crisp

Yeah, I bought the box set this morning. Congratulations. It's a good set. I got mine on Amazon UK for about the same price. Never thought I would want more than the Greatest Hits and Out of the Blue, but there's lots of good pop on those albums.

I Loves You Porgy is beautiful, but jazz musicians rarely play it. I can think of two versions, both very moving, one by Buddy DeFranco with Oscar Peterson and Russ Garcia's orchestra, and the other by Suzannah McCorkle. Goodness knows why Bummertime gets played so much when there's a much better song from the same score.

Conversely there are standards that never seem to grate no matter how often they are played. I've never been particularly for or against Tenderly, but when I uploaded a load of my albums to iTunes I was surprised at how often it came up. Practically every major singer, musician and orchestra seems to have recorded it, yet it's never worn out its welcome (at least as far as I'm concerned). Again, though, I wonder what the appeal is. It's a nice tune, but nothing special.

Vocalion has just announced a bunch of new pop releases, including big band albums by Syd Lawrence and Si Zentner. But the best news is that the next batch of jazz releases will be coming in May -- titles TBA. The home page is here.

Yes! "This is so exciting..." No it's not.

I can believe it. Judy Garland is often maligned as campy and fake, but she usually strikes me as very real and sincere.

Wow. That's my favourite song. Goes to show, etc. There's a difference between standards that are overplayed and those that one simply doesn't like. I've always liked My Funny Valentine, but it's performed far too much, or at least it once was. There are four standards I've never seen the point of as I find the tunes colourless and depressing: Willow Weep for Me Old Folks Darn That Dream and the absolute worst stinker of all time: Summertime I suppose all these have interesting chords or something, otherwise I can't imagine why musicians keep playing them.

Louis Armstrong Complete Masters is £32.50 at Amazon UK, best price I've seen it lately.

Didn't Jazzmatazz once list a Les Brown set? Or at least a Capitol Big Bands set?

That's actually not a bad price for that much music. I don't own any Dylan, though, and I'm not sure if I'd take the plunge in that way. I've been monitoring prices on the mono box, however.

1) Nat Cole 2) Doris Day 3) Bing Crosby

It's a much-misused term. Jazz critics have a habit of referring to any song from outside jazz as a standard, even if it's relatively obscure. Another popular misnomer is "showtune". I'd say a standard is any song that gets performed so often that everybody recognises it. (Stain Doll? There are some mucky lyrics for that one )

The Mosaic Max Roach was also a "Mosaic that Shouldn't Have Been But Was" since it was originally planned as a Verve box to be sold in stores. There was also talk at one point of Verve licensing a Willie the Lion Smith set to Mosaic. Never happened.

I know! It's so annoying. I haven't been happy with JSP releases I've bought in the past and would much prefer a set done with Mosaic's care and attention.

I'd like to see a Popmarket-style mini LP box of Ellington's Sony-owned Fifties albums. A lot did come out individually but there are still a lot of gaps, as with the Brubeck (happily now being resolved).

I always thought that cheapo RCA Original Masters edition was a direct port of the US set that Lon mentions. I have the US set, though, and the sound is fine to me (although I am by no means an audiophile). Unless you are a major Waller fan, my instinct would be to stick with the Euro set. When the heck is Mosaic going to do a complete Fats box?

The bonus tracks are usually included because the versions used are typically the most recent rather than new remasters. In some cases you might get a whole extra album where an old two-on-one release has been used; for example the three-disc Aretha Franklin contains an unlisted Soft and Beautiful and the five-disc Henry Mancini also has Arabesque. It's a great series if you are new to the music or are filling gaps. King Ubu's point is pertinent: Popmarket's more expensive Complete Albums Collection series is making some of these OACs redundant (eg, the Brubecks), so follow your instincts carefully.

From what I've read the channel -- its archive screenings, original documentaries and comedies -- will certainly be kept, but its original dramas will go. That makes sense to me. I'm not sure how many more quirky biopics of dead celebrities the public can tolerate. In any case there seems to be more of an appetite for that on BBC2 these days.

Can't think of anywhere else to put this. Don't forget that BBC4 (a digital television station) in the UK is screening an evening of jazz programmes tonight from 9pm: 9pm Arena: Sonny Rollins - Beyond the Notes 10pm Arena: Sonny Rollins '74 - Rescued! 11pm Omnibus: Ronnie Scott and All That Jazz 12 midnight 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz

This piece is clever but it goes on too long. Maybe weblogs are the new jazz.

Well put. One shouldn't be afraid of abandoning books one finds dull just because they are highly rated. I liked this one, although it's a little stodgy; it could have done with an edit. If you enjoy it, I recommend you try A Walk on the Wild Side, which is much better.

I've been holding off on Their Last Time Out in case it's included in this upcoming set. It's quite cheap (£6.77) at Amazon UK at the moment though.

This my first Maugham, though I've long been aware of his work. I also have Of Human Bondage lined up. Which ones are your favourites?

Perhaps because I'm a journalist, I'm rather into simple, solid sentences these days, so perhaps that's part of the problem I had with Tinker. As I said, I didn't read the others, although I started Schoolboy before abandoning it. I'm currently reading Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge, which has a complicated structure and grapples with some quite ineffable themes but is a masterpiece of clarity. The odd Oxford comma aside, each sentence is beautifully composed.

Count me as another fan of Edelhagen. Very punchy, swinging mainstream big band music for the most part.