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I'm on the hunt being a HUGE bossa nova listener. Why not start the morning with one of my favorite drummers Note that I listened to the whole album for an hour! NP

My old record player used to have a mini switch. But that's something else that went away. Boo!

According to the BBC, "the portrait of an artist who feels less than others, not more " https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260215-everybody-digs-bill-evans-review-a-moving-tragic-biopic-of-a-tortured-jazz-great

Thanks. I am aware of these, but fake stereo is a deal breaker. That's why I was wondering if there was ever a follow up to the 1954 LP "Early Ellington" (Brunswick), which has excellent transfers and, of course, is mono. FWIW, I have the Complete Decca set on CD, as well as the one-CD best-of. I also have a pair of 10-inch Brunswick that sound pretty damn good. But I'm always interested in hearing the best LP pressings of 78-era Ellington for comparison ...

Kirk Ellis: They Kill People

I'm on the hunt being a HUGE bossa nova listener. Why not start the morning with one of my favorite drummers

Wow that Live at the Left Bank sure is tempting and been listening to a few samples so now might have to buy a copy! Nice find

Kenny Clarke Francy Boland Big Band “Blowing the Cobwebs Out” disc 1 The blowin’ out of the cobwebs is a helpful thing.

Walter Smith III and Matthew Stephens “In Common” Whirlwind cd

I'm a big Stout fan, read all the Wolfe's when I was in my twenties, my youngest brother got me started on it as he told me that he thought I was a lot like Archie Goodwin (and there are similarities--I too was born in Canton, and my favorite drink is milk--my brother thought I was like Archie with the ladies too, but I don't see that). I like the Tecumsah Fox books too--a nice re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes I think. And I love a novel he wrote in the second person called "How Like a God." What a fascinating person Stout must have been to be around.

Didn't "Cugie" make his music as palatable as possible to the U.S. mainstream audiences in the first place?

Pharoah Sanders “Love is Here” Transcendence cd, disc 1 Re-visiting this excellent 2 cd set from last year. Wow.

February 15 Henry Threadgill - 1944

https://storyvillerecords.bandcamp.com/album/copenhagen-1964

Another warmer night and a warmer day ahead. Lots of melting going on. . . I expect soon to hear the crashing sound of snow and ice sliding off the roof! The eery quiet of a Sunday morning out here . . . the already low ambient sound lowered still. I really enjoy being up this early and spinning a disc. I’m starting off with a bunch of real pros, One4All, “The Long Haul” on Criss Cross.

February 15 Kirk Lightsey - 1937 Kirk Lightsey was in Göttingen for the first time with Dexter Gordon on October 15, 1980, and most recently with Benny Golson on November 3, 2006 – photo by me.

Good suggestion. God knows with the weather this side of the Atlantic at the moment we need that palliative.

Rex Stout works a bit like P. G. Wodehouse: very useful to have around to self-prescribe as a palliative for the blues. A roommate of a girlfriend I had in grad school recommended Rex Stout and I immediately picked up a used copy of Some Buried Caesar at a used book shop. Over the years I acquired many more volumes and read some from the library. Decades ago I came across an ebay listing for all of the Nero Wolfe series in various paperbacks at a surprisingly low price and bought it. Since then I have re-read the series (plus his other series and one offs) in sequence a few times. As my vision deteriorated I acquired the Wolfe series again on kindle. I recommend Rex Stout! There was quite a good video dramatization with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin but nothing beats the books.

Xavier Cugat And His Orchestra – Cugi's Cocktails You can keep your Buena Vista Social Club. I prefer the sound of real authentic Cuban music.

This made me curious, of course. In case you're familiar with the respective LPs, am I right in assuming that this version is very similar to the recording of "Begin The Beguine" (which might be described as a "Tone painting and exercise in dynamics on Begin The Beguine" ) recorded around the same time in 1948 that is on Golden Era GE 15014 and Hep LP 3?

Rufus & Chaka – Masterjam

Plus XANADU for its reissues of jazz from the 40s and 50s that complement Onyx very well and expand their scope (in addition to much more recent recordings) - as well as HighNote for the CD spinoffs of several Onyx vinyls. But since neither Onyx nor Xanadu are active anymore (or so it seems even in the case of Xanadu) I hesitated mentioning them.