kh1958

That is puzzling--his music seems the opposite of ECMish. The duet album with Rudresh Mahanthappa, Raw Materials, is quite good. His new one is another experimental collaboration with Mike Ladd, Still Life with Commentator.

Well I have certainly been doing my best lately....as you well know! kh1958 ....you haven't been doing so bad yourself lately..Glad to see your are following your own advice there!!! Yes, Friday after reading this I had to take the precaution of acquiring Joe Henderson, Relaxin' at Camarillo, Johnny Griffin, Return of the Griffin, Ernie Henry, Last Chorus, and Roy Eldridge, What It's All About.

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Gene Ammons--Jungle Soul (Prestige)

Land of the Sun is a very nice disc. I've been lucky enough to see Charlie Haden live four times--in a quartet led by Joe Henderson (Al Foster on drums), Endangered Species with Ornette, Pat Metheny and Denardo, a duet with Paul Bley, and the group featured on Nocturnes, with Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

I have Twilight Time and the Free Will, both on LP. I saw him live at the Caravan of Dreams, back in 1988.

I certainly hope this is not true--Iron Mountain is a paper file storage company. What kind of idiot would entrust these precious master tapes to that company? I have been following Steve Hoffman's advice for some time, however: "I've said it before but I'll say it again: If I were you all I would buy every OJC Jazz CD I could get my hands on."

When I was at the Downtown Music Gallery a couple of weeks ago, they had a large stock of Black Saint/Soul Note CDs--for $16 each or five or more for $15 each. http://www.downtownmusicgallery.com/Main/index.htm

The Steve Kuhn is better than the Charles Tolliver release, in my opinion. (Unlike a lot of the opinion I saw expressed, I was lukewarm on the Tolliver CD--the Kuhn is a very nice trio release.)

This is included in the Art Pepper Hollywood All-Stars box set (at least the cuts with Art Pepper on them). The five CD set is currently only $50 at amazon.com and is well worth it.

They've added the recent Blue Note releases of Steve Kuhn and Charles Tolliver, and the Horace Silver RVG You've Got to Take a Little Love.

How is the vinyl selection at Jazz Record Center these days? Any nice stuff? Sure, they had some nice rare and expensive records, but the stock seemed a little depleted to me. The ones I bought were only $15 each, so I was pretty happy.

This morning I started off listening to Art Blakey's Kyoto on Riverside. This was an Orpheum Productions pressing, and I didn't like the sound of it at all. Then I tried Cannonball Adderley's Jazz Workshop Revisited on Riverside--this one was sounded terrific. I wondered if Orpheum Riverside pressings are inferior as a general rule?

Stitt's Prestige LP Soul Electricity is a nice companion to the Left Bank live CD. Also, Freddie Hubbard's High Energy is pretty good.

Wow....NYC...them's some spoiled jazz audiences! I'd kill to see a couple sets of Lonnie on a tuesday night. Yes, me too. The Jazz Standard has excellent sound, and was only a three block walk from my hotel. Peter Bernstein on guitar. The last song of the second set was Back Track from Too Damn Hot--it was unbelievable.

Over the course of a four day trip to New York City (mostly Jazz Record Center, Downtown Music Gallery, and concert sales): CDs-- Onaje Allan Gumbs: Sack Full of Dreams and Remember Their Innocence Sun Ra: Strange Strings Nino Josele: Paz Duke Pearson: Dedication (OJC) Elmo Hope: Sounds from Rikers Island John Patton: Accent on the Blues and Minor Swing Barney Wilen: Moshi James Blood Ulmer: Bad Blood in the City The Blues World of Little Walter (Delmark) New York Jazz Combos 1935-37 (Hep) Skeets Tolbert and His Gentlemen of Swing 1931-40 (Classics) Duke Jordon (Savoy) Chuck Wayne: The Jazz Guitarist (Savoy) On LP: Cannonball Adderley: Jazz Workshop Revisited (Riverside) Coleman Hawkins and the Swingville All Stars: Years Ago (Swingville) Brother Jack McDuff with Gene Ammons: Mellow Gravy (Prestige) Gene Ammons: Jungle Soul (Prestige) Willis Jackson: Loose (Prestige)

I've still got my mono LP, plus the CD release.

Downtown Music Gallery has a box of Strange Strings CDs already, if you are in New York.

Glad to get you on Accent on the Blues. THAT is a killer...sit back and let that one sink in for a loooong time. That's a session that, to my ears, just never gets old. Also you mention Minor Move...do you mean Minor Swing on the DIW label? What's the other Patton session you're missing? Minor Swing on DIW (not the Tina Brooks recording, my mistake). I don't have Memphis to New York Spirit.

Saturday night--Frank Morgan at the Jazz Standard and Onaje Alan Gumbs at the Kitano. The latter set (sparsely attended), somewhat unexpectedly (being only familiar with Gumbs as a sideman on a few recordings), was an absolutely killer set. Sunday night--Nino Josele Trio at the Village Vanguard. This turned out to be another unexpected extreme pleasure. Flamenco guitar meets jazz and Bill Evans associated songs turned out to be a very happy meeting. Monday night--Mike Stern--55 Bar. Miles Davis was right about him. Tuesday night--Lonnie Smith at the Jazz Standard. They didn't get too warmed up until the second set, but by the end they sure were. The crowd was embarrassingly sparse, especially for the second set.

You focused me on the fact that I was missing three of John Patton's leader dates. Thanks to the Jazz Record Center, Accent on the Blues and Minor Move are no longer on that list.

It was only three blocks from my hotel to the Jazz Standard, so I went to see Frank Morgan and heard a set on both Saturday and Sunday nights. The first night, Ronnie Matthews was substituting on piano, but George Cables was back the next night with Carmen Lundy and Billy Hart. Frank Morgan now plays seated, but he played beautifully throughout, and the group sounded wonderful. A few songs inton the set, he brought out Grace Kelly, who was greeted enthusiastically by the crowd. I thought she sounded okay, but I couldn't find anything very distinctive in her playing. If you closed your eyes, she could have been any competent alto player. I certainly wouldn't buy any of her recordings at this point. The second night I liked better because he also brought out Lee Konitz as a guest, which cut short the spotlight on Grace Kelly. I left intending to buy more of Frank Morgan's recent CDs, and intending on holding off on buying any Grace Kelly recordings at least until she grows up.

I saw him (on accoustic bass) with that group with Al Dimeola and Jean Luc Ponty (Rites of Swing, I think)--that was in the early 90s. I was fairly bored by the concert.

I'm going to New York tomorrow and planning to see Frank Morgan at Jazz Standard on Saturday or Sunday night, so it appears I will also be seeing Grace Kelly, according to her website.

Cubafrica is an excellent recording.