Mark Stryker

Two reasons I think: 1) Scarcity. It was released in 1971 in a relatively modest number and never repressed or reissued in America on vinyl. There appears to be Japanese vinyl reissue of it somewhere along the way. The only domestic CD version came out in 1999. 2) It's typically grouped in with the black "spiritual jazz" of its era and those records, for whatever reason, are intensely collected these days by folks both in America and overseas.

New to me. Thirty-five minutes of remarkable footage of the Cecil Taylor Unit with Jimmy Lyons, Sam Rivers, and Andrew Cyrille.

That time Keith Jarrett was on "Saturday Night Live." April 15, 1978. Two performances at 18:35 and 48:50. Also on this episode, Howard Johnson, who played baritone sax in the SNL band in that era, gets a showcase for his tuba band, Gravity, near the close! Also amusing to see Jarrett kibitzing with the cast at the end, particularly Gilda, who puts her arm around him. https://archive.org/details/saturday-night-live-s-03-e-17-michael-sarrazin-4-15-1978

Thanks for this. It made me me go back to my records to refresh my memory of "Kitty" -- glad I did. Greer is rocking.

Sonny played that Brooks Kerr gig for a long while I think. Would have loved to hear him in person.

I wasn't aware of these. Thanks.

Really enjoyed writing this one. https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/chronology-sonny-greer-and-sam-woodyard-drum-for-the-duke/

Many thanks! PM on its way.

In that era, "Blues for Philly Joe" is another masterpiece of thematic development. Not as iconic or extended as "Blue Seven" but more swinging and a lot more fun. https://dokumen.tips/documents/blues-for-philly-joe-sonny-rollins-solo.html

Gang, In the 1958 Downbeat Yearbook, there's a story about the Detroit scene with a photo of Paul Chambers (I think). The piece includes a great quote from Pepper Adams in which he singles out Barry Harris' mentorship as a key reason for the vitality of the scene, calling him "Uncle Barry. For the film documentary that I'm coproducing based on Jazz from Detroit, I need to track down a high-res color scan or a high-res phone photograph of that story, along with the cover of the issue. I think you can see where this is going. Anybody have a copy of that yearbook and, if so, can you help a brother out? mstryker63 (at) gmail.com. Thanks

Video of this concert has long circulated.

Wow. I had no idea he was still with us. A unique voice, and what a long and fascinating career. Note: There's a mistake in the obit -- the reference to "Gerald Clayton" should be in fact "Gerald Wilson."

I actually know what you mean about the sound of the rhythm section on The Panther -- there's a smoothness there but I think that's the engineering. But let's put it this way: All the best Dexter records on Prestige have Detroiters on them -- Panther (Tommy), Jumpin' Blues (Roy), Power (Barry) Maybe the sound of "The Panther" on 8-Track has more presence.

I was just concentrating on the earlier period between 1963-66, and this one was recorded in 1984, but, yes, there are a handful of small group appearances in Thad's later career. Would we agree that the best Dexter LP on Prestige -- by far -- is The Panther (1970)? Having said that, the master take of (old) "MIlestones" on Generation has strong and focused Dexter and the band is even better; but the rest of the record to me just doesn't reach the same heights.

FYI -- And Then Again is the last time all three Jones brothers appear on a recording together. (March 1965).

This slow blues solo is fucking extraordinary. The level of expressive dissonance is off the charts. Downbeat ran a transcription of this back in the day; I think it was by David Baker but I can't put my hands on it right at this moment. Thad's solo is cued up here.

Interesting questions regarding Thad. There's just not a lot of recorded examples of his soloing at length in the '60s. Mean What You Say (1966) is his only small group record as a leader in the 1960s and the only small group record with him in, say, a leadership position made between the cooperative Motor City Scene (1959) and You Made Me Love You (1975) -- the latter a Japanese release on Elec Records with Gregory Herbert, Mraz, Lewis; I don't think this one ever came out on CD and I've never seen nor heard the LP. The next small group record Thad made after that is the great live quartet date for Artist House in 1977 co-led with Mel and featuring Danko and Reid -- look for the CD, it's got two extra tracks, so two more Thad solos. There are a gaggle of large handful of small group appearances in the period between leaving Basie at the beginning of 1963 and the start of the big band with Mel in 1966, and like Larry says, Thad sounds consistently amazing. But you gotta dig for them. Here's one on a 1963 record. One remarkable trumpet (cornet) chorus over rhythm changes. BTW, that's a very young Chick Corea on piano. You really never know what Thad is going to play. I would love to produce/curate a survey of Thad's soloing in those years, drawing on the sideman dates for both small groups and larger ensembles where he gets a chance to blow.

Thanks for enlightening us.

Apologies if this has been posted previously. Sometimes I say "I have no words" in a metaphorical sense when, in fact, I have many words but would rather not spend time putting down my thoughts in writing. However, sometimes I literally have no words. This is one of those times.

Pace Jim, I also first acquired this music via the 24000 series Twofers and they remain my favorite way to consume the material. I especially love Collector's Items -- both the Bird/Rollins material and the Rollins/Flanagan session -- Tallest Trees and Tune Up. The Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke hook-up is magic, and I adore the tracks with Horace, Percy, and Klook as a trio. On that score, the original LP titled Bag's Groove is a special favorite.

Gang -- here's an interesting question that grew out of a Twitter exchange I was involved in with Darcy James Argue, who had posted the 1932 recording of Ellington's "Ducky Wucky." Kind of a long wind-up, so bear with me. I noted that what Lawrence Brown plays in bars 7 and 8 of the first A section of "Ducky Wucky" is basically Monk's "Rhythm-a-ning" speeded up-- but since "Rhythm-a-ning" itself was appropriated by Monk from Mary Lou Williams' "Walking and Swinging": (1936), this begs the question: Did Williams pick up the melodic phrase from "Ducky Wucky?" And since that phrase appears only in the first A section of "Ducky Wucky," is it even correct to assume that Ellington (or Bigard, who shares composing credit), even wrote it? Brown may have improvised it. Darcy replied: "I think it was a fairly commonplace bit of vocabulary in this era, but your hypothesis makes sense. And the boogie-woogie inflections in the intro to 'Ducky Wucky' certainly bring MLW to mind!" Me: "I wouldn't disagree that the phrase was likely common practice material, but if so, then then it should appear on some other recording. If you can't find one, that's not a dealbreaker cuz, as I always say, the history of jazz is not the same as the history of jazz on record. ... But in this case, it would go a long way to proving the hypothesis. Any early jazz scholars or sleuths out there know of another example of the Ducky Wucky/Walking and Swinging/Rhythm-a-ning phrase showing up on record in the early to mid '30s?”

I'm interested in that John Lewis book too. Please read it first and let me know what you think.

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27611/lot/70/a-buescher-alto-saxophone-played-by-john-coltrane/