mikeweil

Just noticed this on the Concord site while trying to track down my order. This makes a lot more sense than anything Fantasy (or Prestige, for that matter) did with those Stitt sides, so I still have hope that some really good stuff will come out of Concord. Stitt and Red Garland aren't exactly bankable names the way Coltrane, Miles, and Monk are ( Stitt may sell a million, but that will be 100 copies each of the 10,000 albums he recorded), yet they've both already been treated right by Concord, even in the early going. The Miles set makes a lot of sense also. I'm actually pretty encouraged in some ways. Sonny Stitt Stitt's Bits [box Set - pre-sale only] PRCD3-30043-2 A 3-CD box set spotlighting one of the great founders of BeBop, the multi-talented Sonny Stitt. His blazing, beautiful playing of alto, tenor AND baritone saxophone collected within this special collection is not to be missed! Features the complete Prestige BeBop recordings from 1949-1952 on three digitally remastered CDs and Includes previously unreleased material! That one is overdue!!! They should give the Gene Ammons sides from that time span the same treatment.

I've decided I will give this new version a chance ...... I will report after a concentrated listening sessions, given that my dealer has it in stock tomorrow.

Well, there is gin with olives ......

If you go to GEMM, use the more elaborate search tool and check the respective price range you will get plenty of used CDs over $ 50 - some of these are really rare, but I'm patient .....

I bet they all will be redone by RVG - even though he didn't engineer the Riversides, and since Jack Hioggins' and Ray Fowler's sound concepts were totally different from Rudy's I'd rather not want to see this.

Me too! Could it be from this album? Cuz I gotta figure that's Art Taylor on drums, now that I think about it! No, it's track 4 from this album.

{{{kick}}} {{{kick}}} {{{kick}}} {{{kick}}} {{{kick}}} {{{kick}}} {{{kick}}} Can't believe I was so far off on the piano player!!! Simmer down, Al - Silver and Harris share the same roots, and Hank's tune sounds very Silverish, for sure - but you should have considered that Hubbard never recorded with a Silver Quintet .....

Thoughts upon first listening: # 1: Jackie McLean and a Van Gelder recording, were my first thoughts. Yes, it is - I have that album. That pianist is interesting, but I find his hands somewhat disjointed - the right swings in a very concise hard bop manner, but his left feeds augmented chords that border on atonality. I listen to him once in a while, but can't warm up to this style. Jackie Mac sounds less flat than usual hear - the track title, "Time To Smile", is very appropriate. # 2: Another van Gelder Recording? All pianists sound the same in his studio, attack-wise. Should be Freddie Hubbard on trumpet - okay we know you had the best chops in the 1960's amomng all trumpeters. Hank Mobley in good spirits blowing the tenor. Too lazy to look up the rest of the band etc. - I think I have that somewhere. Was this some download? Sounds shaky at times ..... Because of these effects on the recorded sound, I prefer a decent CD. Musically? I always found Freddie too flashy, and always loved Hank. # 3: A Monk tune - Bright Mississippi - sounds almost like Monk - Sphere? Then it's Gary Bartz .... yeah, there are some signature Trane-inspired phrases. The rhythm sections swings like hell - like Monk's in the late 1960's. Kenny Barron's piano sound is rounder than Monk's, of course. The bassist is a little too much in front of the beat for my taste during his solo - oh, that glissando at the end suggests Ron Carter rather than Buster Williams. But the drummer could be Ben Riley. So, not Sphere. And not Bartz. Hmmm .... # 4: "More Than You Know". I'm not that much of a clarinet fan - a very competent player, but I don't like his sound in the upper register. Dunno who this is. He's more advanced than the pianist, who should be some post-swing guy from the lyrical school. Well done, but NMCOT. # 5: Back into the 1970's and the times of Rhodes sound and soulful grooves .... I never heard that before. Interesting theme, not average stuff, and ditto saxophonist. I like the pianist best here. He and the saxist have some good rapport. Would have liked a Rhodes solo than bass - too little ideas for the length of it, IMHO. Who is this? # 6: Was hard pressed to push the skip button here - that's the type of stuff that doesn't inspire me anymore. Don't like the intonation of the saxist. Pianist' solo is full of Corea-isms. Yawn ..... been here before. # 7: At last some interesting sounds here, some electronically altered accordion sound. Or keyboard generated? Again that type of sxist that rotates too much around his own instrument's tradition and technique. What does he want to say? As JSngry put it in one of the posts during the discussion of my previous BFT: Jazz for jazz's sake ...... That second soloist has a more interesting concept enhanced by that sound - reminds me of some of the devices Eddie Harris used .... well maybe I've just heard to many tenor saxophones. Rhodes is nice, too. No that's not a Rhodes - that other brand .... not sure: A Hohner Electra. Interesting .... Is that the saxist using that electronic sound? Like him better with this than à la naturale ..... # 8: Again, interesting, but I've really heard to many tenor saxists in that style ..... Theme has a nice Eddie Harris inspired twist. Well, they try some nice things, like that unexpected funk groove at the end. I would have dug this much more twenty years ago. # 9: Sounds like a home made recording, judging from the room ambiance. Again, they are convinced by what they are doing, but don't inspire me any more ..... That abrupt ending is a drag .... # 10: Same a remarks to previous track. It must have been fun to be there, and I'm sure I would have appreciated the music on this as well as on several other tracks much more, had I been there when it was recorded. I'm curious about the names in the answers, that's for sure. Thanks much for the compilation. p.s.: The theme should have to be about saxophones, methinks - that's why there were a few too many for me, here ....

Purists .........

Still waiting for a CD: Turbanating: Organissimo plays Dr. Lonnie Smith with the three of you in this type of outfit on the cover - now that would be real cool!!!

It's indeed a nice album - as is the other of the band. Whoever gets this may consider himself lucky.

I'm surprised - but I'm not familiar with most of his albums. Still: why did he overdub that second guitar in the intro? Or was that the bassist chording?

The sour taste comes from the carbonic acid - part of every beer, but more prominent, somehow, in weizen.

I still hope for some Iberian edition of these ..... some of the best Hamp I know. That would be the date with Oscar Dennard, Ray Copeland, Jimmy Cleveland, Lucky Thompson etc.? I'd definitely like to hear that one in its entirety! Yes, that's the session - part of it was a quartet setting. Two Lps worth of music, I have only two thirds of it from scratchy LPs and a not so great sounding Musidisc CD.

I think the slightly sour taste of some types of weizenbier go well with a slice of lemon - that's how I first got to know it, and it's quite common in some parts of Germany. There is a mixture called Berliner Weiße - a Weizenbier with a dash of fruit syrup. Mostly Waldmeister taste - woodruff this is called in English, says my dictionary - but others as well, rasberry is very popular in Berlin. I must admit I like the taste of it, it works with pomegranate syrup, too .... My wife likes to pour a generous dash of apple juice into her beer, very refreshing in summer.

I still hope for some Iberian edition of these ..... some of the best Hamp I know.

Feliz cumpleanos!!!

I like the Mabern - if you're into the hardbop boogaloo groove, this is the one to go for - it's much better than I thought. The Bakers give you all the music from three LPs on two CDs ..... if you like Baker, this is some of the better music he recorded during those years. Toss a coin .....

Thanks a lot, Jazzclinic, for compiling (and Steven for passing on!). The usual disclaimers apply. Now this BFT is almost the opposite of mine, the preceding one, which avoided the common jazz grooves, the wide range of modern swinging - these disc are full of this! I don't think I know any of this music, and find it hard to recognize anybody, as I don't listen to this kind of jazz any more (except for BFT discs .....) and don't have the funds to buy much of it - the more welcome these selections are: Otherwise I wouldn't get to hear much of this. Thanks again. If much of this doesn't thrill me too much it's entirely my fault, as my tastes and centers of interest are constantly changing. # 1: Some modern freewheeling jazz waltz - I'd guess the pianist is the leader, but I don't find him very distinctive, nor the soprano saxist that follows. Nice, but nothing that really grabs my attention. # 2: I hear two guitarists, but since one of them disappears entirely for the remainder of the tarck, I guess he or she overdubbed ..... The horns come as a surprise, I would have expected a guitar duo with bass and drums. Why not have the horns play the harmony behind the guitar introduction? Or the guitar behind the horns? Sounds like an afterthought added after the band had left. That gives it a disjointed, undedcided touch, and that's a pity, because it's a pretty track, concise, no frills, and the drummer is very nice. # 3: Tango-like piano intro. Clarinet and tenor sax. That clarinets has some Klezmer influences that I dislike - and that tenor saxist that Garbarek-like tone. Doesn't say much. Definitely not for me. # 4: This one has a nice mood, although it has that typical European/Scandinavian sound that I have heard too often - not bad, but kind of bores me - as I said this is nothing new to me. # 5: Interesting 6/4 rhythm. At first I was skeptical - not enough variation from the pianist, but the way the improvise around that groove catches my attention. That pianist and drummer have a good thing goin' - my favourite track so far. Would like to hear more. If the rest of that disc is as good, I would buy this. Only thing that leaves question marks is that the xylophone or whatever it is appears only for the theme statement - is this some keyboard sound utilized by the pianist? Would have liked to hear a solo. # 6: Starts with a nice groove, but I don't like the solo styles of the pianist and saxist. # 7: Interesting writing and instrumentation although I wish the accordion was integrated more into the theme statement. The conga and and bongo player are in one world, the trap drummer in another - this way the percussionist are superfluous, but it's not their fault - the rhythmic aspect of the writing and the drummer's groove did not do them justice. The drummer plays as if they weren't there. With a drummer more sensitive to the Cuban gooves and a lighter style this would have worked better. Strange mixture of modern big band writing and soloing (the trumpet!) and more experimental attitudes. Hmmm ..... not quite successful, but an interesting attempt. # 8: I like a solo piano to be either more concrete rhythmically or start peacefully before it goes into a rhythm like that - NMCOT - don't know what he wants to say with this. # 9: More solo piano - again of the agile, energetic type, but I like this one better: The grooves are much clearer and he/she sounds pretty engaged. At last some musical humor, too! Nice. Who is this? And in the end, "These foolish things" ..... this player has some good spirits and a sense of humor! # 10: Too bad this highly qualified live performance suffers from the low fidelity - the high end of the frequency range is almost non-existent. Cymbals and brushes are practically inaudible. That guitarist has good very taste and a lot of experience, knows how to pace himself, takes his time - classic style. I hear some Jim Hall, but I am not sure. Could do without the saxophonist. Guitarist is the best of the bunch. Would like to know who he is. # 11: That guitarist and bassist dig in from the first note! Arrrrghhhh - I know that guitarist ..... wasn't he on one of the first BFT's? Guitarist has more substance than the bassist, who noodles a bit. Drummer is nice. Track # 5 was the high point, for me. Nice compilation, not the type of stuff I listen to that often, but I'm thankful for these looks into the jazz mainstream.

I think the idea is rubbish. You can't merge two mono recordings (made with two different mono microphones placed independently from each other and recorded with two different tape machines) into realistic stereo. The end result doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't have a natural soundstage, just a weird spacey effect, with intruments often floating around. They should have stuck to plain mono. Nevertheless, despite the strange concept, the sound is ok, and the added music is essential. The sound is okay beacuse the simplest concept of stereo recording - two microphones placed close to each other, like the human ears - is not so far from what was used on the stage on that event. The soundstage sounds pretty natural, to these ears. Anyway - the old record was strange sounding - the new has air around the whole stage. I feel like I am there when I put on the new CD - that never happened to me with the LP.

Somehow I am relieved they don not ship internationally, although there are only few items I'd really like to have - I've been buying OJCs etc. more often than Blue Notes over the years. I guess I had my share from Zweitausendeins - spent more than a hundred bucks there since spring. I think they use this sale to reduce duplications - they sell out all the K2s and many titles that probably will be RVG'd in the near future. Relatively few rarities among them - I found several much more interesting titles here, but not a single K2!

Sometimes they used the original liner notes. But to put the music into historical perspective new liner notes are the better choice, methinks. They could reproduce the original covers as well, though.

Thanks for the kind words - I appreciated your comments, no matter how late they were! Please tell about your findings at Amoeba (what kind of store is this?).

R.I.P. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was the second or third LP I ever bought ..... I lost interest in Pink Floyd after he left - he was the most genial of the band.

If Claude Bartee is one of the victims of the recent accidental members list deletion, he may need to reactivate his account. If he is no longer on the board, this will not happen, and no way to contact him .... I will start a thread, and if he doesn't react, I will delete his name from the list.