JSngry

Staying with this one for another day. Paul Bley goes all-in Frisky Imp from start to finish. Wondermous!!!!

Cynthetta Paulk - Walk This Road With Me Jesus II was expecting songs of devotion, but it turns out to be a record about hitchiking across America, sort of a curated tourist experience for a Jesus who's just taking a vacation to get away from it all. I mean, who can blame him, right?

Judge Parker Vernon Law Elroy Face

From Pookie's Pub in 1967 to your local Shakey's in 1968...old pianos never die, they just get moved down the food chain.

David Murray once said that Summer in Europe pays for the rest of the year in America.

Definitely. Look at Max's 70s records. All of them made in Europe or Japan, some of them for smallish (or smaller) labels, some of them appear to be hit-and-run dates, like hey, they're in town, let's make a cash offer, see what we can get. Max would work like that, apparently, rather than doing a US deal where somebody else ended up owning everything in perpetuity. Hell, one of the very best of the lot, Force , the first duet with Shepp, was made through a connection with the Italian Communist Party! Hardly a record company bigwig! Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to a formal collation of these records is ownership rights. Who owns them, really? And if anybody other than the Estate gives them up....OOPS! So at this point, who wants all that hassle?

I think Pookie's was probably what, in most places, would be referred to as a "joint". Expectations about pianos in joints are wisely kept (where they are kept at all) on the low side of optimistic/the high side of pessimistic.

That second one looks like Lew Tabackin having seen better days. fwiw, the browser i'm in now does not show your posted pic.

This guy? He's from Minnesota and seems to favor really big shoelaces?

Patient-Lee + Bley being exceptionally facile and spry, even by his standards.

Isn't he also on the Octet sides?

Phil Dutterbuck's Greatest Hits Nobody played that thing like Phil Dutterbuck played that thing!!!

Trudy Lee - Shake Me Up Today Like You Did Last Night!!!

Not any more...

Surely Bags Unlimited has them?

It does, and I might have, but it seems that you have the gist of it. And it's certainly not a thought which is original to me. So make your own quote for going forth!

I'm an old-skool/hardcore AFL guy. So my heart is in with the Dallas Texans.

In a word - no. I've heard it speculated that Max was blacklisted for a while due to his political statements, and his insistence (no pun intended) on same in his music. I've also heard it speculated that Max was a "difficult" person to work with in business terms. He insisted on owning his own masters and leasing them out to whoever. The truth is probably a bit of both, since it's maybe hard to differentiate between those two things for a lot of people. No judgement here, just an objective, I hope, observation. No matter, that 70s band was totally under the radar of the mainsteream jazz press. Figure that the existence of that thing was build upon selling advertising and helping various hype machines, well, here's a band that made no records for an American label, and only resurfaced at all on Soul Note, and, finally for a quick minute, on Columbia (thanks to Bruce Lundvall). And THAT was the Odean Pope band, which had a different energy altogether. Look at the labels that great Harper-era band recorded for. ZERO American presence. Ad trust me when I tell you that in order to get American presences, you almost always had to have American presence. I found out about this band thanks to a college buddy who had come from Belgium and had The Loadstar. BAM! The Denon records were turning up in Peaches, but not too much elsewhere. Time and perseverance has allowed for a better appreciation of Max's latter bands, but it's still a bit of a cult thing, really. Also, ask yourself why Billy Harper has not really done anything for an American label. Clearly he has ambition, the guy keeps a band and they do get work. (or did). And clearly he is willing to make records. So why not America? Why not, America?

The Gatherino Sisters - Seeds, Nuts, and Berries (The Music of John Palm Jr.)

This is a really good record.

Houm Alarken - Fedelsia Anouk!!!

I've also heard his described as Dolphy-influenced. Why, I don't know. What he did on his own was just fine on its own terms, imo.

There were some really nice things on here - Palmieri (funny how a guy that gets so much adoration on this board whiffs when he shows up on a BFT...), Person, and Teddy E particularly stood out for me. But I would not be the first person to suggest that perhaps the original Young Lion was Ruby Braff! Where does the time go?!?!?!?!

Luckily for me, I got Vol one on LP back in the day when those Denon LPs were fairly readily available in the US shops. Vol 2 I was able to get with a little help from my friends.