mracz

I think that if this had been really, really complete, I might be tempted to buy the whole lot (the old collector's obsession would rear its head). And most Parker is worth listening to once (or twice or more), but there isn't enough new stuff in any of these 3 disc sets so far to justify me getting them (I'd love to hear those Billy Berg tracks, which I don't think I have, but those are the only ones on that set I don't have!) This is a wonderful opportunity for music-lovers without a lot of Parker to get some really great music at a modest price, clearly with some good notes, etc. I think I'll play wait and see with what shows up on the later volumes and take it from there. One of my favourite unofficial tracks is the Blue 'n Boogie from the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in 1945 (with Gillespie): it's the history as much as the music, fine as it is. It was apparently the first time that Coltrane heard bebop, and after the gig, Dizzy and Bird drove back to NYC, had breakfast and cut the Red Norvo date (Congo Blues, etc). The fact that the recording somehow documents a pivotal historical moment (like the Uptown Town Hall Concert) brings its own special vibe to the music for me as a listener.

You are all whetting my appetite, both for the Gryce (sounds like a great mix of unissued studio and "live")and for live Hank. The Hank discography I have (Claude Schlouch) doesn't mention these, and although I know the Left Bank recordings with Kelly, the others sound VERY interesting, especially the ones with Griffin (I'm remembering the Blue Note jam session with Coltrane) I know there is some unissued Hank from a UK gig in the late 60s (Manchester?) which I've not heard, but as someone said recently, ALL Hank is essential Hank. And of course, Gigi was special as well, and I'm looking forward to this one.

The Gryce looks very promising, especially with Costa on board (always good value IMO). What I'm really appreciating about the Uptown reissues is getting the air-shots from major artists (by which I mean Kenny Dorham, Lucky Thompson, Dupree Bolton, AND Gigi Gryce), and a really vivid sense of how they sounded stretching out at gigs (The Dorham with Joe Henderson was a real revelation for me, although I know all the studio recordings of both of them from the period). In general there seems to have been a dearth of reissues of broadacasts from this period apart from a small number of artists (Miles, Coltrane, Blakey and a few others) and I've always wondered what else had been captured (particularly in the 60s when home taping off the radio became a more realistic proposition). Are there any Hank air-shots (as leader or sideman) from the 60's? Anything else by Horace Silver with Woody Shaw (I've heard a few live tracks)? Etc, etc. In any case, I look forward to the good work continuing! The Christian intrigues, as I assumed that more or less every scrap had been issued (particularly by the French Masters of Jazz label who seemed to have a talent for unearthing stuff that no-one else managed to get their hands on). It would be nice to have the Minneapolis tracks in better sound, but if it's reissues of the usual Goodman sextet air-shots and jam sessions, then I'm not sure I'm going to push the button on this one.

Thanks for the views on the Sanders. Speaking of wishful thinking, the Gary McFarland album Point of View (sextet with Richie Kamuca and Willie Dennis amongst others) and Profiles (the big band date) don't seem to have been on CD, (I particularly like the former); Pee Wee Russell College Concert and Spirit of 76 (the Oliver Nelson date)also missing in action; and it would be great to have the Marion Brown stuff available on CD(I only know Sweet Earth Flying, but if the others are anywhere near as good then I need to hear them; they seem to be rara avis).

Agree, but I do like Village of the Phaorahs a lot! edit to echo what Clifford and Ubu said.

Great news about There will never be... I've enjoyed the LP for many years. Any thoughts about the Sanders? I don't know either of them, and his later Impulse! period never inspired me enough to hunt them down either as Japanese CDs or as (pricey) 2nd hand LPs. Also pleased to see Milt Jackson's Statements; I don't know that one, and unless my memory is playing tricks it has Hank Jones on piano, who worked well with Bags (eg the 50's sides with Lucky Thompson).

Forgot about Hess in the Jeunehomme with Casals, and the Rubinstein 23 (another unlikely but wonderful recording. Charles Rosen once said he thought it was Rubinstein's best concerto recording, which is a slightly eccentric view, but I know what he means). Kempff also good in 23. Yes, caveat emptor over the orchestras in some of the Haskil concerto recordings, but I've gotten used to ignoring them. My memory is that the DGs with Fricsay are very good. There's a good double CD on Doremi of Richter/Mozart live recordings with Barshai which I can also recommend.

I tend not to go for complete sets in this kind of repertoire. Can't think how else to organise, so here's by nationality French: Casadesus with Szell/Cleveland: He did 20-27 (but not 25 for some reason) and a few others; should be easy to get on LP, although if you go for CDs there's a new Sony bargain box-set of the lot on 5 CDs, very cheap. Serious music-making and the orchestra was probably America's finest at the time (60s). Romanians: Clara Haskil: she recorded half a dozen some more than once. Andromeda has some bargain box sets of her both studio and live. Her violin sonatas with Grumiaux also special. Lipatti 21 with Karajan. Wonderful like everything he did. Also check out the A minor Sonata Hungarian: Annie Fischer 21 and 22 (should be easy to find a second hand LP) Polish: Landowska 22: live recording from the late 30s (on piano) listen to the ornamentation and the rhythmic vitality in the 3rd movement (she's in the pocket!) British: Clifford Curzon: particularly the discs with Britten or Kertesz conducting. As good as it gets. Italian: Michelangeli: No 15 the EMI recording from the late 40s-early 50s. Fabulous chops (this is a really technically demanding one. Mozart said he wrote it "to make pianists sweat" and it still has that effect on most of us.) Russian: Horowitz's late recording of 23 with Giulini. I know it sounds really unlikely but give it a listen. IMHO these are all essential and have given me great pleasure over many years. And I've probably left off some really obvious ones... I share reservations (ahem!) with many board members about Uchida/Tate, but heard her do 20 in London a few months ago and agree or disagree with her approach it was an amazing and musicianly performance. Full of both fire and lyricism and a wonderful palette of sound and colour. And of course, live in the concert hall is always a different experience (Brendel could be amazing live when the spirit moved him).

Lots to agree with here. Can I add Hans Koller (not the Austrian tenor player but German-born, London-based pianist/composer. Try London Ear, with Steve Lacy (I think this was Steve's last recording, and he plays wonderfully; fascinating to hear him blowing on Filles de Killamanjaro and Warne Marsh's Marshmallow). Cry, Want; Bill Frisell and Evan Parker play together (really) on a brilliant rethinking of the Jimmy Giuffre title tune.

Marty Ehrlich has also covered Dogon AD on a recent CD (Things have got to change) It's a good disc, I think it's a quartet with James Zollar (Don't have the CD to hand...)

Monk in Motian (Paul Motian) The great Lovano/Frisell/Motian trio with Geri Allen. A killer Bye-ya as I recall!

Tommy Flanagan's Thelonica

Yes, the play button just gives you a short sample. To download, you have to put the concert in your cart, as if you were buying a download, then go through the checkout process. Ah, that's better. I've downloaded a 1974 quartet recording with Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland and Barry Altschul one of my favourite Braxton groups. I look forward to listening to it at leisure later this w/e. Thanks for the technical advice!

Listening to Billy Hart's Enchance (A&M Horizon) Oliver Lake, Dewey Redman, Eddie Henderson, Hannibal, Don Pullen, Dave Holland, Buster Williams, Michael Carvin... A great album which lives up to the all-star casting. I'm going to pull out and listen to two other Horizon LPs later (Revolutionary Ensemble and Sonny Fortune's Awakening)and which I have good memories of. Never seen any of these on CD...

Ran Blake: The Blue Potato (Milestone). I know there are a lot of Blake albums out there, but this one is special. The idiom sounds really fresh and bracing, and if I wanted one LP that summarised what Ran brought to the party in terms of a very personal rethinking of jazz solo piano, then this would be it. Oddly never on CD (that I know of) considering the in depth reissue programme the Fantasy group has undertaken over the years. I'm also a fan of Newest Sound, but that has been around on CD. Some second votes for some albums mentioned above. Crisis: A stone classic, pure and simple, with or without additional material. Spring of 2 Blue Jays: (I only have the lousy needle-drop bootleg CD, and although I'm not an audiophile it still sounds really rough to me). 20 minutes of solo, 20 minutes of quartet; a nicely balanced old-fashioned LP (but the music certainly ain't old-fashioned). In a way, it's a concise summary of where Cecil was at at the time; the solo playing relates to the great solo albums like Indent and Silent Tongues, while the quartet looks back to Student Studies but before he moved on to the great sextet music of the later seventies (the New World albums and Live in the Black Forest). BTW I'm guessing there's a lot more music from the concert; I remember Cecil playing VERY long sets in the early 70s; but there aren't any obvious edit points that I can remember so who knows. No idea who owns the rights, much less the master tapes. Cecil himself? Lots of intriguing suggestions of albums I don't know (Caliman, Carroll, Jamal Khan, Byard Lancaster). Can I add that I think this is an amazing undertaking, John!

Re: Besancon Recital (and yes I'll figure out how to copy and paste from previous posts sometime soon!); I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember which version I have at home; in fact it's probably the 90s EMI. I notice that the Naxos is remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn, and I've usually found his work to be pretty good. I don't know the Kura label, but someone earlier in this thread praised their Casals cellos suites highly, so that might be a good option. I must admit that I'm not the best person to give audiophile recommendations, so caveat emptor! I should add that APR's Lipatti reissues (although they haven't done the Besancon recital that I know of) sound very good to my ears.

Thanks! I'll give it a go.

A lot to agree with in previous posts, but here's some more. Can I add a vote for Samuil Feinberg, both the transcription disc listed above, but also his WTC which is very special indeed. He's one of those remarkable Soviet-era pianists whose career was almost entirely under the radar in the West (add Sofronitsky and Yudina to this list, although not particularly for Bach). Dinu Lipatti's Bach is both pianistically extraordinary and musically sublime, but sadly he recorded very little of it. There's the B flat Partita (both the studio version and the Besancon concert recording; his last performance, and almost unbearably poignant in the circumstances), and four short transcriptions (2 Bach-Busoni chorale preludes, the Bach-Hess Jesu joy of man's desire and the Bach-Kempf Siciliana). All wonderful and all easily available. There's also an air-check of the D minor concerto, but that's all. A few other miscellaneous suggestions from the first part of the century. Edwin Fischer's F minor concerto: in the slow movement he makes the instrument sing like no one else. Don't miss Adolf Busch's wonderful 1930's Brandenburgs, with some of the greatest musicians of the period(Aubrey Brain, horn; Evelyn Rothwell/Barbirolli, oboe; Marcel Moyse,flute; and a young Rudolph Serkin in the fifth). Although in some ways, very much of its time, this is timeless music making! George Enescu's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas; recorded late in his career, with some obvious technical weaknesses, but like his fellow Romanian Lipatti, sublime. Modern, period instrument performances: may I second Rachel Podger's unaccompanied Bach, her concerti with Brecon Baroque and the sonatas with Trevor Pinnock. Great chops, and wonderfully lively, characterful performances. Lots else, and I'll try to post again...

The list of archive recordings on the site is mouth-watering (especially some of the 70s stuff), but I don't seem to be able to either stream or download the music. When I press the play button I get a 30 second sample, and then silence. I admit I'm not the quickest off the mark with technology, but I can usually manage to stream or download music off websites! Has anyone else had this problem?

Whoops! I'd personally be very happy with a vinyl reissue, but I thought the thread was about CD issues of LPs that have only been available on vinyl, which is why I added my caveat...

Yes, this is the one.

Yes, the DG Estampes is very fine. I don't know this particular issue, but Richter's live recordings from the 60s and early 70s are almost always of a very high standard. The Moscow Radio recordings of this period are in good mono sound, and I'd say that it's probably worth a punt. If you want a more complete recording of the Preludes by Richter (also from 1967), then try BBC Music BBCL 4021-2, which has the complete Bk 2 plus 10 Preludes from Bk 1 (Richter never played La fille or Minstrels); there are only 4 Preludes from Bk 1 on the Melodiya set. Good radio broadcast sound from the Beeb (as you would expect) and it's a highly recommended two-disc set. He also plays L'Isle joyeuse and Cloches a travers (from Bk II Images), and there's some particularly good Chopin as well (although I realise Richter's Chopin isn't to everyone's taste). There's an excellent live recording of Suite Bergamasque + Estampes on Orfeo C491 981 B, live at the Salzburg Festival in '77. Although he more than once said that his two favourite composers were Debussy and Wagner, he didn't perform all that much of Debussy's solo piano music, or play it all that often. BTW, I find the late recording (on Doremi) of some of the Etudes disappointing, but there is a good bootleg of the Fantasie for piano and orchestra with Barenboim conducting if you can find it (sorry, are we allowed to mention bootlegs here?!)

a legit Ichnos reissue (vinyl only) is in the planning stages - or at least it was last year when I talked to the gentleman who bought the tapes. Good news, even if it's vinyl only. I'll watch developments with interest!

Perfect. It's cool than an "orphaned" track will find its proper home at last...

It's probably much too late for you to consider for your reissue, but Hemphill's Coon Bidness has one more track apparently from the same session as Dogon AD: it's The Hard Blues, Side B of the original LP, very much a piece with Dogon AD and of the same quality I think. Bruynincx (the only discography I have, and it's the old print version), gives Feb 72 as the dates for both recordings, so I'm guessing they're from the same session or near enough. I also respect your "no extra material" take on reissuing classic LPs, as they have their own balance and integrity, but in this case I wonder if it's a case of the artist having to leave off a track because of time limitations... Does anyone know the story here?