Steve Gray

Coincidentally, I happened to listen to 'My Kind of Blues' this morning. I bought this in the sixties in England on the Ember label and hated it. Of course it is actually a wonderful session and the ACE CD does it proud. I now realise that the Ember LP was a travesty and completely unlistenable, far worse than any cheap Crown LP. Lloyd Glenn and BB are both wonderful on it. I might be wrong but I think this was the only occasion when BB set out to record a whole LP during his time at Modern.

There are actually two more to go, they have issued ten already. The other two are 'Twist with BB King' and 'BB King sings Spirtuals' 'Twist' contains quite a few duplicates already issued in this series so it will be interesting to see what Ace do with it. No news on when they will come out.

It's the first vinyl I've bought in 20 years.

To answer the original question, I purchased the first four Andrew Hill albums as they were issued in the sixties - Black Fire, Judgement, Point of Departure and Smokestack. Andrew! and Compulsion were impossible to find in England at the time and I never did buy them on LP. Although I loved all four of them (Smokestack somewhat less so), I have to say that Judgement was my personal favourite. I just loved the feel of the music and it was the first time I had heard Bobby Hutcherson, who was a revelation. Sieite Ocho is a great opening track but I was impressed with the whole album. When I did eventually hear Andrew!, I was quite dissapointed. IMO It sounds like a retread of Judgement. I've still got time to get to appreciate it more though.

A 'Kind of Blue' remake 'Kind of New' by Donald Harrison on Candid. Very good IMO, but I am a big DH fan.

Thanks for the AAJ suggestion. I had been looking there but I was thrown by the fact that there was a thread specifically about the Fontana releases where no one had posted since they actually came out. The discussion you mention is in a different thread about British jazz releases in general. Thanks again.

Does anyone have any of the new Tubby Hayes reissues on Fontana? If so, could you comment on the recording quality. There are stories that at least one of them is a needle drop. Thanks

I bought 8 of these in HMV. There doesn't seem to be anything dodgy about these at all They look like perfectly respectable issues to me. I wouldn't compare them to the Spanish Blue Notes in any way.

I have 'From Hackensack to Englewood Cliffs' by Ike Quebec and I am curious why the last 2 tracks on that CD are not on the new double. These are 'Cry me a River' and "Uptight' Did they fall outside the remit, was this not a '45 session' Does anyone have any idea?

Pedantic note - It was, of course, Lucille Bogan. Louise Bogan is someone else entirely.

I agree with Lon, I think the sound on this is spectacular. Unfortunately I prefer Yusef when he is in 'straight ahead' mode. There is too much 'noodling' on this for me.

The three additional tracks on the Jimmy Smith. Does anyone know if they have been available before?

Gatemouth brown

Chris's link has it that Nina Buck and the Palm Court band are fine. No mention of George though.

I heard that Allen Toussaint was possibly at the Superdome. Does anyone have any more recent information?

I was looking at the track listing for the new JSP box , 'Away from Base' when I noticed that it contains several tracks by Glenn Hardman. I haven't heard these for years. I have them on vinyl on the Lester Young Story series. I think 'Upright Organ Blues' by 'Glenn Hardman' is the most appropriate combination of tune and performer I have ever come across, and the funniest.

Well, the notes are much better on the proper boxes. There are none on these new ones. Like I said, the sound is fine, actually very good, and the 4 CDs come in a really neat box that is only slightly wider than a normal CD box. I bought Don Byas, Fletcher Henderson, Ben Webster, Teddy Wilson, Errol Garner, Jimmy Lunceford, Bobby Hacket, Kid Ory, Earl Hines and Red Allen. Apparently there are a 100 of them. I paid £5 but in the rest of Europe they are 4€.

Bought 10 tonight. Listening to Teddy Wilson right now. Sound is fine. No sleeve notes, just personel. They are not always correct though. They seem to think Billie sings on some tracks on which she doesn't.

Maybe, don't know. Like, I said, I have had an email in the last week from HipO saying they they expect the situation to change real soon with respect to delivery to England and the rest of the EU.

Just ordered Volume 2. European buyers can buy it here It isn't true that it is only available through HipO Also, I hear from HipO that they should be shortly able to handle shipping to all European countries.

I would suggest ripping it anyway. Sometimes computer drives can get over errors, presumably because they attempt the read several times. It is quite likely that you can produce a more or less error free copy from your original.

There are some interesting reviews of the European copy-controlled version of 'Dial S for Sonny' on the blue note website. Apparently is is practically unplayable. I have a TOCJ of this which is in mono. Does anyone know why it was issued in Japan in mono when a stereo version was available? I guess I will have try to get a US copy.

How much for Cosmic Music??? Maybe I should cash in. Only joking.

Saw the Miracles on the old Steel Pier in Atlantic City in 1968. Surely Donald Byrd is of a slightly older generation - after all he was in New York from 1955... I think it's most unlikely he knew Smokey. I read recentlythat Smokey has just made a gospel album -- Any one heard it?

I believe the ring-leader on this was Marlowe Morris. I would love to hear it, Theloneliest Plunk and all ...