Joe

Nice review (by Luc Sante) to be found at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16478 Looks to be a promising read.

I place him in any unnumbered list I have of favorite piano players (a long list), easily, because, as Jim says, he is so personal a player. Hearing BLACK FIRE for the first time was, for me, a quite profound experience. I was and still am so impressed and intrigued by the complex interplay of emotions, light-and-sahde, and figures in Hill's playing. I agree too that he has often ebenfited from great rhythm accompanists: Richard Davis, Cecil McBee, Alan Silva, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Joe Chambers, Freddie Waits. By the same token, it takes a very intelligent and sensitive bandleader to put together bands like that! Hill's compositional craft I hold in even higher regard, and it is pretty amazing to me that not only can this guy write this stuff, but also improvise on it. I put him in the same league as Herbie Nichols, Mal Waldron, Elmo Hope, Ran Blake... I'm not sure the "Blue Note" / RVG sound really ever did him any favors, or he became a player of much greater subtlety in the 70's. The solo recitals that became a regular practice for him in that decade reveal a much more "pianistic" player than the idiosyncratic, Monk-and-Silver-inflected abstractionist (I see Franz Kline or Philip Guston) of BLACK FIRE, JUDGMENT, SMOKESTACK, ANDREW!, etc. To assuage my own doubts about this impression, I like to A/B those early works with records like VERONA RAG, LIKE AT MONTREUX, FROM CALIFORNIA WITH LOVE and even the recent LES TRINITAIRES.

Love Geri Allen's work on that one. RoyBrooksROYBROOOKSRoyBrooks!!!

Joe Lovano plays straight tenor on at least one of his recordings...

A Bb/A piccolo rotary valve trumpet Saxes! From left to right: 1. King Manzello/Roland Kirk/Key of B Flat 2. Buescher Curved Tip Soprano / Key of B Flat 3. Buecher Straight Alto / Key of E Flat 4. Lyon and Healy Slide Sax / Key of C 5. C.G.Conn Bass Sax / Key of B Flat 6. Raffiel and Husted Slide Sax / Key of C 7. Conn O Sax / Key of F 8. King Saxello / Key of B Flat 9. Martin American Professional / Key of B Flat http://drrick.com/display.html The Lyricon: http://www.jorritdijkstra.com/thelyricon.html

Absolutely. The Euphoria label has done an excelent job with this release.

Does Mitchell sound a little like Joe Henderson on this date to any of you? I find that Mitchell's playing on "J & B" in particular features some almost uncanny tonal resemblances to Henderson's...

Here's a recording that merits discussion via AOTW, IMHO:

Johnny Griffin on tenor, alto and baritone sax: Jackie McLean on tenor: John Coltrane on alto: Cecil Payne on alto: Finally, Charles Davis, who I think of as primarily a baritone saxophonist, has recorded an entire album on tenor sax:

This is the date with Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson, right? If so, a very nice record. But I happen to think the later LISTEN TO THE DAWN is Morgan's "masterpiece": Alex Henderson's AMG review

Yep, it was the only really good image of the *great* Ernie Caceres I was able to find online. It would only have been improved if he were holding a baritone sax instead of a clarinet... but why quibble?

Lon comes through.

The archetypal Dex photo. Mnytime -- I can't find the Hodges photo online anywhere, but I could swear its been reprinted in one of the Mosaic booklets, maybe the COMPLETE 1956-1961 VERVE SESSIONS box. And, you know, Illinois needed all this room... you'd best stand back... Finally, a fresh-faced and clean-cut Tony Scott:

Neil Young, Burned

Warne was almost always in a zone, you know. Indeed there is something to be said for the many live tapes of Marsh in circulation, some legit -- from Peter Ind's Wave label, or the Tristano family's Jazz label -- and some not-so legit. But if you are just getting into Warne or wonder what the fiss may be all about, bear me through a couple of studio recommendations... "Tristano school" for beginners... The rhythm section just looks on paper like a classy, comfortable one, but, with Marsh as the primary voice, they become something else entirely. Also, one of the best "sounding" Warne recordings out there. Out of nowhere...

Ko-ko or koko may indeed by a shortened form of Kokomo which had at least a couple of colloquial meanings in the first half of the 20th Century: 1. cocaine 2. any fictional "hick" town, i.e., Dogpatch "Koko" may also refer to one's coconut or one's head. Or, like konk or Hadacol, it could refer to a popular product of the time...

J.A.W. -- Iread in the latest ICE Newsletter that Rhino is bringing out the Mayfield material in their Handmade series. 2500... make that 2498 ... copies. WOW! That is great news! Didn't get that newsletter or the July 2003 issue of ICE yet - did they say when Rhino Handmade will release it? No, I've seen no release date yet. I check the Handmade website periodically, and I've also singed up for their newsletter. No word yet. Hopefully August. http://www.rhinohandmade.com/

J.A.W. -- Iread in the latest ICE Newsletter that Rhino is bringing out the Mayfield material in their Handmade series. 2500... make that 2498 ... copies.

THE COMPLETE ROULETTE RECORDINGS OF JOHN HANDY THE COMPLETE ROULETTE / ROOST RECORDSING OF EDDIE "LOCKJAW" DAVIS THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS OF PAUL KNOPF

The famous image of Johnny Hodges signaling for his waiter to keep filling his glass is certainly one of those "picture worth a thousand words" images. I also like these... Miles and Fats Donald Byrd Pres Yusef Lateef Newport Rebels Dorham, Coleman and Mingus

Very nice, 24-bit, mid-price facsimile reissue of the (largely) Detroit-based tenor saxophonist's 1962 session for the Mercury Smash subsidiary. Featuring a young Bobby Hutcherson, Sleepy Anderson, Herman Wright, Candy Finch, Billy Wallace, and Dave Burns, one of my favorite, little-documented trumpet players. A friend had been kind enough to provide me with a CD-R vinyl transfer of this record, but I have to admit I had not paid much attention to it until I heard the opening track, "J & B", by chance in a record store. I could have sworn I was hearing a Joe Henderson ballad performance. Now I really intrigued by whatever relationship may have existed between Henderson and Mitchell. Then again, maybe I'm just hearing things... However you hear it, it's a very nice record, not a barn-burner by any means -- lots of slow and mid-tempos -- but it all swings.

Oh yeah... Miles was into this young lady.

The lovely and talented... Geri Allen Amina Claudine Myers Cindy Blackman Michele Rosewoman Susie Ibarra Unfortunately, I could not locate a picture of Barbara Donald.

An album cover easy on the eyes, an album easy on the ears...

Who else mentioned Stereolab? I am definitely a Stereolab fan... Also been digging Sigur Rós, Califone, and Queens of the Stone Age recently.