John Tapscott

It's a good album. I came across this one recently, too: I presume this is all on the Mosaic set? Yes, the Great Big Band session is on the Kenton Presents Mosaic set. The Lost Charts CD is not a big band but a septet.

Yes, he's a wonderful trumpet player, straight-ahead and boppish, but adventurous, too, well worth hearing. Here's 3 recommendations, in order of preference (though there's really no difference between the first two - both are excellent). Oh, and he has a wonderful big band CD as well.

RIP. Terrific lead trumpet player, one of the best - Stan Kenton, Terry Gibbs, Buddy Rich, Thad-Mel, etc. Fellow musicians often spoke of with awe of his abilities, and the seeming ease with which he did it all. I think this is Al second from the left in the trumpet section beside Conte.

"Old Devil Moon" from this one. Terrific up-tempo Getz solo. He just wails.

Perhaps better known as a big band arranger and leader, Kim Richmond is an excellent alto soloist, with (at least to me) a most attractive sound. His writing is more on the exploratory side, but his soloing is firmly bop based. Has the late Ray Reed been mentioned?

Yanow writes clearly and his notes are usually pretty good, but I find he's been a bit lazy lately, not providing quite as much detail as one would like (not always identifying soloists, etc). Maybe it depends on how much he's being paid. Plus the style of his liner notes is very predictable. Not a bad thing necessarily, but sometimes it's good to change things up a bit. I like Morgenstern a lot; he's my favorite. I also enjoy Ira Gitler's ice hockey references. And I'm going to mention Peter Leitch who has done some fine liner notes for CD's on the Reservoir label. Now here is a very obscure LP. Apparently sold less than a thousand copies according to producer Ted O'Reilly. But the liner notes a superb, a real model for the genre, written by Org Board member Don Brown.

I only have 2 Stan Tracey recordings, a duo date with Danny Moss and this one which is wonderful. RIP.

Pretty good then, I guess. Still waiting for mine to arrive. Mail is dang slow this time of the year.

Wow, that was nice, Ted. Thanks for posting. Jerry was such a lovely player. Puts me in a Paul Desmond frame of mind. Couple of questions - did you take those pics? I'm sure you were at the session. Anyway, it's a wonderful collage and great to see all the guys from some 30 years ago. Also I know Jerry was sadly afflicted with Alzheimer's and went to live in a nursing home. Has he passed away? And speaking of alto players, Boss Brass and Woods (made shortly after this recording) is one of the best big band albums ever recorded. Ever. Period. (IMHO, of course). . But seriously.

How about this guy. Very good player.

This is very nice.

Happy Birthday, Don!

Very nice stash, Tom! Those 2 Selects are nice finds.