Dan Gould

I'm hoping you get this squared away soon Mike. I'm also hoping Big Al, Jeff and Webbcity get a chance to jump in soon. I may take a page out of hardbopjazz's book and post some clues next weekend, see if I can goose some final discussion in the last week.

It depends on how much he actually contributed to "Dick in a Box".

HP I am very glad you enjoyed the disc so much. And I appreciate too that you take time to post thoughts/impressions even when you don't have any good ideas about artists. I should do that more myself.

Count me as agreeing with Paul - Blues is King is my preference, and I've never had a complaint about the sound on my LP. Too bad if they f-ed up the CD transfer. My transfer is part of a custom two-fer: Blues on Top of Blues, with brassy arrangements by Johnny Pate. Its a little different from his other Bluesways but I like it a lot too.

Geez, great expectations! A first runthrough didn't reveal any other immediate identifications .... Jim S.'s recent comments about #2 may send you off in the right direction.

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Now watch, Mike is going to run the table. Everyone should rush to Amazon for those Sebastian Whittacker CDs which are available used for a pittance.

Making up with the umpire is always a good strategy.

Yes. I'll say which it is when someone gets the title. Because really ... its a classic by a board favorite, composed during his first artistic peak. Fair?

Very interesting comments when I consider the origins of the players. Be interesting to see what you think when all is revealed.

So ... Non-americans sometimes sound like drunk west-coasters? Or just in terms of the general craziness you noted before? Care to revise and extend your remarks?

Yes it is.

I would say I was a big EA fan but somewhere along the line I realized that another EA recording had no marginal value over my existing EA collection. Of course, YMMV

No, I'm curious why you would think of Louis Jordan on what I think is a fairly well-known hard bop tune.

Thanks for joining the fun Tom. I'm glad some of these songs really tickled your fancy.

Don't mention remedial english and then point out that you used the term "busted his chops": busting someone's chops means to verbally harass them. Its hardly surprising therefore that you think the D-Backs 'kicked his ass'. Beating a reliever that good is enough.

You need remedial English Tim. If a walk/error/fisted bloop equates to an 'ass-kicking' then what the hell do you call the blown save(s) by Byun Yun Kim earlier in that series? Or, to reference epically blown saves by Rivera, the three-run homerun hit by Billy Mueller in the 2004 regular season "A-Rod-Tek Brawl" game? My Red Sox beat him on a walk/stolen base/single up the middle in Game 4. Its a blown save, not an ass-kicking. He blew a save in Game 5 on a sac fly. That was no ass-kicking either.

Maybe, but I also enjoyed how Poz points out that Gossage's self-regard is predicated on only a handlful of his major league seasons when he really made all those multi-inning appearances. At a certain point, Goose was used as a standard closer, and eventually he was just another middle reliever and then wrapped up as a mop-up man (check out the number of games finished he had in his last season, without a single save). Mariano has been an elite closer his entire career, including at an age when Goose was about the least important guy in the bullpen.

Joe Poz DESTROYS the argument for Goose: More here.

It was 1955, per the bsnpubs.com Jubilee discography. You certainly make good points, and it is absolutely true that Janie Harris told me that he claimed the LP as his own - with a palpable sense of "god it sounds awful, doesn't it?" So you are probably completely right that he was finding his own way still, or else sublimating his own style into something that worked commercially. I'm willing to believe that ... but what about the fake bio and the photo of the white guy? Here's a guy trying to make his way in jazz, gets a chance to record, and the label wants to put a white guy on the back cover and a bio about his classical training? I can imagine that as a first-time opportunity he might have no say in the matter and had to acquiesce. Still doesn't make too much sense to me though. If there was no white, classically-trained Gene Harris on Jubilee, that does argue for the Gene Harris Stereo-Gems 45 to be "Gene Harris" and not "a" Gene Harris. And I think we both feel it sounds more like the Gene we know. So where does that leave us with Genie In My Soul, which was recorded in 1959, per the bsnpubs discography. Or else, just released in 1959. Believe it or not, I had this LP and got rid of it, believing that it was another guy of modest skill. The fact that the bio continues the lie actually makes sense now, because The Sounds were recording for BN by then, assuming it was recorded in 1959 and not left overs from the first session. But if it was recorded at that time, how does he sound more like 1955 Gene then BN Gene? I really should hunt down another copy of it, to get a better handle on it. I remember thinking "this doesn't sound like Gene at all" but its possible it sounded more like Gene than the 1955 album. In fact, I just went looking on Ebay for a copy, and I find more interesting tidbits. Our Love is Here to Stay has no originals - but Gene in My Soul has a couple. Publishing credit is "Half Note Music Co." Publishing credits on Harris originals on Blue Note is "Groove Music". And, the lies are expanded on in the liners. There is a long list of stars he has supposedly played with - Stitt, Pediford, McGhee, Webster and a variety of singers. And the real interesting thing is that one original "That's Oona" is dedicated to his "wife" who has inspired him to keep going in the 'crazy' jazz world. I just read through the relevant chapters of Janie's biography of her husband. In the early 50s he fathered a couple of children, but the couple made the mutual decision not to marry. "A few years later" he had a relationship with one Ann Jeter, who eventually "eventually took Gene's last name." Not she doesn't say they married, it could have been the 'common-law' type of arrangement. By the way, Ann Jeter is or was the mother of Niki Harris, who worked for many years backing Madonna. Could this woman be 'Oona'? There's no mention of it in the book. So again, more lies to cover up the true artist and avoid a lawsuit from Blue Note? I swear, if the liners just mentioned Benton Harbor Michigan or had a damn photo of a young Gene Harris, there wouldn't be any confusion. But you read shit like this and it just leaves you wondering.

I still find it surprising that through the entire LP there would be hardly a trace of the blues sensibility that is at the core of his style. Don't forget Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson were his earliest inspirations. Outstanding stuff! Glad it was ID'd; anyone who hasn't ordered it ought to. Easily my favorite Nessa release, (Ben Webster, Did You Call Her? was leased) ... but that's just me. Damn! I've got this one! MG I figured a few people would!

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