The Magnificent Goldberg

Groupe 3A Walter Gropius The Gropes

Yes please - DL for me please. MG

Yes, I have this though I still haven't read it. It's probably OOP, since it was on a kind of blowout sale I bought it at the beginning of the 2000s. I was really surprised hearing here about it, because I thought "that's familiar to me". Yes, I snagged a not too expensive copy from Amazon UK and it's on its way to me. MG

Blue Planet Man Gen George S Patton John Paton

Just ordered 'Blue John' from Amazon UK - seller in Switzerland for a tenner. Looking forward to hearing the new tracks. MG

Toots The Maytals Monkey Man

They look very interesting. I guess the Descarga site is in the USA, so heavy postage rates. On Amazon UK, the downloads are generally more expensive than the CDs! Will look into these. Thanks. MG

Looks VERY interesting - but a pity so many notes are in Spanish. Thanks Jim. MG

Le Bourgeoise Gentilhomme Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Poquelin

All three of them: Night train - Delmark 435 = United LP002 (10") + bonus tracks - 1951-53 (Includes his two hit singles 'Night train' and that hymn to adultery, 'Hey Mrs Jones') All the gin is gone - Delmark 404 - Dec '59 Black Forrest - Delmark 427 - Dec '59 The last mentioned is cuts left over from 'All the gin is gone' but it doesn't suffer because they're all great. MG

I have the last two, not the first two. Do you think the first two are in the same league? MG is a better source on this subject than I, but I'll just say yes - especially Out of the Forrest. 'Soul street' is the weakest of the four, as an album, compiled from bits of sessions, but it's still damn good. Jimmy made five albums as a sole leader for Prestige. The best 4 would have included 'Forrest fire' which has Larry Young and Thornel Schwartz. We're not entitled to perfection, though, and 'Soul street' has some wonderful stuff in there. I've never come across bad Jimmy Forrest music, as a sideman, co-leader or leader. He was one of the all time greatest stalwarts. MG Actually, I SHOULD get this myself, I've only got two of them on CD (though 'Out of the Forrest' is a test pressing and sounds so fabuloso I don't even mind Joe Zawinul's presence). MG

Bleedin' 'ot! I put off getting the washing off the line until just now, when there was a bit of shade. Hardly smoked all afternoon - too hot to go outside! Africa temperatures today. MG

Ace Cannon Charles Ray - The Deuce of spades The Dog Tray

Just saw this at Amazon, when I was buying a book. Anyone who hasn't got those original Prestige albums is in for a REAL treat with these four! MG

Agreed about Desi Arnaz. From what I've heard his recordings may be a bit "hollywoodized" but they are nice starters into Latin big bands from that era. MG, you might want to read up on this subject matter in THIS book: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/titles/latin-jazz.html This should give you an expert overview of whom to search out. And then there are the reissues from the HARLEQUIN label (part of the Krazy Kat/Interstate labels straight from the UK): http://www.interstate-music.co.uk/harlequin/harlequinindex.htm No idea how well distributed they (still) are at this time as the label(s) seem to have slowed down their reissuing activities a lot in recent years so some may be OOP for good. Got a copy of that book just now from Amazon UK. Not terribly expensive. MG

Oh wow! LOTS of stuff to pursue. I knew I was only scratching the surface. Thank you all! MG

Looks interesting, though there's not a lot available. I'll try a DL of an album of his late 40s-1951 material next month. Thanks Jeff. MG I have the Pablo and like it. I don't know the Verve - I guess it isn't in the Proper box I have. MG

The Water Rat Mole Toad

I’ve recently become very interested in these bands. It seems to me that this period (as for R&B, gospel, bebop) is the classic period for these great orchestras, who are rather out of favour, only of interest to the middle of the road fans. So far, I’ve got several albums each of: Xavier Cugat Perez Prado (my favourite and the funkiest beyond doubt) Machito Tito Puente Edmundo Ros (rather polite, but fun) I’ve tried finding others through AMG but that’s really unhelpful nowadays. So I’m sure one or two people here can point out a few other bandleaders of this ilk. Recommendations please. (And if you know of a good discographical site for these or other bands, please don't hesitate to provide a link.) MG

Little White Dove Running Bear Running Dog

Milt Jackson Percy Mayfield Casey Jones

Noddy Bigears The Bumpy Dog

Was part of the deal an interest in ARC music? Chess, Vee-Jay and Benny Goodman's brother (forget his first name, Tommy I think) were the partners. ARC music songs go on forever. MG

Junior was really nice. I love the stuff with McGriff but even more I love his LP for Mercury - 'Like it is' - produced by Bobby Robinson (THE Bobby Robinson, that is) with a lovely smooth Memphis band working like Willie Mitchell's or the Mar-Keys arranged by Gene Miller behind him. MG

I don't think it was that. From the soul jazz point of view, they didn't have enough people with the requisite knowledge and taste working there to do a good job. Two examples Groove Holmes' 'On Basie's bandstand' was produced by a guy who didn't like organ records, so he just assembled all the burners from the unreleased material and left out ballads (the CD could do wit ha ballad or two in my view). The title track of Charles Earland's 'Funk fantastique' (produced by the same guy) is the original mix and title of 'Morgan' from 'Intensity'. After Lee's death, it was remixed and retitled for the LP release. The guy didn't know it was the same recording as 'Morgan' until I pointed it out. I don't know about other stuff, but those incidents made me think a bit about Fantasy. When they did what Prestige or the other original labels did, they got is as right as they could (and that was VERY right indeed. When they tried to push the envelope, they didn't have as much expertise as they may have needed. MG