sidewinder

Horace Silver Quintet 'Finger Poppin' With The..' (BN 47W63rd DG). Incredible sound on this ! Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers 'At The Jazz Corner of the World' (BN 47W63rd DG) Grachan Moncur III 'Some Other Stuff' (BN NY USA stereo)

By some incredibly strange (and fortuitous) quirk I didn't have any of the Charles Tolliver Strata East albums so this Select is all new to me. Great stuff - and the material on disk 3 is well up to standard. I see that Charles Tolliver has co-produced this set, along with Mosaic. In fact just listening to disk 3 and I would say that it 'smokes'.

Yes, it's strange that these are on LP only. Maybe that was a condition of the licensing deal - or Art Yard are vinyl freaks? In any event, I'll bet that this 'Disco 3000' sounds better than the original (if you can find one, that is).

For these Art Yard LPs. They seem to be legit releases, with the backing of the Arkestra and the Ra estate. Nice heavy vinyl, good sleeve art and sleeve notes. 'Disco 3000' and 'Media Dreams' are also in the first batch. Must get hold of the 'On Jupiter'. 'Disco 3000' currently on deck. Ra, Gilmore, Michael Ra and Luqman Ali in live performance in Italy, 1978. Ra heavily featured on the super-spacey Crumar Mainman.

Yes, there's mention of the big improvement in sound quality compared with original vinyl in a recent Jazz Journal International, which has a good review by Steve Voce of this set.

Charles Tolliver disk #1. Like it lots ! After this it will be the Kid Ory set.

The 'Jacknife' is a paper bag, the 'Hipnosis' is glossy. There's also a Jazz Crusaders 'Live Sides' glossy. Have you seen those French 'paper bag' single LPs, Brownie? I have a couple of them - there's a Warne Marsh within that batch, I think.

Wow ! I was up on row 3 right in front of Gerald - even up at the front there were a significant number of spaces which were free. Criminal, really.. The guitarist was Phil Robson - I thought he soloed really well but when not soloing he sat down/retreated to the back so I missed the possible bored expression. I think the band did really well, considering the limited rehearsal time and demanding charts. Better than I could have expected, actually. 'Viva Tirado' could have done with a bit more US 'swagger'. Yes, the CD sound is a bit on the 'thin' side after the live show but I think it's a good one. Those orchestrations have to be heard live to be really fully appreciated. Who knows if and when Gerald will be back over here? I truly hope so - apparently I hear his itinery through 2006 is looking pretty full.

A fine show by Gerald Wilson with the BBC Radio Big Band last night at the QEH. Gerald was in great form and he succeeded in getting his trademark sound from the BBC BB with what must have been just a couple of days of rehearsal. The first half featured many of the greatest hits. 'Carlos', 'Jeri', 'Teri' and 'Milestones'. The BBC Radio Big Band rose to the event superbly - particular mention to veteran Vic Ash featured on tenor, Gerard Presencer (mainly on flugel) and some stratospheric high-note work by trumpeter Bruce Adams on 'Carlos'. A particular high point was the extract from 'Theme For Monterey', with its wonderful orchestration. One impression made on me was that - superb though this music is when listened to on the Mosaic set etc. - its only when heard live that you get the full impact of the multi-harmonies, interplay of the sections and truly intricate section dynamics that permeate all of Gerald's orchestral work. In the second half Gerald spotlited his excellent new commision in 3 parts - 'The Diminished Triangle', a rendition of 'Viva Tirado' (with nice reminiscences from Gerald about El Chicano making it a 'hit' - apparently they will be doing a show together in LA as a sort of 'tribute' to this number) and an excellent 'Blues for Yna Yna'. There were a few slight memory lapses towards the end but for an 86 year old his enthusiasm for the music and the band under his direction were truly amazing ! To top it all his wife Josefine and daughter Jeri were also in the audience and introduced from the stage (sounds like they are all off to Baker Street today to buy Gerald a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker to go with his Shelock cape ). The only shame I thought was that the hall was only about 50%-ish full - not easy I guess to sell-out the QEH mid-week but how many more times will Gerald appear over here? As far as I am aware, I think this must have been his first ever UK big band engagement directing his own music.

I have the Fresh Sound reissue LP. Nice session, will dig it out later.

Harold 'Shorty' Baker Jim Bakker Tammy Faye Bakker

Gerald Wilson Orchestra 'Moment of Truth' (Pacific Jazz DG original) Sun Ra 'Disco 3000' (Art Yard)

Not at HMV London though, where I observed today that the Eldridge Mosaic was £99.99 and the Carmell Jones Select £59.99.. The Teutonic deals brokered by Alfred are better..

Indeed !

That includes the Gerald Wilson, which I've just got back from. More thoughts on that one when I've woken up later today... I'm nackered !

Jimmy Deuchar 'Pub Crawling' (Contemporary mono). US reissue of a great Tempo session.

Well, so far I have to say that there is no one track that I dislike ! Nice selection, Tjobbe.

I swear by young female stylists..

There's brief mention of a visit by Harriott to the Paris Jazz Fair in June 1954 in the recent Harriott biography, 'Fire In His Soul'. He played the Salle Pleyel as part of Tony Kinsey's group. There were attempts to book Harriott at a couple of the clubs in an exchange for Martial Solal but I believe they failed. There's no details of any recordings made - Harriott's next confirmed recording session was for Esquire in Dec 1954. Interestingly, there's mention that Joe was pretty terrified in the aircraft during the short, bumpy flight over to France - he hated flying.

Ian Carr 'EmCee 5 Bebop 61' (Birdland Records) - Early recordings by Mr Carr in a hard-bop 'vein'

Received the disks - thanks, Tjobbe. Scratching my head like fury over this selection ! I think I recognise 1 of them.

I always thought of 'Beaujolais Nouveau' as a marketing gimmick to entice millions of gullible Brits rush up to the wine store once a year to spend way too much on inferior wine that the French won't drink themselves. Has the stuff improved?

Sad news - always really enjoyed his work with Silver. Hope he now rests in peace.

I think the 'Tal Concert Band' is also on there. Other posters report even more savings at Amazon.de for these sets. I can recommend JPC - the 3 sets arrived AOK within the week. Have been listening to the Basie all week and it ROCKS !

Otis Spann Les Spann Muggsy Spanier