GA Russell

Thanks, RonS! Do you recommend it?

Happy Birthday Randy!

Clandy, I'm glad you posted it. I wouldn't have known about it if you hadn't! Thanks!

God bless all of you in London.

Ron, I have a lot of fondness for Charlie Byrd. I saw him in Pittsburgh the fall of '76, and it was a lot of fun to see such a great talent make it look easy. I'm not aware of the album you mention. In fact, all of his Concord albums flew below my radar when they came out. I vaguely remember his making some albums with two other guitarists, I think Herb Ellis was one. He made plenty of mainstream albums, but my favorites are his bossa nova ones. About 1970 I picked up a compilation called Guitar Artistry which was an ABC reissue of mainstream Riverside material. I also bought not too long after that a Milestone (Riverside) twofer of bossa nova albums, one album of which was reissued as an OJC. That was good, but he was playing with a string orchestra, which is not my ideal. I heard a similar album with strings on Columbia around 1968 which was OK but didn't excite me. I can highly recommend an album he did on Fantasy about 1974 with Cal Tjader called Tambu. That was reissued as an OJC, and I should have mentioned it on Chuck's OJC thread. Great music! EDIT to give props to Jazz Samba with Stan Getz! But everybody already knows about that one.

As I've discussed elsewhere, I particularly enjoy bossa nova during the warm weather of summertime. I know that some of you prefer imported CDs of Brazilian bossa nova, but I prefer American bossa nova. So I want to give you a heads up regarding a 2 CD set Concord issued last year. It's called Byrd & Brazil, and it is made up of two albums, Sugarloaf Suite Suite and Brazilville. Sugarloaf Suite was recorded in August of '79 at the Concord Jazz Festival, and features the Charlie Byrd Trio, with Joe Byrd on bass and Wayne Phillips on drums. No surprises in the music. It's what you would expect from Charlie Byrd. It's well done and very relaxing. Songs include Triste, Favela, Saudade de Bahia and Gentle Rain. Brazilville was recorded in May of '81 at Byrd's club Charlie's Georgetown in DC. It features the trio with Joe Byrd again on bass and Charles Redd on drums, augmented by Bud Shank on alto. This is a terrific album. I saw someone list it as his favorite Bud Shank album on the One Artist - One Album thread. Everyone is in fine form. Songs include What Are You Doing For the Rest of Your Life, Zingaro, Speak Low, How Insensitive, Yesterdays, and something by Oscar Castro Neves I was not familiar with called Saquarema. I can recommend this to anyone who, like me, likes American bossa nova, but maybe is getting a little tired of the forty year old Verves we've had for so long.

Gary Puckett & the Union Gap played at my college homecoming dance my freshman year. They had the student MC instruct everyone there that they were not to dance during the performance!!! Everybody ignored that, of course. By the way, the student MC was Hillary Clinton's boyfriend at the time!

Lon, I had never heard of Morelenbaum before you mentioned her. Maybe I'll pick it up on your recomendation sometime this summer.

Today I opened up Herbie Mann At the Village Gate. It's one of those albums that I've wanted for years, but never got around to picking up. It's very mellow, and would be a good recommendation for a jazz newbie. Good music.

RIP. Michelot was one of those guys who never seemed to be on a bad recording.

Thanks Mike. Maybe I'll consider it if Your Music gets it.

Anybody know anything about the Kenton? Was it part of one of the Mosaic boxes?

Happy Independence Day!

Well, it's summertime, and it's hot as Hades here, so I'm in the mood for something appropriate. As I've mentioned elsewhere, most of what I think of as summertime music is rock and roll, and I've pretty much lost all interest in that. Back in the day when I lived in an apartment complex with a swimming pool, we would waste the day by the pool (those were the days!) and the radio often played Sade's Smooth Operator. So I think of Sade as a summertime act. I had a hard bop album next up on my queue, but I have changed it at the last moment and so now next up is... Sade - Lovers Rock I bought Sade's previous album when it was new back in '92, but she waited so long to put out her next album (eight years) that I lost interest. So now it's time to catch up at Your Music's prices. Anybody else picking up anything interesting for the warm weather?

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm sort of thinking about Time's Mirror, or maybe Labyrinth. I was unaware of the Chesky CDs. I'll have to give them some consideration.

I like what I've heard of Tom Harrell, particularly The Art of Rhythm and Sail Away. I don't like his disc for the Joe Lovano Quartets at the Village Vanguard double CD. The songs are too free for me. Do you have a favorite of his? I could be talked into picking up something soon.

Thanks Mike. I note that the four Black Hawks are numbered consecutively.

I received an email from BMG a couple of weeks ago telling me that I would lose some Music Points if I didn't spend them by June 30. So I ordered Never No Lament on Thursday, and it arrived today. Shipping was $6.77, so that's a deal! Three CDs of classic Ellington for less than seven dollars. I have listened to Disc 1. I have an old stereo that is not very hi-fi, and the disc's sound is certainly good enough for me.

In those days, popular acts released three albums a year. I wonder why, if they were going to issue all four volumes over the course of thirteen months, Contemporary didn't follow the norm and release one every four months. Maybe they were issuing other Shelly Manne albums at the same time.

It looks like "His Men" at the Black Hawk got paid quite a bit! By the way, you're old enough to remember, and maybe you know...Did Contemporary release all four volumes of At The Black Hawk at once, or did they stretch it out the way Prestige stretched out the 1956 Miles Quintet sessions?

Thanks Chuck! I'll look forward to your detailed explanation.

My question is about albums recorded live in concert. Do union rules require that the sidemen get paid twice - once for the gig and another time for the recording? And if more than one album is released from the same gig, do the sidemen get paid a separate time for each album? Listening to Shelly Manne & His Men At The Black Hawk brought this to mind.

Last night I finished Pope John Paul's Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way. It was about his life as a bishop in Poland. What I found striking was how religion flourished under the oppressive communist regime. After communism's fall, he spoke out against the rising consumerism in Poland, and apparently the religiosity of the people seems to be on the wane.

Happy Birthday!

I second Groove Holmes - Soul Message.