Fer Urbina

Very clever headline. Clue is in *say*. A friend's told me about European men living in the Far East and needing condoms from back home because the size there is too small. F

Off the cuff, he did a Porgy and Bess for United Artists c. 1959 with a big band full of big names, IIRC. Here it is. F

THE NEW SWINGIN' HERMAN HERD (Crown 205 or 5180, "stereo" or "hi-fi"). Is identical to REAL BIG BAND MUSIC LIVES AGAIN - STEREOPHONIC SOUND OF "THE HERMAN HERD" (Bright Orange X-BO-717). Is identical to CROWN ROYAL (LaserLight , CD 15 775) , with four added tracks from a different session. DATE: March 22, 1960 LOCATION: Chicago. PERSONNEL: Rolf Ericson, Don Rader, Bill Chase, John Bennett, Paul Fontaine (tp) Ken McGarity, Jimmy Guinn, George Hanna (tb) Woody Herman (cl, as, voc) Gus Maas (fl,ts) Don Lanphere, Larry McKenna (ts) Jimmy Mosher (bar) Marty Harris (p) Larry Rockwell (b) Jimmy Campbell (d) Ralph Burns (arr). TUNES: Montmartre Bus Ride, Aruba, DARN THAT DREAM, CROWN ROYAL, I Can't Get Started, The Grind, Off Shore, Single O, Afterglow, HERMOSA BEACH. According to the LaserLight CD booklet, Lanphere solos on Darn that Dream, Crown Royal and Hermosa Beach. F

I was at Ray's on Sunday Nov 23. The coffee shop has indeed taken all the floor in that part of the first floor, but as far as I know they've moved the records upstairs to the music section, which they are re-arranging (that affects to the remainders and second-hand books room too, IIRC). The expansion of the coffee shop and moving the records upstairs makes perfect sense to me. F

Hi Chewy, See my previous post re: these tunes. The personnel on the Bright Orange reissue is wrong and it's very likely the origin of subsequent mistakes. The original Crown LP doesn't give any details re: personnel although it gives the exact date of recording, and I guess whoever did the sleeve for the Bright Orange assumed that the personnel was the same for both LPs. However, at least Bruyninckx gives both takes on this session (one under Maxwell Davies and the other under Herman) but more importantly in Woody Herman: Chronicles of the Herds by William D. Clancy and Audree Coke Kenton very concrete details are given about the session with Montmartre, Aruba, etc, the date and the location. For starters these were recorded in Chicago, so you can almost certainly forget about Glow, Cohn, Byers, André, Rehak or Costa being on it. So: - Woodchopper's ball, Northwest passage, Apple honey, Goosey gander, Four brothers, Blue flame, Wild root, Bijou, Blowin' up a storm were recorded by a studio band *without Woody Herman* including some musicians connected with him. The tunes are all from the First Herd book, except Woodchopper's and Brothers. Recorded in NYC, c. early 1959. Published as MEMBERS OF THE WOODY HERMAN ORCHESTRA - TRIBUTE TO WOODY HERMAN (Crown CST 133 or 5103). - Montmartre Bus Ride, Aruba, Darn that dream, Crown Royal, I cant get started, The Grind, Off Shore, Single O, After Glow, Hermosa Beach were recorded by the then current Woody Herman Band, in Chicago on March 22, 1960. Released originally as THE NEW SWINGIN' HERMAN HERD (Crown 205 or 5180), then reissued as REAL BIG BAND MUSIC LIVES AGAIN - STEREOPHONIC SOUND OF "THE HERMAN HERD" (Bright Orange X-BO-717) and CROWN ROYAL LaserLight (CD 15 775). F PS Bernie Glow was one of those studio guys who had been in big bands in the 40s and that you'll find anywhere in those big band records of the fifties by people like Al Cohn, Billy Byers, Manny Albam... and in Miles Davis recordings with Gil Evans.

Cost effective cds are in quantities of 1000. Cost effective booklets/tray cards are minimally 2500. Most issues deleted sell below 200 a year. You do the math. None of this takes into consideration the expense of warehousing, etc. The Japanese seem to do that, short batches and then reissue whatever needs be reissued. Thus, for instance, you only have two issues of Eddie Costa's House of Blue Lights (c. 1994, c.2003, none in Europe/US) but I don't know how many of Miles Davis or other far better selling artists. I guess there must be a reason why that model is not followed elsewhere (lower distribution costs, I guess, plenty of people in a very small area) but I certainly don't know for sure. F

Little me came to the UK in 97 but I was able to catch Mole's last years where I was a regular downstairs and upstairs (I still have a few books from there). As far as I know in the end they were acquired by distributors New Note, and Mole is now a shop in eBay. (I was a couple of times at Harold Moore's upstairs and it was really sad). Won't miss the programme, thanks for the heads up. F PS I may have a bag somewhere, too...

It actually does look as if it opened up indeed, see here Wonderful, wonderful thread, sir (I just discovered it). MANY THANKS FOR THIS. F

... facsimile, wrong pitch on one side and the titles of Flamenco Sketches and All Blues mixed up. Otherwise I don't see the point. Discovery UK is the distributor for "the Andorrans" here. F

Interesting. The Village Gate gig Rollins mentions may well be the "Eddie Costa memorial concert" from October 9 (the letter is dated October 13). The concert was very long, but at least part of Hawkins set is on record. F

I'm a fan of Jones for various reasons, musical and non-musical, and look up to him and Moody, as many of their peers, for having had long, fruitful lives doing what they like most, to a very high standard. But I can see how an insect wouldn't understand this. F

Cannot tell right now (have a queue of books before I get to this). I have read the afterword, which deals with the research Chambers has done, and it looks promising in that respect (quite a few letters from Twardzik himself have been included, Chambers had the family's collaboration). It looks above average, although I agree that average in this genre is nothing to shout about, usually for lack of a good editor (or an editor at all), IMHO. F

I don't know (yet) when and where can be bought, but I can tell you the book DOES exist Paperback, the back cover says $19.95 and ISBN: 978-1-55128-141-4 302 pp., plus discography and index. As soon as I know more about its availability, I'll let you know. F EDIT to add that according to the website (where apparently you can buy the book), the price I gave is in CANADIAN dollars. Also, AMAZON.CA has it and AMAZON.COM seems to be waiting for more stock.

And to think that Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson recorded their album together in "The Allen Room" I generally agree with your approach, Allen, but boy, are you a troublemaker! F

Agreed, Flurin! Same here. I had been looking forward to this set forever. As it's been said, it's probably a matter of expectations, but to hope for a big brassy, muscular band with Mulligan on top and Bob Brookmeyer as best mate, I don't know... I love this set. F

Hi, Have checked. The "other one" was released originally as THE NEW SWINGIN' HERMAN HERD (Crown 205 or 5180, "stereo" or "hi-fi", go figure). Unusually for a Crown LP, it gives the date of recording on the cover: March 22, 1960. No personnel, though. It was later reissued as REAL BIG BAND MUSIC LIVES AGAIN - STEREOPHONIC SOUND OF "THE HERMAN HERD" (Bright Orange X-BO-717). This "second" Herman Crown LP has been actually reissued on CD, by LaserLight (CD 15 775) as CROWN ROYAL, with four added tracks from a different session (live from January 13-16, 1958, Arno Marsh on it BTW, acc. to Bruyninckx - two Gene Roland compositions, Natchel Blues and Ready, Get Set, Jump, plus Don't Get Around Much Anymore and Gloomy Sunday, the latter with a solo by Bill Harris). Although the Bright Orange reissue repeats the same personnel as in the Maxwell Davis Tribute, the CD and Bruyninckx list the following: Rolf Ericson, Don Rader, Bill Chase, John Bennett, Paul Fontaine (tp) Ken McGarity, Jimmy Guinn, George Hanna (tb) Woody Herman (cl, as, voc) Gus Maas (fl,ts) Don Lanphere, Larry McKenna (ts) Jimmy Mosher (bar) Marty Harris (p) Larry Rockwell (b) Jimmy Campbell (d) Ralph Burns (arr) Tunes from the March 22, 1960 session are: Montmartre Bus Ride, Aruba, Darn That Dream*, Crown Royal*, I Can't Get Started, The Grind, Off Shore, Single O, Afterglow, Hermosa Beach*. (*) are the tracks with Lanphere solos according to the LaserLight CD booklet. F (Edit to add the tune titles from the Jan 1958 session on the Laserlight CD)

Can't check right now, but IIRC there are *two* Herman albums in this series. F

About the names in capitals, I'm fairly sure Don Bagley played bass for Kenton for quite a while (he had his own albums, Jazz on the Rocks for Regent has been discussed in the Eddie Costa thread IIRC). Conrad Gozzo played trumpet with Woody Herman's First Herd (with Sonny Berman, Shorty Rogers and Pete Candoli as fellow section men) and later became a session musician (see this). Pianist Raskin rings a bell... after reading this I think it's because his work at Capitol records. F

The first article on the first ever issue of Names and Numbers (April 1985) is about Maxwell Davies and Crown. The date for the Tribute to Kenton recordings is November 17, 1958. Vido Musso only plays tenor on Sorrento, Dark Eyes and Intermission Riff. FWIW, the personnel on the Ellington album is TP: C Candoli, Ray Linn, A Porcino, Jake Porter VTB: J Tizol TB: Lloyd Elliott, Jimmy Henderson, Dick Noel, Tommy Pederson REEDS: Mahlon Clark, Jewell Grant (as, cl); Bump Myers, Ben Webster (ts); Bill Hood (bars). P: Jimmy Rowles. G: Al Hendrickson. B: Red Callender or Curtis Counce. D: Mel Lewis or Jackie Mills. VOC: BB King. Rec. in LA, Jan 12-14, 1960. According to the article, all the "tribute" albums were recorded in LA, except the Woody Herman, which was done in NYC. F

AFAIK the publishers are already sending out review copies. F "Already" - it's only been in the works since 2002. When can us peons get a copy??? So? Stanley Crouch started working on his Bird bio in 1981. :rsmile: F

Next year Blue Note is 70, so get ready for more of this. F

AFAIK the publishers are already sending out review copies. F

Allen, That encounter... did it happen at the crossroads? I am really looking forward to this. I was enchanted by Minstrel to Mojo and by Devilin' Tune, and am really interested in reading whatever Allen writes about the blues. I also think that "the blues" is probably a more difficult matter than "jazz". I got to jazz through blues (and in Spain, reading whatever I could get hold of, which wasn't much nor very good) but I realised very early on that blues was a very vague and often abused concept encompassing anything from the 12-bar, three-chord form to whatever played by a black person with a guitar (Mance Lipscomb's repertoire, anyone?). What Allen says as to the sanctity of the blues is very interesting (his paragraphs about this and Mary Lou Williams in Devilin Tune are ivaluable), and I'd add that turning the blues into a metaphor or some kind of esoteric quality of the human spirit doesn't help understanding its history (if there's such thing, a single history of the blues). For that reason, I don't like Albert Murray's approach on his Stompin' The Blues because IMHO it doesn't help understanding the history of this music, quite the contrary (maybe it's just that it wasn't his intention, but it is what I'm looking for). I should say that I'm heavily against myth-making in history, mainly because it doesn't reflect the real merit of the subjects: Robert Johnson is more valuable to me as a guy from a deprived background who took the time and effort to work on this guitar playing and absorb what had been done before him, rather than someone who went down to the crossroads and became a master musician just like that. Regarding agendas and revisionism, I think that the further you get in time from the actual facts, what you lose in direct witnesses and hard evidence, you can gain in weakening agendas (I'm thinking about Bessie Smith's death). And in the case where the information is thin on the ground, the author can always say it (or say "hey, I'm speculating on this, because right now there's no other way around it"). I also think a mature writer should have at least some idea as to when their agenda is creeping in their writing. Another thing is that IMHO, because of the overwhelming white/black divide in American society not enough attention has been paid to differences within the black peoples of the US, to their class divide or even the geographical differences (was it Willie The Lion Smith who said that the blues started in Harlem?). I think it's a huge mistake to take blacks as a whole, uniform group... how much did Son House and W. C. Handy have in common? Did Handy have more in common with a white music publisher in Memphis than with House? I don't know the answer and I don't know whether there's really an answer, but I think it's the kind of question that needs considering. In any case, whatever music compilation Allen builds for this will be undoubtedly great and it would probably speak louder than expected about the diversity and richness of American music in general. Speaking of blues, bear in mind that Bird's "Relaxin' At Camarillo" and T-Bone Walker's "Call It Stormy Monday" were recorded just a few months apart. That's the kind of mix I'm looking forward to. F

To me his work with Woody Herman's First Herd is his best. Not only for the Caldonia trumpet passage, but for Blowin' Up A Storm, Wild Root and, especially, The Good Earth. What a trumpet section they had... This is from Bill Crow in his Allegro column: F

Biopics are like buses... just read in Ricky Riccardi's blog that Quincy Jones and Charles Dutton are working on a 6-episode miniseries for HBO. http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2008/09/lo...rongon-hbo.html and http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2008/10/an...trong-film.html F