mikeweil

And now, the first recording of a type of instrument that had to be reconstructed from the surviving two copies Cristofori built, combining the string length of two 8" harpsichord registers with the compact build of a spinet - a beautiful looking and unique sounding instrument!

More music on Cristofori instruments - simply great in all respects: The original instruments are no longer playable, but Kerstin Schwarz makes meticulous reconstructions of every detail - see her website for information: http://www.animus-cristofori.com/en/ This is the type of recording that makes me ask myself "who the hell wrote this piece" - and the answers are always a surprise.The history of keyboard music in the 17th and 18th centuries is much more complex and varified as most people think, and full of fascinating discoveries, especially among the composers coined as "pre-classical" - a totally unapropriate label.

Got a copy for ten Euros incl. shipping!

I second the recommendation - you save at least the customs fees. Jazz Messengers has to make some money on selling these sets, but the price I paid was about the same as if ordering from Mosaic with lowest shipping rate, without import taxes or similar due to buying within the EU.

For me, Luca Guglielmi is the most original Bach player of the last two centuries.

This afternoon:

Jazz Messengers still have it listed, I got my copy from them a few weeks ago. They e-mailed me that they will stock the James P. Johnson set once more, given that Mosaic can send them one more batch.

R.I.P, Valerie - thanks for your enlightening spirit on this board.

R.I.P. Yes, this comes as a shock, although I remember reading about the stroke he suffered last year. I saw him live at last twice, and always enjoyed his playing. He seemed less lick-oriented in comparison to other guitarists, more open-minded and experimental, not stuck in a single stream of music, like a natural extension of Jim Hall. He was very influential in Europe, I think. I will miss him.

No, I don't think so. The source for this is obscure, it is strange there are no videos of the other tracks, and the visual and audio quality sucks, like that of the existing videos of the performance by Les McCann & Eddie Harris from Montreux. Probably bootleg copies of Swiss TV tapes.

That was a smokin' band Mongo had at Montreux. Only bummer is they didn't restore the percussion track for the CD issue - Saoco, a tune by Armando Peraza. (You can watch it on YouTube, search for the title.)

Disc 4 with the For Django LP - a great guitar album, but Pisano's 2nd guitar is too low in the mix.

Discs 5-7 - the Groove Yard session and the encounters with Shearing and Milt Jackson.

I have encountered the same problems. What makes things worse is that the replacement cases you can buy are made from thinner plastic than those the manufacturing plants use. I once bought a set of five empty 4-CD boxes and broke three right away when opening them for the first time. It's become hard to get decent replacement cases.

This the Groove Hut reissue with all fifteen tracks recorded at those sessions in 1964. Nice Onzy Matthews charts on some tracks, great guitar by Ray Crawford. This is just as good as any other 1960's Groove Holmes recording.