BillF

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet,What Is There To Say? (Philips) With Art Farmer, Bill Crow and Dave Bailey in 1958-59.

This is turning out to be interesting, and sometimes entertaining, reading. This anecdote appeals to me: Dave Brubeck's sons, Darius (aged 11) and Michael (10), accompanied him on a 1958 tour that included Poland and Germany. In Stettin a promoter decided to take advantage of the musical family and sent the boys onstage to play, although they had never performed publicly with their father. With Michael on drums, Darius on piano began to improvise right away, until Brubeck whispered, "Play the melody, stupid!" The next day, a German newspaper carried the headline:"Spiel die Melodie, Dummkopf!"

The Gerry Mulligan Songbook Vol 1 Featuring Gerry Mulligan and the Sax Section (World Pacific, Japanese re-issue) With Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Lee Konitz, Allen Eager, Freddie Green, Henry Grimes and Dave Bailey in 1957. Wonderful session - not surprising when you see who's on it!

I'm afraid the answer lies in the origins of slave owners and the naming of emancipated slaves. I went to a Max Roach gig in the late sixties when he harangued the English audience, making just this point about the English surnames of his musicians (Tolliver, Pope, Cowell and Merritt).

A few years ago there was an item on Welsh television about why so many black American jazz musicians have Welsh surnames.

Happy St. David's Day!

I like Sonny Buxton's show on KCSM which I listen to online on Saturdays from 6-10 p.m. UK time.

I've heard this album, but so long ago I remember little else other than I liked it. "No Problem" is quite a striking line and made a memorable film theme for Liaisons dangereuses" ,which I saw in Paris in 1960! IIRC the soundtrack also inclued "Pannonica" from Monk's Brilliant Corners album.

Here are some that should have been, but probably weren't: Sonny Clark, Leapin' and Lopin' "Leap Frog" from Bird and Diz Any version of "Lester Leaps In"

Victor Feldman also played drums with the Woody Herman Orchestra! Sat in with Glenn Miller's AAF when he was only 10, too, didn't he, Bill? I think I've seen a photo of him with Miller somewhere. Indeed, he did!

Victor Feldman also played drums with the Woody Herman Orchestra!

(As I started this thread, I guess I'm entitled to come back for a second round.) Free Trade Hall, Manchester, April 1961. Double bill consisting of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the Thelonious Monk Quartet. First up were the Messengers with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. The combination of the Free Trade Hall's notorious acoustics (mercifully, they've now converted it to a hotel!) and Blakey's thunderous drumming meant that the soloists weren't at all well heard, but I and my youthful jazz-loving friends weren't concerned; we were just blown away by the presence of these musicians at the cutting edge of the music! I remember them playing Shorter's "The Chess Players", an attractive composition with a stop/start feel which they'd recorded shortly before on the Blue Note album The Big Beat. We took our seats for the second half and for several long minutes nothing happened! Then an awkward-looking John Ore came out on stage and proceeded to take a lengthy bass solo! Eventually he finished and stood there, looking even more uncomfortable. At this moment Monk, Charlie Rouse and Frankie Dunlop walked out onto the stage to huge applause, Monk resplendent in flat cap and expensive-looking suit. The instant they started playing, the propulsive swing of Frankie Dunlop's uniquely bouncy, explosive drumming was apparent. At one point, as Rouse settled into his solo, Monk rose from the piano and moved around the stage, lighting up a cigarette as he did so. As Rouse neared the end of his final chorus, Monk strode swiftly to the edge of the stage and handed the cigarette to an amazed-looking fan who carefully extinguished it and put it away as a memento. Ah, those were the days!

I think we had an aftershock here at 2 a.m. (Yet to be confirmed by the media.)

Never seen that before. Tremendous clip! Thanks!

A few years ago, a Mancunian who'd been living in L.A. invited me to borrow whatever I wanted from his jazz CD collection. I took a dozen or so, but noticed that many of the cases were deeply scarred and gouged and commented on this. "Oh," he said, "that was the earthquake. It threw everything on the floor." Bizarre, I thought, most unBritish! But now it's happening here - on a lesser scale, of course, but with unprecedented frequency. (Manchester had two weeks of minor seismic events in 2002.)

Oliver Nelson, disc 1.

That looks interesting. I was wondering about this a few months ago. MG Yes, ghost of miles did a radio show on this which you can find at http://nightlights.blogs.wfiu.org/2005/04/...o-the-cold-war/

Penny M. Von Eschen, Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War. The story of the State Department-sponsored jazz tours with social and political analysis.

Actually, he's left the UK and is now a resident of Florence, Italy. I'm sure he, for one, would be offended to be referred to as "Zoot Sims lite" and I find it mildly annoying, too. But, if that's all you hear............. You're quite right. I mustn't fall into the habits of the jazz critic who called Lanny Morgan "Art without the pepper". Inexcusable!

Eddie Lockjaw Davis Big Band, Trane Whistle (Prestige) featuring Oliver Nelson arrangements.

Oliver Nelson, More Blues and the Abstract Truth (Jasmine/Impulse) Great album recorded 1964, featuring Thad Jones, Phil Woods, Ben Webster, Pepper Adams, Roger Kellaway, Richard Davis and Grady Tate.

The Oliver Nelson Orchestra, Afro/American Sketches (Prestige)

Philly Joe Jones Sextet, Blues for Dracula (Riverside)

Scott Hamilton, now resident in the U.K., has made a record with Britain's own Alan Barnes on baritone called Zootcase, a title which, to my ears, reflects Scott's primary resemblance nowadays. There's often talk of a Ben Webster influence, but I haven't noticed this at all on the occasions I've heard Scott live in the last four years or so. I assume this label got attached in the seventies and that his style has now changed. Hope no one will be offended if I describe him nowadays as "Zoot Sims lite"!