Serge Chaloff & Jimmy Giuffre

I saw Pharaoh Sanders at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.  It was magnificent as you might imagine.  Ronnie Scott's is one of the best venues I have had the pleasure of visiting.  Sanders was in top form.  He played through a range of moods, including his more mystical compositions as well as some standard and very muscular hard bop.  

I didn't manage to visit any jazz record stores, but I did pop into the music annex for Blackwell's Book Store in Oxford.  The jazz section is small, but interesting.  I picked up Boss Baritone, an affordable four disc collection of recordings featuring Serge Chaloff.  I am not sure that Chaloff was really an "important figure in the bop movement" as it says on the side of the box.  He was a very fine hard bop player, with a great presentation on the low horn.  I have featured his music before from Blue Serge.  The box includes a good chunk of his recordings from the late forties and early fifties.  I am playing 'The Fable of Mabel' from Disc Two.  

The other thing I walked away with was Live in 1960 by The Jimmy Giuffre Quartet.  This one was a real find.  It includes Jim Hall on guitar, Bud Neidlinger on bass, and Billy Osborne on drums.  Like Chaloff, Giuffre dressed like an insurance salesman and played like he was from outer space.  I am playing 'The Quiet Time' and 'Two for Timbuctu'.