bluemonk

You're right, but I try not to dwell on that, rather be thankful for all the really remarkable work he WAS able to put out during his all-too-short career. I don't like to dwell on that stuff either, but yeah he did record some fine albums in his short life. I'm having a hard time finding a copy of "My Conception." It was his "lost session" and I really would like to own a copy. Any suggestions where I might could find other than Amazon. I found it at a local independent record (music) store. Is it out of print already? Yeah, it sure is. I thought this is crazy, because it was just released in 2000. I really don't understand Blue Note sometimes. They also will not release Donald Byrd's "Byrd In Flight." What is wrong with them?

This is interesting. I own probably around 300 OJCs on cd some are easy to find and some very rare ones. I ordered some Gigi Gryce albums not too long ago and most of them are on OJC, but are limited editions, which supposedly means they only pressed so many of them, but what's crazy is why do they do this? There was a Joe Gordon album called "Lookin' Good" that was just re-released as a limited edition OJC, now it's not even available. Alot of those Benny Golson OJCs are like that too, they're just becoming kind of rare and hard-to-find. The only reason I bought these OJCs is because like you said the originals are very hard to come by esepcially on vinyl, so I guess we'll have to live with these reissues, but I don't think that's a bad thing. OJC are owned by Concord Records, so maybe we'll start seeing some more titles that have been out-of-print become available to the public soon.

Definitely agree with this. Cool Struttin was my first Sonny album, not to mention one of my early Cds. Still love it. You know I actually read a review on Amazon that said that Sonny Clark wasn't that great of a pianist. I don't think I ever laughed so hard in my life.

You're right, but I try not to dwell on that, rather be thankful for all the really remarkable work he WAS able to put out during his all-too-short career. I don't like to dwell on that stuff either, but yeah he did record some fine albums in his short life. I'm having a hard time finding a copy of "My Conception." It was his "lost session" and I really would like to own a copy. Any suggestions where I might could find other than Amazon. If you live near a Half Price Books, the European edition of 'My Conception' has been showing up there as a 'cut out.' I've seen a copy at the two store locations where I live. Thanks for letting me know about this.

I don't think I could listen to "Locomotive" the opening song on Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" record without Rouse. I mean can anyone listen to "Ugly Beauty" without Rouse? I know I couldn't. Many people say Monk's best record is "Brilliant Corners," while it's hard to argue with that, there's just something more personal, for me anyway, about "Straight, No Chaser" and "Underground." What do you guys think?

I don't venture into jazz vocals very much, because I'm more into bebop and big band, but I do like some jazz vocals. I like Diana Krall, Shirley Horn, and Cassandra Wilson probably the best. In particular, Cassandra Wilson with her very modern and unique take on popular songs. Her earlier recordings on Blue Note are worth acquiring. Brandon Ross, her guitarist for many years, does a great job arranging her music. Very modern, but also earthy, bluesy, and many times downright haunting. It also helps when you have a crush on her.

I dig Shirley Horn too. All of her recordings are worth owning.

I knew a guy that used to wear a monocle. Hell of a guy. We used to play tennis together and amazingly he could play without the monocle leaving his eye. He beat me at tennis everytime....the bastard.

You're right, but I try not to dwell on that, rather be thankful for all the really remarkable work he WAS able to put out during his all-too-short career. I don't like to dwell on that stuff either, but yeah he did record some fine albums in his short life. I'm having a hard time finding a copy of "My Conception." It was his "lost session" and I really would like to own a copy. Any suggestions where I might could find other than Amazon.

Agreed, though it's probably just as well that the new initiates and just plain curious don't know that at first. I mean, heck, if someone had told me when I was 18 "You are eventually going to own thousands of jazz albums," I'd have said "What the fuck??" That's the beauty of jazz isn't it? It gets a hold of you. It's pretty bad when you have to loan money from a bank just so you can buy more jazz cds!

You know it's really a shame what happened to Sonny Clark. I thought he had a lot of promise. He was a damn fine pianist and composer. Just think of all the great music he could've made if he lived longer...

I will definitely be getting the Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson.

You have to remember that these types of lists are opinion based. That's all they are. I remember I was on another forum might have been jazzreview.com, anyway these people were listing their "Top !0 Greatest Jazz Albums Of All-Time," which is really crazy. My jazz collection is so good that I can blindfold myself and just go pick-up an album and it's great, so for me it would incredibly hard to pick a top 10.

Oh yeah I can't believe I forgot "Bags' Groove." Man, that was a swinging little album. My question is on the title track why didn't Miles want Monk to comp for him? Does anyone know? Miles discusses this in the Autobiography. There, he comments that he never liked the way that Monk comped behind soloists. Even aside from that general point, I could understand some soloists who might have trouble keeping concentration in front of the unexpected accents and harmonies in Monk's comping. That brings us back to the point about Rouse. There are times when I think that Rouse is deliberately providing a backdrop for Monk's comping in his solos. That is part of what I love about the Monk-Rouse combination. Rouse lets Monk be Monk. This is pretty interesting.... If I was horn player, I'd love for Monk to comp for me! He would send me in many different directions.

I guess so. I never really understood what it was good for, it invades the range of the bass. If you don't have a bass player in the band, then it might be pretty useful to have one, so you can play in that range. Think about the Paul Motian Trio that features Bill Frisell on guitar. I would like to hear Frisell play the baritone, so he could round out their sound a little more, but I think he does a fine job with just electric guitar.

And Miles's recorded comments. You can get the whole session on the Complete Miles on Prestige box set but they leave out the famous argument. Totality included in the Complete Monk Prestige set. And it is a K2. Chuck, that box set is fantastic. It sounds amazing.

And Miles's recorded comments. You can get the whole session on the Complete Miles on Prestige box set but they leave out the famous argument. Do you know what this arugment was about?

This list is funny. So many great musicians missing.... Who put this list together a teenager who thinks he has an impressive jazz collection?

Paul Desmond is my favorite white alto player: ...but my favorite Black alto player is Gigi Gryce: His records with Art Farmer ("When Farmer Met Gryce" and "The Art Farmer Quintet") are so outstanding, but Gryce had a couple of groups back in the day that were great too: The Jazz Lab Quintet and The Gigi Gryce Quintet with a remarkable and underrated trumpeter named Richard Williams.

Cassandra Wilson is a fantastic jazz vocalist. I think I listen to her album "New Moon Daughter" at least once a month. Amazing, emotional, haunting recording.... Her band for this recording is also stellar.

Oh yeah I can't believe I forgot "Bags' Groove." Man, that was a swinging little album. My question is on the title track why didn't Miles want Monk to comp for him? Does anyone know?

I liked "Cool Struttin" but I thought these were just as good if not better: Recordings not pictured: "My Conception" and "Standards" Hell everything Sonny Clark did was outstanding. We all have our favorites of course. If I had to pick one it would probably be "The Sonny Clark Trio."

I thought Gigi Gryce would have been good with Monk if he played with him longer. Monk did, however, appear on one of his albums called "Nica's Tempo," which was a fine recording. Monk also appeared with Sonny Rollins on the Blue Note release "Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2." I find it interesting to hear Monk in supporting role especially on Terry Clark's "In Orbit" and Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie's "Bird & Diz." Both great recordings that feature Monk in a supporting role.

I'd disagree stronlgy that all (I almost want to say ANY) of these saxophonists are "better" than Chariie Rouse! Yup, agree strongly with your disagreeing! Danny Quebec West? Well, yes, sure! Up in the league of Coltrane's! Anyway, what's the point in such comparisons? Sure, I'd love to have more Gryce w/Monk - the Savoy session is marvellous! Also more later Rollins w/Monk would have been great (if the two tunes on Rollins Vol. 2 are a fair indicator - there's Brilliant Corners, too! Ernie Henry!). As for Coltrane and Griffin, possibly they just did what they could with Monk and then left to pursue other things? I mean Coltrane was in his quick-evolving phase then, and Griffin... we have two full discs of great music there, and honestly, I somehow feel they couldn't have done much beyond that... don't get me wrong, I love Monk and Griffin each on their own, and I enjoy "Misterioso" and "Thelonious In Action" very much. Yet still, I never felt like I needed more of that... You have a very good point. I was just saying that if any of these players would have stayed with Monk long enough then they would know Monk's music a lot better than they did.

I will tell you one thing. I couldn't imagine any other saxophonist on Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" recording. I mean that opening song called "Locomotive," which Monk happened to only record twice in his career, was a great opener and Rouse really nailed those changes and his improvisations were very imaginative.