sidewinder

Great music from the Tolliver Sextet and Big Band tonight and a real pleasure to meet board member adh1907/anthony. Thankfully I don't need to think about working tomorrow !

Blue Note Pop-Up Store in Ropemaker St. a non-event, closed for the day. Disappointing.

Will be seeing him in about 6 hours time !

I also hope to make the Tolliver/Roach Tribute concert and also have a ticket for the Tubby Hayes/Ronnie Scott 'With Strings' concert featuring Simon Spillett the following weekend. I would have probably gone for more but it's a train exped from the West. Time permitting I'm also going to check out that Blue Note 'Pop Up' store, which has relocated to the Barbican area this year. Last year I got to meet Charles Lloyd so you never know who you might see in there. Thinking about it, this will be the 3rd time I have seen Charles Tolliver in London. First with the big band in the 2000s, then the Strata East Tribute. First time I saw him was '89 in Toronto in the Louis Hayes Quintet, where he was partnering John Stubblefield in the front line. Sadly, that 70s film thing was sold out when I looked on line. Reminds me of those David Meeker/BFI hosted things 'back in the day' that they ran at places like the Scala. Reminds me that I saw him with a Canadian backing group in a club about 30 years ago and he was predictably excellent. Great that he is still playing !

Yes, it was a friendly short chat - with Shacho I think.

I was wondering about when I had seen him live in the past. At NorthSea around 2006 with his band was the last time, playing great and still looking good. Before that I remember catching him in 1980 I think in London at a Charlie Parker Tribute organised by George Wein. RIP.

I was introduced to one of the two leads, years ago, at Honest Jon's in Ladbroke Grove. He was stocking up on CDs.

Windypeg - 55.

This is very sad to hear but what a great life and career that Mr Donaldson had. It's over 20 years ago now but so glad I got the chance to see him with Dr Lonnie Smith. RIP - and 'fusion, not con-fusion'.

I agree - The packaging is fine. Not up to the sturdiness of the metal case sets but for the Bootleg Series it is as good as or better than previous sets. The essays didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know but that is a minor point. Sound quality well up to standard and the music is - as expected - superb. For anyone who has ordered the 'Italian Version' - this set is as per regular issue with notes in English. Well done Amazon Italy for offering the deal - no doubt it will come down significantly in price elsewhere at some stage. My set took 2 days to arrive from Italy - I'm assuming that it didn't physically travel that far and that they made a logistics arrangement with that distant trading partner the UK.

My bargain Miles Bootleg Vol 8 box set has just arrived courtesy of the Bezos Italia Division. £22. Grazzi !

Sad to hear this, RIP. I saw him on one occasion in the trombone section of a Gillespie Tribute big band back in the 90s. That section also had Jimmy Cleveland in it, if I remember rightly and Melba Liston was sitting in the section (but not playing). Will dig out his Motown/Workshop Jazz LP for a spin.

Don't recall ever having seen 'High Spirits'. A copy sold on eBay recently apparently for about £1.5k ! As mentioned, a tie-in with the Coward music so I guess Denis Preston must have been trying to raise sales and profile of the Quintet. As with 'Movement' for any copies out there there seems to be a high percentage of factory samples.

What really grates with me is to be asked to pay for final shipping as 'delivery is imminent' then nothing further happens for weeks on end and still no word. Sharp practice at best. Certainly not something I would expect of a supposedly reputable US seller. That last email was sent out July 3 !

Must admit that I'm starting to lose patience with this one. A year's delay on the series is unacceptable and to ask for payment for shipping 'imminent' then not to follow up just makes things worse. I won't be ordering anything else from there.

This is a surprise. Even though I have an original, I will go for this one. Good to have a spare for regular spins and sonically it should be good too. Ironically, I got my original copy when in Japan ! Never ever seen it for sale in the UK (other than one online copy over 20 years ago). A rare occurrence of scarce UK jazz LP returning home.. I could do with 'High Spirits' on vinyl so maybe they will join hands and summon that one up next. Of note - the original was in mono only. This one will be in stereo and uses a 24/192 copy from the original stereo master tape, apparently.

Must be another recording from the Marc Vasey collection recorded for the CBC. Sounds good !

Hope that this PBS documentary on Eddie gets a showing over here.

This is sad news. I liked a lot of the things she did but particularly liked 'The Lady In The Van' film that she did for Alan Bennett. Strangely enough, I have dim memories of seeing said lady in Camden Town selling pencils and other stuff many decades ago - a local eccentric. Great performance by Maggie Smith - RIP.

From memory it was a couple of the same framed posters on the studio walls near the mixing desk. Very cool layout I thought.

The posters on the wall looked to be reproductions of the LP cover with some publicity blurb so not cribbed from there. If my recollection is right, the origin of the art is of some pattern sketches by John Coltrane himself. My copy has an unusual play history. Prior to me acquiring it the story was that it was played once by original owner to transfer the content across to reel-to-reel tape, then stuck in a cupboard for a few decades !

I have a copy of that AU 4950 Cosmic Music on Coltrane Recording Corporation. Remarkably, it is still in near-mint nick. There are photos, I recall, of Alice Coltrane's Dix Hills recording studio showing posters of that grey-pattern cover art on the walls.

I seem to recall hearing that their relationship was conducted without either speaking the other language - Greco was asked on film about this.

That's a good one. All of those 'Orchestra of the 80s' albums for Albert Marx are worth hearing. Will dig out. The one time I saw Wilson's orchestra on home turf he still had much of this lineup in place. People like Jack Nimitz ('The Admiral') and drummer Mel Lee, plus his son on guitar.

The Mmm-Kays Milton Samir