JSngry

Lead Me, Guide Me - The Unusual Gospel Sound Of The Duncanaires (Milestone MLP-4001) Yes, a Milestone Gospel record, yes, produced by Orrin Keepnews. Recorded @ Universal Sound, Chicago in April of 1966, engineered by Dennis Aulen-Bacher. Address on the back cover is 171 Madison Ave., N.Y.C. 10016. The label is unlike any I've seen on a Milestone record before - an off-white (possibly with a very pale greenish tinge) with a red stipre about 80% up the way on top, in which is contained the old-style "wide M" of pre-Fanatasy Milestone, the two bottom and one top sapces of the letter filled in black. On top of the red stripe is the word "MILESTONE" all caps, not bold. Imagine this label, only white instead of green, a red stripe across and containing the "M", and the label name on top being a very straight-looking font. Anyway...the music itself is very good, at times even "quirky" (in a Gospel" way, but the whole thing sounds like it was recorded as a demo. Big echo-y room sound, no separation between voices and instruments, indistinct presence on the instruments, etc. Either Keepnews produced in name only or else, for whatever reason, he didn't bother to record this music with care and precision. Too bad, because it deserves a lot better. OTOH, The Duncanaires appear to have released an album prior to this on Battle, in the days when that label was a Riverside brand, so I guess everybody knew each other before they did this one. No matter, any way you look at it, it is a pretty interesting record, both musically and discographically. And there's a drummer on here who gets really, shal we say, "aggressive" in a few spots. I would love to find out who that was!

Uncle Joe Anklebiter Huckleberry Hound

Heartening to see Colby Lewis' return to action, just because. They thought he was dead, and maybe on a team that was even halfway alive he would be, but hell, there he was anyway, ready to be there as long as he's needed. The innermost Inner Colby Lewis is one tough son-of-a-gun. Sure he gets paid for it, but for real, it's as inspiring to see him make it back as it is depressing to consider how bad things are that he's desperately needed.

Yeah, Gene Ammons! If Universal Italy can do the Concord-owned ex-OJC stuff, they could do all the Mercury, Prestige, Argo/Cadet, Verve (w/Stitt), Blue Note (what little there is) and have on helluva box covering pretty much the man's entire career, beginning to end. Put me down for that one, for sure.

If you'd not might indulging a slightly impish impulse, draw on them with different colored Sharpies, then bury them in a 10 foot deep hole. Go to bed that night and dream of archaeological teams centuries in the future uncovering them with excitements both imagined and not. You can shape the future long after you've left it!

We need a book.

Gospel on Prestige spinoff Tru-Sound produced by Ozzie Cadena & recorded by RVG. In case you're curious, a Rudy Gospel piano sounds just like a Rudy Jazz piano. There is an uncredited drummer on some cuts, as well as an organist who is also uncredited, unless it's pianist Amos Bell overdubbing.

As far as what was being "channeled" on that record...the blue label Tomel 45 is credited to "Don Wilkerson - His Tympo Five". An obvious allusion to Louis Jordan And His Tympani Five "Shepard" being Ollie Shepard: Now, listen to Jordan's version: And now, a sample of the Wilkerson 45: http://74.220.215.83/~mikevagu/ebay/wilkersondon.mp3 So, great article until "Don Wilkerson" comes into the picture, and then I think they got in past what they knew and just stared assuming and, I hate to say it, romanticizing. Perhaps not, but this "Don Wilkerson" thing is surely not as easily wrapped up as presented.

As a followup to this post here: about Brother Brown Publsihing, I've found this little tidbit: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/southernsoul/conversations/topics/33275 Vernon Garrett I know of from his many years locally, but Ray Agee, that's a new one on me (probably not for people who are deeper into this stuff than I am, though). Anyway, look and listen to this: And ok, look at this: http://www.discogs.com/label/119310-White-Enterprises-Records Hello, Charlie Roberson, maker of one of the greatest indie R&B records ever, and one of the nicest & fairest men I've ever gigged with. The ladies love him, and so do his bands. He was casual about booking because he owned his own successful transmission repair business in South Dallas. So, back to Vernon Garret, also on this label, and here we have personnel: http://www.discogs.com/Vernon-Garrett-Somebody-Messed-Up-At-The-Crossroads/release/2867598 notice a tenor player names Hollis Gilmore who turns up with Percy Mayfield on a Timeless album: and who has his own album (and bio) http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7127555&style=music&fulldesc=T So...all this doesn't really connect yet, but these records definitely all hover around an L.A. blues/R&B scene that the cats in the Ray Charles band would have had contact with at one time or another, along with some interconnection with South Dallas...which is not Houston, especially at the time the Don Wilkerson 45 was released. But still, it makes it more likely to me that the Ray Charles Don Wilkerson still had connections in L.A. from his days there with Amos Milburn, etc., and that that makes it more "likely" that the Tomel 45 was issued under his name. Still and all...my reaction is still a partially educated WTF? because Hollis Gillmore plays very nicely, but if that one cut is any example, he doesn't sound like Don Wilkerson (although, with guys like this, never assume anything, because they got gears and they got faces and don't ever think you've seen them all after just a casual look, that would be a possibly fatal mistake, that would). Still another consideration, though, "Don Wilkerson Productions" could easily be just an on-paper way to get rid of some money for somebody for some reason, or to likewise stick somebody with a liability. So, ok, Jerry Don White...who the hell were you? Jerry White Enterprises 4308 SO. Vermont Ave. LA , CA 90037 A quick seven minute drive from La Salle! https://www.google.com/maps/dir/7406+La+Salle+Ave,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90047/4308+S+Vermont+Ave,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90037/@33.9888309,-118.3135474,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c2b7d37d31a3c7:0x2d45a8b31c6772f5!2m2!1d-118.305408!2d33.972513!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c2c804cdc86791:0x28fd8c89f28a6a11!2m2!1d-118.2915473!2d34.0051511

7406 La Salle Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90047 Owner: JERRY D DECD OF WHITE EST Total land value: $145,000 (it was $59,872 in 2009) Total building value: $77,000 (it was $59,872 in 2009) Total value for property: $222,000 (it was $119,744 in 2009) Recording date: 09/07/2008 Year built: 1926 Effective year built: 1926 Area of property: 1,092 square feet Assessment for fiscal year: 2012/2013 Read more: http://www.city-data.com/los-angeles-county/L/La-Salle-Avenue-68.html#ixzz2yp2Vodm1

Beginning in the late 50s, iirc, Berman & Sahl, and on into the md-60s really, yes, a lot of comedy records on Verve. Remember the inner sleeves where they had the partition that said "The Wit Of America Is On Verve"? What else strikes me is that I don't recall either of them being that young, especially Anne Meara, who looks like she could still pass for a teenager if she had to.

Yes, I do have the 45, and yes, I do believe that the saxophonist is the Ray Charles (and keep in mind that Wilkerson was touring with RC through the70s, maybe even into the early 1980s) Don Wilkerson. The odds of two Don Wilkersons on one date are indeed slim, but given the obscurity of the label, I'd not be surprised to find out that Don got some kind of deal through some kind of off-the-radar blues/buisness contacts, took along what might have been a cousin or uncle or something along for the session, and this was the result. I'd also not be surprised to find out that the old man now claims that it was his record or that he's always called himself "Don", that it was him who got the date and that he took the tenor playing Don along, and that the whole thing was cut right there in Houston, not L.A., that L.A. was the business address of whoever it was who put out this curiosity for whatever reason. I'd not be surprised by anything, because we're talking about a circuit of performance & business practices where precise documentation and paper trails occurred only sometimes, and then when deemed necessary and/or advantageous for a specific individual's specific need at a specific point in time. All I know is that the name on the label says "Don Wilkerson", that the saxophonist sure as hell sounds like the guy who played on the Ray Charles records, and that that Don Wilkerson might have "retired" to Houston but was no means out of circulation/exposure. Past that, we're looking at the world of independently funded one-shot R&B records of the 1980s, and hey, do ya' like FUN boys and girls? If so.... Google the address the address given on the label of the Tomel 45 - 3821 So. LaSalle Ave. Los Angles Calif. 90018. No such place per se - S. LaSalle ends at W. Jefferson and only goes up to the 3100 block before it does. Then it picks up again a few blocks south, but ends with the 3700 block before being interrupted by a train track. What the map shows as its continuation is in fact an alley. There is a 3821 LaSalle Ave. in LA, but it's now zip code 90062. The non-south LaSalle running parallel to that alley. Both addresses show to be older residential areas with small-ish houses of an older age. No storefronts or anything. Use the maps and then street level views, its all there. Not knowing how old those tracks are, or what re-coding of the area's Zip Codes might have occurred as a result, I'd be willing to accept that this was/is the place that was the "home" of Tomel records. Does this deal look like anything other than somebody knowing somebody who put up some money for somebody for some reason? And who was more likely in a position to get in that traffic? "Or Don Wilkerson" or some old guy with a foggy memory who claims to have "used to been" a "Texas saxophone player". Not saying that there's no familial relation, I'd have no idea about that, but although the rest of the record sounds "unknown" the sax playing really does not. Maybe I'm wrong, could be. But nothing here is making me hear otherwise.

Because, with comedy records, you never know...

I mentioned the 45 to Shelley Carroll a while back, after first coming across it, and he said that yes, it was the same Don Wilkerson. He didn't know the specifics but he seemed to know about the record and that it was Don. What he didn't claim was that Don was the vocalist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/arts/music/fred-ho-56-composer-and-radical-activist-dies.html?_r=0 Character!

Bill Cosby Jerry Stiller Todd Gnish

I just called them (yay phone!) and they said that it's because of the shipping option, that International Express would most likely go through Sweden due to the courier/shipping service used, and that DHL & Fed-Ex would route differently. The guy also said that he was not extremely knowledgeable about the particulars, but that he did know that much. 773-342-5800 or 1-888-387-8947 Central (M-Sat)

Did somebody say original ESP covers of Bud Powell albums?

Where I come from, a person having a good business sense is inextricably tied to them being able to finance their appetites and their related self-destructions your own self...by any means necessary, up to and including getting somebody else to foot the bill and assume all the risk!

As a Bach record, ok, yes, creepy. But as a Rhodes record, hey, interesting idea, and depending on execution, a way cool one. Now, that "Switched On Bach" thing, that didn't work for me either way. But I never could got all acid-fetalistic with a Moog like I could with a Rhodes. So, there is interest here.

Pros outweigh the cons a this time, imo. I like not having to click on something that's not there, much less order it. It also shows, I would guess, that they're inching towards real-time inventory listings, which I think overall benefits all.

There was a time when he didn't have any savings, dead broke, used to take "personal appearance" gigs, a hundred bucks to show up at a party and pretend to be an invited guest, a "friend" of the host. I'm of the impression that the man had no good business sense whatsoever about what to do with his money after he made it. None. So, 18K is something of a pleasant surprise, really.

The Flock The Rock Mike Nock