The Magnificent Goldberg

After getting on for 50 years, my tastes are pretty well defined and confined within what I can afford. But there are a number of people whose music I haven't explored and things I've read on this board (and AAJ) have persuaded me to give them a go. This includes Ahmad Jamal, George Lewis, Jelly Roll Morton and Red Garland. It also includes some specific records I would otherwise have missed but for SS1 and Jim Sangrey: Oliver Nelson's "Takin' care of business" and George Clinton's "How late do UF2BB4UR absent". Thanks mucho folks. I also find, like Jim R, that discussions on the board send me to play records that I otherwise might not have for a while. Today so far, for example, it's been Herbie Mann's "Memphis underground". One problem with that is that my 800 odd West African albums, which don't get discussed, are played rather less than they otherwise might be. Anyone know a Senegalese music forum? MG

Possibly Albert Collins, Master of the Telecaster. I'm extremely into Collins at present. A KILLAH! (Which is not to say that I don't appreciate Albert King.) MG

I love Teddy Edwards' "Blue saxophone", which features Mike White on violin. Very nice stuff. Mike was with John Handy in the '60s and I recollect him playing very well on a live album Handy made for Columbia. Other violin stuff I like is Don & Dewey - Soul Motion/Stretchin' out, a violin/organ duo 45 produced by Sonny Bono in 1965. Don & Dewey were a Doowop duo who decided to learn instruments. Don is "Sugarcane" Harris. Remo Biondi played violin and guitar in the early '50s with Jimmy Coe. The band's version of "Lady be good" (Delmark443) has the only violin solo I've ever heard that comes close to a honking tenor sax in the hands of a Willis Jackson. MG

Sonny was on Herbie's "Memphis underground" album. I don't recall his solos on that being particularly "far out"; time I threw this on the CD player, I think. Also time I put Fela's "Perambulator" on the turntable; Lester Bowie's on that. Trouble is, my copy is a Nigerian original and side 2 is pressed seriously off-centre, so I hardly ever play that side, which I think may have more Bowie on it. MG Listened to "Memphis underground" earlier. Yes, Sonny does play a rather rock-inspired, perhaps free jazz inspired, solo on "Hold on I'm comin'". I always thought of this as being more the sort of thing that a rock guitarist might play, but I can see how it could be heard as free jazz, too. MG

I think Belden was mixed up. None of the originals on "Grant's first stand sounds anything like "Grant's first stand" on "First session". And, according to the 1988 edition of the Blue Note discography, there were no unissued tracks from the 28 Jan 1961 session. To my ear, "Grant's first stand" sounds a lot like "He's a real gone guy"! MG

Sonny was on Herbie's "Memphis underground" album. I don't recall his solos on that being particularly "far out"; time I threw this on the CD player, I think. Also time I put Fela's "Perambulator" on the turntable; Lester Bowie's on that. Trouble is, my copy is a Nigerian original and side 2 is pressed seriously off-centre, so I hardly ever play that side, which I think may have more Bowie on it. MG

OK, fixed. Somehow I must have changed my Internet Explorer view options. Thanks for trying to help, Brownie. MG

Nope - just the same when I access through .com. It must be something I've done. But what? MG

I'm using Yahoo.co.uk. I'll try changing to .com MG

Does anyone know how I can get the font back to normal size in Yahoo? I think I've tried every option on the screen. MG

Good sale; I ordered 11, some of which I already have on LP but, at these prices... New Sound Of Ernestine Anderson I Like It Like That - Chris Kenner Soul - Ray Bryant Cold Turkey - Ray Bryant I've Got A Woman - Jimmy McGriff One of Mine - Jimmy McGriff Topkapi - Jimmy McGriff Man With A Happy Sound - Joe Carroll Do The Bossa Nova / My Kinda Groove - Herbie Mann Plug Me In / High Voltage - Eddie Harris Live At Newport / Instant Death - Eddie Harris Can I suggest that people take advantage of Herman Foster - The Explosive Piano/Have you heard These are two sensational albums at any price! And the sound's good. MG

What a wonderful article! Thanks for sharing that 7/4. MG

Hell, the whole thing is sleazy! I noticed the day that I went to the link. I tried to see the contract a couple of times and everytime the numbers increased. Hang on, it went up 8 million in less than 24 hours. That's NOT because people have been messing around on the site trying to access the contract. If the number is real (and how do we know that?) the thing has taken OFF! MG

He's up to 12 million and something now! But still no pic of lady #2... MG

Essex! Sez it orl. MG

In Pontypridd market this morning, found that my man Terry had got me these two: They're a bit small. What they are is Rev F W McGee complete recorded works 1927-1929 (vol 1) Rev F W McGee complete recorded works 1929-1930 (vol 2) MG

And this morning, the postman brought me I actually ordered these in December and, after a series of misadventures, including going back to Japan, they've turned up! MG

Visited the second hand shop in Cardiff this morning and picked up a few things I already had on LP and something I didn't have before This is a 2 CD set, which includes 3 LPs issued (apparently only in Britain) on the DIP label in 1975: The Mighty Upsetter - Kung Fu meets the dragon Lee Perry & the Upsetters - Return of the wax Vin Gordon (aka Don Drummond Jr) & the Upsetters - Musical bones All very pleasant stuff, without being afire. MG

Yesterday's post brought a few more OJCs MG

I only bought this set for the one and a half discs with Les McCann (I like Les a very great deal). I've listened to the other material a few times, but find it a bit too musicianly for my taste. To my mind, Pass was fine when he was playing with people like Groove Holmes, Les McCann, Earl Bostic and Clifford Scott; on other recordings, he seems to take himself too seriously. MG

Hm, I wasn't talking about the top 40. No Cobblestone, Muse, HighNote or Savant albums have made the top 200, and only one has made the top 100 R&B. But you're quite right about the top 40. Excepting vocals, Botti & G - and Christmas records - the last instrumental jazz album (I think it was instrumental, I don't know it) I can find on the pop top 40 was Earl Klugh's "Low ride" in 1983. And I DO agree with you that signing for a major is not likely to be productive for most artists, for the reasons you adduce. I think I posted something to this effect earlier in this thread, or it may have been a different thread. While that's true for most artists; there's always the possibility that the type of person who would be needed to really push things along won't be the same as "most artists". In fact, I'd guess that one is looking for a fairly extraordinary person. Such people do come along, once in a blue moon. MG

This is a very broad generalization, but I feel that "society" today has lost most, if not all, of its sensitivity to music as a distinct medium that is best enjoyed with a distinct set of engagement skills. It's just become another "lifestyle accessory", and with things like access to "product" and portability at an all-time high, there's really no need for the average Joe to even be aware that he might want to be curious about something "different", or that he might actually "get something out of" what is traditionally refered to as "serious listening'. Such has always been the case to one degree or another, but I have noticed a marked increase in these tendencies among otherwise intellegent people over the last 5 years or so. How are things in your town? Ours has become a society of total portability and having everything "on demand". The technology itself is beautiful, but if you leave a 50 lb. bag of dog food open and available to a dog, it'll try to eat it as quickly as possible instead of rationing it out. I see lots of people doing the same thing with technology, and they're being relentlessly encouraged to do so. Myself, I think that it's a diversionary tactic to keep people from sitting still in one place for too long, because when you do that, you might actually slow down, sit still, and take stock. That's breeding grounds for upsetting the apple cart right there and we can't have that now, can we. I guess what I'm saying is that music (of all kinds) doesn't "matter" to as many people as it used to. The "functionality" of music in general is changing. Jazz, once, always, and forever being a type of music that has personal communication as/at its core, can't help but suffer as a result. The challenge is rapidly becoming not how to get people interested in listening to this music, it's becoming how to convince people that listening, really listening, to any kind of music as anything other than a soundtrack to their lifestyle might be worth their while. I'm not optimistic about the chances for success right now, not on a scale large enough to really matter to society as a whole, but the one potential outlet for subversiveness might be in the electronica/ambient (and related) field, where you can at least create the illusion of passivity and non-confrontationality. And we all know that the key to successful subversion is the creation of a successful illusion, a "front". Thing is, I'm at an age and of a background where playing music that way is kinda counter-intuitive. So that makes me sorta useless. Oh well. At least I can watch and cheer from the sidelines, and come out of my cave whenever asked. Things could be worse. Yeah, sure. I think I had fewer and lower expectations in the past, so I'm not terribly worried about what people think of music now. In my experience, few young people in the late '50s/early '60s were concerned about music as an experience; most were content for music to be the soundtrack of their lives. Were it not so, there would be no nostalgia market and, as we all know, nostalgia has been a huge force in people's "appreciation" of music (and many other things) for so long no one can tell how long. Of course, there are no comparative statistics to show what proportion of the population thinks of music as anything other than a background, and whether this changes over time, but I get a distinct impression from talking to young people when I was at work, and even younger ones now I'm retired, that things are no worse now than they were four decades ago; and probably at all times since the beginnings of the popularity of radio. That's as far as the people are concerned. As far as the record industry is concerned, the majors seem to have learned how to control the market a lot better than they could forty, fifty, sixty years ago. That leaves much less opportunity for small firms to break through with something new. And, since everything new for the past sixty odd years has been brought about by small firms, it seems to me that that is where the problem lies. Verve is important because it is a part of a major firm, but a semi-autonomous part, as are Blue Note and Atlantic. All are connected through their respective catalogues to a tradition of entrepreneurial experiment; and note that it's a tradition that made money - these are not catalogues of losers. If there were an opportunity for some serious attempt to change the market, it seems to me that it can really only come from them. MG Small firms have a much better chance of having success today than 40 years ago. Maybe not getting a Top 40 hit, but you mean to tell me it's tougher today, in this age of internet downloads, Myspace, ArtistShare, and the proliferation of artist run labels to get your music, in your vision out in front of people. The whole idea of a "record company" is obsolete, 20th century thinking. The major labels are dinosaurs, and that's why they're on their last legs. Verve and Blue Note are no more "semi-autonomous" than any other divisions of the majors, they all have to turn a profit. By in large their catalogs were bought, not home grown, so that entrepreneurial spirit is not alive and never was alive in these corporations when it comes to jazz. That's why today's small labels are the heirs to the throne of Granz and Lion and Wolff, not Golstein and co. I agree that HighNote, Blues Leaf and other independent labels are the heirs of the old ones. But whereas Blue Note, Pacific Jazz, Riverside, Prestige, Verve, Cadet/Argo were able to produce a fairly continuous string of chart successes in their day, the current crop aren't. Joe Fields has been making good solid jazz albums since about 1971 - I guess he's released 700-800 - and a lot of those are as good and commercial as the best and most commercial of the product of those older labels. But out of all these releases on Cobblestone, Muse, HighNote and Savant, there's only been one that hit the R&B charts and none that hit the pop charts (at least up to 2001 - not quite up to date on this). I think the same is true for other jazz labels. I don't think it's the fault of the owners of these labels; as I posted earlier, I think the majors are much better nowadays at controlling what's getting on the charts - and that's what's making the (air)waves, of course. So I don't think Joe Fields has an earthly of pushing jazz of any kind into a significant position. Of course, the newer independents can make a profit. The older ones did, too, even without the hit records. Those entrepreneurs were taking risks but only small ones, because they understood that the core market for jazz comprised a relatively small number of people who, fortunately for these firms, happened to buy a lot of records, each. And that hasn't changed. So a firm that controls its costs well and concentrates on making good product and making sure that market knows about it can provide a good living for the owners of these firms. Good. But they aren't going to change anything. MG

Yes indeed! Thanks for sharing the good news, Michael! How do you do that? MG

Verve is trying to change the market. that's what they've been doing in collab with Scofield. it's just that i don't think it will work. ( although i also think that as far as sounds with a beat go, guys like Sco can make it into real music better than anyone. ) gotta repeat myself: until jazz once again positions itself as the musical vanguard of the underground of social protest it's not going anywhere. kids today live in virtual worlds. there's are some major pros to that, but the big con is that they can be manipulated more easily than ever. i predict a serious counter-revolution to the "virtual life". jazz-derived musics could frontline this counterevolution ... The record companies can't, of course, do it without musicians who are on speaking terms with what the culture needs at any particular time. But even with the right musicians with the right aims, these divisions can only do it if they have the will to exercise their own initiative. MG

This is a very broad generalization, but I feel that "society" today has lost most, if not all, of its sensitivity to music as a distinct medium that is best enjoyed with a distinct set of engagement skills. It's just become another "lifestyle accessory", and with things like access to "product" and portability at an all-time high, there's really no need for the average Joe to even be aware that he might want to be curious about something "different", or that he might actually "get something out of" what is traditionally refered to as "serious listening'. Such has always been the case to one degree or another, but I have noticed a marked increase in these tendencies among otherwise intellegent people over the last 5 years or so. How are things in your town? Ours has become a society of total portability and having everything "on demand". The technology itself is beautiful, but if you leave a 50 lb. bag of dog food open and available to a dog, it'll try to eat it as quickly as possible instead of rationing it out. I see lots of people doing the same thing with technology, and they're being relentlessly encouraged to do so. Myself, I think that it's a diversionary tactic to keep people from sitting still in one place for too long, because when you do that, you might actually slow down, sit still, and take stock. That's breeding grounds for upsetting the apple cart right there and we can't have that now, can we. I guess what I'm saying is that music (of all kinds) doesn't "matter" to as many people as it used to. The "functionality" of music in general is changing. Jazz, once, always, and forever being a type of music that has personal communication as/at its core, can't help but suffer as a result. The challenge is rapidly becoming not how to get people interested in listening to this music, it's becoming how to convince people that listening, really listening, to any kind of music as anything other than a soundtrack to their lifestyle might be worth their while. I'm not optimistic about the chances for success right now, not on a scale large enough to really matter to society as a whole, but the one potential outlet for subversiveness might be in the electronica/ambient (and related) field, where you can at least create the illusion of passivity and non-confrontationality. And we all know that the key to successful subversion is the creation of a successful illusion, a "front". Thing is, I'm at an age and of a background where playing music that way is kinda counter-intuitive. So that makes me sorta useless. Oh well. At least I can watch and cheer from the sidelines, and come out of my cave whenever asked. Things could be worse. Yeah, sure. I think I had fewer and lower expectations in the past, so I'm not terribly worried about what people think of music now. In my experience, few young people in the late '50s/early '60s were concerned about music as an experience; most were content for music to be the soundtrack of their lives. Were it not so, there would be no nostalgia market and, as we all know, nostalgia has been a huge force in people's "appreciation" of music (and many other things) for so long no one can tell how long. Of course, there are no comparative statistics to show what proportion of the population thinks of music as anything other than a background, and whether this changes over time, but I get a distinct impression from talking to young people when I was at work, and even younger ones now I'm retired, that things are no worse now than they were four decades ago; and probably at all times since the beginnings of the popularity of radio. That's as far as the people are concerned. As far as the record industry is concerned, the majors seem to have learned how to control the market a lot better than they could forty, fifty, sixty years ago. That leaves much less opportunity for small firms to break through with something new. And, since everything new for the past sixty odd years has been brought about by small firms, it seems to me that that is where the problem lies. Verve is important because it is a part of a major firm, but a semi-autonomous part, as are Blue Note and Atlantic. All are connected through their respective catalogues to a tradition of entrepreneurial experiment; and note that it's a tradition that made money - these are not catalogues of losers. If there were an opportunity for some serious attempt to change the market, it seems to me that it can really only come from them. MG