six string

Everything I would recomend has already been mentioned but when I clicked on the emusic link I saw that Lem Winchester album which has Golson on it and it's excellent and highly recomended.

I just played that yesterday. Love it!

That's interesting (female singer with Ornette) for the amount of time she spends on stage. On the other hand I really liked the band's take on Bach's solo music for cello. That was a highlight of the show for me.

Dizzy Gillespie Big Band - Carnegie Hall Concert (Verve)Mono

Yeah, that's the one. Thanks for that. I'm trying to plan my Weston purchases. I went through a phase of buying a bunch of his stuff over the years and then I took a break and recently discovered that I've missed a few albums in the mean time. I'm sort of playing catch up now. The new one is definitely on the list but I'm focusing on older ones at the moment since they don't always stay in print a long time.

I saw him last Saturday with the same group. However halfway through the concert he had a female vocalist come out and "sing" one song with the band. I didn't catch her name but she was middle age, Asian, dressed in a spectacular outfit that had mirrored pieces on her clothes and she wore a necklace with large pieces of something mirror and the way light was bouncing off of her while she stood there was pretty wild. Her vocals were of the wordless variety and she sparred a little with Ornette in the upper register which got very interesting. After the show I talked to several people and her effect on the audience was very polarizing. She either loved it or hated it. I got the sense that she was possibly local and not part of the tour. Did anyone else see her at an Ornette show on this tour?

It's at the bottom of the heap in my Weston collection and I haven't heard it in a long time. Like TtK, when I reach for a Randy Weston album it's not going to be this one. However since it's been a long time I will revisit it soon and report back. The album was a bargaining chip from the label and it wasn't what Randy wanted to do at the time so I can understand is feelings about the album.

I apologize for turning this into a more general discussion of Randy's music but does anyone have the album African Rhythms? It looks like a worthy addition to the collection.

I'll be getting this new Weston album in the near future. I'm only holding off because I recently bought two others (Zep Tepi and the 2 cd version of Ancient Future which is actually 2 albums). I also bought the autobiography and have read it as well. I was a little disappointed in the book because of the writing style. I was warned in a review that it was conversational in style but being a big fan I bought it. Sometimes facts and incidents are repeated on the same page, sometimes in the same paragraph, which while may be like having a conversation with your grandfather, makes for frustrating reading at times. It pains me to be critical because I really do love his music and Randy's heart is in the right place. I just wish the book had been written differently. Still, there is plenty of stories and information around some of his music and performances and in the end I did enjoy the book overall. For those who haven't heard Zep Tepi, I give it my highest recomendations for a Weston album and if you're not very familiar with his music, it's a good introduction to his songs and what he's all about.

I'm not a big Brubeck fan but I really dig Desmond so I picked up Red, Hot and Cool (Sony/Legacy reissue) and I really like it a lot. Desmond really shines throughyout the album and even though few tracks are not from the master tapes the sound is good overall.

Randy Weston - Highlife (Colpix) Mono followed by New Beat Bossa Nova - Zoot Sims (Colpix) Mono

I have a little trouble with Tanjah too. I just gave it another spin yesterday and it still doesn't really work for me. Chuck, that's cool that you got to commission such a great song. The Spirits of Our Ancestors is one of my favorite albums by Weston. I think I'll cross Earth Birth off my list. Re: Blue Moses, it might not be my favorite Weston album bu it's one of my favorite CTI albums. I'd like to hear the original arrangements by Melba Liston.

Are you confusing that with Jungle Strut?

I have a gold labeled copy of Eric Dolphy's Outward Bound (w/RVG stamp of course). I read somewhere and it might have been the Goldmine book that it was only used for a short amount of time, like a year or less. Don't know why.

I was concerned about the strings too which is why I enquired here before buying it. Khepera would be more my taste and it would be a treat to hear smiling Billy in the drum chair with Randy's group. BTW I've been listening to Randy for many years and I've seen him three times in concert so I'm not exactly a new fan. The only album I don't care for that I own is Destry Rides Again. I was suspect when I found the copy because it was a musical but at the same time there have been successful jazz albums based on musicals and like JSngry said, I haven't bought anything I didn't like. Still, it was a disappointment to put it mildly. It still sits in my collection though. I can't seem to let go of it for some dumb reason. That Zep Tepi album is fantastic. If you haven't heard it I highly recomend it. It's a trio with Alex Blake and Neil Clarke. I think Randy mentions that Chicago Jazz Festival date in his book. Did he play with other groups/musicians during the festival? What was the name of the music piece you commisioned?

I'm reading the new autobiography of Randy Weston's so I've been listening to a lot of his music lately. There are two of his albums in his discography that I meant to get back when they were released but didn't and I was wondering if anyone here has an opinion about them. They are Khepera an Earth Birth. There seemed to be a lot of his music getting released back in the 90s and I couldn't keep up with them and now I'm wondering if I should try and find them. I recently picked up Zep Tepi and Ancient Future/Blue and I really like them a lot. Somehow I missed those when they came out too!

Randy Weston (PAUSA) 1976 solo piano recording followed by Freddie Hubbard - Hub Cap (BN Mono 47West63rd pressing)

My first book on jazz recordings was an early All Music Guide on Jazz from 1994. One of the reasons I liked it was for the older, possibly oop recordings because I was finding lps in used shops back then and some of the other jazz books were focused on what was available on cd only. I felt that way about the Penguin Guide but after a while I felt a need to get an updated book and the then current All Music Guide had some obvious holes in their coverage. I looked at the various books on the market and compared them by looking up artists that I liked or was interested in that would be considered a little obscure like Jessica Williams and discovered that the Penguin Guide was filling the gaps that the AMG had left out, especially the European based artists. So I bought the Penguin Guide with Elvin Jones on the cover and it has served me well for the last ten years. It has its blind spots as well but between those two books I can usually find most the album info I need and if not, there is the internet as Beverly stated. For my taste/needs there isn't one book that covers it all. That's where boards like this one are so helpful. There is such a wealth of information and experience on Organissimo. I can't think of a time I came here with a question that it didn't get answered.

I got a sealed copy of Baby Face Willette's Behind the Eight Ball for $6. I don't know the age of it. It's a grey label with a quarter size deep groove pressed into it. I'm pretty sure it's a fairly newish reissue but still... At the same store I found a copy of George Russell's Jazz Workshop album but it's a French RCA reissue titled Ezz-thetics, not to be confused with his Riverside album with a similar title. Same price as the other lp but it wasn't sealed.

The Complete Live at the It Club (Monk) Haven't played this in a while.

I really like Chico's albums with Charles Lloyd and/or Gabor Szabo but he also did an album with the band Little Feat (sans Richie Hayward) on Stax called The Master. It was under Chico's name and if you're a fan of The Feat it's worth checking out. It's an all instrumental album too.

If you're speaking of Riggarmortes the Music Matters reissue lists the composer as Morgan on the record label and this is how its spelled.

The last time I saw George was around 1999 or 2000 when he played at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. He was on the bill before Pharoah Sanders and I was really looking forward to hearing him, thinking he would be the better of the two. Although George was very good, it was Pharoah's day to shine. He was just really on that day, so much so that George's performance seemed a little muted by comparison. The only other time I saw George Coleman was at a benefit for Billy Higgins where he was one of many people on the stage that evening. He was on fire that night which is why I had expectations at the Healdsburg show that he would do more of the same. Everyday can't be your best day though and I hope he was just having a bad night when the O.P. saw him recently. One album I really like by George Coleman that no one has mentioned yet is Convergence with Richie Beirach. Their interplay on that duo album is amazing.

First I'd like to apologize for starting this thread and then going MIA. I didn't mean for that to happen but work got in the way. Second, thanks for all the well thought out replies/theories. A lot of them make sense to me. I'm a big fan of Hank Mobley so I certainly didn't want to sound like I was dissing him or the recordings although I don't count the Blackhawk dates as essential in the Miles discography. I did buy the Mosaic box so I've heard the whole banana and that's why I came up with this question. Hank's sensitivity is a good point. The fact that his style didn't completely mesh with Miles and where he was going is also accurate imo. JSangry also made some good points about not using the Blackhawk performance alone as a yardstick to measure Mobley's contribution, especially when you add in the effect of substance abuse on a musician's performance. I had not thought about the effect of Jimmy Cob's playing on Mobley. I'll need to go back and listen to that music again with that focus. I think that beinig a fan of Mobley's playing made me feel a little sad or disappointed that he didn't sound on top of his game at The Blackhawk but as J said, people play differently from night to night and when you toss in non musical influences like drugs/alcohol, Miles' attitude or mood and other things we probably will never know that shaped that night's music. It's been a while since I've played the Carnegie Hall album so I need to pull it out and listen to Hank on those cuts. In a recent article in Downbeat a writer talked about jazz fans being puzzle solvers. I had never thought about that before but I have to agree and this is one of those examples of that very thing. So thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. It gave me some extra insight to this puzzle and it's going to make me pull out an album I haven't heard in quite a while which is almost always a good thing.

I don't know if this has been discussed before but when I listen to the recordings Mobley recorded with Miles, in particular the Blackhawk box, it sounds like Hank is really holding back. When I compare his playing with Max Roach in the 50s and his own albums in the 50s and 60s, he seems almost intimidated by Miles. What was going on? Does anyone have any insight?