Sonntag, 18. März 2007

A cornerstone to listen to

Hank Mobley - A slice of the top
March 18, 1966
This is easily not only one of the best Mobley-albums ever (even if the high-ranking LP’s „Soul station“ or „Roll Call“ are quite good, too), it could also be one of the best Blue Note-albums as well.
Hank Mobley was one of the HardBop-cornerstone-tenor saxophonists for the label in the sixties and showed his talent on many recordings which became classic LP’s, like “A blowing session” altogether with the great Coltrane and the speedy Johnny Griffin.

“A slice of the top” is once again something like an oddity, because it features Mobley in a band setting he never before had, and even with musicians he has worked for the first time (as to my knowledge) on this recording session:

James Spaulding (as) (the flute is not mentioned on the jacket, but there’s a fine solo on “Cute ‘n pretty” for example.)
Lee Morgan (tp) (the other HardBop-cornerstone)
Kiane Zawadi (euph) (formerly known as Bernard McKinney)
Howard Johnson (tb)

McCoy Tyner (p)
Bob Cranshaw (b)
Billy Higgins (d)

This makes a unique combination out of HardBop-experienced lead-instruments playing, combined with an avantgardish but deep rooted rhythm section, paired with a really small brass-section, which functions as a deep-toned background filler (although all killer!).
Mobley wrote four of the tracks in 1966, while he was in prison for drug abuse and handed these compositions, as well as some detailed informations over to Duke Pearson - who also had some fine recordings on Blue Note and remained as a musician, arranger and A&R, after Ike Quebec’s death – who should arrange the tunes. So this means, that pretty much of the sound on this record is because of Pearson’s arrangements.

This album is amazing, because Mobley fits very well with all the other musicians and shows a deep, round and “fat” sound on his horn, while Lee Morgan plays more in an avantgardish Freddie Hubbard-tradition, that suits him well (other issues can be heard on “Delightfulee” for example). Usually Mobley was well known as a perfect HardBop artist, but on this session you can feel the deep influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis and even the one of Sonny Rollins, because he reveals a melodic creativity and unexpected changes, while he still shows his roots.
McCoy fits this session as well as all other sessions he was on, because he is always on point and shows melodic lines, that fit perfectly.

My personal highlights on this session are the minor waltz “Cute ‘n pretty”, where Spaulding shows beautiful lines on the flute and the brass section just finds the right accompaniment. There are thrilling changes between two main parts. One part is dominated by the melodic and sweet flute, whereas the other part shows off some darker colour, dominated by the brass section and remains as a tricky contrast to the lighter colours. They are divided by astonishing improvisations and soloes of the lead musicians – first Morgan, then Mobley, Spaulding on flute and McCoy - (the brass players only worked as accompanists) and Mobley shows one of his best works on this LP. Alfred Lion would have been very excited, because of the swing within the music and the driving beat.
In a similar manner, “A touch of the blues” comes along and it really lives through the brass-work, which immediately catches the listener straight from the beginning.
The only tune, not written by Mobley is the ballad “There’s a lull in my life” which silences Zawadi and Johnson a bit and shows the brilliance of the musicians on the slower scale. As well, the track is living through the beautiful handling of Spaulding’s flute and the light right hand-attack of McCoy Tyner.
If you are into the work of Spaulding and Zawadi, you should look for Freddie Hubbard’s recordings, like “Blue Spirits” or “Breaking point”, which are highly recommended.

Two last remarkable things: As I’ve already mentioned, the brass players are only “used” as accompanists, but because of the deep throated tone of Zawadi's euphonium especially you may think, that they’re everywhere. So they really contributed a main part to this session in surrounding the arrangements. I guess this was a difficult part for Mobley to write and for Pearson to arrange.
The other thing is, that this recording has not been released at the time it was made. It unbelievably stayed in the Blue Note-vault until 1979 and there’s no reason why!

In the 90’s the record was released on vinyl as part of the connoisseur-edition (limited edition 180gr.-pressings) with sleeve-design by Patrick Roques, who fit the tradition of Reid Miles. There was a Japan-only pressing before, which featured different artwork.
The original recording engineer was Rudy van Gelder (of course) and it was produced for release by Michael Cuscuna, the never tired Mosaic-crate digger.

My issue came in excellent condition with no corner dinges, blemishes and no scuffs or anything else. Like all other Connoisseur-LP’s it has the newer backcover design with a B1-catalogue-number and “The finest in Jazz since 1939” on the record-label. That's it. Now go listen!

Donnerstag, 15. März 2007

From France via USA to Germany

Dexter Gordon - Our Man in Paris
May 23, 1963
“Our Man in Paris (BST84146)” is one of the nine studio-sessions (within this count are “Clubhouse” and “Landslide”), tenor saxophonist Gordon cut for Blue Note in the 60’s during his second renaissance, I might say and is a special recording in two ways.
After his disappearance from the jazz-scene in the 50’s he made his comeback on the Blue Note label while he was staying in Copenhagen, Denmark and Paris, France from 1962 until 1977 and these recording became his most known work, although he was really underrated during that time, because of his European residence.
So one speciality about this record is, that it was recorded in Paris – as the name might suggest – with Claude Ermelin as the recording engineer. (I can only remember Clarke & Boland – The golden 8 BN4092 as the only other record of the classic Blue Notes, that was not recorded by Van Gelder)
The other speciality is the band, who was working with Dexter Gordon on this LP:
Bud Powell (p), Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). These musicians were all living in Paris, even if they were US-natives besides Michelot who was a Frenchmen and had some recording and playing experience with Miles Davis (“Lift to the scaffold”) or Dizzy Gillespie. This trio formed the band “The Three Bosses” in 1959, so they knew each other and were ready to play, as well as Powell and Clarke did already play with Dex as well.

Comparing to the other Blue Notes, Gordon has made in the 60’s, I cannot fully understand the high rating of this record. The playing is inspiring and you can feel, that the musicians are equally connected, but somehow there is a little bit of strength, I’m missing and I guess this comes from the selection of tunes. On all other LP’s, there is at least one tune, that stays remarkably in my mind, like “Cheesecake” on “Go”, “Tanya” on “One flight up” or “Manha de Carneval” on my favourite record, “Getting’ around”. “Our Man in Paris” has not really a highlight in my opinion, so it’s not really shining for me, I guess.
As I’ve already mentioned, the accompanists play really fine, especially Clarke who is always in the neck of the other musicians, or Michelot who is working under all other instruments and does a really good job, ‘cause you can hear him buzzing and humming all the time, like on “Broadway” or “A night in Tunisia”, for example.
I guess, my real stumbling block is Powell, who indeed is a wonderful pianist, but I guess he wasn’t very comfortable on this setting, while he stays in his Bebop-tradition, whereas the other musicians do their playing in a more hard-boppish manner. That’s not really an antipode, but I guess there’s not a really deep connection, at least on the faster pieces, as it would have been possible. But Powell can really shine on the ballad “Stairway to the stars” while he is stretching out in the background or just at the beautiful beginning, laying down a wonderful introduction to the piece.
The music is well worth collecting, and anybody should give it a listen, even if there are better recordings, in my opinion.


Because of Gordon’s underestimation and the high rating of “Our Man in Paris”, this LP is really sought after.
My copy came as a solid blue label Liberty-pressing in EX condition, with “van gelder” in the dead wax, which is a bit curious, because – as I’ve mentioned – Ermelin was the recording engineer. I guess Van Gelder had his hands on this reissue.
The jacket is in beautiful shape, aside from some small seam splits, and has the Liberty note on top left of the back cover and “43 West 61st”-address.
This is still something I’m wondering myself: Some of these Liberty jackets do have this address on the back and some others don’t!
And I really like the Reid Miles cover with this great Francis Wolff-shot a lot.

Montag, 5. März 2007

Mickey Mouse was on my records

As I have promised, there will be an update and there it is.
I’ve stumbled across same rare Blue Note-titles around the last weeks, I want them to introduce to you.













"Baby Face" Willette - Face to Face
January 30, 1961
The first one is the bluesy second recording-session of Baby Face Willette for Blue Note “Face to Face (BN 4068)”. Willette is known as an oddity or mystery in jazz-music, because he has only recorded a couple LP’s, two of them on the Blue Note-label - what makes these records highly collectable - and disappeared from the scene in the middle of the 1960’s.
As a soul jazz-organist, his roots can be determined from religious gospel music up to Blues and RnB music, even if his main influences have been Bud Powell, Monk, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson and I believe – Jimmy Smith, the organ grinder.
By listening to his music, I can feel, that he had a different approach on the organ – other than Smith, or of course Larry Young. His playing is definitely blues rooted and hard swinging on another level. I’m not really an admirer of organ-jazz itself, or at least a fan of Jimmy Smith, but I do like the records of Larry Young and the “Hootin’ and tootin’”-sessions by tenor-man Fred Jackson alongside Earl Vandyke on organ. I do like this record here as well. I really can’t tell, what the difference (musically) between Willette and Smith is, but this record swings on another level as the Smith-records do, which I know.
For example: “Whatever Lola wants” is usually a cheesy pop-song to me, but Willette is goin’ down on it and creates a hard-driven up-tempo number without sounding corny, using his left hand in a spectacular manner.
His perfectly fitting accompanists are the famous Grant Green (guitar), one of the most forgotten but highly recommended saxophonists Fred Jackson and the Jimmy Smith-regular. Ben Dixon on drums.
Scott Yarnow from allmusic.com claims, that Willette displays a lighter touch than Smith, even if he swings in a similar manner. Maybe it can be, because Baby Face could not read any music and was playing entirely by what he has heard. But I don’t know, if Smith could have done it the same way.
You can hear Baby Face Willette on his first stand “Stop and listen”, as well as on Lou Donaldson’s “Here ‘tis” and Grant Green’s “Grant’s First Stand”, just in case anybody wants to check for his music.

The record, which was not really expensive, turned out to be an original second pressing in VG-condition, but cover and LP itself needed a quick cleaning. The jacket with the “43 West 61st”-address is in good shape with no seam splits and minor edgewear, but yellowing on the back.
The record had some mold and dust on it, which could be removed. The clean labels carried the “47 West”-address on one side and “New York USA” on the other one. The vinyl had some marks and hairlines which cause slight background-noise and a few clicks. I guess it has to be cleaned professionally. “Ear” and “RVG” in the dead wax as well, but no original inner-bag.
I guess this was a good opportunity to get hand on this rare LP, even if it’s not NM.


Don Wilkerson - Elder Don
May 3, 1962
The last record for today is an original pressing of Don Wilkerson’s “Elder Don (BN 4121)”, recorded 1962 and this one was his second effort for Blue Note.
Wilkerson himself is also not really remembered on the jazz-scene, I might guess. I think, that this depends on the instrument he was playing, because there have been so many tenor-saxophonists, that it is hard to know them all quite well, even if they don’t had a really recognizable inventive approach like John Coltrane or Joe Henderson.
Wilkerson was a versatile saxophonist in a more soul-jazz vein, but he could fit ballad-settings as well as RnB-sessions.
On “Elder Don” he concentrated on pieces that matched his Texas-influence like “Senorita Eula” or “San Antonio Rose” and played the entire set with a lyrical latin style. Therefore he couldn’t have found any better musicians than Grant Green (once again) and the latin-tinged pianist Johnny Acea (whom I remembered from a Leo Parker session), as well as the experienced drummer Willie Bobo (remember Green’s Latin Bit?). The pretty unknown Lloyd Trotman (who has played with Duke Ellington) has worked on the bass and did a good job.
In comparison to the only other album I know from Wilkerson, “Preach Brother”, this one is really a dance-album, like Joe Goldberg stated in the liner notes. The other one is a more hard-driving bop-session, according to Sonny Clark’s or Billy Higgins’ work, but “Elder Don” is nice and swinging as well, but it is functioning as a somehow unspectacular dance-music-record, which by no means is meant as being deprecative.
The tunes are nice and transfer the spirit, but in my opinion there is nothing really new, or special on it, but I furthermore think, that this was not their purpose. You can feel, that the musicians liked their playing altogether, and that’s what counts.

On to the hard-facts:
The jacket is in nice shape, wouldn’t it have had mice-damage on the lower right corner, so that the edge had to be cutted. No seam splits and slight corner dinges on the other hand and a bit of yellowing on the back. As for the year 1962, it carries the “43 West”-address. There is a price sticker on the front, too that indicates that these original pressings once did cost $4.98. This record was a special sale for $3.88. Imagine that!! Today Blue Note original pressings fetch prices between $60 - $100 and even mor for scarce or collectible LP's like "Undercurrent" or "True Blue". Gosh...
The Mono-record had clean “New York USA” -abels, “Ear” and “RVG” in the wax and only minor wear, so that it plays through very quiet.
According to some inner twirling of the seams, the (newer) inner bag can’t be stuffed inside the jacket, so that this will be the only record I have to leave on the outside.

Samstag, 3. März 2007

Some days and nights have passed.

Some days and weeks have passed and there’s was no writing at all on this page.
That does not mean, that I have not received any records since the launch of this page.
This just meant that I was dumb enough to loose my password, so I couldn’t enter the page.
But right now, anything is good again and I can post some news.

In the meantime I’ve received several LP’s and I’ve chosen some of them to be introduced.



Art Blakey - The African Beat
January 24, 1962
One of the first was “Art Blakey and the Afro-Drum Ensemble – The African Beat (BN 4097)”.
This Session was released in 1962 and was something like a concept-album, ‘cause it brought together different musicians that were all associated with traditional African music or the new modern Afro-Jazz. Blakey himself liked the opportunity of bringing together African drummers and American Jazzmen like Yusef Lateef or Curtis Fuller.
This session is not really an oddity in the Blue Note Catalog, because they’ve already released “Palo Congo”, a session of Sabu Martinez in the 1950’s and another mixture of African music and Jazz by Kenny Dorham (Afro-Cuban Jazz). The future will also bring a record by African drummer Solomon Ilori who also took part in this session.
Like a real ensemble you have lots of different drums and other rhythm-instruments like tympani, gongs, chekeres, congas or maracas, but even Lateef contributes some blowing on tenor sax, flute and oboe to give the rhythms a jazz-feeling, even if it’s in an african vein.
Like Solomon Ilori was quoted in the liner notes, the listener can feel, that Blakey had the ideas of this fusion in his inner self, so there’s nothing fake within this music. It’s not an imitation of what is supposed to be African music. You can feel that this is true hearted and I guess that’s the key to this album. But I must admit, that I really get a kick out of the way, Blakey plays his drums. There’s a lot of shifting rhythms on the six tracks, but Blakey connects them all with his heavy bass-drum and the crashes or hitting the snares. But always the spiritual feel of the chanting voices and instruments stays obtained.
I guess, everyone is open to – like – world music should give this record a listen. The music is infecting.

Now the hard facts: The record itself is an original first pressing in excellent shape. Both sides do have the Plastylite-P, or the “Ear” how it is called and “Van Gelder” in the dead wax, as well as the “New York USA”-adress on both labels. The vinyl has nice lustre and very,very few background noise in quieter passages, no clicks or pops at all. It was packaged in it’s original inner-bag. The sleeve is in very good shape with only minor writing on the front and back-cover. No seam-splits and only minor dinged corners and the “43 West 61st”-adress.
Beautiful issue (with the smell of a washing-machine though).




Grachan Moncur III - Some other stuff

July 6, 1964
The next record that has arrived on my doorstep was Grachan Moncur III’s second effort for Blue Note: “Some other stuff (BST 84177)”.
Unfortunately, Moncur has only released two albums for Blue Note who all were not really successful at their time, but became quite scarce and expensive nowadays.
Moncur, who played trombone for Ray Charles, Art Farmer or Benny Golson is considered of being a modern jazz-musician in the jazz-avantgarde of the 1960’s. In the last days, I’ve read an interview, where Moncur claimed, that he was not aware of being an avantgardist – he just played the way he wanted to, without thinking about, that the sound should be avantgarde. He just wanted his sound to be evolving from the mainstream of other musicians. Without the honour he should have got in my opinion, he stayed pretty unknown and even if his two most known LP’s (the other one is “Evolution”) have been released by Blue Note, he didn’t really liked the situation there, even if it was one of the most satisfying situations in the retrospective.
If you’re interested in these rumors and the situation itself, you could read the fireside-chat with Moncur on
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=45.

Back to the music. In comparison to other Blue Note albums, “Some other stuff” of course is a “new thing”-record. As the liner notes by Don Heckman tell, “the compositions (…) run the gamut from traditional to the most unusual free improvisation.” I don’t think, that there could be written very much, because the music is thrilling and exciting and somehow it feels like spiritual playing. One oddity is, that “Nomadic” is almost an entire drum-solo (aside from some background-whistling and sporadic piano-interludes) by Tony Williams and maybe DJ Shadow could have get some breaks out of there.
The other musicians of this quintet are Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano) and Cecil McBee (bass) – so I guess, this makes an avantgardish band though!

The record itself – and I need to say this again – is scarce in any condition and as any issue, so I'm really glad to have found this one.
It is a Liberty-pressing with “A Division of Liberty Inc.” on the blue/white-label. There is no other engraving in the dead-wax, than “BST-81477”. In comparison to other Liberty-blue/white-labels, that all have “Van Gelder”-engravings, the ink of the labels is darker, so maybe it’s not an USA-pressing. But the record is in NM shape with excellent sound, and that counts! The jacket is also in excellent condition with no adress on the lower back, but the Liberty-logo on top left.


Duke Pearson - Profile
October 29, 1959
Third one: “Duke Pearson – Profile (BN 4022)”.
Pearson became A&R of Blue Note Records, after Ike Quebec passed away and this trio-session was his 1959 debut for this record company. Alongside Pearson on the piano, there are Gene Taylor (Horace Silvers’ classic bassist) and Lex Humphries on the drums, who give accurate and sensitive support.
The music itself is not really outstanding, but Pearson shows, that he is a very nice, swinging but blues-rooted pianist with perfect fitting accompanists. Like Ira Gitler was writing in the liner notes and has been quoted on the cover (unique in the history of the Blue Note-Reid Miles-cover), Pearson is a “lyrical pianist with a fine sense of time and dynamics”. Tracks like “Gate city blues” are beautiful medium-tempo ballads and other pieces like the following “Two mile run” are uptempo-swingers that really do groove. In Gitler’s words, throughout the record you’ll find “ideas of clarity and brightness” as well as a “flowing, effortless swing”.
In my personal ranking of jazz-pianists, Duke Pearson is somewhere equal to McCoy Tyner, because both have a fine sense of playing the piano, even as accompanists and to not sound corny. Like Tyner on Turrentine’s “Walk on by” (one of the best examples in my opinion), Pearson always knows how to play the right tones on every single record, whether he combines Joe Henderson and Turrentine, or he is the pianist for Donald Byrd.
So this makes this trio-set highly enjoyable as well. Pearson is not boring but shows a fine sense and is laying a perfect cornerstone for future records.

The LP-issue is a good mixture of almost everything, Blue Note has to offer.
The excellent jacket is an original laminated one, but with the “43 West 61st” cognizable as a second, but original issue. The NM-record has the 47 West 63rd”-adress on both labels, but no “Ear” in the dead-wax, as well as “RVG” on one side and “Van Gelder” on the other one. So I guess, that this makes a Liberty-pressing with the original labels, although they have the Registred Trademark-symbol, too. And to make the confusion perfect, the record stuck in a “27 years Blue Note”-inner bag from 1966 (that needed to be taped).
This is pretty messed up, but as long as the record is fine, everything is good. ;)




Art Blakey - Moanin'
October 30, 1958
The next record is a classic one, maybe the best effort, Blue Note made in the last 1950’s and early 60’s: “Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – Moanin’ (BN 4003)”.
To be exact, the LP is called “Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers”, but Moanin’ became almost a hit, so that the record was called after this track. You can find later pressings, especially Dutch-issues, that have slight different cover artwork and they are called “Moanin’” on the cover.
This session features the first classic band (to speak in a Miles Davis tradition) with Morgan, Golson, Timmons and Merritt and Bobby Timmons wrote one of the most favourite Jazz-standards of all time: “Moanin’”! The other tunes are typical HardBop as well (I guess Blakey created the HardBop with this record) and one other interesting piece is “The Drum thunder suite”, which functions as a miniature suite, consisting of three different themes.

I already had a reissue of this record, but I had an opportunity to get hand on this original – but not first – pressing for like $5. The laminated heavy cover, with “43 West 61st”-adress is in good shape, with corner-dinges and some paper scuffs on the yellowed back. Although in good shape, as stated. The LP has “New York USA” and a Deep Groove on both labels, as well as the “Ear” and “RVG” in the dead-wax. The vinyl itself is hard to be described. It’s in fair shape with background noise throughout the whole record and minor clicks and pops.
To put it in a nutshell, my other copy will be the play-copy, but this was a low priced opportunity to get an original pressing just to get the feeling (and I knew, that it would be in bad shape). I once bought another small-priced record from the same seller, which was advertised as bad and turned out to be a flawless copy in my eyes, so that’s why I tried to be lucky once more.
And if I remember my copy of Lou Donaldson’s “Sunny Side up” – which was advertised as very good and was indeed one of the poorest records, I’ve ever seen – this one is still pretty good!
…but it’s sad, how records are treated sometimes over the years.


More to come tomorrow, as well as some pics, I hope. I just have to figure out, if I should post just straight pictures of the records and the jackets, but right now I guess I prefer some "artistic" angles. If you want to check out the covers of all Blue Note releases, go check www.gokudo.co.jp. Great page!