brownie

Wasn't much of a Django fan when I started getting interested in jazz (when he was still alive). My interests went to other musicians. Really got into him when Pathe-Marconi France started issuing a full retrospective of his 30s and 40s sides. Some 14 LPS (or were there 17?, will have to check at home). That's when I really HEARD him. Now I kick myself for having missed seeing him live. Wouldn't have been allowed at the Paris clubs where he played but Django appeared in several concerts series which I attended as a schoolboy to start my jazz education. Was young and stupid (I'm not young anymore but still stupid) and missed hearing Django live. Recent welcome additions to my Django lore was the JSP box which featured the Quintette du Hot Club de France Decca sides and the Jazz in Paris CD reissues. Haven't checked the Fremaud reissues but the Fremaud CDs I have heard have good sound (in a Chronogical Classics vein).

My favorite Duke Ellington album cover is the one that graced the RCA LP 'The Popular Duke Ellington' (can't find a picture). The man was swinging even on his cover album!

Juan Tizol is further proof of Duke Ellington's genius. When Duke added Tizol to his band and had him alongside Tricky Sam Nanton and Lawrence Brown, all musicians with different sound, approach and personalities, he created the most astounding trombone section ever. There is an intriguing side to the Ellington-Tizol connection which I have read very little about (apart from a few stories about the Tizol-Mingus battle) is the fact that he was the lone white musician in a black band. Tizol was also one of the most interesting contributor to the Ellington song book. 'Moonlight Fiesta' is at the very top among the great Ellington's banc compositions. Not listed among the Tizol tunes in the thread is another classic 'Pyramid'. One more haunting Tizol tune.

Chuck Wayne also played banjo on the Clifford Jordan Atlantic album 'These Are My Roots'. Will give this a fresh listen (and will also check the Focus and Prestige Chuck Wayne albums) and report on his banjo playing which I remember as pretty interesting. The Focus date is a gem!

Hope that Bud Powell has now found the peace of mind that eluded him during his time on Earth.

Currently away from base and just peeking in into the Board all too briefly. Noticed this interesting item from AFP which may have relevance with the new European RVG reissues:

Interesting about Lateef/Gentle. But why would this musician who was under contract with Atlantic at the time of the recording (1969) use an alias to make a brief appearance on that Atlantic date?

Weekend listening: James Spaulding 'Songs of Courage' (Muse CD) Woody Shaw Live vol. 3 ('HighNote CD) Bud Powell 'The Amazing' Volume 3 'Bud' (BN LP) Freddie Redd 'Lonely City' (Uptown LP) Johnny Griffin 'Autumn Leaves' (Gitanes CD)

A superb session. This was originally a Tommy Flanagan date. Flanagan composed the four originals on the album and carries the ballad feature 'How Long Has This Been Going On' as a trio track. The album is also a not too frequent occasion to hear Idrees Sulieman.

While looking through old Down Beats for information on an unissued Kenny Dorham session, I also ran into a two-page photo spread in the February 5, 1959 issue that featured a Toots Thielemans quartet date in Chicago. The session was recorded for Argo and supervised by Dave Usher. Thielemans played harmonica with accompaniement by Lafayette Leak on piano, Willie Dixon on bass and Al Duncan on drums. An interesting gathering. Where did this go? The date remains unissued as far as I know.

Simon, not to worry. Your credibility is still intact. I won't even start a list of all the rubbish I still enjoy!

Found some details about the unissued Kenny Dorham UA session I mentioned in my original post when I made a search through old Down Beat issues. The February 5, 1959 DB (Shorty Rogers on cover) had this item: 'United Artists cut the Martin Williams 'History of the Jazz Trumpet' LP, with scoring by Bill Russo and blowing by veteran Ed Allen, Joe Thomas, Emmett Berry, Kenny Dorham, Jimmy McPartland and Art Farmer.' The next issue, March 19, 1959 (Maurice Chevalier on cover) has a photo from the session showing Farmer, Dorham, Thomas, McPartland, Berry. Al Williams is at the piano. The caption adds: 'The LP, a survey of jazz trumpet playing, is titled The Jazz Trumpet'. Now who's going to explore the UA vaults to find that gem?

Some I like: - any Bernard Herrman score (my favorites are the scores he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock), - the Henry Mancini score for Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, excellent early Mancini music with a very pronounced West Coast jazz ensemble sound, - music from somne Jean-Luc Godard films (Martial Solal's music for 'A Bout de Souffle', Georges Delerue's music for "Le Mepris')

Italian neorealismo. I like Rossellini much better than De Sica. Roma cita aperta and Paisa are masterpieces. And La Magnani in Roma! Mama Mia! Not all of Pasolini films get to me but Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo is a film that still haunts me even if I have not seen it again in a couple of decades. Bertolucci started very strong. Loved Prima della Rivoluzioni, The Spider's Stratagema and The Conformist. Plus Last Tango in Paris. Then Bertolucci has seemed to fall apart. Just my two cents. Simon, the Delon-Belmondo film should be 'Borsalino'. Don't take it bad but I think it's one of the most forgettable French film of the era.

Thanks Berigan for bringing this interview here. I love the music from the Herman Herd but the band must really have been something else. All the interviews I have read (I remember the Terry Gibbs interview in Cadence several years ago) indicate this was a gathering of extraordinaly interesting people. The 1949 Chubby Jackson big band was also something else!

The Spanish Blue Moon label (part of Fresh Sounds) has reissued material from Dot (the Don Bagley albums among others). Wonder why they have not reissued the Eddie Costa 'House of Blue Lights' session yet.

The man hired Billie Holiday back in 1938, married Ava Gardner, had Roy Eldridge, Dodo Marmarosa, Buddy de Franco and Barney Kessel together in his band and was a superb clarinet player. He deserves all the honors he is getting.

Larry Young! He brought the inventive best to Lee Morgan. Too bad the two of them did not record more sessions.

Thanks to all the bagpipers on the board! The Richard Alderson Village Gate tapes were made at the Village Gate in New York. And from what I understand his Dan Benedetti job dates from the year 1963. Now let's also try and get those Coltrane bagpipes contributions!

John Coltrane and his quartet played several times at the Village Gate. Only one track has appeared so far on an authorised recording: the outstanding version of 'Nature Boy' that was issued on the New Wave of Jazz (Impulse 90) album, one of the five sides recorded on March 28, 1965 at the concert for the benefit of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. The other sides on the album were performed by the groups of Albert Ayler, Grachan Moncur/Bobby Hutcherson, Archie Shepp and Charles Tolliver/James Spaulding. In the liner notes to the Xanadu album 'Thelonious Monk Live at the Village Gate' (the album was withdrawn shortly after its release in 1985), Mark Gardner states that engineer and jazz fan Richard Alderson who recorded the November 1963 Monk/Village Gate tapes also recorded Rollins and Coltrane at the club. Anybody knows if these tapes still exist? Might be worth having Impulse and the Coltrane estate check them. Would love to have them out for everybody to enjoy! And if there is more Coltrane from the Black Arts benefit, they would be more than welcome too!

Ubu, never got into Antonioni's films. I remember Gaslini's music to 'La Notte'. Went to see the film a second time to make sure I was not missing something. From Italy, I'd rather take Fellini. Not all of them, by a long stretch. But loved '8 1/2' and liked 'Roma' and 'Amarcord'.

Simon Weil wrote: Yes, I remember Louis Malle saying something to that effect. The Bresson film is another monument from his most creative period. The man was creating superb austere films from 'Journal d'un Cure de Campagne', 'Pickpocket', 'Le Proces de Jeanne d'Arc', \Au Hasard Balthazar', 'Mouchette', to 'Une Femme Douce' all in a row. An amazing succession of masterpieces. Louis Malle's Lucien Lacombe is good but in the same WWII mood, I should have mentioned Joseph Losey's 'Monsieur Klein' which gave Alain Delon his best film part ever. I'm no fan of Delon but he was incredible in that gripping and (yes) bleak film.

King Ubu wrote: I practically grew up with Doinel. So I like all the Doinel films by Truffaut. And 'La Chambre Verte' is a masterpiece. Two other Truffaut films I like a lot are 'La Peau Douce' and 'L'Argent de Poche'. Speaking of Doinel/Leaud, did you see 'La Maman et la Putain' by Jean Eustache? That's another masterpiece. Eustache had Bernadette Lafont - another favorite Truffaut actress - and Jean-Pierre Leaud plus newcomer Francoise Lebrun. That's the three-hour and a half long film where Leaud tries to make up his mind on who he is in love with! And you're not bored a minute! It is now known as the final French New Wave film!

Ubu, when you say 'Imamura, for me, was very much closer to our western (old european) mentality, our way of thinking, understanding life, than the few Ozu films I've seen', you say precisely why I prefer Mizogushi and Ozu to Imamura or Kurosawa. Seeing a Japanese film is an 'experience'. Which I get when I see 'Ugetsu' or 'Sansho the Bailiff' to cite two of Mizogushi's best films. I don't get that from the westernised Japanese films. You have yet to catch films by Mizogushi, I can understand the plight. I was lucky to get my film apprenticeship in Paris where I choose from dozens of art houses and two cinematheque houses to watch a movie.

Ubu, don't think 'Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud' was that much of a great movie. Now don't get me started on the soundtrack! The music speaks for Miles' genius. 'Lucien Lacombe' would be my Louis Malle favorite movie. But not in my top all-time list. And I much prefer Julien Duvivier and Jean Gremillon's films (not to speak of Jean Renoir) over Marcel Carne's. Imamura? Yes. But his films do not have the appeal for me than the ones from Mizoguchi and Ozu.