mjzee

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 17. Perlman DG box, disc 7.

The MAD magazine of the '50's and '60's had a huge influence on many people, including me. The sensibility and also the graphic talent. RIP.

And don't overlook his great run on Atlantic. I count 4 (3 with Jim Hall): Interaction (1963), "Live" At The Half-Note (1963), To Sweden With Love (1964), and Sing Me Softly Of The Blues (1965).

Larry: Any thoughts about Farmer's playing style? To me, he sounds like he floats over the rhythm section. It's not that he plays ahead or behind the beat; it's almost like the beat is irrelevant to him. So his playing has a dreamy quality that somehow packs a punch. Another great one from this time period is Farmer & Jim Hall's "Big Blues" on CTI. Hall has a similar sort of style, and Mike Manieri on vibes is a third great solo voice. I think you mean Yesterday's Thoughts. Yes, all great albums.

Re Katz, page 284: Pianist Dick Katz's tenure with the band was short-lived; after Birdland, Sonny decided to return to the pianoless trio format. "The guys I liked on piano were with other people," Sonny explained at the time. "I'd like to use Bud Powell, for example. But I couldn't seem to find a guy who could contribute. They got in the way. They played too much. Their chords interrupted my train of thought. I ended up getting bugged at all piano players." Playing without a safety net, Sonny said, would force musicians to "listen to each other." Katz shouldn't feel too bad; the book reveals Sonny's impulsiveness regarding supporting musicians (among much else). I was astonished to learn of the personnel history behind A Night At The Village Vanguard. First Rollins hired Roy Haynes, George Joyner, Gil Coggins, and Donald Byrd. Then he fired them all. He hired Donald Bailey (the bassist) and Pete La Roca. They never rehearsed. They did the afternoon set together, which was recorded. After that set, he replaced Bailey and La Roca with Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones. Sonny asked Ware the day before to sit in one one track, and he had him use Bailey's bass to play the entire performance. Jones was walking by the Vanguard, drunk, and was pulled in by Ware. Again, no prior rehearsals.

I saw them around that time. I think I bought the album at the show. The club was in Soho. It might have been Studio Rivbea; I just remember it was on street level.

On page 369, there is a very intriguing mention. This is about the time of Sonny's reemergence and signing with RCA: Friendship or no, Avakian still had to outbid the competition. Nesuhi Ertegun, the vice president in charge of LP records at Atlantic, already had Coltrane; adding Sonny would corner the market on tenor saxophone. To that end, Ertegun arranged to professionally record Sonny at the Jazz Gallery on December 9, 10, and 16, before he was under contract with anyone. When Sonny found out a few months later, he was furious, even though he was certain the tape was "a superlative effort," and he was right. So where are those tapes now?

"Yo Ho! Poor You, Little Me" was a complete, albeit short (33 minutes) album. The 3 original sessions that comprise "The Birdland Story" (Roulette) could be considered orphans, since each took up only one side. The Coltrane side became part of "Like Sonny," the Lee Morgan date was not-so-long-ago released as a stand-alone 10", and the Thad Jones was included in his Mosaic box.

I've made a habit of including at least one "soft spot" in each of my BFTs (in fact, there will be one in my May BFT). Here are some of mine: Amarcord Nino Rota (Hal Willner's first major opus) Ted Curson - The Trio Charles Owens Plays The Music of Harry Warren Lucky Thompson - Tricotism (aka Dancing Sunbeam) Mike LeDonne - Smokin' Out Loud Junior Mance - Here 'Tis The Revolutionary Ensemble - The Psyche Gary Burton with Eberhard Weber - Passengers

I've never before heard of Sherman, TX. Very close to the Oklahoma line. It's about 6 hrs from Houston, but definitely worth investigating.

Here's a great new post by Ricky Riccardi: https://virtualexhibits.louisarmstronghouse.org/2023/04/05/i-always-played-pretty-under-him-the-king-oliver-creole-jazz-band-centennial-celebration/ Of special interest, towards the end of the piece, are new transfers of the nine tracks Louis recorded with King Oliver. They sound pretty good!

Just noticed this on Dusty Groove. Typical sketchy Everest product with no discographical information. Can anyone fill us in? Not much info provided regarding recording dates and personnel, but includes "Autumn In New York", "Another One For Sonny", "Love Is Bustin Out All Over", "Star Eyes", and "The Shadow Of Your Smile".

From what I understand, many of the influential Ska musicians were well-versed in Jazz. You can hear jazz in solos by the Skatalites. See this link for more details: https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/jazz-to-ska-mania/ Specifically: “Most of the musicians who came out of Alpha were largely jazz musicians,” Hussey says, “but they were mostly learning on their own. Hearing recordings and sitting down and assimilating the stuff. Don Drummond was apparently very fond of Bennie Green. Tommy McCook was a great admirer of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. If you listen to some of McCook’s solos you hear Coltrane’s influence. And Johnny ‘Dizzy’ Moore was influenced by Dizzy Gillespie.”

Decca - The Mono Years, disc 7. Also contains:

Perlman DG box, disc 6.

Deutsche Grammophon 111 - The Violin, disc 16.

I listened to this just yesterday. Nice, steady date, though I prefer "In Hot House."

One of my favorites:

It was a Strata East release that Mosaic was selling. This is from the Mosaic newsletter from 3/27/19: NEW FROM STRATA EAST Charles Tolliver All Stars $16.98 This July 1968 session was Charles Tolliver’s first album as a leader. The setting is unique because his all of his subsequent albums on Strata-East featured his quartet Music Inc. Here he is surrounded in quartet and quintet formats with a truly stellar cast of the leading players on the New York jazz scene: Gary Bartz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Joe Chambers. Newly remastered from the original analog tapes.

You are correct. I think many assumed they would sell it forever, until they changed their business model.

If you're curious...: https://web.archive.org/web/20020214225952/http://www.bluenote.com/bulletinboard/ubb-cgi/ultimatebb.cgi

Anecdotal evidence. I worked in a jazz record store in the late '70's - early '80's in lower Manhattan, and I saw what people bought. Straight-ahead jazz, classic jazz, soul jazz, smooth jazz, jazz-rock all sold. Avant-garde really didn't, and this was in lower Manhattan. I remember when the Braxton Arista box came in, the one with four orchestras, and it didn't move; none of the Braxton titles did. We had Sun Ra titles in the original Saturn packaging; didn't move. And then the argument was, well, avant-garde didn't have good distribution behind it. Then PolyGram took over distribution of Black Saint and Soul Note. The Soul Notes sold pretty well; the Black Saint titles didn't. I don't recall that they sold out.

Not sure if by "Young Lions" you're referring to Marsalis, the Concord crowd (Scott Hamilton, etc.), or both, but that "movement" can be seen as an attempt to stop jazz's slide into irrelevance. Other than the "old turks" who were still playing (Dexter, Johnny Griffin, etc.), smooth jazz, and jazz-rock, what was promoted as "real jazz" then was abstract music that appealed to few beyond the loft-jazz crowd and academia. When the next big organic movement occurred in jazz, "acid jazz," publicity was all over it; it's good to publicize what people actually might want to buy. Publicity is always going to be part of music, because it's part of commerce. Just last night, I read the portion of the Sonny Rollins biography about his stint in California and the recording of "Way Out West." Check out this paragraph: At first glance, what would become Way Out West promised an East-meets-West-style showdown, but in reality the difference was more geographic than musical. Koenig and Nesuhi Ertegun, his right-hand man, marketed artists like Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, Barney Kessel, and Shelly Manne as part of the "West Coast" sound. "We invented it for publicity purposes," Koenig said of the term. "The truth is," Sonny said, "East and West Coast musicians all knew each other personally or by reputation, and were friends." It's instructive to note Mosaic's releases of '70's music: Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill. My impression is they sold poorly. After all, after a hard day's work, who wants to curl up on the sofa and chill to some Braxton?

Decca - The Mono Years, disc 6.

I don't think they've done this in years. They now have tracks in the order of the original albums, with strict discography relegated to the liner notes. This would be perfect for a Fresh Sound release.