Excellent post, as always. I had no idea about the Roulette sessions with Higgins! There’s a RSD EP release from 2016 with four tracks available on Discogs I’ll have to grab. Higgins sounds always sounds so good--not being a drummer, it took me a while to appreciate him on the more straight ahead Blue Note titles.
i especially liked the last 5 tracks with ray draper on tuba soloing.. one rarely hears that sort of thing today.... - the sound quality is pretty poor for listening to the drums, but track 2 you can hear how higgins approaches coltranes sound and writing from a different angle then elvin jones...
The best of birdland is a split lp with a Lee Morgan session with Wayne, Timmons, Jimmy Rowser and Art Taylor. The songs are “suspended sentence,” “minor strain,” and “a bid for Sid.”
Any idea of the specific Birdland connection? Coltrane was a regular Birdland attraction of course, but do you know the idea behind the LP? Was it a promotion for the club? Thanks!
From what I can tell these sides were previously issued in Leonard Feather’s two lp box set The Birdland Story. Wish I had a copy of that, apparently it has a 16 page booklet that might answer your question better.
Excellent post, as always. I had no idea about the Roulette sessions with Higgins! There’s a RSD EP release from 2016 with four tracks available on Discogs I’ll have to grab. Higgins sounds always sounds so good--not being a drummer, it took me a while to appreciate him on the more straight ahead Blue Note titles.
Thanks for reading David. Billy Higgins’ depth can be easy to overlook, drummer or not! Thanks again.
thanks for pointing out the coltrane cd - for sonny... there is a youtube link for anyone who'd like to listen to it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpcNz1g81w
i especially liked the last 5 tracks with ray draper on tuba soloing.. one rarely hears that sort of thing today.... - the sound quality is pretty poor for listening to the drums, but track 2 you can hear how higgins approaches coltranes sound and writing from a different angle then elvin jones...
The best of birdland is a split lp with a Lee Morgan session with Wayne, Timmons, Jimmy Rowser and Art Taylor. The songs are “suspended sentence,” “minor strain,” and “a bid for Sid.”
Any idea of the specific Birdland connection? Coltrane was a regular Birdland attraction of course, but do you know the idea behind the LP? Was it a promotion for the club? Thanks!
From what I can tell these sides were previously issued in Leonard Feather’s two lp box set The Birdland Story. Wish I had a copy of that, apparently it has a 16 page booklet that might answer your question better.
Ok, thanks for the tip. Maybe Lewis Porter will chime in!
Excellent! Thank you Michael!
Hadn't heard that version of Mr. Day, thank you!
Both Higgins and Blackwell have a bouyant, "bouncy" feel that I love.
What a beautiful pocket Davis and Higgins created on that recording...
You said it Mark!
That 1990 compilation "Like Sonny" is on Spotify.
Ah! I missed it. Ok thanks Tom, I’ll update later.
mr. day with higgins! one of my all time favorites. thanks vin