brownie

How was his playing then? He was in a group that included Nathan Davis and Larry Young. This was pretty exciting music. Nathan Davis was the main man in the group. Woody Shaw already was a great improviser with a neat sound. They were playing at the 'Chat Qui Peche' club that is now a greek restaurant. I don't recall having heard Larry Young play organ while he was in Paris.

Very sad news. His distinctive sound will be very much missed.

Also don't overlook Curtis Fuller post-60s contributions. He blew great trombone with the Timeless All Stars (with Haorld Land, Bobby Hutcherson and others) and on the now hard-to-find Beehive LP 'Fire and Filigree' amongother albums.

Berigan, thanks for digging that up. I remember that interview (I was still reading Down Beat at the time it came out). Very interesting man and excellent musician, Woody Shaw. Caught him a number of times when he was in Paris in the mid-sixties. He also made quite a number of appearances all over Europe with his group in the 70s and '80s.

Another rare Dolphy appearance is on the WestWind album under Dolphy's name 'Unrealized Tapes' which was recorded in Paris in June 1964. The date also features Donald Byrd, Nathan Davis and French pianist Jack Dieval who probably organized the date. They play four Dophy compositions 'Springtime', '245', 'GW' and 'Serene'.

Eric Dolphy is also featured on the opening two tracks of a now out-ot-print album 'Surrounded' by Daniel Humair on the Flat&Sharp label. Dolphy plays his compositions 'Les' and 'Serene' in a concert recorded in Paris on May 18, 1964, just one month before he died. He was accompanied by Kenny Drew, Guy Pedersen and Humair. Dolphy was in top form that day. Other artists featured in the album which is made of unreleased live material are Gerry Mulligan, Phil Woods, Martial Solal, Johnny Griffin, Tete Montoliu among others.

Twardzik was an innovative pianist who left his mark in a much too brief career. He made a number of records with Chet Baker when he played in Baker's quartet. A discography is available: Twardzik He is heard playing with Charlie Parker in the Uptown release 'Charlie Parker Boston 1952' (with Charles Mingus on bass and Roy Haynes on drums!) and on Serge Chaloff's album 'Fables of Mabel' that should still be available on a Black Lion CD. He appears also on the latest Uptown release by Allen Eager which I have not gotten hold of yet. He made only one date - excellent - under his name for Pacific Jazz. This was coupled with a Russ Freeman trio date when it was reissued. He died of heroin overdose in Paris in 1955. He was 24.

Ubu, I did not buy the box (already have some of the Reinhardt CDs in the series). It seemed to contain the exact seven CD already reissued. No added material.

Fuller is great on 'Blue Train'. His very first album 'New Trombone' on Prestige (with Sonny Red, Hank Jones, Doug Watkins and Louis Hayes) was also a very impressive opener. The Curtis Fuller Mosaic box is unfortunately not available any more. It had many great sessions.

Gregory Peck had those 'Big' parts in films like 'Moby Dick' 'Spellbound' or 'Duel in the Sun'. I just don't think he was really up to those parts in this type of films.

It's Friday the Thirteenth. Let's hear it for Thelonious Monk!

Gregory Peck was probably too handsome and too much of a gentleman to play great parts with iron-fisted directors (Hitchcock, Huston, Walsh). IMO he was at his best with impressionistic directors. Some favorite Peck films: 'Twelve O'Clock High' (Henry King), his best, 'The Gunfighter' (Henry King) comes real close, 'The Snows of Kilimandjaro' (Henry King), 'Roman Holiday' (William Wyler), 'Designing Woman' (Vincente Minnelli). In the last three, Peck paired wonderfully with Ava Garner, Audrey Hepburn and Lauren Bacall.

18 and 19 were great years. There was fun, friends, girls, jazz, movies at the Paris Cinematheque. Future looked good. Then the Army grabbed me at 20 and life went downhill, way to the bottom. This was at the time the French Army was trying to keep Algeria part of the French territory. I was not buying this. Two years and a half I have tried to forget. Then back tome. Future looked bleak. No jobs (or whatever odd job was available). Got a real job (as a journalist) when I reached 24. It's been uphill since.

Hank Mobley is one of those unassuming jazz musicians who produced so much inspired music. Got into him soon after I became interested in jazz in the '50s. He was on one of my favorite early BN album 'The Jazz Messengers at Cafe Bohemia'. Loved his warm tone and the way he phrased his solos: going straight to the essential, ideas flowing smoothly, no waste of notes. You really had to LISTEN to what he was playing to get into the originality of his solos. Never managed to catch him live unfortunately but he showed up in the summer of 1969 when Byg (run by thieves who grabbed - or tried to grab - every musicians available in that glorious Paris summer) was recording a lot of albums in a studio on the eastern fringe of Paris. I was attending some of those sessions since I knew many of the musicians who were involved. Mobley was present at one of Archie Shepp's dates (along with Grachan Moncur). He was not really in top form at the time. I talked briefly with him during the session. He was very disillusioned by then (he had a lot of reasons to be). He had come to Europe to get more playing oppotunities but that failed. Sad life, great player.

A Dolphy appearance on a rare album that has never been reissued (as far as I know): Teddy Charles' Russia Goes Jazz where Dolphy appears on several tracks along people like Zoot Sims, Pepper Adams, Jimmy Raney. Fun (and excellent) United Artists LP where Teddy Charles and his partners play jazz versions of classics by Russian composers.

And now they have come out with a 7CD box reuniting all the Django Reinhardt material they previously issued in single CDs!

The Rambla de Catalunya is Barcelona's main artery and is crowded 24-hour - or almost - a day by locals and tourists. Plan to travel to Catalunya next September and will stop by the shop when I get to Barcelona. Been curious about those Spanish Blue Notes that have been mentioned in this thread. I can still remember when Spanish BN issued LPs years ago. I did not try any. Have yet to see one of those CDs. They're not in Paris stores and I did not catch any of them when I dropped by the CD stores when I was in Spain (avoided the main cities) last month.

A little respect for Charles Laughton, please!! Any man who directs only one film and makes a masterpiece of it should get nothing but praise. Talk about creepy? just watch Robert Mitchum in Laughton's 'The Night of the Hunter'.

Ubu, hope you also checked the Bernard Peiffer albums and the Rene Urtreger Plays Bud Powell CD. Rare sessions from two underrated French pianists. The Urtreger album may be short on playing time (it was originally a 10-inch LP) but it is filled with great music.

The BNBB is the Past! Organissimo is NOW! Know this was started just about three months ago. The board is by now so familiar that it feels like I have been here for years. Many thanks to b3-er for making this the great place it is.

The 'Jazz in Paris' series from Gitanes/Universal is back with one double CD (Hors Serie 01) entitled 'Sacha Distel, Jazz Guitarist'. The 2CD include various jazz sessions recorded between 1954 and 1968 by Distel who played excellent guitar before turning into a pop singer. The special edition has: - the rare 1956 Versailles 10-incher 'Jazz d'Aujourd'hui' with arrangements by Billy Byers (two of the eight tunes feature a rhythm section of Gene DiNovi, George Duvivier and Charles Saudrais), - the very rare 1957 Versailles session with Bobby Jaspar (and Rene Urtreger, Benoit Quersin and Paul Rovere, Al Levitt and Billy Byers), - two tracks from the ultra-rare 1954 French Philips LP 'Jazz Boom nr. 1) where Distel plays with Hubert Fol, Rene Urtreger, Pierre Michelot and Mac Kac, - two tracks from the film sountrack to a 1961 Roger Vadim film (with Kenny Clarke), - the complete 'Back to Jazz with Slide Hampton' 1968 EMI album (with arrangements by Slide Hampton). No news yet about additional volumes.

Marc Johnson is the one (even if Eddie Gomez would be my favorite bass player of the lot). Johnson really integrated the trio idea and moved way way high to reach the the rarefied level of Evans and LaBarbera. The final Bill Evans trio is the one that came closest - they even went further probaly because they played longer and more often - to what was attained by the Evans/LaFaro/Motian trio.

Brad, even if the CD notes state that the session was produced by Alfred Lion, the liner notes mention that the album was 'the brainchild of pianist/arranger and Blue Note A&R director Duke Pearson'. This was recorded in early 1967 when jazz business was going down and obviously BN was looking for ways to survive (that ended in the summer when the label was sold to Liberty). This may explain the concept behind the album. One week after the session, BN recorded the 'Lush Life' album by Lou Donaldson. Donaldson was more adaptable than Morgan and did a better job with the concept. I gave 'Standards' a fresh hearing and I find once more that the choice of material does not really inspire Morgan. He just goes through the motion of playing the tunes. The Morgan flame just does not burn here.

I have the original mono release (W.63rd deepgroove) of 'Blue Train'. This one is still way above the various CD reissues I have heard including the Ultimate Blue Train that I bought for its additional alternate tracks. I'll skip the SACD.

'Standards' by Lee Morgan looked exciting with its lineup (Spaulding, Shorter, Adams, Hancock and others). Any new material from Lee Morgan is eagerly desirable as far as I am concerned. Bought it when it came out years after its recording. I played it once and filed it. Alfred Lion would never had recorded this. A bad Lee Morgan? That's blasphemy. And so it is.