bertrand

Brandon, You must be in town by now. Just found out about a Lee Morgan/Hank Mobley tribute tomorrow 7/10 at HR 57 2-5 PM by the Michael Thomas quintet. I'll try to call you tonight on your cell, or send you a PM with mine. I hope to be at the gig tomorrow. I'll also put a thread in the live shows after lunch. Bertrand.

What's even more amazing about Wayne is that his writing and playing for his own BN dates are quite different from what he was doing with Miles at the same time. Those were truly amazing times! Bertrand.

I would not count on them necessarily being slated for RVG remastering. From what I have seen, the ones that get 'RVGed' are never actually announced as going OOP -the RVG is announced, and the old version quietly is phased out. The ones that are announced as going OOP usually do not resurface. Maybe someone can correct me, but I do not recall an instance of something being announced as going OOP and then resurfacing as an RVG shortly thereafter. I have yet to see a 'looking for' for one of the old masterings, but one day it will happen, when Rudy really screws up a session that was available previously in a perfectly acceptable mastering. So far, the RVGs that seem to have been panned are only titles that were not previously available in the U.S. (like Fickle Sonance). Blue Note, for reasons of national security which they cannot discuss due to the patriot act, remains extremely mysterious as to their exact reasons for pulling titles. A cut-off figure of 500 in sales in a given year has been suggested, but that would just be an incredibly incompetent way of interpreting marketing results, and I cannot believe anyone at EMI, a corporation with such a glorious track record, could be so stupid. Getting them to send an e-mail with going OOP lists was already like pulling teeth, and these e-mails are really for those in the know. The general casual jazz-buying public (i.e., those who are not rabid collectors such as ourselves) has no idea what's going on. I remember one jazz DJ lamenting that he could not find a certain Horace Silver title. I remember thinking to myself 'that's one they pulled', but he had no way of knowing that. And then they complain of not getting airplay. This issue has annoyed me since the mid-90s, when I started stocking up on Blue Notes and noticing a lot of them had disappeared. I actually called Blue Note to complain that it would have been nice to have been notified. Amazingly, the person I spoke to (didn't get a name, sorry) actually consulted a list of titles that WOULD NEVER BE OUT ON CD (I was asking about Etcetera, which was still not on CD at the time - of course, it was not on this list). I wonder what this list was, and how many titles from this list have been out since - I wish I had been more BN-savvy back then (I should ask Cuscuna about this - I bet he won't have heard of this list). A lot of old pre-RVG versions and other OOPs wind up at daedalusbooks.com. It's not on their site, but I'm pretty sure the warehouse store in Columbia, MD still had a copy or two of Love Call last time I was there (and it would be like $7 or $8). In short, get Three Blind Mice - there's no reason to think it will be available again anytime soon (unless it's announced shortly on the RVG lists). With Blue Note, it's just not worth the gamble. Bertrand.

As usual, they are fucking clueless. They already announced that Nature Boy was being discontinued a long time ago. Bertrand.

Will the CTI Japan releases ever see the light of day on CD in the U.S.? I'm looking for Art Farmer's Live In Tokyo to fill a void in my Jackie McLean 'complete' collection. This is one rarity I've never even seen on vinyl. Bertrand.

Jim, Please delete this thread immediately! You will give EMI some ideas. I can see the boardroom meeting now: 'Hey, I've got an idea. Let's hire some 20-year old hip-hop fan to create new covers for classic Blue Note albums'. 'Great idea! Just make sure to leave room for the EMI logo and the FBI warning'. Bertrand.

Happy birthday! Bertrand.

He's also on Dewey Redman's first album (for Arista). There are some unissued trio tracks form that session. Bertrand.

I haven't been able to eat butter since Last Tango In Paris. Bertrand.

Tommy Williams is a fabulous trumpet player and a good friend of mine. He does get gigs locally, but not nearly as much as I would like! (he has a day job). He plays with the Smithsonian Masterworks Orchestra as well, and is usually with them when they have a concert (which is less and less frequently). I saw him at the Benny Carter tribute in April, and his playing was outstanding as always. In addition to his two dates on Criss Cross, he has two self-produced albums with his group Interplay - he plays more drums than trumpet on these, another instrument he is excellent on. He should be signed to Blue Note, rather than those much-less talented trumpet players of theirs. Bertrand.

In his 'fake' stage announcements on the Candid set Mingus presents Mingus, Mingus announces a slew of intruments for Dolphy, including bassoon. Is there any evidence that Dolphy ever did record on bassoon? Bertrand.

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure the Mosaic booklet is stating that the Roach performance was filmed. If I'm reading it correctly (which I may well not be), the author of the essay in question (either Ben Young or Burt Korrall) actually saw the footage. I'll check again tonight. I'm still plowing through the Max set, which I got with the free shipping offer two weeks ago. Booker Little was a motherfucker - those arrangements on Many Sides of Max are just astounding. Bertrand.

Don't get me started on 'Big Train'. I was talking to a well-known saxophonist once (who will rename nameless) about Wynton and we were agreeing on how lame this piece was. This person said something like: 'It's like he's never taken the train in his life'! Bertrand.

I can't wait for next week's new album by McCoy. Bertrand.

That's an expensive set of coasters you bought yourself! Bertrand.

And the Max Roach set is in the Mosaic box! I like Claude's idea - they reissue the film with a lot of extra footage. But I want the complete Max set, not just one or two tracks (as Blue Note did with the One Night DVD). Bertrand.

Didn't think of looking there - I sure use that site a lot. I was hoping it was Wayne, because he did Newport with Horace, but it must have been 1956. Bertrand.

Brandon - I got your PM. I'll call you next week. Bertrand.

Up

According to the notes in the Max Roach Mosaic booklet, the entire festival (or most of it) was filmed but most of it ended up on the cutting room floor. This includes the Max Roach quintet with Booker Little, and a Horace Silver quintet set. Does anyone now who was with Horace at Newport in 1958? I would love to see the Roach and Silver sets. DVD anyone? Bertrand.

I am thanked in the 2nd edition of the Blue Note discography (I sent Michael a few comments), and in a couple of PhD and Masters' thesis' (on jazz, of course) by a few students that I gave some info to (mostly copyright info). Bertrand.

Will most of this material be out on separate CDs as they usually are? 4 and 5 would be a 2-CD set, and 6 and 7 could be available each on their own. 1-3 might be tricky; they would probably have to leave out some tracks from Seven Steps, and make Europe a 2-CD set. I really don't like the boxes (price and packaging). I really am mostly interested in Tokyo and Berlin, and if they come out as stand-alone CDs, I could get 'em at Tower or Borders' for $8-$9. I would consider the others later. I don't need every rehearsal take out there. I would be upset if the extra track from Berlin is AWOL, however - it should not have to be. Bertrand.

Today is the day. Happy Birthday, Stefan! Bertrand.

I was thinking about Wonsey - do you know who's playing with him? Also, Armacost at Fat Cat is an option - who's with him? The other three don't really tempt me. Thanks, Bertrand.

I will be in NYC this week-end for the Shorter/Hancock/Holland/Blade show. I didn't see anything really exciting in the main clubs otherwise going on. Anyone know of anything in some lesser-known place? Anything that starts early so I can bring my 4-year old? How's the jam session at Cleopatra's Needle? Thanks, Bertrand.