jazzbo

The correct word then is "Beautiful"!

Word up Chris!

It IS out of print, and I haven't seen a copy for a while now. The lp is on ebay right now, still cheap and with only less than a day to go. . . Ebay listing of Mosaic set

There is a now out of print book called "The Jazz Reader" that includes the very same long interview with Milt Gabler that was the non-session by session description portion of the three Commodore set booklets. It's a fascinating read, but I don't think you'll find anything in there about politics at all.

But of course!

Yes, I would say for investment reasons alone, that is a good deal! I've had the Blue Note US cd, and I've now the Blue Note Japan cd, and I love this material. It's almost all slow blues. . . so if those bother you (to have that much all at once does bother some) then it may not be your cup of tea, but this is really interesting music to hear, and I bet the booklet is excellent!

I emailed the webmaster (only choice you get) on www.helenmerrill.com to see if he/she has any light to shed on these Victors becoming available.

I emailed the Jazzology folks through their website re: the collected Lee Wiley Town Hall Concert performances. I'll let you know if I get a response.

I remember it being sort of Tristanoesque. I haven't spun it in a long time. I know I like it though; all the Black Lion Konitz are worth hearing.

That is a good idea! Maybe you should let George H. Buck know. . .

The sound on all of these is pretty darned decent really, with the exception being the first one; that has a worn source, but great music. I really don't remember them as specific volumes standing out. . . . I really can honestly say I like them all, and some may be better than others because of a favorite player being on board or so. . . . Back about three or so years ago Barnes and Nobles had these mispriced as 13.99 each, not seeming to notice that they were two cd sets. . . I took advantage of that!

I don't really understand why Helen's material isn't more widely available. What ever one can find is pretty wonderful stuff, and I've introduced her to persons who never heard of her or heard her and they like her. There is a strong possibility that in this case this is Japan only stuff, and either no one has licensed it or been given a license for this Victor material. I guess that could change, but who does one lobby to change it?

On one site I saw that "Lilaac Wine" is due out in the States next month. .. hope so. Also on ebay right now someone in Japan is selling more than a half a dozen Japan-only cds, mostly of her work when she was living in Japan. Man, I'd love to hear this stuff, but those discs are going to go way out of my price league. What do you think are the odds we'll see domestic cds of those in the next few years. . . . I'd say pretty slim, unfortunately!

I couldn't resist. I love this stuff and I need two of those lps, and the price is great.

No kidding! Whatever you do, don't look at the price for the Brubeck box!

No, my father was with the Peace Corps during that time. When LBJ became President he started up an advisory committee called "The Whitehouse Fellowhip" I believe. His goal was to have a panel of Americans from different walks of life to bounce issues off and help develop policy. His staff came up with a list of two thousand candidates for this panel, and my father was one of these. I'm not sure why his name came up. He'd been an innnercity white minister in a black neighborhood in Philly and was in his way involved in civil rights issues, he had had some articles on American history published, he had been a national forsenics champion in his college years, he did have a lot going for him that LBJ's staff might value. In a series of interviews the 2000 candidates were whittled down to 45. . . and my father was in that group. These 45 and their spouses if they had them were flown to D.C. for a dinner at the White House and to meet with the President. I was 10 and I can still remember how my parents looked when they left, all in their finest clothes . . . My father did not make the final 15 for the panel, and he didn't want to but he did enjoy being selected to be in the final 45 and meeting LBJ, being in the White House, etc. However a few days after my parents had returned the phone rang and it was the Peace Corps offering my father an associate director's position in Ethiopia. He felt that this was God calling him to serve overseas in a roundabout way, and he accepted. He was an associate director in Ethiopia for two years beginning in September 1966, and we all moved to Addis Ababa, which I loved dearly; my dad had 85 volunteers he oversaw and acted as a liaison for between the governements, etc. After two years, he was offered the position of Director of the Peace Corps program in Swaziland, the first Director there, as we (after a two months break back in America, in Ohio, staying sequentially with both sets of grandparents) arrived in M'Babane two weeks before they received their independence from Britain. We were there for three years, perhaps my happiest three years, as I loved being at the very competitive and very wonderful multi-racial school known as Waterford/Kamhlaba (they even have their own webpage now!) where I was the only American enrolled the years I attended. So at 16 I was dragged back to the US very very reluctantly. My father finally found a church in a small Ohio town near the town my parents grew up in, and I was bummed out and bored. I discovered Miles in the public library there, a copy of Filles De Kilamanjaro made me run out to the record store in Cleveland and buy Miles at Fillmore and In A Silent Way. . . well. . . the rest is my music-listening history.

Hopefully they can get a better actress to star as Lena. Is the controversy now officially ended, and there's possibly time now for news about the huge deficit and other real problems?

Damn! I looked, saw it was still on preorder price and somehow managed to order it! Broke again.

That's interesting. I can similarly say that I didn't have any antecedants at home to lead me to digging Miles. I got into the electric Miles stuff immediately; I had just come from five years plus in Africa and it sounded so RIGHT to me, it sounded like the African stuff and the British blues band stuff I heard on the air in Swaziland. Miles had that African sound of the band and that wah wah trumpet was almost pure Africa sound to my then young and weirded out by being back in America ears.

And "It Ain't Necessarily So" (which I think was a melodic influence on "So What") is how I feel about some of the comments in this thread!

I'm trying a new drug, and it seems to be helping. . . .

These are fantastic releases, I haven't been keeping up with all their output but they're a really quality reissue program, among the best, those and Jazz Oracle are probably my favorites because the notes are so comprehensive and entertaining. As for the OJDB. . . I love the OJDB and have sought out their entire recordings. I'll never tire of hearing the best of them. It's only rock and roll but I like it!

I'm operating from memory, but I think there is very little overlap, that the Hep takes up where the Frogs leave off (and there is an excellent Signet cd that has the Okeh sides that were recorded BEFORE those on the Frog cds in R. T. Davies remastering, so it is possible to get all the material in Davies transfers with liner notes, sounding considerably better than the Chronogical Classics cds and including alternates.)

"Miles Davis owes me ten bucks!"

I agree wholeh-heartedly, an excellent label in every way! I just revisited the three New York Volumes. . .fantastic stuff.