brownie

Get the 'Coltrane and Johnny Hartman' Get the others after

Don't forget the Serge Chaloff (Boston 1950) and the Sonny Clark (Oakland 1955)!

Now spinning Rene Urtreger 'Collection Privee'. The LP was released by Carlyne in the eighties. Not a bootleg. It reunites several appeartances by Urtreger with some of the great musicians he played with. There are two tracks from a Paris Olympia theater concert by Miles Davis with Barney Wilen, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke 'Bag's Groove' (sans Wilen) and 'Four'. Those two sides have never appeared elsewhere. Audio is not great but the music is top. So are the tracks - in excellent sound - with Sonny Stitt 'Sonny's Blues' and 'Autumn in New York' and 'Down' with Chet Baker, the only track that has appeared elsewhere (on the Chet Baker Carlyne album with Urtreger, Pierre Michelot and Aldo Romano). There's also a track 'Valsajane' with Wilen on soprano, Christian Escoude, Michelot and Klook). Doubt this will be reissued in legitimate form. I think the release ran into several copyrights problems!

Jazzbo, those Wilen Fresh Sounds seem to get wider distribution over your side of the Atlantic. I rarely see these over here. couw, Weizen clearly refered to the one at top of the two discs whose covers you attached, the one that includes sides from the 1959 Newport appearance. The Wilen Quintet is a very, very rare album that was recorded in 1957 (with Huber Fol on alto, Nico Buninck (excellent Dutch musician, and a very nice guy) on piano, Lloyd Thompson on bass and Al Levitt on drums. This came out on La Guilde du Jazz (the French equivalent of the Jazztone label). I have never seen an original copy of this and grabbed the Fresh Sounds reissue as soon as it came out.

Weizen, don't let this get away! It's really good. Three sides from the Newport 1959 Barney Wilen appearance there (with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Tommy Bryant and Roy Haynes). Sound is a bit muddy but acceptable. Then two sides with a quintet that consists of Clark Terry, Bud Powell (BUD POWELL!), Eric Peter and Kenny Clarke, I think comes from a live French TV show also from 1959. Sound is a bit better. Then a version of 'Round Minight' with a strings ensemble recorded in Dusseldorf in the late '50s. Sound gets better. Music is outstanding. Just once more: get this!

Sunday lunch was just great! It started with a tomato, and cucumber, avocado salad seasoned with olive oil, followed by roast beef (meat from Les Boucheries Nivernaises) and excellent potatoes from the Ile de Re. Dessert was ice creams from Berthillon on the Ile Saint-Louis (wild stawberries plus honey Nougat). Wine was a dry white Graves Chateau de Beauregard-Ducroux and a red 1993 ¨Pauillac Chateau Colombier Monpelou. Then cuban-brewed coffee followed by a superb 1976 Armagnac from Laberdolive - just a dash - to accompany a Cohiba Esplendido, not really my favorite cigar but excellent nonetheless. Smoking this while keeping an eye at what's going on at the European Formula 1 Grand Prix since in addition to my regular duties at work I am in charge of the F1 grand prix coverages. No surprise there since Michael Schumacher is in the lead. And I'm listening to Dexter Gordon 'Doin' All Right'. Which is exactly where I stand now. I'm all right Dinner will be an apple. 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'...

You gave some of the reasons I don't go to clubs anymore unless somebody I really want to hear badly appears. I still have fond memories of those great concerts when the Miles Davis band was playing in formal dresses, also the John Coltrane Quartet (with Tyner, Garrison and Elvin Jones), all in tuxedos!

I have to admit that I prefer the Blue Notes but I got started on Jackie McLean with his Prestige/New Jazz albums which were available several years ahead of the BNs. A personal favorite is 'Lights Out' which was the very first McLean I heard. The Prestige McLeans may be a bit rough, his sound may be a bit astringent to some ears but there's plenty there to make younger listeners happy! There are even several great moments. McLean's treatment of ballads ('Gone With the Wind on the McLean's Scene release, 'What's New' on the Strange Blues release, 'Easy Living' on the Alto Madness release and side B of the A Long Drink of the Blues LP with 'Embraceable You', 'I Cover the Waterfront' and 'These Foolish Things' deserve a reevaluation). And that 'Minor Dream' on the McLean & Co LP is a haunting tune that also needs to be rediscovered. The various albums also enable to listen to some of the then-young players like Elmo Hope, Hank Mobley, Gil Coggins, Wade Legge and Ray Draper, among others. 16-year old tuba player Draper was even younger than Lee Morgan when they started making records! And he paired not only with McLean but with John Coltrane. Not their very best records but all highly enjoyable!

I found a shop named Crocodisc in the Rue des Écoles when I visited Paris in the 1980's - is that the same? Mike, the jazz shop Crocodisc was at the Rue des Ecoles in the early 80s. The jazz store then moved to 64 Rue de la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve, right opposite the Eglise Sainte-Genevieve (beautiful little know church) and the Pantheon. It is now called Crocojazz. Same gbuy (Gilles) who was at Crocodisc is at Crocojazz. The Crocodisc store is still at the Rue des Ecoles place but specialises in soul and rhythm and blues records - among many others genres.

Gasoline, although I specifically asked her for water! Is she coming with a lit match

Michel Portal is also damn good on bass clarinet. But, of course, no one has made better use of the instrument than Eric Dolphy!

There is a new biography of the Queen that is scheduled for publication in August, 'Queen, The Life And Music of Dinah Washington' by Nadine Cohodas. Is this supposed to be any good? After reading negative reviews, I stayed away from the earlier biography by James Haskins!

Garth, the last time Vladimir Horowitz played in Paris in 1985 - his first concert here in several years - the rehearsal at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees was open to the press. It was supposed to be a photo-op of a few minutes. There was a crowd of about fifty photographers in front of the stage when Horowitz started to play. While the cameras clicked away, the Great Man played not for a few minutes but for more than half and hour. I was there with a photographer who dashed back to our nearby office to move photos around the world. I handed a print to a journalist friend who was hoping to interview Horowitz shortly later in the very slim chance he would autograph it. It worked. My son who is studying piano and medicine at the same time (no idea how he manages to do this!) treasures that autographed photo now!

Enough wine for the day. I am into water now

Tooter, note that the name spells KHAN, not KAHN. Not sure this will really help!

Al Haig Plays The Music of Jerome Kern (Inner City)

Aric, read this thread from the top. The non-BN 'Connection' which was released under Howard McGhee's name on the Felsted label is clearly mentioned

They were both issued by Debut Denmark. Debut Denmark had an exchange agreement with Fantasy which released the first disc. The second LP disc from Debut Denmark was released under the title 'Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come'

Brandon, interesting selection but what's that one? Any jazz interest?

I work in France for an American company and every time the vacation time issue is discussed between colleagues from the two continents, the US people just do not want to believe there is so much vacation time over here (and in most of Europe). Legal vacation time is a full five weeks for a year. I work in the media business and French journalists are entitled to two more vacation weeks because they are liable to work on legal holidays -whether they work those days or not!

My most embarassing memory as a jazz fan/photographer was when I was positioned right in front of the stage - along with a couple of other photographers - at the 1969 Juan les Pins jazz festival and taking photos of the great Miles Davis band (with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack de Johnette). At some point Miles Davis keeps on playing and walks slowly up to where I was and kicks his right foot to indicate I should stop at once. I did! Picked up my cameras and moved to a less visible place.

Bought 'The Trio' Riverside CD reissue on a recommendation from a friend. Loved that one. Also have the two John Pisano-Billy Bean CDs 'Makin' It Again' and 'West Coast Sessions' that were released by String Jazz. Thoroughly enjoyable music. Wish the Pisano-Bean LP albums they recorded for Decca were reissued! Understand they are excellent but never heard those.

'Iron City!' Grant Green and Larry Young and Ben Dixon (Cobblestone)

Duke Jordan recorded for the Charlie Parker Records label the music he composed for the Roger Vadim film 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960'. Jordan wrote the music for the French film but - for tax and financial reasons - used the alias of Jack Marray to sign the music. The original film music appeared on a French Fontana LP. It was played by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Lee Morgan and Barney Wilen. The LP was also issued in the States by Epic. It has been constantly reissued since. The Thelonious Monk Quartet also played music that was used in the film. That music was never published.

Brownie, I bought my copy (CD) a few years ago at Croco Jazz, not far from you home I believe. Gilles might still have a copy. Apparently this has been disrupted by Boplicity, since the album is no longer listed on their website (even if they allude to it on the left side of the screen) Vincent, thanks for the tip. Did not see a CD copy of this when I checked Jazz Corner earlier this month. But I relistened to my original Felsted (the French issue, an exact replica of the US/British one) and it sounded better than I remembered. So unless Gilles has a copy and agrees to sell it at a reasonable price, I'll stick with the LP.