GA Russell

I read all of MacDonald's novels in 1980, listening to Mike Nock's In Out & Around the whole time. The perfect CD to read hard boiled detectives by! I liked MacDonald, but it seemed like he was writing the same story over and over again. After a while, I forgot what the plots of the books I had read were because they were so similar. I agree that Hammett and Chandler are the best, but I'm open to suggestions!

Happy Birthday! It's also Annette Funicello's birthday!

Most of my favorites have been mentioned... Stablemates Tenderly Nancy with the Laughing Face Since I Fell for You Donna Lee Empty Faces Anybody else remember seeing Pete Barbuti play Tenderly on the broom?

Looks great, Mark! Hope you find the time to post more.

I received word today that Sonny, Please "will be available thru all digital stores, including eMusic."

Berrigan, Mays played years after he should have retired. The playoffs did not begin until 1969, when he was already at the end of the line. In terms of the World Series, do not forget his catch of the Vic Wertz fly in 1954!

Soul Stream, glad to have helped! I'll tell Chuck and akanalog what you said!

Montg, since you're looking for West Coast suggestions, I recommend that you get Duane Tatro's Jazz For Moderns from the Concord blowout sale before it's too late. The other two West Coast albums I think are superlative are Shelly Manne's The West Coast Sound on Contemporary and Shorty Rogers' Short Stops on RCA Bluebird. The Rogers is oop, but has been available from Amazon sellers. And let's not forget one of my favorites, a best seller: Henry Mancini's Music From Peter Gunn on RCA Victor, available from Your Music.

Sounds great, CJ! Hope you enjoy it all! One thing that I learned from my time writing reviews for AAJ was the huge amount of mediocre music being made. I came to respect Blue Note in particular (and the other majors to the extent that they are still active in new recordings) for separating the wheat from the chaff.

I had wanted to hear the Mulligan/Baker recordings ever since I first became interested in jazz, but I don't believe that I ever once saw the records in the stores. I assume they were all out of print. So I jumped at the chance to order this (as well as the Blue Note Monk) when I received my first Mosaic catalogue in 1988. I loved it from the get go, but over time it didn't wear as well as other music has for me. I rarely play it now. Maybe I'll dig the set out when I dig out my Christmas LPs. It's fun music for sure.

Happy Birthday Chris!

In March of '04 Concord released a two-CD set called The Best of the Concord Years. I hadn't heard any of his Concord work till I got that set. Tjader recorded six albums for Concord. Asuming that the tracks selected really are the best of those six LPs, I would say that his work for Concord was not as good as that of his first Fantasy stint, Verve and Skye. I've only heard one album from his second Fantasy stint, Tambu, which I like; but I can't make a generalization based on one album.

Guy, you're making me laugh!

Jim, I suspect our disagreement lies not in the music, but in what/who is considered a Joey D fanatic!

I've already told the Mort Weiss story here: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...96&hl=Weiss In 2003 Weiss recorded two sessions with Joey DeFrancesco. Weiss says that these were the first ever recordings of an organ with clarinet. I recall that Buddy DeFranco did a little with Sonny Clark on the organ, but Weiss makes his point. The first session he released on his own label as Mort Weiss Meets Joey DeFrancesco. Concord put a stop to that, and required that he pull off the market all of the copies already distributed to the stores. Concord agreed to allow for the album to be released as The Mort Weiss Quartet . This second album was to have been called The Joey DeFrancesco Trio featuring Mort Weiss. I can imagine that Concord blew a gasket when they found that out. Concord refused permission for this second album to be released. Three years later they relented, provided that neither DeFrancesco's name nor image be used to promote the CD. So DeFrancesco's name is not to be found on the front cover or the tray card. Instead, the front cover reads: FEATURING A VERY SPECIAL GUEST: The Finest Jazz Organist In The World Concord Recording Artist...You Guessed It. It's Him on Hammond B3 However, once you open up the wrapper, Joey D's name is everywhere. The liner notes are all about Weiss's dealings with Concord. DeFrancesco's name is not only listed among the personnel in the liner notes, but is also imprinted on the CD itself. Now let's get to the music. The B3 and Me is a Joey D album. Weiss takes a solo on every song, as DeFrancesco does, but it is the organ which dominates the proceedings. Absolutely nothing revolutionary here. Just a good cooking session. There are 9 songs, 2 jazz standards and 7 popular standards (one of which called Love Letters I am unfamiliar with), totalling 67:33. The guitarist Craig Ebner and the drummer Byron Landham are both from Philly. I gather that they were members of DeFrancesco's group at the time. I think Weiss's playing is better here than on the Meets Sam Most album. But let's be candid - Weiss is good, with a good sound; but he is not a five star musician, and he is never going to win the Down Beat poll for best clarinetist. I think that Soul Stream, The Magnificent Goldberg, soulstation1 and all of the others here who enjoy soul jazz and organ combos would enjoy this disc. For Joey D fanatics it's essential. On the other hand, those who are lukewarm toward organ combos other than Organissimo and those who don't enjoy the clarinet could live without this.

And now I see that the A's fired their manager Ken Macha. I don't understand the idea of calling for the heads of people like Torre and Macha after they lose in the playoffs. Either making the playoffs is good, a big deal, or it's not. Apparently it's not. You guys who pay attention to baseball may disagree, but "in my day" anything could happen in a short series in baseball. When there were no divisions and no playoffs, the two first place teams were both champions, and to lose the World Series was no dishonor.

The Toronto Globe & Mail is reporting that Piniella will manage the Cubs. Announcement to be made tomorrow.

I should have looked them up before I said anything. Yesterday I was at CD Universe and did look them up, and I saw that all four are available on CD, as well as the album by the first subsequent If group.

Happy Birthday!

If I remember right, Earl Turbinton was a New Orleans musician whom I met in the spring of '68. His brother Willie T led the jazz group on the piano. Prior to that, Willie T and the Souls had a hit r&b record with a song called Teasing You, which was re-recorded as Thank You John and became a staple of Carolina beach music.

Happy Birthday!

My favorites are his first three on Prestige - Soul Message Living Soul (available on the CD Spicy) Misty

I have Monk in France. It was included in a twofer entitled Two Hours with Thelonious, issued about 1969 when ABC owned the Riverside catalogue. No big deal, in my opinion. It's my least favorite Monk album. But then, his recordings with Charlie Rouse in the quartet are my least favorites.

One more vote for Thelonious In Action. It was my first Monk album, and still maybe my favorite, maybe because it was the first. The way I see it, I wouldn't have gone on to purchase many more Monk albums if the first one weren't any good. edit for typo

It's my bedtime, and I thought I would try something new for a midnight snack, so tonight for the first time in my life I had some Post Grape-Nuts. Eww! I know it's whole grain and good for you, but I can't understand why there has been a demand for it for almost a century. Next time for a change from my usual Uncle Sam, I'm going to go for that great European favorite Familia! Yum!