Dan Gould

Jim has agreed, and shortly (I assume) he'll be adding a link to mp3 files of "Hot Bread" and "Inez" the two tunes recorded circa 1956 at Boddie Recording in Cleveland by Lonnie "The Sound" Walker, saxophone Gene Harris, piano Andy Simpkins, bass Bill Dowdy, drums This is the earliest known recording of the original members of the Three Sounds, and the only known recording of the original group, The Four Sounds. Enjoy! PS - the reason I offered the full tunes is, Michael Cuscuna's reaction to hearing them - he told me he would not include these in a Mosaic set, due to fidelity, questionable ownership and the fact that the sound is so different from the trio. So, Mosaic's loss is our gain!

Can I ask where you shopped in St. Pete? I have a friend who lives there and I'm due for a visit ...

No, when I had the Genie In My Soul vinyl, the liners were essentially the same, taking care to point out the man's classical background and training. So it can't be a case of grabbing bad liners from some other source - its essentially the same info as what's on the later recording. And beyond the fact tha the man didn't have much of a career, I think the reason there's no classical listing for a Gene Harris is, the man tried to make it as a jazz man. But he still didn't do enough to warrant any notice, other than two dates with Jubilee.

That won't help - its not a question of when or whether a "Gene Harris" attended Juilliard. She assumes that somehow, somewhere, liner notes got screwed up and that's where the confusion has started. For what its worth, she's now told me that while on tour in Japan, "Our Love is Here to Stay" came on the club sound system, and "Gene winced and wanted it turned off. Said it was his first recording. And the club owner brought the LP out and it had the same cover as the Fresh Sounds reissue except it wasn't green, it was blue, and the biographical info was correct." So maybe she is correct, and the first "Gene Harris Trio" recording really was his, and somehow it changed in subsequent pressings? She says that his last drummer told her about the LP, that a friend had a copy. So she's going to contact the drummer and try to find out about the liners. If he says the liners don't say anything about classical training and instead talk about boogie-woogie pianists and growing up in Michigan, then I guess she's definitely right.

Couldn't resist, could ya? Thanks Chuck, you're a fine human being. File that under "Signs of the Apocalypse," right under that negative Dusty Groove review.

I'm in the midst of a dispute with Gene's widow, Janie. The gist of it: There are two "Gene Harris Trio" albums on Jubilee. One was recorded in 1955, the other in 1959. Several years ago, I grabbed the one recorded in 1959 off of ebay (Genie In My Soul) and was quite disturbed to find that the man pictured on the back was demonstrably not Gene Harris of Three Sounds fame, and on top of that, the liners made reference to the man's classical background and training, clearly indicating its a different guy. Fast forward to now. Janie tells me that Gene's first record was in 1955 for Jubilee, Our Love is Here to Stay. I tell her that I once had the other Jubilee record by "Gene Harris" and its not "our" Gene, are you sure about the earlier one? She insists, so I order a copy from Fresh Sounds. It just arrived, and for the album, recorded just after Gene left the service, talks about his attendance at not just Julliard but a number of other classical music places, that he's performed with the Boston Philharmonic, etc., etc. And yet, Janie is still telling me that its Gene, even if my ears say otherwise and logic screams otherwise. Says she can't explain the liner notes, other than that the record business sometimes doesn't make sense. So, that's where we are, and I am hoping that one of you discographical mavens can point to one of your tomes and tell me that the two Gene Harris Trio LPs on Jubilee are listed separately from the main Gene Harris listing, and that there is little dispute that there were two Gene Harris' recording in the late 50s. Anyone? Please?

Better early than late. Happy Birthday! Keep taking those great photos!!

I've lined up in the player for tonite: One Flight Up Lullabuy for a Monster Swiss Nights Volume 3

Or delete, and let's post an intelligible obit when one appears in English.

Too late for him to see the proceeds, but I've got to order that DVD of his.

Kenny Drew, Alex Riel and NHOP was once my Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for so many recordings. Such a great player. And yes, terribly young. RIP.

Its well worth having. Nice look at his career, with the added bonus of some fine solo and trio performances recorded at his home. (Or it just duo with a bassist? Can't recall.)

Thanks Ray. That production date must have been a mistake - I was pretty sure it hadn't been in simultaneous production on both sides of the pond. Would have been a helluva commute for Colin and Ryan!

Is this show still in production over there? I see a listing on Comedy Central for one of the original episodes (before Drew Carey brought it to ABC) that seems to have a production date of August 2004. Anyone know? Thanks!

and then you multi-task in a way few other people ever do.

this was provided to me by Jim Gallert, co-author of the "Before Motown" book. I included one track on my second BFT, in fact. Was DG selling an original pressing or a reissue? Because Jim mentioned that Myric was reissuing the music and he (Jim) had written liners for it. If he doesn't see this thread I'll try to tug his sleeve toward it.

Been watching a lot of jazz video the past couple of weeks, and I gotta say, its kind of disconcerting to see someone blowing a chorus with their eyes open. I'm so used to seeing guys with eyes shut, its kind of weird to see Sonny Stitt staring ... So, which is it? I always presumed you were more in touch with the moment and your muse with eyes shut, but then I've seen more than a couple of guys with eyes open ....

Man, you're really a news cycle or two behind ... Ted Koppell is done with ABC and is actively shopping his resume. There won't be no Nightline by the time ABC drops MNF. And anyway, there will still be games on Monday night to drive musicians to murderous rage. That TV over your head will just be tuned to ESPN. *************************** and as far as the whole big-brother ABC being upset - c'mon. This was a corporate decision to let MNF go to the sports network. It still stays in the family, and the fact is, MNF has had declining ratings for quite a few years now. I'm not at all surprised ABC let ESPN get the deal.

Don't think this has come up before, but some interesting comments from Mingus on a BN Dizzy Reece LP, Ornette, among other topics/artists: http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=s..._detail&sid=798

My approach has always been to monitor auctions until the end and then decide what I want to bid. Only time I've placed a max. bid was if the end time was inconvenient, in which case I'd usually still bid late. I figure its also important to minimize the available time any prior winning bidder has to jump back in and bid again. Therefore, I usually bid in the final minute. Its not as efficient as sniping - I have been sniped once or twice - but there are few things I had my heart set on that I didn't get. As far as those incremental bidders go, I ended up manually sniping an antique toy bank that my Mom was interested in - and I didn't even intend to. The situation was, it had a reserve price on it, and someone, in the last couple of minutes, started probing at that reserve price - so the bid went up, but the reserve wasn't met, wasn't met, wasn't met. And the bid had exceeded my Mother's maximum by about $100, so I wasn't even supposed to bid. So with about 30 seconds left, all of a sudden the bid was $400 and reserve met. So, I figured what the hell, the guy probably bid $425 or more, but I'd try $401.25 ... and with three seconds left, my bid was in and I was the winner. Man, that guy must have pissed! He probes and he probes and he finds the reserve price, he's the winner, less than 30 seconds to go and BOOM. He missed out by 75 cents. And, fortunately for me, Mom had no problem with my exceeding her maximum and was absolutely thrilled with the item (it was made by a Connecticut company in the 1880s, so she was getting it for the Historical Society where she is the President). (Actually, its a pretty cool item, called the Tammany Bank. Back then, children were taught the value of thrift and so there were lots of banks to keep their pennies in. This one though was an odd thing because while teaching thrift, it was basically glorifying graft. The bank was in the shape of a large man in a suit, seated in a chair. You put the penny in his hand, and the weight made the hand drop the penny inside the coat, while the man nodded his appreciation. See? Teach graft by showing a payoff to Tammany Hall!)

An interesting question. When I think of some of my favorite jazz tunes, like "Watermelon Man" or "Senor Blues" or "Our Delight" or "Whisper Not" ... is it the catchy theme that "hooks" me? Or is it what Hank/Freddie/Dex/Herbie/Lee/Benny/Bobby do in their solos that "makes" the tune? I guess its the total package - theme and variations - that makes jazz for me, but certainly, "hooks" have a place, too.

Yanks down 8-3 through 7, after Brown gave up 6 runs in two innings (but admittedly pitched well after that) and staring straight at being swept by the O's. What would worry me more if I were a Yankee fan is the possibility that the O's won't roll over and play dead for the Yanks this year. If you take a look at the last few years, I would bet that, since the Yanks and Red Sox have been essentially even head-to-head, the entire difference between the two teams in the standings comes down to the differing performances against the Orioles. For some reason, the Orioles have played the Sox extremely tough, while they roll over for the Yanks. A hard pill to swallow considering how bad the O's have usually been. So, the Orioles playing the Yankees tough does not augur well for them, I don't think.

Forget Israel and those crazy End Time books. Forget world government, forget the Rapture. REPENT, FOR THE END IS NEAR! DUSTY GROOVE DISSED A RECORD!!

I didn't even know about this one til I saw your mention, so I headed over to the Verve site. Hawk, Getz, Gonsalves and Dizzy with Wynton Kelly? Oh, hell yeah!

Thanks, Jim. Definitely not it. Must be the unissued tune. Since its obviously on one of the videos, maybe I should let Claude know that the unknown tune is 3:25, and maybe I should take Mike up on his offer to ID the tune.