sidewinder

Repeated plays for this gem.

Totally agree with that. Not studio hi fi sound but quite acceptable. Musically excellent. I was thinking I had heard the (stonking) first track on CD1 before and of course, it is on one of Horace Silver’ Blue Note albums (‘Serenade for a Soul Sister’ I think). The shipping from the US was really fast. Compared to my 3.5 month shipment from Mosaic. Due to arrive today but no - what’s another day to Royal Mail when you can hold it back for another weekend. A travesty all round !

The other two new Left Banks (Walter Bishop Jr, Shirley Scott) are ‘in the mail’.

I think this cost me a bargain £3 from Fopp, back in the day. That one is a really good twofer.

I’ve got a vinyl copy in the mail.

Just the bonus material I think.

I haven’t been for years. Shame - that and the Bath Festival weekend used to be real highlights, with strong jazz content. The Cotswolds ‘gold card brigade’ moving in at Cheltenham put an end to it - hence Spandau etc. (who will no doubt play ‘Gold’). They used to put on some of the best jazz groups in the Town Hall and that historic small theatre too, as well as the arts centre. It was a smaller, lower profile event but it had better jazz.

Not sure - there’s no indication of his presence on any of the bonus tracks. Assuming it is Ramon Morris on tenor on the bonus stuff, he is heavily featured. Andy Bey pretty well sticks to piano on these tracks. Plus, there’s also a great workout for Blakey on the bonus ‘Tunisia’ where he throws the kitchen sink at it - a real highlight track. The club ‘live’ atmosphere is also captured really well. It would have been a good gig to attend in person.

Yeah. It certainly isn’t studio hi-fi a la Blue Note but for a live location recording, sounds pretty good to me. This LP with the bonus tracks seems to me to be a nice RSD ‘offering’.

Updated to add that all bonus tracks now loaded into the streamer. The audio sounds fine to me - any comment of 'no fi' on the Hoffman Board is total BS.

Now downloading the bonus material to play from a USB stick. An initial sample of 'It's Only A Paper Moon' has (a fiery and pretty far out) Ramon Morris featured again plus some nice Andy Bey on piano. Listening to this music, I don't think Blakey is exactly at his sharpest but heck, it's Blakey. Sound quality on the WAV files seems to be comparable to the vinyl tracks and on the basis of the sample, music is of comparable quality. A welcome release which fills in some gaps, in my view. That would be the same band that I saw at Ronnie's - first Blakey performance I ever caught, in late 1979 I think. Good to be reminded of the lineup.

Just checked the QR code and it accesses folders with both WAV and MP3 formats.

I wouldn’t agree with that - the LP is quite listenable.

Strange - you would think that stuff would arrive faster for the London area. Bonus - no customs payments sought.

Mine has arrived !

Just says ‘over 3 hours of exclusive additional material’. Not downloaded yet so no idea what’s there. Update - inner sleeve confirms this is 2 days worth of the Messengers performance at Jazz Workshop, the full performance. The sound is not bad at all - a bit distorted at times but not offputting, the audience presence really adds to the atmosphere. Gearbox have done a really great job with the mastering, all things considered. A highly unusual and unique Blakey release.

Picked up the Blakey, Stitt ‘Left Bank’ and the ‘Chet’ mono at my local today. They were sold out of the Miles though - still, I’m a pretty happy camper. That seems to be the experience over here too.

I picked up a copy of the Gearbox LP today at my ‘local’ and the first track, ‘Autumn In New York’, leads off with an Andy Bey vocal. Audio quality sounds fine to me and the club atmosphere is well captured. Apparently the QR download code gives more than 3 hours additional music.

Just picked up the vinyl version, as well as the Shirley Scott, so it should be with me next week.

Caught him a few times, including a Canada festival appearance. The occasion that stands out though was once in NYC in a packed and enthusiastic house. I think it was the Jazz Standard, caught both sets. James Cammack was on bass, don’t think it was Israel on drums that time. He would have been in his late 60s/early 70s and playing like a much younger man.

Mine is finally at the local depot ! Remembering Ahmad Jamal - CDs 1 and 2

Those ‘MF Horn’ and ‘Chameleon’ LPs didn’t do the critical reputation much good in the 70s. A neighbour of mine at Uni used to crank those out full blast every night and I was no fan at the time, a position I have changed. Certainly, there’s some good stuff in those albums buried in the histrionics. Once upon a time Jazz Journal International used to do yearly in depth reports from that Nice Festival in the 70s/80s and there were even cartoon-ish figures of the musicians performing each year too !

I actually saw him in a record shop once, scanning the jazz CD racks. At least I’m fairly sure it was him, he was doing a gig in town (LA) at the time. Certainly one of the most impressive live performers I’ve ever seen. A master at timing and cranking up tension and release in his shows. It was even in the BBC news bulletin over here. Even Wayne Shorter didn’t get that.