paul secor

The Wes Montgomery Trio (Riverside - Japan)

All the best to you on your birthday!

I liked several of her early recordings, and heard her play live with Ed Blackwell a couple of times. To my ears, she never lived up to her early potential. I stopped following her recordings about 15 years ago, but it might be time to revisit some of the things I've held onto. I do feel that her playing lost some of its spontaneity when she got more involved with electronics - probably ok for some folks - not for me.

Just curious - what happens when you play good sounding recordings on a system that makes crappy sounding recordings sound acceptable?

Kenny Dorham & the Jazz Prophets Vol. 1 (MCA/Japan)

Thanks for getting things back so quickly, Jim. The short term disappearance of the Board made me realize how much I enjoy being here, and what things might be like if this place didn't exist. I'm sure that others feel the same way.

I lost about 900 posts. Hope that they were the ones that were dumb, frivolous, inane, or all of the above.

Sidney Bechet Select - disc 2 Surprised that more people haven't mentioned this in their Mosaic listening posts. It's a great set.

I'm a Laker fan, but Kobe dunking on Steve Nash? Big deal. Poetic justice, perhaps, after the MVP vote, but hardly worthy of a highlight.

The Pete Johnson/Earl Hines/Teddy Bunn Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic)

Joe Albany: Portrait of an Artist (Elektra/Musician) Interesting to hear Joe Albany speak in the interview at the end of the record. He calls Charlie Parker "a humble man." The interviewer interjects, "Humble in the face of music, maybe." Albany replies, "Well no. I saw him as being humble in the face of God."

Johnny Griffin's Studio Jazz Party (Riverside/Victor Japan)

Good luck on a worthwhile endeavor. Please keep us up to date on the preparations and results.

David - I'm truly sorry about the loss of your friend. It sounds as if he had a very full life before his passing.

I'd stick with the OJC LPs below #280 or so - the ones that don't say "remastered by ...". From my experience the the only difference you'll hear between the remastered LPs and the CDs might be the difference in your LP and CD playback systems. Obviously, I haven't compared every LP and CD, but I've heard enough to feel that this is the case.

It appears that Cyrus St. Clair plays on a couple of Clarence Williams Frog reissues - #'s 17 & 37 - but I can't find any hard info from the Frog site, Worlds Records, or CD Universe as to how many tracks he's on. I'll probably take a shot at Frog 37 -Shake 'em Up - unless someone has a better suggestion.

Only found one cut with Cyrus St. Clair in my collection - a Clarence Williams track, "Cushion Foot Stomp", on a Robert Parker New York anthology. It's a good one, though - and Cyrus St. Clair even leads off with a solo. He swings, has beautiful intonation, and is rock solid in the ensemble. I do have to hear more. Thanks for putting his name on the Board!

This afternoon: Blakey Mosaic - the August 7, 1960 session

Great record! Perhaps my favorite Curtis Fuller recording.

Very unusual, though probably not unique, for a session recorded in 1959 to only have been issued as a mono recording. I wonder if the stereo mixes were lost.

My XRCD issue is mono.

I still have three of his early LPs in my collection - Morning Prayer (Trio), Beyond the Rain (Contemporary), and Spirit Sensitive (India Navigation). I picked up a couple of his Contemporary and Musician LPs after that, but didn't find much that interested me, and I haven't heard anything since then. I'll have to listen to one or more of the ones I've kept and see if there's still something there for me. I find that a thread like this is good because it gets me to listen anew, rather than relying on memories.

There was more material from the X-75 sessions but not enough for a 2nd disc. Henry planned to do more later but the project was dropped. Not sure about the 12th St address but in the early '80s Air had a rehearsal studio at 336 East 13th, between First and Second Avenues. My friend's apartment could have been on E. 13th. It's been a lot of years, and she hasn't lived there since the mid 80's. What you say makes sense.

Thanks for the recommendation.

I don't know how I could have forgotten that I have X-75 Volume 1 in my collection. That's a great one. I wonder if there were plans for a Volume 2, or if the Volume 1 was just something Henry Threadgill threw out as part of the title. In the early 80's, I used to visit a friend who lived on East 12th St. in NYC. There was a large banner for Air hanginging from the building across the street from hers. I guessed that Henry Threadgill or someone in the group lived there - my friend wasn't sure. I don't usually waste time with regrets, but I do wish that I'd walked over and talked with whoever lived there.