Harold_Z

I'm going to use all this prior verbosity as an excuse to promulgate a musician who has been imho has been shortchanged in terms of recognition and influence among guitarists, and that's Oscar Moore. The guy had great sound and technique and I think he really influenced guitarists - the Nat Cole Trio was so popular that his playing became pervasive, espescially for gigging guitarists. As far as the Trio...innovative? I don't know - I think more likely that it was right on a very hip musical spot at the precise right time and became the leading example of a sub genre.

...as does the Vangaurd Vic Dickenson disc.

Happy BIrthday ! AND MANY MANY MORE.

Count me in !

Yeah...I'm shocked. You don't expect this in someone's John Guerin's age.

Well...I don't think he's an unknown. On the contrary, I think he's pretty well known to the serious jazz fan and VERY well known to musicians. I love the recordings you referenced. particularly the Ray Charles Presents Fathead album. There's a couple of classics there. The ones that first come to mind are HARD TIMES and WIERD BEARD. ....and then there's the solos on Ray Charles' records...MAN!! Pick about anything he solos on and it's an out and out gas. YES INDEED, SWANEE RIVER ROCK, TELL THE TRUTH...on and on. These are really seminal records and following the trail can lead you into places and sounds you may not know existed...and it's a trail that never ends and is as rewarding and satisfying and revealing as any musical tangent you can go on. Fathead is the real deal to the max.

Yes And I'm one of them ! I think Eric Clapton really absorbed BB, Otis Rush and espescially Freddie King - and I think he has said as much in print - I wish I could remember where. When he sounded like other guys, he did so intentionally and for the music at hand, which is fine, but his really MAIN influences became his fount of musical creativity.

Yeah - this is a good one and also a good example of the cross pollination and the difficulty of using labels to pigeon hole music. When these recordings first came out , they were probably referred to as Rock and Roll. Now we call it R&B. When you look at the players - there's a WHOLE LOT of familiar Jazz names. Her version of "Candy" (earlier than the material here) shouldn't be missed and "I'm Gettin' Along Allright" (in here) is another great one. Later covered by The Raelettes (on Tangerine) with Merry Clayton singing lead. Anybody know if there are reissues of this? Mickey Baker was an early exponent of guitar effects - and to a large extent he was making use of the effects that came on the amp. Tremolo and Echo. He'd get distortion too (when he wanted it - most likely by overdriving a small amp). That's Mickey of Ray Charles' "Losin' Hand" and Ike and Tina's "It's Gonna Work Out Fine". Tremolo and echo

I searched for those Freddie Atlantics all through the 80s. Everytime I saw them on vinyl the price tag was in excess of $50 each - so I never scored. When they came out on cd I scoffed them right up. They are Indeed great records. I suspect King Curtis and Freddie went back aways. They were both from Texas as is Cornell Dupree who stays in a supporting role on these albums and plays excellent rhythm. You can hear Cornell do hisFreddie groove on the King Curtis version of "Hideaway" from the early 60s on Capitol - a VERY good record also. Slick in just the right way. Curtis confines himself to just a couple of solos - and when he kicks in the effect is staggering. Curtis plays this chit! ...and Gerry Jemmott's Fender work is terrific. One of my favorite bassists. The personel in general is pretty notable. Basically the New York R&B studio guys of the late 60s - early 70s joined by some New Orleans guys who were in NYC for a while at the time (Melvin Lastie and James Booker). Present in the sax section but not soloing are Greorge Coleman and David Newman. Willie Bridges plays some very nice Baritone down there on the bottom.

What Lon said re Eric Clapton. He ain't the greatest to come down the pike - but he's far from the worst. I sometimes get the feeling people want to either put him WAAAY at the top or WAAAY at the bottom and it just isn't like that. For starters - I dig the hell out of Freddie King and have since I heard DRIVIN' SIDEWAYS when it was a single release sometime in the early 60s. That's where I came in. BTW - speaking of influences, check out the turnarounds Freddie plays on HIDEAWAY and check out Jimi Hendrix's intro on HEY JOE. Anybody into Freddie's singing? That hasn't come up yet, but, I mean - I think he's a singin' MOFO!! Back in the early 60s a lot of people (myself included) thought there were 3 KING brothers - or half brothers - or whatever. It wasn't until sometime later that we realized they weren't related. A friend of mine who played drums for Albert in the late 60s says that Albert used to constantly tell people that he and BB were half brothers, even when they did shows together, and that BB, being a very nice cat, always went along with it.

I think he played more aggressively as a leader than as a sideman, and my suspicion is that his personality followed suit to the extent that as a leader it was HIS way. When a sideman it was a little more give and take (and I'm sure someone like Hamp could go toe to toe with Buddy both in terms of cookin' and EGO). I heard a live recording of Buddy with Tommy Dorsey from around 1946 where he is kickin' the band like a mofo. I didn't know who it was until later, but I was like...who's that drummer? Jim - I concur with your point about the swing/bop thing being more in the air in the mid 40s and I don't think you're a "Buddy Basher"....but I don't know if 1945 or 1954 matters that much to the ears of someone born, say, in 1960. My edit: to those of you born around 1960 or later - if the shoe doesn't fit....etc. ...but I'm sure the shoe does fit for a lot of listeners.

I think Buddy Rich is getting a bad rap here. Maybe the combination of technical brilliance in combination with an abrasive personality engenders this and maybe there is an element of racism here in some cases. Nobody seems to criticize the Bird/Diz dates that had Big Sid or Cozy Cole for using "swing" cats when a bopper could have been used. The reality is that Buddy is the drummer here and he is one of the all time great drummers. I doubt if the other musicians were drug by his concept. I think it would be a gas to play with him (except for the bandleader/personality thing).

I recently started digging up my PKD paperbacks after another thread Lon started got me interested in rereading PKD. I have all the novels Lon mentions (with the exception of Confessions of a Crap Artist) so I have some good reading matter at hand that I'll be getting into. I picked up "The Phillip K. Dick Reader" (Citadel press) a couple of weeks ago at Borders and just finished it last week. It was really enjoyable and included at least 4 titles that have been made into films. MINORITY REPORT, WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE (Total Recall), SECOND VARIETY (Screamers) and PAYCHECK.

Etta Jones?

That's from the Chicago Living Legends series and one of those that I unfortunately missed. I have all the New Orleans series on vinyl but just a few of the Chicago on both vinyl and cd. I think it's time to acquire what I missed from those.There's not a dud in the bunch. Chris - for those recordings alone you made a great contribution to jazz. Please keep the photos coming. Is there any unreleased stuff from the Chicago or New Orleans Living Legend dates?

Chris..WOW!....Who's the designated driver??

I had the good fortune to do several gigs with Jimmy. He was one helluva saxophonist! Too bad he's so underecorded. I don't have anything on record by him. I saw him in a group with Big John and guitarist Geary Moore around 1987 or so.

Dizzy liked Fender Bass also and so did Hamp. Last year I saw Bob Cranshaw playing an electric upright that sounded absolutely incredible. BTW, Ron Carter is playing Fender on SUGAR.

Happy Holidays, Dan. All the best.

Chris said: "1-12: AAARRGGGHHHHHHH. I'll probably get flayed alive for saying so, but this precisely the kind of music that I am convinced 99% of people listen to just so others can hear them listening to it and presume they are really hip. I'd sincerely like to get to the point that I can understand what is going on here and why it matters... give me the previous track any day." IMHO - this track has to be taken in context with the preceeding track. I think one of the points of this is that we have similar effects being used on recordings that are WIDELY seperated by time and the perceptions of the listener. Tr 11 is from the dawn of recorded Jazz and may not be considered jazz by some listeners, while tr 12 is more recent (when? - I dunno) and might be considered avant garde and ALSO may not be considered jazz by all listeners.

I guess we have different sources Jim. Mine was Chilton's Who's Who. yours was the notes on the cd? I wonder which was right. Whoever it was - there's a story of a drummer doing a record date with Jelly Roll Morton and Jelly giving the guy a hard time. The guy pulled a pistol out and announced he was the guy who iced Jim Europe. For once Jelly was quiet for the rest of the date.

>>BTW: HE WAS NOT THE SNARE DRUMMER WHO MURDERED EUROPE.<< Private Herbert Wright was the culprit.

....which is another way of saying...."it aint the instrument - it's the player!"

The electric bass and the upright are both valid instruments. The elctric gets a bum rap but it's capable of a wide variety of sounds that can work in all types of music. I think a large part of the bad rap is that many electric players aren't good jazz players and the instument gets the blame for the limitations of these players.

Great photos Chris ! And a great idea for a thread.