Mingus Big Band - Glasgow

I've been meaning to get this up for awhile so with the great scare going on right now I figured this was the perfect time. I'm damn sure Mingus would be on our side in sharing these recordings.

 The backstory - This recording appears to be taken from a radio broadcast. I acquired it when I belonged to the IAJRC. I made a copy of a pair of cassettes from their lending library...onto cassette because cd burners were not happening just yet for us regular folk. As soon as I was able to transfer to disc I did. Unfortunately I have since...uhhh...misplaced the original cassettes which certainly contain at the very least, recording info, if not also track listings.
 I'm sure I will run across these in the near future but for now you too can enjoy the mystery of identifying these tracks. Feel free to post in the comments and I will assemble the info out front here.

UPDATE - check the comments. Couple of our friends came through with the info.
A-ha and what I have figured out may be of some help. On posted recording "Invisible Lady" is split due to cassette limitations. I also have no idea where the interviews fall on the official program listings as I have moved them to the end.

 The last two tracks are a short interview with Sue Mingus recorded on the tour.


Mingus Big Band - live 1
Mingus Big Band - live 2

James P. Johnson - Watch Me Go

I know damn well this won't appeal to everybody but I think some of my readers may enjoy it. I really do enjoy stuff like this from the very early days of jazz. While these are all accompaniments, I can't imagine what it was like to hear piano like that way back when.

Some of these songs are just plain silly as so many period pieces can be, it was after all a much simpler time so they say. That said there are still many awesome songs on this record that would never have seen the light of day if it weren't for true jazz collectors. we owe them a debt of gratitude. The back cover liner notes are extensive albeit spotted with typos, so if anyone really wants them e-mail and I will find a way to get them to you.

James P Johnson - Watch Me Go

Rare accompaniments: 1921~34

1. Watch Me Go

2. You'll Never Miss A Good Thing Till It's Gone

3. Original Black Bottom Dance

4. Nobody Worries About Me

5. Black Snake Moan

6. Fortune Teller Blues

7. Doggone Blues

8. Can't Be Bothered With No Sheik

9. Oh, Mr. Mitchell

10. Where Is My Man?

11. You've Got To Be Modernistic

12. Shout On

13. All That I Had Is Gone

14. Lucy Long

15. Jazzbo Dan and his Yodelin' Band

16. Syncopatin' Yodelin' Man

17. Ooh! Looka There, Ain't She Pretty

18. Uncle Sammy Here I Am

1, 2 - Lavinia Baker

3, 4 - Sadie Jackson

5, 6, 7, 8 - Rosa Henderson

9, 10 - Clara Smith

11, 12 - Great Day New Orleans Singers

13, 14 - Perry Bradford

15, 16 - Roy Evans

17, 18 - Clarence Williams

From my vinyl copy of  IAJRC 52

Modern Trumpet Leaders - IAJRC

I've really been on a bebop kick lately so I thought I might share a little. This is another fine record given us by the venerable IAJRC.

Other than the "schmaltzie" Flamingo by Candoli, this lp is a bristling documentary bebop just before the age of 78's came to a close.

In the internet age it is hard to appreciate how awesome records like this are. From the back cover "Twenty five to thirty years ago after these recordings were made... Art Zimmerman, Dec. 1976". Well now we are 30+ years passed when this lp came out. Some of the songs have surfaced elsewhere, some may have not. But you can bet your ass the only place you would find these tunes in 1976 was on this lp, or the very rare 78's. And pressing records was a far bigger labor of love than just disseminating some mp3's.

What, you might ask, has this to do with music. It doesn't. The music will speak for itself. One of the traditions of jazz has always been to acknowledge those they came before you. So as I do my best to keep this music alive, I bow to those who worked far harder at it than me.

As far as the music...I'd bet my bottom dollar I have these Dizzy songs elsewhere but the fog won't lift.

Modern Trumpet Leaders
IAJRC 25

1. Dig This Menu, Please
2. Red's Mambo
3. Honeysuckle Rose
4. Buckle My Shoe
5. Flamingo
6. Mambo Junior
7. Chris and Diz
8. Purple Sounds
9. Ornithology pt 1
10. Ornithology pt 2
11. Sweet Potato
12. Hoggin'
13. Blues Ala King
14. Night Mist
15. Yardbird Suite
16. Donna Lee

1-4
Red Rodney Orchestra
Red Rodney, tp; Buddy Savitt, ts; Jimmy Golden, p; unknown, b; Morton Perry, dr, vcl
NY Sept. 1052 Okeh 6899, 6922

5-6
Conte Candoli
Conte Candoli, tp; Bob Winn, as; Ira Sullivan, ts; Gene Esposito, p; Chubby Jackson, b; Tony Papa, dr. Chicago June 1953 Chance CH-1153

7-8
Dizzy Gillespie Quintet
Dizzie, tp; Sahib Shihab, bs; Wade Legge, p; Lou Hackney, b; Al Jones, dr
NY June 1953 Showcase 4401

9-10
Junior Jazz At The Auditorium
Howard McGhee, tp; Lucky Thompson, Jack McVea, ts; Jimmy Bunn, p; Irving Ashby, g; Red Callender, b; Jackie Mills, d; LA, 1946 Imperial 5075

11 - 14
Howard McGhee Orchestra
McGhee, tp; J D King, Teddy Edwards, ts; Jimmy Bunn or Vernon Biddle, p; Robert Kesterson, b; Roy Porter, drums LA spring 1946 Melodisc M1002

15-16
Howard McGhee Sextet
McGhee, tp; Jimmy Heath, as; Milt Jackson, vibes; Will Davis, p; Percy Heath, b; Joe Harris, dr; Earl Coleman, vcs Chicago, late 1948 The Old Swingmaster....


IAJRC 25

Sonny Rollins - Croydon 1986

Here's another thing that I had to transfer over from cassette. Got this as a member of IAJRC. They had a "lending library" where you could get copies of some odd shows. I got this, a Mingus Big Band show and a long interview with Hawkins, which I erased half of accidentally. Those were the days....

This is originally taken from a BBC radio show. The performance was recorded at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, U.K.

I have taken the original BBC intro and moved it to the end, as well as an interview with Rollins that was the radio "break". This way the concert is all in one piece and you can listen to the conversation separately.

I have not been able to identify a couple of the songs. Help requested.

Sonny Rollins Quintet
Croydon, 1986

Disc One
1. I'm Old Fashioned
2. Autumn Nocturne
3. UT
4. My One and Only Love

Disc Two
1. Don't Stop The Carnival
2. Isn't She Lovely

3. original radio intro
4. conversation Pt1
5. conversation Pt2

Sonny Rollins - tenor
Clifton Anderson - trombone
Mark Suskind - piano
Jerome Davis - bass
Connie Campbell - drums


Part one

Part two