What's the verdict here? I have originals of both and am curious. They aren't the best pressings. I bought ORG's Vibrations and really enjoyed it.
Silent Tongues is excellent. Tutankhamun won’t blow your socks off sonically, but I reckon most people buy Art Ensemble of Chicago records because of the music. If I had to pick one for sound quality, then Silent Tongues is it. However, I love these albums, so I don’t mind Tutankhamun not being AAA. Never heard the original pressing, so I have nothing to compare it to.
McCoy Tyner - Extensions Blue Note (1970) TOCJ-50521 BNLA 999 Series Piano – McCoy Tyner Harp – Alice Coltrane Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Clarinet – Wayne Shorter Alto Saxophone – Gary Bartz Bass – Ron Carter Drums – Elvin Jones
Agreed, and good point about his leader dates. Your mention led me to check and the sources I find show his first leader date as 1977! Roughy about 42 years old. More the quintessential sideman, but what a CV with Miles, Max, Chet, Elvin etc. I need to check him out further now that we've been mentioning him. He's still with us too.
Got a couple advance copies eh? The street date is February 15th at AS, the week after the two new Tone Poet titles, so I've got them on the list together. I was happy to see Infrasonic getting to do some of these (ORG's) and hope they turn out well. I worked on their control room acoustics when they did their remodel in ~2009. Nothing like a good/accurate monitoring environmeny.
Very cool. Your post about the Smoke gig made me wonder if they released anything and sure enough, there's a Smoke Session from 2016 with his son on drums, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Mike Ledonne piano and Peter Bernstein guitar. They always do a great job on the recordings so that's a must have. Thanks for the mention!
It's good organ soul jazz music and even though Murray is a little bit more restrained than usual I still like it. It was made as a follow-up to this one which is also good.
Spinning this fantastic gig right now, prompted by revisiting an Eric Dolphy doc. Great extended readings of "Meditations", "Fables" and a killer "So Long Eric"...aka "Eric, I'm Gonna Miss Your Ass". It's a gas seeing Mingus mediating the proceedings, cajoling everyone, and even taking the mic away when he thinks someone has said enough. He's in obvious great spirits during these two titanic sets. Charles Mingus Sextet: Cornell 1964 Charles Mingus – double bass Eric Dolphy – alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute Johnny Coles – trumpet Clifford Jordan – tenor saxophone Jaki Byard – piano Dannie Richmond – drums Recorded at Cornell on March 18, 1964 featuring that sextet. Sure it's a bit wooly sonically but somehow it works nicely with enough detail and a force and vibe that takes you back to the scene of the crime.
Not until you mentioned it, on the list with the others. AS has it for $26.95. Thanks for the mention!
Btw, @Yesternow noticed that Jack Wilkins/ Windows (MRL 396) reverts to the white-border style, and now I see that Buddy Terry/ Lean On Him (MRL 391) and Clifford Brown & Max Roach/ Daahoud (MRL 386) have that design, as well. So, I was wrong about Paul Jeffrey/ Family being the last in the design series. I made the mistake of checking just a few covers after that album and assuming that they represented a permanent change. Sorry about that.
RE: The BYG cover discussion. I was checking some of my copies of the later issued dates and they started to morp from the tightly "boxed/cropped" design near the end of their run, around the time of Braxtons "This Time", where the image extends the width of the cover and then deviated completely with releases from Lacy and Gong. This was ca. January 1970. Not sure if this adds anything to the sleuthing but it was a fun dig. And who can resist Braxton with a pipe?
Charlie Parker The Washington Concerts I've been heavily (and heavenly!) into the BOP for over a month now. Can't get enough. Love this disc. Didn't I read that Charlie played a plastic sax on this one? From allmusic.com "For generations the recordings made that night have been savored as glowing examples of how inventive and adaptable Charlie Parker really was. As Rodney explains, there wasn't time for Yardbird to rehearse with the big band. Completely unfamiliar with the arrangements, Bird relied entirely on instinctual "bop logic" to navigate with ease as he formulated solos of remarkable prismatic complexity. " The liner notes do in fact suggest he played a plastic sax. Anyway... he's a ball of fire on this disc. What kind of genius is this?
Hope I haven't misunderstood your question but as far as I've seen those cropped/white border LPs are the original releases at least as released in the USA (excepting the reissues of Time Records, etc). So, in the the USA, the bottom pic of your Jack Wilkins is the original - the top pic is the recent reissue. The uncropped colour photos were often used for the back sleeve. This was also the case generally, with Australian releases but often without the catalogue number printed in the corner. For example, Art Farmer (MRL 371) and Mama Corleone (MRL 355) Here's some more original vs. variations. The Sarah Vaughan LP (MRL 361), from left to right - (1) the original US release in 1972. (2) the UK release (1973) and a US repress in 1973. I don't do vinyl any more so the total sum of my Mainstream LP collection is a whopping 2!! Plenty of CDs though. I still have an original LP of Buddy Terry - Awareness and Don Burrows - Live at the Sydney Opera House. Don Burrows is an Australian Jazz artist and therefore ownership of at least one copy of this album is required by law. Needless to say, it sold very well down here... Btw, my Buddy Terry LP (Awareness) does not have the cropped/white border cover and as far as I have seen it has never had one - I can tell you that my copy is the original (US import) and looks like this, Buddy Terry - Awareness
Bird was in fact sponsored in a sense--gifted I believe--by Grafton which made "plastic" saxophones. Ornette Coleman became famously associated with them in his earliest recording years. They were actually very clever and well-made instruments and both players made wonderful music with them. I don't know if Parker used the Grafton at this concert; he was not supposed to as he was "contracted" with another manufacturer for US appearances.
Do you have a pic of that Jack Wilkins (the variation)? Btw, I spent a fair amount of time trying to find out more about the first Mainstream release with those covers and (no surprise) it varies beteen a 1971 release or '72. But nothing I would call reliable. I really can't remember now so if I do remember I'll post it. But it does seem logical that the lowest Cat. number appeared first (the Frank Foster that you mentioned)? Man, this is too much like hard work. I'm gonna have a lie down now
The Grafton Alto: Grafton saxophone - Wikipedia Charlie Parker The most notable player of a Grafton saxophone was Charlie Parker. While in Toronto, Charlie Parker and “the quintet” were scheduled to perform at Massey Hall, but Parker had pawned his saxophone - some sources say to buy heroin. A sales representative for Grafton (or the owner of the company, depending on the source) asked Parker to use a Grafton for a Massey Hall gig in May 1953. Although Parker was under exclusive contract to use only one type of saxophone whilst gigging in the United States, outside the U.S.A. he was free to use any sax he wished. Parker (credited as Charlie Chan due to contract issues) can be heard making beautiful music with this Grafton on the CD "Jazz at Massey Hall" with Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, albeit through a low fidelity recording. The Grafton saxophone that Parker used (serial number 10265) was sold at the Christie's auction house in London in September 1994 for £93,500 sterling. The buyer was the American Jazz Museum, located in Parker's home town of Kansas City, Missouri.
that woke me up! speaking of Mainstream, now playing one of my favourites, though not a Jazz album. But Ernie Wilkins as arranger should allow it I reckon! Never seen the LP when it was released but "discovered" her when Japan released a CD version in 1999. A terrific soul album imo. Alice Clark (1972) (Mainstream CD) some session photos, just because...
I think so. This issue was in fact an expanded release from the 80s... Allmusic: "In 2001 Blue Note released an expanded edition of One Night in Washington, an Elektra LP dating from the 1980s that documented some of Charlie Parker's adventures in the nation's capitol near the end of his short life. Reusing the same beautiful cover art (a portrait of Parker in action, painted by Charles Reid) the Blue Note CD edition adds material recorded in the same city during the same time period and retains a four-minute excerpt from a Red Rodney interview, which was conducted about 30 years afterwards. Seasoned Charlie Parker devotees may be aware that some of the music heard on this edition was issued at one point on an LP titled Yardbird: D.C. 53, and will appreciate having so much rare Bird on one disc. "
Fwiw, there was also a Japanese release of the earlier (and shorter) 1982 release. Bird & Orchestra only. One Night In Washington [Limited Release] Charlie Parker CD Album