mhatta

With regard to the 80s Jazz, Sting comes to mind. Now it's almost forgotten and I guess many of you might disagree anyway, but I think Branford Marsalis and especially Kenny Kirkland's best work is heard in Sting's Bring On The Night (1986).

I don't usually rate Scott Hamilton highly, but Soft Lights & Sweet Music is my favorite Mulligan in his later years. Also, a guest appearance on Mel Tome's live recording is nice. Unfortunately, a US version of CD omitted a terrific medley of three Mulligan compositions (Line for Lions / Venus De Milo / Walking Shoes) with Mel's great scat. A Japanese 2 CD version contains all of them.

I'm not sure they are really "legitimate" (well, in the good ol' days some Japanese record companies distributed Italian Joker LP/CDs as "legit"...) but AFAIK the recent Freedom releases were produced by a company called MUZAK. It was established in 2003 and already did lots of Jazz reissues (including Julius Hemphill's Dogon A.D. CD). Even if you can't read Japanese, their webpage will give you some idea: http://www.muzak.co.jp/

Good for you, I've never seen both in person... Berndt Egerbladh is not well known outside his native Sweden, but a fine pianist.

I thought Wild Bill Moore's heyday was '40s (and some studio work such as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On), but he made 2 Jazz records in 1961 and they are not bad. He plays Sister Caroline, a Nat Adderley tune! Big Jay McNeely is sometimes despised as a mere honker & screamer, but actually he was an able Jazz tenor saxophonist. His rendition of How High The Moon is elegant and soulful.

Once famous (stint with Bird, Blue Train, tons of trio stuff from Japanese Alpha, etc.), so not really overlooked, but these days people rarely talk about Kenny Drew. And also about his son, Drew Jr., too. I think they should be remembered. This album is a classic, and possibly one of the best version of "Caravan" Jazz ever produced. I think Drew Jr. lacked originality a bit, but he was still very good at interpreting other Jazz greats' works. His rendition of Mingus/Monk tunes is impeccable.

Today I re-listened to Kenny Drew. Drew (& Jr. too) are now kinda forgotten, that's unfortunate. They are terrific pianists. This one is from '70s with awful jacket, so rightfully overlooked. That's also unfortunate, too.

Seems nobody has mentioned Freddie Mitchell yet. I think he was a great R&B saxophonist. A nice bio: https://www.spontaneouslunacy.net/artists-freddie-mitchell/

The King years of Bostic is good, but I think as an alto screamer Bostic shined most when he was in Lionel Hampton's band.

RIP Dr. Lonnie Smith. I really love his slow-to-medium groove like this.

It is a terrible news. RIP. The Good Doctor visited Japan several times and I could catch some. I heard that he really loves Japanese "Mugi Choco" (chocolate-coated wheat puff, cheap but good stuff). Hope he can get tons of them up there. My favorite in his later years:

The premature death of Emily Remler is still sorely missed.

I recently found that Mike Wofford is an overlooked but great pianist. This one is little known since it is a live recording in Japan and billed as "The Shelly Manne Trio". Playing "Nardis" for (the recently deceased at that time) Bill Evans with Manne is a dauntless task...

Lovano recorded some materials from BotC in 2006. I should say it is rather mundane despite the promising personnel. Also, I don't quite understand (now and then) why Lovano "has to" do it -- well, maybe he just "wanted to" or "could" do, but I don't see any personal connection or necessity. I'm not sure this was related with Gerry's 1992 project, but this Lee Konitz's recollection (from Bill Crow's Jazz Anecdotes) is rather amusing: The Smithsonian Institution wanted Lee Konitz to do a concert using the Nonet arrangements by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and John Carisi that had been used on the Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool" band in the late 1940s. Lee said: I didn't know where the arrangements were, so I called Miles. I hadn't had any communication with him in years, and he wasn't interested. He didn't want to hear about it. After getting the four arrangers to laboriously re-create their arrangements, Konitz phoned Davis: I said, "Miles, remember my asking you for the arrangements of the 'Cool' sessions? Well, we've transcribed them and rewritten them and put them together again." He said, "Man, you should have asked me. Those mothers are all in my basement." Later, Konitz reported the conversation to Gil Evans, who said, Miles wouldn't have told you he had everything in the basement if you hadn't first told him you'd gone to the trouble to transcribe the records.

RIP. My personal favorite is Blues Mission (1993). The personnel is nice 'n weird -- Pee Wee is joined by Jack Walrath, Jean Paul Bourelly, Masabumi "Poo" Kikuchi, and Clyde Stubblefield. And somehow it works. Also, a duo album with Horace Parlan is touching. Better than the albums with Archie Shepp, I think. It also contains Parlan's best work from his later years.

What's up? ;-) Anywise, I still enjoy the recordings from Monk's final years -- I don't know why, but much better than expected.

Bheki Mseleku was a great pianist I admire (he also could play good sax and guitar), but I think he style was more "mainstream" than South-African flavored. My personal favorite is Beauty of Sunrise (Polygram, 1997), but couldn't find it on YouTube, so... When I was young I enjoyed Zacks Nkosi's A Tribute To Zacks Nkosi (1975) since a British radio DJ in Japan recommended it on his program. Not so thrilling or "jazzy", but have a good, relaxed African vibrations.

JM's New York Calling is a hidden gem. I also like his (possibly only) album as leader - When Destiny Calls (1975, SteepleChase). Information on Gault is scarce (I remember that SteepleChase CD doesn't come with liner notes), but seems he was active as pianist/educator at least till 2012: https://www.tunxis.edu/news/tunxis-events-scheduled-for-march-and-april/ "Khalim Zarif, an internationally-known jazz pianist who performed as a younger man under the name Billy Gault, has performed with jazz legend and educator Jackie McClean, among others. " So he seems converted to Islam and worked as Khalim Zarif.

Sadik Hakim made lots of albums after his "comeback" in 70s, but I think most of them had sidemen not up to his caliber. I guess the best of the bunch is Witches, Goblins, Etc. (SteepleChase). It had Al Foster on drums and also "Witches" might be his best composition.

It is interesting that Carl Wilson, the organ player, seems almost exclusively played with Willis Jackson and nobody else. Did he retire after the Gator's death? https://www.discogs.com/ja/artist/477102-Carl-Wilson-2?type=Credits&filter_anv=0

You guys solved my long-standing mystery! Thanks! It seems that the real title of this tune is "You Want Me To Stop" and the lead sheets is still in Walter Davis, Jr.'s archive. https://www.worldcat.org/title/lead-sheets-unpublished-copyright-deposits-1964-1977/oclc/271073204 There also seems to be a tune entitled "Sister Mayme"! I guess these two were close at that period. I don't know how Library of Congress works (and I live in Japan anyway), could somebody in DC area check the availability of that documents? ;-)

"Joe Henderson in Japan" was recorded at the obscure "Junk Club" in Ginza, Tokyo. I heard that It was run by a Chinese gentleman, closed in ca. 1985, but one of its former employee opened another club, "Swing".

According to Peter Losin, Miles played at the Plugged Nickel again in 1969 and somebody recorded it. I vaguely remember that Bob Belden released some recordings ("Milestones"?) from that gig on the Net, for whatever reason. And now, as usual, available on YouTube...

For me, the most surprising thing so far on this recording is Carlos Garnett. He was on fire (especially on the last 2 tunes). I unjustly considered Carlos was not a player on par with Woody Shaw, but I was wrong and I gladly stand corrected.

For me, these sessions are summarized into this one tune. I heard this originally on a BN compilation called "The Lost Grooves". I think it was from the very last session Alfred Lion personally directed. BTW, Is this really written by that Wild Bill Davis? Is there his own recordings? It sounds very much modern. Anywise, I say this is hardboiled bitter sweetness embodied.