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This is a good taster of Paul Whiteman's production in the 1920-1927 period:

Prompted by the Paul Whiteman thread:

George Russell “Ezz-thetics” Riverside/OJC cd Been too long since I have spun a Russell cd!

Jazz Oracle catalogue was taken over by Upbeat. Their last release (West Coast Jazz 1922-1927) dates from 2016. Frog Records website is alive, but the last release I have been able to identify dates from 2022 (Various – The Frog Blues & Jazz Annual No 6). Retrieval is now part of the Challenge Records emporium, and their latest CD, to my knowledge, was issued in 2018 (Irving Mills And His Hotsy Totsy Gang – 1930). Not a good time for this sort of "boutique labels" in the early jazz niche. On the contrary, it looks like Archeophone Records is alive and well...

Some people might dislike flashy stuff like this, but I actually quite like it. Or maybe I just don't really like the song “Invitation” to begin with...

..... with Thad Jones and Eddie Harris!

Well that was a brief bit of warmth, cold snap is here and the temperature will lower over the next few days. Sigh. Starting off the morning with a different input tube in the SEWE300B and things are sounding very good. I listened again to the 10" Tal Farlow of the McGhee/Farlow disc I had finished up listening to yesterday, and now am listening to the third disc of “Classic V-Disc Big Band Jazz Sessions” Mosaic Records 10 disc set.

Finian's Rainbow was a painful memory for Kenton in later years and was panned rather mercilessly by Michael Sparke in the "This Is an Orchestra" biography for its uninspired scoring and lackluster playing by what could have been "any anonymous studio orchestra". So YMMV, it seems, isn't it?

Ts-find Xenakis, Metastastis (Rosbaud) * Penderecki, Anaklasis (Rosbaud) * Messiaen, Chronochromie (Rosbaud) * Ligeti, Atmospheres (Bour) and some other pieces

Well, nobody can deny Whiteman's was one of most (if not the most) popular orchestras during the 20s. He hired some of the most relevant musicians and vocalists of that time (among them Bix, Trumbauer, the Dorseys, Red Nichols, Bing Crosby, Bill Rank, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang...), as well as probably the two most outstanding arrangers, Bill Challis and Ferde Grofé). As mentioned before, in small doses, and picking up here and there, I would say the around 10 CDs I own are "not essential" in my shelves -except for a few sides with Bix-, but "nice to have". Then, you have "Rhapsody In Blue"... the initial acoustic recording recording is a delight. The "King of Jazz" was a star back then...

There was a period when his music seemed to be coming in for reappraisal.

In memoriam, Rafael Amador. R.I.P.

February 11 Okay Temiz - 1939

👍- I have the German Roulette/Bellaphon issue from 1972 ...

I have that quarter-tone piano disc. I recommend this set (many samples at New World Bandcamp page): Thinking about this, likely to pick it up sometime (samples at Another Timbre bandcamp page):

Yes, Harlequin was nice - I'm saying "was" because it's been a long time since the Interstate conglomerate (Krazy Kat, Harlequin, Country Routes a.o.) put out any new reissues.

That's a fine and appropriate distinction you are making. Anyone who is into Bix at least to some degree (or certain other white jazzmen of the 20s who were featured as soloists) will invariably wind up with a fair share of recordings by the Paul Whiteman orchestra on vinyl or CD reissues. So this is likely how this band is experienced today - as the background to the soloists. And as long as diehard reissuers (on certain of those "boutique labels" ) drool about almost any run-of-the-mill 20s dance bands just for the presence of 12 or 16 bars of "hot choruses" by this or that jazzman and push them onto the reissue market (which seems to have happened for decades) the Whiteman orchestra, by comparison, had the merits of always having had its act together musicality-wise and often with cleaner (for the time) recording and reproduction technology (for listenability to the average ears of today - not everyone will be able or willing to "listen through" the shattering sounds of jazz or jazzish recordings from the "acoustic" era for greater lengths of time. ) As for the Whiteman band on its own terms, for me the twofer on French RCA ("The Famous Paul Whiteman - Jazz à la King 1920-1936", Black & White series) does go a long way.

Yeah, that affair, which was said to have been long deep, and painful to terminate for both That whole album is really deep imo Take it at face value.

An exciting surprise addition to the schedule... Roscoe Mitchell & Tyshawn Sorey FRI MAR 27 2026 - 5:00 PMTHE STANDARD One of the great iconoclasts of contemporary music – founder of the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago and the personification of their motto, Great Black Music Ancient to the Future – the legendary composer / saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell will return to Big Ears for the first time since 2019 performing in tandem with one of the leading musical visionaries of a new generation carrying that legacy forward, Tyshawn Sorey. Prepare for a mind-bending and ear-expanding journey. Roscoe Mitchell is an internationally renowned musician, and composer. His virtuosic resurrection of overlooked woodwind instruments spanning extreme registers, visionary solo performances, and assertion of a hybrid compositional/improvisational paradigm have placed him at the forefront of contemporary music. Mr. Mitchell is a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and the Trio Space. He is also distinguished as the founder of the Creative Arts Collective, The Roscoe Mitchell Sextet & Quartet, The Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, The Sound Ensemble, The New Chamber Ensemble, and the Note Factory. He is also Emeritus Darius Milhaud Distinguished Chair of Composition at Mills College (California) where he taught from 2007 to 2018.

Quarter-Tone Pieces

👍 & 👍. I streamed the Naughton on Bandcamp recently. It's quite nice. Parts of it made me think of Out To Lunch, but without Dolphy and Hubbard. Naughton's sound reminds me of Hutcherson's. Live At Charlie's Tap 👍! I haven't listened to the Burrell/Woodyard title (yet). Oh—on the Naughton disc, Randy Kaye on drums...he'd just been with Jimmy Giuffre's band of the late 70's. (I think I have that right.)

Any appreciators* of Whiteman on this board? In smallish doses, I like the music quite a bit. * as opposed to admirers 😛

The affair with Nelson Riddle? Invitation "During the course of its 48-bar form, "Invitation" uses all 12 tones as a chord root at least once, and the harmonies are thick with ... higher extensions." And I forgot about that Al Haig version, which I have! 👍