neveronfriday Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 Unfortunately (right B-) ) I ordered 11 OJCs from AllDirect last night. Talk about buyer remorse! I just ordered 11 OJC's ($107) from AllDirect myself last week .... they must wonder what is going on? The only problem with AllDirect I have found over the years is that it takes them a long time to stock new things, and when they go out of stock, it takes them a long time to restock. But, when they do have the stuff, their basic prices are the best, and their delivery time is excellent. Of course, for brand new releases, the pre-release prices from CDUniverse are the best I have found. Should I also order 11 CDs? Is it a magic number? Can I win anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garthsj Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 Unfortunately (right B-) ) I ordered 11 OJCs from AllDirect last night. Talk about buyer remorse! I just ordered 11 OJC's ($107) from AllDirect myself last week .... they must wonder what is going on? The only problem with AllDirect I have found over the years is that it takes them a long time to stock new things, and when they go out of stock, it takes them a long time to restock. But, when they do have the stuff, their basic prices are the best, and their delivery time is excellent. Of course, for brand new releases, the pre-release prices from CDUniverse are the best I have found. Should I also order 11 CDs? Is it a magic number? Can I win anything? YES! If you order 11 CDs .. no more, no less, but EXACTLY 11, you will receive the latest Kenny G Christmas album free! I can hardly wait ... It also helps you to get over the "free shipping" for a $99 order .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 YES! If you order 11 CDs .. no more, no less, but EXACTLY 11, you will receive the latest Kenny G Christmas album free! I can hardly wait ... It also helps you to get over the "free shipping" for a $99 order .... Damn, I knew I should have ordered 12. I sat down with a long list and ordered "in stock" items 'til I hit the $100 limit for free shipping. Turned out to be 5 regular OJCs and 6 Limited Editions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garthsj Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 (edited) Just to let you all know.. my package of 11 OJC's (and one free Kenny G Christmas album) arrived about 2 hours ago.. I ordered this last Thursday afternoon ... so pretty good service for this time of the year. I think that I have just about completed the entire Contemporary catalog on CD ... and I have picked up quite a few suggestions from the OJC threads ... so I am now filling in gaps. Edited December 15, 2004 by garthsj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAL Posted December 15, 2004 Report Share Posted December 15, 2004 Just bought 9 OJCs online and 3 from the local store and will be placing an order for 25 OJC/OBC/GoodTime Jazz titles to celebrate the New Year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJ Posted December 15, 2004 Report Share Posted December 15, 2004 Well, I bought 10 of the "Limited Edition" OJCs from Alldirect last week and just got them yesterday, again very quick service as others have noted. Listened to McKusick's TRIPLE EXPOSURE on the way to work in the car today, very nice so far. I will definitely be frequenting them over the next few months - assuming their stock holds up - to continue filling in some of the gaping holes in my OJC collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vibes Posted December 23, 2004 Report Share Posted December 23, 2004 This article appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal: Jammed Full of Great Jazz, Thanks to Norman Granz By JOHN MCDONOUGH December 22, 2004; Page D8 It's in the nature of a folk art that it should have a Lost Past, a historical vacuum where legends may thrive unfettered by inconvenient facts. In jazz, one of the more carefully nurtured myths concerns the jam session, the musical business of a remarkable new CD collection from Verve, "The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions." Early jazz writing in the 1930s romanticized the jam session as a kind of secret society. Few outsiders had access. Inside lay the authentic essence of the real thing -- an uncorrupted music that was improvised, spontaneous and played purely for the pleasure of other musicians. There were stories of young Louis Armstrong jamming in smoky Chicago joints until 5 a.m., playing chorus after chorus, each more spectacular than the one before. Another story had Lester Young playing 83 choruses on "Sweet Sue" in a Detroit jam session. Hidden from public view deep in the midnight underground of the jazz netherworld, the tales were romantic, heroic and, best of all, unverifiable. Not that musicians didn't play for their pleasure in private. They did and they do. But I'll let you in on a secret. The reality usually falls well short of the myth. Over 35 years, I've seen a handful of what I would call real backroom jam sessions involving prominent musicians. They were more like relaxed rehearsals. Someone might kick off a tune and others would fall in at their leisure. After a few choruses they might grow bored and let it peter out in the middle of a solo. The jam sessions I saw were like rambling scavenger hunts in search of a spark. Maybe, by some accident of chance, everything would click. Maybe it wouldn't. You got what you got, including false starts and dead ends. It was an interesting glimpse into the process, but too slapdash for a public whose expectations have been prejudiced by rose-colored hyperbole about encounters that may or may not have happened 10,000 midnights ago. When jazz became popular in the late 1930s, fans wanted in on jam sessions. Radio staged some lively broadcasts, and Benny Goodman organized the first Carnegie Hall jam session in 1938. In the late 1940s, dedicated impresarios such as Norman Granz and Gene Norman institutionalized jam sessions, branded them, and toured them with huge success. But as the jam session was observed by outside eyes in concert halls, it lost its innocence. Self-aware and unwilling to risk public failure, the jam session became a kind of theater. There were attempts to capture the jam session on record. But they were even more stage-managed. The three- or four-minute tyranny of the 78 rpm record was too impatient to wait on the caprice of inspiration. The musicians had to know in advance what to look for and where to dig. Finally the long-playing record arrived and the time barrier was tamed. By the early 1950s, the jam session was off and running. For the first time a recording could claim to catch the ebb and flow of improvised music wherever it led. Columbia had its Buck Clayton and Eddie Condon jam sessions. Capitol, Prestige, Blue Note, Vanguard and EmArcy all had their own. But none could field the kind of musical bench power that a small label called Clef had gathered in house. Clef's founder, Norman Granz, had virtually cornered the market on the reigning establishment of the swing and bop eras: Count Basie, Louis Bellson, Benny Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Illinois Jacquet, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Buddy Rich, Ben Webster and more. Each was at that golden median in life when maturity and vigor briefly intersect in their contrary journeys. Many had worked Granz's touring concerts, "Jazz at the Philharmonic," which systematized the jam session and turned out annual box sets of live performances before screaming fans. It was exciting music. But some jazz critics, suspicious of anything received so enthusiastically, turned up their noses, calling it grandstanding. So beginning in 1952 Granz began a series of mix-and-match jam sessions in the isolation of the studio. He would produce nine of these LPs by 1955, and they make up Verve's five-CD box set. "The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions" is as sleek a study of the form as you're likely to find. With the talent assembled, this is one you could take to a deserted island. Some self-consciousness may be lurking, but with a fickle irregularity. A perfect "What Is This Thing Called Love" carefully follows its own battle plan of solo allocations and ensemble riffs; while a wild, joy-riding "Jamming for Clef" is hot-blooded and volatile as Illinois Jacquet careens through nine choruses and Oscar Peterson fires off a ferocious stride chorus. But structure or lack of it never crowds the music or smothers surprise. Disc one gathers the three great alto sovereigns -- Charlie Parker, Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges -- in their only joint summit. Parker and Carter waft elegantly through slow blues on languorous pirouettes and arabesques that arch and plunge with a concealed tension. And hearing Count Basie and Buddy Rich engage each other with such wit on "Lady Be Good" is a priceless minimalist delight. Three long ballad medleys provide the calm between the storms. The list of such moments is long because, aside from the rhythm section, a jam session is rarely an integrated work but an anthology of self-contained musical essays, each with a distinct voice and its own exposition, climax and denouement. Each of these essayists knew his strengths and played straight to them. They were pros who, like the wise editor in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," knew that when the legend becomes fact, you go with the legend. Mr. McDonough writes about jazz for the Journal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted December 26, 2004 Report Share Posted December 26, 2004 Looks like I'm in a minority. Have started to listen to the music in the box. I find the remastering disappointing, to say the least. Roy Eldridge on Jam Session 7 sounds shrill. The damn digital trebles get on my nerves and ears. The non-Eldridge does not sound much better even if Dizzy's trumpet comes better... Major disappointment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted December 26, 2004 Report Share Posted December 26, 2004 Got this set for Christmas, and so far have only listened to disc two (Jams #3 & #4). Lovin' it so far. Basie & Co. really blaze up a storm on these jams! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertblues Posted December 27, 2004 Report Share Posted December 27, 2004 Looks like I'm in a minority. Have started to listen to the music in the box. I find the remastering disappointing, to say the least. Roy Eldridge on Jam Session 7 sounds shrill. The damn digital trebles get on my nerves and ears. The non-Eldridge does not sound much better even if Dizzy's trumpet comes better... Major disappointment I also find Eldridge very shrill-sounding on that session (#7), but I presume it was recorded that way as the rest sounds quite good on my system. Actually, I'm pleased with the sound overall - particularly the first two discs. B-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montg Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 (edited) I think the sound is pretty good too. Eldridge's session with Hamp wasn't recorded at the Radio Recorders studio in Hollywood (instead it's at an unamed studio in New York) and that presumably accoutns for the decline in fidelity. But it's not a major drop off, imo. I'm very pleased with the music on this. The histrionics are largely subordinate to the musicality--and it's good to hear these swing veterans in a setting where there's a lot of fire and drive. Edited December 28, 2004 by montg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.D. Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 (edited) They were pros who, like the wise editor in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," knew that when the legend becomes fact, you go with the legend. Interesting comment.. when these albums were first released they did not receive such glowing reviews and commentary as they are getting now via reviews like the above and the majority of "reports" from the board members. For example .......The Parker / Carter / Hodges was considered to fall way short of the expectations created by such a star studded line up and no where near any of their efforts that could be found on their individual recordings. I recall that many reviewers felt they were all intimidated by each other that non played with their "normal" ability. ' "Jammin For Clef" was considered chaotic, an uncomfortable tempo and a disaster as far as Hodges was concerned. Perhaps the path that jazz has taken since the mid 50's have made these records more "valuable" or perhaps it is indeed a conversion of legend into fact. Edited December 28, 2004 by P.D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 Looks like I'm in a minority. Have started to listen to the music in the box. I find the remastering disappointing, to say the least. Roy Eldridge on Jam Session 7 sounds shrill. The damn digital trebles get on my nerves and ears. The non-Eldridge does not sound much better even if Dizzy's trumpet comes better... Major disappointment I also find Eldridge very shrill-sounding on that session (#7), but I presume it was recorded that way as the rest sounds quite good on my system. Actually, I'm pleased with the sound overall - particularly the first two discs. B-) I happen to have started listening to that Jam Session 7/8 disc and commented then. Now that I have heard the other discs I can confirm this was the off one. The other discs sound better. Not great but very acceptable. Glad to have the box... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjazz Posted February 10, 2005 Report Share Posted February 10, 2005 (edited) Norman Granz (5-CD) jam session box set available from yourmusic.com for $25 w/free shipping. Edited February 10, 2005 by Tjazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted April 14, 2005 Report Share Posted April 14, 2005 i ordered this from bmg, looking forward to getting into it ss1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Goren. Posted October 15, 2005 Report Share Posted October 15, 2005 I think the music on this set is great. I've never heard Barney kessel plays so good as he plays here. One of the best investments I've recently made... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 finally getting around to spinning this. disc one is Great!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 finished disc 2 and i am halfway through disc 3 - i am LOVIN' this box!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted February 24, 2008 Report Share Posted February 24, 2008 wow!!! finished the rest of the box - EXCELLENT!!!! the liner notes were also great. i thought that the sound was fine - i don't understand the prior criticism. i am glad this box is in my collection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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