sidewinder

Yes, good call. Nice production by Teo Macero and like you I witnessed that tour where much of this material was featured. I think Al Foster’s drums were particularly well captured on the LPs.

Yes, Pete La Roca wasn’t happy with the planned US release and applied his legal skills at the time - Basra as a place was very much in the news. I have the European copy protect CD. It is fine. Slightly predated the planned US issue I think.

CD12 of this set. Wonderful Holland Park 1988 live evening open-air broadcast, very well captured.

Was lucky enough to catch both Conte and Lou live - same festival but not together. Both wonderful players. Conte I remember as being full of ideas and enthusiasm - with excellent trumpet technique.

That DiMeola evening sounds like fun though. Should keep a few bankers entertained !

Totally agree - Bill Holman was/is very under-rated on tenor. Is that ‘West Coast Wailers’ the one on the 1000Yen edition? My copy is in that excellent and great value series.

You would have been within booting distance of Decca’s studio then - where Garrick et al recorded all their great Argo and Deram releases in that era. Plus Tempo before that. Yes, Kilburn and West Hampstead do tend to merge. I lived just North of there for a while. That ‘Country Club’ I remember as the ‘Town and Country Club’ back in the day. Urban sprawl spreading !

Maybe I am confusing the events, Alex. I definitely saw you at Turner-Sims in a Quartet with Surman and you also interviewed him as part of that evening. So that must have been his birthday. Plus - I am sure your memory is way better than mine. You are right - the ‘Algonquin’ Group had one of the Hampshire Youth Jazz Orch (I think?) members on piano so must have been a different occasion. They did an excellent job with this tricky music. Both great nights Prefer Westbrook’s ‘Citadel/Room 315’ on RCA to the Swedish recording but must give it another chance.

I need his services.

Downes did an LP on Vertigo with that group, also reissued on CD but might be hard to find. He’s also in a similar setting on the Ray Russell Rock Workshop ‘Street War’, accessible via ‘Jazz In Britain’’s Bandcamp site. Bob Downes by the way lives in Germany - and has a site where you can buy some of his CDs, much of it with smaller groups. One masterpiece to check out is John Warren/John Surman ‘Tales of the Algonquin’ on Deram. That one has also been reissued on CD, most recently on Vocalion. A number of years ago I was fortunate enough to see Surman perform this superb suite with a local youth big band, trained up by John Warren. Board member Alex Hawkins was on piano. A memorable night ! Lots of Mike Westbrook CDs, films and articles to check out on the ‘Westbrookjazz’ website. Well worth spending an hour or 10 on there.

Do you happen to know which year that was, Medjuck?

Doesn’t Val Wilmer’s ‘As Serious As Your Life’ include a section on Sam and Bea Rivers?

Hello Manfred, Lots of information on British jazz of that era on this site, including Westbrook, Gibbs, Collier and co. Just do a search using some of those names and - voila ! May I recommend the book ‘Music Outside’ by Ian Carr, reprinted by Northway Press, as a very good overview of that period of ‘British Contemporary Jazz’, superbly written by Mr Carr as an insider’s view. in terms of recent releases/finds, I recommend having a look at the ‘Jazz In Britain’ Bandcamp site to sample big band material by Alan Cohen, Neil Ardley and Ray Russell’s Rock Workshop. Also check out the Alan Wakeman Octet release on Gearbox.

That’s right. I have one of those Turrentine early ones. A cluster of 47W63rd labels came in but the majority was NY USA. With the import tax labels of course !

Sam’s was always good for entertainment. Remember calling in at one of the branches out in Alberta (West Ed Mall I think) and the clowns serving on there had put Coltrane’s ‘Live in Seattle’ on the house system, which quickly cleared the aisles ! I always thought their Toronto Yonge St. store was the second most garish, OTT store in that city, after ‘Honest Ed’s’ of course. Yonge St. used to also get free live performances on a Saturday - I can remember Tuck and Patti appearing.

Too bad that Sam’s and A&B Sound are no longer there on Yonge St ! I spent some enjoyable hours in both of those stores in the period when vinyl was on the way out and CDs on the way in.

Clarke/Boland !

We had some of the coldest temperatures for 25 years in the UK last week - notably in Scotland. It has to be a damn weird period if Athens gets snow. Stay warm, put on a few Art Blakey LPs !

4CD set

Nice one. On my list. Just ordered a couple of Gilson items from the Jazzman.

No doubt another thread on there with 500+ pages of transcendent ecstasy

a Gaveau?