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West Coast Jazz


Head Man

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I've just noticed that this is due out next week:

51OBVtbr8ML.jpg

It includes the TWENTY albums:

Chet Baker and His Crew
Stan Getz - West Coast Jazz
Gerry Mulligan - California Concerts
The Bill Perkins Octet - On Stage
Harold Land - West Coast Blues
The Curtis Counce Group - Carl's Blues
Shorty Rogers & André Previn - Collaboration
Marty Paich - I Get A Boot Out Of You
Carl Perkins - Introducing...
The Chico Hamilton Quintet - With Strings Attached
Art Pepper - Surf Ride
The Brothers Candoli: Sextet - 2 for the Money
The Jimmy Giuffre 3
Bob Brookmeyer - The Modernity of Bob Brookmeyer
Red Callender - Swingin' Suite
The Gerald Wiggins Trio - Wiggin with Wig
Stu Williamson - Stu Williamson Plays
Dave Pell Octet - Love Story
Teddy Edwards - Sunset Eyes
Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, Barney Kessel & Hampton Hawes' Trio with Shelly Manne - Lighthouse at Laguna

all for a (UK) price of £11.99!

This is NOT a recommendation for this particular boxset, but when I think what I would have paid for these albums back in the day........

Edited by Head Man
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An interesting over view and good price too.

Commences with my favourite Chet Baker album of the 1950s and ends with the definitive west coast album: Lighthouse at Laguna.

Hopefully, this will get through to some young cats and turn them on to the west coast sound.

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As you say ... should be a good newcomers' introduction to WCJ.

I already have almost all of these on vinyl but am half-tempted to get this as a set to stuff in the car and enjoy when the mood gets me while on the road ... ;) (Hey, at THAT price ...)

I am a bit underwhelmed by the Dave Pell LP selected, however. I find that one a bit lukewarm and IMHO others by him would have been somewhat better suited (even if only to dispel any attempts of would-be disparagers of the music to come up with funny descriptors such as "cute" or "effete" ;)).

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No, these sets are not aimed at 'young cats' or even at newbies. Young people don't buy CDs period. These budget sets are aimed at oldies. Or just at no-one. What, after all, is the demographic of this admittedly tasteful lifestyle music of sixty-odd years ago?

Well, since the set probably cost almost nothing to produce I guess they can just take a punt by putting it out there and hoping for the best.

BTW it is one of a series of similar sets covering "Elvis Presley", "Country & Western Ladies", "Don Giovanni (!)" et al.

I guess they are after people who wander around record shops and buy anything that looks like a bargain.

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Provided these people find record shops at all anymore (not to mention those shops that stock "special-interest" sets like this at all - bargan or not. Less and less likely) ;)

But of course David Ayers got a point there. "Young ones" (your definition, please? ;)) probably wont get into this head over heels, but as for newbies, I dunno ... There are worse introductory sets than this, and there IS a subculture of people who are very much into 40s/50s/60s music, lifestyle, "Mid-Century Modern" etc. in their own lives (in a way that goes well beyond simple nostalgia), and not all of them have discovered WCJ yet. Far from it. Yet some just might ...

One of my friends (not quite in his mid-40s yet, i.e. "young" compared by many jazz listener yardsticks), for example, started out mainly with 60s garage rock'n'roll and 60s soul, then added and expanded into 40s/50s R&B, swing, a good dose of post-war Latin, and the other day he mentioned it was about time he'd explore bebop a bit more seriously to complement his swing and R&B interests. So why not WCJ too if in the mood for it? ;)

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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Not ONE Les McCann included!!!!

MG

I know. Almost as if people who are interested in Les McCann are supposed to access his music in some other way. They charge an outrageous 60 pence per album and that's how they treat the people who wouldn't buy it anyway, even if it DID contain Les McCann. Still, I guess its just another Porsche in the garage to these euro-crooks (or another villa in Spain - while dead musicians starve!).

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Not ONE Les McCann included!!!!

MG

I know. Almost as if people who are interested in Les McCann are supposed to access his music in some other way. They charge an outrageous 60 pence per album and that's how they treat the people who wouldn't buy it anyway, even if it DID contain Les McCann. Still, I guess its just another Porsche in the garage to these euro-crooks (or another villa in Spain - while dead musicians starve!).

Les lives! (Well, I think so.)

Actually, I'd buy it if there were some McCann in it. I bought the execrable and pretentious (in my view) Joe Pass Mosaic, just for the two Les McCann albums included.

MG

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Not ONE Les McCann included!!!!

MG

I know. Almost as if people who are interested in Les McCann are supposed to access his music in some other way. They charge an outrageous 60 pence per album and that's how they treat the people who wouldn't buy it anyway, even if it DID contain Les McCann. Still, I guess its just another Porsche in the garage to these euro-crooks (or another villa in Spain - while dead musicians starve!).

Les lives! (Well, I think so.)

Actually, I'd buy it if there were some McCann in it. I bought the execrable and pretentious (in my view) Joe Pass Mosaic, just for the two Les McCann albums included.

MG

I'm only having fun. And - I hear you...

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Not ONE Les McCann included!!!!

MG

I know. Almost as if people who are interested in Les McCann are supposed to access his music in some other way. They charge an outrageous 60 pence per album and that's how they treat the people who wouldn't buy it anyway, even if it DID contain Les McCann. Still, I guess its just another Porsche in the garage to these euro-crooks (or another villa in Spain - while dead musicians starve!).

Les lives! (Well, I think so.)

Actually, I'd buy it if there were some McCann in it. I bought the execrable and pretentious (in my view) Joe Pass Mosaic, just for the two Les McCann albums included.

MG

pretentious? how so....?

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Provided these people find record shops at all anymore (not to mention those shops that stock "special-interest" sets like this at all - bargan or not. Less and less likely) ;)

But of course David Ayers got a point there. "Young ones" (your definition, please? ;)) probably wont get into this head over heels, but as for newbies, I dunno ... There are worse introductory sets than this, and there IS a subculture of people who are very much into 40s/50s/60s music, lifestyle, "Mid-Century Modern" etc. in their own lives (in a way that goes well beyond simple nostalgia), and not all of them have discovered WCJ yet. Far from it. Yet some just might ...

One of my friends (not quite in his mid-40s yet, i.e. "young" compared by many jazz listener yardsticks), for example, started out mainly with 60s garage rock'n'roll and 60s soul, then added and expanded into 40s/50s R&B, swing, a good dose of post-war Latin, and the other day he mentioned it was about time he'd explore bebop a bit more seriously to complement his swing and R&B interests. So why not WCJ too if in the mood for it? ;)

Correct, there's a young demographic exploring aspects of the mid-20th century and finding it ideal: great design, architecture, the boom period of America - after the Korean war, before Vietnam and the explosion of crime in the 60s - the button-downs of Ivy style and great jazz in abundance, the emergence of the corporate man with his social contract, cool when it still meant a quality of character rather than a pair of sneakers and the last but one decade of great art before conceptual art and investors spoilt it all . Of course, that's cherry picking, as we all know bad things were happening in places Little Rock and elsewhere, but the 50s from my perspective seems more vital and modern than now on several fronts.

So yes, that box set has a chance of getting through to someone looking for something more real and satisfying than the now.

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If accurate, this review by James Harrod doesn't seem at all irrelevant. Quite the opposite, in fact!

The twenty two tracks on this French CD release from 1990 are drawn from the Stars of Jazz television series that ran in Los Angeles for two and a half years, eventually making it to nationwide broadcasts on the ABC network. All tracks were first released on the SESSIONS LIVE LP series on Calliope Records, and this is most likely the source for this CD release. The other reviews that reference a four CD box set on Proper (UK) are misplaced and do not refer to this ZETA release.

But - not quite accurate!

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Not ONE Les McCann included!!!!

MG

I know. Almost as if people who are interested in Les McCann are supposed to access his music in some other way. They charge an outrageous 60 pence per album and that's how they treat the people who wouldn't buy it anyway, even if it DID contain Les McCann. Still, I guess its just another Porsche in the garage to these euro-crooks (or another villa in Spain - while dead musicians starve!).

Les lives! (Well, I think so.)

Actually, I'd buy it if there were some McCann in it. I bought the execrable and pretentious (in my view) Joe Pass Mosaic, just for the two Les McCann albums included.

MG

pretentious? how so....?

I feel that Pass, in his work with the likes of Holmes, McCann, Clifford Scott, Earl Bostic, Gerald Wislon, was being truly himself and really enjoying it. Other material seems to be deliberately aimed at getting him regarded as a 'great jazz guitarist'. Well, of course, that's a good way to make plenty of cash...

MG

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Those Groove Holmes trios with Joe Pass are my favourite recordings of this guitarist. Never warmed up to his later work, as great as it is.

In a review of a Pass solo gig at the Jazz Showcase, I described his work as a kind of navel gazing. This inspired fierce denunciations from several local guitarists.

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Didn't Joe Pass live with one of the junky Beats for awhile, or was it Charles Bukowski? Can't remember now and can't find a reference readily on the internet. Anyone know?

I think there is tendancy with all great guitarists to fall into the trap of technically brilliant playing that is all phallic dexterity resulting in boredom in the audience, unless ofcourse, you are a fellow guitarist who can marvel at the genius of it all. I think Pat Metheny and definitely John McLaughlin fall into this arena.

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