sidewinder

Many thanks for that. I’ll probably stick with Spotify, as it’s available there. Sounds like a good gig - hadn’t heard it before.

1968 black label issue

Any thoughts on the sonics for ‘The Squirrel’?

Updated to say that I am enjoying the sound of this one. A good release. It will be interesting to cross-check against Mosaic’s treatment. Certainly trounces the CD set on the sonic front.

Got oodles of ‘em ! One other very good thing around that time of the EMI ‘relaunch’ was that the new Blue Note hosted an all-star reunion concert in NYC which was filmed and recorded. Guest of honour was Alfred Lion and many of the greats played (fortunately, many were still musically active at that time). Heck, even Hank made a (non playing) appearance.

The Sonny is typical Prestige soul jazz of the era, driven by Idris’s backbeats. Good stuff !

I bought dozens and dozens of those DMMs and yes, they were readily available. Lots of BN titles were not issued in that series though - e.g. hardly any Andrew Hill or Sam Rivers, which wasn’t addressed until the CD era. Agree that with this series the Blue Note catalogue got much more readily available in the UK. I think the first ones I saw were at the shop in the RFH, when I snagged ‘Inner Urge’ after attending a Miles concert. The other memory of that gig is that I parked my car right outside RFH with free meter parking. The Pathe Marconis (which were the ones I bought) were DMM. Yes, ‘Our Price’ used to stock them. £5.50 or thereabouts ! Some good titles made an appearance - ‘Hi Voltage’, ‘The Rajah’, ‘More Workout’ come to mind.

Blue Notes were most categorically NOT crowding the bins in the mid 70s - their presence in that George Butler era was largely limited to Donald Byrd’s fusion stuff etc.plus the very late stuff by Horace Silver, which got a lukewarm response. Only In 1977/78 with the UA reissue series did the profile raise, with classics such as ‘The Sidewinder’ and the Bud Powells Vol 1 and 2 et al at last getable in WH Smith’s etc. The Japanese imports from King and Toshiba also ramped up around that time - sold by Mole etc. The floodgates really opened around 1989/90 with those first longbox CD reissues.

Purple label. Stitt on Varitone. I think only ‘The Squirrel’ of those Dexter’s was available over here. Even that wasn’t on offer at my usual outlet. On the other hand, they did have 2 copies of ‘Stonebone’.

Nothing new here that isn’t on the 4CD set. Nice, crisp sound though - as good as I have heard this material. Funky red vinyl. Having said that, one of the disks has a slight chip, poor QC.

Nice to finally get to hear this one. OK pressing, benefited nicely from an RCM spin.

Agree - the Burrell sounds absolutely great.

I’ve got about 8 or 9 of them. To be honest though I’ve got pretty well all of them in one format or another, many as originals, so I pass on quite a few. It will be interesting to see how the ‘Oblique’ compares with the King version. Hopefully also they will get Herbie’s name right, unlike the CD.

The ‘Batman’ album I guess - if you view this one as a Blues Project album.

Reminder to self to dig that CD out. Picked up from Dan, if I remember correctly. Hopefully back over here doing his usual stuff before long. Bitches Brew box, CD1. ‘Double Image’ material.

No problem ! It was at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town, with Lonnie as part of Lou’s band of the time. Early 2000s. I was stood right in front of Lonnie’s B-3 and thought the guy stood next to me on the right looked very familiar - it was Winwood. Great evening - Lou made his usual comments about fusion confusion and a good time was had by all. Lonnie made a striking appearance through the front door of the venue on his way to the gig wearing turban and carrying a couple of supermarket bags as if he had just come back from a mega shop at Sainsbury’s.

Stood right next to me in front of the Hammond digging Lonnie Smith with big smile on his face at a Lou Donaldson gig some years ago. Obviously a big fan.

Fondly remembered for this impromptu appearance under the ‘Murgatroyd Band’ moniker as the theme tune for British kids TV show ‘Magpie’ from the late 60s onwards..

All 3 of those came out in Europe in the early/mid-80s on the French Pathe Marconi pressings, which is when I first bought/heard them. Mana from Heaven !

I remember the local WH Smith newsagent store having a big sale of cutouts in the mid 1970s which I used to raid after school. Most of them 50p each. I picked up some US Atlantic’s (Clarence Wheeler, Von Freeman), a couple of the Prestige twofers and a Eddie Henderson Capricorn. Still have them. There were tons of Stax in there which wasn’t of interest. No Blue Notes - very elusive here at the time until the first lot of 1977/78 domestic reissues followed by ‘Jazz File’. I suspect that a lot of those Atlantic/Stax were used as shipping ballast !

CD1

Just ordered a copy of this one. By all accounts an outstanding biography of an elusive legend who disappeared in 2000 and remains to this day on the missing list with still no real leads. I saw him, unexpectedly, in what must have been, based on the timings, a very late performance in his career (PJ Perry Quintet). Even by then a legendary figure, a bit of a buzz went round the house and I have to say, I was impressed. Remember the permanent cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

CD7

Liberty, stereo - an old favourite.

Complete and utter bargain !