jeffcrom

Lionel Hampton Orchestra - Made in Japan (Timeless)

By the time I became aware of this set, it was impossible to find. I'm envious.

Beautiful record - almost shocking if you're expecting relaxing bamboo flute music.

Yeah - I was trying to say nearly 50 years.

Circle - Live in German Concert (CBS Japan)

His Sidney Bechet: Wizard of Jazz is a near-perfect blend of well-researched biography and informed discussion of Bechet's recordings. And it a tribute to his Who's Who of Jazz that this book of short biographies still holds up well after nearly 60 years. RIP.

Kenny Barron - 1 + 1 + 1 (Blackhawk)

Picked up a "new" Mitchell's Christian Singers on Columbia - Lead Me to That Rock / I Want Jesus to Be Around, in excellent condition. Listened to it and a bunch of others by my favorite gospel group tonight. I'm up to 15 records by MCS - on Romeo, Oriole, Perfect, Melotone, Conqueror, Vocalion, and Columbia. Only twelve distinct pairings, though - I have one coupling on two different dime store labels (Romeo and Melotone), and another on three different labels (Perfect, Oriole, and Conqueror). What a group!

Shirley Horn's version of "You Won't Forget Me" with Miles Davis on trumpet. John Lee Hooker's version of "We'll Meet Again." No stories from me, but many years ago I wrote a ballad (instrumental) for The One That Got Away. I'm finally going to record it in about three weeks, with Bob Stagner and Evan Lipson.

Buncha Ted Lewis on Columbia from the 1920s. Ted was pretty grim, musically, but starting in the mid-20s he often hired great jazz musicians. The record shown, Wabash Blues/Farewell Blues from 1929, features excellent solos by Muggsy Spanier and Frank Teschemacher.

39 years for me, whippersnapper. I was already exploring "free jazz" when I picked up a copy of the Impulse The Magic City from the cut-out racks. I instantly knew that I was up against something great and unlike anything else I had ever heard. It was music informed by a different aesthetic than even the other free jazz I had been listening to. This was a different way of organizing music than anyone else had come up with; it seemed almost random, but there was a direction and even inevitability to it which I could feel, but not explain or account for. It was amazing to me. I love all aspects of Ra's music, but I still think that the extremely abstract music of that mid-60s period is his most profound - The Magic City, Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy, Heliocentric Worlds, etc. In any case, I'm glad that Ra visited us for awhile.

It's Steve Lacy's handwriting. My guess is that Steve decided to document the advice Monk had given him during the short period when Lacy was a member of the Monk Quintet. My feeling is that he didn't write this at the time - that it's a later recollection.

Original Dixieland Jazz Band & Louisiana Five (Fountain). Side one features what are possibly the ODJB's least-known recordings, the 1917 vertical-groove Aeolian-Vocalions. I find them much more enjoyable than the well-known Victors. The Victors tend to be relentlessly loud, fast, and repetitive. Here the band is relaxed, and there is much more variety of texture and dynamics. If that intrigues you, the Aeolian-Vocalions are also on this CD. Side two is a selection of 1919 Emerson recordings by the Louisiana Five. I love this band far more than they deserve, mostly because I love New Orleans clarinetists, and Alcide Nunez's clarinet is the lead instrument here. (The Louisiana Five didn't use a trumpet, except at one Columbia session.) Transfers of all the material is by John R.T. Davies.

Bobby Bradford / Frode Gjerstad Quartet - The Delaware River (No Business)

And I had never noticed until looking at the back photo of the Savoy Jam Party two-fer LP this morning that Don Byas had the coolest octave key ever - a custom-made snake. (I found one mention of it from back in 2004, in another thread.) Check out the back of the album or see the picture below.

I will listen to both versions again tomorrow with that in mind.

I've got the Skylark 78 of "Big Boy" as well as a live version on a Modern 78. I actually don't really enjoy them, because I hear them as Jimmy Giuffre's parody of R & B tenor saxophone style - not as the "real deal." Here's my answer to your question. Everboddy else's mileage gonna vary. The question of 78s being superior to microgroove is an amped-up version of the "vinyl is better than CD" issue. A lot of folks here consider the sound of LPs superior to CDs. Maybe, but only with some "ifs" - if the vinyl is near mint; if the vinyl is well-pressed; if it's played on good equipment. I love 78s, and often hear a "presence" in the music that I don't hear in other formats, and I'll go so far as to say that they sometimes sound better than other formats to me. But I recognize that the "ifs" all line up more rarely with 78s. Almost all 78s have more surface noise than LPs or 45 (although I have a few from the 1950s that have nearly silent surfaces.) But a 78 in excellent condition, played on the right equipment, produces a vibrant sound with minimal surface noise. And as Jim said, the big old fat groove and the faster speed often combine to let the music really sing - at least if the record is in good shape. That's a lot of "ifs" to expect from 60- to-120-year-old records. But there are other reasons to love shellac, like the chance to hear rare, hard-to-find-otherwise performances, and the experience of hearing recordings in their originally-issued form, which is sometimes a very different experience from hearing them reissued as part of a CD. But I'm also willing to consider that my love of 78s might be just a quirk or personality flaw.

For the Okeh and Victor, I paid close to what they are worth - balanced out by getting the others cheap, or in one case, free. And yes, junking for 78s requires a lot of patience. You end up looking through thousands of records for every decent one you find. But it's pretty cool when you hit on something good.

No, but I have some Coogan's Ball Bearings. That's Coogan's: B, A, L, L, B, E, A, R, I, N, G, S. Coogan's.

All my King Oliver 78s tonight: Sobbin' Blues/Sweet Lovin' Man (Okeh) Someday Sweetheart/Dead Man Blues (Vocalion) Showboat Shuffle/Every Tub (Brunswick) St. James Infirmary/When You're Smiling (Victor) What You Want Me to Do/Too Late (Bluebird) Stingaree Blues/Shake It and Break It (Bluebird) All but the Bluebirds (which are E-) have varying stages of wear, but they play with vibrant sound with the right stylus and EQ. The Okeh is by the 1923 Creole Jazz Band. The Victor features Bubber Miley as the trumpet soloist. "Stingaree" and "Shake It" have solos by Red Allen as well as by Oliver.

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For Christmas a few years ago, my wife gave me a USB thumb drive from BobandRay.com, containing every authorized recording in their catalog - 90 hours of material. I assumed that I had heard it all by now, but it was impossible to be sure. On a long drive today, I found a "disc" which, sure enough, I had never heard. I like to think that Mr. Elliott led me to it. (Not seriously, but it's a nice thought.)

A Symposium of Swing (Victor). A four-record 12" album, with one record each by Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan, and Fats Waller. Berigan's "I Can't Get Started" is the winner for me.

Morgana King - Winter of My Discontent (Ascot). Could this 1964 album be the first full recorded recital of Alec Wilder songs? I think maybe so. It's pretty good, although Ms. King's style occasionally veers toward the overwrought. There are a few songs I've never heard anywhere else, though. King is accompanied by a rhythm section (with a good guitarist), trombone, and a woodwind mutli-instrumentalist, none of whom are identified.