Kevin Bresnahan

Although I expected this, it is still terrible news. I am lucky to have seen him several times over the years and I will cherish those memories.

Although I mainly interacted with Valerie in the electronic world, I did get to meet her a couple of times in person back when the Jazz Corner crowd organized "hangs" down in New York City. She was a funny woman who knew a little something about nearly everyone in the Jazz world. You'd bring up a name, and she'd have a story. I remember having a PM conversation with her about some session she mentioned she was at and I was amazed at her recall. The Jazz world lost a lot of great memories with her passing, The thing about Val was that she was a friend to so many and an enemy of very few. If they can write that on your headstone, you did good. And I have to say, I can't believe she was 77! She seemed so much younger. She'd get a good laugh at me saying that. I am going to miss her.

Copied from my first post... From her son's FB post: Valerie Bishop, jazz lover, sassy spirit, beloved friend and cherished mother, passed this morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 77. In the past week she had been visited by many friends who got to voice their love and say goodbye. At her request, there will be no funeral, but a memorial service will be held at a later date. I will also list charities where you can make donations in her memory. Thank you for my life, Mamacita, and farewell.

I think Val was a backup singer for Ike & Tina. This is a picture she posted to her Facebook page a bout 4 years ago: I don't know which one is Val. I think she's right next to Tina on the left. Supposedly, in real life, this scene was between Valerie and Tina Turner. No idea why they changed her so much for the movie.

It saddens me to report that Valerie Bishop (ValerieB here on the forum) was placed in hospice care today. Her son posted this to her Facebook page and he included his contact number if anyone wants to get a message to her, though he does say that her condition may make it tough to get to her. Apparently, this was very sudden but not unexpected as she's been having a rough time of it lately. Valerie has been an "on-line friend" of mine for over 20 years now. I will miss her stories. I will miss her positive outlook on life. Simply put, I will miss her presence. Valerie's son's post: Hello. I'm Valerie's son, Jay. I can appreciate the anxiety many of you feel from not being in touch with Valerie during her health challenges. She made a very Valerie decision to not involve or burden friends and actually pushed concerned friends away. The past two months have involved many incidents and setbacks that required hospitalization and rehab. But her medical team has seen a marked decline in her condition and it was decided to move Valerie to hospice. She's at Berkley East Convalescent Hospital in Santa Monica. Here, medical efforts are focused on hospice goals, meaning comfort and pain management. Valerie has good moments and bad ones, depending on the time of day. Sometimes she is alert and engaged with nurses. And very funny. Other times her head is clouded. I know that people would like to say goodbye. But I also don't want to overwhelm Valerie with phone calls or crowds. I welcome people to text me if they want to talk by phone. Or if they want to visit. Together we can decide the best time. Make contact by texting me at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thanks to everyone who sends love and support. I blanked out the phone number. If you're friends with Val on Facebook, it's there. Edit to add that Valerie died this morning. From her son's FB post: Valerie Bishop, jazz lover, sassy spirit, beloved friend and cherished mother, passed this morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 77. In the past week she had been visited by many friends who got to voice their love and say goodbye. At her request, there will be no funeral, but a memorial service will be held at a later date. I will also list charities where you can make donations in her memory. Thank you for my life, Mamacita, and farewell.

"Poicknicking on grounds permitted"? Is this what they call picnicking in Saugerties?

The author mentions Gil Melle and Serge Chaloff as other white musicians signed by Blue Note. Chaloff recorded for Capitol, not Blue Note.

Buying it from CD Japan would have cost you €13,15 (including shipping). It would be even cheaper if you ordered more discs, so you might want to check on them in the future.

A lot of Mosaics I bought for one or two sessions that I wasn't able to find elsewhere so consequently, I didn't always play 100% of every set I bought. And for others, like the Hank Mobley set, I never even bought it because I have nearly all the music on Japanese CDs. The Buck Clayton set was different. It was all totally new to me and I just loved it. I did play the Tina Brooks set for quite a while before the material was issued on CD. I even made needle drops of some of it so I could play it in my car.

I'd say for me, it's probably the Buck Clayton set. I have played Lee Morgan's "The Cooker" from the Mosaic set quite a bit, but I don't know if 2 discs out of 4 counts as a "Mosaic set". I hate that they chose to split that session up across 2 discs.

He subbed for Brian Wilson on the road for a year several years after the band's formation. I don't think that qualifies as an "original Beach boy".

I would use these guys: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/WPCR-29031

Fred Putsey used to run the True Blue side of things there. Maybe he's still around?

Um... what? Mosaic owns the Charlie Parker Benedetti set. Why would that be going out of print?

I just got in a fairly rare CD - one that I had never heard or seen before I tripped on it during an "Eric Alexander" search on eBay - Dave O'Higgins & Eric Alexander "The Devil's Interval" on the JVG Sessions label. It seems to be only available from the UK and not all of the sellers will ship to the US. They made another recording called "Sketchbook" that seems more readily available. I will have to find that one. This is an excellent disc if you're into tenors going head to head. I am enjoying it a lot. It's my kind of Jazz. BTW, if You Tube audio floats your boat, it's all there. I listened to a lot of this on You Tube before I decided to hunt down the CD although I doubt that this is what most You Tube listeners do.

I wish he would keep his website up to date. I have no idea if he's touring anywhere near my area. Sonny Fortune is the same way.

I watched this on Netflix. It's a very depressing movie. I once read that there were reports that Morgan had died right before he cut "Lee Way" in 1960. Now I know why those reports were circulating. It lays out Lee's career trajectory in a way that really forces you to acknowledge that if it wasn't for Helen, Lee would have been dead by then. I mean, really, the guy was pawning his overcoat and shoes to buy drugs. It looks like she saved him from an almost certain death. And then she killed him, as reported by witnesses, pretty much by accident. The saddest part was that if it wasn't for a blizzard that night, Lee might have lived. It took an hour for the ambulance to get there and he bled out. A sad combination of circumstances. One thing that surprised me most was that by the end of the movie, my opinion of Helen had changed dramatically. She was almost as tragic a figure as Lee. It's because of her that we have all that great Lee Morgan music recorded after 1960 and why we have none after 1972. I used to wonder why she got off so lightly for murdering Morgan and now I almost wonder why she was arrested at all. As I said, very depressing.

Wow! I didn't see that one. That seems almost too cheap.

Several on eBay right now for less $200... Here's one for $189 with free shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SEALED-J-J-JOHNSON-MOSAIC-COMPLETE-COLUMBIA-SMALL-GROUP-SESSIONS-CD-BOX-/332289587275?hash=item4d5e00b84b:g:-~UAAOSw4A5Yud32

I still can't believe that this set is now only going for $99 on eBay. I remember when it consistently got >$300. I almost sold mine back then... I wish I had! I could re-buy now for only $99. BTW, that Clayton set is one of my favorite Mosaic sets. Great jams with incredible musicians going on extended solos. The Hawk 's solos are pretty damn good.

Did they hire Jazzmeia Horn, toss her into a room with 5 or 6 strangers who happen to play Jazz, give her a stack of standards and 3 hours to make a record? If that's how it went down, then Prestige is back. If that's not how it went down, then this new label is Prestige in name only.

Ted - I would've loved a chance to have supported your work. I love supporting Jazz and cancer charities and I'm a sucker for Jazz photography. If you end up with any cancellations, I would love to buy a copy. Thanks, Kevin

Louis Hayes did bring in the band, minus trumpeter Josh Evans, that recently recorded "Serenade For Horace" for Blue Note and it was great. As expected, Abraham Burton and Steve Nelson were stellar. Louis played incredibly for a guy who just turned 80 in May. My only reservation was the pianist, but a lot of that might have been because the piano was mic'ed terribly and sounded rinky-dink for most of his solos. No matter how it was mic'ed, if you doing a Horace Silver tribute and you bring in a pianist with a light left hand, it's not going to sound right. They played for almost 2 hours straight. Definitely recommended if they come through your area.

Steve - not many do any more. It's very frustrating when you find out that a favorite player was in town in the backing band of a show that you decided to skip for one reason or another. It's happened to me several times. I've been lucky in that I have a friend in the box office at Scullers and she lets me know when someone special is hidden in a band. And to give this club credit, there have been some "special guests" listed under headliners for some shows, but not all of them. I remember one time a few years ago when this backfired on a club. The headliner was a young up & comer in NY who was planning to bring in a star-studded backing band for his first trip to Boston. No one knew him and no one knew who he was bringing with him so no one bought tickets. They ended up cancelling the show. It would have been a killer band to see. I had tickets because of my connection but there just wasn't enough word out to get asses in the seats. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, Scullers has Charnett Moffett playing there Saturday night. No idea who is playing with him. His latest CD has Pharaoh Sanders, Stanley Jordan, Cyrus Chestnut, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Victor Lewis, and Mike Clark on it. Are any of them touring with him? One of his previous CDs was solo bass. Is this a solo bass show?

Jim, if my memory serves me still, you are a bit more forgiving than I when it comes down to the sound quality on some dates, so this might not matter much... I bought this Mosaic box even though I had most (all?) of the LPs because I wasn't that happy with the sound on these LPs. I think Malcolm Addey did a great job with the master tapes here. Mosaic even mentioned his work on their sales pages: _____________________________________________________ SOUND QUALITY For this project, we flew to Chicago to uncover all of the original analog tapes for these albums as well as session reels that yielded a number of alternate takes of interest. The tapes were shipped back to Malcom Addey’s studio in New York where he transferred them at 24 bit into the digital domain. Addey’s mastering seamlessly wove Bee Hive’s 16 albums, recorded in various studios in New York and Chicago over eight years, into a coherent audio tapestry. ______________________________________________________ As an added bonus, I now can play this music anywhere I have a disc player, which is important since my turntables are still packed up from my move - last November! On top of that, I finally have "Starfingers" without a huge pop in the first track.