Seb Palmer

Mmm… love this!

I’ve been digging Gadd’s immaculate grooving behind O’Donel Levy, on the superb Simba album a lot recently.

This performance predates that. And to see Gadd so young – big ‘Fro, but no beard! – is wonderful. And to hear him? Even better.

What touch! What feel! Not super hard and heavy, but light, subtle. Just exactly right! The veritable Goldilocks zone.

This was shot the year I was born. And he’s still with us! What a legend. I’d love to know exactly what the performance was. Who with, etc. I would like to see the whole thing.

LATER…

So, I found the above, on the YT channel of Dutch drummer, Ruben van Roon (quite a dude himself!).

Turns out it’s a quartet of Chuck Mangione (keys and flumpet) and Gerry Niewood (sax), with Tony Levin (bass) and Gadd. Poss’ performing at Montreux, ‘72?

Mmm… love this!

I’ve been digging Gadd’s immaculate grooving behind O’Donel Levy, on the superb Simba album a lot recently.

This predates that. And to see Gadd so young – big ‘Fro, but no beard! – is wonderful. And to hear him? Even better.

What touch! What feel! Not super hard and heavy, but light, subtle. Just exactly right! The veritable Goldilocks zone.

The year I was born. And he’s still with us! What a legend. I’d love to know exactly what the performance was. Who with, etc. would like to see the whole thing.

I learned about this on an episode of Flog It, when a member of the public took their portfolio in, to be valued/sold.

The owner had very nearly sold her copy once before. Having been offered £1,000 for it. This time her portfolio of prints sold, at the televised auction, for £2,250!

The whole work can be viewed online, here.

Fortunately there are other more affordable modern reprints, such as this one, for just £12, and another by Dover publications, thT can also be found via Amazon (and elsewhere), that costs a bit more, but allegedly has bigger/better quality prints.

Here a couple of scans of original prints:

I started these (above) today. I started the ones below a few days ago.

I did a two hour delivery shift this afternoon. Most welcome and useful, given the haemorrhaging of money out of my account, recently, keeping Flo’ on the road.

Sitting in our lovely garden now. Enjoying sublime sunny weather. Birds singing all around.

I’ve been thinking about enlarging our tiny pond. Hmmm!? Tim kindly gave me some more pond liner. We shall see…

Dad’s birthday get together was fun. He treated us all to a Chinese takeaway. And we had a video call with Abbie and Dan over dinner and pressies…

A good day!

• New Faces… 1952
  Horace Silver Q’tet 1 1955
  Horace Silver Q’tet 2 1955
  Silvers Blue, 1956
  Six Pieces, 1956 ✓
  Stylings Of… 1957
  Further Explorations, 1958
  Finger Poppin’ 1959 ✓
  Blowin The Blues Away, 1959 ✓
  Horace-Scope, 1960
  Tokyo Blues 1962 ✓
  Silver’s Serenade 1963
  Song For My Father 1964 ✓
  Cape Verdean Blues 1965 ✓
  Jody Grind 1966
  Serenade to a Soul Sis’ 1968
  You Gotta Take a Little… 1969
  That Healin’ Feelin’ 1970
  Total Response 1971
  All, 1972
  27th Man 1973 ✓ 
  Silver n Brass
  Silver n Wood 
  Silver n Voices
  Silver n Percussion, 1977

BILL’S HEAVY METAL BALLADS ALBUM!?

In terms of material and performances this should’ve been a five star recording. And in terms of my enjoyment of the music, it very nearly is.

Butt… and it is, sadly, a rather large butt…

Sound quality is an issue. The mic’ on Bill Evans’ piano is either damaged, too close, or something similar (simply overloading on signal?), as there’s a degree of distortion on all the piano that is just bizarre.

Herbie’s flute and Chuck’s bass are well enough recorded. But Paul Motion’s drums are, on occasion, rather thin and distant. Not a good day for the studio engineers, this one!

And, alas… oh, woe is me. Or rather woe is all of us. Because, as already mentioned, this is a great date in terms of personnel and material. The performances are good. Possibly very good? But they’re definitely marred by the audio issues.

Most particularly the distorted piano.

I’m actually surprised by two things; that it was released at all. And that, in our ‘fix it in the mix’ age of digital wizardry, it hasn’t been cleaned up. I’m sure software exists nowadays that could significantly improve the sound.

Despite this, it still scores relatively high, for me. Because, whilst the distortion is an annoyance, the overall vibe of the album is terrific. This really comes close to Nirvana. I hope one day someone dies the decent thing, and restores the piano to a more pure pristine sound.

So, all in all, an oddity. A great album, sadly spoiled somewhat by a technical issue. But nevertheless worth having and enjoying.

There’s lots of both beauty and ugliness in life. So there should be plenty of both in Art, is Art is a reflection of life.

But maybe Art differs, somewhat, in that we may have more control (although that might be illusory?), and therefore the search for perfection that in Life can be tortuous, is perhaps more feasible in Art?

Anyway, I find that here I am, in my 50s, and still a fan of traditional Art forms, like drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Perhaps analogously, I still like records and CDs? I like to possess an object; the Thing is important!

Despite all my efforts – two new (front) tires; new rear number plate bulbs; a wash; a hoover/tidy, etc, throughout; checking bulbs, oil, fuel, tyre pressures, and so on – Flo’ failed her MOT.

Apparently she needs new rear disc pads, and steering tracking rods. So I’ve gone ahead getting all that done. What with the recent new clutch, and the renewal of my car insurance (now a combo’, with Admiral for SD&P, and other folk for H&R), the new tyres, and suchlike, she’s cost me £2K in recent times!

And even your budget is as tight as mine? With surplus funds non-existent… that’s tough!

And of course, sadly, the nature of my current working/earning scenario is that when I’m without wheels, I lose earnings. So I’m hit with a double fiscal whammy…

As I type this I’m

Waiting to hear how The Garage have got on with Flo’. Will I have to cancel my 4-5:30 delivery shift? I expect I will. But I hope I won’t. We shall see.

I just called them (2:30pm), and got no answer. Hopefully ‘cause they’re so busy getting Flo’ fixed!?

My dearest, oldest, longest term friend, Dan Ellis, passed away, last night. At 8.55 pm. Taken from us all by a rare form of cancer, Thymic Carcinoma.

As I reflect on the parts of my life that I shared with him, I think my fondest memories are amongst the oldest.

We met at Comberton Village College, secondary school. We were young and innocent, kids becoming teenagers.

I recall staying over at his parents’ enchanted and enchanting cottage, in Little Eversden, for sleepovers, and suchlike. Dan’s parents, like Dan, were really wonderful people.

The atmosphere of their family home was unique and magical. It was a favourite place of mine, to visit. Truth be told, I envied Dan such a Heavenly home.

I’m not sure that that idyllic place remains? As it was largely built/added to by Dan’s father, with no concerns re building regs, etc. And, after both Dan’s parents had passed, it was sold, and possibly knocked down!?

In 2000, whilst we were all still living in London, I was privileged to be asked by Dan to be Godfather to Ailwyn, their first child. And I wrote a little song for him, which I remember playing for them, in their parents paradisical garden.

Dan and I also played music together, many times, over the years. Although drums are my main instrument, I would play guitar and sing, and he’d accompany on flute. Sometimes joining in on vocals.

His lusty singing of the chorus on ‘One More Cup Of Coffee’, by Bob Dylan, was a testimony to his own love of that rich, dark. stimulating bean!