take5

That Sarah Vaughan set- I've been on the fence. I love Sarah but I don't like it when they smother her in strings and sometimes these box sets are loaded with a billion alternate takes and what-not which don't make for fun listening for singers, IMO. IIRC these sessions include the Sarah+2 which is an amazing album though... is the bulk of that set more of what I like or not?

Yeah it's pretty great. I'm not as big a Mosaic nut as some of you guys, I only have/want a few things from my very favorite artists and certainly that includes the Count. I was actually originally looking for the studio set but, dear god, a man's gotta pay the rent. I will, however, kindly be accepting donations to this ever-so-important cause...

Scored the Basie live Roulette off of ebay for a non-extortionary price. Up to disc 3. I think the whole apartment complex is swinging via osmosis.

HUGE fan here. She does exactly what I've always thought good pop music could and should be.

The discs itself sounds great, too, worth the upgrade from the old CD I had.

I'm selling one copy of this Monk vinyl box set: http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/3018/Thelonious_Monk-The_Riverside_Tenor_Sessions-Vinyl_Box_Sets These have been spun once or twice each and are in like-new condition. Outer box only has the most minor shelf wear on the corners. Price: $200 Shipping to U.S. only. Payment via PayPal, contact via PM.

Well bossa-nova is Portuguese. I just think it's odd that one crossed over and the other didn't, when they're both Latin American/jazz hybrids. I suppose bossa had the cultural chic of being laid-back and cool and more palatable to the casual listener. Well that was all rather jazz snobby of me... Well look at it this way- was Thelonious Monk a huge influence? Sure. Do you hear his playing directly in other people's music? Not so much. I think it's similar with Diz.

I love Diz but his recorded legacy is a bit spotty. Mostly because his finest recordings musically sound like crap. The previously mentioned complete RCA-Victor- I mean, that's like central to music history material right there. But the excessive noise reduction kills it. It's a travesty. I know these recordings are old and I'm not expecting Dark Side of the Moon here but give us a break. Then the stuff with Chano Pozo- no really good sounding definitive recording. The Verve big band material is the best compromise between sound and quality material I think. Then there's the personality- he was a showman in the days when that wasn't cool, but not a junky tragedy, so there's no romance to him. As much as we'd wish that stuff didn't matter, it certainly does in terms of how the general public remembers you. Also, I don't usually hear other musicians site him as an influence, nor do I directly hear his playing in others' music, at least not as much as hear, say, Armstrong or Cliff Brown. Anyway I like this one a lot: I wonder why the whole Cuban/jazz hybrid thing didn't catch on more in the mainstream. It's so infectious. Why more fun and lively than bossa-nova.

I hear what you're saying, Jim. It's just that for me, her voice is an entity unto itself & not a means of communication - if that makes sense. That's always been a problem for me when I listen to her. I'm glad that you and others can hear her differently than I do. It would be a boring world if we all agreed on everything. Funny, I feel that way about Ella. Although I love both, the way I see the 3 most famous/greatest (whatever you wanna call it) jazz lady singers is: Ella: I'm listening to a master craftsman, song is a means to performance and wowing us with her voice and skills Billie: Bring out the inner workings of a song to reflect a personal touch Sarah: at her best, the perfect balance, and therefore my favorite singer ever. I'll also agree that she's better when younger. This is like my favorite thing ever, her version of Black Coffee (not a video, just the song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR8fsEDEvdc

So who do we like playing with Monk on tenor? Coltrane sounds a bit "forced" or academic to me. Griffin, to quote the emperor from Amadeus = "too many notes." If I had to pick a favorite it would be Sonny Rollins.

Thanks for the video clips, brownie and Durium. I like Charlie Rouse. I like that he doesn't respond to Monk but rather that Monk gives him plenty of space and mostly just adds color (Larry Gales- unsung hero of the Monk legacy?). No he's not an obvious ground-breaker, but figuring out how to play a horn in a Monk quartet consistently is an impressive feat. Now granted I'm one who feels that the quartet's work starts to get same-y after a while, so I'm not a completist, and I'm glad Monk recorded with lots of different people, but that quartet was a killer.

This is actually the same source material as Ella In Hollywood. I've never heard that album but apparently it had a bunch of extra applause which this of course does not. NPR was playing it today and I was blown away- I'm not even that big of a fan. But like everyone else here I've heard like a gazillion Ella albums, comps and box sets but this is probably the best one. Ella's Verve material is often so weighed down with orchestration and heady concepts that it's a joy to just here her as a jazz singer. The sound quality is really great, too.

I've been a fan for a while now, and I'm glad being are enjoying the new album, but I feel they've actually lost some of their uniqueness and that certain something that made them interesting ever since In Absentia. At the time I celebrated their embrace of heavier music but now it seems to constrain them. Their earlier work is so much more varied, unpredictable. Now it's all kinda samey and boring. Deadwing was the last album of theirs I realy enjoyed straight through.

Oh man, I hadn't even realized that. I know as Giants fan, I'm supposed to hate the Eagles more than any other team, but there's a separate level of ire I hold towards the Cowboys. When Philly beat up on Dallas, I was cheering as loud as any Eagles fan. I supposed my karmic evil was returned this weekend. Oh well.

Yeah well can you blame them? I've always been a staunch Eli defender, even at his worst, but yesterday's loss falls on his shoulders. They knew that Philly would stack the line now that they don't have to worry about Plaxico, but they still had a decent running game and defense. All they needed was for Eli to step up a bit with his passing and especially on 3rd downs. So, um, now I have to root for the Cardinals? Ok, go Cardinals, then. That Baltimore game was vicious. I actually cringed at how tense and violent it was. Awesome show.