JohnJ

l p, so you have watched every British comedy series have you?

Count me as a fan too. I saw the 'King of the Road - The Genius of Roger Miller' box at a cheap price and picked it up on a whim. To say the least, I have been very impressed by the quality of the songwriting on this set. All in all, an excellent collection.

Germany would be easier.

Recently picked up the complete Art Pepper at the Village Vanguard. Powerful stuff and fast becoming a favourite.

45, but not single .

Disk Union generally has a few brand new CD's they are selling off cheap and for less than $5.00 I picked up something that looked intriguing even though I have never heard of the singer. The CD is called 'Ballads for Trane' by Joe Lee Wilson on Philology and he is backed by some top Italian musicians. I only had time for a cursory listen but like what I heard. Anybody familiar with Joe Lee Wilson?

Love all the Quartet West releases, there is nothing else quite like them. Surprised however that nobody has mentioned Ernie Watts own CD 'Classic Moods', a quartet recording. For me, this is definitely his finest hour and clearly shows how much he has been influenced by Coltrane. The tracks are mostly his interpretations of classic ballads plus a few originals and the results are wonderful.

Good, that will bring you to Tokyo. Look forward to seeing you soon.

Well I live in Japan so pretty much all of the above. Have to agree with Jazzmoose though, Balut takes the cake, so to speak.

On the other hand, the Desmond/Hall Mosaic CD set sold most recently for $215.49 while the LP version sold for $100.99 so I guess it all depends.

Nice to live in Japan where tipping is non-existant. I pay around $17 for a haircut which is not too bad in Tokyo. Surprisingly enough, it is easy to find a $10 barber in central Tokyo, although the time limit is 10 minutes.

By coincidence, there is a new CD released in the UK that contains a number of my guilty pleasures. The title, of course, is 'Guilty Pleasures'. Just check out the track listing. Guilty Pleasures Various Artists Our Price: £8.99 10 Used & New from £8.99 Audio CD (August 23, 2004) Number of Discs:1 Label: Sony ASIN: B0002SV4OQ Catalogue Number: 5185762 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track Listings 1. Alessi - Oh Lori 2. Captain & Tennille - Love Will Keep Us Together 3. Pilot - January 4. Electric Light Orchestra - Sweet Talkin' Woman 5. Climax Blues Band - Couldn't Get It Right 6. Ace - How Long 7. The Fortunes - Storm In A Tea Cup 8. Andy Kim - Rock Me Gently 9. Sherbert - Howzat 10. Carole Bayer Sayer - You're Moving Out 11. Marshall Hain - Dancing In The City 12. 10cc - The Things We Do For Love 13. Andrew Gold - Never Let Her Slip Away 14. Peter Skellern - Hold On To Love 15. Gallagher & Lyle - I Wanna Stay With You 16. Billy Swann - I Can Help 17. David Essex - Gonna Make You A Star 18. Jim Gilstrap - Swing Your Daddy 19. Brian Protheroe - Pinball 20. Helen Reddy - Angie Baby 21. Andy Fairweather Low - Wide Eyed And Legless 22. Colin Blunstone - Say You Don't Mind

Jim, I basically agree with you. All his ballad work on Capitol is sublime, my personal favorite is probably 'In The Wee Small Hours'. For me, nobody did loss and heartache like Frank (apart from Billie) and even on Reprise I tend to prefer the more reflective material. By the late 60's his voice wasn't what it was, but I still find a lot of his later stuff very moving. As one example, listen to 'She Shot Me Down', a collection of saloon songs sang as only Frank could sing them. I still get a kick out of 'Songs For Swinging Lovers' though. He, and Riddle, are magnificent there.

Hard to choose three, the Mercury box is essential. Pity it is out of print.

Another favorite is the Roxy Music box, 'The Thrill Of It All'. I loved them in the '70's and, to me at least, the music still sounds as good as anything from that period. The 4 Cd's cover most of the essential stuff and the colorful, glitzy booklet really captues the essence of the band with a lot of great photos. I also really like the Jimi Hendrix Experience box. I am surprised nobody has mentioned the Eric Clapton 'Crossroads' box. As far as I remember, this was the first rock box set and remains the biggest selling one. Showing its age by now I guess.

Bertrand, I think the song you are referring to is actually 'Self Control' which contains the line "I live among the creatures of the night". When I was in my early 20's I really identified with that song.

HOT NIGHTS IN COPENHAGEN Mike Zwerin IHT Wednesday, September 8, 2004 PARIS The pianist Niels Lan Doky - part Vietnamese, part Danish, educated in America, and living in France - conceived, wrote, co-directed and stars in a documentary film, now in post-production, about jazz as a universal language. . Although he has accompanied such acts as David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, the Brecker Brothers, Joe Henderson and John Scofield, he has never made a film before. But he was inspired by Wim Wenders's "Buena Vista Social Club." Doky liked that it featured people who were all still alive and that you got to know these Cuban musicians as well as their music. Why not do the same thing for jazz? . Starting about a year ago, carried away by the project, playing less and less piano, getting little sleep, Doky pulled out all the stops to make the movie before it was too late. Musicians were dying, and he wanted to document the living, not the dead. He wrote outlines, drafts, budget estimates and structure charts, and he pitched the project to film producers and money people. . The Danish-based Ben Webster Foundation and the movie producer Jorgen Bo Behrensdorff of Park Films were interested. The total budget came to E400,000, or $480,000. Filmed in July, it has the working title "Between a Smile and a Tear: A Night at the Montmartre Club in Copenhagen." . The first part of the name came from veteran harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who likes to say that he lives between a smile and a tear. Along with the singer Lisa Nilsson, Doky co-wrote a song by that name for the documentary, which they hope will be released next spring. . From 1959 to 1974, the Montmartre in Copenhagen was one of the leading jazz clubs in the world. Johnny Griffin and Dexter Gordon would come in for months at a time, and Stan Getz played there regularly. The house rhythm section was Albert (Tootie) Heath and Kenny Drew (both Americans), and either Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson or Mads Vinding, both Danes, on bass. . "Thad Jones, Stan Getz, Oscar Pettiford, Don Byas." Just pronouncing the names seemed to give Doky pleasure. "Brew Moore, Ernie Wilkins, Horace Parlan and Ben Webster, among many, many others, all lived and worked in Copenhagen," he says. "Copenhagen was less 'recognized,' but it was just as important a haven for American jazz musicians as Paris." . Doky went out of his way to avoid saying that the Danish are in general friendlier than the French. But he did point out that Copenhagen is smaller and less of a global crossroads than Paris, and that the people have more time and, perhaps, need for the friendliness of foreigners. . "Some of the musicians became Danish," he said. "They learned to speak the language. Tootie gave his son the Danish name Jens. Some of them are buried there. Ben Webster and Kenny Drew lie near each other in the Assistents Cemetery, along with national icons like Soren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen. Thad Jones is in the Vestre Cemetery, where some of our prime ministers are buried. . "Jazz musicians have so much to offer. But they are not known as people, even by fans of their music. They lead such interesting lives, they are so smart, they have such a good sense of humor. I would like these people and their music to reach an audience outside the music's immediate circle, like the Wenders film did." . He lined up a core cast of Montmartre veterans - Griffin, Thielemans, Heath, Vinding - to play with him in the band. He would also interview them, and they would talk about the new days and the old days, about the musician's life and the meaning of it all. . The breakthrough came when Doky discovered that the hairdressing school occupying the premises of the original Montmartre would be closed for vacation in July, that they had not partitioned the space and that even their mirrors were on wheels. He rented it for the month. Art directors, set designers, carpenters, and a work crew turned the empty space into a movie set, including the rebuilt bar. . The Montmartre opened in July for the first time in 30 years - for two concerts with live audiences filmed by four cameras as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, which also invested in the project. The violinist Didier Lockwood and Nilsson completed the band. Lockwood is from Paris and Griffin lives in Limoges. Heath flew in from Los Angeles. Thielemans, now 82, is from Brussels and Nilsson is from Stockholm. . "Jazz is a form of music with a unique character," Doky said. "People of radically different backgrounds - geographical, cultural, political, racial, religious, age, gender, etc. - can in some strange way acquire an immediate mutual understanding and create a spontaneous common expression, all without any prior rehearsal or prior personal acquaintance. The musicians in the movie each speak English with their own accent. And they speak jazz with their own accent." . International Herald Tribune

Another vote for the Velvet's box, mostly for the music but the booklet is pretty good too. Definitely my most listened to rock box.

bebopbob, good purchases. Would be interested to know what you think of these. Happy listening.

Jim's list is great for the Capitol years , but I would add the following Reprise releases: September Of My Years (a mature peak) Sinatra At The Sands (you need some live Frank) Trilogy (for the past and the present, not the future). Actually I have the complete Columbia, Capitol and Reprise, not to mention the Hollywood box set, and love them all, but that's just me.

Visited New Orleans a couple of years ago with my wife and parents and we all had a wonderful time. Great to get off the plane at Louis Armstrong airport and immediately hear jazz being played. Just loved the whole vibe of the French Quarter and the laid back attitude. So many great restaurants and bars too. It is almost is if when you arrive in New Orleans you leave the U.S. and many of the normal laws are suspended. For live modern jazz there is a club called Snug Harbor just north of the quarter. The aforementioned Astral Project sometimes play there and various members of the Marsalis clan are regulars. In the quarter itself I would recommend the Palm Court Jazz Cafe. Don't book a table and eat there, just wander in and sit at the bar. The jazz is quite traditional but very enjoyable with a number of New Orleans veterans playing there and the atmosphere is great. As a Brit, I also have no time for U.K. trad jazz but the music that you encounter in New Orleans is very different. I would also recommend a visit to the Jazz Museum at the U.S. Mint in the French Quarter. Very interesting exhibits on the early history of jazz in New Orleans. If possible, you should allocate a few hours to stroll around the quarter during the daylight hours.

Also, what about the Joker?

b3-er, there are a number of excellent jazz clubs here in Tokyo. A long way from Michigan though.

Alexander, thank you for your post, very eloquent, and also very funny.

Happy Birthday Wayne. One of my favourites too, by coincidence my copy of Alegria arrived yesterday and I Look forward to listening to it soon. Hopefully, I will be able to catch Wayne, together with Hernie Hancock and others, at Tokyo Jazz on September 18.