Dan Gould

There were a bunch of Verve double LP reissues back then of Ben sessions, I think I had a few though never saw this one. Weren't they issued in the early CD era, say post 1985 or so?

I assume that "published" online counts for this subforum ... https://lewisporter.substack.com/ Lewis Porter has some great posts up on his substack - you can read without subscribing though I don't know how many articles trigger a block. Check out the one about Miles and Coltrane recording together again, as well as a Coltrane playing Monk compositions with Golson arrangements proposal.

But Substack doesn't really fit a model for a publication with such a wide variety of published material as a magazine, does it? I see substack as a way for writers of all stripes to publish (sometimes) worthy reporting and opinion without limitation of a publisher/editor. Sort of Only Fans for non-adult entertainment.

This seems a lot fluffier than before. Can't wait to see jazz pushed back into popular culture though. A thousand eye roll thingamabobs.

Am I the only one to find this a bit of a comedown from the prior pandemic release of that live Paris set with organ? The tracks are mostly slower tempo and the one vocal (by Lewis Nash) did nothing for me. Overall this is like 3.5 stars where previously, Person's new releases were unadulterated joy-joy for me.

I listened to this for the first time driving to Naples over the weekend and cannot recommend it highly enough. Tate, Sweets and Powell all take solo honors but its a very strong performance across the whole band.

And your response reinforces my conclusion that this society is hopeless, not because of racism but because of Identity politics. Instead of judging people by the content of their character, we judge by the color of their skin. And we determine that white writers need not write about "black" topics. And traditional liberalism is called "white fragility".

Don't apologize to me, apologize for using a term like white fragility, one of the most ridiculous concepts to emerge in this god forsaken era where the truly fragile pay race hucksters to have dinner and be berated over their racism. I am sure you've heard of that "service"? And the racism "trainers" get richer and richer because "the work" "can never be done". Why is it that the idea that a writer's skin color has nothing to do with the value of his prose is not universally accepted? I didn't read Willard Jenkins' JT writings because he is black. I read him because he had something to say. And I think you should read, and re-read Allen's reply to you.

Really fascinating piece, I remember reading about this guy back when the Times did their piece about the obscure female blues singers ... in the end you have someone who did extraordinary work documenting musicians and histories, even as he also worked to obscure the truth as it suited him, or suited what was clearly a diseased mind. I will be interested to see what the Smithsonian puts out from the archive. I mean The Monster.

Yeah HA HA HA, I must be butthurt over something that hasn't been a part of my life and won't be. 1. I have butthurt over naked racism. 2. A new owner might want to figure out how to get people like me to read/subscribe, but he seems to view the decline of the magazine as a consequence of it's white journalist "gate keepers'. This last bit is a pantload of garbage. You want to re-read? Fine: "I want you all to imagine a world in which Black writers, as a matter of course and almost exclusively, provide the critique, opinion and coverage of White jazz artists and their music. Scary, huh?” Only a racist sees race as the defining characteristic of a writer. His claim here is that black writers writing about white jazz artists would frighten ... who? Other whites, obviously. Jazz fans want interesting writing about interesting musicians regardless of the race of the writer or the musician. "This publication has lived in an insular bubble for decades — a magazine seemingly written for the consumption and from the perspective of white journalists (often themselves wannabe jazz musicians) who have had no interest in appealing to a general public. A wankfest of the highest order, largely undertaken and overtaken by white people at the expense of cultivating a legacy amongst jazz's primary heirs — past and future Black generations." "Overtaken" - the language of appropriation, aggression, theft. And, we now know that Jazz's primary heirs are black people. RACISM. "These writers, aka the gatekeepers, historically worked on a tab until this Black man said get the fuck out" RACISM AGAIN as he has identified the gatekeeping writers as "White". Again, I get butthurt over racism wherever it exists. How sad that this garbage goes down at the same time that Mike Longo's widow has published his autobiography, The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician’s Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White https://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Unity-Musicians-Lifelong-Journey-ebook/dp/B0BWZ52WCT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2E6NQM70TW9KV&keywords=dorothy+longo+rhythm+of+unity&qid=1677604472&sprefix=dorothy+longo+rhythm+of+unity%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1

100% this. The new owner apparently thinks white writers have nothing worthwhile or interesting to say about jazz, because they are white. I oppose racism wherever it exists, so .... FUCK THAT FOREVER AND ALWAYS. Now we have Crow Jim for writers. Next will be a re-evaluation of Getz and Brubeck and any other performer who isn't black. I was thinking about submitting a profile of Percy France, unbidden, to JT. I would love to see if they ask me my race or for a photograph, or just try to pick apart my social media to figure out my race. I haven't read JazzTimes in forever, and it looks like that will continue til I die.

Congratulations for making me now want to hear Al's tunes. The guesses to date had not excited me and so I didn't plan but I gotta hear what a bad porn soundtrack is. (and I posted one once on a BFT).

Kinda like how a tenor-battle album would have done for Percy.

I saw this thread and did not recognize the name but then I saw the NYT obituary and realized how he spent most of his life. Very talented and very funny, RIP.

This is why I have had nothing to add myself to this thread ... I was thinking about your point of "sentimental value" as being a part of it, and I recalled that, to the best of my recollection, the first Ben Webster I heard was Atmosphere for Lovers and Thieves. But I can't think of it as exceeding actual value because I think it's a fine Webster recording, and also because it made Ben a figure of great musical interest, it brought many, many, many other fine recordings to my attention. So, sentiment, yes, just as Blue Hour introduced me to Gene Harris/Andy Simpkins/Bill Dowdy. But also flawless or damn close to it.

Mike, I agree with your description and assessment of the side 1 track. Tremendous masters all in service of the song, and starting with the rhythm section grooving was an inspired decision. I don't know that I can think of any other such arrangement for a similarly long jam on a song. I actually enjoy the second side tunes a bit more than you do(?), short(er) can be equally as satisfying and with a group like this ... Now, my one slightly negative opinion which is entirely my own: I give 4.5 stars on the album as a whole, and the 1/2 star deduction is due to my personal preference for Sweets Edison over Eldridge. While he does not over-do it, a little of Roy's high-note runs goes a long way for me. There's something I find much more satisfying in Sweets playfulness, wit, his personality. And the Verve's with him and Ben as the front line are just fabulous. Thanks Mike for starting this up, maybe others will be inspired to post another album and this short-lived tradition can be reborn. I might even think of one or two to suggest.

I think an excellent choice and I look forward to pulling my CD copy out tomorrow to listen - it's been ages.

And I hear one of them is freshly retired.

ROAD TRIP!

I don't understand how "soft spot" compares or differs from prior discussion of "favorites" or for that matter "desert island" discs. It sounds like its supposed to be something that others don't generally appreciate? You can usually find others who will agree with your assessments of certain recordings even if they are not in the "pantheon".

It was Album of the Week, for many years its been a completely dead "weekly" topic. How many Recommendations threads have 1 opening post, and 30 views? I would bet a lot, and the ones with comments are of the variety "yeah, I know it, it's great" or "thanks". Mike's interest in starting a discussion means that for better, worse or total indifference, it belongs where he's been thinking he should put it. After all this build up I hope the recording he thinks of can generate a modicum of discussion.

There is a 2023 specific sign up thread - as of now September is the only month available but it is open. I would hope Thom catches your post here.

That's unfortunate to hear. It was 2009 that I reached out to him and it wasn't really a bootleg so much as a questionable bit-torrent post on dimeadozen.org. Wolfgang's Vault had announced that they purchased Newport Jazz Festival recordings and a few months later, someone posted the 1959 Silver Quintet Newport performance on Dime. I protested to the mods because from the press around the Wolfgang's announcement this seemed as if they were the only legit source for the recording and Dime is actually pretty good about not allowing commercially available recordings, only true "private" and "live" recordings. Yet, they told me it was an open question whether Wolfgang's was paying artists or their estates, so the torrent would stay on the tracker. I let Greg know about it didn't hear anything further. BTW that 1959 performance is killer, right before release of the Blowin' the Blues Away record. They had barely started performing the tunes in public so Horace expresses surprise when there is crowd reaction to "Sister Sadie" during his intro ... the tunes were that fresh in the repertoire. He must have just known he had a hit record about to be released, the way people were reacting.

Pretty sure I could listen to dates from 1958 and be perfectly happy for a good long time. But I am not going to go look them up.

This one looks like a possibility for me - I can't recall if 'Hanky Panky' has appeared on any other live album and I always dug that one, from Clubhouse. OTOH Amazon seems to only show it on their French site? Edit to add: Amazon.com only has it for streaming right now.