sidewinder

Dury was a big fan of Coltrane and Kirk (check out that 'Rhythm Stick single). I have a copy of 'Four Lives in the Bebop Business' by AB Spellman with a jacket design by him done in his art school days B)

Very lyrical - Mobley always could create silk purses out of sows ears, so to speak. That slow/medium tempo on this track was always his major forte. As for the tune - very groovy, VERY Austin Powers .... :rsmile: Fave track - overwhelmingly 'Good Pickin's'. Great chart by Hank and nice work on this one from George before the ballistic Shaw interjection.

I've always thought that what lets the title track down is that Billy Higgins sounds totally bored and Benson sounds like he's reading the chords from a fake book. Higgins lets rip on track 2 though B)

wolff - have you tried giving this LP a good clean-up with anti-static treatment? I had a similar experience a while back with a mint, sealed copy of 'Introducing Duke Pearson's Big Band' - a Liberty LP of similar vintage. The first playback was lousy, with poor soundstage, almost 2-dimensional and very poor definition. There was very noticeable improvement after treating the LP - could be worth a try... B) 'Reach Out' is a session that I quite enjoy - almost a period piece of its time and with at least 4 tracks that really cook. I even like the title track, if I'm in an MOR, BBC Radio 2, pass me the zimmer frame sort of mood ....

Great find! Hope he enjoys it.

I keep finding lots of mint vinyl copies of this so bought one a few weeks ago (£3 ). Fabulous! Beautifully recorded and James Clay is indeed a revelation. B)

That 'Mode or Joe' session sounds pretty intriguing too !

This one's already being tracked on the long range radar under the 'ebay madness' thread. Some concern expressed there re: serious scuffs visible on some of the LPs. Check out the 'supersize' images . I'd love an original copy of 'The Phantom' though ....

Didn't Basie also record 'HRH' in her honour?

Doesn't Jenny Aguter have a collection of NYC/W63rd St BN deep grooves and OOP Mosaics ? Kenneth Clarke's Radio 4 Jazz show is just being repeated at present (at some useless hour in the morning) and apparently he just 'did' programmes on Miles and Mingus. Sounds like he knows his stuff. Marty Feldman - once saw him get carried out of Ronnie Scotts half-paralytic with eyes rolling a la Mel Brooks 'Young Frankenstein' . Can't remember who was on that night. Wasn't Princess Margaret also a fan and occasional visitor to Ronnies (to see Oscar Peterson among others) ?

I heard that William Hague has started to frequent Ronnie Scotts

Wow!! - instant 'desert island' set ("Blacks and Blues" excepted) ...

Vick plays on the track 'Medina' on the Cassandranite CD, which is a bonus track actually taken from Joe Chamber's 'The Almoravid' session. The quintet tracks on 'Cassandranite' all have Joe Henderson on tenor. 'Coral Keys' is indeed a tasty session - great recommendation. The general feel reminds me quite a bit of 'Almoravid', absolutely not a blowing session. Vick is quite adventurous and moody, with Shaw featuring strongly on half of the session. Bonus also of Idris Muhammed on drums. Recommended !

To quote Art Blakey from the (invaluable) Mosaic booklet to the DeFranco/Clark set:- "Buudy DeFranco is a hell of a musician .......... and a hell of a man." High praise indeed from the Master ! B)

Sonny Rollins 'Our Man In Jazz' (RCA Victor) George Russell 'The Stratus Seekers' (Riverside) Ted Curson 'Urge' (Fontana) Max Roach 'The Many Sides of Max' (Mercury) Parker etc 'Jazz at Massey Hall' (Debut) Woody Herman Sextet 'At The Roundtable' (Roulette) Cedar Walton 'Cedar' (Prestige).

Just been listening to him on the Roulette Woody Herman Sextet 'At The Roundtable' LP. Now this one just has to be the most unlikely Nat Adderley session. Pretty much a straight-ahead swing date. Wonder how he ende up working with Woody at this time? (around 1959). BIG thumbs up for the Pablo double he recorded with JJ Johnson - 'Yokohama Concert'. These two make a great team and Adderley is in his usual fiery mood throughout. Superbly recorded too !

George - on the basis of that excellent first Timeless LP. It was a close judgement call though. Wouldn't Steve Grossman be another tenor option with this Walton/Higgins/Williams lineup?

Thanks for the recommendation on this - probably a stupid question anyway as I've yet to hear a less than good recording from Woody (does such a thing exist?) This guy was phenomenally consistent! The first occasion I saw Woody with Steve Turre it was so outstanding that I was right back there the next night for more. 'Katerina Ballerina', 'Theme For Maxine', 'Lotus Flower' and 'Seventh Avenue' - they played them all. Memorable B) ... 'Stepping Stones' is a must buy on vinyl. Why they didn't bundle this in with the Mosaic beats me. Anyway, it's a good excuse to throw this one on the turntable right now

Anyone heard Woody's playing on side 2 of that Walter Bishop Jr 'Coral Keys' LP? Opinions on this one most welcome as I have my eye on a copy of this ! Fave lesser known sessions - 'In My Own Sweet Way' on In & Out and '49th Parallel' under Neil Swainson's name on Concord. Both have really excellent late-career performances from Shaw.

This 'artful' cover from Chick still rates pretty well up there on the silly-o-meter ...

Recorded Monster in the Netherlands. Incidentally that piccie at the back of the LP of Johnny C jogged my memory. He was wearing exactly the same jacket and white cap at the Mingus Dynasty gig. They also featured him on 'Duke Ellington's Sound of Love' if my memory is correct, which also features on side 1 of the LP. B) First spin of this one - fantastic record.

By some fortuitous miracle of timing I came across a brand spanking mint copy of this in the racks yesterday. The Penguin Guide writeup is also extremely complementary so looks like a good acquisition. Looks as if the session was recorded during the same European tour that brought Coles to London as part of Mingus Dynasty, back in 1982. The only time I ever saw him live. Gives me a week or so to check it out before commenting further ....

From the booklet, the tracks from this set were compiled from the following Verve albums: MGV8158 Jazz Tones (originally Norgran MGN1068) MGV8169 In A Mellow Tone (originally Norgran MGN1068) MGV8182 Odalisque (originally Norgran MGN1094) MGV8183 Autumn Leaves (originally Norgran MGN1096) MGV8195 A Compendium of Jazz (various artists) MGV8221 Cooking The Blues MGV8224 Sweet and Lovely MGV8230 The Anatomy of Improvisation (various artists) 8221 and 8224 both have Tal Farlow added to the basic quartet on most of the tracks. Clark also plays organ on some of the tracks.

I was amazed Paul at just how young that band was. Frank Tiberi must have been the eldest in the lineup and he would have been in his mid-40s back then. My brief impression of Woody was encouragement to the guys and total lack of pretension. Too bad that into the 1980s all of those problems with the back-taxes plagued him to the end. Tragic... Glad you enjoyed playing Ronnies ! I frequented it a lot back in the late 70s and early 80s as a student (when I lived in London in times when it was semi-affordable and getting up early next day was not too critical ). At the time the club was teetering at the edge of bankruptcy, you could get in as a member for £1 during the week and with a good chance of a seat right at the front. I recall seeing the last set of Bill Evans one night (on his last UK gig) with about 12-15 people in the audience, totally absorbed. Some great big bands featured too - Buddy Rich (with Menza), Louis Bellson, the Herman band. Sadly I was about 7-8 years too late for those legendary Clarke/Boland residencies . Some bizarre acts there too - Professor Irwin Corey was a regular feature (Ronnie was a big fan). This was the guy who took the shades off Miles (in the house one night with hairdressers and hangers on) and came out with 'No wonder your smiling - everyone's black!' This guy used to shuffle on with battered tailcoat and lace tie, sneakers and levis and rip the sh*t out of anyone unfortunate enough to sit at the front. Ronnie would be watching all of this from the wings and chuckling away to himself !

Frank's great ! I remember seeing him at Bristol's Colston Hall with Woody's band back in about 1978 or 79 and being very heavily featured. Other notables in this lineup were a young and technically brilliant trumpeter named Alan Vizzuti (I think) and Lyle Mays on keyboards. Some of us in the junior big band I was in at the time were kindly invited back stage, got to see Woody at very close range and had an instructive chat with Alan. At the time, it was a HUGE thrill.