Milestones

Regarding Burrell, what about the famous Guitar Forms--several tracks with Gil Evans. On Verve and Cadet he had some records with similar orchestral backing to what Wes Montgomery was doing at the time. Some tracks from the 75th Birthday Party Bash feature the Gerald Wilson Orchestra.

Is the Dorham track "Monaco"? I have a version that is a lot more sprightly.

1. This is good. It has a bit of the Latin tinge. The tenor player reminds me of Joe Henderson. 2. That definitely sounds like Kenny Burrell. I don’t usually gravitate toward his stuff with orchestral backing, but not a bad little tune. Wow, he inserts a bit of “So Little Time” near the end. 3. “Tempus Fugit,” I believe. A classic bebop piece…but I have never before heard this version, which is creative and mostly stays away from the melody. The pianist likes the bass register. 4. “Johnny Come Lately.” Pretty cool. It has a modern swing feel…quite different from the Ellington style. 5. Guitar-organ-drums. Not bad. The guitarist seems to have a Grant Green influence, but sounds too mechanical to my ears. 11. Jim Hall, one of the all-time great guitarists. Actually I think that’s Art Farmer on trumpet (or flugelhorn). I think it’s a track from To Sweden with Love. And #8 sounds like Kenny Dorham to me. I thought I had this one in my collection, or certainly something very similar. Maybe it's not Dorham, though I know he did this piece...and I can't think of the title either!

Scotch and Water--Cannonball Adderley Avila and Tequila--Art Blakey Pink Lady--The Great Jazz Trio One Mint Julep--countless artists -- I'm guessing there may be hundreds!

OK, I will request August.

What's still open at this point?

The Joey Baron record is great. What a cast of players, and everyone at the top of their game.

Sad news indeed. I never miss Jeopardy. Great show and Mr. Trebek made a great host.

I am definitely giving it some thought.

Absolutely indelible as Bond, but he was a man who made a lot good movies and had a greater range than most people would expect. As Bond, he will always take me back to my childhood. He's the perfect fantasy for the male child of 12-15. R.I.P.

I like this version of "Send in the Clowns. That sounds like Roy Eldridge on "Body and Soul" (#9).

So there is a sprinkling of stuff, but not easy to find--and it would seem the sound quality is usually poor. Many years ago I picked up Pure Genius, Vol. 1 by Brownie...on vinyl. I recall enjoying that a lot. I'm thinking this has never appeared on CD?

This may be my favorite partnership of a lead player and drummer in all of jazz history, at least the equal of Coltrane and Elvin--though not as well documented. I count 7 albums by Rollins on which Max is the drummer, and what greatness we find there. Some, such as Saxophone Colossus, are among the greatest jazz records ever waxed. There are some appearances by Sonny on records by Max Roach and by Roach/Brown. The are together on Kenny Dorham's Jazz Contrasts. As far as I know, they last appeared together in 1958...on Freedom Suite. if that was it, we sure had some missed opportunities. Is there some live stuff out there? Some bootlegs?

Is there not a book of interviews with Max? There's a Miles on Miles and Coltrane on Coltrane and so on. He was an articulate man, and there must be tons of interviews and contributions to liner notes.

So Joanne Brackeen on # 11. I didn't know about any duo records.

Max is a freakin' genius and there should be a major biography. Are we sure there isn't one? I regard the sessions of the combo of Sonny Rollins and Max Roach to be among the greatest in jazz history.

I am not sure how we are defining "soul jazz," but of course just about all definitions are slippery. I am currently delving into a book titled Cookin': Hard Bop and Soul Jazz, 1954-54 by Kenny Mathieson. He does not dwell too much on definitions, but certainly he sees strong links between the two styles. He starts with chapters on Blakey and Silver, then moves on to Jimmy Smith, who seems to embody the idea of soul jazz. I guess I look at soul jazz as mostly organ combos of various sorts and usually a stomping r&b approach on the sax . Of over 30 artists covered in the book, I'd say only about 4-5 worked in this vein to a considerable degree--for instance, Kenny Burrelll and Grant Green (but I would say their most admired records were not deeply in the soul jazz vein). Gene Ammons does not receive a chapter, though he gets quite a few mentions. In whatever way we define both terms (hard bop and soul jazz), Mathieson exclusively covers African-Americans musicians.

I love it...a classic!

I've done pretty well on McCoy Tyner--most of the Impulse, all the Blue Note, the vast majority of the Milestone, all the Telarc, the last three on his own label. But I'm talking about as a leader. Countess sideman dates, and trying to get all the Coltrane he appears on (including numerous live albums) would be quite a challenge.

That has to be a difficult chore for any artist with a large discography. I have tons of Miles Davis, but there's a fair amount from the 1970s and 1980s I won't bother with, then there's the "Bootleg Series" and just plenty else. And does one have to include all of his appearances with Bird? Ellington....I can't even imagine.

But this also begs the question of how they become standards. On my playlists I had "Warm Canto" by Mal Waldron and "After the Rain" by Duke Pearson (Coltrane's tune of the same title is a standard), and I have to wonder why the are not standards.

Yeah, there's the idea of the "jazz standard" (Monk instead of Gershwin, Silver instead of Porter)--and that is certainly a real thing. And there are jazz compositions that should be jazz standards. I guess any well-composed tune that is melodic and plain memorable is, or could be, a standard.

I like standards very much, but they have hardly played a role in the two Blindfold Tests I have done. The first had none at all, unless one counts Bob Dylan's "Cold Irons Bound," and the second had just one standard: "Little Girl Blue." The originals often do something quite different, and I like to show the compositional abilities of those who are notable as composers but don't have the fame of Monk, Duke, Mingus, Silver, etc.

Anyone with opinions on this? TCM pretty much amounts to my favorite channel, but the website changed without warning and now it's awful--or at least I think so. It is much harder to get to the daily schedule, the layout is not as good at it used to be, and I still can't find info that used to pop right up--reviews by both professional critics and by ordinary viewers. I used to check this website all the time; now I dread it.