Kurt Anderson

I met Francis a few times, at shows and at the home of a friend with whom I've enjoyed weekly jazz listening sessions for the past thirty years. A very nice, reserved man who made the pages sing with his brilliant insights into the music. So many on the Philly scene of the eighties and nineties are gone now. But not forgotten. Never forgotten. Just as a Prez solo can be enjoyed in "real' time seventy years after it was blown, so will Francis Davis' empathy and wisdom be available for all those who desire to know. RIP, brother.

John Lewis, P.O.V. (Columbia) I think his small group records outside the MJQ are undervalued. I can't think of anyone outside of Count Basie who could do so much with so little.

I did well yesterday to pick up the following, all for four bucks apiece and all nice and clean. (The store prices its "auctionable" records accordingly (e.g., Trudy Pitts for 60 bucks), but everything else gets tossed into crates and blown out at $4 -$5 apiece (buy 2 get 1 free)! Here's what $20 will buy🙂: - John Lewis, P.O.V. (Columbia) This was the gem of the day - a Columbia date cut just after MJQ broke up for the first time, built around a core trio of Lewis, Richard Davis on bass and Mel Lewis on drums. Lewis' delicate single note lines swing with assurance, and Davis is just all over his bass. Absolutely captivating, especially with lights out. - David and Larry Koonse, Father & Son Jazz Guitars (Dobre). I'd never seen this one before. Larry Koonse was 17 when this was cut, a quartet with father and son trading leads on five long tracks, anchored by Putter Smith and John Tirabasso. A relaxed, swinging and well-recorded session. - The Trio (Milt Hinton, Bob Rosengarden/ Hank Jones (Chiaroscuro). Given the up-front prominence and swing of Milt Hinton's bass, I'll assign him the leadership role on this 1977 date, but the group was brought to Hank O'Neal's attention by Rosengarden, who raved that it was working a gig in Florida and had developed a ferocious groove. - Cornell Dupree, Shadow Dancing (Versatile). This a CTI-style date, with arrangements that strike me as unsubtle and dated. But the sound of the record is great and Dupree plays some mean, unadorned guitar. - Al Cohn and his Orchestra, That Old Feeling. This is one of Cohn's series of fifties LPs for RCA, with full arrangements, including strings, by Ralph Burns, Manny Albam, Ernie Wilkins and Cohn himself. Soloists are by Cohn, and Joe Newman on trumpet. - Norman Granz' Jazz At The Philharmonic, Hartford, 1953. This is a Pablo issue of previously unheard JATP fun from long ago. Three tracks feature Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson trio. I love fifties Lester, his sound a big less ephemeral, a bit more earthy, than in his late thirties heyday. - Humphrey Lyttleton and His Band, Humph In Perspective (Parlophone). This is one of Lyttleton's best bands, recorded in 1958 by Denis Preston, comprising an octet with a front line of Lyttleton on trumpet, Johnny Picard on trombone Jimmy Skidmore and Tony Coe on tenor, and Joe Temperly on baritone. With that lineup, it's hard not to hear a Benny Carter-like sound. This was a transition record for Lyttleton; he was moving away from trad and towards the swing/jump band sound but hadn't yet recruited Bruce Turner. So the repertoire included both modern jazz and pre-bop material like Out of the Gallion, arranged for the octet. Very cool stuff. Looks interesting. Another drummer who's got the Messengers vibe down cold is Aleksi Heinola, who I believe has a couple of LPs on Jazzaggression.

His records are great, lean and swinging. He'd have been right at home at Natalie's in West Philly some 30 years ago.

I didn't get into the trad stuff until years after I'd discovered the Art Blakeys and Lee Morgans. A lot of general jazz histories give short shrift to the jazz that remained in NOLA after Armstrong had gone north. James Collier's history is an exception that addresses the forties New Orleans revival in good detail. I'm not sure a proper history of the absorption of this pure New Orleans sound by Europeans players has ever been written. The best trad bands have little in common with New York variants like the Condon mob, which I think are closer to swing with stings of solos. Barry Martyn, who I believe is still with us, remains true to the contrapuntal sound anchored by a steady banjo and NOLA-style drumming. Like a steam locomotive rolling down the track, just as Jerry sang. Look for examples of Barry Martyn's New Orleans Ragtime Band on Doug Dobell's 77 label and, if you get lucky, any of Martyn's records on his own Dixie and Rhythm imprints. Cuff Billet on trumpet is some of these records. I'll recommend two: Down in Honky Tonk Town, 77 LEU 12/4 with Graham Patterson on piano, Cuff Billett on trumpet, Pete Dyer on trombone, the great Bill Greenow on clarinet, John Coles on piano, Terry Knight on bass and Barry Martyn on drums Kid Martyn New Orleans Ragtime Band, GHB-9, with the same lineup There are many worthy others, some with New Orleans musicians like Emmanual Paul and Sheik Cola.

A simpler way is to count the number of records beginning with "B" or "H" and multiplying the result by 26. Words beginning with "B" or "H" each constitute about 1/26 (3.84%) of the total amount of English words. (H = 3.75% and B = 3.86) The beginning letters of proper names are not distributed the same as the beginning letters of English words generally, but I like this crude and simple method.

I'm from Pennsylvania, just outside of Philly. The history of New Orleans traditional jazz and its several revivals both in the Crescent City and other places such as San Francisco, the U.S. midwest and northeast, and the UK and Belgium, is fascinating to me. Contrapuntal New Orleans jazz was always rooted in dance music, and the British "trad boom" vindicates, to me, this original intent, especially as played by folks like Ken Colyer, Sammy Rimington, Cuff Billet and Barry Martyn

Why thank you sir!🙂

Jeter Thompson is a fine piano player in the Ramsey Lewis/ Ray Bryant tradition, but the signature sound of the QTB was the amazing congas of percussionist Percy James. They also tended to feature one or more original African themed tracks on their records, such as Kilimanjaro and Blues for the Congo. The QTB got their start in the Gaslight Square clubs in St. Louis in the early to mid sixties, and were likely the most modern group on that scene. Their first two records were issued on the small Norman label in St. Louis, which, after Decca signed the band, were quickly reissued with different covers as their national debut. Six or so other Decca records followed, of which the one that's eluded me all these years is Stepping Out. Interestingly, at least four of the Decca releases were produced by Milt Gabler of Commodore Record Store fame.

There's a multi-volume series spotlighting rare Berry solos with various leaders entitled "Dentistry in Rhythm - Filling Chu Gaps".

Some recent crate-digging yielded a British trad record I'd never heard of before - LIve at Woodcray by Graeme Hewitt's High Society Jazz Band, recorded in 1983. Graeme Hewitt is a talented clarinetist, most definitely influenced by Acker Bilk, and his band has that rock steady throb of the best New Orleans traditional jazz, which for a hot minute in the late fifties/early sixties in Great Britain became dance music for teenagers before being supplanted by the Beatles, the Stones and other British bands influenced by American blues. The best British trad is the kind that adheres to the traditional (pre-Satchmo) New Orleans style (e.g., George Lewis). This record scratches that itch, and a bit of YouTube research revealed the happy news that, 40 years later, Mr. Hewitt is still leading his band and playing with even more authenticity that on this 1983 record. (My apologies - I'm new here and can't figure out how to attach a photo)

I blame it all on Eric Dolphy in Berlin (Inner City). I had been collecting rock records since I was a teenager when, as a freshly minted college grad, I ran across that Eric Dolphy record in a $1.99 bargain bin. Within months I'd sold or traded most of my rock records to finance my decades-long exploration of jazz. I'm now 67, and just as thrilled to eavesdrop on the process of creation as I ever was. I likely now have well over 5,000 jazz records, and while the pace of acquisition has slowed, I still get that same kick out of discovering new sessions and new voices.

Chick Corea's The Sun, maybe the most intense set Corea ever recorded, featuring a blazing Steve Grossman. I was pleased to acquire this in a trade yesterday for records by Bill Frisell and Fred Leeflang.