Dan Gould

Thanks to all who participated. As usual, expectations about tune reactions never go the way you expect ... just as much a BFT rule as "there will be something on the BFT you own but won't recognize". TRACK 1 A1 https://www.discogs.com/release/14266821-Pony-Poindexter-In-Barcelona This tune set me immediately in mind of a late 60s larger-group Turrentine cut. Recorded I guess just after that era – 1973. I have a hard time getting the hook out of my mind when I hear it. The LP it comes from had absolutely zero information but Fresh Sound put it out as a CD and I guess found the personnel from the mist of time. TRACK 2 B1 https://www.discogs.com/release/2482575-Ted-Curson-Snake-Johnson When I got this album (for Charlie Williams’ presence) I knew I wanted to program something even if I was certain that the presence of Bill Barron meant that Sangrey would ID it out of the chute. What never occurred to me was that it would get near-unanimous negative reviews and no ID at all. James Sangrey, you got some ‘splainin to do. https://media1.tenor.com/m/h_P9MwmK4fwAAAAC/i-love-lucy-lucy-ricardo.gif TRACK 3 A1 https://www.discogs.com/master/1220314-Ernie-Wilkins-Almost-Big-Band-Ernie-Wilkins-Almost-Bigband-Live-At-Slukefter-Jazz-Club-In-Tivoli-Gar Jim said, “a very nicely mixed group of personalities!” to which I would add “generations, too”. TRACK 4 “Minor Move” (Tina Brooks) https://www.discogs.com/master/1782390-Shelley-Carrol-A-Distant-Star I didn’t think a gimme (on the composition, which a lot of people didn’t get) would turn out to be a new tenor fave of Mr. Felser. I am going to coast on that accomplishment for a long time. TRACK 5 “Fungii Mama” (Blue Mitchell) https://www.discogs.com/master/2216404-Roy-Hargrove-Mulgrew-Miller-In-Harmony Another tune I thought was a gimme, and I felt that the actual recording would be known as well. But I guess participants weren’t so excited at two CDs worth of Roy Hargrove and Mulgrew Miller in Duo mode to have bought it and remembered it. Personally I think this is a great release from two talented guys who left us too soon. TRACK 6 “No Time for Speed” (Benny Golson) Side B of this: https://www.discogs.com/release/6559247-Benny-Golson-Art-Blakey-Lee-Morgan-Jerome-Richardson-Bobby-Timmons-Jymie-Merritt-Music-To-Stop-Drivi After two Blue Note tunes, why not an oddball near-BN Jazz Messengers track? I figured that the baritone would throw people. TRACK 7 AL GREY VIDEO TRANSFER Gatemouth Brown on guitar, Stan Hunter (organ) and Chris Columbo drums “Over and Under” (GREY) Source which Sangrey found: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1552553111612988 I knew the organ would annoy some people. Personally I have no problem with Stan Hunter and was glad to see him (literally) on something other than his one leader date (Trip on The Strip, co-led by Sonny Fortune). I really thought Al Grey, for whom I have mad love, was distinctive enough to get more IDs but alas I was wrong. TRACK 8 Now’s The Time https://storyvillerecords.bandcamp.com/album/tates-delight This is a must-have for Buddy Tate fans, IMO. FWIW, it was the alto, Jens Sondergaard, who inspired me to post about “tough” altos last year. TRACK 9 My Little Suede Shoes https://www.discogs.com/release/2937626-Walter-Bishop-Jr-Hot-House Rare Muse – never on CD I don’t believe. TRACK 10 “Groovin High” https://www.discogs.com/release/25374850-Jerome-Richardson-Tete-Montoliu-Trio-Groovin-High-In-Barcelona Jerome Richardson (the soloist who appeared twice) and Tete Montoliu – two distinct players and somewhat (Montoliu) or largely (Richardson) under-recognized. TRACK 11 “A Night in Tunisia” https://www.discogs.com/release/9567045-Jay-McShann-Featuring-Don-Thompson-2-Archie-Alleyne-Swingmatism When I decided on a bebop mini-set I thought what better than a non-bopper playing “Tunisia”? TRACK 12 https://www.discogs.com/release/12227056-Willene-Barton-Trio-Walking-My-Baby-Back-Home-As-Long-As-He-Needs-Me Willene Barton became an obsession of mine last June when I happened upon one or another of her too-few recordings. I can now report I’ve secured all of them, even the flipside of her 45 that lives on youtube, “Rice Pudding”. Details on the rest of the band aren’t known but the organist is almost certainly Dayton Selby with whom she made nearly all of her earlier recordings. She’s fantastic as far as I am concerned and she must have impressed none other than Lockjaw Davis, who was her manager for a time. http://www.bluesandrhythm.co.uk/documents/BR289-Willene-Barton.pdf Here she is on video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8TLkZ4KGv0&t=811s&pp=ygUOd2lsbGVuZSBiYXJ0b24%3D TRACK 13 “Misty” https://www.discogs.com/release/22031296-CI-Williams-When-Alto-Was-King I am sure I have identified “Misty” as a tune that I could do without for the rest of my life, but this performance is different. Tim heard this performance as I hear it and as described in the liners to this absolutely indispensable recording: Unable to shake the memory of the magical duo of Larry and C.I. had fashioned to open ‘Round Midnight, Hamiet suggested another go at a duo. So Larry and C.I. started tossing around candidate tunes. They ran thru 10 or 15 promising titles that didn’t quite inspire them. Bluiett, losing patience, waded in to cut the Gordian knot, ”Goddamn it, play Misty.” I groaned inwardly, though I had to laugh at Bluiett’s shoving a soupy old warhorse down their throats. They responded with six minutes of delicate ballad artistry that forever changed the way I hear the tune. Afterwards, Bluiett rubbed salt in the wounds of my demolished preconceptions. “Don’t you understand, Pierre, with all the years of doing Misty like a commercial hit, it’s gotten miles away from what Erroll Garner had in mind. The tune was just begging for someone like Larry and C.I. to re-create it with that kind of purity. Just to remind us of the beauty of Erroll’s original idea.” And I do not mean “indispensable” for this tune but the entire CD is a masterpiece. Recall that Mapleshade documented Norris Turney at the end of his life, playing wonderfully. He got far more opportunities to record than Charlie/Charles/C.I. Williams, especially as a leader. But this recording is easily on that level, and an incredible gift to document who Hamiet Bluiett described as “.. the missing link between Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and Charlie Parker.” Nearly all of the recordings used on this BFT were discovered in 2023. A couple are stone cold classics to me, but none more so than this recording.

Seems like they are doing a certain number of free articles still then.

the scat or the alto? I was afraid the scat would give it away, which it did once I gave the clue that scatter = soloist.

Thanks for coming back to this Mike. Glad you liked Tracks 11 and 13!

Even when contracts were drawn out before the last CBT this seems even later than normal for so much talent to be unsigned. Hoping the Cubs sign Bellinger. No longer have any expectation the Red Sox do shit to improve their rotation. Their trio/quartet of youngsters step up or its another last place finish. How pathetic will that be?

Serious subtraction to the Red Sox line up (although expected) and significant addition to the Blue Jays lineup and clubhouse. https://www.mlb.com/news/justin-turner-blue-jays-deal

News for those interested: The Phil Schaap archive was ultimately donated to Vanderbilt University. It's only a few months since they received everything. Scroll thru this file I found last night for an idea of content. https://semla.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2023/10/Smith-Borne-Schaub-SEMLA-Presentation-2023.pdf I have an email in to the two people listed enquiring as to final disposition of these incredible pieces of jazz history, especially whether digitization will include online availability or if most will be on-site only, which would absolutely suck and so limit the audience to true researchers. I am also trying to convince them that their digitization should concentrate most on the artist interviews and live broadcasts, and not only because I am told by Charles Iselin that there were 'several' Percy France broadcasts from the West End. Phil's collection of records/CDs may have included rarities but in this day and age the vast majority, I am going to guess, are not that hard to come by at least in terms of the grooves contained therein. But his interviews and those concerts (which also include the famous 10 hour WKCR Benefit concerts) are the things lost in the moment of their creation, except for Phil's desire to record them. And speaking of Percy, check out what I found in that PDF - so little is shown of what they have, yet there is Percy's name, and a notation that he was interviewed about his early career. What a gift it would be if I had that audio added to the website some day. As Strayhorn wrote, it's "Something to Live For".

Yes, that eliminating the copyright infringement while requesting ways around paywalls doesn't exactly ease the problem that Mark was complaining about.

I've also discovered that after your term at the discount price, when you go in to cancel rather than pay 4 or 8 times more, they'll keep cutting their price to entice you to stay, with the end result that I have extended the $1 a week for another year, twice. And without talking to a person. The modern age does have its advantages.

Jomboy breakdown:

I was all set up for a perfect Super Bowl - two teams I had no serious rooting interest but could easily support both teams winning it all. I don't think the Lions coach covered himself in glory or did his team a lot of favors.

👍

On VeeJay alone: https://www.discogs.com/master/442725-Benny-Green-The-Swinginest https://www.discogs.com/master/279076-Lee-Morgan-Expoobident https://www.discogs.com/master/297534-Wayne-Shorter-Wayning-Moments

as time ticks away maybe I can prevail upon @Joe to offer his perspective?

A Handful of Stars exists without the objectionable cover.

I think it's a bit more than a drink unless you are the type to nurse a beer for four hours but I think these are fine selections. The only one I don't have is the last, and a lot of people really like the Jobim one.

I think the odds are worse than slim and none.

Maybe its too obvious but I always appreciate "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the middle of "Two Bass Hit".

Hard to decide which is best; since they played tunes from the Great American Songbook I would probably recommend choosing based on the one with the highest proportion of songs you especially enjoy.

What if they featured Grant Green or LD?

The answer was forthcoming in my interview with Eddie that ran in Cadence in 2004. Just last month I got contacted by the owner of Flophouse, a fine jazz website, about using the Cadence interview in a review of a Higgins LP. That review just came out and as it turns out, the quote he wanted to use was the one where he got into the details of why he turned Blakey down. “First of all I’ve got a great job here in Chicago in the London House and my kids were very little at that point. And the idea to be on the road all the time and not seeing my children grow up is a negative. Number two, this is pretty much an all-junkie band and I’m not only nót a junkie, I don’t even drink or smoke pot or anything at all. I would be out of the loop as far as the social life of the band, plus the fact that I’m the only White guy in the band. And at that time in jazz history there was a very strong Crow Jim feeling that if you’re White, you couldn’t play. And obviously they knew I could play or I wouldn’t be on these record dates or asked to join the band, but still there’d be a… definite racial bridge to cross there working with the Jazz Messengers and playing in probably mostly Black clubs for mostly Black audiences and so forth. And third, I heard by the grapevine that when payday came the first guy that got the money was the connection for the heroin, and not just Blakey but the rest of the band, too. And if there’s any money left over then they pay the hotel bill and if there’s anything left over from that then maybe the guys will get a few bucks. I had a family and rent to pay and insurance payments.” Blakey replied: ‘You’re kidding’. Because as Higgins says, to get an offer from The Jazz Messengers is like being touched on the shoulder by God. In the end though, it seems a perfectly logical decision. ****** http://flophousemagazine.com/2024/01/24/the-eddie-higgins-trio-soulero-atlantic-1965/ If you like Scott Hamilton as a swing-inspired tenor, anything by Higgins on Venus with Scott is easily recommended. Have you the Vee Jay recordings that he played on like Expoobident? Those are excellent too. Trio Eddie - nearly impossible to go wrong. I would search on discogs to see what is available at what price, he was making solo and trio recordings from well after his first recordings for VeeJay and Atlantic.

Thanks gents, it does make me feel good. And, describing herself as such a close friend, I am hoping I can get insight, if only for my own edification, on anything Percy might have said or recalled about his own career, his seeming preference to just play in convivial circumstances in his hometown, and anything else they may share. And drummer Alvin Queen responded to an email and has requested my phone number so he can call and we can talk about Percy. I wasn't at all sure he even knew him, but that response is encouraging for sure. When Queen was young he played with Wild Bill Davis and Wild Bill employed Percy at times. I am betting that is the connection but you'll forgive me if I fantasize that there is an unissued NILVA Records session featuring Percy that he is going to tell me about and offer for my enjoyment.

A lovely message received about my efforts to elevate Percy France: I’ve held the November 2022 issue of The New York City Jazz Record on my desktop all this time because Percy France was truly a dear friend. I first met him when Phil Schaap was running the West End. It means a lot to me that you have promoted Percy and preserved his music.I’ve always considered him to be an unsung hero. He was also the nicest man on the planet! His heart and soul were so special. Thank you! A great pick-me-up I had to share.

My recollection was that this article https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/baby-face-willette had indications that there was contact with family? I don't think anyone knows of private recordings but who knows for sure.

Beltre as first-ballot was a given ... OTOH Billy Wagner waiting until ballot #10 is ridiculous. Says here that Wagner and Beltran get in next year. And color me totally unconcerned that Sheffield is finished with the writer's ballot.