John Tapscott

I have it as well, and I agree with Mike's comments. Shearing is not my favorite pianist my any means, but I do enjoy him when I play either the Mosaic set or the 5 or 6 other recordings of his that I own. One I particularly like is Live at the Cafe Carlyle, a duet set with bassist Don Thompson on Concord.

Me too. Painful. Give te music a chance! It gets better after the first two minutes and Mobley sounds more in focus. Nothing like prime Mobley but worth listening to... Thanks Dan for putting the link in! Agreed. The first couple of minutes are pretty rough, but then Hank pulls it together for a reasonably decent solo. If I'd heard this on a blindfold test I don't think I would have gotten him. Edited to say that on a 2nd listen I think it's better than I first thought - it's actually pretty good under the circumstances - Hank's tone is rough but the ideas are still there. The rhythm section is very good and that helps. You can hear Hank get on a bit of a roll as Fournier begins to push. This is the kind of jazz solo I really like more and more - telling a story, putting the phrases together in a logical and satisfying way, easy for a layman to follow. And yes, there are some typical Hank phrases and especially phrase-endings that mark it out as clearly and only Hank, though the tone is so different from early Hank that I kind of missed missed them first time through.

Donald Byrd - "Little Boy Blue" from Byrd in Flight (BN) - all around a superb recording with great contributions from Duke Pearson

Alternating between the McCoy Tyner Select and the Johnny Richards Select - obviously very different, but both are excellent in their own way. One of the joys of jazz music is its' incredible vareity.

Happy Birthday Ken, and thanks for the reviews.

Since we've already the alto thing, why not start a new one with tenor or baritone? But for either, you'll need a longer list.

Well, I never quite get what year they're in. So in '65 it's more likely you would have heard jazz like that in a Playboy club. Still think they were pushing it a bit.

Count Basie 50's Verve

Great episode last night. Don was incredible. ( Jon Hamm, magnificent performance). Waiting for Roger to implode. It seems inevitable. I know they're into historical accuracy but I was wondering if in a Playboy club in '64 you'd have heard a piano trio as relentlessly modal as that one seemed to be? '68 maybe, a few years after Tyner left 'Trane, and all that had become more mainstream, but I would have thought that in '64 the music would have been more along the lines of the Bill Evans or Ahmad Jamal or Red Garland trios, espcially in a Playboy club, which was not a hard-core jazz club.

Charles Tolliver Select

Could really have picked several from Shelly Manne and His Men, Complete Live at the Black Hawk, but I'll go with "Cabu" by Roland Alexander from Disc 4 - wonderful solos from Richie Kamuca and Joe Gordon. On this and so many of the tracks Manne gets the tempo just right for the soloists to really tell their story. Rhythm section has a great feel. Outstanding stuff all around. P.S. Ira Gitler is mildly critical of Richie Kamuca's playing in his review of Vol 1. (reprinted here). May I say that I think Ira was wrong. Richie was really at the top of his game on this session.

Shelly Manne and his Men - Complete Live at the Black Hawk

Detroit is a really fine CD which I've listened to quite a bit over the past few months. Typical strong Wilson themes, those fat and satisfying Wilsonian voicings, lots of hard swing. Great stuff. One question - on the long track "Everywhere" (not part of the actual Detroit suite), there is a long but uncredited trombone soloist - it's either Dennis Wilson or Luis Bonilla. My guess is Wilson. Anyone know for sure? Since trombonists get too little appreciation anyway, I'd like to set the record straight. Mack Avenue is a bit careless when it comes to listing soloists - they kind of screwed up the listing on Monterey Moods too, but I don't think they left anyone out.

Quincy Jones

Happy B'day, Dan!

Dexter Gordon - "I Want More" from the Jazz Icons Series 2 Bonus DVD. Dex really digs in on this relatively short (for Dexter) track plus there's a great swinging piano solo by Tete Montoliu.

The Lions can't catch a break! That was a touchdown. Receiver catches the ball, keeps control with both feet down as his bum hits the ground. Ball still in his hand. What more do you want? By any reasonable measure that's a catch.

I don't know about "left field apesh*t", but definitely his ability to take it out and come right back in is most indicative of quite a few of his great solos. I'm running over in my head now a couple of pieces of his that have always killed me, "Jinrikisha" from his very first Blue Note-led session, PAGE ONE, and the version of "Blue Bossa" from LIVE IN JAPAN. He was great, and I think despite all the recognition he received during his later Verve period, still somewhat under-rated. While it may be true that Joe is somewhat under-rated, I think he is quite influential among young up and coming tenor players. I consider his Verve CD's for all their popularity, to be rather over-rated and among his least interesting. Right now I'm listening to Discs 5-8 of the Milestone box, and while I find the music on these discs less than totally satisfying, Joe's playing is EXCELLENT, some of his strongest (and best recorded) I think, and much better than on the later Verve sides.

I guess I'm naive, but I still find it a bit of a shock when someone I thought was clean turns out to be a user. In my really innocent days (30+ years ago), I still remember the let-down I felt when I found out that Bill Evans was one of the biggest users of all. Now it doesn't affect my enjoyment and appreciation of their music, but I wish that somewhere, sometime, we could read of someone who has risen above it and not succumbed to the temptation (there are a few, I know). Look, I'm not judging and most of these guys hide it pretty well, but when they start blowing gigs and leaving Japan before the tour begins, then I'm sorry, but that really crosses the line. If I had paid good money to see musician X one night, and he was out scoring while he should have been playing the gig, I would be a little ticked off (really ticked off I was the the club owner or the promoter).

Wow, I never thought that Joe Henderson was that way inclined. It's kinda upsetting. Yep, I agree. It's new to me, too and gives an insight into the title of "Junk Blues" on "Joe Henderson in Japan" which I happen to listening to right now from the Milestone box set.

Yes, it was a good episode, though not IMO quite as good as last week's. I thought Don's celebration over his award was drawn out a little too much. I mean, spending a drunken, debauched weekend celebrating an award for what - a floor polish ad? Of course, (now it hits me) that's one of the points of the program isn't it - the extremes to which people go over such trivial things, and the utter pointlessness and foolishness of it all in the end. I keep wondering when one of these guys (Roger perhaps?) is going to be diagnosed with a terminal disease. It wouldn't surprise me if the Lucky Strike guy is found to have lung cancer. Wasn't it around '64 or '65 that the U.S. government officially linked smoking and cancer? (though the link had been known long before that). So it all fits the time line of the program. The excessive drinking and smoking has got to catch up with at least one of these guys soon.

Joe Henderson - The Milestone Years

Sterling's hatred for the Japanese seemed to be rooted in some specific incident from the war involving a friend or fellow service-man that I couldn't quite pick up on.

I thought this was great episode. Watched it at 10 PM, then again at 11. Bets sure is a piece of work. Yes, I think Sterling was really hateful against the Honda guys. I laughed at Don's devious plan to get the Honda account and how it worked in spite of Roger. Only Draper could have pulled that off. I fear for Roger. I think something quite nasty is about to befall him. He seems to be getting a little more unhinged with each episode.

Charlie Parker, Art Pepper, Phil Woods & early Lee Konitz