brownie

Strange that Columbia has done such a bad job with their Errol Garner material. He was one of the label's major seller and now stands very neglected. He made some great recordings for Columbia. Maybe Mosaic would do it right!

My ultimate avant-garde quintet would be: Don Cherry Albert Ayler Cecil Taylor Henry Grimes Sonny Murray

Clifford Brown Charlie Parker Horace Silver Wilbur Ware Art Blakey Bud Powell or Thelonious Monk should be the piano player but Silver would make this a real unit. Wish I could have this on an album.

I voted for Dorham. It's when he was playing with Bird that KD matured to become the great trumpet player he grew into. Dizzy is the obvious choice (agree with Connoisseur series500: he should have been left out) and the obvious winner but KD is my favorite player of the lot.

There is also a stunning version recorded at the Village Vanguard (is a playing of 'Softly as a Morning Sunrise' required by the management whenever groups are booked in the club?) in the just released 'NY-1' Blue Note album by Martial Solal.

The Village Vanguard Rollins/Elvin and the Coltrane/Elvin versions are indeed the best. But I also like what Milt Jackson did with 'Softly' in the 'Concorde' (Prestige) album by the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Bought yesterday a CD I had not heard about yet. It stars one of my favorite 'Brother' Al Cohn. From the Norwegian label Gemini, the CD 'We Remember You' features Al Cohn live with the Totti Bergh quintet and singer Laila Dalseth. I already had an excellent Gemini LP that featured the same crew. This one was recorded live at the Oslo Jazzhus on August 8, 1986. Gemini has an interesting catalogue gemini-records that includes a Zoot Sims/Scott Hamilton CD and other interesting items.

Do you enter the AAJ Forums? I have no problem going to any of the AAJ sites but all I get when I hit the 'Forums' is that blank page.

Have tried for the past couple of days to take a look at AAJ but all I get when I connect is a page that is blank except for the top section with the AAJ logo. I have been away from that board for the past month. Is there a problem there? Or is it just my computer?

I used to write articles in French jazz magazines decades ago before I got started into a real journalism career. I was at the G8 summit in Evian earlier this week and a local tv station came by the area of the US organisation I work for. Since I was the only French-speaking in the area, I was asked to answer questions and give impressions on the summit preparations for the station's evening news cast. I happened to mention I had covered the very first summit (G7 at the time) in Fontainebleau near Paris in 1975. And quite a number of G7/G8 summits since. That day, I had no time to watch the evening news. But obviously a lot of people did and mentioned seeing me on TV. And the national France 3 people came the next day to ask if I could grant them an interview but I was too busy with other things by then. So much for my latest moment of glory. I may also mention that my son was impressed when he did a Yahoo/Google search recently and found a couple of dozen entries (a mix of jazz and journalism) under my family name.

I'm with Jazzhound. The originals are really worth the search.

'Mama Too Tight' on the Impulse album of the same title by Archie Shepp (he was 'avant-garde at the time') is real greasy music.

Hey, let's not forget Tony Scott. The best of them all. His RCA albums have been reissued by Fresh Sounds. FS also reissued (a double-CD) the sides Tony Scott recorded with Jimmy Knepper and Bill Evans). Also Jimmy Giuffre. The Atlantic albums were gathered by Mosaic. Must-listen music.

Storyville Records announces new releases by Duke Ellington (The Duke in Munich), Benny Carter (Radio Years), Jubilee Shows and more. Could not open the news section at their web site: storyville-records for details.

Wish I were in New York this week. Solql qnd Konitz always produce beautiful music.

'Lifeboat' is a great film. Period. I would rate it over 'The Rope' which has been discussed by various posters. And it stars Tallulah Bankhead - as a journalist - in her best film appearance ever. And for jazz fans, she has a very special appeal. She was very (sometime very, very) friendly with musicians (Sidney Bechet among others). Stan Getz also was on a Tallulah Bankhead recording date.

Samanddave

Wade Legge was the pianist with the 1953 Dizzy Gillespie group. That's when he recorded this Vogue 10incher that was released by BN in the States. He is also the pianist on the 'Sonny Rollins Plays for Bird' Prestige album with Kenny Dorham.

Interesting things happening to you. We'll miss you while you're away. Best of luck on your various enterprises.

I'll have to vote for 'North by Northwest'. Have seen that one dozens of time and can't escape the thrill of it. Cary Grant is not my favorite actor but he is superb in that one. And then Eva Marie-Saint is the perfect Hitchcock blonde (better and more humane than Grace Kelly). Too bad Hitchcock did not cast her in another film. James Mason and Martin Landau also have superb parts. And Bernard Hermann's music is perfect.

Bernard Peiffer

Claude asked: The 10-inch LP reissues showed up in Paris. They obviously were limited editions and seem to have disappeared fast. They were also re-reissued in CDs and these should be available without problems. I have the original 10LP issues and did not get the vinyl reissues to check on sound quality.

Never had the privilege of seeing him do his executions at the Apollo but I heard he could be rough. NEW YORK (AP) _ Sandman Sims, the famed tap dancer who chased unpopular acts off the stage as the "executioner" at the Apollo Theater for decades, died May 20. He was 86. Sims taught footwork to boxers Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, and his dance students included Gregory Hines and Ben Vereen. Sims, who once boxed himself, earned his stage name by dancing on sprinkled sand, a technique he pioneered while trying to mimic the effect of dancing in the rosin box before entering the ring. When he won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, Sims used the $5,000 fellowship to teach dance to children in a Harlem parking lot. Born Howard Sims in Fort Smith, Ark., Sims grew up in Los Angeles and came to New York in 1947. He danced at the Apollo for 17 years, acting as the "executioner" beginning in the mid-1950s. He also stage managed the Apollo, owned a cafe, and worked as a carpenter and mechanic, and was a regular in the vaudeville scene. The poet Sandra Hochman wrote a play about Sims in 1986 called "The Sand Dancer."

No reason to blush about the reviews on the the original edition. I got that one. A very interesting (and very instructive) read. Will get the new book if it contains new - and worthy - material.

I was on a Clifford Brown trip when I started posting on another board. Have been a fan of his music for decades. And still getting kicks when I play his records for the thousands time.