Harold_Z

Bad news. I guess he was one of the last guys left that were playing and contibuting as far back as the 30s. I loved his playing. I was just listening to some of the Lester Young Commodores the other day. Anybody remember seeing him on the Joe Franklin Show sometime in the 80s singing and playing "Oh, Look At Me Now" ? Songwriter Irving Ceasar was on the same show. Lots of laughs all around -It was classic.

Not TOO long ago (less than a year?)somebody posted a link to an online store that had vhs tapes of Art's tv series "Jazz Alley" for around $7.99 a tape. There were 3 of them with two half hour shows each on them. I bought all three and at that price they are a bargain. I can't remember which store it was - it may have been Allegro, but I'm not sure. Maybe some of these are still available, so if anybody knows anything about this they can please post it. These tapes had guys like Bud Freeman, Barney Bigard, Jimmy McPartland, Pee Wee, Tony Parenti, George Brunis.....on and on. Just great!

No complaints. Well organized and NO wait. Touch screens that seemed to work fine.

Tony, I have a single 10" lp on Mercury JAZZ CHICAGO STYLE. Floyd O' Brien on trombone and Nappy Trottier on Cornet. Good record. edit: Not Nappy on cornet - it's Muggsy Dawson.

..Also don't pass up whatever you can get of Art on Blue Note. The Bechet stutff can be found on Chronogical Classics and if you can somehow come get the Mosaic Art Hodes, you've got the cream of the crop.

I don't have the new disc, but seeing the tune list I'm pretty sure I have everything on it on Delmark Vinyl from the 60s. At this point in time I wonder what someone whose never been exposed to this type of music would make of it. It's not the polished dixie/swing of the Condon guys and it's certainly not the trite "dixieland" of the bad banjo bands (although there is a banjo present). Instead it's this highly rhythmic, intense ensemble, great feeling music - I love it. It's got the New Orleans stamp all over it. The musicians are dealing in a groove and a style. They aren't polished in the sense of being great readers or having extensive technique - but they deal with what they do and they do it wonderfully. Another aspect of this is how this relates to New Orleans R&B of the same and subsequent time. I don't think a lot of people realize the familial relationship, but it's there. It's Really there !

Happy Birthday !!

MAN ! I'm glad you guys are back !

Happy Birthday Chris and many many more !

Great !!

Great thread Chris ! You HAVE to get an autobiography out. I'm not too adept at posting pictures. but I mangaged to find a nice one on the internet so I'll post it. It's an old photo taken in 1923 in Paterson NJ, where I was born in the mid 1940s - about 1/2 a mile south of where this photo was taken. I'm currently working my day gig a block east of where whoever took this photo was standing (the photo is facing east) in a building not yet built at the time of this photo. This city was mapped out by Alexander Hamilton in the late 1700s and was designed to be an industrial and manufacturing center specifically suited to this purpose by it's close proximity to NYC (maybe 8 or 10 miles east of Paterson).....and this brings me to Jazzypaul's question about what people from this area dig about NYC. ....WAALLLL...when I was a kid I would play hookie from high school and hop the bus into the city (all people within a 30 mile radius of NYC refer to it as THE CITY). In less than an 1/2 hr I'd be haunting the record stores in midtown (King Carol, The Record Hunter, the Jazz Record Center on 47th st,etc) spending my allowance (I was a solidly middle class kid) on Jazz records and usually capping off the afternoon (YES afternoon) standing on the sidewalk watching the likes of Gene Krupa or Louis Metcalf or Charlie Shavers playing at the Metropole. Later on I caught a series of concerts at the Museum of Modern Art (free) with Clark Terry, Eddie Costa, Oscar Peterson, Bob Brookmeyer and more. All this time my parents would satisfy my jazz mania by occasionally taking me to Eddie Condon's, Nick's, Basin Street East to see Louis Armstromg, Wild Bill Davison, etc. MAN....NYC was the JOINT in those days... I could go on and on with this, but trust me...it was happenin'.

I saw Deacon John perform this past Sunday and I have to say I DUG IT ! I DUG THE SHOW I was totally unfamiliar with him and was playing behind another act at the Towaco Jazz & Blues Festival in Montville NJ. I was hanging around after finishing my gig and Deacon John closed the show. MAN! NICE SHOW! It was New Orleans good timey R&B and jump blues. Now and then the Deacon would grab a guitar and do some straight blues such as Elmore James,.etc, but for the most part it was 50s New Orleans R & B...or Rock and Roll as it was called at THAT Time. Shirley & Lee....Huey Smith...that kind of thing. Anybody else hear this guy? He's not a young cat - he's definitely a veteran !

I dig them too and didn't want to imply that I didn't. Those guys get their point across in their own way and chops and polish aren't a part of it - it wouldn't be the same any other way. You don't have to be a virtuoso to get your point across, but virtuosity shouldn't count against you either. For once Mister Z, I have a huge problem with something you said. Those guys have more chops than needed for a "real" message. There are thousands of "faster/cleaner" players out there executing "empty nothings". Being able to communicate is the ultimate "chops" - don't have much to do with tight lips, finger speed, etc. This sounds like the "Monk wars" all over again. I love it when all these boxes start appearing inside of boxes ! Chuck...I don't disagree with anything you said there. I think I'm having trouble saying exactly what I mean, but it's pretty much along the lines of what you said about those guys having all the chops they need. I probably could have made my point better if I'd NOT used John Lee (who I dig) as an example. I don't want to put those guys down - I DIG THEM !! ....and I totally agree about guys who have chops and aren't saying anything (and guys with no chops who aren't saying anything) ...but the guy who bugged Jim was using polish as a negative adjective and I don't think that's valid. Polished and dull...yes. And I dig STAX too! The funny thing is I don't necessarily think that Stax is not polished.

I dig them too and didn't want to imply that I didn't. Those guys get their point across in their own way and chops and polish aren't a part of it - it wouldn't be the same any other way. You don't have to be a virtuoso to get your point across, but virtuosity shouldn't count against you either.

There are a LOT (unfortunately) of mistaken people, who THINK they like music, but really only dig one thing (and probably for the wrong reasons). For some of them, finesse, polish, slick are negative words - for me it's a positive. Taken to it's logical conclusion, this would make John Lee Hooker a better guitarist than Wes Montgomery. It's ludicrous.

WORD ! I really love hearing guys like Ory - the pioneers of Jazz - in good sound. The early records are great, but it adds another dimension to them to hear the participants in recordings without the limitiations of earlier records - you get a more realistic sense of their sound and you can bring that to the earlier records. They come alive. The Django also sounds great -the best I've heard that material sound. Mosaic sound on vintage material as been outstanding. This set and the first JSP Django and you've got it going on.

I have most of the Verve stuff above on vinyl and I like them. They swing like mad - the charts are good, the rhythm section always has the goods, etc etc. The only problem with them is that by this time in Jimmy's career, there is a certain sameness to his solo's, i.e. his blowing on Mojo is not that different from High Heel Sneakers, from Walk On The Wild Side, from Hobo Flats. Those are all 12 bar blues and the groove is similar from tune to tune...It could be due to production values superimposed by Verve, or it could be Jimmy in a rut with this material. That being said, they are very good records, and the obvious solution is to listen to them in small doses.

I should reread it. I seem to remember something about liver and a glass. The Plot sounds good. I wasn't aware of it until this thread. I think I'll check it out.

That's it for Ernie? I'm surprised - I thought more people were digging him. If you haven'thecked him out - do so. The man can play. Yes, GOM, he was with Quartet West - and aquitted himself well.

Ernie Watts is a gas !

About the closest thing for a listing of what's currently available can be found on the web site for Worlds records.

....and Jimmy Rushing's THE SMITH GIRLS COL CL 1605. As far as I know this has never been reissued.

Yeah...and it's a gas. For some reason (I can't remember why) I knew CM was involved with JB somehow. Reading this rant somehow didn't come as a complete surprise. As usual...the music biz sux. Soul On Top: It's a gas. I missed this the first time around (maybe I thought it would be jive for some reason back when it first came out - WRONG) and I have a pretty sizeable JB collection and have been buying JB since the early 60s. I grabbed the reissue. The Jim Sangrey Blindfold test hipped me to the THAT'S MY DESIRE track and led me to the BALLADS cd. More good stuff. I've always dug JB doing PRISONER OF LOVE. I have it on 45. A couple of other related cds I've grabbed recently are the JAMES BROWN'S FUNKY PEOPLE things. So far I have Volumes 1 and 3. OH YEAH !!!!!! SMOKIN', BURNIN', GROOVIN' and any other good thing you want to say about these.

YES ! I have the first two and they're terrific.

I've been going to the same guy for about 30 years. He's kind of become a friend. He owns the shop and for years I didn't tip. The guys ahead of me ALL started tipping him....under my breath I'm swearing and calling them jerkoffs - but eventually I was shamed into it. AHHHH ....he's a good guy...he puts out a couple bottles of booze at Christmas and we can help ourselves. He likes a little taste now and then so the past few years the bottles have been out until mid-July. I'm going tomorrow and they may still be there. It's Saturday morning then...a little hair of the dog. He charges $13.00 and I've been giving him $15.00. He got me a gig once with another of his customers who was a musician. (BTW I used to run into Lou Mecca at this shop regularly. We would catch up with each other). He probably makes more at this shop than I do (cash business) - I know he drives a nicer car. He's getting old and has bad sciatica and is having trouble standing up. He takes breaks because his legs hurt and the waiting time is getting to be a drag. About 2 haircuts ago I went to another barber because he was so crowded everytime I attempted to get a haircut. When I came in the shop it was like a Seinfeld routine...." HEYYY...where were you...you went to another barber????".