jazzbo

OUCH! Sorry to hear that.

I may be different but I really love the work the Bros. did before they joined together for their first band; I'm not sure that is what you are looking for though. These are my favorites, all in great sound by J. R. T. Davies: Just great early white jazz and hot dance! There is also another favorite, the HEP cd "Harlem Lullaby" which has a fine collection of the recordings of their first band . . . including Mildred Bailey, Lee Wiley, Mae West, Bing Crosby, Ethel Waters, Bunny Berigan, Joe Venuti, Dick McDonough, and more. . . . Also with J. R. T. Davies remastering, great sound.

Well, it's because I don't have a car that I've been able to spend too much on cds helped by this board. . . .

Thanks Cary! Enjoy those VIBES!

Yes, I guess a machete and a fire axe were involved, according to Tony Scott! More about Tony on the subject of Duke's bandleadership and bandmembers: Duke had that ability to evade issues. If you had to face the issues he faced you'd be a raving maniac. He had 17 men continually pulling in different directions, and the three months I was with the band it didn't swing. They were looking for a drummer and I almost put in Philly Joe Jones but he didn't make it, he got hung up, and detained involuntarily in Philadelphia, because of mistaken identity by the narcotics squad. Philly threw his drugs out of the window. He was put in jail for his needle marks. Ellington could make everything into a purple ice-cream soda. he had all these guys grumbling. He was sitting in front of the bus, imagine these eight-hour trips, sun comes up he'd be the first one the sun hits his eyes. Part of his genius, if not 90 per cent was travelling. I did three months of it and I had a tic in my eye. Duke and his band, it was like being around a man and wife who're always nagging at each other but stay together. They owed him and he owed them, and they couldn't really settle the bill. When I first started with them I couldn't find numbers. Quentin Jackson called out numbers for me because when Duke started a number he never announced it. They all knew them. Quentin. Clark Terry and Britt Woodman were the only ones who were nice. They told me 'When we go South, be an Ethiopian.' we'd stop at a place to eat, counter service, and we'd order hot dogs hot dogs hot dogs. I said, 'I'm not gonna eat a hot dog. I'll wait till we stop at a restaurant and eat' I get on the bus and say, 'Hey, when we stop and eat?' and somebody says, 'That was it, man' Hot dogs! Now these are jazz musicians that you hear hitting high notes and strong solos and all, and you say WOW -what ENERGY! and they 're doing it on hot dogs, right. I say, 'That was it?' and Jimmy Hamilton says- 'Yeah, man, it's every livin' ass for himself down here.' So I run into the white section and grab me two apples and a chocolate bar, run into the bus. Jimmy Hamilton sees the apples - 'Hey, gimme an apple, man' - and I say, 'Man, it's every livin' ass for himself down here.' I learned quick. I got in an argument on the bus with Mingus one time. He says, 'You white people are always telling us how to talk.' I turned round and said, 'I'm darker than you are, Mingus.' Mingus is about my colour, I'm Sicilian and he had a lotta white blood in there more than I had. He was trying to prove he was a black man, and I took his negritude away. he came up behind me - I had Bebop glasses on - and he strangled me, one hand around my throat and one over my eyes. Britt and Clark pulled him off. Britt wouldn't look at him after that, and Mingus said, 'Man, I must've stepped on my dick. My best friend won't look at me.' I was there when Mingus had that big to-do with Juan Tizol - it's in Beneath The Underdog. Juan with a machete, Mingus with a fire-axe. Duke had to fire him. Duke said to Mingus 'Look, Juan Tizol is an old problem. Why don't you resign? You're a new problem.' ©Tony Scott: Lady, Bird and Me

He and Tizol got into arguments that were ultimately racially related. . . . Mingus' buttons were well-pushed and he apparently threatened Tizol with a knife either in rehearsal or actual performance. Ellington delicately fired Mingus, saying basically that Charles was new, Juan was an established good ole boy in the band, Charles had to go. . . .

Well, Duke was supposedly sort of lax in his management of the band, that is he let some behaviors go on unimpeded that other bandleaders probably wouldn't, managed to cultivate a sort of private club atmosphere that was hell on newbies (and some newbies didn't make it for the long run) and which probably induced those that fit in well to stay. . . . And I think the music wasn't always just the same ole same ole night after night. There was regular infusion of new material and new arrangements (most likely it appears in batches) and there was the fly by the seat of your pants thing that a lot of the studio dates (many of which were just for "the stockpile") seem to have been. . . . I think that they had a lot of fun, were occasionally challenged, and were paid well. . . . EDIT: I was typing while John was and he's mentioning specifics that I was alluding to. . . . Yes, some of those guys could and would have been fired really quickly from other bands!

You mean like Kermit Ruffin and Irwin Mayfilield (well those may be nineties continuations). . . ? That trend contined: Nick Payton is a Crescent City man, isn't he? etc. I would think that University courses and private instruction played a part (dare I mention Ellis Marsalis?), not to mention the fact that there was actually a jazz scene there in that city (go figure) at that time and that isn't something you really find in every city! Having a scene to play in really HELPS!

I think Wilson was a good producer. I've liked the rock records I've heard of his . . . notably the Dylan ones.

In a filmed interview with Duke in the late or mid sixties he was asked what "gimmick" he used to keep his band together. He said that he used. . . MONEY. He referred to his orchestra members as "these expensive gentlemen." I think that the fact that he had a steady employment for decades for a group of guys that got their way as much as they wanted to most of the time on the road and on the stand was a testimony to his loose but sly leadership, his dispensation of MONEY, the state of affairs in big band employment, and a few other factors . . . . MONEY would be the main answer, in a few cases I think personal loyalty contributed to longevity in the band.

You're right Flurin, First Flight is a Byrd on Delmark that either was a Transition or may/would have become one, and the two Sun Ras on Delmark were Transitions. You are also right that the Connoisseur booklet contains a label history of sorts.

Good move. This time through last night, urged on by Joe's comment about Hank Jones, I concentrated on Jones' playing. The man has such a distilled style now, that is sort of the concentrated essence of support and lyricism. Amazing!

Part of the indefatigable work done by our board member Mike Fitzgerald: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Labels/transitn.htm

A small label run by producer Tom Wilson (a good thing). Didn't last long enough, some of the dates that weren't issued by Transition were bought by Lion and issued on Blue Note, now I believe that EMI has the label and has issued Japanese cds and US cds under the Blue Note name. Every Transition I've heard I've really liked! I'm not sure but I think this was the original lp cover of the Transition lp. You do have, do you not, the "Donald Byrd" Transition lps two cd Connoisseur set? (This Byrd, the "Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill" and the Doug Watkins Transition lp are all included in the two cd set).

Complete Surf Ride Plus is a great find. I'm determined NOT TO BUY ANY MUSIC TODAY!

Universal UCCI 9105(Impulse)24bit,New Coltrane,Alice/Huntington Ashram Monastery* 2400 Universal UCCI 9110(Impulse)24bit,New Coltrane,Alice/Lord of Lords* 2400 BIG

That's sort of how I hear them too, and I suspect that pressing or pre-pressing mastering may be responsible. Not enough of a difference really for me to not purchase one over the other. (I'm becoming less picky I guess!) What I haven't really expected was to find that I prefer some Kirk Felton remastered US cds to their K2 Japanese counterpart (one specific case in point is the Clay/Newman "Sound of the Wide Open Spaces").

I'll pile on too and say anything recent of his I have heard has been very impressive!

I always laugh at the story that I heard that illustrates this ingenuity of his. It goes that early on in his career he heard raves about a trombonist that was using a waterglass to make great sound and music, and he marveled at how that could be, because he was under the impression that rather than using a bell of the trombone the musician was somehow using a waterglass in its place. So he experiemented and managed to produce a very unique sound and technique replacing the bell of the trombone with a waterglass that is marvelous to see and hear! Then he either saw the musician in question or was informed that the man was using a waterglass. . . as a mute!

I agree. The more I learn about Tea and the more I listen the more I realize how much of an amazing player and person he was. And I LOVE his singing. It snuck up on me and just corralled me; I just love it.

Mark, no problem and thanks. Here's to next year indeed!

I am a tremendous fan of Jack Teagarden's and I find that he is far more often that on than otherwise. . . . I tremendously recommend that you explore his work if you have been knocked out here! I have nearly everything I've been able to find. There is a new three cd set on Avid that looks like a fantastic way to get all the early highlights; I've got all this material on separate cds so I haven't bought the set but I've been tempted to I love Jackson so much! Also the Mosaic set of Roulette material is a wonderful wonderful set. And the recent Verve reissue of Mis'ry and the Blues is a great late Teagarden example.

Yeah for real. I'm solidly behind that. That was what I always tried to do as a musician. And those who couldn't seem to pay attention to that were the root cause of almost all my bad band memories!

Thank god you're no longer spinning at 33-1/3 rpm. . . .

Thanks! Ended the day with a long telephone conversation with my dad which was a wonderful thing. . . . I'm hoping that maybe somehow I can get a raise this year (haven't had one for three years and a month, and my wife has had six in that time, including a ten percent raise last week!) and maybe find work I want to do more readily (I use my birthday as a sort of review of my life and times and this year that wasn't a heartening thing!)