i’ve been trying to avoid downloading something from dime-a-dozen, saying “wow, this is great!” and turning around and sharing it here. but i’m going to make a couple of exceptions, for this post and the next, because they both really hit me just right and to celebrate starting up again after the hiatus caused by my move to seoul, korea.
this show by j.r.monterose & hal miller (both new to me, like so many things that I download from dime) was a real case of serendipity. i was sampling a few recent downloads quickly, with an eye to something that i’d want to listen to, something that would also be suitable for a dinner party that my favorite diplomat was holding, something new and a little bit different than “the usual suspects”…
a bit of a tall order. but this seemed just that something so i dropped my search and listened to it all the way through: perfect. then on the night, i put it on early for a bit of reality-checking, heard about half of it: still perfect. and then again when i restarted it before the guests arrived: yep, just the thing.
clocking in at just under 2-1/2 hours, and good enough to take 3 listenings in 12 hours? well, that deserves an exception. so here it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/j._r._monterose
http://chuckdaloiamusic.com/
http://vocaltraditions.com/hal_miller.html
j. r. monterose and hal miller
justin’s
albany, ny
21 april 1990
j. r. monterose – tenor saxophone
chuck d’aloia – guitar
hal miller – drums
luther brown – bass
walter donnaruma – electric piano
set one
01 nardis (first 12 seconds mono-jr monterose out)/tuning up 10:46
02 blue bossa/tenderly 11:58
03 tenderly, cont. 09:51
04 bags’ groove, announcements 11:11
set two
05 a night in tunisia 15:21
06 my old flame 11:58
07 unknown blues, announcements 11:44
set three
08 tuning 02:12
09 my one and only love 11:05
10 lady bird 11:46
11 a nightingale sang in berkley square 14:00
set four
12 well you needn’t 10:48
13 what’s new/announcements 12:00
master:
2 sennheiser 441s and sony tc-d5m
microphones placed on the front of the stage at instrument level
microphones spread 12 feet apart – right pointing towards the drum set and left pointing towards the guitar amp and sax
justin’s is a small club on lark street in albany.
i think the event was billed “hal miller and friends”.
we’re not sound engineers, we were just experimenting with microphone placement and i think we really got it right for this tape!
transfer:
playback maxell xl2-s cassette masters on sony tc-d5m to marantz pmd-670
sample: jrmonterose_albany_042190_set1_04_sample.mp3
download: JRMonterose_1990-04-21_AlbanyNY.zip
14 Responses to “j. r. monterose & hal miller – 21 apr 1990, albany, ny”
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Bass player is Linda Brown.
thanks, walter.
Dear Bullen, After a lot of misfires, I just downloaded the Monterose, only to find out that upon opening the .zip file, it would appear to be corrupted, and only yielded Set 1/Track 1 and Set 4/Track 2. I wonder if you could please upload this again, as I love Monterose’s playing. I know it’s a hassle if you’re running a blog such as this, but I am hoping that you might be able to do it on this occasion. Thanks, Sphere.
hi sphere,
i’m uploading a new .zip file, hope it works better than the original did. should be done uploading in around a half hour.
pete.
Hi Pete,
Welcome back!!!
I provided a comment to you awhile ago about some .zip files downloading on older entries in your blog, but this time I had an enquiry: do you have any other Monterose in your collection please? The reason I ask is that I’m collecting recordings of the Belgian guitar player, Rene Thomas, a brilliant player who is well worth listening to. Thomas recorded with Monterose on a number of occasions, and they played the Amsterdam Paradiso in 1970 with Han Bennink, yielding 3 tracks that were once on the Ubu Roi blog but have since disappeared from there. I wonder if you might also have that Paradiso recording (not to be confused with a session of Monterose’s from the previous year with a quartet with Bennink but without Thomas, which came out on LP)???
Thanks a lot and the blog continues to be great!!!
Cheers,
Monk Sphere
hi charlied,
no, couldn’t find any other montrose, and a search for “thomas” in filetype=txt didn’t turn up any rene thomas. oh well, never hurts to ask.
good luck!
pete
i have to get me an avatar.
Pete, very grateful the link is still alive. Any Monterose is a gift. There were a series of recordings JR made that were released a few years ago, some including Walter Donnaruma, from various upstate NY venues. I managed to buy some but not all, apparently they’re not pressing any more. Perhaps Walter can provide further information – I haven’t seen them either on eBay or Discogs.
hi otis, glad you enjoyed it. but there you go getting me curious & doing quick internet searches. there’s a jr montrose discography in japan at http://www014.upp.so-net.ne.jp/jrmonterose/jrmdisc/index.html showing some releases on croscrane records that look like the recordings you mentioned. and http://www.croscrane.com takes us to a page about julia donnaruma (gee, what a coincidence), which mentions that you can get one of those old montrose/donnaruma upstate recordings (live at the gemini jazz cafe, vol 5) on amazon & cdbaby. as for the rest… looks as if you’re right.
pete
just found a few more great shows lurking in the blog, thanks a bunch
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Thanks a lot, Pete, for this concert! It will take its place next to that of the 1979 (in the same location)! Thanks again !
Wandefull!!
Thank you for the download. JR Monterose was a friend of mine and my family, in fact he was at my wedding. I live near Utica NY where he called home except for stints in NYC, Amsterdam and some other places. He is often called “the best sax player you’ve never heard of”. He was a good guy and a great musician.