Big Beat Steve

Let's put it this way ... it's happened before that when reviewers' (or - generally speakling - scribes') comments were brought up that might sound like heresy about someone held up high on a pedestal among today's fans it wouldn't take long for replies of the sort of "he didn't know shit" to come up. So I thought it only fair to point out BEFOREHAND that things have to be seen in the context of THEIR times. As for your other comment about "Dolphy being in another place than was the band", by coincidence while checking the above reviews I also came across a reference in the press review section of one of the issues relating to a feature on Coltrane and Dolphy that seems to have been run in an April, 1962 issue of Down Beat. The contents were paraphrased like this: "Coltrane partially confirmed what the critics had to say about the two of them apparently never being able to finish a tune. .... The cooperation with Dolphy still remains on a theoretical level, as they haven't really found each other yet on stage. One never knows when the other will stop, what he'll be going to play and how, but John was optimistic about the future." Sounds a bit like your impressions, doesn't it?

Yes, him. Exactly. He wrote regularly for OJ in those years. BTW, just to put Werner's comments about Dolphy a bit into context, ESTRAD - the "other" Swedish jazz mag of those years - had this to say about Dolphy in the review of that concert: "Next to him [Coltrane] stands Eric Dolphy and he makes even the bandleader himself sound conventional . Well, almost, at any rate. ..."

FWIW, here is a quote from the review of the late-November 1961 Gillespie/Coltrane "double feature" concert in Stockholm during the above tour as written by Lars Werner for the December, 1961 issue of ORKESTER JOURNALEN: "Gillespie's music certainly is mature and complete, which is about the least you can say about what John Coltrane's group plays. Here it is all about jazz in an overwhelming expansion and searching without limits. The program was largely the same for both concerts but the musical contents were quite different. A singular experience and really stimulating to hear. The biggest impression was made by the rhythmic freedom and richness - Elvin Jones' enormlously driving and pushing drum work. I think this he the best drummer i have ever heard. MyCoy Tyner made a much better impression than on record and played long, beautiful melody lines and romantic sounds - the sounds that Coltrane is said to be so fascinated by, and one can understand that behind his experiments dissolving all chords he insists on having a rich harmonic background. Coltrane was in fine form on all tunes, and I liked him best soprano sax in his two versions of "My Favorite Things" of which he played one at each concert. This was his top feature anyway - totally hypnotizing with his repeated figures and Jones' phantastic drumming. On the other hand, I found Dolphy's participation to be quite superfluous. He just gives me a feeling of bluffing and masquerading whenever I find myself near him. I think it is just wrong to play "wrong" the way he does. All in all a top-notch concert of the kind you would like all concerts to be. " So clearly Lars Werner had not got to grips with Dolphy by late 1961 - and Werner was no slouch on the Swedish and European jazz scene and not averse to exploring advanced jazz ideas. So IMHO there is no point denigrating Werner (with the doubtful benefit of hindsight and therefore missing the point) for how he felt about Dolphy at THAT time. It just reflects the impact a musician may have had (or not) in his time.

Do we know why the site went down (or had to go down)?

Yes, quote from the Variety link above: "Since being acquired by Wood Creek Capital Management Group in March, 2013, from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (and Norman Lear, who remains on as chairman emeritus) for $120 million, Concord Music has been on a spending spree .." So that Billboard item is old hat indeed. You just explained why there are P.D. labels reissuing that stuff in places where this is perfectly legal. Because there ARE people who care about hearing this.

Thanks for the reminder. Have done what's necessary to preserve this for me. "Distinguished female jazz scholar Charlotte Bronte" .... hee hee!

Yes, I would like to hear about the outcome too. We will all be up against this one day. And the fact that I am seriously thinking about NOT going to the twice-a-year record clearout sale this fall at our #1 local record store that still carries a substantial range of vinyl is giving me the creeps (the reason being that I now have definitely run out of filing space if I want to maintain a halfway orderly system).

Yes, the one who drew that "likeness" (?) did not know his craft. And very unfavorable and unflattering for Stan Getz it is too.

Actually I was referring to used records indeed (and therefore to what one might be likely to find at best value for money as a tradeoff of quality/price/availability). I don't expect to see this item (or items like this) in any new VINYL reissue programs. But I was hoping you (or somebody else in the US, maybe?) might be closer to the market than I may be over here. I am not sure Discogs is fully reliable here. According to them a Boplicity reissue (UK) would be the onyl vinyl reissue. I cannot recall having ever seen that (I would have grabbed it - after all those praises in the WCJ books), but I don't recall having ever seen it as a vinyl OJC either. So ...? Just wondering ...

Which would be the best, most accessible and most affordable VINYL reissue of this LP in your opinion?

Which is one I had to think hard about for a moment too this morning when I followed up your initial post because I KNEW I have the Mode-related Bill Harris record. It turned out I do - but as the Xanadu reissue titled "Bill Harris Memorial Album" (so not immediately recognizable just by looking at the spine on the shelf), and it was not the first Jazz Band Ball LP, so back to step 1 until I found that Marty Paich reference

I have the VSOP facsimile reissue of that Mode album, and as for "The Dipsy Doodle", the liner notes (by one Joe Quinn) specifically state: "Gibbs, Bunker and Feldman romp for two choruses each in that order, followed by a fours exchange in the same sequence." So this confirms what you read in that review ... To avoid having to write lengthy excerpts for the other tunes, here is a scan of the track listing part of the liner notes: BTW, you nearly had me stumped with this one. I checked my Terry Gibbs LPs - no Mode 110. But I am convinced I do have that "first" "Jazz Band Ball" on Mode. I would not have let this pass me by, would I? Nothing in the Bill Haris corner either, neither any reference to co-billing for Terry Gibbs with someone else in the Goldmine Jazz LP guide. Had to do an internet search to refresh my memory with the key details: The first "Jazz Band Ball" is commonly credited to Marty Paich as the leader. And there it sits on my shelf ... whew ...

Which amounts to doing a "soft return" instead of a "hard return". That's how I proceed too

The more I think about it and look at that LP cover scan the more I think that it might very well be that Little Richard LP on the Contour budget label. The blueish tint/discoloration of the 70s photograph print alters the colors, but if you take this into account and look at the proportions as well as the spotlight reflections to the left and right of Little Richard on this cover, things look like they match. A record I would not have thought of - despite the fact that actually I USED to own this LP (bought it during a school class Easter holiday trip to London in 1975 - coincidence ...). I sold it off long ago, though, because those live recordings were just horrible, at least to my ears. Not the real (Specialty) thing by a long shot. Thanks for your perspicacity!

Strange ... Anybody else have this problem? It is there (two, in fact), and I've uploaded pics via the same image hoster here before - without any apparent problems. Just in case (a wild shot): If you do not see the pic but a link can you click on the link or copy/paste the link in yur browser to see the pic?

A question to those who may have wide-ranging tastes in music from the (pre-mid-70s) vinyl era: The below photo came up on a classic car forum and of course people started wondering about the LP this guy in his very 70s-ish garb is holding. (The UK license plate of the Jag E dates from 1973 so this and the other cars in the car park might date the pic - and the vinyl) Anybody have any idea for identification?

True. Not only in the field of music. At the end of the 90s my father tried to reduce his considerable library of architecture books (the result of a long professional life in that field and of hoarding books on this subject - a habit I "unfortunately" have inherited in my fields of interest ). Libraries did not show much interest and even antiquarians would have required him beforehand to draft a detailed listing of what exactly he had (as did the libraries). Neither of the two groups of potential recipients seemed to have been prepared to send someone over to have a closer look for assessment. The final result? Some of the more run of the mill stuff and/or more recent books were given to former students of his (free, of course), and the rarer/older/more collectible ones made it into my crates of fleamarket/garage sale stuff. I made some pretty decent money from those I have sold over time. As for the antiquarians - their loss .... I remember when I sold off a bunch of his more collectible 20s/30s books to a lady who turned out to run an antique bookshop specializing in architecture books herself. Musing over her finds at my stall she seemed to be truly dumbfounded by what she had discoverd there and asked me outright "Which estate did these books come from?", obviously meaning (without being that forthright) "Books like this are not supposed to end up with private sellers who might sell them directly to private buyers - they are supposed to go directly from the estate to professional sellers who can make a maximum of benefit from them". Ha, lady, your loss, and not true anyway - remember the saying: " Avoid the middleman"! So, Chuck ... while CDs are not that collectible, of course, how about participating in an occasional neighborhood garage sale first and make some happy buyers? You can still donate the leftovers elsewhere of call in one of the shops later on.

And when will your lock-up unit come up on "STORAGE WARS" on TV, then? Might make for some interesting watching ...

I am afraid it is the rule not all that rarely. Unless you happen to stumble upon a library that is severely understocked AND wants to add to its range in that particular field that you happen to want to get rid off. A very rare occurrence, unfortunately ... In fact I have heard about such sell-offs too (after the fact, of course ...). Lending libraries these days have a pretty fast turnover even of those items they stock for their customers and of what they discard as "no longer up to date" (read: perceived as being no longer in demand and blocking valuable space for more in-demand items that attract those who still go to these libraries). The days (such as in my youth in the 70s) when you were able to pick up long-OOP books from local/suburb libraries on historical subject matters that were of interest to you (e.g. books published as long back as the 50s that were still on the shelves all through the 70s and early 80s) are long, long over, unfortunately. You really have to go to larger, archive-minded libraries these days to peruse or borrow "historical" tomes. So you can imagine what their "life cycle" and turnover in the media field is these days ...

You mean you wouldn't want to bother packing and shipping any item that wouldn't yield you at least 25 quid? My my ....

Oh my ... If you lump in broadcasts (i.e. airshots) too then there is an awful lot from that period. Almost too much to be covered in any sensible maner bnecause obviously tastes differ widely. One favorite category of non-commercial recordings from that period that I have always liked are the JUBILEE radio shows emceed by Ernie "The Stomach That Walks Like a Man" Whitman, whose chatter adds some "period" spice (if taken in moderate doses). Some fine, fine music by the black stars and bands from that era there ...

" What's your favorite Jazz Style? Hard Bop, Smooth Jazz, Cool Jazz, Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Rock, Jazz-Funk, Latin Jazz? " She's got a somewhat narrow-minded attitude and knowledge about what styles of jazz there are. Reminds me of that innocent reply by that backwoodsy roadside joint owner in the Blues Brothers movie: "Oh, we got BOTH kinds of music: Country AND Western!"

Yes, those Musidiscs often contained wrong date and personnel info. But they DID have their advantages - they WERE available, they were affordable and they made lots of rare stuff available at a time when small labels from abroad/overseas were very thin on the ground over here. And it has to be said in their defense that they took up lots of live recordings from U.S. labels (e.g. Alamac) that included incorrect dates too. Probably a case of mistakes being copied without proper research

Just wondering: Texans’ do-it-ourselves rescue effort defines Hurricane Harvey "Defines" oder "defies"?

Considering how collectible (or should I say nerdy? ) labels such as Transition are by now, these "one or two" must all be in Japan or Korea by now.