Forums

Completely my opinion: CDs versus vinyl: I posted I played an Oscar Peterson, Time After Time CD I "inhereted" in "what are you listening to NOW" thread and this CD is an absolute mess, like someone drove over it, or tied it on the back of their back bumper after getting married. Whatever the case, I washed it and played it, and it played perfectly fine; I couldn't believe it! Now tell me this would be the same case listening to a scratched up/looking like a shitty piece of vinyl after driving over it with your car. First, that record ain't worth shit; secondly, even if the sleeve is salvageable, maybe worth a ham at most.  Moral of the story: it all depends on how you take of your stuff. CDs seem to have more give. You can run over CDs with your car, yet they still play; one scratch on a slab of vinyl, it's ruined.  Botton line: In my opinion, I think this vinyl-revival is a quick, market to dum dums, make a quick buck, stupid-ass fad, which young dum dums are titillated by, until their scatter brains run their ADD course very quickly, and on to whatever else. I'm in no rush converting any format to anything else.   

COLD morning again.. I slept well but woke up at 5 and that was IT. Finally opened this new Lateef release and it sure sounds great! Yusef Lateef “Golden Flower, Live in Sweden” Elemental Music 2 cd set, disc 1   800×800 113 KB   For some reason it made me think of my first exposure to Lateef. Early on in my discovery of jazz I bought a Charlie Parker record on Charlie Parker Records that when I spun it was NOT Charlie Parker though that was what all the labeling said. It took me a while to discover it was a mis-labeled Yusef Lateef record!    

I've owned Xanadu 104 ("The East-West Controversy" that features this Vantage session) for a long, long time and like it a lot. 

I've heard rumors about a live recording of the Coltrane group featuring Wes Montgomery (at the Newport Jazz Festival?), but it might just be a rumor. But since there was even a live recording of Giant Steps (awful sound though), it might surface eventually.  Wes had pieces like “Impressions” in his repertoire, so I imagine he would have fit right in.

"Blues For Bud" was the first Hampton Hawes album I fell in love with. I still particularly love the opening track, “Blues Enough,” and I think it influenced my own piano playing. "Hamp's Piano" on MPS is also good.  The duo with Charlie Haden is also moving.  Young Hawes was incredible, too.  The Contemporary trio recordings are sound, but you SHOULD listen to his early Vantage recordings!  It's really The Amazing Hampton Hawes. Hampton Hawes was stationed in Japan after the WW2 (later he was arrested for drugs and deported). Almost all of Japan's pioneering modern jazz pianists, including  Toshiko Akiyoshi, were influenced by him (even Yosuke Yamashita could play almost exactly like Hawes). I'm not sure if it's his sense of rhythm or his phrasing, but I think his style was particularly accessible to Japanese listeners. Given how much technique Hawes had, I was disappointed he had not recorded a solo piano album, but it turns out he did! Apparently, he recorded it when he was pardoned and returned to Japan. I hope it gets released on CD or streaming.