The Magnificent Goldberg

Mm, that'll be me, I guess. MG

Milt Buckner & Buddy Tate - Crazy rhythm MG

I like Jimmy's early albums of mainly standards - like "Pretty for the people", "Standards", "Lonesome road" and "Fats Waller". Fave one is "Jimmy Smith trio + LD". Haven't played "Softly as a summer breeze" for a while - I have the Conn version. Photo of JOS sitting at BIII with Bill Henderson in background. Nary a scratched Leslie in sight. I certainly like Bill's vocals on "Ain't no use" and "Ain't that love". Can't remember the others. Thanks for reminding me. I'll play it this evening. MG

On my endless list. Highish. MG

I guess I'm a Turrentine completist, then. So, if I see one going cheap - very cheap - I'll buy it. Stanley was a player who always sounded great even when he was making crap records - and he made a hell of a lot of those. I love these albums 'cos it's him (same as Les McCann) not because they're necessarily good music. Dunno why they're reissuing this one - nowt to chose between any of the Elektras farsicnsee. MG

Jesse Fuller toured Britain sometime in the second half of the sixties - mainly on the strength of the admiration of people like Clapton. I saw him in Brighton; he was a great entertainer. MG

It depends what you want out of JOS. If you want great Bebop playing, you want "The Champ" first, then "Sermon", "House Party", "At the organ" - vol 1 particularly for its beautiful "Summertime" and "All day long" - and one of the first Smiffs I bought - "at Club Baby Grand", the original trio live and leaping (why does no one ever mention these two LPs?). If you want great Soul Jazz then it's "Midnight Special", "Chicken Shack", "Home Cookin'", "Rockin' the Boat", "Respect", "The Boss", "Bucket", "It's necssary" (OOP), "Organ Grinder swing" and "Damn!". I don't doubt that lots of Philadelphia musicians learned a lot from each other. Same goes for Chicago players and Memphis players. Anything else would seem to be bizarre. MG

Paul, congratulations and welcome to the retirees club! I have a one-year lead on you and informatively my wife has about given up on 'her' ideas of filling my free time... Now spinning! Nathan Davis 'London By Night' (DIW/Mole Japan) with Dusko Goykovich, Kenny Drew, Jimmy Woode, Al Levitt Thanks for the congrats, brownie. I hope that my wife will give up eventually, too. Earlier this morning: Mal Waldron Trio: Mal 4 (Prestige/New Jazz/ Victor - Japan) My wife has, too. Hur hur. All I need to do is avoid irritating her with it. MG

John Patton Mosaic Select - halfway through disc 3 - Congo Chant gets me every time! MG

I have every issued recording GG made, either as a leader or sideman, except the Mary Lou Wiliams album. Of GG's albums as a leader, I have all but 2 on CD (Visions & Shades of Green). But I still have on LP: Visions Shades of Green Nigeria Oleo Gooden's Corner Green is beautiful Carrying on Remembering Grant's first stand Easy Last session (UK version of Easy with abominable sound - I got it because my original is offcentre on side B) The main attraction Live at the Lighthouse The Final Comedown Iron City I want to hold your hand Street of dreams Solid Am I blue Goin' west GG has been one of my two all time favourites for longer than anyone else (ie since 1966) MG

Second (final) volume of Rev J C Burnett's complete recordings 1927-1945 Vol 1 of George Lewis live at Club Hangover MG

Johnny "Hammond" Smith appears to have done the whole thing; retired and had a good retirement on investments in real estate. He was teaching, but I understand that was more because people wanted to learn how to improvise than because he needed the money. I reckon Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley are making a living purely through playing music (though Pee Wee does some arranging for other musicians/singers). Houston Person is working the whole time; booked up six-seven months ahead. Whether he actually needs the cash he may get from producing other people's records for HighNote, I don't know. He doesn't produce many sessions, as far as I can see, so that can't be an important element of his income; sure as hell, Joe Fields wouldn't pay much. My guess is that people like Lonnie Smith, Ronnie Cuber, Reuben Wilson, Mel Sparks, Cornell Dupree are able to make a living out of just playing. I'm sure none of them have extra-curricular activities. I think maybe the question should have explicitly referred to musicians who don't care about entertaining the public. MG

This thing. Well worth a checkout. Anybody heard Bu Pleasant? I got one Muse side by here, and her occasional singing ain't none too cool, but she sounds like a very decent organist to me. Plus, you gots yer Harold Vick and yer Ted Dunbar and yer Freddie Waits. I've got that, too. It's great. She was a fantastic organist by the sound of this LP, but it's the only recording she ever made. She had the kind of hard life that most of us would crumple under; several times. Pete Fallico has posted her story here: http://www.doodlinlounge.com/Stories/Pleasant.html MG

They're Philly, actually. But they do a lot of research way down yonder in NO. Well, about NO funkensoul. MG

Really great stuff. Frank Haynes is one of my all-time tenor heroes. MG

Oh man, well... interesting note choices, that's fer sure! Understood, believe me, but there's a few things here and there where all the action is in varying the stops and working the volume pedal, and that stuff is amazing. Very much coming from the Gospel Organ bag. Check out the Baby Lloyd cut on the WB Loma anthology for a prime example. JB's stuff on some of the "Today & yesterday" tracks is great. And some of the grooves are way in advance of what he was doing as a vocalist at the time - eg "Oh baby don't you weep" which prefigures "Doin' it to death". Oh, and his organ playing on "Funky drummer" is not to be missed - the full take. The thing that always amuses me about this is that JB's ambition was to imitate Jimmy Smiff. What's the Loma anthology, Jim? MG

"Whatever you had, you ain't got it no more" was on Joe Jones and, yes, you would like to hear it. So would I - it's the one I lost. Classic title. Wasn't Joe Jones the guy who had a hit with "You talk too much", which was Idris Muhammad's first recording? I didn't know he'd turned to producing records. MG

Ah, there you are then. Ace like New Orleans stuff but, if someone else has Red Bird... MG

It's a requirement--can't play Disc 3 without following it up with Disc 4 (read your user's manual ). I'd have thought, after all that shovelling, you should sit corrected. MG

Sloppy reading. Sorry. Sorlrite - you must be even older than me, Chuck... MG

OK - since I've lost one of my Alvin Robinson 45s, I've e-mailed the licensing manager at Ace, with this link. If nothing happens, don't blame me. If something comes out - a stereo copy of Jackie Ivory's "Soul Discovery" would be nice. MG

All of them are good! But that one, with Calvin Newborn and Conrad Lester - phew! If Freddie has one failing, it's doing his own sleeve notes. They're wonderful sleeve notes; I love them. But he doesn't say anything about the musicians playing with him. So I know almost nothing about Conrad, except he made four LPs, two with Freddie, one each with Joe Carroll & Jimmy McGriff. And on every one, he plays his ass off! MG

You're right Fasstrack. I don't know why he didn't appear in my original list up at the front of the thread. I have his "Organic chemistry" album and love it. I also love the work he did with Ruth Brown and Irene Reid. He made and LP for Dobre in the late 70s, which I wish I had, too. But he didn't make nearly as many records as someone of his talent should have. MG What was the name of that record on Dobre? Good label. They also recorded Ray Crawford, the guitarist. I have Organic Chemistry. They really spank "Undecided" on that one. I've known William Ash since he was 14. He's a freaky player, one of the most natural guitar players. That was a nice group with Bubba Brooks and Tootsie Beam. They worked a lot at Smalls under William's name. I heard them there. Guys, let me know what other good recordings of Bobby's are still obtainable. There are two with him and Jerry, and like I said they had a great chemistry. They were like brothers. The one I have is Five by Five (damn, it's Jerry's. I gotta remind him I have it!). I forget the other title, but they're both on Cat's Paw, a tiny indie on Long Island. I also know Bobby worked with Stanley T., but don't know if they recorded. He's also on a few cuts of a fairly recent and terrific recording by Gloria Lynne: This one's on me. I've got the Gloria Lynne; Bobby makes her version of Kenny Burrell's "All day long" simply wonderful. I've just started looking Bobby up in the All Music Guide and the first thing I noticed was he did an album with Frank Wess: "Going Wess" - Town Crier 518, which is theoretically still available. Putting that on my (endless) list. MG

My daughter thinks the former of me; my wife the latter. So. MG

That's what I say. You do seem to like a lot of the same stuff as me... MG