GA Russell

Mike, Blakey's appearance at The Cellar Door was during my sophomore year in college. If you insist that it was during the first semester rather than the second, I won't argue. The concert I went to was a Washington, DC, Left Bank Jazz Society affair. Since you do not have a record of who was in the band, maybe Blakey didn't have a regular band at the time, and this was merely some pick-up arrangement. Maybe that is why the playing was uninspired, although as I recall it was not the case that the musicians were just going through the motions. I remember feeling pretty much the same way when I went to another DC Left Bank Jazz Society concert, with Horace Silver. It was my feeling at the time that hard bop had run its course. I was young, of course, and didn't know a great deal, even if I knew more than my classmates. It all seemed tired to me.

I'm not aware of anything that attempts to appeal to my demographic. A few years ago, AARP put out a magazine that did, and assumed that we were all both self-absorbed and liberal Democrats. That fiasco ended when they had Bernadette Dohrn and her husband on the cover, saying that they wished they had blown up more buildings. That issue came out the week of 9/11.

The recent thread on favorite Blakey live recordings reminded me of something I've been meaning to post for a while. So here we are. Last year Concord released without much fanfare a 2 CD set (2 CDs for the price of 1) called Blakey's Beat. It is made up of two albums, both recorded live at Keystone Korner in San Francisco. The albums are much better than I expected. I didn't know that hard bop was alive and well circa 1980. (A personal aside. In the spring of 1970, two friends went to see Blakey and the Messengers at The Cellar Door, and came back raving about the front line of Randy Brecker and Carlos Garnett. I went to see the band about a year later, and was disappointed. I don't remember who was in the group, but I had not heard of any of them at the time. The hard bop they played seemed tired compared to some of the exciting jazz-rock I was hearing at the time. As the 70s progressed, I wasn't finding hard bop in the record stores, and I pretty much came to the conclusion that it was a thing of the past.) The first album is In This Korner, from 1978. The personnel is Valery Ponomarev on trumpet, Bobby Watson on alto, David Schnitter on tenor, James Williams on piano and Dennis Irwin on bass. The only standard is The Song Is You. All other songs were written by members of the group except one by George Cables. Valery Ponomarev is good! I'm not familiar with his work, and maybe some of you can recommend albums he's been on since. But as good as he is, the star of the show is Bobby Watson. He exhibits a lot of fun in his playing. James Williams on piano also exhibits noteworthy talent. The second album is Straight Ahead, from 1981. The lineup is Wynton Marsalis on trumpet, Bobby Watson on alto, Bill Pierce on tenor, James Williams on piano and Charles Fambrough on bass. [Edit: Wynton was the band's new musical director.] I find this album to be a little bit more enjoyable, perhaps because so many of the songs are familiar: Falling In Love With Love, My Romance, How Deep Is The Ocean and Miles' The Theme. Also included is a Bud Powell tune called Webb City, which I haven't come across before. Watson gives the most dominant solos, but I wouldn't say that they are as good as his solos on In This Korner. Wynton isn't given as much time to solo as Ponomarev was, but he shows great talent. His notes are very clean, and his runs in the high register are impressive. At the set's end, Wynton gets the biggest applause. I won't compare these groups to Blakey's bands of the 50s and 60s with people like Clifford Brown and Wayne Shorter, but I will say that I think this is a great buy for the money. I've been listening to it a lot. Anybody else familiar with these albums? Anybody have any opinions or recommendations of the players' other albums?

Two more from ECM: Just finished John Abercrombie - Abercrombie Quartet, from 1980 with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald on drums. Now playing Paul Motian Trio - Le Voyage, from 1979 with JF Jenny-Clark on bass and Charles Brackeen on tenor and soprano.

Notwithstanding the progress regarding integration we've seen over the past fifty years, I believe that America is a worse place to raise children than it was when I was born. Maybe that's true everywhere in the West. I believe that the vulgarity of the popular culture is a big part of the problem, and much of the popular culture is aimed at the 12-25 demographic, according to what I read in USA Today from time to time. Thomas Sowell often writes about how black neighborhoods were safer then than now, and that black schools were better then than now. I'm not familiar with rap music, other than to know that it is full of four letter words. If some people want to put pressure on the record companies to clean up their product, I say more power to them.

Speaking of Vanguard, I don't believe that Larry Coryell's two Vanguard albums with Steve Marcus have been released on CD - Offering and The Great Escape.

Just finished Cal Tjader - Tjader-Ade, a Buddha compilation of his Skye recordings. Just started John Abercrombie/Dave Holland/Jack DeJohnette - Gateway 2, on ECM from 1978.

The Best of Gerald Wilson, a PJ LP.

montg, the material from the RCA Victor/Bluebird CD Short Stops is included here, mostly on disc 2. Short Stops is out of print now, but you can get it used from Amazon's site.

I've questioned them numerous times and get nothing but a very, very thick stone wall. My guess, it's all about the $$$. That's it, pure and simple. They are cheap and most people only want the cheapest. Therefore, they sell. ← I think it's more a matter of availability. I have wanted to buy The Four Freshmen's first album, Voices In Modern, for nearly twenty years. It's never been available. Now that it is available from Europe out of copyright, all of a sudden Capitol has released an official version.

I can't think of many. Some that come to mind are: Jean-Luc Ponty - Sunday Walk (MPS) Gerry Mulligan - Something Borrowed, Something Blue (Limelight) Paul Bley - Mr. Joy (Limelight)

Somebody mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Jazzmataz had the long box of the Jack Johnson sessions set for release in mid-August, so last week I ordered the metal spine box from BMG. It arrived three days after shipping! Anyway, last call for the Jack Johnson metal spine box!

I'm with you on the hour-long episodes, but I also have to say I really gained a new appreciation for the earliet 30 minute episodes after getting the box set. It's all great stuff. BTW, when you decide to get the box sets, Digital Eyes has the best prices. I got the box of the hour-long episodes for $100 and the box of the half hour episodes for around $50-$60. The prices were way better than what Amazon was offering. I like The Prisoner too, but I do have to admit that I liked it a lot more when I was 19 than I do now. ← J Larsen, thanks for the tip about Digital Eyes. I had never heard of them before. I'll look into them.

RIP. I've enjoyed his work with Charlie Byrd.

I'm still having similar problems to those mentioned on my Win 98 SE IE computer, including issues with the search function. But it's OK with my Win 2000 Firefox computer.

I used to refrain from juggling much, but I discovered if you want to make #22 7th in your queue, it will sensibly place it there and reorder everything appropriately. For some reason I feared that if I put something in (for example) the 2nd slot without moving the current 2nd slotted disc the site would explode. ← Thanks Quincy! I'll give it a try.

Scott, including the two I added last night, one of which will go out Monday, I have 9 in my queue. I only juggle the top few. It's too much work to juggle a long queue!

Danger Man's hour long episodes, aka Secret Agent, are my all-time favorite television show. I believe that I have all the episodes on videotape, taped off the air when they were run in Atlanta in the mid 80s. The video quality of some are poor. One day I'll spring for the Megabox. It's great to see that others appreciate it!

I'm enjoying the Sade, although it's probably the least interesting of her albums. At the top of my queue are three hard bop classics, but I opened up Lee Morgan's Search for the New Land today, and I have two more Blue Note classics that I'll probably open up over the course of the next month, so I will probably get something this month from YourMusic that's not hard bop. I'm leaning toward Sam Cooke's Live at the Harlem Square Club, but I see that they also have Stephen Bishop's greatest hits album and I could be talked into that one as well.

My copy arrived today! I put it on right away. My initial thoughts: 1) I think my favorite cut is Tenderly. It's much better than I expected. 2) Most people put their best cuts up front on the CD, but I think that yours are on the back half. Congrats!

Don't ask me how, but I once accidentally put both the Parker Complete Savoy Vol. 2 CD and the Stan Kenton Contemporary Concepts CD at the same time into the Parker jewel box. So one day I'm surprised to open the Kenton jewel box and find it empty. I figured that it must have accidentally gone out in the trash and that I would one day have to buy it again. Some months later, I took out the Parker CD to play it, and there was the Kenton too! There have been occasions when I couldn't find a CD. I keep mine using the LIFO method. But so far the ones that I knew were missing have shown up. They were on a shelf I usually overlooked.

Happy Birthday Lon!

I see that Doug Ramsey at the above link has some very nice things to say about Mike Fitzgerald, dated July 29. Does this maybe change your mind about blogs, Mike?

Last night I finished Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I enjoyed it, but recommend a collection of shorts stories called The Most of P.G. Wodehouse to anyone who hasn't tried him yet.

I can see from the lack of response that nobody is interested in my two recommendations of Herbie Mann and Bobby Jaspar - Flute Souffle and Flute Flight. People, it's great music! You're missing out if you don't pick these up cheap! And let me recommend another that falls into the category of great music but not earth shattering: Charlie Byrd and Cal Tjader - Tambu. This was a jam session in '74 as I recall, playing jazz standards like Black Narcissus, Tereza My Love and My Cherie Amour. Great to relax by.