sidewinder

Before 1 Jan 2022 US time I think. Duration about 90 minutes. Nice that they included interviews with Trudy Pitts, Jimmy McGriff and Dr Lonnie Smith. The first two of these three musicians passed away during the making of the film, along with Jimmy Smith.

Not by me !

Essential viewing. Unbelievable that Jimmy Smith’s home B-3 nearly ended up in a skip !

I would have put the one on the right as the crazy one and the middle one as a saint but what do I know ! Nice pic.

Yeah, it’s an interesting read and all 3 authors are excellent. Very broad coverage of ‘names’ and particularly useful for the generous coverage of UK and European artists circa 1985. I detect the influence of Mr Carr there !

Obviously same tour I saw them on. Yes, trio version of ‘Moment’s Notice’ rings a bell. They also did stuff from ‘Horizon’ I think.

The ‘inexpensive’ version.

Never saw Palin - but he does feature nicely on that Spotlite LP with Don Rendell and Barbara Thompson. Recent charity shop find.

Many would disagree with that statement ! Tracey’s stamina and flexibility not to be underestimated with respect to this gig. Admittedly, he did pay a heavy price after 5 years or so - one that could have killed him.

Nucleus ‘Live at the BBC’ from Repertoire would be a late in year addition from me.

That would be John Blake and not Ran Blake on violin and my guess is perhaps Joe Ford on alto in the front line. The group I saw also had John Lee on bass and Wilby Fletcher on drums. John Blake wearing, as I recall it, exotic all-white 3 piece suit a la Saturday Night Fever !

CD6 of this enjoyable set. Followed by CD7 - ‘The Pretty Redhead’, also including the session with guest Charlie Mariano. Ace. Pondering when I actually saw Carr play live - the only time I can recall was with Gil Evans Orchestra ! ‘Pause, and Think Again’

New Departures Septet, Gearbox Records (2LP)

Sam Noto - 91

Bill Holman - 94 Vi Redd - 93

Tony Kinsey - 94 Phil Nimmons - 98

And not forgetting Benny Golson - 92 and Dame Cleo Laine - 94

Followed by - on vinyl

LP set Also on LP -

Regarding Tracey’s influences - I hear more of Duke than Monk in Tracey’s playing and the Tracey bio backs that up.

‘Night of the Cookers’ ?

It’s a half-hour suite. Not typical of much of the rest of the set, which concentrates on Nucleus, but an unexpected bonus. Too many versions of ‘Snakehip’s Dream’ for my liking though. One or two would be enough !

A number of books have quoted Tracey’s story on this - and I think I recall him mentioning it on TV. What he basically said was that in general the visitors to Scott’s when he was leading the house trio were a delight to play with but with these two musicians (plus Getz I think) the on-stage vibe and attitude was extremely unpleasant - deliberately so. Great professional that he was, Stan put up with it and put two fingers up in return in his interplay. Getz of course, true to form. Didn’t Ronnie say he nearly broke his back bending backwards for Stan Getz?

CD4 - Gordon Beck’s ‘The Dream’ suite.

So far the major ‘find’ for me has been the broadcast of Gordon Beck’s ‘The Dream’ suite on CD4 for the ‘Jazz In Britain’ programme, with Norma Winstone and John Taylor. Really good adventurous stuff - and a shame it wasn’t worked into a studio LP release at that time. Not standard Nucleus fare, I guess.