If you could be a fly on the wall.......

[sheldonm]

I got to thinking... if I had the ability to go back in time (which I don't), which recording session would I have wanted to be a fly on the wall. Not really a fly, but sitting in the studio as the session was being made.

I have not come up with my answer yet but was curious what you guys (and ladies) would choose! Only one answer and why!

Mark

[Sundog]

Mingus and Company, Blues and Roots

Why? If you have to ask. Seriously, there's an energy that still reverberates almost 50 years later from that recording. Something special happened during that one!

[Brownian Motion]

I would like to have sat in on the first 1923 recording by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band: Oliver and Johnny Dodds in their prime and Louis Armstrong's first recording session. Alternatively I'd love to have been there in 1936 when Fletcher Henderson's Band with Roy Eldridge and Chu Berry recorded Blue Lou, Stealing Apples, and Christopher Columbus.

[sheldonm]

I knew it wouldn't be long before someone said "Armstrong". I don't think they could have imagined what they were doing at the time, would lead to B) .

Mark

[couw]

szzzay whatzz???

to be a fly inside of Monk's piano. I think that would have been cool. Just to make certain the brain goes crazy before that one day you got to live is up.

[sheldonm]

szzzay whatzz???

to be a fly inside of Monk's piano. I think that would have been cool. Just to make certain the brain goes crazy before that one day you got to live is up.

That thing is Nasty with a capital "N", please retire it!

[Hardbopjazz]

If it could be a live session, I would say Trane and Wes. I would have love to see and heard them together. Otherwise, Bird and Diz in their first recording session.

[chris olivarez]

Buddy Bolden. Seriously if I had to pick one it would probably have to be "Kind of Blue" what a thrill it would have been to have seen all those legends making magic.

[Chuck Nessa]

Not wanting to be greedy, I wish I remembered more about sessions I attended and the ones I produced.

I do remember during one of the sessions for Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound", a phone call was transfered to the booth. As a result I walked into the studio and told Lester Lashley he was a "proud new papa". Lester L (fantastic musician) then pointed to Lester Bowie and said "tell HIM".

[chris olivarez]

Not wanting to be greedy, I wish I remembered more about sessions I attended and the ones I produced.

I do remember during one of the sessions for Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound", a phone call was transfered to the booth. As a result I walked into the studio and told Lester Lashley he was a "proud new papa". Lester L (fantastic musician) then pointed to Lester Bowie and said "tell HIM".

[marcoliv]

Seriously if I had to pick one it would probably have to be "Kind of Blue"

chris, is there enough space for me on your wall??

[brownie]

Christmas eve 1954 at the RVG studios in Hackensack, N.J. and watch Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk (plus Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke) record 'The Man I Love' (plus 'Bag's Groove', 'Bemsha Swing' and 'Swing Spring').

The flies on the wall must have had a great time!

[RainyDay]

As much as I want to say Kind of Blue, I have to say one of Freddie Hubbard's CTI recordings. Red Clay is wonderful because Joe Henderson, Herbie, and Ron Carter were with him on that record. But First Light is one of my favorite Freddie songs. Don't know why, I just love that song. Would have liked to have seen those guys working together on Red Clay but I would have loved to have watched Freddie record First Light. Just talking about it makes me have to play it. And I will play the thing at least three times.

Sigh. Now this is heaven.

[B. Goren.]

Novembar 1961 at the V.V. with John Coltane. Why??? Needless to explain.

[tooter]

Lots of mentions for [Kind of Blue] - makes me wonder just how often it actually gets listened to. Not that not wanting to listen to it so often makes it invalid to want to have been at the session. I remember hearing someone who was involved in the be-bop revolution (can't recall who) saying that he had no sense of making jazz history at the time; they were just having a ball, fooling around or some such.

My choice, off the top of my head, is Massey Hall. To hear it unadulterated, undubbed, pristine. Can the flies record themselves? Perhaps this would change choices.

Probably change my mind later, when I think of something else. Mmmmm - [somethin' Else]?

[Peter Johnson]

Blue Train...one of the records that brought me to jazz in the first place, and still in my top five. Trane et al were ON that day, and I'm sure "me as fly" would have joined Alfred in his little dance...