Shrdlu

I'm very fond of Gary's albums and have virtually all of them. He was brilliant, and very original. My favorite album is "The In Sound". It is very intense, especially "Fried Bananas", a real cooker, with a fine solo by Bobby Brookmeyer. "Bloop Bleep" has a superb bass riff that Mongo Santamaria later used on "You And Me Baby". On the famous "Soft Samba", it is exciting to hear Tom Jobim's patented guitar chording on "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "La Vie En Rose" - if only the latter went on longer. I looped that in Virtual DJ to extend it. The "Today" album is magnificent, with a superb cast. Gary's last album, "Butterscotch Rum", drew some criticism from the purists, but has a memorable "Salvation Army Rag". Doug Payne's online material is very valuable, and led me to some rare singles. The scoring on "Soft Samba Strings" is worthy of Gil Evans, especially the opening track. I hope the original tapes of that project still exist. Some of it was recorded in England and then Rudy van Gelder added piano and other instruments to it. Unfortunately, he laid a rare egg and the added parts are off by a quarter-tone. It sounds dreadful. If the separate parts still exist, this problem could be fixed. The part recorded in England was done during an extended visit when Gary also did a session with Zoot Sims, and the music for the "13" movie (which is strictly listen-once for me).

Not much of value was recorded in the 70s, as far as I'm concerned. The age of development was pretty much over and several top players (e.g. Hancock, Corea, Williams) went into fusion, which, for me, is just a damned noise. I am glad that they were able to make some money from it, though. Herbie wasn't getting rich from his Blue Note albums. Of course, a lot of the main players continued recording, but it was largely music of a retrospective type. Weather Report was an excellent exception, especially my favorite, "Tale Spinnin' ". But jazz, after about 1968, well I'll see you later. To dispel the impression that this is just some old fogey talking, I like the best of house music, which started in the early 80s. That's where it's at now. One can inject a lot of jazz influences into it.

My parents got me one when I started high school. It was a cheap windup. Not very accurate: it gave more of a season than a time. Later, I got a "name" watch at one of the Paris, France, airports. It was one of those self-winding models. As with the first one, it told the season rather than the actual time. In the late 80s, my favorite uncle died and his gf sent me his Omega watch. That really surprised me: I set it, and the next day, it was dead on to the second. Quartz. Very nice. You could adjust the hour without altering the minutes or seconds - very handy when crossing time zones. But it was too complex for its own good and died while we were in the Dallas area. I got it fixed, but it cost big bucks. Some internal circuit had malfunctioned. It went O.K. for a few more years and died again. I got it fixed one more time, because it had been my uncle's. Big bucks again. After a while, it died again, and the repair estimate angered me, so into a drawer it went. I got a $10 (quartz) model at a discount grocery store that is just as accurate. So much for Omega. The arrival of Android phones led me to skip the watch. However, I got a genuine German chalet-style cookoo clock for the house. It was made in the Black Forest by some 300-year-old society of cookoo clock makers: this is the real deal. I declined the music box because it only has two tunes. "Deutschland über Alles" would sound good.

I recommend the Oliver Nelson set. It is all high quality. Not every session is a classic, but the average is high, as one might expect. It doesn't include the superb Cannonball "Illumination" session, but that is easy to obtain. It was great that Ollie had a collection of regulars (e.g. Danny Bank) on whom he could call. Those were the days. Most big bands bore me, especially when it's mainly blaring trumpets, but Oliver Nelson wrote for large number of "tone color" instruments - bass clarinet, flutes etc. - and that lifts it well out of the realm of boredom.

I hope they make a CD of this. I only recently got the two Tamba 4 albums that were released back in the day. They are very enjoyable.

I obviously tried to add that, but, for some reason, it wouldn't load here. It's like the difficulty loading pics. Anyway, all one has to do is to type in "Benny Goodman Treasure Chest" at Discogs, and all the details are there.

All the details are on Discogs. These recordings are from 1937 and 1938. All the big names (James, Elman, Griffin, Krupa etc.) were still in the band. There is a good story in the notes. One one occasion, the band was "the victim of a masterpiece of bad booking. It was booked into the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, the then homing place of Guy Lombardo during the winter months. The waiters put their fingers to their ears, and rattled the silver. The Goodman trumpets took up the challenge. On opening night the band got its two-week notice!" That has a French sound to it.

Brach's? Ewwww.

This set of three LPs (no CD equivalent) is highly recommended. It contains radio broadcasts of the orchestra from the late 30s, with the usual top-notch personnel, particularly Hymie Schertzer on alto saxophone. It has a version of "Mr Bach Goes To Town". My favorite piece is an interesting arrangement of "Honeysuckle Rose" in which the saxophone section plays a counter riff at half tempo.

¡Gracias por el artículo, Sr Chew! This, as was said, is about as much as we will ever know. What a tragic story. My favorite of the four Blue Note albums is, far and away, "Here 'T'is". I'm not certain why this session had such a great and consistent groove, but it's probably the person and sound of Lou Donaldson. And now, we have an extra track from that session which is of the same high standard. Baby Face uses Freddie Green voicings when comping, where the top note of a chord moves a semitone at the chord change. This is a highly effective technique, simple but powerful. Must chase up the Argo material, no doubt readily available in the Rice Krispie format.

Bresna said it well. So, Albertson didn't like Keepnews and Weinstock. What else is new? I am tired of hearing what Albertson thought about anything. The fact is, that both Keepnews and Weinstock produced a massive amount of excellent jazz. Take your argument outside, bub.

Very good to have. Anything by the Quartet at this stage is welcome. There is a lack of production. I suspect that Bob Thiele wasn't involved. There are three takes of "Village Blues". All are equally good and there was no need for another take after the first one. It is too short, and there is no piano solo, but maybe the film guy wanted it that way. The tracks that feature the whole group are much more satisfying. Now, let's have the rest of the unissued Trane from 1962 and 1963. It does exist, because there was a radio broadcast of it about 10 years ago.

I have the Evans Verve book here. If anyone wants to know any details, drop me a message and I will do my best to supply the information.

Ha ha. That's a good one. Thought Elvin was Paul Motian. Were the notes written by an office junior? At the end of the day, bottom line, when all is said and done (insert another overused cliché), I am very grateful to be able to hear these two sessions, and I don't think the music hurts Evans's and Getz's reputations in the slightest. Verve probably left it unreleased for the same reason they didn't issue "Nobody Else But Me" (which has the quartet with Gary Burton): they were pushing Getz playing Bossa Nova. I am annoyed when one man decides not to issue a track, and I'm glad that a different person got access to this material and the two Gil Evans quartet tracks, Cheryl and Ah Moore. I am still hoping that someone (Don Was?) will issue some Blue Note that Michael Cuscuna rejected, especially the large number of unissued Three Sounds performances (how bad could those possibly be?).

Gene Ammons was a big seller for Prestige. However, the Miles albums sold well. It is definitely known that Jimmy Smith saved Blue Note, from 1956 onward. They had gone through the trauma of starting 10" LPs, and then, soon afterward, had to re-tool with 12" LPs. They began recording Jimmy in early 1956 and issued albums quickly. They were, at the time, the only label with B3 recordings in the new style. Alfred even wanted to drop the company and become Jimmy's manager.

My experience leads me to say to avoid iPhones. I don't like the hardware or software. About 10 years ago, I helped a friend get iPhones. He went through four and they all failed. Plus, the first thing it says is "Enter iTunes". That is totally irrelevant. I want the phone to start without having to start music software, and I have never used iTunes. I don't work for them, but my son and I have had great success with the Sony Xperia (Android) phone. Mine is the Z3, but they are all similar. Importantly, they take a memory card, and I have never had a capacity problem. The battery sinks like a lead brick, and when I'm at home, my phone is plugged into a 20000 mAh external. That is the big drawback of the Xperia, but you can live with it. The other minor (and irritating) problem is that the phone has no door for the battery. A friend showed me how easy it is to change the battery, and I have replaced three so far on my and a friend's phones. You just have to avoid the usual Chinese junk batteries. Android has an annoying amount of useless, undeletable apps, which rejoice under the name "bloatware", but the phone has enough built-in memory, and I've never had memory problems. Hope that helps.

TV Guide listings 8;30 Hunter. Rick's car collides with a suspect's car and a massive explosion follows. 9:30 Murder, She Wrote. In tonight's episode, Jessica investigates a murder. 10:30 Frasier. Frasier has an evening with a woman and it ends in disaster. 11:00 The Tonight Show. Tonight, Jay almost interviews a special guest.

An interesting article. I wonder whether Roy really WAS Bird's favorite drummer. Bird was very keen on Max.

Meh.

I don't understand why CDs are no longer popular (outside Japan). Sure, there is a lot of stuff on Youtube, Spotify etc. (but not all), but what if it gets deleted? They can't delete my CDs. What about music in the car? You can listen with your cellphone's data allowance, but what if there is no signal.

Ha ha, how about the Mobley 60s set?

I didn't know that the Oliver Nelson set was under-rated. It took some flak? Anyway, nothing to apologize for there. It is superb material, and it's a set that one might not have thought to issue. The idea is excellent. It is easy to take Oliver for granted: "arranged by Oliver Nelson" is seen often. He had access to the best New York studio musicians and some, such as Danny Bank and Phil Woods, could be described as being in the Oliver Nelson Orchestra. A spin of CD1 from that set ought to drive away any opposition.

Jimmy was a superb clarinet player. His sound, soaring over the orchestra, is a highlight of an Ellington performance. It is odd that he went for a Benny Goodman sound on the clarinet, but had a lush sound on the tenor saxophone.

Me gusta Horace Parlan con George Tucker y Al Harewood - y tambien con los hermanos Turrentine.

Blue Note was no longer Blue Note after Alfred retired in 1967. That is not to say that no album after he left was any good, and this is not intended as a criticism of Duke, whom I like a lot. They can call current-day recordings "Blue Note" if they like, but it is nonsense. So, there seems to be no advance on the 1975 date. I got that twofer a long time ago because it was the only way to hear the two Turrentine sessions (a 1979 "LT" LP was needed, to complete the sessions). Now, all that music is available on nice Japanese CDs, and Michael Cuscuna released CDs of nearly all (but not all) the tracks from the other Pearson-arranged 1967 Turrentine sessions. A fine body of material.