The pianist talk makes me think of George Wallington. I had to remind myself about what happened to him, why he dropped out. It wasn't drugs or a troubled life. He could not deal with the touring, and probably had a hard time with the 4AM lifestyle, sleeping during the daylight hours. So he dropped out, moved to Florida and worked in the air-conditioning business. He only returned 25 years later to make a few minor label records after age 60, and died at age 68. I don't have these original covers, but any reissues of George Wallington are worthwhile.
Of course, without the right bottle at hand, some old Jazz records do not reveal everything.... ................................ ´
Well, we're all different. I've been mainly sober the entire five decades that I have been enjoying jazz, I'm not a drinker. More ways than one to enjoy jazz! So for me it seemed odd that talking about alcohol was not as verboten as nearly anything else.
I am surprised that there has never been a big fat definitive book titled something like "The Bop Pianists", with chapters on nearly all of the classic bop pianists, well known and those only known to fans. Now that book publishing is in serious decline, a dedicated author may not even get a publisher. I'd like such a book to dig into the interrelationships among the great generation of bop pianists, both musical and personal. Aside from all of these great artists that recorded, even if only one album (like Hasaan), we must recognize that there were brilliant musicians that never recorded, maybe never played a regular gig. I knew one such genius. His name was Mike Ralston. Where would I place Mike's playing? He was born maybe 1936, maybe 1938. His music took from the playing of the great bop players and Bill Evans, but he was a composer primarily. I once sat and watched Mike talk up a storm with Bill Evans for almost an hour. I wanted to let Mike have his time with Evans, so I did not butt in close enough to listen to their words (it was in a noisy club). They laughed and were very emotive. But Mike was both schizophrenic and bipolar. This combination also led to poverty. He mostly dressed in rags and didn't have a piano. His mental illnesses caused many situations where he would be abused, beat up, punched out, after someone at a bar misunderstood some of his mumblings. He often got in trouble for finding a piano that was not in use, maybe in a club or restaurant, maybe in some house, and playing intensely. I got to know him because he heard about my record collection. He could be great fun sitting with while listening, but something he heard might affect him and he would suddenly leave, maybe to find a piano. I have not seen Mike Ralston for over 40 years (I left town), and I assume he is gone. You know, there are many genius musicians today who are totally outside of the commercial world of recording and performing for money.
Here is a story from the AP in 2006. I like to think that Mike found that piano before the climbers. LONDON — Volunteers tidying up Britain's highest mountain have found a piano near the summit, a conservation group said Wednesday. The instrument was discovered over the weekend under a pile of stones near the top of 4,418-foot Ben Nevis, according to the John Muir Trust, which owns part of the Scottish mountain. "Our guys couldn't believe their eyes," trust director Nigel Hawkins said. "At first they thought it was just the wooden casing, but then they saw the whole cast iron frame complete with strings. "The only thing that was missing was the keyboard, and that's another mystery," Hawkins said. A cookie wrapper with an expiration date of Dec. 12, 1986, was found underneath the piano, suggesting it may have been there for 20 years. Hawkins said he suspected the piano was carried up as part of a charity fund-raising effort by a group that decided it was easier to bury it under a pile of stones, or cairn, than carry it back down. "People have played rugby up there, and someone drove up a herd of llamas," Hawkins said. "It does attract a lot of wacky things." Volunteers, who were also clearing trash left by some 120,000 people who visit the mountain every year, have broken up the piano and carried down the pieces.
That's the genuine first UK mono pressing (on Columbia) from 1959 of a studio album which had already been released a few weeks earlier in the USA with different title and different cover-artwork on the Verve Label: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster - Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster Recorded 1957 & highly recommendable.... Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster - Wikipedia ... .............................
My very limited experience of streaming is that in order to get access that is at all good quality you have to have a paid subscription. Even with a paid subscription I don't know what the restrictions might be. I would only be interested if I were able to select specific albums and listen to them in their entirety. And this does not even address the fact that the royalty rate for streamed music is proportionally much smaller than for other platforms. Many musicians will not allow their recordings to be streamed for that reason. Of course, not necessarily a reason not to stream for the music that's there and a couple thousand people boycotting streaming services is not going to affect the platforms. Just something to think about. But as I said my principal reasons for not streaming are accessibility of content and the fact that I have plenty to listen to at hand, including some other sources for those Nat Cole trios. But the next time I'm in the car I'll try the Spotify app on my spouse's phone and see if I can get them. She would like those trios, too. I was able to hear some of the solo Cecil Taylor album Garden from Spotify, after all.
Yeah, ad-supported streaming isn't ideal -- after a couple of times a Bach concerto is interrupted between movements by a Joe's Crab Shack spot, you'll run to pay for the premium service (at least I did!). And Spotify at 320 kbps Ogg Vorbis is OK for in-car and casual listening, but for good sound you really need to pay for Spotify Hifi at least, for 16/44.1 FLAC or high res streams. But then the sound quality can be superb and you have self-directed access to the material. It's been an enormous boon to me -- I'm listening to more new and new-to-me music now that I've invested in streaming -- than I have in years, when it was required that I purchase hard copy on anything if I wanted to hear it. (Not to mention I like not having more stuff. I have too much stuff. ) I don't have the Mosaic Cole box, so having it on Tidal is fabulous.
That appears to be a UK issue of a Verve LP. As Verve did not have a European branch, they licensed material to UK labels, which often used different covers
That may apply to some current musicians clever enough to legally protect their rights to their music. Of course, the artists (or their estates) for most of the history of recorded jazz don't get hardly a penny from royalties from any media.
I don't know if this album is the masterpiece of Third Stream, but I have to say that listening Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Jim Hall, Scott La Faro with an excellent string quartet is really astonishing. Dolphy is particularly creative showcasing his multi-instrumentalist skills. More in the background Bill Evans, while Eddie Costa is an amazing surprise. However good the contribution of the other musicians.
There's a pretty decent book by Stuart Nicholson called Jazz Rock from the late 90s which, besides covering the usual suspects like Miles, WR RTR, Mahavishnu; also picks up on a lot of the less obvious works including this one.
Below another one which I appreciate even more after becoming slightly boozed-up (between 1 and 1,5 per mille in the evening, as usual) . VV — Postimage.org VV II — Postimage.org VV III — Postimage.org
The 360 Degree Music Experience - In: Sanity Beaver Harris - drums Dave Burrell - piano, organ, celeste Keith Marks - flute Azar Lawrence - tenor saxophone Hamiet Bluiett - baritone saxophone, alto clarinet, flute Cecil McBee - bass Sunil Garg - sitar Titos Sompa - conga Steel Ensemble: Francis Haynes, Roger Sardinha, Coleridge Barbour, Alston Jack, Michael Sorzano, Lawrence McCarthy - steel drums (track 7)
This is an all time favorite from the Black Saint catalog, and doesn't appear in any of the box sets. It's one of their early releases that was produced by Giacomo Pelliciotti, which I believe were the best curated albums on the label. This was an all star ensemble that Beaver Harris convened several times for different indie labels, each having a rather unique identity. The 360 Degree Music Experience I'll personally vouch for A Well Kept Secret, featuring Don Pullen, and From Rag Time to No Time. I recall walking through the Port of Authority bus terminal in Manhattan many years ago and seeing Francis X. Haynes playing steel drums on the main stair landing in the building. The composition Sahara makes great music for a dance party.
This is my second from a short series of posts entitled: "albums I like but for some reason no one else gives a damn, maybe because they actually suck". So this Saturday afternoon, while having a nice cup of English black tea (no alcohol involved) l played Mannekind: It's a mistery to me why MOFI selected that one for a reissue. If you think that most of the original Mainstream titles don't sound very good... Maybe that's the reason. Or maybe someone over there digs this one as I do. I have just a couple of MOFI CDs, and I'm very pleased with this one. Although I never heard the original version:
He was on a roll in '67-68 with Duster, Lofty Fake Anagram, Country Roads & Other Places, A Genuine Tong Funeral, and In Concert. There's a reason why Down Beat named him Jazzman of the Year in 1968. I feel like this has been generally forgotten now, but Gary Burton must have been a big deal at the time. When the Grateful Dead toured Europe in 1972, one German writer compared their improvisations and sound to none other than the Gary Burton group that had come through a few years before.
Exciting news: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab SACD of Miles Davis "Porgy and Bess" is in the shipping process.
..... US Mono first pressing from 1959 The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago - Cannonball Adderley Quintet | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic ................................ ´
