brownie

From Michael Fitzgerald's list: Bill Russo passed away

Boris Rose issued records on quite a number of labels. Alto, Ozone and Session are the best known but they were dozens of others (Bombast, Ult-Tadd, Enigma, etc...). Boris Rose is reported to have issued some 400 different LPs, mostly of broadcasts. The LP that DoubleM mentions should be the Alto issue with some of the September 1948 Royal Roost sides by the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool band that Capitol reissued alongside their official Capitol sides and the May/June 1950 Birdland sides by the Miles Davis group that included Brew Moore, JJ Johnson, Tadd Dameron, Bird and Fats Navarro. 'Rambunctious' is a bogus name for 'Wee', 'Poobah's is 'Conception' (that's the track with Miles Davis and Fats Navarro playing alongside). The entire Birdland 1950 date was published by the Italian bootleg label JMY on the CD 'The Last Bebop Session'.

What!!?! No link to Blue Note???? Seriously, this looks good. Will look even better when the photos will show up...

Randissimo, wish I could hear your dad play nowadays! He and Richie Kamuca made a great pair during those Third Herd days.

Forgot to mention that Oscar Peterson is scheduled to appear at the Marciac jazz festival in southwestern France next week. So is Wayne Shorter.

Not only is Down Beat expensive nowadays but I find it less interesting than it used to be. I learn more about what's going on the jazz scene at Organissimo. I buy the DB issues that I find interesting. I still have not bought one this year. I subscribe to Cadence, despite its shortcomings. They keep reviewing albums I have not heard about anywhere else. And some of their interviews are worth the subscription.

I keep the Kamuca flame alive too. I have a lot of his records and keep playing them. What a beautiful sound the man had! He swung! Took good note of him when he played on Al Cohn's The Brothers RCA album with Cohn and Bill Perkins. I also cherish that Jazzz LP with Mundell Lowe. The only thing I don't like about this album is the cover.

Sonny Rollins is making concert appearances in Europe this Summer. He was at the Perugia jazz festival in Italy this week. So was Elvin Jones with his Jazz Machine. Elvin played this Tuesday at the Digne jazz festival in the French Alps. Know that Kenny Burrell and Roy Haynes are still very active.

Today (Wednesday) is the last Pyrenean stage. The riders go from Pau to Bayonne. That's in the Basque area. If you think, the French are cycling crazy, watch TV today. You will see nothing but orange. The orange is the basque color and these Basque madmen and women will crowd the Tour route to cheer their local stars. Should be a superb stage. The mountains and the countryside are just glorious. And may the best man win!

The marvelous Jeanne Lee! Two more recommendations. The Byg album 'Blase' by Archie Shepp. Her own album 'Conspiracy' (with Sam Rivers). Not sure it was reissued on CD.

The opening track 'Blue Train' did it for me. My vote went there. As for which Coltrane came first (BN or Prestige), the Prestige was out first. I was a teenage Coltrane freak at the time (I'm talking about 1958/1959) and there were very few of us around then. I caught the bug when I heard the Miles Davis Quintet records. The first articles on Coltrane appeared in swedish and french magazines around that time. Much later in the USA. I made sure at the time that any new LP by him, I'ld get. The Prestige came first. 'Blue Train' showed up some months later. I still cherish my original copies.

For those who have not read Randi Hultin's book 'Born Under the Sign of Jazz', I would recommend buying it. Not an essential book. Readable, with lots of anecdotes about musicians. But what makes the purchase interesting is that the book comes with an accompanying CD which mixes comments from the author with glimpses of music she taped at her home in Norway. Heard on the CD are people like Sonny Clark, members of the 1954 Count Basie band with Anthony Ortega, Stuff Smith, Zoot Sims, Hampton Hawes, Phil Woods singing and playing, Kenny Dorham singing and playing, Jan Johansson, Jaki Byard and others. Only the Sonny Clark jam (Jeepers Creepers) appeared elsewhere on the Xanadu Sonny Clark Memorial album.

HELP!!

Couw and Mikeweil's avatars going wild at the same time... Getting an headache. Where's the aspirin?

The Horace Silver Trio sides. My BN Liberty LP (electronic stereo) needs a replacement. I won't get the others in their reincarnations. How many times and in how many different formats are they going to release Blue Train? I bought the Ultimate Blue Train CD already because it had alternates. I still prefer the original LP version. Those W63rd Street mono pressings were not bettered and the Blue Note vinyls were magic. I must have played that LP thousands of times. My ears will probably give up before that LP gets a better sound. Don't want to sound like a sour grape. All those BN dates are great and should be in everybody's collections.

Uptown LPs: 2701 Joe Thomas 2702 JR Monterose Live in Albany 2703 John Bubbles 2707 Dicky Wells 2708 Hod O'Brien 2709 Allan Eager Renaissance 2711 Philly Joe Jones Dameronia 2712 Jay McShann/Joe Thomas 2713 Haywood Henry 2714 Frank Wess/Johnny Coles Two at the Top 2715 PJJones/Johnny Griffin Dameronia 2717 Don Sickler Plays Kenny Dorham 2718 Charlie Rouse Social Call 2719 Budd Johnson/Phil Woods Old Dude 2720 Barry Harris For the Moment 2723 Don Joseph One of a Kind 2725 Maria Muldau Transbluency 2726 Kenny Barron Autum in New York 2727 Claudio Roditi Claudio 2728 Carl Fontana The Great Fontana 2729 Tommy Flanagan Nights at the Vanguard 2732 Jimmy Gourley Left Bank of New York

Another vote for the Andrew Hill. Got the others in their original LP versions. Getting sort of tired at getting the reissues in new formats. And the wallet hurts. Very few of those reissues really improve on the original vinyls.

The 2003 Tour de France is a delight with Lance Armstrong facing competition from tough contenders for the first time since he took over the competition. He is indeed a beast. As Dmitry said: Everybody took good note of Ian Ullrich doing the gentlemanlly thing of holding out from attacking when Armstrong fell yesterday. Wish Armstrong had done the exact same thing when Spain's Joseba Beloki fell while riding down to Gap while in the lead with Armstrong during the July 14 stage. Armstrong veered off to avoid the fallen Beloki (a masterful action, by the way) but did not bother to stop and help Beloki who was lying on the side of the road in deep pain with several fractures. That would have been a real class act if Armstrong had stopped and gone to help Beloki.

If this means, the money does not go to Blue Note but to Mosaic (or Mosaic Images), that's fine with me!!

Not mentioned are all the vinyls that Uptown produced in the years just before the arrival of the Compact Disc. Great stuff there (JR Monterose, Allan Eager, Dicky Wells, Philly Joe Jones' Dameronia, Budd Johnson&Phil Woods, Don Joseph and others).

Edgar VARESE!!! If Bartok is OK, Varese is Out There. Even Charlie Parker was a fan.

Always delighted to see Rene Urtreger appreciated. He is one of the best of the bop pianists generation and continues to improve. His latest album 'Onirica', a solo album which was released on the Sketch label is an absorbing musical contribution. Other essential Urtreger albums are the 'Rene Urtreger Joue Bud Powell' record that was reissued in the Gitanes Jazz in Paris series and the triple CD HUM which gathers three sessions (from 1960, 1979 and 1999) by the Daniel Humair, Rene Urtreger and Pierre Michelot trio. And don't forget Urtreger was the piano player on Lester Young's final recording sessions 'Lester Young in Paris'!

Caught another very worthy Dick Sherman date. He was the trumpet player on tenor saxophonist Buddy Arnold's 1956 date for ABC-Paramount 'Wailing'. The session was reissued years ago on LP by Fresh Sounds. And it's really wailing. Very similar to the wonderful albums that Al Cohn and Joe Newman recorded for RCA at around the same time. The band is Dick Sherman, Frank Rehak, Gene Quill, John Williams, Teddy Kotick and Shadow Wilson. Dave Schildkraut and Osie Johnson sub for Quill and Wilson on several sides. Dick Sherman provided two originals 'Patty's Cake' and 'Moby Dick'. Arnold plays bass clarinet and Quill clarinet on 'Patty's Cake'. Buddy Arnold is a very good player out of the Brothers school. Seems he is very much involved nowadays in drug rehabilitation programs. More on this at http://members.tripod.com/~mikelil/buddy.html

What Late said! I'll just add a recommendation for the Mercury/EmArcy albums by the Gerry Mulligan sextet with Jon Eardley (sometime Don Ferrara), Bob Brookmeyer and Zoot Sims. They might be hard to get nowadays but they sure are worth the search.

The two photos of Gillespie and Parker at Town Hall in the 'Black Beauty, White Heat' book are from the May 16, 1945 concert according to the Ken Vail's book 'Bird's Diary' which also publishes two photos from that concert. One - the bottom one - is the same as the photo at top in 'Black Beauty, White Heat'. The bass player is Slam Stewart. The second photo in the Vail's book is from the same series but this one shows West, Russell, Gillespie and Parker. Parker wears a very stylish dark suit and is caught blowing next to Dizzy. The Vail book mentions three 1945 Town Hall appearances by Gillespie and Parker. The May 16 New Jazz Foundation concert, then another concert on May 30 and finally the second (and last) New Jazz Foundation concert. This last one had the Gillespie, Parker, Haig, Russell and Roach lineup.