sidewinder

That, coupled with cover-art designed by two year-olds makes for one heckuva package!!! And as a special treat for the vinyl buyers they are on 50g non-virgin frisbee vinyl with sleeves 'printed' on the thinnest card money can buy. Gotta love 'em

Sorry to hear your news Kevin and my deepest condolences. Sounds like you are a lucky man to have such a great dad. Take care !

Best Wishes !

Wasn't this one issued on CD in the US as a Collectors Choice or Rare Groove? In any event, I have such a copy (will check later).

I've still got one single Applause LP - a Grant Green 'Am I Blue' in 'rare blue Applause cover art' acquired for $0.50 in a Canadian shopping mall. I was fleeced ! I can recall seeing quite a few copies of 'Natural Illusions' in deep dung edition in those racks at the same price but I passed.

That Lou Donaldson 'Lush Life' is a pretty nice session - never realised that Applause had done an 'issue' of it. It appeared as 'Sweet Slumber' (with way better cover art ) on a King LP issue, which is the version I have. Nice Duke Pearson arrangements and some great Wayne Shorter vignettes !

Thats a very high price - but I guess it's a promo copy. These LP prices are getting ridiculous. I'll stick with my Fresh Sounds vinyl.

Basil Kirchin 'Abstractions of the Industrial North' (Trunk Records). Where else can you hear Tubby Hayes, Led Zep's Jimmy Page and Kenny Wheeler on the same slab of vinyl? 'Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland/Sahib Shihab/Joe Harris' (I Giganti Del Jazz). Usually avoid this series but this one is an exception.

I hear that the Applause patented dung-brown cover art in low res is coming back into fashion.

Stephane Grappelli 'Grappelli Plays Grappelli' (Music De Wolfe). Signed by Stephane on the front !

This one has long been a favourite of mine - bought an original ABC-Impulse LP deletion from the Munich zweitausendeins store in the early 1980s for something like 3 D-Marks !

If the packaging is like the zweitausendeins imitation shoe box then I'm ****ered !

Nucleus 'Snakehips Etc.' (Vertigo) Karl Jenkins & Soft Machine 'Music De Wolfe Sessions' (Turning Point)

Oh sh** !

Cedar Walton 'Eastern Rebellion 4' (Timeless)

Here's some thoughts on Saturday's performances. First up was Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet. Again, first time I had seen Delfeayo and I quite liked his straight-ahead, boppish style. Nice tenor work by Clarence Johnson. Couldn't stay long though as priority went to seeing Hank Jones with his working trio of George Mraz and Willie Jones III. Hank didn't put a foot wrong - playing in his usual impeccable and dignified style. This man should be representing the US internationally as a permanent State Department paid rep! Again, another great artist who defies the years. For the second half of this performance, promising Italian vocalist Roberta Gambarini was added to the trio. Hank over-ran a bit so was only able to catch about 20 minutes of McCoy Tyner All Star Septet. In the front line were Wallace Roney, Donald Harrison, Eric Alexander (sounded great) and Steve Turre, who was also featured on his custom conch shell selection on one number. Another capacity house for this one. Trio Beyond (DeJohnette/Scofield/Goldings) were the next act I saw - again to an absolute capacity audience. Thoughts on this superb performance posted in another thread but I've since listened to the ECM 2CD 'Sauvades' and this performance was even better. They have tightened up quite a bit since the 2004 London performance. The Blue Note CD chalet distracted me a bit at this point (just about every mid price CD plus rare grooves and a few good Conns at mid price on sale. Incredibly, I snagged most of the new Conn releases at 3 for 25 Euros ) so only got in for the latter part of Kenny Garrett Quintet. Another fine performance by Kenny - with pianist Benito Gonzales a standout. The last number was a vocal feature with lots of audience participation and it went on forever with the audience going wild at the front. A lovely way to end this second fine evening of jazz.

Isn't he 85 or thereabouts? In any event, he defies the years. At the end of the North Sea concert as he was packing his kit away a lady in the audience presented him with what looked like a brochure or magazine (must have had an article on him or something). He very graciously accepted it - a genuinely kind and humble man, I thought.

Same thing happened to me - stayed for the whole of the (highly enjoyable) Hank Jones and got caught up in the queue - just able to see the last 20 minutes of the McCoy but it was great. He sounded pretty good, especially on his solo feature - once again I was struck by just how great a drummer Eric Gravatt is. Heard McCoy quite recently too so again wasn't too put out at missing much of the concert.

37C in Southern England forecast for tomorrow. I'm at the Farnborough Air Show so I'll probably fry on the tarmac..

Saw John Heard at Ronnie Scotts a couple of times in the late 1970s/early 1980s as part of Louis Bellson's 'Big Band Explosion'. At least one of those concerts was recorded for Pablo I think. Fine player and strongly featured with this band.

Time to post a few thoughts. I've mentioned the 'Trio Beyond' concert in a separate thread but here are a few highlights. Starting with Friday: Awesome, virtuoso performance by James Carter with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. First time I have seen Carter and was very impressed. Much of the material was a tribute to Don Byas, with lovely arrangements penned by Henk Meutgeert. A mighty fine job he did too (the band sounded quite like the CBBB at times). Nice vocal features for local singer Fay Claasen. Benny Golson was up next and he was featured in an amazing all-star group in a tribute to Clifford Brown with Roy Hargrove and Eddie Henderson on trumpets, Buster Williams on bass and Al Foster on drums ! As ever, Buster's big sound was a joy and Hargrove got solo honours (not the last time either, at this festival). The next concert was 'Influence' by Yusef Lateef and the Belmondo Bros.. Nearly missed it thanks to a human gridlock problem in the main corridor between stages but as I arrived Yusef was in the middle of one of his great modal flute solos. Absolutely awesome ! The performance featured an adventurous mid-size group with bassoon, cor anglais, flute, french horn etc. with the belmondos and Yusef doing most of the solos on recreations of many of the Lateef song book. Great young French Tynerish player on piano who was just right for the vampy, modal feel of the music. Yusef even got his tenor out for a long solo ( ) and to finish off he was featured on oud (I think) for an arrangement of what I assume was 'P-Bouk' (postscript - no, it was 'Brother John', of course). Absolutely flamin' incredible ! Then it was en-route to the main auditorium for 4 or 5 Grolsh's and a bit of head banging to Buddy Guy'. Again, a fantastic performance and the showmanship of this man and his group is first rate. Hearing permanently damaged I think as a result of the decibels... Then a brief interlude to check out Candi Staton and it was in for the last half hour or so of Regina Carter. Again, first time I have seen a performance by Ms Carter but it was nice stuff, with her C&W influence and very fine violin technique clear to hear. Unfortunately wasn't able to hear the Eddie Palmieri All-Stars, which clashed with this particular time slot. Great evening therefore - with pride of place to the Lateef. Sat and Sunday thoughts to follow...

Doesn't seem to be an active dime listing at the present time.

I didn't see any TV cameras in operation at this particular NorthSea concert, sadly. Interestingly, Jack DeJohnette got quite shirty at one stage with members of the audience who were filming the show (stated as 'forbidden by Trio Beyond') or using photo flash. Rightly so IMO - the flash photography was very distracting. The silver lining on this was that it made him hit the drums twice as hard.

Off the top of my head (and in case I forget): They opened with a magnificent version of 'The Moontrane' Then a composition by Larry Goldings (can't quite recall the title for the moment) Then 'Big Nick' (even better than the Lifetime original) Then 'I Fall In Love Too Easily' (tributes to Miles all round on this one - a fabulous performance) Then 'Spectrum' to finish off with (**** hot)... Not sure if I have missed a title ot two off or got the track order quite right. By some miracle I snagged a central seat on the third row - the house was packed to capacity !