tooter

During a radio broadcast of a Ronnie Ross/Bill Le Sage session, compere Ronnie Scott mentions that Duke Ellington was touring the UK at the time. As I have no accurate date for the session in the Ronnie Ross discography I am working on, I wonder if anyone can narrow it down for me by telling me the dates of any Duke Ellington tour of the UK during or near 1962. I have done some searching but without success. There are references to tours of Europe during that period but nothing specific that I could find. Many thanks.

Sending email, Milan. I'm in too.

I've got almost nothing by him because of that - I find it a real turn off, literally. Others are even worse, of course. It always seems to me like a totally unnecessary affectation. Dave Pike is another. Some vibes players seem to introduce it sometimes and not at others. Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a thing about this. And yet, there's Bud...

Thanks, PD. Definitely "Finlay" though, so just a mistake on the album and discography.

I have just got the LP "Vic Lewis and His Orchestra in Concert - featuring Tubby Hayes" recorded in Sheffield UK January 29 1954. #1 of Side Two is entitled "Fearless Fosdick" (of the Al Capp derivation?). Written by Bill Holman. The same tune is called "Fearless Finlay" on a number of Kenton albums. I suppose this was a memory slip in 1954 but just wondered what the Barbara Schwarz Tubby Hayes discography says on the subject. P.D.? Does it list the album?

Having read Big Al's post:- 1. I should have stuck with my first impression. I've just got the album two days ago but haven't played it yet. 9. I suppose my guess was based, not only on the association I mentioned, but also on the kind of arrangment rather than any familiarity with CT's playing. I like his hard-core jazz but not so much the more commercial stuff - "Jazz at the Blackhawk", "Good Vibes"? Waiting..

I haven't read Big Al's comments - the only one when I looked just now. Don't know much at all but here goes. 1. I like this track. Cannonball came to mind for the alto but not for long. Don't know who they are. 2. Nice guitar solo but I find this heavy off beat drumming offputting - gets tiresome after a while. Don't like the tenor player. 3. Still no positive contribution to make. No idea although I think I detect some familiarity - alto and piano. Like it. 4. NMCOT 5. Very nice indeed. Singers who slide into notes from way off the pitch maybe do so as a stylistic device but to me it often sounds like an inability to pitch. This singer seems to get it right, IMHO, as far as my ears can tell. Very attractive voice too. Great track. Still no idea who though. 6. Ditto - no idea. Quite nice - atmospheric. 7. I like this too but still no clue. The trumpet playing is familiar but I've thought that in previous BFT's when it's turned out to be someone completely unknown to me.. 8. At last - one I know. Tune immediately recognised. #4this album 9. Could it be Tjader? Vibes and latin. Quite like it too. 10. Echo doesn't do much for me. No idea who. Interesting set, Dmitry. I shall watch developments avidly.

Vic Lewis in Concert featuring Tubby Hayes. January 29 1954. Ronnie Chamberlain is the only other name I know.

who's tooter? and who's Ronnie Ross and what's with this Needle anyhow? Well, I'd better put in an appearance here then

Oh, I see! How would I know it was you?

Thanks, Brownie. I heard about it just before I read your post and have a few seconds ago completed the entry in the Ronnie Ross Jazz Discography, as far as I can at the moment anyway. Made in a period during which Ronnie Ross was making few recordings - only two in the year 1978 that I know of. I heard a session at the British Library Sound Archive - a recording of a BBC broadcast in 1985 - in which one of the four tunes ("Part Two" - composed by I think by Ronnie Ross) was decidedly avant-garde. I had not heard anything like it from him before; he was normally firmly in the "straightahead" style as far as I knew. There were seven years between the Koller session and the BBC date so it will be interesting to hear this new one.

You have PM from me, Dmitry - CD's came this morning and two are in the mail, plus another copy I am making for Sidewinder. I am listening even now. A whole week to suss it out. Sounds very good so far.

Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns.

Getting my best wishes in in time I hope. Happy Birthday Brownie.

Very Happy Birthday, Daniel

are you feeling okay tooter? Well, I was thinking of typhoid, colera and other contagious diseases. Could this be life threatening? I'm even considering some vocals for my turn - but not organ - yet, anyway.

You wanna switch positions? No, I'll stick with forty, thanks. I've become rather attached to the number - it somehow has something that thirty-nine does not. Also gives me a little more time - the BFT's are speeding past with great rapidity it seems. Still just a jumble of vague thoughts, firm decisions made and then ditched. I can't imagine that any of the other compilers - past, present or future - suffer quite so much from vacillation as me!

I don't go on funk at all but even so there was plenty of interest for me. My guesses were very wide of the mark as usual in most cases but I do enjoy trying so don't knock the game, Mike. Great variety again which is good - gets one to listen outside the habitual range - I even found myself enjoying some of the vocals and for sure the organ on #8. Royce Campbell I thought sounded like Kenny Burrell. I found #11 interesting. Thanks, Mike - I see your next turn is just before mine so I must apply myself with great rigour, I can see.

Very hard to choose - all good. Went with "Soul Station" in the end for WK.

That clears it up, P.D. Thanks. Back to the grindstone...

Seems to me that "Whisper Not" didn't have to be written at all, it was just plucked out the air where it had always existed - it sounds so natural somehow. Level pegging now between IRC and WN. Lots of other good tunes on his list though - "Five Spot After Dark", for instance, not mentioned yet?

I'm not complaining about the formatting, P.D!!! So many questions answered in one fell swoop. Some were the ones I'd identified as possibles but others I had no idea were by Tubby so I've filled in a lot of gaps. Still some left of course but no hope of getting them all. There is no recorded version of "B Flat Mynah Bird" then, I suppose, so no chance of comparing it. I have "C Minor Bird" only but I'm sure you're right and that is the Tubby composition too. Should "Alone Together" be there? It seems strange that he should give it a title already used by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwarz. "The Inner Splurge" I have in the RR discography as a radio broadcast. Perhaps I've got this wrong and it was TV as the list shows. Can you tell if the date is the same? Here's the entry:- Personnel: Harry South (conductor), Ian Hamer [out 3], Alan Downey [out 3], Hank Shaw [out 3], Les Condon [out 3] (trumpets), Chris Pyne [out 3], Dave Horler [out 3], Maurice Pratt [out 3] (trombones), Peter King (alto saxophone), Alan Skidmore [out 3], Brian Smith [out 3] (tenor saxophones), Ronnie Ross [out 3] (baritone saxophone), Mick Pyne (piano), Ron Mathewson (bass), Bill Eyden (drums). Leader: Harry South (deputising for Tubby Hayes due to the latter`s illness) Date: November 9 1970 BBC radio broadcast – Jazz Club November 29 1970 1. The Inner Splurge (Tubby Hayes) 2. Fish Soup 3. Round Midnight (Bernie Hanighen/Thelonious Monk/Cootie Williams) 4. Seven Steps To Heaven (Miles Davis/Victor Feldman) 5. Young And Foolish (Albert Hague/Arnold B. Horwitt) 6. Blues For Pipkins (Tubby Hayes) Only "Fish Soup" without composer credit! That one could remain a mystery I suspect. But Harry S standing in for Tubby because of illness, and after that all compositions go unrecorded. I wonder if they ever will be.

P.D. - you have answered my question - thanks a lot. As you have the Tubby discography to hand, could I impose upon you even further and ask whether the list below contains any more Tubby compositions, according to Barbara? Souriya Take Your Partners For The Blues Peace The Jazz Scene Have Jazz Will Travel A Summer Stroll K And J Come On In The Chord (Call?) Theme Mini Minor Blues For Pipkins Double Stopper What`s Blue? Commonwealth Commonwealth Blues The Inner Splurge Fish Soup These are the tunes in the discography for Ronnie Ross that I have listed as being Tubby compositions:- Down in the Village In the Night Don’t Fall of the Bridge 100% Proof as well as, of course, "Change of Setting" now. I too have no version of "Change of Setting" so can throw no light on whether it is the same tune as "Off the Wagon". There is yet another version (13:09) of the latter, though, on Tubby's album "Quartet in Scandinavia" with Staffan Abeleen, NHOP and Alex Riel.

Thanks, Mike - I had seen the tracklist you give as well and I think it is the most common one. Just some examples include the tune I'm interested in. I still hope to get it from the Schwarz book - I should be able to lay hands on one soon.

Yes, Couw, that's the problem. I did see that site. I had a copy of the Barbara Schwarz Tubby Hayes discography but, foolishly, I gave it away. Maybe it gives composers - I can't remember. Maybe I'll get another one if I can find where Mole Jazz is now. Thanks for trying.