mracz

What an amazing on-line resource. I look forward to browsing through it at the w/e. I'm already intrigued by his identification of early Dupree Bolton solos... Have I misremembered, or did he do a Lester Young solography as well? I'd find this very useful for working through the 1943-44 Basie airchecks (ie which ones actually have Pres solos), but that's the subject for another post!

I have several of the individual CDs from this series. It seemed pretty complete to me (although I've never checked that every alternate is included), good sound and wonderfully detailed and intelligent notes. Recommended!

Another vote for Podger. Lyrical, dramatic or monumental as required. Great stuff.

I'm late to the party as usual. I'm thinking about earlier posts about artists whose creative output centers on the 60s (although many of them are very busy and signficiant both before and after). Trane Miles Ornette Ayler Cecil T (Into the Hot, Candids, Blue Notes, Paris Concert, even if the 70s is arguably the peak of his solo playing and some of his best ensembles) Sun Ra Stockhausen (busy for 60 years, but center of gravity always seems to me to be in this decade; think Momente, Telemusik, Hymnen) Berio (ditto, think Sinfonia, O King, etc) Roscoe Mitchell (arguably the center is later, but Sounds and the early AEC stuff seems so central as late 60s interrogations of the decade) Braxton (ditto For Alto, but the center is certainly later) Reich,Riley and Lamonte Young (even though the heyday of minimalism is later, the essential planks of the style start then). Some of my favourite musicians/composers are active throughout the sixties, but for probably irrational reasons I tend to place them before or after the decade (Feldman,Carter,Lacy). Boulez relatively dormant in the 60s after Pli selon Pli. Ditto the European jazz giants active from 66 or so on, but really coming into their own as the next decade unfolds. On second thought, I'd be tempted to go along with Alexander Hawkins and put Karyobin and Machine Gun down as opening particular doors in epoch-making ways. I'm sure that I'm missing lots of obvious stuff, but that's the nature of these conversations I guess, and it's time to get back to work...

Blue Note. Although you're all encouraging me to listen to the Prestiges again. It's Lights Out that has stayed in my memory (Elmo Hope helps things along!). I love the Hutcherson/Moncur stuff as much for the writing and the ensemble vibe as for Jackie's own playing (which is wonderful in any case). There's a Blue Note twofer from the seventies with a quartet session with Larry Willis and the young Jack DeJohnette. I particularly remember a track called Moonscape. Lots of great music amongst the Blue Notes, and the ensemble concept varies considerably even within the space of a few years (say 1964-66 as in the Mosaic box set). BTW for me the sharpness is part of his sound/personality, and it doesn't usually bother me.

The Carter series is excellent, particularly Vol 7 (?) the one with the cello concerto, the ASKO concerto, etc. Great performances (Oliver Knussen conducting),great music (astonishing for a composer who was quickly approaching 100 when these pieces were written). Vol 8 is a little more uneven, but the horn concerto in particular is a winner. BTW Carter seems to be still active composing (Is it 102 in December?) and I look forward to vols 9 and onward. I'm glad that Bridge are doing this, and can't imagine who else would. On another note, Algonquin (Mat Maneri + Cecil) is another winner. Very interesting and successful chemistry, with both of them drawn a bit out of their comfort zones (not that comfortable is a word that usually springs to mind with Cecil...)

It's the 3rd variation in the second movement, the one in 12/32 time. And it swings!

What do you think of the sound of this series? My local specialist store has them all at about £5 each and I'm tempted.. If you're in London, would you mind letting me know which local specialist shop has these for a fiver? They're very tempting at that price...

Thanks for this information, Stompy. I have many of the Armstrong Blues sides on LP reissues (Biograph and French CBS, I think), but have never managed to find a copy of the Affinity CD box set at a reasonable price(the perennial question: why didn't I buy this when it was in print?). The Integrale looks like a good purchase plan for this early material, and I think I'll manage to live without the missing 11 sides. (I have the JSP box anyway, so that takes care of that rare alternate!)I also like the idea of listening to the chronological unfolding of his playing career, with the Red Onion sides intermixed with the Henderson and the early blues tracks, and later on, the Hot 5s and 7s in context with his dates as a sideman. And thanks, Brownie for the recommendation of the broadcasts. It's curious that the Ellington, Basie, Goodman and Shaw broadcasts from the late 30s and early 40s have always had reasonably wide circulation, while the Armstrong ones have been less in evidence.

Thanks for this amazingly complete overview of the reissues. Just for curiosity's sake, I can understand the omission of the Henderson sides without solos, but was there a good reason for leaving out the 11 tracks with blues singers? The missing alternate of "I can't give you..." looks a bit like carelessness. On the music side of things, how are the broadcasts on vol 10? I don't think I know any of these. Interesting complements to the Deccas?

He' s very impressive on Algonquin with Cecil, not just holding his own (that's hard enough I would imagine) but takes charge at times and moves the music in his direction. By the Laws of Music with Matt Shipp is also a favourite of mine. Haven't got into his leader dates. Any recs? And I haven't forgotten the stuff with Papa Jo...

Does anyone know what period/label(s) the Hawkins will cover?

Yes,I also remember hearing Earl Warren several times in NYC in the seventies playing some amazing things.

Yes, the sound on those LPs was very good, except for the Greatest Hits album (spoken introduction by Al "Jazzbo" Collins which sequed directly into Bird Gets the Worm); there is an amazing and off-putting pitch wobble between Bird's first and second choruses on Ko-Ko. I still have a 5 LP box set on Savoy, but I'm sure it's in session order. I must have a look, as it's been a while since I've had a listen to them. These are some of the very rare jazz recordings for which I'm happy to have every scrap; eg that wonderful, wonderful Bird solo on the incomplete take of Parker's Mood. However I can probably manage to lead a happy and fulfilled life without owning a copy of the two bass notes from the Tiny Grimes session...

Yes, I picked these Saga ones up later on. I remember ordering some of the Spotlite reissues of the Dial sessions from Denmark of all places in the early seventies; I think I saw an ad in Downbeat for a mail-order company there, wrote to them, got the catalogue, saved up my pocket money, went to the post office to get an international money order, etc, etc, then waited a couple of months for them to arrive. The internet was unimaginable, then. The Parker Savoys I managed to pick up at a record store in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Ozzie Cadena ran it (it was mostly rock/psychedelia, water-pipes, incense, you get the picture), but once in a while he would bring in a small box of Savoy LPs, including those dreadful LP reissues of the Parker sessions with the alternate takes and false starts from various sessions scrambled up between the various LPs, but at least I got to hear the music. (I didn't know who Ozzie was a that point, he wasn't very forthcoming, and you had to visit regularly and hope to catch his latest batch). The good old days?!

There was an Archive of Jazz and Folk LP which had a few tracks from the 1950 Parker/Navarro/Powell date which was one of the first Parker recordings I owned (you could pick these up at department stores for $1.99). In those days (early seventies) neither the Savoys nor the Dials were easily available in New Jersey! It also included a few tracks from the Royal Roost (including the wonderful White Christmas). The Ornithology from this session quickly became and has remained one of my favourite recordings. After Parker's astonishing opening phrase you can hear someone with a high pitched voice shout "Go baby!" Petersen and Rehak suggest that it might be Little Jimmy Scott's voice, picked up by the mike... An amazing moment; audio verite from the dim, distant past... And Bud is on fire!

Why have you given up on bios? In general, I find too much emphasis on the unhappy or negative in music bios. I hear a lot in the music that I don't read much about in the biographies. The last musician's bio I read was Kelley's Thelonious Monk. After reading it, I felt depressed. Perhaps all of the details that Kelley reports occured, but there must have been a lot more than those details, because I hear Monk's music very differently than what I experienced in reading that book. All of this leads to a discussion of how much of musicians' lives go into their music, and how do life experiences find their way into the music. I don't have enough lifetime left to go there. I'd rather just listen. I guess what I want to say is listening to the music brings me far closer than any biography could ever hope to. I sympathise, but for me Kelley's book made me realise the extent to which Monk overcame some very profound personal difficulties to create extraordinary music, and to that extent I found the tale inspiring rather than depressing. But yes, the details about his last years are harrowing!

Check out Ethan Iverson's Bud Powell posts for some very interesting reading about late Bud (he recommends the Geneva gig, and also the one from Lausanne in the same year). It's on Do the Math (still can't insert links, but Google will find it for you). He's refreshingly appreciative of the best of late Powell without being uncritical.

There was a 45 issued at the time, not from the Crisis concert but studio tracks, one side called The man I the moon, I think. I'm guessing that's what's on the sampler. Nice tracks,particularly the one NOT called Man in the moon...

Yes, an amazing discovery. Fru and Brew! I look forward to this. And how about not only the Hasaan session, but the Don Cherry and Steve Lacy trios, and the outtakes from the Monk/Blakey Jazz Messengers session...

Another vote for Marion Brown: I have Sweet Earth Flying on LP and look forward to hearing Geechee. Sam Rivers next, please...

I remember a wonderful Shelley Manne slow solo on Autumn in New York from the 50's duet album with Shorty Rogers (or is it a trio with Giuffre?). Very melodic, beautifully structured, and it swings. Haven't heard it in years, must look it up.

Thanks for correcting my faulty memory. That listing seems pretty definitive. Are there any videos from Jazz Goes to College that survive?

Speaking from my fading and sometimes unreliable memory, the story is that Ayler recorded a television slot in London; when one of the executives heard/saw it the programme was cancelled and the tapes erased. BTW it's supposed to have been ITV (maybe Thames TV or whatever it was called in the 60s?) not the BBC. The Beeb was usually pretty cool about outside/avant-garde music of all stripes. I have no idea if this is true or just urban myth...