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James Clay


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Fresh Sound Records has just release a digipack of James clay from 56 including a live track!

Buy it!!!

I still have my vinyl of TENORMAN on Jazz west which i bought in 1960...NM!...I'm told it's worth 2000k...I ain't selling!!!!

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Guest youmustbe

His Riverside lp sucks!!! I bought it when it came out. I remember seeing the ad in Down Beat and waiting eagerly for the store to get it...And my dissapointment....When it was released as cd I bought it just to see if I had been wrong...nope!

The one with Fathead I bought when it came out, he plays like just an ordinary sax player.

I don't know whether he was a junkie, or playing with Ornette changed his sound or what, or more likely he just wasn't as talented as Tenorman would suggest.

He was a one hit wonder....I heard him live at the Vanguard with Cherry....he sucked.....not every jazz musicians is a genius over his lifetime.....

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He was a one hit wonder....I heard him live at the Vanguard with Cherry....he sucked.....not every jazz musicians is a genius over his lifetime.....

I heard him in any number of local joints over the course of 20 or so years, and I tell you that he could be erratic. But often enough, one end of the erratic spectrum would be sheer brilliance.

Records & New York are true as far as they go, but they don't go everywhere,,,

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I think the last I saw him was the live performance for the Return to the Wide Open Spaces recording. He's not that well recorded on the released recording, but live it was pretty exciting with a David Newman, James Clay, Leroy Hog Cooper saxophone section, as well as Cornell Dupree on Guitar and Elis Marsalis on piano.

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I know for many years, James worked in a record distribution warehouse in Dallas. I knew a guy who worked there with him for years. James said jazz didn't pay the bills and he had children to put through college. I'm glad he did make sort of a comeback after all those years of heavy lifting. What a shame he couldn't have been more active during his career. I'm a huge fan of Tenorman. Would to have loved to seen him live like Jim did. To have seen James Clay and Marchel Ivery together in Dallas on a good night back then....THAT would have been a night!

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Fresh Sound is releasing this James Clay disc:

clay_james~_tenormanj_101b.jpg

Dustygroove's comment on the release:

Some key recordings by Texas tenorman James Clay -- all sides he made upon first hitting the LA scene of the mid 50s -- served up here as one core album, plus great bonus tracks! 8 of the 14 titles on the CD are from the rare Jazz West session Tenorman -- a date recorded under the leadership of drummer Lawrence Marable in 1956! The group was an LA one, but it featured members from other parts of the country -- drummer Lawrence Marable, bassist Jimmy Bond, pianist Sonny Clark, and Texas tenorman James Clay, whose rich tone and soulful inventiveness dominate the session. The whole thing's got a wonderfully laidback groove -- like some of the best Sonny Criss work on Imperial -- and apart from a brief CD reissue in the 80s, the material's always been quite tough to find. Titles include "Airtight", "Easy Living", "Minor Meeting", "Marbles", and "Three Fingers North". The bonus tracks here are all from the same stretch -- and really help expand out the same sound. One title features Clay working with Bobby Timmons on piano, Jimmy Bond on bass, and Peter Littman on drums, on "In A Sentimental Mood"; one more features Clay with a quartet that features Lorraine Geller on piano, playing "It's Alright With Me" on the Stars Of Jazz TV Show; and the last 4 numbers feature Clay and Geller with Red Mitchell on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, working in the studio on "Scrapple From The Apple", "Out Of The Blue", "Sandu", and "Cheek To Cheek".

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I've got the Fresh Sound LP release of "Tenorman". The other material looks a bit bitty. Anyone heard it?

MG

Don't have Tenorman but these

last 4 numbers feature Clay and Geller with Red Mitchell on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, working in the studio on "Scrapple From The Apple", "Out Of The Blue", "Sandu", and "Cheek To Cheek".

can be found on the OJC release Presenting Red Mitchell

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I've got the Fresh Sound LP release of "Tenorman". The other material looks a bit bitty. Anyone heard it?

MG

Don't have Tenorman but these

last 4 numbers feature Clay and Geller with Red Mitchell on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, working in the studio on "Scrapple From The Apple", "Out Of The Blue", "Sandu", and "Cheek To Cheek".

can be found on the OJC release Presenting Red Mitchell

Aha! Thanks!

MG

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Thanks to this thread i purchased his riverside cd and Love It!.....Thanks!

Which one? There were two, and both were reissued on Original Jazz Classics:

The Sound of the Wide Open Spaces - Original Jazz Classics 257 (with David "Fathead" Newman)

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and

A Double Dose of Soul - Original Jazz Classics 1790

f77305z4y3t.jpg

Edited by J.A.W.
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