John Tapscott

Hard to remember; it's been a long time; and that was my first Basie live experience. (This was not the best band Basie ever had; later editions I saw in concert with different drummers were better) . I do remember Sonny's stick twirling and tossing. I suspect that your impression of him on the James video is not far from the mark.

Payne was definitely the drummer at two Basie concerts I attended in the summer of '74. (July, '74, to be more precise) IIRC, the bass drum had Sonny's name on it. (My first experience of hearing the Basie Band live). Sounds like Payne left in the early fall of '74 to be replaced by Marsh, who in turn was replaced by Butch Miles when the band resumed in January '75 (according to Leonard Feather's liner notes to "Basie Big Band" on Pablo. rec. Aug 26, and 27, 1975.) So I think the mystery is pretty much solved.

Yes, Pure Desmond is a real gem and really introduced Ed Bickert to the stateside audience and lots more recording opportunities. The only thing wrong with the recording is that there is like, 1 second between tracks, one track ends and the other begins almost immediately. Why Creed didn't insert a few more seconds between tracks is a mystery. There was lots of time to do so. Anyway, Pure Desmond is the only CTI record in my collection that I can think of. There may be a couple others that I'm not remembering. But there are some wonderful Creed Taylor productions, pre CTI.

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Yes. Bird is in fine form on this CD. His "Moose the Mooch" solo is quite awesome. Listening now;

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This has long been a favorite record of mine. Had it on LP originally. Ted O'Reilly made a CD-R for me. Model liner notes by Don Brown who used to post here occasionally. Now:

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Yes. Now: A wonderful recording. I can't imagine any jazz enthusiast, whatever your particular jazz preference, not enjoying this one.

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Many of them, but not all. Harold Jones was a tasty drummer. Gregg Field was a relatively quiet Basie drummer who didn't really call attention to himself, but swung the band very well. Same with Dennis Mackrel. I prefer them all to Sonny Payne. I liked Butch Miles with Basie for the most part too. Duffy Jackson, rest his soul, was over the top. Miles and Duffy were more in the Payne model. There's a couple others I'm forgetting. One was the the guy who played with Maynard and later Ellington and Basie in-between for a bit. Oh, Rufus Jones, that's him. Not very familiar with his Basie work. Oh, and Louis Bellson who did his own thing with the band. Liked his work on those Basie Roulette recordings from Sweden. (4 CD's worth on the Mosaic Roulette Live set!)

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