sidewinder

One to add to the Joe Harley question list.

2CDs from Jazz In Britain.

It’s good early Donald Byrd without being outstanding IMO. Incredible the prices some of these UAs are commanding. Totally mad - but somebody must be splurging on them. Only a few years ago the going rate was £20-30.

I think they were asking £60 for ‘The Creeper’, which is pretty ridiculous in my book. ‘Off To The Races’ UA is also £100 !

They were asking pretty silly money for those UA and ‘Jazz File’ pressings though.

Do they take donations of spare kidneys?

If it was me I would definitely make the detour and check them out, seem to be plenty of good reports on them and they often stock Mosaic collections.

Several decades ago Daniel, couldn’t do it now ! Wish I’d started it earlier to be honest. Around the turn of the millennium was good, you could still pick up some of these in stores and sites like the late lamented jazzinvinyl.com were going strong with their online sales. My best find in a physical shop was a mono first press ‘Out To Lunch’ in decent condition for....... £10. 😱 Regarding ‘Happenings’, my sample size for originals is only 2 so maybe I shouldn’t draw too many conclusions. I did notice a bit of distortion on the mono though. Funnily enough one of the best I have heard is a blue label ‘b’ pressing I have somewhere in the racks which exceeded all expectations. It will be interesting to hear reports on the ‘Classic Series’ reissue when this comes out.

Yeah, I saw that one. Tone Poet. Pretty impressed with the sound on this one.

2CD version on Gearbox. Buddy live at Ronnie Scott’s, Nov 1986. His last annual ‘season’ at the club but still sounding great.

NY USA mono copy. Marked ‘Factory Sample’ and with critic Chris Sheridan’s name on the back so presumably his review copy.

That’s good - it has needed a decent reissue. Just too bad they didn’t put it out on Tone Poet to do the sleeve justice. Strangely enough, all originals of ‘Happenings’ that I have heard have been on the noisy side. Mono was worse than stereo in this respect. Having said that, the sonics are stupendous. And talking of Tone Poet, I have ‘Slow Drag’, ‘Blue Spirit’ and ‘The Kicker’ arriving today, post permitting. The latter seems to have been repressed. 😀

I am spoilt for ‘True Blue’. Have it on Conn CD, Mosaic, Classic Records and Music Matters 2x45 as well as King GXK. No original though ! NY USA mono. Lovely copy of a great LP. Elvin on fire ! Billy Harper.

Good one - as are all those Maynard Roulettes.

NY USA stereo

Enjoyable, predictably good sonics and some good playing from Manne, Preview and Mitchell. King Japanese issue. Absolute masterpiece !

Well, by ‘equivalent’ I would suggest a whole heap of MOR acts which aren’t schlager but which cover a similar turf. Everything from Tom Jones to Kylie and Elton John. All the stuff I hate !

Looking at the list and assuming you are located near Frankfurt, I would guess that Neustadt would be the nearest, hardly convenient I guess. Presumably the repertoire would be largely schlager with not much chance of a reprise of the Clarke/Boland material but I guess you never know ! I wonder if she has ever toured the UK? I don’t think she is known as a singer over here, this being effectively a ‘schlager-free zone’ (although we have our own equivalents, sad to say). 😀 This recently found and issued Bobbie Gentry album would definitely qualify and is pretty good.

Gitte has a German tour coming up in the Autumn by the looks of it. Still going strong !

Contemporary DG mono

That Plugged Nickel CD set booklet was an absolute travesty. Thank goodness Mosaic didn’t go down that route with their LP version.

The Pure Pleasure Stata-Easts seem to get mixed reports - all the Tollivers I have are great but for example, London Jazz Collector doesn’t seem to like them and suspects some are needle drops. I haven’t detected that with any of the ones I have - so far pretty happy with them.

Sounds about right. £75 on UK Amazon. UK Fontana, stereo. Almost psychedelic in parts !

Decca I think and from the master tapes - seems to be readily available here in the UK and I would guess that Dusty Groove should stock it. Comes in quite a large box with what seems to be a very comprehensive booklet/book covering Blossom’s career. A real quality release by the sound of it but a limited issue.