romualdo

What a bargain!! I've just ordered the Lake (15.39E), Gaslini (19.8E), Bley (18.9E), Cyrille (16.25E) & Farmer (15.03E) - with the bulk buy the shipping comes down to 3.50 euros per box (to Australia) plus the VAT reduction Thanks for the tip - don't use Amazon France very often

Hearing & digging Baker, Rogers, Giuffre, Edwards, Hawes............ & especially reading Ted Gioia's book West Coast Jazz.

Almost 3 years from my initial post, I finally decided to go for it Just received the "Odyssey" set - eventually sourced it through Discogs (Vogel Music International) - you're given the option to "make an offer", which I did & it was immediatly accepted plus there were no shipping charges (to Australia!!) Extremely happy with the SQ -> much better than the unauthorised Cadence double CD release "Collection" that I have (this is a needle drop of the original 1985 double LP) - the complete contents are on the first & part of the second discs of "Odyssey" Disc 6, a self interview (recorded circa 2000) is fascinating & shows BD to be a highly perceptive/erudite person. Highly stimulating & enjoyable music (pour moi) - loving it!!

Double whammy for me - big fan of both Harper & Weston who's releasing it? will definitely be grabbing this

not sure if this topic has been covered before here's a start Dexter Gordon Blue Note set Bill Dixon Odyssey set Charles Mingus Atlantic/Rhino set Lester Young Verve set John Coltrane live in Japan (Japanese release only) Albert Ayler Revenant set there must be many more

Dan the titles (3) from the proposed TRLP 8 (Adams/Fuller) have been released but under Coltrane or Chambers (BN2LP 451-H2: High Step, BN CD 84437: Chambers Music & the Chambers Mosaic Select) - timing for these 3 tracks comes to just over 26mins -> a bit short for a 12" LP Cuscuna mentions this LP in the Mosaic Select booklet "Trane's Strain" was the only title released at the time , on the Transition sampler "Jazz In Transition" (LP 30); the other 2 titles ("High Step" & Nixon, Dixon & Yates blues") were first released (mid 70's) on the BN towfer "High Step" I don't think the LP (#8) was ever released - Were there more titles (unreleased)? - I doubt it (MC would have released them by now)

Anyone interested in the following recent FMP CDs - all in mint minus condition I've decided to go for the "In Retrospect" box - Amazon UK have slashed the price & after removal of VAT & shipping of only £3.58 to Australia, I just couldn't resist (especially the book) These CDs are all contained in the box set - they were my pic/favs when the box & individual CDs came out - at the time I had no intention of buying the whole shebang My preference would be to sell the 4 together Will probably cost $7-9 to ship the 4 (minus jewel cases) to the states or Europe, payment by paypal stephenplatt@optusnet.com.au 1. Schlippenbach Quartet - At Quartier Latin $18 2. Globe Unity Orchestra & Guests - Baden-Baden '75 $18 3. Steve Lacy - In Berlin: solo & quintet $13 4. Irene Schweizer - Messer Und..... $13 both the Schlippenbach & GUO appear to be OOP (havn't found them on any of my regular dealer sites) This is all great music!!!

According to AMG it was released on CD in the early 2000s but I must say I've never come across a copy. In fact all his albums on About Time Records would make a terrific boxset. I emailed About Time a few years ago & they claimed that they would eventually release all of their sessions on CD They even mention that on their website http://www.about-time-records.com/catalog.html

It was released over 2 CDs (LAJI #6 & 7 - Shorty Rogers & His Giants Live At The Rendezvous Ballroom, Vols 1 & 2) - the recordings were made by Shorty Rogers - see details. SQ is pretty good

Trunk Records (UK) have as their Friday "greed bag" download Dorothy Ashby's first LP (The Jazz Harpist - Regent/Savoy) This is a gorgeous session with lots flute playing by Frank Wess Each week Jonny Trunk chooses one of the items from his catalogue & gives you the chance to download it for 50p (50p Friday offers) http://trunkrecords.greedbag.com/dept/~todays-special-o/ Always look forward to what he has on offer each Friday - recently downloaded Eden Ahbez's "Eden's Island"

Just received an update from James Accardi He & Jan Evensmo have just completed an updated Wardell Gray solography (on Jan's Jazz Archaeology site) http://www.jazzarcheology.com/192/ James has also updated the WG Discography - more details e.g. the 54 Bee Hive show (wasn't this supposed to have been released by Michael Cuscuna as a BN CD but never eventuated?) James Harrod has also covered (thoroughly to the max) WG's "Way Out Wardell" on his Jazz Research blog (August 2013) http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/way-out-wardell-james-a.html

UK Amazon has this set for £39.99 (take off VAT) -> good buy for us in Australia - comes to approx Aus $66 ($3.50 per disc) That price is from a marketplace seller, so no VAT discount ( at least not for me in Canada). Bummer, I didn't look at the finer print - sold by "Dirty Deals" & fulfilled by Amazon (VAT will not be taken off on this -> have just tried to place the order & it wasn't deducted) UK Amazon has this set for £39.99 (take off VAT) -> good buy for us in Australia - comes to approx Aus $66 ($3.50 per disc) That price is from a marketplace seller, so no VAT discount ( at least not for me in Canada). @romualdo: do you ever get any VAT deduction on seller's offers? Would be cool, but none for me! nope, but I actually thought the sellers that were "fulfilled by Amazon" did this - obviously not !!

UK Amazon has this set for £39.99 (take off VAT) -> good buy for us in Australia - comes to approx Aus $66 ($3.50 per disc)

just realised I have an original UK Fontana mono KOB - still in reasonable nick I'll get it out for a spin & "mono" experience

Watched the last episode yesterday & was blown away by "Baby Blue" - great ending

didn't know it was worth that much!! maybe one of the board members has a copy This session/LP needs a CD issue

sounds tempting but shipping to Australia would be a killer with the "new" rates The Keynote set was expensive enough when I bought it a couple of years ago Best form of shipping for me would be on "a slow boat to China" via Australia - pity surface postage is not an option anymore as I never minded waiting the 12w+ transit time

Jonathan how about Joe Harriott / Amancio D'Silva Quartet - Hum Dono (unless Dutton/Vocalion has this already earmarked for release)

"The Giant Awakens" will be my reissue of the year - cannot wait to hear it!!

Volume One coming in November. Picked up the "Another Self Portrait" set this week & a promo card advertising this massive upcoming set was included Will probably pass on this - not really interested in much of his late 70's & 80's output The mono set, bootleg series & 2000 to now releases will suffice Has "Blood On The Tracks" been recently remastered - not on the list of remasters for this set What I am really hanging out for is an official release of the complete "Basement Tapes" - will this ever eventuate

Something I'm also very interested in Robin Kelly's site for his Monk book has his "interpretation" of the Minton's sessions that may have included Monk - there is quite a bit of conjecture re what TM actually plays on (discographies vary on this) http://www.monkbook.com/sessionography/sessionography-1941/

RIP Lindsay What a shock - didn't realise you were suffering from MS

If anyone is looking for his musical output you can buy it directly (online) from the Australian "Rufus" label - 10CDs in all as leader http://www.rufusrecords.com.au/artists/mcgann.html

The below article was published in the Australian mag "The Monthly" last year CULTURE THE MASTER Happy birthday, Bernie McGann John Clare October, 2012 Medium length read1100 words Illustration by Jeff Fisher. 0 ADVERTISEMENT OCTOBER 2012 'Lore' by Cate Shortland (director) Fenella Souter 'Silent House' by Orhan Pamuk Alexandra Coghlan 'Questions of Travel' by Michelle de Kretser Owen Richardson 'Montebello' by Robert Drewe Catherine Ford REMEMBERING AUSTRALIAN PAINTERS Anecdotes Murray Bail The Best of Australian Arts 2012 The Monthly Brett Whiteley & Billy Connolly Shane Maloney a... ANDREW DOMINIK'S 'KILLING THEM SOFTLY' The games of men Luke Davies MEETING THE MARTU ARTISTS OF THE EAST PILBARA The logic of water Gail Bell CLAUDE DEBUSSY He’s so this century Andrew Ford JEFFREY SMART Smart guy Doug Hall VISITING ORHAN PAMUK’S 'MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE' The novel lives Alexandra Coghlan 1 of 4 ›› Heading west by train out of Sydney, two stops before Parramatta, that railway voice comes crashing through tinny speakers, “Next stop: GrAAAnville!” The ‘A’ is as harsh as garbage being crushed outside your house. The industrial flatlands of Granville, between Sydney and the Blue Mountains, are where Bernie McGann grew up. Who he? McGann – whose 75th birthday was marked this July by two sensational nights at the Sound Lounge in Sydney – is possibly the most original voice in Australian jazz. In recent decades, his reputation has become international. Although he is not a household name anywhere, a number of his fans are – in Australia, America and Europe. McGann stands in relation to his famous fans much as Captain Beefheart did to Frank Zappa. McGann’s ‘voice’ is the alto saxophone, which can be as clear as water, golden as sunshine, or harsh and strange as the cries of certain Australian birds. Often McGann convincingly integrates the whole panoply in the one solo. In person, McGann exudes last-century laconicism and rolls his own cigarettes. The praise heaped on McGann on the nights of his tribute was then received with some diffidence. There were little shrugs in his voice – “Yeah, yeah yeah yeah,” he said rapidly, grimacing slightly. “It was good tonight. The boys played great. Yeah ...” The “boys” were Paul Grabowsky at the piano, Jonathan Zwartz on the double bass and a brilliant young drummer, Tim Firth, who’d told me the experience had been like a glimpse of heaven. Grabowsky stood up from the piano stool, swept his hand around the band and shook his head in admiration. “There he is: the master! Bernie McGann!” McGann’s actual voice is quite soft, his Australian accent light. His face, in contrast, is almost as craggily singular as Klaus Kinski’s, and partly inspired the producer of McGann’s first digital recording to call the disc Ugly Beauty. (It’s also the title of a tune by Thelonious Monk, which is played on the album, but McGann was noticeably peeved. Well, friends noticed. It is doubtful that he would have said anything to the producer, who also owned the independent label.) McGann went to a small brick Catholic school with an asphalt playground. After school, he trained to be a fitter and turner, like his father, while playing the drums in local dance bands. “My father couldn’t believe it when I took up the alto,” he said. “I was already getting paid work on the drums! Not only that, I decided that fitting and turning wasn’t for me the day I finished my apprenticeship.” In the 1970s, McGann lived at Bundeena, on the edge of the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, where he worked as a postman. By that time he was a controversial alto saxophonist on the city’s jazz scene. After his postal rounds he’d practise in the bush, developing the huge sound that would go on to be heard clearly, without amplification, over the loudest, most polyrhythmic drumming of his long-term collaborator, John Pochée. At the height of McGann’s passion, and when no more momentum could be squeezed from orthodox time, he would sometimes slip the tracks and enter a realm where time was susceptible to free manipulation. His whole body would begin to judder and he’d broadcast strange congested barking patterns that seemed beyond rhythmic analysis – except by Pochée, who’d punctuate uncannily. Yells and even screams would rise from the audience. These peaks of excitement have scarcely been equalled in Australian jazz. Something akin to speaking in tongues was in the air. McGann still sometimes goes into this area. Not so loudly now but with great effect nevertheless. Initially, he was accused of imitating ‘free jazz’ pioneer Ornette Coleman. “When I heard him,” McGann told me, “I was surprised that there were some similarities, though I didn’t think I sounded much like him. We were heading in some of the same directions. He is like a backwoodsman, a folk musician. [Whereas] Charlie Parker was the complete hipster. I love them both.” Through the 1970s and ’80s, McGann played his luminous and utterly distinctive compositions with his own piano-less trio – which included bassist Lloyd Swanton, now known internationally as a member of The Necks – as well as with Pochée’s band, The Last Straw. During a spell at The Basement in Sydney, a band of hippies dressed in white would come down from the Blue Mountains to hear them, bringing home-baked bread for the band. One of the most memorable compositions from that era – ‘Mex’ – is on Wending, the Rufus Records release commemorating McGann’s 75th birthday. Curiously, both McGann and Pochée had earlier played in the understated and then-popular ‘cool jazz’ style, which was associated with college-boy haircuts, moleskin trousers and Ivy League shirts. It was thought that mainly young advertising men listened to it. McGann’s big influence (before he’d heard Charlie Parker), was the pellucid sound of Paul Desmond, of Dave Brubeck Quartet fame. The Desmond influence has become more obvious now that McGann plays more softly. Still, even when McGann’s raw power was his most striking trait, there were delicate elements, including needles and whimpers of sound in the highest register. McGann usually plays a little behind the beat, and some of his solos begin with gliding, ruminative tones that seem to turn time momentarily backwards. Musicians and fans at these moments lean forwards, enthralled. The solo might build with revolving patterns that invoke some dervishing folk dance, and when everything is churning and flying, sustained soft high notes might float above it all, and figures and patterns will appear that are purely original. McGann tries not think of anything when he is improvising. “You know, it’s just letting it flow naturally without cluttering your head with too much stuff. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes you can surprise yourself. If you can surprise yourself that’s a good thing.” John Clare John Clare is a journalist, reviewer and the author of Bodgie Dada, a history of Australian jazz. More by John Clare Published in The Monthly, October 2012, No. 83

RIP Bernie from here in Australia