paul secor

I'd say go with your own musical tastes. The Mobley probably has the best music overall, and the Parlan has some pretty nice stuff also. But those are my musical tastes.

The Band, if I had to pick just one. The Insect Trust and The Sir Douglas Quintet, if I get to pick a couple more.

This isn't about a jazz LP, but about 15 years ago I met Bruce Bastin, who runs Flyright/Heritage/Harlequin Records, at a friend's radio show. I mentioned a record titled Those Happy Old Days, a collection of obscure Louisiana blues and r&b, that he issued in the mid-70's. To my best recollection, he said that it had a pressing of 100 copies. I wonder if that was usual for small labels back then?

Congratulations to you Jim, and to your family. I'm sure that you all feel like you're the luckiest people in the world, and you are.

Happy Birthday, Guys! A lot of things get shared on this board, so why not a birthday thread?

Yeah - The Queen's Suite. I guess that wins the prize. I have a Pipe Records LP, For Franz, (Bill Dixon, Steve Lacy, Franz Koglmann, and others) that has a hand painted cover by Franz Koglmann. I don't know what the pressing was, but it couldn't have been too many.

B.B. King: Blues Is King John Fischer and Associates: Environ Days (Konnex) Warne Marsh/Lee Konitz/Al Levitt/Peter Ind: London Concert (Wave) Paul Murphy at CBS - Red Snapper (Cadence) The Five Du-Tones (Ring of Stars) John Fahey: The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites The Delmore Brothers: Brown's Ferry Blues (County)

I never had any real exposure to jazz growing up. Probably the closest I came to any exposure was hearing my father's Jackie Gleason records with Bobby Hackett (not that I had a clue who Bobby Hackett was). I guess what initially turned me on to the music was seeing two television documentaries in 1962, when I was in high school. One was on the Brubeck Quartet, and the other was on Paul Horn's Quintet. (Both recorded for Columbia at the time, so I assume that the programs were on CBS, but perhaps that's just backwards looking cynicism on my part.) Anyway, I heard something that was different and more challenging and interesting than the top 40 radio and commercial folk music I'd been listening to previously, and I was hooked.

Breaking away from the current topic, here are some further recommendations: A.B. Spellman: Four Lives in the Bebop Business. This was later reprinted as Blck Music: Four Lives. I hope that it's currently in print. Two collections of anecdotes by Bud Freeman - You Don't Look Like a Musician and if you know of a better life! please tell ME. I haven't yet read his Crazeology - The Autobiography of a Chicago Jazzman. Don Asher: Notes from a Battered Grand. Asher is the co-author of Raise Up Off Me, the Hampton Hawes autobiography. He is also a jazz pianist, and Battered Grand gives a look at the jazz life from the perspective of a journeyman musician. Ornette Coleman - A Harmolodic Life by John Litweiler. William Zinsser's Willie and Dwike is a well written look at the interesting lives of Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell. Someday I'll get to Willie Ruff's autobiography, A Call to Assembly.

I actually enjoy Burns' Baseball series. I feel that it captures a lot of the spirit of the game. There may be things that one can quibble about in it, but overall I feel that it was well done and enjoyable to watch. I've actually seen it maybe twenty times, since a co-worker and I bring our videos of it to work and play it there now and again. All I can say about the jazz series (since I couldn't stomach watching much of it) is that Wynton Marsalis ain't no Buck O'Neil.

I've read three or four of Bill Moody's books. I found them to be decent entertainments - nothing of any depth - but at times, entertainment is what I want.

The only Petrucciani in my collection is the duo album he recorded with Lee Konitz on Owl. I'll have to put that on the turntable and give it a relisten soon. That's one of the great things about this board - not only am I introduced to new things, I'm also reintroduced to my record collection.

They can be expensive, but some of their sale items are a good deal. For example, I picked up a Japanese CD of Baby Face Williette's Mo-Roc for $12 recently.

A couple of additions: Ernest C. Withers: The Memphis Blues Again. Ed van der Elsken: Jazz Fragment. Both highly recommended.

Dizzy Gillespie and the Double Six of Paris The Band: Northern Lights/Southern Cross Earl King: Trick Bag Lightnin' Hopkins/Thunder Smith: Lightnin' Hopkins Sings the Blues The Happy Horns of Clark Terry Walt Dickerson: Relativity

I have too many recordings and too little listening time for anything to be in heavy rotation. I don't know if that's good or bad - probably some of both.

I never got them when they were released in the early 60's, but I picked up the New Orleans and Chicago sets (sealed) at a used record store about ten years ago. It seems that a guy who had worked for Columbia had a bunch of promo records in his garage, and after holding on to them for years, sold them to the store. I got these two sets, Red Allen's Feeling Good (gave my old copy to a friend), and a Dick Davy comedy album. I wonder what I missed?

I bought his autobiography, A Thousand Honey Creeks Later - My Life in Music from Basie to Motown, a couple of years ago, but never got around to reading it. I'm in the midst of another book right now, but I'll probably go to that next, even though it bothers me that his passing will be the catalyst for me doing so.

Miles at the Black Hawk

Monk Blue Note

Great record! Like Brownie said, if the condition of the vinyl is right, grab it. This, Closeness, and As Long As There's Music are probably my favorite Haden records under his own name.

That ICP album has the Dolphy/Mengelberg group playing "Epistrophy" on one side. The other side is all of two minutes long - Mengelberg playing solo piano, accompanied by his parrot, Eeko. When I listen to it, I start to think, "hey, it might be cool to have a parrot in the house."

I don't know who wrote the best liner notes, but Larry Kart and John Litweiler always gave me things to think about and listen for while the music was playing.

Chuck - thanks for the reminder about the AEC website. The last time I checked it (about 2 weeks ago) the store was down, but it's back today. It doesn't appear that anyone has seen the book, so if I get it, I may be the one making the recommendation (or not).

Missed this yesterday. Happy birthday to you - Thanks for all your posts! Hope you have 50 more.