mjzee

I found this interesting: https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2020/02/06/ray_noble_englands_greatest_melody_maker_483671.html

I subscribe to BBC Music Magazine; between the ads and reviews, they seem to cover a lot.

Found some time to listen to this BFT. Assiduously tried to not read prior comments. 1) Is this an episode of Seinfeld? Watermelon Man. Could be playing to a rhythm track; it's funky, but not responsive to the soloists. Is the drummer Idris? 2) (What's the name of this tune??? Classic BN tune.) Pianist: muscular clarity. Ray Bryant? Sax: strong yet querulous, indeterminate tone. Reminds me of Von Freeman. 3) Basie from the early '60's? Jimmy Forrest on tenor? Dueling tenors. Busy arrangement, but driving. I liked this one. 4) Things Ain't What They Used To Be. Sounds like some swing musicians. Audience - club. I hear clarinet and bari. Not very distinctive. 5) Trombone, trumpet, tenor. Again, older form. Pianist is funky, throwing some more modern stuff in. No clue. One of those '50's Columbia sessions? 6) A little more modern - recorded in '70's? Tuba - Bob Stewart? Guitar, alto...meh. 7) Bossa nova! (Or is it a boogaloo?) Saxist play with tone and personality. Is this Griff and Lockjaw? Billy Higgins on drums? 8) High energy. Another tune I've heard a million times but can't tell you its name. The tenor is good. My guess is this is from the'80's from the way the bass is recorded. 9) Another tune I know. Chick Corea composition? The pianist plays it pretty close to the chord changes. Left hand is kinda perfunctory. Should've thought to reorchestrate it a little. 10) Bird tune. Two tenors. Or is the one on the left an alto? Plays pretty low for an alto; probably two tenors. No idea who they are, but this would be a pretty good night at the bar. 11) Dizzy's "Tin Tin Deo." Private recording. Nothing really distinctive about the performance. 12) Well You Needn't. Funny how, from the first bar, the drummer brings a party atmosphere to this - he just swings! Alto sounds like Art Pepper. 13) Old R&B tune. Night Train? Listened to the first 3 minutes or so - nothing distinctive going on. Can't name the soloist. 14) Easy Living. Someone who loves Ben Webster. Maybe Lockjaw.

Release date February 14:

Release date March 20: Seasoned veteran Houston Person joins Keith Oxman’s quartet for his latest outing, Two Cigarettes in the Dark. The pairing of these two great tenor saxophonists from different generations is a wonderful merging of styles to create a uniquely warm sound. Person is on 6 of the 10 tracks which are the standards on this release. Also making an appearance on 2 of the tunes is vocalist Annette Murrell. She brings her sultry voice to Everything Happens to Me and Crazy He Calls Me. Oxman contributes 3 of his original compositions and pianist Jeff Jenkins penned one of the tunes.

Release date March 20: Sporting a resume that hearkens back to the glory days of the Chess Records empire, Sugar Pie DeSanto at 84, is still recording and occasionally performing, having outlived many of her peers. She was legendary for her incendiary stage performances. Creative A & R man for Chess, Roquel 'Billy' Davis once declared, Sugar Pie could outperform Etta James, with whom The Sugar sang a handful of duets. Having written well over 100 songs, Sugar Pie has a new release on Jasman Records entitled, Sugar's Suite a 4 song EP produced by James Moore, Sr. , with arrangements by three-time Emmy Producer/Arranger Bill Jolly. In addition to the 4 song EP in CD format, The creative design and packaging are skillfully augmented with images from one of Italy's top photographers, Gianni Grandi. Liner notes are by esteemed music journalist, Lee Hildebrand.

Release date March 15: Release date April 15: Release date June 15:

Release date February 21: Release date April 10:

Release date February 7:

Release date January 31:

Release date January 31:

Release date January 31:

At one point he had downloads available on his website. I bought quite a few of them, and thought it was an elegant solution.

Miles more than made up for it by recording Gingerbread Boy.

I am very sad to hear this. RIP to a true giant. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2020/01/19/535609079/jazz-saxophone-legend-jimmy-heath-has-died

Cecil McBee seems like an outlier. Can he cook?

It helped me; I would not have located this music otherwise. Also, it's hard to debate the ethics of this release considering that the original source was Boris Rose recording them off the air. Mingus and his estate never received a dime from either Rose or Solar. Neither has Sonny Rollins received royalties from that Village Gate box (which is also fascinating and essential).

Reading the booklet was an interesting experience. The writing (by Art Masarini) wasn't horrible. The writer seemed to have a command of the English language; perhaps that's a low bar, but he cleared it. He also seemed to be familiar with Mingus's music; again, an unexceptional trait, except that many of these booklets sound like they were written by a bot. But I was struck by how much more a good writer brings: not just facts strung in an intelligible way, but verve, drive...a good writer makes the reading experience interesting. Masarini doesn't have that. But he said some things that did add to my perspective, by showing where the Birdland performances fit into the Mingus timeline. For example, he points out that the first performance here of Ecclusiastics (from October 21, 1961) was before it was recorded for Oh Yeah on November 6, with almost the same band (Booker Ervin replaced Yusef Lateef on the studio date). Another example: the performance here of "Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me" is the only other recording of that tune. Of course, I don't have 100% confidence that what he's reporting is correct, but it sounds plausible. All the discographical data in the booklet can be found at the link https://mingus.onttonen.info/birdland.html; the odds are good that this is the source for the booklet's data. The odds, IMHO, are also good that the easytree reference earlier in this thread is the source for this music. There are some good photos in the booklet, especially the cover shot, but many of the inside photos of the musicians are very generic, and could range from anywhere in their careers. Having said all that, the music is the reason this package, again IMHO, is essential. It's fascinating to hear Mingus's introduction to Ysabel's Table Dance (recorded May 12, 1962): "This piece was recorded on Victor Records seven years ago, but it's been released this June." So he's playing this older tune to promote the newly-released album!

Let's put it this way: I didn't link to it.

I recently bought the Solar 3-CD collection of these recordings. Pure listening pleasure. Fidelity is great, considering the source, and the music is amazing: think of live versions of Oh Yeah, Tijuana Moods, and others of that era. The band is on fire. I consider this music more vital than the stuff recorded on the European tours. https://mingus.onttonen.info/birdland.html

Who were Savoy's big sellers in the '50's - the ones that kept the company afloat? We know that most releases don't make money, but certain artists sell enough to keep the label going. Blue Note had Jimmy Smith and Horace Silver; Prestige had Miles, Red Garland, Coltrane; Riverside had Wes and Bill Evans; who were Savoy's big money makers?

Dusty Groove is now selling this.

Andrew Cyrille seems to come to Houston a lot. Maybe he just has a good relationship with the Nameless Sound people. It's good for us, too.

You're right, that worked! Thanks for the tip.

I can't get the video to play, maybe because I'm not on Instagram.