. But I suspect this is more of the same "Alive" type material. But being a big Green fan, I will probably pick this up for a listen. Any new Green on CD is cause for celebration. But I prefer his blues/soul jazz and straight ahead period 1959-1966. I wish they would also release more of the rejected vault material from that period, as all of his early Blue Note Lps have been reissued. Soul Jazz, right from the start in the '40s, had the same objective as R&B - entertainment for black adults. So, as R&B changed, Soul Jazz changed in parallel. The most important people to develop R&B in the period between the mid fifties and mid sixties were Soul Jazz musicians anyway - Ray Charles and James Brown. GG's early recordings were part of the implementation of Soul Jazz that equated to Soul music. His later ones equated to Funk. But they were ALL Soul Jazz. The later ones were not "more commercial" than the earlier ones; they simply equated to what black customers wanted at the time. Thus, in terms of the prime audience, the earlier material had become "uncommercial", simply through the passage of time. MG

They weren't mediochre boogaloo albums; they were MFin' GREAT boogaloo albums. And YES ! I'm damn sure it's going to be in that vein. Looking forward to it greatly, thanks. MG Live at the Lighthouse is unsurpassed for intensity. The atmosphere captured on that recording is unbelievable IMHO.....and I love all Grant's music. matter of fact I think my favourite Grant Green period is the one from about 1959-1979. Thanks for the link. Looks like they've managed to represent all the tracks except the one called Glenda. I'm sure this session will have it's own unique vibe just like Alive and Lighthouse are both different. I think the presence of Houston Person on this will make it even more so. Also no Claude Bartee. Yes, pity no Bartee - I like hm a lot. But Clarence Thomas played some realy good stuff with Idris Muhammad. MG

Well, I’ve listened to the main BFT each weekend, as I do for new CDs, for the last 3 weeks and I don’t think I’m going to feel very different about the music if I listen to it for a few weeks more. So it’s time. I must say, it’s been very pleasant listening to it, as I frequently have, in Ynysangharad Park. It’s a good place to just sit and listen on headphones. Even today, when two young girls in short skirts sat opposite me across a flower bed, I was still able to concentrate on the music; that says quite a lot for the music 1 Well, I liked the band. I loved the loping riff. It reminded me of some of the things Jacques Denjean used to do in the early ‘60s. But this isn’t Denjean; this is some fool who thinks it’s clever to incorporate an old 78 of “All the things you are”. Some people have more style than they know what to do with. Nuff sed. 2 Trombone, cello and bass. No idea who it is. Very nice. Although I like it, I wouldn’t want a whole album of it; it seems to lack telling power. Just an attractive idea. 3 Marimba, bass clarinet, percussion. A bit spiky. This is good fun, too, but I don’t get a feeling of the musicians having a great story to tell behind it all. 4 Love the groove from the drummer. Bass player really contributing, too. Vibes, trumpet and trombone aren’t bad, but the drummer is the star. I was reminded of Idris Muhammad’s style a bit, but it ain’t him (though I suppose it COULD be, if it’s one of those Swiss or Austrian bands he sometimes does things with). The orchestrations reminded me a bit of the Clarke/Boland band, though I haven’t heard much of them since 1966. If it IS them, I suppose the drummer could be Kenny Clare. 5 More from the funky drummer! With bass and elec piano, then organ. Lovely bass riff before the organ comes in. Then a good, urgent piano solo, with the drummer really rocking the joint behind him. And a nice bass solo. I just gotta get this – well, if this is representative of the whole album – dying to find out who and what it is. Second time I heard this, I thought of Ray Bryant, though I haven’t heard much of his stuff after he stopped making commercial albums. Then it was Ahmad Jamal who popped into my mind, whom I’ve only been listening a short while, so I really don’t know. In both cases it’s the extreme grooviness of the left hand that led me to think of those pianists. 6 Another funky drum intro. Something familiar about the keyboards until dissonance creeps in. Then we go back to drums, piano & marimbas, to shift into a straight 4/4. Nice slow bluesy riff at the end. This is Randy Weston type stuff, I think. If so, perhaps it’s balas, not marimbas. On final listen I decided it was balas AND marimbas. Definitely FEELS like Randy Weston; another pianist I don’t have a lot of. 7 Alto sax, with mucho percussion. Heavy bass riff. No piano or guitar. Somewhat spiky alto. I wondered if there were two drummers, then came to the conclusion that the different elements of the drum kit were on separate mikes. This gives a feeling of disorientation – especially on headphones, it may not be so bad listening in an open room. I didn’t like it much. At 4:36, I thought it was way too long. 8 Two guitarists, bass. Very African feel to this. When the drums enter, the African feeling goes, but comes back for the ensemble passages. Both guitarists playing some stinging blues, very mellow – but not serene enough for Mandinke guitarists. First two listens, I think I’ve heard the drummer before, then conclude that he just sounds a bit like Joe Dukes on “Soulful drums”. Now for me, this could have gone on for 15:50. Very, very nice indeed! 9 This reminded me of track 3. They’re both good fun, both not really grabbing you by the guts. Was it a bassoon, bass clarinet, or some kind of synth? Spiky soprano sax I didn’t like too much. Second time around, I was reminded of George Braith in his more out moments. Today I thought it might be Joel Zorn or John Dorn. 10 Bass clarinet, drums, piano, synth. Band comes in like movie music. Another spiky sax! Is this more Zorn? The pianist is spiky, too, but a bit funkier than the alto saxophonist. Band comes back in for a bit more movie music. Trumpeter OK; is it Benny Bailey? I think the tone is a bit thin for him. This is another track that seems to go on forever. 11 Digeridoo!? Trumpet & drums with what sounds like a synth bass. Good groove here. Very nice muted trumpet, reminds me of Blue Mitchell, but can’t be. When the beat narrows down to straight ahead, it all swings very nicely. I really like this one. I don’t see the point of the digeridoo intro, but I suppose it does grab the attention. 12 Bach intro on guitar, then into a little solo. In comes the alto sax. Familiar tune with a Django feel, so I guess it’s “Nuages”, about the only one of his tunes I’ve heard. The sax player reminds me an awful lot of Lou Donaldson, in the purity of his melody and in his sound. There’s a little growl in the middle of the solo which his very like Lou. The trouble is, I think I’ve got very nearly everything Lou ever recorded except a few cuts that appeared on BN 10” LPs that weren’t reissued on 12”, and the session with Clifford Brown. And he hasn’t recorded “Nuages”. So, it CAN’T be Lou. But it DOES sound like him. Anyway, if this is Lou, there’s an album I don’t know about that I’ve got to get. And if it ain’t Lou, there’s someone else’s work I have to look into. 13 Now, here’s another familiar tune, which I can’t place. It’s clearly a bop tune. If I know it, then it must be on an album I don’t play very much (and can’t be asked to review all those Joe Pass and Clare Fischer things).Cello, bass, piano & drums. Nice bowed cello solo. Good piano solo. Both are telling a story for real. I know the pianist, too, but even after three goes, can’t place him. Eventually, the name Gene Harris turned up in my mind – another one I don’t have too much of. If it’s him, I suppose it could be Ray Brown on cello. Nice stuff. 14 Big band. Bits from vibes, trombone, piano, then vibes again at greater length (or so it seems). Vibes are OK but don’t stir me. Don’t like the orchestrations very much. Really can’t get interested enough to even think about who the musicians are. 15 A minute of vibes in 6/8. Are there two vibists, one in each ear, or are the low notes on just one instrument on a different mike? I think the latter, but there’s not enough of this to tell. Then there’s silence, then a violin, very faint. WTF? Looking back at this, there are five cuts here I really liked. MUCH better than I expected. (Or much worse, since it all means additional expenditure as my lists extend.) Well done Mike! Phew! Now I can read 4 pages of what everyone else thought! MG PS Ynys means "island" in Welsh. Angharad is a woman's name. So Ynysangharad Park means Angharad's Island Park PPS Damn! Quotes and apostrophes don't come out properly from Word. Can't be asked to edit the whole thing; sorry.

Advice from Wales - start being a rugby fan, Red. MG

They weren't mediochre boogaloo albums; they were MFin' GREAT boogaloo albums. And YES ! I'm damn sure it's going to be in that vein. Looking forward to it greatly, thanks. MG

Bleedin' awful sleeve. Couldn't they have found a photo? MG

A sad story indeed. Just out of curiosity, how did you compile the data that you entered into your computer (pre-disaster)? From Record Research? Yes - I have the 1988 edition of the RR R&B singles, the 1998 R&B albums and the 2001 pop albums books. MG

Not yet, Eric; only what's in the BN discography and that's material covering two evenings of recording. All were repeated on the different sets. Titles recorded were: Patches (4) More today than yesterday (3) One less bell to answer (2) Bottom of the barrel (2) Jan Jan (4) Make it easy on yourself (2) Farid (2) One more chance (5) I am somebody (2) Glenda (2) Walk on by (3) MG

Doesn't work in Britain - it's John Thomas here. MG

There isn't one. A few years ago, I painstakingly copied the R&B singles chart up to end 1959 onto my computer so I could analyse the charts for that period by year or label. Then I had a computer disaster and lost it all! I haven't had the heart to do it again. I've got details of jazz albums on R&B and pop charts in my computer now, that's all. MG

Yes - according to the blurb I picked up in the shop, which doesn't say much, there's the McGriff, which appears to be the reissue of Solid State 17001/18001 - not a bad album but there are much better McGriffs on EMI labels to reissue in my view. There's also a Joe Lovano - Streams of expression - I know nowt about this. Two Nancy Wilsons - Hollywood and Broadway my way, which I might pick up sometime 4 compilations BN plays Billie, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart. MG

Just a quick note to say I found out this morning that the new GG will be issued in Britain a day BEFORE it comes out in the US. So the quickest and cheapest way for UK residents to get it will be from their local record shop. I've been told Spillers will be selling it at £4.99 or £5.99. MG