sidewinder

Thanks Chaps ! I was wondering if you might have been in the front row on Sunday, Frank . Very nice concert, there was a co-ordinated array of cameras on tripods deployed at the front so with a bit of luck there will be film of this event. Lots of good things at the concert - the band roaring through Hampton’s ‘Flying Home’, Roz Harding and Dave Holdsworth well featured on Roland Kirk’s ‘We Free Kings’ (new Westbrook arrangement?) and that great tribute piece to the late Tony Marsh and the Italian trombonist included on the ‘Bigger Show’ CDs. That one was an excellent feature for Matthew Bourne. The band got a well deserved standing ovation at the end. I believe that Kate’s ‘Granite’ band is coming up soon at Teignmouth so maybe I will check that one out too. Very cool. Wish the exhibition by Kate was a bit closer ! Will try to check out the broadcast too.

I had a skim through the Gregory Davis book some years back and came to the conclusion that there was nothing in there that hadn’t already been covered in a number of books. Fopp were offering it at about £2 but even then I passed. I thought the book by Miles’ Road Manager covering that later period was better.

The Janitor must have been clearing up round the back !

UK Verve

The place with the large glass-pane front is the one I remember.

There must be tons of Polydor Bert Kaempfert LPs available for such use ! Ditto James Last.

Just back from a very nice Mike Westbrook ‘Uncommon Orchestra’ 22-piece big band performance at Torquay Town Hall. A very varied performance, with Ellingtonia, Basie and generous lashings of material from ‘Citadel/Room 315’ and ‘The Cortege’. Guest stars Matthew Bourne (piano) and Andy Hague (trumpet) were excellent and with the expanded brass this was the biggest sounding Westbrook Orchestra that I’ve witnessed.

I wonder what jazz is on Mr T’s Summer playlist ?

Hi Erik - Hope all is well ! I believe that the Vinyl West store in Stuttgart closed quite a few years ago and that Tom runs it as a mail order operation from Spain. Great fun that day at the shop and some good finds !

CD2

‘Tubbs in NY’ most definitely came out on Fontana in the stereo version - my copy is in stereo. I remember seeing a copy of that CBS version in vinyl as well as on CD.

Exactly - and by improving one component in the link you can free up improvements in the rest of the source-to-speaker link that were previously bottlenecked. Recent improvements in a power amp have shown that quite dramatically. The system context is everything.

To quote a phrase - ‘desert island platters’ More Candid Birdland

With Linn turntables it is critical that they are carefully set up and regularly serviced. Once this is done though, they are pretty well faff-free. Upgraded bearings/plinth/power supply give major improvements in what they are capable of. Tightening up mechanical tolerances, speed variation and vibration stability. What often amazes me is that 50 year old plastylites which look as though they have seen active war service at Monte Cassino can play back extremely well. Defies physics really !

(Candid) - I was in the audience one of the 2 nights this was recorded. Not that many in the club and Alan Bates’ recording team was a couple of tables away. Giovanni Hidalgo on fire ! The two tenors were David Sanchez and Peter Brainin and I was pleased to see that Brainin is still active on the NYC scene at Smalls etc.