The Magnificent Goldberg

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

Well, OK, but Mothers' Day (Mothering Sunday) is 26 March over here (this year). MG

Savant/High Note is successor to Muse which was a successor to Cobblestone. All were operated by Joe Fields, former sales manager for Prestige. I first met Joe in the '60s when he arrived in Chicago by bus to flog Prestige. The "Prestige model" (low bread, minimal studio time, cheap manufacturing and good profits) was his guide. Joe told me this back in the early '70s when he wanted to license my stuff and me to produce some sessions. Thanks Chuck - I always wondered what job Joe had done at Prestige. Joe is definitely my hero for all the stuff he has brought out since the early '70s. After Prestige and Blue Note, Joe's labels are the most important in my collection. (Don't y'all forget Fedora, his blues label, which has some very good stuff on it.) MG

Well, I went round the other side of Terry's stall today and found these: Then Terry showed me this So I bought that one, too. It's a good compilation for me; I don't have any Smiley Lewis, haven't any of the Pee Wee Crayton included, although I have quite a lot of the Guitar Slim, it's not on CD. All I have on CD are the 8 tracks by T-Bone Walker. There are also three tracks by Boo Breeding included. The sleeve notes trash them! He is described as "a halfway decent singer", "a disciple of Guitar Slim, inevitably lacking the charismatic abandon of his mentor. He's abetted by an anonymous sextet who may not be the usual suspects. Of particular note is the guitarist, whose persistence isn't quite matched by his invention..." Actually, they're not as bad as all that. But, if JSP thought the tracks were that bad, why did they include them? MG

I find CD Universe a bit cheaper for quite a few things. Gittar player and the Ron Levy are deleted, following the demise of Levy's company Cannonball. Second hand is all you'll get for those. "What you hear is what you get" is another good one of Mel's own albums. That's out on Savant, as well - originally issued on Nectar. Sparks fans tend to think that his solo on Rusty Bryant's "Soul liberation" is his best. I don't think it's his best, but that's a damn fine album. It's included in Rusty Bryant's "Legends of Acid Jazz" PRCD???? (my copy's Japanese). Two other Acid Jazz legends CDs you might investigate are the ones by Sonny Stitt (PRCD24169) and Leon Spencer (PRCD24185). His own mid '70s albums - "Texas twister" and "Mel Sparks '75" - are included in a British issue on the Beat Goes Public label (dist by Ace) CDBGPD092. You'll have to import that but the first is great! The second is only good. MG

I'd like you to be right Jim. One of the big problems with Columbia is that they had this short track syndrome for years - even "Kind of blue" has short tracks compared to what Miles had been doing at Prestige. But I bet the full versions have been ditched. MG

Though actually he doesn't record much outside the realm of Soul Jazz. I have one Gospel album on which he appeared (by Dorothy Norwood) and one neoSoul album (by Case, and it isn't very good). As far as I can tell, Mel makes no difference to either of these albums. However, within Soul Jazz, Mel does have a wide range: very Texas-stle blues guitar work (as on "ESPM the reunion: Live at Akhbar Hall"); very straight-ahead material (as on "Sparkling"); funky Acid Jazz (much of his work); and even some Pharoah Sanders style material (as on "Give your life to G-d" from "This is it!"). Looking forward to the release of his next album "Groove on up", to be released on 23 May. What a nice sleeve that is! MG

I have one, but I ain't sellin' Mister! MG Actually, this would be a good one for Collectables to issue.

Just checked - I'm missing 3 albums: one each by by Jimmy Witherspoon, Etta Jones & Leon Thomas. Oh well... MG

Yeah, me too. I have a strong feeling I have everything he's ever recorded, as leader or sideman. MG

I think the Muse albums are generally more interesting than the HighNotes - though "What's new" is as good as anything he's done before. I like the two with John Patton - "Mean streets - no bridges", and "Jump", "To reach a dream" and "Soul eyes" best. But grab what you can! MG