Rooster_Ties

OK, fess up. How much did the Tolliver BB Select set you back? Hopefully you scored a deal!

OK, ok, ok. Somehow, despite owning nearly 90% (95%?) of the rest of Tolliver's entire output -- including as a sideman -- somehow(??!!!) I've never heard Song for my Lady. Gotta get around to that one, clearly then. The universe is reminding me of that here, now, and I oughta listen.

I'll just say that I think it's a crime that these early 70's Tolliver big band recordings are out of print, and fairly expensive to find on-line secondhand. I have the whole Select set myself, of course (both Tolliver Selects, in fact) -- but I almost can't imagine a release that ought to be more widely known that the two Strata East albums with big band especially. I don't know how well they sold at the time, but they swing like mad, and yet are as fiery in terms of playing as it gets. Tuneful, approachable -- hell, my wife even likes this stuff and always catches on when any of the same tunes come up in smaller combo contexts (non-big-band) on other Tolliver and Stanley Cowell recordings, and she's not always one to remember jazz tunes. Some of the best music recorded that entire decade.

I rather strongly suspect the "Clapton & Baker were both plodders" is mostly the reason for my reaction to Cream live. I very, VERY specifically remember in high school my senior year, and in college listening to those two Live Cream LP's I had, and thinking "why the hell isn't this clicking for me? - after all, I've got a metric-ton of live Jimi Hendrix (my very first deep musical love), and ostensibly Cream isn't really that much different, are they?". Jimi couldn't have been any less loud and insane to record live (from an engineering/tech standpoint), and I've never heard a Hendrix recording - even the lesser ones - that left me feeling as 'ho, hum" as those live Cream albums. Even Jimi's Woodstock performance -- sonically pretty bleh, and maybe musically one of the 'least together' documents of any Jimi ever played live (that got released commercially, anyway) -- even Woodstock is a little better, for me, than the live Cream I've heard (IMHO, FWIW, YMMV). Sorry, I'm really threadcrapping here, I realize -- and no offense intended to those all stoked for this new live set.

I've always liked studio-Cream a LOT better than live-Cream, though admittedly I haven't listened to much of their live stuff in years. Maybe it was the quality of the recordings? - I seem to always remember them sounding very loud, and very boomy - like they were all recorded in a basketball arena or something. The only live Cream I have now is from that year 2005 2CD "Gold" compilation (Universal/Polydor), which collects up live tracks from Live Cream, Wheels of Fire, Live Cream Vol. 2, and Goodbye Cream. (And 30-35 years ago, I think I had both volumes of Live Cream too, but got rid of them 25 years ago.) Maybe it's just what the band sounded like live, no matter where they played. I recall that CD compilation live CD (the second disc is all live, which I haven't spun in years) being pretty universally "bloated" sounding. I do spin the first disc of studio recordings, to hear Jack Bruce's voice as much anything else, which I quite like. I've been meaning to pick up a copy of Bruce's Songs For A Tailor for years, and maybe I'll finally get around to it one of these days. Speaking of Jack's voice, here's a dandy early 90's remake of "Rawalpindi Blues" (from Escalator over the Hill)... Bass, Voice – Jack BruceDrums [Trap Drums] – Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Robbie Ameen*Engineer – Mike KrowiakGuitar – Leo NocentelliMusic By – Carla BleyPiano – Don Pullen This YouTube upload of it starts really quietly, but it jumps up in volume around 0:40. (Disc 1, track 7 on this multi-artist tribute to Paul Haines.) https://www.discogs.com/Paul-Haines-Darn-It/release/2944643

I’ll echo Jim’s “who else?” inquiry. I suspect an entire book-length subject on this sort of exploration might be welcome too! (as well as radio.)

Given the new Mobley and (presumably) Lee Morgan 60's sets -- it would seem a Chick Corea Blue Note set would be something very possible, given the sort of thinking that is giving us those Mobley and Morgan sets. Before the announcement of the Mobley, I wouldn't have really thought there'd be much chance for a Chick BN set -- but who knows, maybe there really could be one. I think(?) I own most everything that might be included on it, but maybe I'm forgetting some things that I don't actually have. In any case, I'd be glad to purchase such a set. I passed on the Mobley (since I already had every last cut of it on CD), but I just might buy the forthcoming Lee Morgan set (we'll see), especially if they can manage to eak out a good handful of previously-unreleased tracks.

BTW, there's just as much jazz from the 70's that *isn't* my cup of tea, than what is. That said, I can't imagine a more unfairly maligned decade for jazz than the 70's. I think a lot of people write off practically the entire decade, when there really was a lot of interesting stuff going on, though much of it under the radar at the time (I suspect, since I was born in 1969, and didn't even get into jazz until the late 80's in college). Although technically the 60's are probably my favorite jazz decade, I often cite the 70's as having the most recordings that I'm the most enthusiastic about sharing with people -- albums that I'm nearly positive that most folks haven't ever heard, or even heard of. Should be an awesome series of blog entries to follow closely throughout 2020. No decade would have me checking nearly daily -- or at least several times a week -- like the 70's will, so an excellent choice there!! - imho, of course.

Maybe more 'weird' than controversial, but ever since I was a kid (maybe 7 years old), I've always loved mustard on french fries -- WAY more than ketchup. There are some curry-ketchups I've had (at some 'German'-street-food restaurants here in DC in the last 6-8 years) that are pretty good too. But 90% of the time, it's mustard for me on french fries -- for as long as I can remember (i.e going on 44 years now).

STILL need and wish I had Sun Ra’s Other Voices Other Blues on CD, even if it was only a grey-market silver-disc (non-cdr) as good as the non-legit issue of New Steps that came out on CD with nice packaging and good liners (if you can imagine) some 10(!) years ago. I do have a legit copy of OVOB on LP, that I got back in college around 1990, and both of those quartet albums (both double-LP’s) are phenomenal.

It's all up on Spotify now, I've heard (and I streamed the one entirely new track "Steal Away" from there earlier, so I presume everything else is there). On the mega-huge Hoffman thread about it, someone said that CD's 4 & 5 were combined at looked like just one CD (at least on one of the streaming platforms, or maybe that was Amazon). In any case, if you're looking for it, and only see 4 CD's -- the last "CD" may actually be discs #4 & #5 combined. FWIW. I'll get the whole thing on CD in the next 6 months, I'm sure.

Hasn't the speculation that most (or at least many!) of Mosaic's sets have "timed-out" over the years, before they actually hit their maximum (contractually-limited) sales allotment? Most of their contracts limited sales to a specific time-frame (i.e. # of years), iirc -- at least from what I've read around here. And *if so*, then I think there was some further speculation I've heard that (somehow?) Michael managed to keep the Mobley 50's sessions in print *considerably* longer than practically any other set Mosaic has ever done (that they didn't own the rights to). Speculation, on top of speculation, I fully realize. In any case, I too wonder how it came to be that the earlier Mobley set was in-print for over a decade! - isn't that right? Discogs says it came out in 1998. When did it go OOP?? - something like 4-5 years ago? - give or take. Not more than 5 years ago (and not much less than 3). In any case, it had to be in print for something like 15 years. Has Mosaic ever kept ANY other title in print for anything even close to that?

Are there any other Morgan unissued leader-dates? - or partial sessions that have only been half-released (as in this case). There’s also that one odd very one-off single, with the two movie tunes. Have both sides of that single been issued on CD? I’m sure the A-side has (on some movie-themed BN comp), but what about the b-side? Mind you, I’m not pining for that single myself, but as long as we’re making conversation about a potential Lee 60’s sessions box, Anything else? Oh. I thought they were all labeled with that same song-title. Which tracks (uploads) are which??

Seems to be the latter "Lost Quintet" release. (I've not heard a thing about any sort of Bootleg 7 release -- not a peep.)

UNLIKE the Mobley 60's set -- which I already have every single track of on CD (including even the alternate take of "Don't Cry, Just Sigh" from Third Season, which only came out in Japan in 2012, which I do have on a legit CD)... ...with the prospect of a Lee Morgan set, there is perhaps a small handful of tracks still unreleased, iirc. At work, and don't have time to dig into every last detail, but there's the other half of that Sept 13, 1968 session with Frank Mitchell (which I think(?) has been uploaded to YouTube too, iirc -- or at least some of it. I'm seeing six (6!) different takes of "Blues for Mr. Tatum" uploaded by Joe Louis (haven't listened to them all, no idea how many are complete, and which ones are good). And there are at least two (2) other tracks from that same session: Harold Mabern's "The Chief" (which I've read about a dozen times over the years around here), and "The Sleepwalker" (iirc). Here's a prior thread about the session... And here's the first take of "Blues for Mr. Tatum" -- and actually, this first bare (visible) YouTube link goes to a playlist with all 6 takes... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLINvK2ShyqTq52mnpxSOzFysVcL9Yl9X9

I’m sure I’ll get this at some point. Try as I might to resist, I usually inevitably get most of the new Hendrix reissue, sooner or later.

I love all the Byrds up to and including Ethiopian Knights (rec 1971) -- and I'm especially fond of Fancy Free, Electric Byrd, and Kofi (rec 1969-71), but I'm afraid I've never been that much for the Larry Mizell produced stuff. But I'm good with all the later-era Grant Green on BN, but I'm missing 4 of his 8 later Blue Note releases (1969-72), just because I haven't ever found cheap enough copies to grab (priorities). Generally (and mostly all on CD), I have about 85% of everything Blue Note recorded from between 1960 thru 1971 or '72. But after that, it's pretty hit 'n' miss, I've barely got 20% of BN's output from between 1972-78.

Thinking back to the Billy Harper possibilities, has Mosaic ever reissued any Japanese-only issues (save for BN recording dates on King, iirc, and the like). In other words, if you were to try and collect up the Harper 70’s dates, or the Max Roach quartet dates with Harper, is there any sort of **Mosaic** precedent for including the kinds of “only released in Japan originally” releases both/either set would entail? Also, I presume the “Billy Harper Fan Club” CDR’s in no way imply that Billy himself owns those masters or the rights to see them issued, correct? All those CDR’s were LP-sourced needle-drops, far as I’ve ever known (at least the ones I’ve heard), and seemed very unofficial.

I’ve been wanting Reminiscent Suite on CD ever since I first heard it 6-8 years ago. Vinyl copies are usually upwards of $85 or more, and I’ve never been able to score one for anything even remotely less. Would LOVE to have it on CD someday.

True. But it’s described as a short boogaloo, and arguably not as consequential.

Done.

Also, the US Conn CD reissue of the Kenny Cox combines both his Blue Note albums on one CD - and they're both pretty sweet. Also, the US issue of Manhattan Fever on CD also includes a whole 'nother unreleased session, every bit as good as the main album. Both are pretty top drawer, far as I'm concerned.

Jesus, I just stumbled on a factoid that Billy Harper had a quintet in 1966 with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and I'm not sure who was on bass. I don't suppose they ever recorded anything? - or surly I'd know about it. There's a documentary piece supposedly about this group -- does that still exist anywhere? Something called "The Big Apple", that ran on NBC (probably a local-affiliate production, is my guess). Here's where I just found out about all this... http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2013/01/17/billy-harper-at-70-a-profile-from-2005-the-music-unfurled-like-an-anthem-from-antiquity-but-swirled-like-coltrane-and-was-carried-along-by-a-gripping-almost-pentecostal-power/ Raised in small-town Tyler, Texas, he was playing rhythm ‘n’ blues in Houston nightclubs at 16, and, after graduating from North Texas State University, moved to New York in 1966. Almost instantly, things happened: (1) His second day in town, he was robbed of all his possessions (except his saxophone); (2) an NBC TV producer heard about him through the jazz grapevine and put him in a local documentary called “The Big Apple, ” chronicling the struggles of four new Manhattanites. (Jerry Quarry, the boxer, was one of the others). For his segment, Harper, not lacking in confidence, convened a band that included several legends: pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. The documentary is also mentioned very briefly in Billy's bio page on the Cookers website, and also his bio on the Blue Note site too... http://www.thecookersmusic.com/about/billy-harper/ http://www.bluenote.com/artist/billy-harper/ OK, some more sluthing, and it wasn't a working band at all, but totally a one-off just for this documentary (it sure sounds like), and it was Reggie Workman on bass... https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/national-jazz-museum-harlem-2011-november-schedule It was an incident that other musicians started hearing about, which helped get Harper's name around. Another was a stroke of good fortune when he became part of an NBC television special called "The Big Apple." "It was about a few people's first experience in New York. I was one. Because Kenny Dorham told them about me, so they got me as the jazz musician. There was the boxer, Jerry Quarry. He had a section. There was a business person, an opera singer, a model and a jazz musician. I was the one. So I was on television. They were filming how I would try to sit in. Life with me. I thought it was a big thing at the time. I had been trying to survive and sometimes I had to eat sandwiches with cheese, no meat." They were filing segments of his life around the city and wanted some footage from the Village Vanguard. "But the Vanguard wouldn't even let them in to film. It would have been good for the Vanguard to have that. So they said, 'OK. why don't you put your own band together? We'll let you film it.' So, I was smart enough to think: OK, I'll do that. I got Elvin on drums, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, McCoy Tyner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass. So when we played, that was seen all over the place. Certainly all over New York. I think Miles and some other people must have seen that too. Then, in a small way, I kind of made it. But also word had spread with that thing with Philly Joe and Elvin at the club. Everything happened from there." Anyway, all news to me. Don't suppose any of this footage, or the documentary is floating about anywhere -- ??

Nine discs of Billy Harper? I’d pre-order tomorrow. 10 discs, 12 discs, 14, you name it, I’m in. A Bill Barron set would be great too, though I’m a lot less familiar with his output - but I’ve liked what I’ve heard.

First name that comes to mind is Billy Harper's 70's output (or some subset thereof). OR, all those Max Roach quartet albums featuring Billy (also from the 70's). I look forward to hearing of some other proposals, and the ensuing discussion. Any other good candidates out there for a Mosaic by (or with) someone who's still with us?