Shrdlu

Michael Cuscuna is not keen on those two Turrentine sessions, Reinier, so I doubt that he would put these out. I have them (in the form of horrible "Liberty Applause" CDs and an LP of one of them) and although I like them, they are not like the earlier, hard-bop albums by Stanley. They are more pop-orientated, and there are many albums in that vein that I prefer to these; for example, the Sergio Mendes albums. I don't reach for these Turrentines very often.

Thanks a lot for the information, Claude, Brownie, Vincent and King. This is all very interesting! It's also good to know that these releases are not bootlegs. From the sound of it, it does not seem likely that Mosaic will be releasing these performances. I am planning to order the Zurich and California (not sure of the city) CDs, as soon as I can afford them. They are listed on the Amazon.com website, but are much more expensive than the Paris set, which was amazingly cheap. It is well worth having alternate versions of this band's performances, as they left a lot of room for spontaneity in their arrangements, and one is not hearing just a pile of alternate takes. You mention the sound quality, Claude. The Paris set has very good sound, and I don't think that it needs an upgrade. Also, the mono is very "full" and rich, and you don't get that narrow sound that is on some mono recordings. The original engineers at Olympia were obviously very good.

Meddy, the De Soto remark is a quote from the old Groucho Marx TV show. He ended each show by saying "When you go down to your De Soto dealer, don't forget to tell 'em Groucho sent you." There is a website somewhere with a few video clips of Groucho, including that sign-off. I found two more albums of live performances: "Concert In The Rain" (from California) and "Swiss Jazz Days", from Zurich (11/17/60, only two days before the Paris performance). The Verve live performances (in Berlin and Milano) are from the same tour. I now suspect that all these concerts (Berlin, Milano, Zurich, Paris and maybe others) were recorded for Norman Granz, and that he and Gerry picked what they considered to be the best performances for the original LP ("On Tour"). That would make the four issued CDs bootlegs awaiting the ministrations of Mosaic. Finally: "a" again! (And thanks to Mike Weil for showing me how to delete a thread. The "Help" feature gave no clue as to how to do this.)

"Utter Chaos" is, at least, in the 2 CD set of live recordings from Paris, France - see my post in the Box Set section.

At this time of excitement about the new Mosaic set of the Verve recordings by the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, here's a great companion set, which just qualifies as a "box set": it has 2 CDs and comes in a small box. It is quite a handsome box, and is put out by an outfit called "Laserlight". The box also says Delta Music and gives a website: www.deltamusic.de. It contains what seems to be everything performed at a concert in Paris, France on November 19, 1960. Selling at about $10.00 at your local De Soto dealer, it is a real bargain! The personnel is almost the same as at the Vanguard session (December 11), the main difference being that Zoot is present and Conte Candoli is there instead of Clark Terry. All but one of the charts from the Vanguard are included, and it's very interesting to hear these other versions, which, not surprisingly, are quite different. ("Let My People Be" appears under the title "Spring Is Sprung"; these are basically the same piece, as a skeletal structure, though so much was left until the performances that they are not identical.) The 15 pieces performed are all familiar items from the band's repertoire. There is one error in the listings: "Moten Swing" turns out to be "Broadway". (I was a little disappointed by that, as I was keen to hear how they would play that swing classic.) The sound is very good, I think - a clear mono. Mono is quite reasonable, as the sound would be virtually mono if you were sitting in the audience several rows back from the front. The balance is very clear and you can hear each instrument perfectly. Definitely recommended! This is the only published non-Verve set that I have seen. It may be one of the sessions referred to by Michael Cuscuna in the latest Mosaic catalog - he says that Norman Granz made several live recordings of the band, and that these might appear in a future Mosaic set. I don't know whether this 2 CD set is a bootleg, by the way. (The liner notes stink, and the package would be better without them. They are by some pompous armchair critic, whose criticisms are the height of impertinance. But these can be ignored.)

Hi! I'm getting into Andrew Hill. Does anyone have any of his recordings for sale? I hear that "Point of Departure" is good, but some people think Hill is wierd.

Some more bass flute! After someone reported that there's a new Japanese CD of "The Individualism of Gil Evans", I played my (U.S.) copy again, and "The Barbara Song" has some bass flute. The total personnel is listed (although there is some uncertainty about who was on those Gil sessions) but it does not say who is on flute. Those studio woodwind guys that Gil used to use in the 50s and 60s could all play about 10 instruments!

If you use the Gemm website to look for LPs, you will bump into this company sooner or later. They give fine service, as have all of the retailers with whom I have dealt after seeing them on Gemm. (The site is www.gemm.com, by the way.)

Yet another Verve Minnie LP! I love those covers, and they all seem to have great sound. Surprising that Jo Jones was used on this session, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Bruce, it's a bit late to say so, I guess, but I would recommend "Charisma". The lineup and performances are precious - that era, and those people, are irreplaceable. Plus, the album is great to hear. No, it's not the best-ever album in anyone's collection, but it sure is enjoyable. (There is even a TOCJ of this.)

Sorry that you didn't like "Soft Samba", Vibes. It's quite haunting, for me. I did pick up the "Oktober Suite" recently, after scanning the Verve mini LP list again, and bearing in mind that there is a time limit on these. Here's the link, by the way http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/series.aspx?sid=7 The earliest of these go off in May 2005, but they only made one production run according to Ken Druker at Verve, so they may disappear before then; it's happened before. I haven't come across any with poor sound, and I have by now fallen in love with mini LPs. This album is very different, and it will take me awhile to get next to it. My first impressions are that it's very good, and I think I'm going to like it quite a lot. They did a fine job of replicating the Impulse gatefold cover. Ideally, all my Impulse CDs would be in this format, but who's that rich?

Nice one, Lon! There are days when a bulletin board is a pain, rather than recreational, and you wonder why you are on it. That post neatly encapsulates this.

I am a present-day missionary, and I thought I had problems!

If and when you can, just get the first five or so BN albums. They are all excellent, and all exist in TOCJ form, as well as most being on the new 3 CD set. (I haven't heard the sound on that set, as I already have all the Patton BNs as TOCJs.)

HK, why not find someone who has Musicmatch on their computer? With this, you can feed any analog sound through the sound card onto the hard-drive, where it is then digital. I use this to transfer LPs to CDr, for convenience and to save wear and tear on the vinyl. I cannot tell the difference between the final CDr and the original sound source. All you would need is a CD player that will play that CD once. So far, I have not even laid eyes on a controlled CD, and I don't think I would buy one. That's sad, as zweitausendeins.de has good prices on RVGs.

This is not very specific, but Hank Mancini was partial to the flute, and I seem to remember the bass being used in some of his scores. I do know that Joe Farrell played it on the Jobim album "Tide", as it was overdubbed on the track "Takatanga", and this overdub was left out when Universal recently reissued the album as a 24 bit CD (they must have used a pre-overdub tape). This fault carried over to the Japanese mini-LP version, which was sonically the same as the domestic CD. To hear this elusive performance, you would need either the LP (used LPs are not rare - see gemm.com) or the earlier Japanese CD, a copy of which I got from Tower about 18 months ago. I hope that this is not frustrating for you.

I'm sorry to hear that you don't like this one, CS. It has given me a great deal of listening pleasure. Wait awhile, and perhaps give it another shot later. It is more than just a blowing date, and, also, Jackie and Tina worked so well together. Redd isn't all that spectacular as a soloist; it's his compositions and arrangements that are the thing. I guess you could say he plays "bandleader's piano", or "composer's piano", or whatever the phrase is.

Now that's tempting. If ever there were an album that was worth having with the best possible sound ...

Blasphemy! The Lord says there was an unissued 'Organic Greenery' recorded at the June 13, 1960 session. So does the Ruppli-Cuscuna BN Label discography which lists the tune as rejected. The tune was redone at the Smith-Green-Bailey trio January 1963 session. I assume that you are joking, but, does it really matter about "Organic Greenery"? I don't give a hoot, to be honest. I was just trying to help. The title sure suggests that it is from a Green session with organ. Why would they record a track with that name on a date without Grant Green? I suggest that the discography made a boo boo.

The "Baby Grand" albums are only on Japanese CDs, to the best of my knowledge. "Organic Greenery" is on the "I'm Movin' On" CD, which I have. It is not from the Turrentine sessions. It is from that 1963 session with Grant Green. It should be pointed out that the "Special Guests" LP was a compilation.

Re the Monk Black Lion/Vogue Mosaic, I take it that youse guys know that a 3 CD set of the Black Lion recordings, with more tracks and better sound, is available for about $10 from the likes of Zweitausendeins.de. I have that set, and handsome it is. I'm not too sure about the availability of the Vogue sides - all I have is a burn from a friend, as it was then OOP. As I have $500 that I don't need, maybe I'll "buy it now".

I love "The Rajah", JS. I even got a TOCJ of it. That opening track, "A Pilgrim's Funny Farm" (or some name like that) is long and haunting - Cedar Walton's sound adds a lot to its overall quality. It is also one of Paul Chambers' last sessions, if memory serves. The (main) "Procrastinator" session is awesome. What a lineup. The "Sonic Boom" session never really got to me. I was always disgusted to see the panic prices on eBay for it. (A kind of latter-day "Straight No Filter" - remember those days?) The appearance of the new CD will have put an end to that.

There's too much above for me to sift through, so, at the risk of duplicating what someone else has said, and with apologies in advance: "Special Guests" had "S'Wonderful" and "Blue Room" from the 8/25/57 jam session "Smith Walk" and "Lonesome Road" from 6/13/60, with Stanley Turrentine, Quentin Warren, Sam Jones and Dave Bailey (all on the "Prayer Meetin'" CD, but not on the LP) "Day In, Day Out" from 1/31/63, the "I'm Movin' On" session with Grant Green, and this track is on the CD reissue. The two 8/25/57 items were on the old CD of "House Party" but were pig-headedly left off when the RVGs of that and "The Sermon" were made, so they are now hard to find. So, in a sense, the "Special Guests" album is redundant. This question, and the question about "Lonesome Road" come up repeatedly because things are confusing when it comes to Smith sessions. (How about three different versions of "Cherokee", from different sessions!)

I think the answer is: Alfred Lion. This is often the case. Plus, that first BN session has Elvin, unlike the Prestiges. On that session, Elvin is at his swingin'-est. When I play "Looney Tune", I find myself bouncing with the beat. Elvin has been my favorite for many years, and you can't go wrong when he's behind you. I even got to play with a drummer who could get that feel! There are no horns to clutter things up on "Talkin' About", and so Larry can really get going. Plus, there's Grant Green at his best, and who would not be inspired by him. Someone once said that BN always had the best rhythm sections, and it's true.

This first appeared as a single LP. Then, in the early 70s, a second LP came out, with the name "Previously Unissued Recordings". In the U.K., a two-fer was put out, which was my first exposure to this outstanding music; it consisted of the two U.S. LPs, but with extra liner notes. The CD in question contains nearly all of the tracks from the two LPs, but longer, complete versions of some tracks were found on the original tapes. It is one of the best CDs ever. If it is OOP, I hope that they put out an upgrade. When Michael Cuscuna was preparing the CD, Gil was still alive and he requested the omission of two quartet "sketch" tracks, which had Gil on piano, with bass, drums and a trombone. I love those tracks, and I don't think they tarnish Gil's reputation at all. To get those, you'll need an LP. The notes to the CD tantalizingly mention lost recordings of a few more pieces, sadly. By the way, it isn't Paul Chambers on "Spoonful". The signature sustained sound of Ron Carter can be heard there.