medjuck

Percy Heath?

Happy B'day. Hope to see you on the West Coast tour.

Happy B'day and many more. What new show?

Thanks guys. I saw Budd Johnson in the mid sixties when he was with Earl Hines and by then he was a bit more conservative. (Though still pretty great. )

I'm into the 4th volume of Allen Lowe's terrific history of Jazz cd/book collection and though I haven't' heard all of the cds yet I have read all the books and have a discographical question. Allen (if you read this) or anyone else: in the last volume there's a mention of the "one surviving performance" of Dizzy's 1944 band but there's no corresponding cut on the cds. There is a very bad sounding recording of "Night in Tunisia" in Volume Three but it's listed as being from 1943. The Gillespie discography I have doesn't list any performance of "Night" before 1945 and no recordings of any Dizzy led band in 1944. The discography is more than 20 years old (yes Chuck I did buy it). Is this a more recent discovery? Should I presume that it's really from the 1944 band and is that really Budd Johnson?

Has the song continued while there was no sound or does it pick up where it left off? If the latter you probably need a new battery.

That tune almost certainly was "All Across The City," later recorded by Hall with Bill Evans I believe and probably elsewhere. "Two Jims and a Zoot" (A&R man Teddy Charles) is good one -- top-notch Raney and some fine work from the young Steve Swallow. Pretty sure that was it. Thanks.

Hey, thanks everybody. It was great to wake up Saturday morning and read all those best wishes. I'd been celebrating the night before by going to Jim Hall-Dave Holland concert -- less than 48 hours after seeing a production of the Weill/Brecht opera "Mahogonny" which was the night after seeing The Spanish Harlem Orchestra. A good musical week.

Saw Jim Hall and Dave Holland last night and they played a lovely tune that Hall said he'd written for a Jimmy Raney record featuring Zoot Sims and Osie Johnson. Would that be "Two Jims and a Zoot"?

Are they both from The Grand Canyon Suite?

"Imagine the Sound" a DVD featuring interveiws and performances by Dixon (as well as Paul Bley, Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor) will be available this year-- in stereo for the first time.

And at 4:03 a.m.!!? BTW is that Eastern time?

Some cuts on the JSP set are not on the Sony and vice-versa.

Discographical information: There seems to be 3 different versions of this: The original Lp (and I think cd) a cd containing the original as well as The Africa Brass Sessions Vol 2 and finally a 2 cd set entitled The Complete Africa Brass Sessions. The last named may be the easiest to obtain nowadays. I have the 2nd mentioned cd and the notes have a lot of misleading information. I presume that The Complete... has better notes. (Or you can check an on-line discography.) And why was it ever referred to as being by The John Coltrane Quartet? There are at 15 musicians playing even if only the quartet members take solos. (Actually even that's not true: both bass players seem to solo and some of Dolphy's fills might be called solos. ) All versions have cuts from 2 different sessions: May 23rd and June 4th 1961. In between these 2 sessions Coltrane recorded the rather similar Oleo for Atlantic with another augmented quartet (an extra bass player and Dolphy--who does get to solo. ) I love this record-- or at last the original release. The master takes do seem to me to be the best. Coltrane is on fire and the brass lays an almost mellow cushion for him. On Africa, at the end of Tyner's solo he begins playing block chords that are then continued by the brass. Similarly at the end of Elvin's solo the two basses come in almost imperceptibly: one arco and one plucked. (This doesn't happen on the alternate take I have. however, on that take McCoy takes a great solo which includes what I can only describe as a "rolling chorus"- if that makes sense.) And hey, is that the father of the governor of Massachusetts on baritone?

How come no one (not even Allan Lowe) has mentioned That Devlin'Music vol 1? .

diks, I'm not sure what you mean. It's not like this episode was any more ridiculous than the other ones. Guy Actually I thought it was. I've gotten used to the fact that these guys get around the LA area in impossibly short times (and never run into a traffic jam) but at what point did his father and brother arranage this con that seems to rely on Jack doing exactly what they want under the cricumstances.

Heard him interviewed on "The Swingin' years" once. Said at th beginning he was trying to sound like Nat Cole. (As. of course, did Charles Brown and Ray Charles.)

An '80s reissue of one of the earlier Parker novels has an intro by a writer who once was an imprisoned bank robber. He says that Parker novels were very popular in prison. Was it Albert Nussbaum? Do you remember which Parker book it was? Nussbaum also interviewd George Burns for us via the US Post Office.

Just last night I saw the director's version Payback which is also based on The Hunter. Very different than Mel Gibson's cut of the film (Kris Kristofferson isn't even in it!). It' s much closer to the original novel than Point Blank. Many years ago I helped edit a magazine in which we had one of our writers interview Westlake via mail (this was before e-mail) because our writer was in prison. (He'd been on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.) As you might expect it was a great interview.

If Balliet had done nothing more than help put together "The Sound of Jazz" he would have contributed more than most of us on this board.

Well at least Miles never claimed to have written "Walkin'". I guess Carpenter beat him to it. But isn't there another tune he did that sounds a lot like it and to which I think he did claim authorship. (Syd's Ahead?)

"The Theme" to which I'm referring is the one on the first Lp of the Davis/Coltrane quintet on Prestige recorded November 16, 1955. This session has been released under various titles. In May of '56 he recorded 2 takes of a --variation different enough to be considered a new tune-- though it ends with the same closing riff. He then took one of his compositions from Someday My Prince Will Come (at least he claimed he wrote it) and made it his new theme. (Neo? Teo?-- I forget which.) But "The Theme" I heard all the time in the sixties was the one Miles recorded in '55. Was he even the first to record it?

When I was first listening to jazz in the early 60's many groups (local and visiting) ended their set by playing "The Theme" as recorded by Miles Davis in 1955. I'm pretty sure that on the Prestige releases he's credited as composer but on The Jazz Messengers Live in 1958 they end with it and Michael Cuscuna's notes refer to it as "Kenny Dorham's 'New York Theme' ".

I heard the Jazz Messengers DVD on the radio last week! Honest. I was in the Bay Area and the local jazz station was offering the DVDs as premiums. They'd play a number, then keep the sound going while they described the image and ask for donations. (They were sort of making fun of the way everybody was dressed.) I hadn't planned to get the Blakey but the music was so good I rushed out and bought it today. Watching/listening on my computer right now. It's great. Maybe better than the Bluenote release "Moanin".