Fer Urbina

Top of my head, and sorry if I'm too vague but I think I read somewhere (Avakian?, Bill Crow?) that some of the tapes from the concerts are much better than the "official" album itself. Releasing those might be another possibility. This was also the famous tour where Phil Woods shouted "F*** you, King" in the balcony right above BG's, who heard him perfectly. One other related album is "Jazz Mission to Moscow" (Colpix SCP 433) by men from the BG Orchestra (Jimmy Maxwell, Marky Markowitz, tp; Willie Dennis, tb; Phil Woods, cl,as; Jerry Dodgion, fl,as; Zoot Sims, ts; Gene Allen, bs; Bill Crow, b; Mel Lewis, d; Al Cohn, arr, cond), plus Eddie Costa on piano in his last official recording. This was planned by Jack Lewis (formerly with RCA) who was waiting for the men at the airport in order to release the record before RCA's. Colpix seems to be currently owned by EMI... F U

Very true, and almost everyone who met Charlie Christian says that he was very laid-back. The only mention I know about him being a leader is that he was planning to have a combo with Cootie Williams after he recovered from TB (which he never did, sadly). Another thing is that I don't think BG would be ready to get rid of CC. By the time he got him in the Sextet and then Septet, BG's popularity as a big band leader was not so good (he had already lost Gene Krupa, Harry James and Teddy Wilson - and Glenn Miller was on the rise) and the combo with CC was very popular. Besides, CC was contributing many riffs and tunes (btw, according to Peter Broadbent's bio of CC, Flying Home may have been written by Leslie Sheffield of Oklahoma City) and he was the one of the few people BG kept on salary when he disbanded for a few months in 1940. It's just speculation, but all in all it seems very likely that neither Hammond nor Goodman would have let CC go easily. F U

Hi Clem, With my original surname, the options are F U or F O. Thanks for the welcome! Fer

Hi Clementine, With all due respect, that was definitely NOT a bogus question. I agree with what Mike said about the discography forum not being the place to discuss this. Statement of the obvious, but there's a difference between saying what you said, and actually using some of your time to actually check the music and get to a conclusion. I never suggested LoneHill had dug up something new. I was trying to establish where it came from. About what Chuck Nessa (hello there) suggested, IMO I suspect there is a strong chance that the LoneHills have lifted the shorter version from the Jazz Workshop-Arrangers CD and the longer one from the BMG-Spain issue of McKusick's Workshop. Easier and quicker, but I'd be glad to be proved wrong. F U PS Since I'm a "newbie" here, FYI and for the record, I completely sympathise with musicians and people like Cuscuna, Nessa, et al. I cannot begin to imagine what it feels like to be ripped off your hard work. I actually think it is too serious a matter to dispatch it with witty comments, loud chest-beating, fingerpointing and ideas like "please, don't buy cheap CDs available in the nearest shop."

Many thanks, Mike. That's what I thought. I listened to both versions at the same time, and although it might well be a completely notated piece (no improvisations), everything sounds exactly the same. You're right, and since I don't know the timing of the version on the original LP, I cannot say for which issue was the last bit edited off. In any case, it seems that someone has been putting things together rather hastily (which can happen to any label, anyway), and I don't have time to go further with this (basically, checking when was the first time the long version was issued, which I suspect it's the BMG-Spain CD) As for the false advertising, the label on "Hal McKusick - The Complete Barry Galbraith, Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson Recordings" (LoneHill LHJ10176) says "Collectors' Items on CD for the First Time Ever". The fact is that everything in there has been previouly released on CD in Hal McKusick - Jazz At The Academy (Universal UCCC-9064, Japan 2003) Hal McKusick - The Jazz Workshop (RCA/BMG 74321913522, Spain 2001) Hal McKusick - East Coast Jazz/8 (Fresh Sound FSR-CD 41, Spain 1989) Hal McKusick Octet - In A Twentieth-Century Drawing Room (RCA/BMG 74321125842, Spain 1996) Thanks again, F U

Hello Diego, glad to see you here and muchas gracias for the tip. Hadn't had the chance to really check the McKusick Workshop CD (BMG Spain 74321913522). I just did, and the fact is the only difference between the shorter and longer versions of TDJBWH is that the longer one has an "extra" section at the end, a reprise of the lively first section of the piece, which has been edited off in the shorter one. I just compared the shorter TDJBWH in LoneHill LHJ 10177 (#15) with the longer one in McKusick's Jazz Workshop (#7) and they are exactly the same, except that the longer one lags behind (less than a second after 7 minutes, that might due to the transfers) and of course, there is an "extra" section at the end of the longer one. The version on "Jazz Workshop - The Arrangers" (BMG Germany ND86471) is the shorter one, the same as the one in LoneHill (#15), although it also seems to lag behind. So no alternate take, apparently. For the sake of completeness, I'd be grateful if anyone could check whether the discographies show any alternate take at all (I don't have any discography at hand). Thanks in advance and all the best, F U (Edited to add that I have also checked that the longer versions in LoneHill (#18) and BMG Spain (#7) are exactly the same, with some lagging behind. Could this be due to the CD players I'm using simultaneously?)

Hello everyone, The LoneHill CD "George Russell - The Complete Bluebird Recordings" includes his Jazz Workshop + a session from Hal McKusick's Jazz Workshop. From the latter, there is an alternate take of "The Day John Brown Was Hanged". Does anyone know about any previous issue (LP, CD or whatever) including the alt. take of "The Day John Brown Was Hanged"? I'm asking because LoneHill are not known for unearthing rare material (to put it mildly) I have not found a Japanese edition of McKusick's "Jazz Workshop". The RCA/BMG CD (published in Spain) does not have an alternate take. BMG France have reissued the Russell Workshop with alt. takes, but I have not been able to found a BMG France reissue of the McKusick Workshop. The compilation "The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop - The Arrangers" (RCA Victor ND 86471) does not have the alt. take either. Any help will be most welcome. F U

We were talking about this in the Tomajazz! Forum recently. You can see the cover and tune titles there. Check out http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/BirdDisco.aspx too for tunes and dates (thanks to EKE BBB for the tip). I would definitely go for the Masters Of Jazz. Not so unusual in eBay. F U

Re: Eddie Costa, these you can get on CD: the Jubilee (Fresh Sounds), the Dot (MCA Japan, reissued last May), the Coral (Verve/Universal). The Savoy with John Mehegan is fairly easy to get in eBay. The Newport half was also issued backed with a George Wallington set in vinyl. As far as I know, Universal do not intend to reissue any material with Costa in it (around 30 LPs not in CD), and it would be interesting, since they have the largest amount of music recorded by him, either as leader or sideman (some of his stuff with Farlow is more appealing than, say, the trio date for Jubilee). The problem with Costa is that he's featured in more than 140 albums (there's still much digging to do), and he managed to add some spice to most things he did, from his solos on piano to vibes obbligatti with Chris Connor or xylophone runs with Al Caiola, and many of those LPs seem that will never be reissued... unless European law does not change before 2012 and some label gives us a surprise. Fernando