BFrank

Hey....don't mess with "my" Doors!! BTW, did anyone catch this tidbit in the obits?? "Sugerman is survived by his wife, Fawn Hall, who testified against her former boss Oliver North in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, ... " - Who knew??

Here in SF?? I don't recall seeing his name in the papers or on any local gigs. Interesting. Before Mark-Almond, he was with John Mayall (& Jon Mark) when they recorded the classic "Turning Point" album. He was one of those "cross-over" musicians who got me interested in jazz back in the early 70's.

Cool! I'll pick up a SF Weekly (or 2, or 3 or ...) this weekend. Thanks for the heads up, BeBop.

Holy semolians! Eddie Lockjaw Davis & Shirley Scott "Smokin' ", is one SMOKIN' set!! Thanks for the heads up on THAT one! B-)

Then again, NO ONE has "faces" like these!

Jeff Beck could do some pretty serious "face", too!

I have a CD of that Louis Hayes Sextet called "The Crawl" from 1989. Also includes Gary Bartz, Mickey Tucker and Clint Houston. It's a good - surprisingly not great - album recorded at "new Birdland" 10/14/89.

Did Hank Jones record anything in the 30's?

B-)

Jazz Standard THU - SUN FEBRUARY 17 - 20 Charles Tolliver Big Band Charles Tolliver - trumpet James Spaulding - alto sax Billy Harper - tenor sax Craig Handy - alto & tenor sax Bill Saxton - tenor sax Howard Johnson - baritone sax Winston Byrd - trumpet David Weiss - trumpet Keyon Harrold - trumpet Jason Jackson - trombone Barry Cooper - trombone Aaron Johnson - trombone Xavier Davis - piano Cecil McBee - bass Ralph Peterson - drums Trumpeter Charles Tolliver was a youthful star soloist with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra even before he joined Max Roach's band in 1967. Tolliver appeared on important recordings by Jackie McLean (Action, Blue Note), Booker Ervin (Structurally Sound, Pacific Jazz), and Andrew Hill (Dance With Death, Blue Note); in 1971, he and pianist Stanley Cowell co-founded the innovative Strata-East record label. "Charles Tolliver's horn style," declared Down Beat, "is possessed of a melodic warmth and compactness of expression shared by few other trumpeters." +++ I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw this! We're planning a trip to NYC that same week to see the Christo Gates (among other things). THIS is more exciting to me than the gates. I've been wanting to see CT for (literally) decades. I may have to go to more than one show. B-) ... and look at that sax lineup! ... and Cecil McBee! ... and Ralph Peterson! ... and ... Anyone else planning to see this??

I'll check it out, too. Just recently discovered these guys myself. I got "Rubber Factory" - it ROCKS.

One more.....I'm putting Jack McDuff w/Gene Ammons - "Brother Jack Meets the Boss" in my 'save for later' file. ... and this one, too.

OK, I'm gonna start with Eddie Lockjaw Davis & Shirley Scott "Smokin' ". From the clips I heard......it WAS!

Well, I guess I've gotten a little off-topic from the 10 BEST list. And, yes (er, no) I don't have any BFW or SS albums. Baby Face is a little difficult to find, isn't he? But I'll make sure to d/l some Shirley Scott from eMusic soon. I promise.

Please... Herbie ain't no organ player!! Sure, he plays piano like the proverbial mofo, but organ... shit, next you're going to nominate Oscar Peterson because he played organ on a couple cuts of that Pablo record (Jousts). Lookit Man with the Golden Arm, trying to get all obscure on me. You got this? Hell, YEAH! Of COURSE I got that! What do you think I am, chopped liver? [Disclaimer: yeah, right....fat chance I got THAT one] I just meant Herbie's performance on that particular session. Unique......but not at all 'greeeeezy', that's for sure. OK, we'll forget that one. What about Pullen, huh? No comment?

A couple more to consider: - Herbie on the "Jack Johnson" sessions - Don Pullen on David Murray's two "Shakill's" albums

Well, thanks for THOSE props, anyway! B-) Hey........I also saw a B-3 Organ Summit 5 or 6 years back with BOTH Charles Earland and John Patton. Does that count?

Charlie Earland - "Mama Roots"

Arthur Brown is still around, as far as I know. He's produced quite a few mediocre albums over the years, though. OTOH, "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" is in my top 10-20 rock albums of all time. But back to "the list". I'm in big trouble, too. All I have: Harold Vick - "Steppin' Out" John Patton "Understanding" (Mosaic Select box) Larry Young "Unity" (Mosaic box & vinyl) But......I have a ton of other stuff: CD John Patton - "Memphis to NY Spirit", "Boogaloo", "Accent on the Blues", "Let 'Em Roll" and "Blue John" Freddie Roach - "Good Move" Booker T & the MGs - Stax best of ... Jeff Palmer - "Island Universe" Lonnie Smith - "Purple Haze", "Foxy Lady" Vinyl Earland - "Mama Roots", "Infant Eyes" Larry Young - "Into Something" Richard Groove Holmes & Ernie Watts - "Come Together" Pretty much all of the Traffic, Doors and The Nice albums, too. MP3s from eMusic Earland - "In Concert", "Intensity" Don Patterson - "Boppin' and Burnin' " Larry Goldings - "As One", "Moonbird", "Sweet Science" Bill Heid - "Bop Rascal", "da Girl" Mel Rhyne - "Organizing", "Remembering Wes" (also most of those early Wes albums. Where are THOSE on the list?) Richard Groove Holmes - "On Basie's Bandstand" Booker T - all the Fantasy/Stax stuff ** I am not seeing Booker T mentioned anywhere, folks. ** Where's Santana in all of this? Gregg Rolie was pretty smokin' with the early lineup, too.

Speaking of "greaze", nice article in today's SF Chronicle +++ HAMMOND HEAVEN - Andrew Gilbert Sunday, January 2, 2005 Getting one Hammond B3 organ to a gig would seem to be hard enough. But B3 practitioners, particularly in the genre of jazz, like nothing better than setting up two of the unwieldy instruments -- which weigh nearly a quarter ton -- to lay down some simultaneous grooves. According to Pete Fallico, the West Coast's primary B3 enabler, the reason that organ players stick together is an old-school imperative. While aspiring guitarists, pianists and saxophonists can study with any number of top-shelf musicians at a college or conservatory, "with jazz organ, it's pretty much the university of the streets," says the San Jose-based disc jockey, who proselytizes for the B3 on his Monday night show "The Doodlin' Lounge," broadcast on the Santa Cruz public radio station KUSP (88.9-FM). "What develops is a mentorship. Older players take younger cats under their wing, show them the stops, the licks, the techniques and registrations. You have a kinship going on that's different than studying piano." Evidence for Fallico's theory can be found at the Boom Boom Room on Jan. 14-15, when Dr. Lonnie Smith, a Hammond veteran widely considered the most exciting jazz organist on the planet, holds forth with Wil Blades, the Bay Area's 24-year-old B3 upstart. In a relationship facilitated by Fallico, Blades has regularly sought out the Queens-based Smith for information, a relationship that led to their first two-organ summit last spring at the Boom Boom Room. For this gig, they'll be joined by saxophonist Joe Cohen, drummer Deszon X. Claiborne, and guitarist Will Bernard, with whom Blades performs regularly around the region in a hard-driving trio powered by drummer Scott Amendola. It's no coincidence that Blades and Smith are hooking up at the Boom Boom Room, which keeps a Hammond on stage no matter who's on the bill. The venue has been the Bay Area's B3 headquarters for decades, since R&B organ grease- meister Jackie Ivory had a regular gig there in the mid-'70s, when the Fillmore joint was known as Jack's. In recent years, club owner Alex Andreas has continued to showcase the B3, often pairing Blades with players who made their mark during the instrument's golden age, such as drummer Idris Muhammad and guitarist Melvin Sparks. For Blades, the challenge of playing with Smith has been a powerful creative spur. "He's been a major influence on my organ playing," says Blades, who grew up in Chicago and moved to the Bay Area in 1998. "The great thing about him is he's so versatile. When he's funky, he's really funky. When he's swinging, he's swinging his tail off. When he plays the blues, he's deep into it." Smith, who was awarded his honorific by his peers and usually performs adorned with a turban, has often been mistaken for pianist/keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith. Raised in Buffalo, he came up during the B3's glory years in the early 1960s and first gained widespread notice as a member of guitarist George Benson's classic quartet. He also played a key role on several recordings by altoist Lou Donaldson, most importantly the hit 1967 Blue Note album "Alligator Bogaloo." Heard on countless jukeboxes, the title track helped popularize the boogaloo sound, a groove that re-emerged in the 1990s as a favored rhythm of numerous acid jazz bands. Smith recorded a series of adventurous albums on his own for Blue Note in the 1960s, often featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, and went on to considerable acclaim for turning unlikely material into rewarding jazz vehicles, such as his two CDs exploring the music of Jimi Hendrix. More recently he released "Boogaloo to Beck" (Scufflin' Records), an album featuring instrumental interpretations of songs by the stylistically omnivorous, single-monikered singer/songwriter. Always ready to share knowledge with dedicated young players, Smith has embraced his role as B3 elder statesman, encouraging promising musicians like Blades to keep at it. "I definitely see Wil developing himself more and more," says Smith, 61. "He's gonna get much better, believe it or not. He has a love for the instrument, and that comes out in his playing. He also listens to the old- timers. There are a quite a few other young guys coming up: Tony Monaco, Pat Bianchi, Sam Yahel, Larry Goldings. There's plenty of room." In a veritable Bay Area Hammond convergence, Yahel finishes out a week- long run at Yoshi's tonight with Joshua Redman's Elastic Band; and Larry Goldings, a brilliant player who helped spark the B3 resurgence in the mid- '80s after a decadelong organ drought, plays the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz on Jan. 10 with his superlative trio featuring guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated organ event this month is the return of Paris-based B3 great Rhoda Scott, who holds forth at Jazz at Pearl's on Jan. 11-12. Scott made her Bay Area debut back in 2000 at Bimbo's in one of the many B3 showcases engineered by Fallico for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. A resident of France since the mid-1960s, the Newark-raised Scott isn't well known in the United States, but she's a remarkable musician whose distinctive style flows from the surging bass lines produced by her left foot pedal action, coupled with beefy left-hand chords and lithe right-hand solos. In another case of organists sticking together, Lonnie Smith is planning on dropping by Pearl's to sit in with Scott, an old friend from the East Coast, on a second organ suppled by Fallico. The days when every urban nightspot kept a Hammond on hand are long gone, but Fallico is doing everything in his power to keep the instrument in the spotlight. He notes that Jimmy Smith, the legendary organist who popularized the B3 in the mid 1950s with his sensational linear solo style, is being presented with a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conference this week in Long Beach, making him the first pure organist so honored. "There's no other instrument that can generate crowd excitement like the Hammond," Fallico says of the B3. "You have all four limbs working. Your left foot tapping bass pedals and your left hand driving the bass lines. Your right foot is controlling the dynamics, and you can build incredible crescendos while you're soloing with your right hand. You cannot beat that sound."

Interesting choice. An album that is usually underrated. Although I haven't listened to it in a LONG time, I remember thinking it was better than most people gave it credit for. I'll have to give it a spin again sometime soon. (I've only got the vinyl)

"The Newport Years - Vol. V: Dizzy Gillespie" This big band date from 7/6/1957 is Smokin' ! Band includes: Lee Morgan, Melba Liston, Al Gray, Ernie Henry, Billy Mitchell, Bennie Golson, Wynton Kelly, Charles Persip......among OTHERS.

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From today's SF Chronicle "Letters to Datebook": Editor -- Joel Selvin's delightful and thoughtful reminiscence did a wonderful job of re-creating some of the many special qualities of Ralph J. Gleason, and of recalling the creative ferment of the Bay Area music world in the decades after World War II. To so many of us who were involved in creating and/or appreciating in those days, Ralph's rare combination of knowledge, literacy and intelligent enthusiasm was of tremendous value. I had produced jazz records in San Francisco on several occasions since 1959, but I first became a resident late in 1972, when I was invited to run the rapidly expanding Fantasy Records jazz program. Thus I was briefly fortunate enough to be at that company at the same time as Gleason. I can quickly think of several reasons for considering this to be my good fortune. To begin with, when I arrived at the office for my first morning, I thought my sports jacket was properly casual California record-company attire, but I quickly realized that Ralph and I were the most formal men in the building. By the next day, Gleason was back to his unique status as the one and only Fantasy jacket wearer. Second, I had taken the job on very little notice, and the rest of my family was still in New York. But in a warm human gesture that I intend never to forget, Ralph and Jean Gleason insisted that I have Thanksgiving dinner in Berkeley as part of their family in that very friendly sprawling house on Spruce Street. Third, I quickly developed a pattern of beginning each working day by stopping at Ralph's office for what I described as my daily Ellington fix -- he had an anecdote or recollection or comment for me about Duke or one of his many great musicians, and I swear he never repeated a story. Less than two years later, Gleason was a major mother-hen throughout my recovery from a heart attack, scolding me for indiscretions like taking the stairs two at a time ("Slow down; you're not in New York anymore"). Then, without warning (other than the fact that he was a diabetic who stubbornly insisted on living in the late-night world of jazz and folk and rock people), he had his own heart attack and was gone. The jazz world in which I have spent most of my time is known for early deaths, so over a working life of more than 50 years I turn out to have outlasted a great many friends and colleagues. But few if any of them remain so vividly in mind, and perhaps none possessed the enviable quality of somehow being mentor and scholar and -- far from least -- fervent fan, all at the same time. And he was one of the most readable entertainment columnists I have ever encountered. Thanks for all that, Ralph, and much gratitude to Joel Selvin for reminding a great many people in this city of how rewarding it was to read and/or know Ralph Gleason. - ORRIN KEEPNEWS San Francisco

Classic: Don Pullen