Nou Dadoun

Some great photos here: http://www.coastaljazz.ca/2010_festival_photos#FFF Sorry I didn't run into you Nate, did some hanging out with Larry and Andy Hamilton too (yes we are incredibly lucky here in Vancouver, got 8 hours of Braxton's Sonic Genome in January too!) ... N

I'm a big fan of South African jazz and I just tripped over the fact that you've chosen one of my favorite recordings as AOTW; I'll weigh in in more detail a bit later but I thought I'd launch in with a few comments that the BoB as recorded on this first Neon release (there was a second) was far from McGregor's first big band and not even his first big band recording. Besides being a gifted instrumentalist at an early age, he was a music student at the University of Capetown and studied harmony and arranging. Later after winning the Cold Castle festival competition with 'The Chris McGregor Group' (some of which has been issued on an oop cd), his prize was the funding of a recording session. He chose to take some of the best players at the festival including Kippie Moketsi, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Chris Columbus and others to form a big band and released "Jazz: The African Sound" on Gallo (issued briefly on CD in the 90's but now oop again). Even later in London, he had a rehearsal band at Ronnie Scott's "old place" which eventually evolved into the BoB but which was around for quite a while before producing that first record on Neon. Anyway, more later .... N ==== Nou Dadoun dadoun at cs.ubc.ca The A-Trane on the air since 1986 | CFRO 102.7 FM, Vancouver BC Fri 2:30-5:30 pm PST | http://www.coopradio.org/stream.html

Just a note to mention that Ray Warleigh (with Henry Lowther, Louis Moholo and the others) were just in Vancouver at the end of June for two performances by the Dedication Orchestra and a number of spinoff gigs - Ray Warleigh played with Hugh Fraser's quintet and Henry Lowther played with one of Brad Turner's groups. Here's the description and listing of associated performances, they were all pretty amazing: http://www.coastaljazz.ca/index.php?page_id=13&artist_id=170 ... N

Just for the record (appropriate enough for a discography forum), the Errol Parker album (1982) doesn't include Nice Work but is recommended as an otherwise well-considered if unusual Monk tribute if you can find it. N. ==== Nou Dadoun 604-734-2828 dadoun at cs.ubc.ca The A-Trane on the air since 1982 | CFRO 102.7 FM, Vancouver BC Fri 2:30-5:30 pm PST | http://www.coopradio.org/stream.html

Might it have been the Tribute to Thelonious Monk by Errol Parker on Sahara? Solo piano and Errol Parker's obscure enough that I don't see any online disco references but I think it came out on LP and cassette. I'll have to check the LP at home but I seem to remember that tune on it; the overall release was notable for me in that there were no Monk compositions on it but Parker seemed to be demonstrating how Monk's sensibility had filtered into all aspects of his piano playing. I'll dig it up tonight ... ------------------------------------------------------------> Nou