Brad

Chuck, Might that be on the cd when it comes out?

Marla, That made my day too. I have Too Tadd With Love on LP and the other in CDR but having them both on cd will just be great. I just love Tadd.

What would you like to know about the date? I have the lp.

Well, this was a rather interesting thread that somewhere along the way I missed. I won't say "I dig his Prestige work" but I do like it as part of the totality of the whole, especially as he made his transition from Bird clone to BN Jackie. I like Alto Madness but my favorite is, as with some, A Long Tall Drink of the Blues, especially for the argument those guys get into. All the albums Late mentions are worthwhile pickups.

I saw Eric and Harold Mabern on Friday and it was just the two of them, which surprised me. I had heard Bill Charlap and his friend Jon Gordon do the same thing and I don't think it worked so I had trepidations. I also was worried because we had taken a couple of friends who aren't jazz fans. I didn't have to worry because they were pretty fantastic. It also helped that we were seated less than 5 feet from where they were playing. They played mostly standards and recognizable material. They did play Naima however. This may be me but when he played Shadow of Your Smile I thought I was listening to Dex. He seemed to sound like Dex a lot. Also when Alexander started playing, there was no small talk, no song introduction or personnel introduction; they just played nonstop. The one who suffered there was Harold Mabern because he never got a break. It was just nonstop playing for 90 or so minutes. Incredible! Alexander is either very shy or very intense (my wife thought intense) because he didn't say too much. Harold Mabern is very loquacious on the other hand and quite a character. After the show, he was telling us about his new album on Venus and this and that. I got a couple of pictures taken with him so I was very happy. Our friends were really into it and also loved Harold. I don't know if I made them jazz fans but they loved the show.

A couple that come to mind is Junior Cook - Junior's Cooking Matthew Gee - Jazz by Gee Lem Winchester - Winchester Special Bobby Timmons - Soul Time I guess I better scan the catalogue real soon. I think they offer free shipping and some discounts over a certain amount.

Agreed but you have to wonder when he comes up with a line like this: "I am trying to get into Jackie McLean now but often I find him to be awfully repetitive - kind of like Dexter Gordon. Entirely lick-oriented - mostly simplistic licks."

Where in the city did you see it? Jazz Record Center? I'm going to be in the city on Wednesday so if you've got a good place, let me know.

In response to what Mike had to say, I think he's quite comparable to Bennie and as far as being no J.J., heck who was? Matthew's sound is a bit sharper than Bennie's, whose sound is fuller but he has a good choice of songs and I think he and Ernie Henry complement each other. Everything is quite swinging here. Let's start it off with Out of Nowhere and Joram from Matthew, Ernie Henry (as), Joe Knight (p), Wilbur Ware (b) and Art Taylor (ds) These are both taken at a medium pace and are fairly short unfortunately. In Out of Nowhere, there is a nice opening latin rhythm and Art Taylor gives it a nice steady beat to propel the band. Matthew has a short but understated solo and Ernie contributes some short nice blowing. After a short piano solo, Matthew comes back followed by a nice out chorus. Just a fine effort here. In Joram, again it's at the medium beat. After the melody stated, Matthew takes over, with nice backup from Joe Knight and then Ernie chimes in with again Art Taylor providing solid support. Again, as the liner notes points out, the emphasis is on swinging and that's what's is achieved. Matthew and Ernie always sound good together. Sweet Georgia Brown is a bit crisper and faster and Matthew takes a longer solo, stretching out some. The soloists never really dominate. The collective effort provides the result.

I find it hard to disagree with ralphie boy but I actually do like the Johnny Richards and Quincy Jones material. This is one of my favorite Mosaics and is responsible for getting into Sonny in a big way. There may be something to the way Sonny played but that's the way he played throughout his career and I like the results. He's not who evolved his style. He basically had a style and he threw the gauntlet down. When you can pick it up. Like I said I wasn't a huge Sonny fan before I got the Mosaic and 9 discs didn't bore me. Plus this material nicely dovetails with his Verve material from that era. So if you get that and the Verve material, you've got a good chunk of Sonny.

I've just started using Brian for the Uptown project. Since I will probably be done soon I'm glad to help out if you decide to use Brian.

All right, I've finished up one date. As soon as I finish up the other three dates I have, I'll be emailing it to Mike. If others would like to give me the information, please do. This is fun and I wouldn't mind doing it if others give me the information. BTW, for those who may be a little daunted by it, if you follow Mike's tutorial, you won't have a problem.

Okay, so who was Matthew Gee? There's not much in the web about him but he was part of what was called "brooklyn bebop". Gee started out playing trumpet, switched to baritone horn and settled on trombone when he was 11. He studied at Alabama State, worked with Coleman Hawkins, served in the Army and then played with Dizzy Gillespie on and off during 1946-49. Gee had stints with Joe Morris, the Gene Ammons-Sonny Stitt band, Count Basie (eight months in 1951), Illinois Jacquet, Sarah Vaughan and Dizzy Gillespie (for a brief time in his 1957 big band). He was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra on and off in the late 50s to early 60s and in later years played with a bunch of small combos including those of Paul Quinichette and Brooks Kerr. He only led two dates, this one and the date referred to by Mike in his post. His obvious influence was J.J. and while Bennie Green may have been a better player, this boppish date does happen to have some fine playing. More later.

Since some of the posts in the Beehive thread were starting to gravitate Uptown Records, I thought we should start a different thread. I'm doing To Tadd With Love right now and working through Mike's tutorial. The process doesn't look that difficult yet (fingers crossed) so I'll keep you posted. One question for Chuck: the album doesn't list matrix numbers or alternates. Were there any. If so, can you please post or send them to me, if it's not inconvenient. My email is blewin2222@aol.com. If that doesn't work, I can give a fax number. Thanks.

I don't make enough of an effort to check out AAJ, site or BBS so I will try to make the effort to at least check out the non BBS part of the site.

Don't worry. If he didn't, wouldn't he have a lot of Marsalis threads?

I also have the Carl Fontana and Freddie Redd one on cd so I will try those plus To Tadd with Love. If I'm successful, I don't mind doing the others if people will send me the info. I'll let y'all know later.

Chuck, I wasn't aware that those had been reissued. How do I get those. Should I pm you?

Yes, I just did an ebay search and there it was. Thanks. Does Uptown do cd reissues or was this an exception? If you do reissues, any chance of the Dameronia lps ever coming out on cd? (please, pretty please )

Yes....... We got a YES from Mike!!!! I see that BRIAN is available for download free of charge via a link on your website. I reviewed the Kenny Barron, Bill Triglia, and Slide Hampton discographies on your website and was able to find the details to the following Uptown releases: Johnny Coles/Frank Wess "Two At The Top" UP 27.14 Maria Muldaur "Transblucency" UP 27.25 Don Joseph "One Of A Kind" UP 27.23 Claudio Roditi "Claudio" UP 27.27 Did I miss a couple? No sense redoing work that's already been done. Don Beside the other two sessions mentioned by Mike, Dameronia's Look Stop and Listen (through the Benny Powell Discography) is there. I have (I believe) other Dameronia LP as well as the Social Call CD of Charlie Rouse/Red Rodney, issued in 2003. Does that cd count? It was recorded in 1984 but apparently never issued until now. If it counts, I'll try to download the software and do those two sessions unless someone with more knowledge would otherwise prefer to do it.

Paul, Thanks for the tip. I'm getting this one for xmas so am looking forward to it.

I couldn't agree more. Before I saw this post, I (not having anything better to do) was looking at AAJ and saw that Heaney thread and the self righteous attitude of the administrators. I was pretty disgusted at their attitude. What ever happened to free speech and lively discussion. I let them know it (it'll probably be deleted). They justify everything on the basis that "we have to grow AAJ." I have no goddamn idea what that means. Are they a corporation where they have to increase the profits. Sounds like Human Resources-speak to me. The whole tone, look and approach seems very stilted, even what they call forums ("Talk Jazz"). In a way it's condescending.

What about Elmo Hope's BN works (don't know if anybody mentioned it) but a lot of people are missing out on some great music. Anybody who was a friend of Monk's and Bud's had to have a lot of greatness in him.

Martin Landau was brilliant in this role. But the movie was a little scary, a little disturbing in how he relates how he had someone killed and how after a while he got over it and it didn't bother him anymore and he didn't think about it. That left a disturbing image in my mind for quite a while.

I've only picked up one of their discs, Conte Candoli Live at Birdland Neuberg; a pretty good one, however.