June 2006 Connoisseur CDs

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I called Michael Cuscuna to ask if he was working on the next batch of Connoisseurs and he surprised me... apparently, the June batch is already decided and well on their way to release.

Drum roll please\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./

Jackie McLean – It’s Time (6 tunes)

Art Blakey – Holiday For Skins (8 tunes) both albums on one CD

Lou Blackburn – The Complete Imperial Sessions (19 tunes)

Andrew Hill – Pax (7 tunes) the session with Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard - "One for One"?

Gil Evans – The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions (15 tunes)

Solomon Ilori – African High Life (9 tracks) - includes three usable tracks from unissued session

Woo hoo! I am soooo glad I didn't pay those insane eBay prices for "New Wine Old Bottles"!

Forgive me people, but why have I never heard of Lou Blackburn? It looks like Fresh Sounds already issued this material too. That's gonna hurt sales.

That Hill session must be the date that made up half of the two-fer "One For One" that was recorded Feb 10, 1965. Was that in the Mosaic box?

Kevin

[Chuck Nessa]

Nice bunch.

[JSngry]

Yeah, very nice. Actually some things I need this time.

[Chuck Nessa]

Forgive me people, but why have I never heard of Lou Blackburn? Kevin

Don't have a clue, but would guess you don't know Freddie Hill either.

[kh1958]

I called Michael Cuscuna to ask if he was working on the next batch of Connoisseurs and he surprised me... apparently, the June batch is already decided and well on their way to release.

Drum roll please\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./.\./

Jackie McLean – It’s Time (6 tunes)

Art Blakey – Holiday For Skins (8 tunes) both albums on one CD

Lou Blackburn – The Complete Imperial Sessions (19 tunes)

Andrew Hill – Pax (7 tunes) the session with Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard - "One for One"?

Gil Evans – The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions (15 tunes)

Solomon Ilori – African High Life (9 tracks) - includes three usable tracks from unissued session

Woo hoo! I am soooo glad I didn't pay those insane eBay prices for "New Wine Old Bottles"!

Forgive me people, but why have I never heard of Lou Blackburn? It looks like Fresh Sounds already issued this material too. That's gonna hurt sales.

That Hill session must be the date that made up half of the two-fer "One For One" that was recorded Feb 10, 1965. Was that in the Mosaic box?

Kevin

You must not have Mingus at Monterey, on which Lou Blackburn plays.

[Kalo]

I agree, nice batch. I'll definitely be buying the Hill and Evans.

[Rooster_Ties]

I've never heard any of that Evans material, so I'll be snapping that one up for sure.

I've got the McLean and Hill dates on their respective Mosaics, but I'll eventually buy Conns of both of them - just cuz they're such great dates. The McLean especially is some PRIME 60's Tolliver, for sure!! And how can I say no to the Hill.

That's three of six I'll get for sure (sooner or later). Like many here, I don't know a thing about Lou Blackburn. Don't even recognize the name, not even slightly.

[Peter Johnson]

It's been a bit of a BN drought for me, having most of the sessions they've released recently. But with this batch, they're gonna get me in the wallet for sure!

I've got the Jackie Mac, Blakey, and Ilori on vinyl, but I'll be getting Holiday for Skins anyway as my copies are beat to hell. The Hill and Evans are no-brainers, and I'll get the Blackburn because I'm intrigued, and because the Sonny Criss Imperial Sessions was a huge positive addition to my collection, and well, why the hell not???

A nice birthday present, certainly!

[JSngry]

I'll definitely be getting the Blakey, Blackburn, & Ilori. Maybe the Gil, but I still have this stuff on the old BN two-fer, and stories of tape degradation have me wondering if there's a need for an upgrade. Could the 70s LPs actually be of better quality sound?

[Clunky]

who is Lou Blackburn, any relation of Tony Blackburn ???

[Clunky]

Found this looks interesting ...

Lou Blackburn: Freddie Hill(tp); Lou Blackburn(tb); Horace Tapscott(p); John Duke(b); Leroy Henderson(d). ------Los Angeles,1963--IMP.LP 9228

Jazz-a-Nova

Harlem Bossa Nova

New Frontier

Perception

Luze Bluze

I Cover the Waterfront

17 Richmond Park

The Clan

Scorpio

Stella by Starlight

Lou Blackburn: Freddie Hill(tp); Lou Blackburn(tb); Horace Tapscott(p); John Duke(b); Leroy Henderson(d). ------Los Angeles,1963--IMP.LP 9242

Grand Prix

Manha De Carnival

Jean Blue

Blues for Eyridice

Two Note Samba

Song of Delilah

Dear Old Stockholm

Secret Love

[bertrand]

I have a TOCJ cut-out of Holiday For Skins Volume One I got at the Tower outlet in NYC years ago for $7. I never did find an affordable Volume Two! This will plug a hole - I hate missing a Volume. Hope it shows up at yourmusic.

My bet of waiting for the Andrew Hills from the first Mosaic to show up individually is paying off. Now we just need Compulsion!!! and the 1966 session...

Bertrand.

[Tony Pusey]

who is Lou Blackburn, any relation of Tony Blackburn ???

Sure hope not!!!

[Claude]

Thanks Kevin,

I'm looking forward to the Gil Evans CD.

If Ron McMaster remastered them, I won't "upgrade" the Andrew Hill and Jackie McLean CDs, which I have in the Mosaic sets.

[J.A.W.]

who is Lou Blackburn, any relation of Tony Blackburn ???

[Cliff Englewood]

Regarding Lou Blackburn, this is from AMG;

Biography by Eugene Chadbourne

With some musicians, their career represents an actual odyssey or travel through musical situations both geographical and aesthetic, and trombonist Lou Blackburn is a perfect example. It is too easy just to dismiss him as another mainstream jazz trombonist gone Afro-pop, when his actual personal voyage, from his native Pittsburgh to the life of an expatriate jazz player in Europe, from mainstream jazz to Mombassa, is an inspiring example of self-realization through trombone solos.

Blackburn became passionate about music early in life, using it to help get through both the disciplined lifestyles of college and the army. Getting out of the services in 1956, he began gigging with Charlie Ventura, immediately establishing a connection with the West Coast scene that never went away. Blackburn did more than catch sun rays in California; if a really happening jazz event was taking place, he tended to be more than just on the sidelines. Mingus at Monterey is one classic recording of modern jazz on which Blackburn appears as part of an expanded group of hornmen tackling the difficult and profound "Meditations on Integration" chart, including trumpeters Bobby Bryant and Melvin Moore, Red Callender on tuba, and Buddy Collette on alto sax and flute. Blackburn also cut sessions on his own with Horace Tapscott sitting in the piano chair, the reissue of which has been a great opportunity to study the latter unique musician's evolving style.

Blackburn was already a veteran himself when he became involved with Tapscott, and had spent the late '50s honing his trombone chops on tour with Lionel Hampton, a heavily booked group that did long stretches of one-nighters throughout Europe and North Africa. In 1960, Blackburn joined the band of trumpeter Cat Anderson, a trail that led back to the classic big band of Duke Ellington, with whom the trombonist wound up working for eight months of 1961, some of which time was spent toiling in the Columbia recording studios. From here he went to California, where he began working in film studios, also tainting the slide of his trombone with the allure of pop music.

Blackburn's credits lurch into another dimension at this stage of the game, perhaps the fifth, with appearances on recordings by the Turtles, the Righteous Brothers, and the Beach Boys, in the latter case admittedly doing naught with his trombone that might distract from the sounds of the theremin on "Good Vibrations." There were also incredibly creative projects, such as the David Amram recording session for the paranoid masterpiece film The Manchurian Candidate, for which the composer assembled a first-rate orchestra from the ranks of symphony soloists, chamber music players, Latin performers; with such jazz artists as reed player and flautist Paul Horn (basically helpless unless he is playing in a monument such as one of the great pyramids), big-toned tenor continent Harold Land, low-end reed guy Jack Nimitz, and Dick Leith joining Blackburn on the trombones. Amram himself startled some of the film's producers by leapfrogging from the podium to the side of the musicians, joining the fray with his own improvised solos on French horn and piano.

In the '70s, Blackburn was ready for another change, good vibes or not. He moved to Europe, where he began leading his own groups first out of Berlin, then Switzerland. He formed an ensemble entitled Mombassa, with a very strong African content to its arrangements. The lineup included musicians from several African countries, the influence of African music in the leader's playing more and more apparent in each passing year. He also collaborated with European jazz players such as Wolfgang Köhler in ensembles along the lines of the Lou Blackburn International Quartet, with more of a progressive jazz feel.

[B. Goren.]

The session Andrew Hill recorded with Henderson and Hubbard was part of the OOP Mosaic set and this is something every Hill fan must have in his collection.

[Evonce]

The session Andrew Hill recorded with Henderson and Hubbard

Thumbs up for this release...I was hoping it wouldn't be forgotten, what with the Hill Mosaic set, etc.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Forgive me people, but why have I never heard of Lou Blackburn? Kevin

Don't have a clue, but would guess you don't know Freddie Hill either.

I definitely don't know Freddie Hill either! Is he Benny's brother?

This Blackburn CD looks good. I like the AMG description of his playing style.

Kevin

[Rooster_Ties]

My bet of waiting for the Andrew Hills from the first Mosaic to show up individually is paying off. Now we just need Compulsion!!! and the 1966 session...

What I think is amazing, and wonderful, is that Hill must be generating enough sales to merit the reissue (date by date) of his entire catalog on individual CD's, despite the fact that the Mosaic is already out there in the marketplace.

Cuz if he wasn't selling -- we sure wouldn't be getting this many Hill titles (RVG's, Conns, the Select), this fast (in just a very few short years), that's for sure. So he must be selling at least "pretty OK".

[JSngry]

Cuz if he wasn't selling -- we sure wouldn't be getting this many Hill titles (RVG's, Conns, the Select), this fast (in just a very few short years), that's for sure. So he must be selling at least "pretty OK".

I hope that's the case, but you can't completely rule out "humaintarian reasons" either. BN did the same for John Patton.

[Joe]

Hasn't our good friend Jordi Pujol had the Blackburn / Hill material out for some time on one of his imprints (Fresh Sound)? If so, I'm presuming that said issue was sourced from vinyl.

Very, very, very happy to see those Gil Evans recordings back in circulation. I wonder if we can expect any significant sonic upgrade? I'm skeptical, given the general state of Dick Bock-produced masters, but one can hope.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Hasn't our good friend Jordi Pujol had the Blackburn / Hill material out for some time on one of his imprints (Fresh Sound)? If so, I'm presuming that said issue was sourced from vinyl.

FWIW, I E-mailed Cuscuna about this Fresh Sound CD and he says he's gonna kick their release in the butt because he has the source tapes *and* has an extra track.

Kevin

[Stefan Wood]

Great!!! I have the Blackburn/Hill Fresh Sound, and will sell it once the Connoisseurs come out. This is some good music the people should check out.

[jlhoots]

The Hill is the highlight for me since I have all of the Evans material (& the McLean Mosaic).