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gmonahan
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Posts posted by gmonahan
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The Nat King Cole CD (1939-1953) has 203 tracks.
Am I to understand, then, that they're selling the entire multi-cd/multi-lp Mosaic set (now out of print) on a single MP3 cd for 9.99 euros??
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It's very good. Great tunes, first-rate charts (by Oliver Nelson and Gary McFarland) - it's a nice contrast to the many hard bop style dates in his discography. If you like Johnson, I can't imagine not having this one.
It's a good record, but I still think J.J.'s RCA records would have made a good Select. "The Total J. J. Johnson" is every bit as good as "J.J." IMHO, and it would be fun to have the more commercial stuff as well.
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The two Cobblestone dates were reissued on Muse and 32 Jazz.
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"Woody's Winners" is representative of Woody's mid-60s band. Herman was fairly famous for not looking back. While he would play songs associated with the classic period, like "Northwest Passage" and "Caldonia," he liked constantly to update them. Thus, the Fantasy recordings for the 70s are far different from the Columbia and Phillips recordings of the 60s, which are different from the Capitol stuff from the 50s, etc. Woody's own clarinet and vocals were constants, but he loved surrounding himself with younger musicians. Kept him young. At least that's what he told me when I was a kid and saw him live around 1970. I had an old 78 of "Blue Flame" for him to autograph. He got a kick out of it, but told me--gently--much of what I've written in this post, and a listen to any of his records pretty well bears him out.
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Did anybody else find this to be so?
Yep, and there's a thread somewhere around here about it too.
Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert thread
Late again, huh?
Well, at least some other people agreed that the sound on the Definitive was better! Thanks for the link, though. I didn't know all that about Schaap. -
One of the oddest things I found in this range of labels was the "Definitive" issue of the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall set that Legacy had reissued. I have them both, and I have to say that the sound on the Definitive seems a whale of a lot better to me. There is less surface noise, but it doesn't seem to these ears as if the music suffers. It's weird because I had assumed that this was a typical Andorran rip-off, but it seems to have been remastered, and frankly, remastered *better* than the far more expensive, more hyped (and better documented) Legacy release. Did anybody else find this to be so?
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I agree that the sound is spotty - some good, some bad - but I find the argument that they don't include complete sessions meaningless. These are simply elaborate compilations, so I don't expect Mosaic-like completeness from them. They serve as fine (and cheap) samplers for getting to know an artists' early work. But you do "get what you pay for" from them.
I'd generally agree with this. I have a few Proper boxes--the Fats Navarro, the Sarah Vaughan, and the recent Jack Teagarden (I *had* to have his Decca version of "Body and Soul"!). I'd be interested in the Tubby Hayes because I have only one ancient Columbia cd by him. Is the material on the Proper box available in a better package elsewhere?
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Talking of Mingus, if you only ever made one Mingus purchase in your life you couldn't do much better than this bad boy;
I was listening to disc 4 the other evening, "Mingus at Antibes", what a great performance. Great the way 3 horns and no piano sound kinda like a mini-Big Band.
Some of the most soulful, maybe even groovy, playing by Dolphy as well.
Oh yeah, that one is absolutely essential, as is the Complete Columbia set put out a few years ago. "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" is to die for.
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'The Debut Records Story' (4CDs) will be doing its thing at my place this weekend. Nice supplement to the big Mingus set and dirt cheap courtesy of zweitausendeins.
I'm interested to hear about this one. How much of it does *not* duplicate the giant Mingus Debut box? I hesitated to get it because I wasn't sure there was much that I didn't already have on that one.
How is the Mingus Debut box, for that matter? I think that is the only major hole in my Mingus collection.
I like it. Debut was Mingus's own label (he operated it with Max Roach), so he had complete control over what he recorded there. He did some very interesting things. I'm particularly fond of the records he made with trombone choir. Mingus had a life-long fondness for trombones, and as an old trombonist, I sorta like that. It's a big box, though--12 cds worth! It's also an older box, so the remastering probably isn't as good as a more recent effort would be, but it sounds good to me, and it has one of those marvelous, big-format Fantasy-Prestige booklets.
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'The Debut Records Story' (4CDs) will be doing its thing at my place this weekend. Nice supplement to the big Mingus set and dirt cheap courtesy of zweitausendeins.
I'm interested to hear about this one. How much of it does *not* duplicate the giant Mingus Debut box? I hesitated to get it because I wasn't sure there was much that I didn't already have on that one.
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The two Nat King Cole Bear Family boxes. I got 'em for myself for Christmas. What an *amazing* variety of music on those two monsters!
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I revived this thread to wish the great Frank Wess a happy birthday--85 today. He's one of those artists who never disappoints. I love his tenor, of course, but that flute--man, I do love his flute playing. Happy birthday Mr. Wess!
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Say what you will about the American economic system, just because it's not concerned with the hundreds of people that must have the Pete Rugolo Columbia sessions remastered, it ain't all that bad.
Oh, I don't know--those sessions really should get remastered. Maybe we should make the Revolution!
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I've gotten better and better at resisting!
Being fiscally challenged helps.
Yeah, it's hard going without food, shelter, and clothing. 'Course, I DO it, but it's hard!
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My first Mosaic was the Monk Complete Blue Note box in 1985. But I can't remember what my first box set of any type was.
My first Mosaic and my first box!
That's 'cause it was THE first Mosaic and THE first Mosaic box! A treasured possession, even if Blue Note did reissue the music on a fine cd set a few years ago. Can't ever have enough Monk!
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Yes, overlap is a problem indeed. . . . I'm still trying to hang with the versions of this material I have and am resisting the JSP set(s).
Oh man, you should know by now that when it comes to jazz, resistance IS futile!!
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Tough to remember now... I think it might have been a used copy of Ella Sings Gershwin (5 LP box with artwork by... Buffet?). Or, it could have been that Savoy Bird LP box. No, wait a second...
Love those lincoln logs. I had those! (tinkertoys too!)
Showing my age, I *think* it was the old 3-LP set that accompanied George T. Simon's book The Big Bands. Or maybe it was the old 3-LP Ellington Era boxes; memory fails. Or the original Goodman Carnegie Hall concert?? Still have all those. I'm a hopeless pack rat. The Big Band set was unusual in including individual LPs from Columbia, Victor, and Decca--rare case of "inter-label" cooperation back then.
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Finished the book, and I have to say the it is an entertaining and edifying read. I'll leave it to those with more than my scant knowledge of Jelly and his music to comment in detail. Suffice it to say that the chapter on the dispensation of Morton's estate has to be read to be believed and is by itself worth reading the book (or clicking on the link above to read the Tribune articles covering the same themes).
The story is ultimately pretty depressing, but I suppose the upside is that we still do have Morton's music to enjoy even though the royalties it generates are going to heirs of a woman who passed herself off as Morton's wife and cut Morton's actual wife at the time of his death out of his estate. And we aren't talking about pocket change: "By the year 2000, Morton's work had earned more than $1 million in royalties for the composer's estate and at least twice that much for his publishers - over $3 million in all."
And there's the story of one William Russell who spent most of his life chasing down every possible scrap of Morton memorabilia and filling up his small New Orleans apartment with it. That treasure trove, which only came completely to light upon Russell's death in 1992 at age 87, provided much of the information for Jelly's Blues.
How does it (and others) compare to the Lomax book included in the recently issued box? Apples and oranges?
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Got the "new" box for Christmas & it's the only item in my collection with a "parental advisory" note on the cover for explicit content. So it's probably not "expurgated". I'm not sure about that label though-- somehow I have a feeling very few kids asked Santa for this set!
Looks like the only real difference is the lower price and no Lomax book.
Thanks! I'd asked this question some time back, but I continued to keep an eye out for a reply. I looked up the Lomax book on Amazon, and you can get a used copy pretty cheaply--a lot less than the price difference between the newer and older boxes--just in case you don't yet have it and want it!
I'm definitely going to have to get the set.
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I would too, and I have that stuff too.
Duke. . . an artist to listen to for a lifetime.
Count me in. I've been bugging them about doing a big band set forever. I'm waiting to order the small group set, though--I just bought the Bear Family Nat Cole sets for myself for Christmas, and my checking account is yelling at me!
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Let's hope that there'll be a lot of factual info and very little of Crouch's agenda.
Like that's possible. The pain of digging through all of Crouch's BS to find actual nuggets about Bird we haven't seen is too awful to contemplate. Volume 1? Lord help us....
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I feel the later Holiday is a deeper communicator than the "fresh voiced" singer on the early sides. I would never consider being without either.
Neither would I. That's why I have the 10-cd set! (And the Decca set and the Commodore and the Columbias!) And there absolutely IS some great Billie during this period--especially the stuff with Sweets. But there is also some pretty *awful* Billie during this period, which is why I'd hesitate to invest more money in yet another reissue.
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Hey, if you've got the ten cd box set I agree hang with it, don't follow my on and off compulsion to upgrade.
How *does* the sound compare? I've got the 10-cd set, and I'm not much interested in upgrading unless there's a pretty good-size difference!
Likewise, it's become kind of a cliche to say that Billie's voice could sound pretty ragged on the Verve stuff sometimes, especially compared to her earlier work, but I have to say it's one of those cliches that's kind of true.
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But Mr. Davern, who was known for his acerbic wit on and off the bandstand, listed as one of his favorite ensembles Dick Wellstood and His All-Star Orchestra, which consisted of exactly two members.
Now, THIS is a guy I would have had fun talking to almost as much as I've already enjoyed hearing him on records. A sad loss.
Count Basie's band in September of 1963
in Artists
Posted
In July 1963, on the "Ella and Basie" album for Verve, personnel was:
Count Basie
[b2102.3890-5]
Ella and Basie: Ella Fitzgerald acc by Count Basie and his Orchestra:
Don Rader, Joe Newman, Sonny Cohn, Al Aarons, Fip Ricard (tp) Henry Coker, Benny Powell, Grover Mitchell, Urbie Green (tb) Marshal Royal (as,cl) Frank Wess (ts,as,fl) Eric Dixon (ts,fl) Frank Foster (ts) Charlie Fowlkes (bar) Count Basie (p,org-1) Freddie Green (g) Buddy Catlett (b) Sonny Payne (d)
That's the closest I can come to September.