The Magnificent Goldberg

Generally in connection with Don Patterson and John Patton, people keep saying that other organists generally don't work without guitarists (or bass players). But I was listening to Ram Ramirez last night and thought I'd have a butchers through my collection to see what I could find. I didn't include odd tracks on albums without guitarists, only complete albums with neither guitar nor bass. Here's the list - organists names are in brackets when they're not the leader. (Bobby Blivins) Larry “Wild” Wrice - Wild (Charles Boston) Houston Person – Underground soul Milt Buckner & Illinois Jacquet – Go power Milt Buckner & Buddy Tate – Crazy rhythm Milt Buckner & Buddy Tate – Midnight slows vol 4 Milt Buckner, Arnett Cobb & Eddie Chamblee – Midnight slows vol 6 (Sonny Burke) Clarence Wheeler and the Enforcers – Doin’ what we wanna (Eddie Buster) Gene Ammons – Live in Chicago (Eddie Buster) Sonny Stitt – At the D J Lounge Wild Bill Davis – That’s all Wild Bill Davis & Guy Lafitte – Lotus blossom Wild Bill Davis & Dany Doriz – Live at Caveau de la Huchette (Milt Harris) Johnny Lytle – Blue vibes (Milt Harris) Johnny Lytle – Happy ground Jackie Ivory – Soul discovery Gene Ludwig & Cecil Brooks III – Double exposure Jack McDuff – Tuff Duff Don Patterson – The exciting organ of Don Patterson Don Patterson – Hip cake walk Don Patterson – Mellow soul Don Patterson – Patterson’s people Don Patterson – The boss men Don Patterson – Oh happy day (Don Patterson) Sonny Stitt – Soul people (Don Patterson) Sonny Stitt – Just the way it was (Don Patterson) Sonny Stitt – Deuces wild (Don Patterson) Sonny Stitt – Shangri-la (Don Patterson) Sonny Stitt – Night crawler John Patton – Boogaloo John Patton – Understanding Ram Ramirez – Live in Harlem Rhoda Scott – Live at the Key Club Rhoda Scott – Scott/Clarke Rhoda Scott – Summertime Rhoda Scott – Live at the Olympia Rhoda Scott – Take five (Dayton Selby) Eddie Chamblee – The rocking tenor sax Clearly Don Patterson is the main protagonist here, but my collection is pretty light on Milt Buckner, Wild Bill Davis and Rhoda Scott, so I doubt very much if they're properly represented in this list. In particular, I think Rhoda seldom recorded with a guitarist - only one of her albums that I've got has a guitarist, and two of them are compilations from several LPs. Any more? MG

Can anyone tell me the track titles and the running order on the original LP issue of "Straight no filter", please? MG

I just noticed that it's Ray who plays on Mel's album "Remembering Wes". MG

SS1 - you haven't said anything about one you copped in your last instalment - Johnny Griffin's "Grab this". MG

I think I've got most of the recordings Mel made and agree with you entirely. He's not a dramatic or sensational player by any means, but he always tells a good story; much like the late Hank Marr. MG

One and the same. He's got some health issues but he's hanging in there! m~ I'm sorry to hear that he's not well. He certainly looks well; I'd have put his age, from the photo, at late forties. MG

Now I know who to go to with a sob story as a misunderstood musician when I'm, er, in need of funds... I hasten to add that my copy is NOT the original, it's a (probable) pirate. (Put the arm on a poor old pensioner, would ya? ) MG Why not? You know the old 'stick to the wall' theory, dontcha? No. MG

Oh I know. That's only one of the reasons I like dealing with them. The other, of course, is the OTT e-mails they send out. I just wondered if there might be a third. MG

Now I know who to go to with a sob story as a misunderstood musician when I'm, er, in need of funds... I hasten to add that my copy is NOT the original, it's a (probable) pirate. (Put the arm on a poor old pensioner, would ya? ) MG

Ah, thanks Jim. Now it's only an hour slow. I have the DST option box shecked; is that correct? MG

Oh WOW! Jim, have you got a deal set up with CD Baby? MG

Very nice photos, Sheldon, thanks. If Killer Ray Apleton is the Otis Ray Appleton who played on Freddie Hubbard's "Backlash" in '66, he looks INCREDIBLY young! Did you ask him what he eats for breakfast? MG

I've only got 6 main boxes and 2 Selects. I invariably buy them because there's something included (usually several somethings) that I want badly enough to shell out. Jazz Crusaders - this band was often a victim in the '60s when I was on and off the dole quite a bit, so I only had one LP that is included in the set. Blue Mitchell - I had all but 3 albums (one was unplayable) of this on LP, but none on CD. Horace Parlan - I had a couple of albums on LP and one on CD. Stan Turrentine - I had about half of this on CD, 2 albums not at all and the rest on LP. Gerald WIlson - I only had about half of this box, and only 2 on CD. Joe Pass - I only bought this for the sides with Les McCann, of which I had about a third on LP. A lot to pay for one and a half CDs, but I was happy to pay. Curtis Amy - I had 3 albums of this on LP, one on CD. John Patton - I had all of this on LP, and 3 of the albums on CD already. SO I basically bought it to get "That certain feeling" and "Understanding" on CD. So this is a mixture of the fairly cost-effective and the "extremely cost-INeffective but I WANT IT!" MG

I have that album and it's really very nice indeed. It was reissued by a Danish firm, (probably pirated, if the truth be known), in 1988. I practically devoured it when I saw it in my local shop. MG

I think they're right in this case, Lon. I have this one by Hadda which appears to have been deleted and replaced bythe two Ace CDs you have. The sleeve notes say that "Swingin' the Boogie"/"Just a little bluesie" were issued on Modern 101/102 (each side having a different catalogue #); so that really does look like Modern's first release. I love Hadda's early stuff. "That's my desire" and Una Mae Carlisle's "Without you baby" are the bedroomiest records ever made. But Una didn't have Teddy Bunn working with her, so it's thumbs up for Hadda! BTW, does anyone thing Teddy was an influence on guitarists like Bill Jennings? MG

The trouble is, Joe flogged Muse to Joel Dorn, who was putting some of it out (often in crummy compilations) on 32 Jazz; then that firm went bust and the whole shooting match went to Nippon Columbia's US subsidiary Savoy Jazz, which is just sitting on it. MG

Yes, he's responsible for a bunch of good stuff (and a bunch of crap), but he's got enough negatives on his side to set him back to "zero" in my world. Not meant to be a "dis" of Joe, just a corrective message from an old acquaintance. Well there's a comment that cries out for clarification/extention. Not meant to be a "dis" of Chuck, for whom I have unbounded respect, but he's never been much of a one for Soul Jazz. (And I guess he pays musicians a bit better than Joe, as well.) MG My guess is that there have been business acts that Chuck finds objectionable, but I doubt we'll hear about them. Quite right, too, if that's the problem. MG

My clock (the board clock on my screen) is odd, too. It's reading 10:10 pm 14 May; well, it's 7:40 pm, 14 May here and, since I'm on the other side of the Atlantic, and the board's somewhere in the Midwest, if the board's clock's correct, it would be 5 am tomorrow here. And what's with the half hour difference? MG

Yes, he's responsible for a bunch of good stuff (and a bunch of crap), but he's got enough negatives on his side to set him back to "zero" in my world. Not meant to be a "dis" of Joe, just a corrective message from an old acquaintance. Well there's a comment that cries out for clarification/extention. Not meant to be a "dis" of Chuck, for whom I have unbounded respect, but he's never been much of a one for Soul Jazz. (And I guess he pays musicians a bit better than Joe, as well.) MG

When I started work (and buying LPs) in 1960, normal price of a UK manufactured pop album (as opposed to a classical album) was £1.60. Blue Notes were £2.87, which was pretty near three quarters of my weekly wage. But we all knew that Blue Note stood for quality then; it was like buying a Rolls Royce. But you just couldn't afford the opportunity cost when you could get material from Atlantic, Pacific Jazz, Prestige, Chess, Savoy, etc etc for £1.60. So we'd go into HMV and pick up a couple of LPs to take into the listening booth; one would be a Blue Note, the other wouldn't. And we'd go into ecstasies over the BN and buy the other. Now that wasn't marketing. BN had no presence over here until 1968, when Liberty set up a Blue Note office in London (not a Liberty office, notice). It was just listening to the stuff and hearing what we heard. Still, in the end (so far) I have 295 Blue Notes, quite a significant way behind Prestige (369), with Joe Fields' labels coming up pretty fast on the rails. In the end, I think it's because I prefer the lesser quality method of making albums that Chuck mentioned earlier today in the thread on Savant Records: "The "Prestige model" (low bread, minimal studio time, cheap manufacturing and good profits)", to which Joe adheres. And to which one might also add, no paid rehearsal time. Quality isn't necessarily what one should seek. We're talking about a music that's supposed to be created on the fly; a music that has always been created in less than perfect circumstances; a music that has always stood for great joy and exhuberance, despite everything. I once castigated someone mightily for complaining that Blue Notes were "churned out", meaning that Lion and Woolf had a method they applied which ensured a good quality product. If I met him now, I think I'd say I agreed with him. None of which is meant to imply that I don't enjoy this stuff; greatly. MG

Yes, I've noticed this happening a lot. I don't think it's caught me out yet, mainly because the bloody back button hasn't worked, either! MG

That's what, 7 hours after Britain where you are? I can spend a happy evening downloading some free security software. MG

Both versions are great, but not my favourites. Being good, great, duff or whatever, has nothing to do with whether I like something better than something else. That's a matter of taste, not appreciation. MG

I've noticed that as well. Also, searches are increasingly hard to perform... a lot of times I'm getting "page not found" messages, etc. Right now I was trying to find the old "AAJ is down" thread, as I can't access their bulletin board. I'm frequently getting "page can't be found" errors when I try to reply to a thread. Course, it just might be that there's some artificial intelligence behind the board that knows when I'm going to post crap. But, if so, it didn't get me that time - yah boo sucks! MG

My favourite Patterson ballads are "These foolish things" from "Mellow soul" and "Aries" (though it's not a standard) from "O.D. (Out Dere)". MG