crisp

I dunno, that Sony budget series in the clamshell boxes has included early Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. I wouldn't rule it out.

FWIW I had a flip through my copy of the Kaplan Sinatra book today and it seemed pretty good. A little journalistic but enough balance between the private life and the work to build a portrait of the human being he was. I'm reading two non-fiction books at the moment, both of which I'm enjoying:

I remember enjoying Will Friedwald's book on Sinatra from a musical perspective, although I expect you've read that one.

Sinatra: a Voice in Time is packaged the same way, so it looks like a new Sony "thing".

Thanks guys!

Mine got pretty crushed in the post.

Jazz titles among this winter's new releases: Morrissey Mullen - Life on the Wire & It's About Time... The Johnny Dankworth Orchestra - Too Cool for the Blues - The 1959-60 BBC Transcription Recording - Volume 2 The Johnny Dankworth Orchestra - Highgate Hideaway - The 1959 BBC Transcription Recordings - Volume 3 Cleo Laine - If We Lived on the Top of a Mountain & Portrait Hiroshima - Hiroshima & Odori (Not 100% the last two are jazz, but hey-ho.)

Now on the site: link. Scott Wenzel's email: One of the early Mosaic sets, our ninth release in fact, of which I still hold as a prized part of my collection is the 4CD/6LP collection of Edmond Hall, James P. Johnson, Sidney DeParis and Vic Dickenson Blue Note sessions. It's a fulfilling grab bag of trad and swing that was recorded by Alfred Lion during those beginning years of Blue Note. Highlights of that set for me are the solo and band sides of the man who had brought jazz piano from ragtime to a swinging new concept - James P. Johnson. In addition to these later, but still inventive JPJ recordings, I had known and loved his earlier Columbia solo efforts, the Frank Newton and Mezz Mezzrow Bluebird sessions and even the Decca sides with Eddie Condon (read on dear Mosaic friend as those cuts are now also a part of the Mosaic catalog). So it comes to no surprise that it is a pleasure to announce a set of James P. Johnson recordings (from mostly Columbia and Victor masters) on Mosaic that encompass more than two decades of trend setting musical activity from this true giant of the genre. We look upon rightful jazz innovators such as Louis, Benny, Bird, Miles, Monk and Trane as re-inventing the jazz wheel. Well, one such individual who without question needs to be in that same world is James P. Take, for example, something I find to be one of the more notable moments of these sessions. It's JPJ's remarkable ability to turn an accompanists' role for a blues or vaudeville singer into a work of art. If you could remove the vocal (and you really wouldn't want to anyway as these singers include Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Ida Cox) you will find that the way he accompanies these singers is a breath of genius and could even be enjoyed as separate piano solos. And he is as engaging an accompanist as he is as a sideman for small group and, obviously, as a soloist. All pianists, whether they realize it or not, owe a debt to JPJ and here are some of his seminal recordings from the very start of his recording career to 1943. I can't urge you enough to absorb these cornerstone masterpieces that will undoubtedly prove that these recordings are musically brilliant sounds to be heard, enjoyed and savored by new generations. - Scott Wenzel Blurb from the website: He wrote "Charleston." You know, that song you hear anytime you ever see anyone dancing the Charleston. He was Bessie Smith's and Ethel Waters' favorite accompanist, with a particular knack for throwing in beguiling fills he conceived in the moment, much to the singers' delight. He was a surrogate father and teacher to Fats Waller. Try getting any notice for yourself after taking that showman under your wing! But first and foremost, James P. Johnson was one of the most important, if not THE most important, stride pianists, a style that developed in New York in the 1920s and the first music that sounds like what we call jazz. It was more rhythmically complex than anything before it. More harmonically challenging. More exuberant and crafty. Stride was also more than the music. It was a challenge to the musicians who gathered at Harlem cutting contests determined to conquer its intricacies, and to conquer each other. And because of its invitation to create and improvise, it was a platform at last for self-expression. Johnson also wrote popular and theatrical music, symphonies, concertos, ballets, operas, plus a wide number of smaller pieces like sonatas and a string quartet. In fact, his wide interests and talents gave reason for some to call him a jazz sell-out, and discount his contributions. For decades, Johnson was all but forgotten. Mosaic, The Antidote to "Forgotten!" Mosaic first presented James P. Johnson in the record company's earliest years, that focused on the six sessions he recorded for Blue Note. (That set is sold out, and never to be released again.) But there has never been a comprehensive set that chronicles James P. Johnson's contributions to jazz from the beginning of his career, almost from the beginning of jazz itself. Until now. "Classic James P. Johnson Sessions 1921- 1943" compiles all the sessions led by Johnson originally released on OKeh, Columbia, Bluebird, Victor, Signature, Pathe and Vocalion, plus sideman sessions where he solos significantly or contributes something noteworthy. On six CDs, it shines the light on every facet of his talent, including his stunning work with blues singers such as Bessie Smith, Lavinia Turner, Ethel Waters, Ida Cox and more. James P. Johnson was fortunate to come along at a time when music was in transition, born into a family that encouraged his musical gifts. The Birth of Stride He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1894, and as a child learned his first simple piano songs from his mother. A later move to New York exposed him to real musicians and to formal classical training, which Johnson pursued for decades into his adult life. Willie "The Lion" Smith. Ragtime was popular. Johnson added his influences. As a boy, he used to watch from the top of the stairs as his mother and her Southern relations performed "ring shouts" in the living room. He added some of those distinctive rhythms. Also, he incorporated what he called "concert effects," a technique that employed a lot more of the piano than ragtime used, to fill out the sound and make it more orchestral. A word or two on the distinction between ragtime and stride, to underscore what every player in jazz owes to Johnson: Ragtime vs. Stride Ragtime was earlier. It was primarily a repertoire of songs composed, learned, and performed. Ragtime's broken, ragged rhythm pointed to future musical innovations that would be called jazz because syncopation was at the heart of it, but ragtime was neat and tidy, and the piano needed to be freed before jazz could develop. Stride was that next important step. It was louder and faster, more aggressive. Still largely a piano music, stride used the whole keyboard, not just the middle four octaves, as performers "walked" up and down the keys with the left hand. There was still that "oom-pah" bass line, derived from black march music and layered with counter rhythms, typical of music from African roots. But stride was less controlled and less structured than ragtime - more jazz-like - in all ways. If ragtime was a repertoire, stride was a way of playing. You could play popular music of the day in stride. You could play songs from musicals in stride. And you could improvise. That was the big one. Stride allowed more danger and personality. And while many stride pianists played their own signature figures over and over, improvisation was something James P. was particularly known for. He was especially appreciated by singers he accompanied, who loved the way he punctuated the lyrics. The very first Johnson recordings where you can actually hear the piano were made with Lavinia Turner, and they are on this Mosaic set. On another Lavinia Turner session, he places something new and original in every vocal break. You'll also find his very first recording of "Carolina Shout," which became a staple of the stride tradition. You can hear echoes of rags and dance-oriented pieces that were popular, the call-and-response of ring shout, and other borrowings, but the improvisation and sheer breadth of his expression was completely unknown before him. He made 14 sides and a movie with Bessie Smith, including her most famous piece, "Back Water Blues." He wasn't known especially for blues, but what Johnson was doing was laying down the rulebook for all jazz accompanists that followed him. An Experimental Session Included also are "Snowy Morning Blues," one of Johnson's most successful recordings, as well as a session by the Louisiana Sugar Babes, which was really Johnson, Fats Waller at the organ, Jabbo Smith on cornet, and Garvin Bushell on clarinet, alto saxophone, and bassoon. Bushell and Smith were in the pit orchestra of the show "Keep Shufflin'" with Waller and Johnson, and these recordings have attained nearly legendary status for the rare opportunity to hear the creators of the music performing the tunes, with experimental instrumentation, recorded in a venue (the former Trinity Baptist Church in Camden) known for its exceptional sound quality. There are so many gems on this set, far too many to list here, including solo work, ensemble work, Johnson accompanying singers by himself and with ensembles, small band sessions, and well as his important work as a sideman with King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Teddy Bunn and Spencer Williams, Mezz Mezzrow, and more. The package comprises 158 tracks, including eleven never before released. Our exclusive Mosaic booklet features a session-by-session analysis by Scott Brown and many photos that are rare and delightful to see. There is also the most complete discography ever of James P. Johnson's important early work. Sadly, most of his compositions in the classical style are completely lost. We are extremely proud of our opportunity to present his jazz recordings for an audience determined to preserve his legacy. Discography here

Tokyo Adagio by Charlie Haden, Gonzalo Rubalcaba £2.99 at Amazon UK. Breathless by Terence Blanchard £2.99 at Amazon UK.

And disc for disc they are so cheap. For the three or four CDs I don't have I'd be paying about the same rate as I did per CD in the 1990s.

Thanks!

That would work for me. Is there enough there to fill a box?

I still wait in hope that Sony will reissue it in a budget box, like they did with the Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday sets. What would it cost them?

They seem be avaialbe on one cd: http://www.amazon.com/All-American-Jazz-Midnight-Paris/dp/B00BWS4TF6/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1442444229&sr=1-1&keywords=Duke+ellington+All+American Unfortunately that's not an official release. I believe he also hated some of the albums that were in the studio sessions box set. He was wrong as they are all great. I'm still optimistic that we will get the complete live box.

I have Jazz Party and Nutcracker/Peer Gynt as Columbia Jazz Masterpieces -- very old. I'm sure those are the only CD releases there have been. I don't recall Unknown Session coming to CD other than in the European Jazz Originals series. The others were all given the royal treatment by Didier C. Deutsch or Phil Schaap. I'm bummed that the 1962 albums aren't here. Revisionism at work perhaps?

Gotcha. Sony must be taking advantage of the European PD rule then.

I'm pretty sure I don't have this material, unless it's in the other Vogue box.

Another one from Sony: Jazz From America On Disques Vogue

Sorry about the misspelling. I hastily typed it, then as I left the office realised my mistake.

Thanks, Fleurin. I've just noticed that the Ellington cuts off at 1961. That will exclude two 1962 albums, All American and Midnight in Paris.

Blakey seems to have done the two albums on Columbia that I own plus two albums on Vik, an RCA subsidiary. No idea what could make up the rest of the set, except I probably don't have it.

Lon, thanks so much for the heads-up. I've been looking forward to this for some time. Great to know I could have it in a matter of days. I think I have all that's in the Monk set, but the Blakey I'm unsure about. I'll have to see what's in it first.

Cool! That's pretty much the way I feel about it. In any case, you can't say anything against this track:

Do we actually have someone who likes this set? I'm usually into this kind of music but I find the Freshmen hard to take at length. The interaction of the voices is not as pleasing to me as it is in, say, the Hi-Los. That upper register is a bit harsh. However, I listen to all my music through a media centre these days and when the odd FF track pops up it can be very pleasing. It doesn't surprise me that Kenton championed them -- he seemed to like music that tended towards the grating, even though it could be quite enjoyable.