The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions

[Clipped and Shorn]

A good interim set (while you search for all the cool original LPs) is Mosaic's  "The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions", which was available on  180 gram vinyl as well as CD. Used vinyl sets sometimes but not often come up on eBay etc. Gives you a good idea of the kinds of things you can look forward to when you put together the collection of mint originals and something to inspire your searching and competive bidding. An informative booklet comes with it. Although not to be "compared" with Mint originals, Mosaic sets aren't too shaby plus you get previously unissued takes if you dig that kind of thing.

Grab This Set While You Can

$25+ per disc would still be a steal. Overseas bidders will go as high as $50 per disc. This is nothing compared to what those originals will cost you, and it gives you something to listen to in the meantime, surely this great music is worth the price of a couple of NOS tubes.

{Mastered by Ron McMaster using 20-bit Super Bit Sampling} It runs in his family.

c&s

[lynnm]

Good to hear from you again !

[Allan Songer]

I have about 30 Mosaic sets and I think they offer incedible value and pretty darn fair sonics too! Although I have some of the straight reissue sets my favorites are those that mine the vaults, my favoirte of which is the "Complete Grant Green/Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions." NONE of this stuff was released originally and it baffles the mind --really GREAT music! Sonny Clark was amazing--he NEVER participated in a less than stellar session EVER in his entire career. Considering that he was the biggest junkie and flake in NYC in the late 50's and early 60's (at least if you believe the tales in Hampton Hawes GREAT autobiography "Raise Up Off Of Me), it's an amazing feat.

I second the Mobley suggestion. He's another artist who never made a bad record (except perhaps "Reach Out," but it's pretty easy to forgive him for it). The "Poppin'" session with Clark on the Mosaic set is fabulous--another session that went unreleased for 40 years.

[Clipped and Shorn]

I have 58 Mosaic sets, but whose counting....I always dug them too.

I didn't recall those stories about Sonny Clark in Hampton Hawes' book, guess I will have to dig it up here and look again. Cool book, wish it was longer and had more (some) pictures. JFK cutting him a break and all.... nice to be reminded of that.....

I always use that whistling "signal" myself, but hardly anyone gets it around here, even though after the "movie" you would think everyone would catch it, especially after that scene at the end in the car with them listening to King Pleasure on the radio.... I can name that tune in 3 notes......

{I hung out with Hamp in Paris (early 70s) while he was playing in a dinky club with hardly anyone in the audience, (his style had already morphed into that later stage which was also very good) he was telling me about how young he was when he first played with Parker......

many years earlier I used to catch him in that Hollywood club that was up on the corner of Sunset and what was that St......not far from Schwabbs.... his staccto style was always an influence on me....his autodidacticism an inspiration. I play one of his cool early blues tunes, the one you mostly associate with Wardell and later lyricisized by L/H/R.

C&S.......Bb \ G / D...... (or G \ E / B I guess if you're playing an Alto sax)

[Clipped and Shorn]

"Considering that he was the biggest junkie and flake in NYC in the late 50's and early 60's (at least if you believe the tales in Hampton Hawes GREAT autobiography "Raise Up Off Of Me), it's an amazing feat."

The tales you refer to specifically in that book do not really paint Clark as anymore of a "flake" than Hawes himself and do not specifically refer to any "flakiness" regarding gigs, mostly "flakiness" regarding their drug copping business and general life style, although the word "flake" is yours and does not appear in the book. There is that interesting story of how Clark played a couple of chords to finish some recording session while Hawes was in the bathroom shooting up, and mention of other cats telling them to clean up their act because they were important musicians and shouldn't end up killing themselves. Hawes: "I said to Sonny, I can't handle it anymore, man, I'm going back down to Fort Worth. He said, Well I hope you get your **** together. I said, You too, and shook his hand. It was the last time I saw him alive."

Junkies were often motivated to make recordings and compose tunes for cash to support their habits. This was especially true for Mobley and why there are so many nice Blue Note recordings by him. McClean is another example of this and says as much. Dexter Gordon has stated some insights regarding narcotics and the musicians of his era. It is not entirely negative. There are reasons why musicians (and some other creative types) particularly like to fool with that stuff, but most lay people only know about the "flaky" stories and the ones about Charlie Parker are of course legendary.

c&s

[Allan Songer]

"Hustling day and night, Sonny (Clark) and I earned ourselves a righteous moniker: the Gold Dust Twins. Brothers would spot us coming down the street,say, Uh-oh, here come the Gold Dust Twins, and split. We were strung out as bad as you can get, way out on the edge and starting to burn people. The only reason we weren't in the park with the muggers was that we were musicians, and I guess something in our natures prevented us from going that way . . .

. . . When Sonny Clark and I started bringing back the wrong count to the cats we were copping for I could see danger lurking from the outside as well as the in.

The Gold Dust Twins down and out on Central Park West. Hungry, sick, and tore up. Our room at the hotel was growing so funky when the Man came by he wouldn't do business except out in the hall. . .

. . . I realized I was probably going to have to get locked up and the key stashed out of reach in order to really get it together."

Clark was dead within 4 years and Hawes went to prison. I still think Clark's recorded legacy is perhaps the most uniformly excellect of any pianist of his generation. He never sounded less than great and never participated on a date that didn't produce excellent results--from the Norgran sessions with Buddy Defranco to the classic Blue Note sessions and finally the few sessions for Time. Even at "the end" the sessions as a sideman with Grant Green, Ike Quebec and Dexter Gordon are all superb. The fact that he did all this while hopelessly addicted to a drug that eventually took his life is both sad and amazing.

[Allan Songer]

Oh! I almost forogt . . .

I always thought that it was an Art Farmer tune, but I guess you'd know best since you're on "the inside"

Oh, but you're referring to "Twisted," right--not "Farmer's Market?" Who wrote that one? Wardell? Sonny? I dunno, but it's a freaking amazing solo from Wardell--very fitting of the title. Do you think the tune was named after the solo? I always thought so . . .

[Clipped and Shorn]

The Hawes' blues I like to play is "Jackie". The tune "Twisted" (on the same blues changes and key) is credited to Wardell. Both became lyric arrangements by Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, and, of course, "Twisted" was again covered by Joni Mitchell, who, if memory serves, was friends with both Hawes and Charles Mingus. I suspect the "Twisted" title was derived from general vernacular rather than on someone's retrospective appraisal of his solo. Boppers (Bird) liked to write tunes on blues changes that pushed away from sounding literally like blues. They carried this concept into soloing so that a "modern" blues was a whole different animal than the predecessors. Wardell always played great perfect solos, you could probably write lyrics on all of them.

This "concept" is brought out dramatically and simply put in the Burns documentary. Parker's great "discovery" was playing (and/or composing) on the chord changes rather than the melody. The rest stems from all the new and full implications of this "discovery". The excitement of this discovery is evident in all the amazing consequent compositions by Parker and of course his soloing. {It is not just the "discovery" but the fact that the full implications of it came to a musician uniquely gifted and practiced to fully utilize it in the way he did}. At first the bold statement in the Burns' documentary seems ill informed, then when you think about it you see the deeper truth of it. Lester Young, in a sense was still "melody" based, although the looseness of his approach (eg. not stopping at every port along the "river" as did, say, Coleman Hawkins - {see George Russell} begins to foretell of possibilities around the innovative corner. For Parker, once the structure was the changes, the concept of substitute changes (and scales - again, see Russell) was an immediate inevitability. Next quantum leap in the same continuity: Coltrane, (who is conspicuously and ironically cropped out of the photo they keep coming back to in the Burns episode- the famous one of Bird and Diz (Bloomdido -Verve Cover) which has Trane actually (secretly?) off to the side as if waiting in the wings for his correct decade to arrive.

In my documentary, the full implication of the photo, however more complex and truthful, would be revealed. I would let the entire reality of that photo tell the whole story (Cartier-Bresson), not crop it to make it fit the fabricated moment . Now everytime I see the old Verve LP cover of "Bird and Diz" I see it as a Coltrane image, the image that isn't there, but you know it really is. {twisted, dig}.

Russell

C&S

[Allan Songer]

Just spent the whole morning (I was up at 5:15 for some reason--just can't seem to sleep in any more, guess I'm gettin' old . . . ) listening to the Wardell memorial album vol. 1 and vo1. 2 (Prestige). Wardell, Dexter and Teddy--swinging tenors transformed by Bird. What I wouldn't give to hear their jamming circa 1947 . . .

Do you have any of Wardell's stuff with Benny Goodman? I have never heard it and would love to--any reccomendations?

[Clipped and Shorn]

I endeavored over the years to get my hands on anything I could by Wardell. I haven't been currently searching, but I seem to have a couple dozen LPs including the 2 LP Memorial on Prestige. The oddest things and quite interesting are two volumes of privately recorded 1952 jam sessions (gigs) put out by Ray Lawrence that I probably found in some LA shop for $5 ea. One volume was recorded at the "Haig" in Los Angeles, another at the "Trade Winds" in Inglewood. I suspect there are other volumes of these sessions that I am missing. Do you have any of these? I have Record No. 101 and No. 103. This suggests that there is a No. 102 and perhaps more. There are not a lot of liner notes. Do you listen to Lo Fi?

Then there is good material on Philology, Xanadu, Spotlite, Tax, Dragon, Crown, and Design. Central Avenue another Prestige twofer has more good stuff including an unissued take of Twisted. Black California volume 2 is another good twofer on Savoy with material by Wardell. Besides material that I have filed under Goodman, there is the LP on Dragon (DRLP 16) which has Wardell with Benny Goodman Septet 1948.

I think there is material listed under Goodman which is readily available which may have Wardell also. Sometimes insisting on LP issues can curtail one's progress in historical pursuits, so I will grab CD sets that have organized rare material. In order to hear all that Wardell did with Goodman it may be similar to the search for Prez solos in that one has to comb through the Count Basie recordings to hear these great Prez solos, so you might have to comb through Collected works of either Goodman or Wardell that are available today on CD to suppliment the LPs that are difficult to locate or may never have existed. The Dragon LP has a similar format to the Spotlite LPs (eg. carefully produced and notated) and also features Stan Hasselgard.

C&S

[Allan Songer]

Thanks for the info!

And, believe it or not I am NOT opposed to the Compact Disc! I own HUNDREDS of them and will absolultely buy music on CD if I can't get it any other way or if I haven't been lucky enough to come across the vinyl issues.

[Clipped and Shorn]

CDs of collected rare 78s are a good way to go because I figure how difficult it would be to find those things (although I do have a few) and that when you find them, the one you have might be way more beat up than the one that was used to remaster to the CD. Some 78s do have a lot of punch in the bass which is fun, but mostly they are a novelty for me, except in the case of material which is not reissued in ANY other form and I am impatient to wait for someone to get around to that reissue. They are little fragile pieces of history and are avidly collected by some, but not really me. Playing each 78 is labor intensive compared to a CD which might contain as many as 30 sides. Even playing LPs is slightly more labor intensive than CDs and sometimes I am lazy so CDs are fine. No I have not got to the point where I have a CD player that stores 300 CDs! LOL.

C&S

[Allan Songer]

I have a lot of 78's--most of the DIAL and Savoy Bop 78's, a bunch of early Mercurys, Discoverys, Blue Notes, Pacfic Jazz, etc.-- and some big-band and vocal stuff too. I got the lion's share of these at "Music Man Murray" back in the 1970's. I remember buying a stack of unplayed and/or mint 78's for about 2-5 bucks a piece. I have an old Ortofon SPU from the 50's with a 78rpm stylus that I pull out from time to time--it's pretty easy with the SME--I just have to set the VTF to about SEVEN GRAMS (yikes!) to make the old shellac sing.

I also have a 1938 Wultizer jukebox that my wife restored back in the 80's that is full of old jazz 78s (well, 16 of them at any given time!).

I have to tell you that 78's in good condition sound really, really good on the hi-fi--the .65mm SPU really gets the most out of them. I have a 78 listening session at least 2-3 times a year and it usually takes up most of an afternoon and evening. Some records I have ONLY on 78--like "Blues in Teddy's Flat" and "Up in Dodos Room" on Dial among others. I think the most "hi-fi" version of "Ko-Ko" I have is the perfect one I bought from Murray--even the vinyl reissues from the 50's pale. And you're right--the bottom end IS punchier--you really have to do some SERIOUS messing with tone controls to get the right balance--I tend to back way off on the bass.

Anyway, 78s are more than mere nostalgia, they can be very rewarding in terms on sonics as well--as long as you have REALLY clean copies.

And that's the hard part--90% of the shellac you come across is THRASHED.

[Clipped and Shorn]

That's funny, I also got a lot of stuff at Music Man Murray up on Santa Monica Blvd. also a major amount from the Jazz Man on Pico before he retired, some great sets still in the original albums as well as singles. You can still smell the cigar smoke on some of those old 78 jackets!

C&S

[Allan Songer]

"The Jazz Man" and "Music Man Murray" were the best record shops in L.A. back in the 70's. I also used to score big-time in the late 70's/early 80's at the Pasadena City College flea market. Those were the days when 1960's jazz vinyl was so unwanted you had trouble giving it away!