John Tapscott

The Jackie McLean at Montmartre (1972) is excellent. I have it on LP.

The Complete Verve Gerry Mulligan Concert Band Sessions

It's more than a good one. It's very good, some may even say excellent. Hard swinging, exciting big band jazz. Highly recommended, no matter what coast you like.

On CD I have Concerto for Joe on Hep, Double Duke on Naxos, Sunbeam and Thundercloud on Concord, and as of today, a new one on Sackville - Joe Temperley & Harry Allen - Cocktails for Two (liking what I hear so far). I also have a Temperley Lp on Hep with Jimmy Knepper.

Curtis Fuller - Discs 2 & 3

Curtis Fuller Disc 1 - Haven't heard it for several years but my gosh, this is nice stuff.

Thanks, Claude!

Who are the sidemen on this date? I will probably get 'em all. I bought all of the first series (except the Baker which was out-of-stock) at the post Christimas Best Buy sale. My personal favs are the Monk and the Blakey (Lee Morgan is really in top from on this date. Actually seeing him in action has made me appreciate his artistry even more).

Just ordered one. $5.00 for Canadian delivery. Cool!

Glad to hear everything went very well at the two gigs. I'd love to hear those guys togther in a live gig. And see, two trombones won't empty a club! BTW, I recently got John Fedchock's new big band CD "Up and Running" and it is EXCELLENT!

Today - Bud Shank - discs 2 & 3

Of the three sets you mentioned. I only have the Pass which I bought in Mosaic's 10% off sale last year. I've listened to it three times and I have really warmed up to it. I think it's a fine set overall. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Dizzying! The thing moves so fast my aging eyes can hardly follow it. I notice in the comments that Toronto jazz pianist Mark Eisenman says that "Pat Labarbera, Kirk macDonald, and probably hundreds of others can play this solo." to which I reply, "OK, but could they have created it in the first place?" Nothing wrong with learning from the masters (in fact, necessary, in my view), but the whole point of jazz is to eventually "do your own thing," and develop your own voice, isn't it? Eisenman's comment gave me n insight into what wrong with so-called "jazz" education (with all due respect to FFA and the others on the Board who are deeply involved with jazz education.) If jazz is simply all about playing what someone's already played before you, you might as well call in the undertaker. Edit to add: When someone asked Al Cohn whether he played "Giant Steps", he replied, "Yeah, with my own changes."

http://cdbaby.com/cd/joshbrown A J.J. man for sure, and a great melodic gift. Guitar instead of piano in the quartet gives the music a slightly different but very enjoyable sound and feel. Excellent jazz music.

The Toronto club you heard Zoot in was most likely Bourbon Street. It was the club that featured mostly visiting American soloists with Canadian rhythm sections ( a number of recordings made there have been released over the years by musicians such as Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Frank Rosolino and Art Pepper). George's Spaghetti House feautured Canadian jazz groups. Gee, I always thought there was a pretty active jazz scene in Toronto during those years. It was no NYC, but it's a quarter of the size. Besides those clubs there were some other clubs which inevitably came and went but feautured jazz quite reguarly - The Colonial Tavern, Yellowfingers, a club at the Sheraton Center - forget the name, and a bunch of others that escape me at the moment. Of course, it's not so good now with the closing of Top of the Senator and the Montreal Bistro, but back in the 60's and '70's and even into the early '80's you could hear lots of jazz at various places in the city every night. I never had any problem finding live jazz to listen to; far more than I could take in.

Gene Lees is far worse at that sort of thing than Feather ever was. Actually, I think Feather's liner notes are decent in general, but Gene Lees' notes are as much about himself as the artist and the music.

All the best to Paul and John for their gigs together! Wish I could hear them. I just ordered John Fedchock's new big band CD called "Up and Running" on Reservoir.

One of my favorite late-period Webster discs is a Storyville compilation call "Ben Webster - Masters of Jazz." Lots of variety ranging from Ben leading a trio and quartet to a standard big band augemented by strings on one track. "C Jam Blues" has Ben and Dexter Gordon playing long solos. Ben sounds good on every track on this 75 minute CD. Tracks are from 1967-1970.

Bud Shank Pacific Jazz - Disc 1. I really like this set. Easy listening in a very positive sense. Sometimes I need that.

Happy B' Day Paul. Thanks for the music and for the musical inisights. You are one of those true jazz warriors out there holding the flag high against some strong headwinds! Bless you. All the best for future days.

Friggin' cold and windy! Down to -35 C tonight with the wind chill.

Happy Birthday, Garth! Have a great day.

Never having seen Monk play I am particularly fascinated by his playing on the recent Jazz Icons DVD. Somehow it's given me a whole new appreciation of his playing. (Not that I didn't enjoy it before but this is priceless!)

It was the 5 Cd London House set I was referring to. I listened to the whole thing through about a month ago, for the first time in several years. It struck me again as it did before - consistenly inventive, swinging, and interesting. Basically the opposite to everything Allen Lowe says about OP's playing. I think it may be overall OP's best playing in disc, partly because the Brown-Thigpen group was the best he ever had, (IMHO). Other personal favorite OP recordings include the London Concert on Pablo with John Heard and Louis Bellson, plus the four CD's recorded at the Blue Note in 1990 with Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Bobby Durham (on Telarc). Top-rate mature Peterson before the devastating stroke a couple of years later which diminished his playing quite significantly.

I was about to post when I found shaft already said just about everything that was on my mind! Well put (BTW, the London House recordings are from 1961 and they are excellent, better in my view than the rather overrated Stratford Festival album, which has mediocre sound and some awful sounding "arco" bass from Ray Brown. Great as Ray was, he never did master this aspect of bass playing).