DMP

Coltrane & Hartman!

I had his other A&M title ("Calling Out Loud"), it wasn't bad. Maybe a little over-ambitious.

The notes to "Perspective" mention how Byrd wasn't trying to jump on any commercial bandwagon with some contrived gospel/soul mixture. That's clearly not the case with the follow-up.

My copy - purchased yesterday - has the bonus track.

"Natural Illusions" might have been the low point of Hutcherson's Blue Note tenure. Bring on "Highway One!"

"Eleanor Rigby" is Black Talk's "How High the Moon."

We've had a pretty good run of jazz reissues the past 15 - 20 years or so - Mosaic, of course, but from other sources as well - including the "majors." But times are different. I wouldn't be surprised if this week's top selling CD is on Blue Note (and it's not Andrew Hill). We may have face up to a world where that Gene Shaw reissue isn't on the drawing board. That said, I can't imagine this "contemporary" business will lesson Mosaic's committment to the kind of material we've come to expect.

Is this the Barry Ulanov material? (Someone here told me that it's on "Bird's Eyes" #17, which I picked up from Cadence.)

Sort of like when Concord describes itself as offering "adult" music? Debbie Boone AND Sonny Stitt?

Jazz Crusaders.

I have it - nice, but unexpected! Sort of slipped under the radar screen.

Well, I like Herbie Nichols as much as the next person, but my jazz collection contains plenty of the above artists (and the albums "Super Blue" and "Afro-Classics"), so I'm happy to see some of this stuff out again. Why not? I think many jazz fans have room for all forms of the music, and my collection contains not only just about everything that Charlie Parker and John Coltrane recorded, but also almost everything that Herbie Mann did! I'm not getting rid of my Albert Ayler just because I might get an Earl Klugh compilation. Of course, I'd prefer they put out "The Ultimate Argo Recordings of Gene Shaw..."

It's very good. Great tunes, first-rate charts (by Oliver Nelson and Gary McFarland) - it's a nice contrast to the many hard bop style dates in his discography. If you like Johnson, I can't imagine not having this one.

For me, Rudolph Johnson's 2 Black Jazz albums - "Spring Rain" and "Second Coming" - fit into this category. Picked them up in a cut out bin, expected nothing, and I've been enjoying them for 30 years now!

You can find "Katanga" on the Amy Mosaic Select.

"Hold On I'm Comin'" (mentioned way above) is one of his strongest (Mann agreed with me on this when I brought it up) - recorded live at (for the most part) Yankee Stadium. The mood of the crowd (huge and diverse) was almost electric, and the audience was into it from the opening bars - you really can feel it on the album. No one's mentioned "Memphis Two-Step" - that album seems to have disappeared. Nice, spacey version of "Come Together."

And Edmonds wrote many tunes, including one of my favorites - "Bonita," on Illinois Jacquet's "The Message" - it was a minor jazz hit at the time of its release. Very soulful.

I've always thought "Silver's Serenade" is just about the "perfect" Silver album - his strongest group, the whole record really hangs together.

Hopefully the folks at "Lonehill" will pick them up. (Or maybe "Collectables" - they could be paired with Chris Connor.)

Our only hope is Lonehill's "The Complete Ed Michael Archie Shepp-Lalo Schifrin Sessions."

The moral/legal debate aside, with the major labels apparently abandoning their reissue programs and unwilling to license what they're sitting on, EMI content to reissue the same Blue Note titles over and over - and the jury's out on Concord - we might have few options for older material in the future. Domestically, it may come down to a few concerns - Mosaic, Collectables, and an occasional title from smaller labels like Mighty Quinn or Wounded Bird. Lonehill might be looking pretty good, since none of us is content to play the 5000 titles we already have and need to buy something else.

While they're waiting for that to sort itself out, why not put out the same group's "jazz hits" LP, with the added material that later appeared on a Columbia "two-fer" (along with the "Time and Place" extra stuff)? Art Famer and Jimmy Heath doing "Song For My Father" and "The Sidewinder!" None of this has been reissued, unlike the former title.

The above 2 suggestions are right on the money, if you want some Herbie Mann you won't go wrong with these.

Don't forget Cannonball's children's record on "Wonderland."

I also heard her at Birdland (July, '63) on that bill with Coltrane - she played vibes as well as piano with Gibbs - think that's when they met. (I think Gibbs son and Ravi Coltrane are also friends.) Unexpected and sad.