medjuck

I saw what I think may have been Ella Fitzgerald's last concert. It was at the Hollywood Bowl and I had a box very near the front. I went because Benny Carter had put together a large band for the occasion. As I remember it, the band played an opening set then, Ella sang one song with the band before brining on on her trio. But Benny joined the trio for a lovely unfamiliar ballad and took a great solo. A friend of mine in the band said that not only had they not rehearsed, but Benny had never heard the song before. He was in his 80s by then and nothing could throw him.

When Miles Davis went electric didn't he keeping asking his drummers to sound more like Buddy Miles?

My wife has been forwarding this to everyone she knows.

In April 1964 I saw Duke Ellington at a club in Montreal. I went didspite having an exam the next night. (I'd learned my lesson the year before when I'd stayed home to study rather than see Bill Evans at a small hall in (I think) one of his first concerts after the death of Scott Lafaro. My roommate went and still says it was one of the greatest concerts he's ever seen. ) I had good seats at the club because I was writing a jazz column for The McGill Daily. The band gradually made their way onstage and played a couple of numbers in a desultory fashion but came alive when Duke arrived at the piano and hit the first chords of A-Train. They began their usual program of historical hits but the audience became very vocal calling out Happy Birthday (It was a few days before EKE's actual birthday) and making requests for a lot of non-Ellington big band hits. The audience seemed very old to me (they were probably all younger than I am now) and at first I thought they were being very un-hip. Of course they did know the date of Duke's birthday and for all I know they all had copies of Ellington's Lp "Will the Big Bands Ever Come Back?" But Ellington was a in a great mood and his response was extraordinary. He'd play a few bars of one of the requested songs the rhythm section would join him for rest of the chorus then Hodges, Gonzales or Cootie Williams would join in while sections of the band tentatively tried out some background riffs. By the 3rd chorus the whole band would join in and Duke would call on different members for solos. It became a jam session/ party with the world's greatest jazz band! Other great concerts: Elvis Costello in a small Edinburgh club in 1976, Bruce Springsteen at Maple Leaf Gardens that same year, Horowitz at Carnegie Hall and Rostropovich at Massey Hall. One of the nice things about jazz is that players not in the Pantheon can blow you away. I remember seeing Frank Strozier and Harold Maburn at a club in Montreal before I'd ever really heard of them and just loving it.

Same here. First time particularly memorable, in Toronto. It seemed to go on for an eternity - but was brilliant. Middle bit had Ra on solo piano playing Fletchers Henderson. There were also quite a few Disney numbers with vocals, which caused a lot of audience mirth. The whole orchestra put 300% in. The second occasion was about 6 months later in Boston - not quite so good. At what venue did you see them in Toronto? I saw them at The Horseshoe Tavern once.

I thought this was going to be a an attack on Obama.

Are there any revivalists of the '60s avant-garde, free, outside or whatever else we call it jazz?

Thanks. My cd is from the same session and seems to have 1/2 the cuts.

Can you give more information please. I've got a Scott cd on Giants of Jazz that's titled Tony Scott and Bill Evans 1957 but doesn't give a more specific date. Has 12 cuts. I think it's from a couple of sessions since Henry Grimes replaces Milt Hinton on some cuts.

I've got a Polydor cd of "Very Urgent" I picked up second hand a couple of years ago. Didn't know it was rare. The cover looks the same except that t it has the Ploydor logo on the orange sphere in the upper right hand corner. Just noticed that Joe Bpyd produced it.

I thought I read after the release of the small group box set that Steve Lasker was working on a Mosaic box of this material (Or is it no all owned by SonyBMG?)

Just edited it. Works now I think.

Paul Mawhinney, owner of Rama Sound Archive of Pittsburgh, is selling an archive of 3 million record albums and 300,000 CDs on eBay this week for a minimum bid of $3 million. Mawhinney talks with Melissa Block. (on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...oryId=19174564)

Me too. Kept them both.

A quote heard second-hand is a long way to go for an insult.

Hey you share a birthday with Michael Jordan, Zen Archer and me! Happy B'day! (Ooops, maybe Zen's was yesterday.)

Hey you share a birthday with Michael Jordan, Blues for Bartok and me! Happy B'day!

Thanks. I became eligible for Medicare this month so there's some advantage in getting old.

He hadn't seen any pictures of Glenn Gould yet.

I saw Russell with a large band in New York in 1985 or '86. I don't think he had a regular gig then. This was a concert. Good stuff.

As the article says, I remember that he seemed to be on the CBC every night when I was young.

Coincidentally I was planning to post this morning about a sampler I found in Aomeba records last night. A Mosaic sampler! For $2.99 (used). Didn't even know of its existence before. Generally I only buy samplers if they're really cheap and they have at least one cut that sounds interesting to me. (Though I admit I bought the Blue Note "Three Tenors" just because the title was so clever-- I already owned all the cuts.) Though I have about 20 Mosaics I only had one cut on this disc previously . Anyone here familiar with this sampler? It's on Blue Note.

Looking on-line at the single disc of Porgy & Bess I can't figure out whether it has the alternative and longer solo on I Loves You Porgy. If it doesn't get, the box set. It's worth it just for that.

I think I only saw them once but they were often parodied in popular culture (e.g. cartoons) when I was young.

There's a lot of people on this list I'd like to see (Bettye LaVette, Irma Thomas, Elvis Costello with Alan Tousant....) even if they're not jazz.