sidewinder

I'll be putting in an advance order for all 3 of the Ross/Gonsalves/Morrisey I think. Saves wearing out the vinyl on the 'Cleo'. That Dick Morrisey looks really nice. Another rare 60s album and a very under-valued tenorist. Little chance of ever seeing a vinyl of that one.

You could buy at least 100 of the CDs for the price of a moth-eaten vinyl.

Miles Davis 'Big Fun'. The original release of 'Ife'. Followed by 'Solal et Son Orchestre Jouent Hodeir' (Carlyne)

No. Just the Japanese Fontana vinyl

WHOOOAH !!! Xmas ! Paging Tooter...

I find Andrew Hill's 'Compulsion' and Grachan Moncur III 'Some Other Stuff' to be very listenable transitional albums. It took me ages to get into this stuff at all too.

There's also a Dorham vocal on the bonus CD that came with Randi Hultin's autobiography.

My favourite is the Cedar Walton 'Three Sundays In The Seventies' with Clifford Jordan and Bill Hardman. A very good example of the tight combination of Billy Higgins and Herbie Lewis in action. Sound is OK too.

Yep, those direct cuts can be pretty amazing. My favourite sounding ones are East Wind pressings - Cedar Walton's 'The Pentagon' and the LA 4 'Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte'.

Check out the Clarke/Boland Big Band 'Live In Prague' DVD on Impro-Jazz. Sulieman takes a few trumpet solos on that film - part of an amazing trumpet lineup that also includes Benny Bailey, Shake Keane and Jimmy Deuchar ! Also another for 'The Cats' on New Jazz. That is one mighty fine album.

Pouring it down still.. But the Mingus Big Band is playing again tonight.

UK CBS 2LP 'Two For The Price Of One' set.

I got that 'Big Fun' UK CBS 2LP set back in 1974/75 when it first came out and 'Go Ahead John' grabbed me from the outset. Still love playing that twofer, with the panning of the drums between the two speakers thanks to one of Teo's lash-up contraptions. Agree with Jazzbo - a wonderful bit of open-horn blues from Miles, with overdubbing, on that track. His sounds has rarely been caught better

Hope it's a good one !

Serious vinyl quality time !

Great performance last night at the Bath Fest. Full house, I was lucky to be able to get hold of a return ticket at the door. A bit daft of me not to book in advance. Escoffery did just the one tenor solo towards the end of the second half but it was a very good one - reminded me of latish Trane around the vintage of 'Transition'. Incredible lineup of solo talent in this band - Craig Handy, Vincent Herring, Frank Lacy, Conrad Herwig, Kenny Drew Jr.. A couple of wonderful numbers from 'Epitaph', including 'This Subdues My Passion' (wasn't this the arrangement that was recently unearthed by Sue Mingus from the great man's boxed possessions?). Talking about the great man's boxed possessions, I was able to pick up after the gig a copy of the DVD of the documentary film 'Mingus' - the one where his possessions (including all that music) are emptied into the street after an eviction and where he shoots a gun into the ceiling the night before. An amazing historical record.

The Mingus 'Complete Debut Recordings' box, CD 9. Never tire of dipping into this box and sampling the obscurities..

I remember seeing a NorthSea Fest advert in the jazz press around this time (84-ish) announcing Hank's quartet was on the bill but sadly it didn't happen.

Sad news - A stalwart West Coast big band lead trumpeter who participated in many fine bands. Remember seeing him in Bill Holman's band some years ago and he looked in great shape. Heck, he was playing lead with Kenton back in the early 40s . Yet another key link with jazz's great years is now gone, RIP.

I like that one too, and it is very "straight ahead." Louis Hayes' "the Crawl" is also a smoking date with some fine Bartz. Another for that one. And as an added bonus it has Charles Tolliver on it too. And John Stubblefield. Actually got to see that band live shortly after the CD had come out. Hayes was smokin' !

That's good to hear. This set will be coming within range of my radar. Love those tracks with Sonny Criss and Sweets !

but then you will be in trouble when time comes to replace the stylus! I'll place an indefinite contract with my hi-fi dealer to periodically service the deck etc. every few years before senility sets in.

Benny Carter 'Jazz Giant' (Stereo Records). Lives up to its name !

Any sign of another European tour? Not that I've heard of - unfortunately. Really glad I got to meet him during the last tour. In addition to signing a few things he gave his thoughts on some of the Blue Note LPs I was holding. 'That won a design prize, you know' was the comment about the 'A New Conception' Liberty sleeve. There was great pride expressed concerning his Blue Note sessions (and the set that Mosaic put out), but expressed in a real nice low-key way. A gent !

I'm partial to Zoot's car keys..