sidewinder

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.

RIP - A long life and a great legacy for this legendary figure.

Mine has apparently now shipped.

NY mono

Metronome DG mono

And there’s me thinking it stood for Bernie Grundman !

I remember watching a BBC show by Clark and the Big Bad Band on TV in the mid 1970s. To this day, I’ve never seen it repeated nor has it copped up on the internet. Presume it must have been wiped. I have that Wichita Jazz Festival LP somewhere too. I bought that one when it came out and still have a copy.

Haven’t played this for over 30 years and what a corker ! Amazing band lineup and great performance. Cost me all of 99p back in the day.. UK Pye pressing. Fine band underpinned by Ronnie Mathews, Victor Sproles and Ed Soph. Grammavision - the label confirms I paid £7.49 at Our Price for this one.

Thanks for the update - I was wondering how things were.

Amazing and good to hear - very best wishes to Jimmy Hastings. That Humph gig was in Taunton Brewhouse Theatre around 2006/7, a really good show and very late in Humph’s career. I bought one of his books from him, got him to sign it and even put in an informal request for him to play some Horace Silver on his BBC radio show. Not surprisingly, he was quite knowledgeable about Horace. I seem to remember that they did some tune about a black butterfly floating around the stage but that may just be my ageing memory !

Great recording but curiously MOR-ish.

I am waiting for ‘Time For A Change’ to be reissued on vinyl. There’s only one copy available on discogs and some clown wants £155 for it !