introspection - neglected jazz figures of the 1950's and early 1960's

Here's a compilation from New World Records. Did an inordinate amount of these make it to school libraries because that is where I seem to keep scoring my copies.

Here's a vinyl rip of one that I don't seem to have the material anywhere else. In glorious mono! NM 275 , link corrected.

Artists included are:

The Herbie Nichols Quartet

The Curtis Counce Quintet feat. Elmo Hope

Jaki Byard

Serge Chaloff Sextet

Steve Lacy Quintet

Booker Little Sextet

1. S' Wonderful

2. Into The Orbit

3. Race For Space

4. II, V, I

5. Diane's Melody

6. Body and Soul

7. Louise

8. Introspection

9. We Speak

10. Strength and Sanity

Really nice complete liner notes are here.

Shirley Scott - Girl Talk

Shirley Scott's Girl Talk is a slow smoker of a record. When an organ trio hits it groove, there's nothing like it. this albums contains one Scott original while the rest are standards. A bit unusual is the inclusion of On The Trail from Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite.

"Girl Talk" (Impulse Records, 1967)

Catalog # AS 9141--Original vinyl rip

Personnel: ''The Shirley Scott Trio''

Shirley Scott (org)

George Duvivier (b)

Mickey Roker (d)

Recorded in NYC, January 12, 1967

1 Girl Talk

2 Come Back To Me

3 We'll Be Together Again

4 Love Nest

5 Swingin' The Blues

6 Keep the Faith, Baby

7 Chicago, My Kind Of Town

8 On The Trail

9 You're a Sweetheart

Rashied Ali - Moonflight

After Elvin Jones, I thought I might add another Coltrane alumnus. A much more free record and another from the awesome pile I digitized.

This is an incredible session, that has left me jaw droppingly vegged out on the couch many a lte night.

Rashied Ali - Moonflight

1. Blood On The Cross

2. Soul Eyes

3. Moon Flight

4. A Light 2

5. Niama

Rashied Ali - percussion
James Vass - alto sax
Charles Eubanks - piano
Benny Wilson - bass
Marvin Blackman - tenor sax

recording and mixing engineer - Rashied Ali

Survival records SR109.

Elvin Jones Live At The Village Vanguard

A fantastic record that simply speaks for itself. I was surprised to find something so powerful on a label I had associated with a quieter sound.


enja records 2036 stereo


01. By George
02. Laura
03. Mister Jones
04. You Don't Know What Love Is

Elvin Jones - drums

George Coleman - tenor sax

Wilbur Little - bass

Marvin Peterson - trumpet on "Mr Jones"

produced by Horst Weber and Matthias Winckelmann

Live at The Village Vanguard, NYC, 1968

Cat Anderson and the Ellington All Stars - Ellingtonia

Yup, that's the only image I could locate for this record. My copy says nothing about High Fidelity across the bottom. Let's move on shall we?

While Cat Anderson may be the leader on this date, he learned from Duke to let his men shine. Not that Anderson doesn't shine as well, but for me the highlights of this session are the violin and clarinets. The credits are somewhat confusing, so I have only listed what I think I am sure of.

I've done the best I can to clean this up but I'm afraid it still needs work.


Here is Ellingtonia . A stereophonic release on Wynne records. The actual release number is obscured by a broken spine.

1. Between Some Place, Goin' No Place*

2. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing+

3. The Mexican Bandit+

4. Lovelinessense+

5. Accen'tuate*

6. Chelsea Bridge+

7. Summertime*

8. Like, Dig!*

Cat Anderson - trumpet

Ray Nance - violin

Jimmy Woods - bass

Sam Woodyard - drums

Budd Johnson - tenor clarinet*

Rudy Powell - alto clarinet+

Leroy Lovett - piano

Looks like Lee scored the producers gig as well.

Recorded at Mastertone Studios on 3 track 1/2 in. tape mixed to 2 track stereo...or so we are told.

Keith Jarrett - Bop-Be

I've never really been a big fan of Jarrett. He reminds too much of Wynton Marsalis. He is technically very profecient at what he does but he lacks soul. Iknow many a person who would disagree. But anyone with the huge catalog that Jarret has is also bound to sneak out a good one once in awhile. This one is one the Impulse label and is from Jarrett "American Quartet" period It's a damn fun record with lots of space for Jarretts cohorts.

Bop-Be IA-9334

1.Mushi Mushi

2. Silence

3. Bop-Be

4. Pyramids Moving

5. Gotta Get Some Sleep

6. Blackberry Winter

7. Pocket Full of Cherry

Keith Jarrett - piano, soprano sax, percussion

Dewey Redman - Tenor sax, musette

Charlie Hayden - Bass

Paul Motian - drums, percussion

Anthony Davis - Of Blues and Dreams

Another record from the bunch that my pal needed transfered. Such a great record. Wiki says very little about this fellow that I didn't already know. An experimental pianist with ties to AACM. This record from 1978 leaves me stunned.

Of Blues And Dreams

1. Of Blues and Dreams
2. Lethe (part 1)
3. Lethe (part 2)
4. Graef
5. Madame Xola
6. Estraven

Anthony Davis - piano

Leroy Jenkins - violin

Pheeroan Ak Laff - drums

Abdul Wadud - cello

produced by Bill Smith

recorded 7/30-31/78

Accents On Africa - Cannonball Adderley

Everybody is familiar with Cannonball. All I can do is offer up this little seen lp.

And a story...once when Kronos Quartet was playing locally, I managed to finagle an interview with David Harrington for my very small xeroxed fanzine. We met in his hotel room the night prior to his show and spoke for a couple of hours. I was damn nervous. The ice breaker though was the fact that his bed was practically covered with cds. These were what he travelled with, in the days before ipods, and at the forefront of the digital thing.

As we talked his about his various influences, somehow this record came up. I had been listening to it a bit lately and DH had never heard it, so I went home and made him a cassette of it. Yup, a cassette!!

Hey David, here's a better copy of you are interested.

And the offer for a couple of beers is still open.

Accent On Africa

The Cannonball Adderly Quintet Capitol STB-2987

1. Ndolima

2. Hamba Nami

3. Khutsana

4. Up and At It

5. Gumba Gumba

6. Marabi

7. Gunjah

8. Lehadima

Billy Bang - Changing Seasons

Billy Bang, a violin player is mostly associated with the New York Loft scene of the late 70's/early 80's. His music tends to be cerebral and invorgorating at once. This record is from June of 1980. I managed to aquire it when a friend handed me a stack of lps that he wanted transferred to digital. The lp Changing Seasons was released in between the two more well known lps Sweet Space and Rainbow Gladiator.

Billy Bang - Violin

William Parker - Baritone Sax

Toshi Tsuchitori - Percussion & Autoharp

*track 2 - BB and Masahiko Kono - trombone

Changing Seasons - Bellow Records 004

1. Summer Night (with crickets)

2. Playful Spring

I Brass Bow

II The Elephant and the Mosquito

3. Aduwa In Autumn

4. Winter Rains

recorded 6/28/80 and * 12/27/80 NYC

produced by BB and Kazunori Sugiyama

This Is Billy Mitchell

Unfortunately very little is out there about Billy Mitchell, tenor saxophonist. Hailing from the Detroit area, he played in the big bands of Basie and Gillespie. He recorded infrenquently as leader. These sessions from 1962 feature Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. The copy I have is a reissue on the goofy little Trip label of a Smash original. Admittedly this is a minor piece in the jazz canon but I have loved this stuff since first stumbling upon it.


Billy Mitchell on tenor sax


1. J&B *
2. Sophisticated Lady *
3. You Turned The Tables on Me +
4. Passionova +
5. Tamra +
6. Automation +
7. Just Waiting*
8. Siam +

* Bobby Hutcherson - vibes

Clarence (Sleepy) Anderson - organ

Herman Wright - bass

Otis Finch - drums

10/29/62

+ add Dave Burns - trumpet

Billy Wallace - piano (replaces Anderson)

10/30/62