mikeweil

...., AFAIK he also played Jimmy Blanton's bass! IMHO, one of the greatest bassists of his generation. I'd recommend any Savoy or Prestige session just for his playing. Too bad he retired from playing in 1968, after spending almost 10 years in Broadway pit bands.

Yes, do! He was one of the most exciting pianists of that generation--a really personal sound despite the Monk/Weston lineage--& I really regret his long sabbatical from recording "straight" jazz. I'd wholeheartedly agree, but these four are a perfect statement, and any addition would be repetition ..... ? I understand Ikaven's statement about the dark edge, but it still has a very positive vibe - and it isn't simply retro - that's why I kept his CDs and sold the harper Brothers' and Justin Robinson's ...

Of all the Clay I have, and it's almost all of his sessions, ART DECO sounds the best, followed by his Jazz West debut (reissued on Blue Note). Musically they are all worth having. Again: Don't know the Coleman

I always enjoyed the Star Trek scores, but all of what I heard was very good, functional, personal, a great composer who just happened to do film scores. RIP.

And I was just beginning to check out his music! Very sad news! One of the darkest days this year: Illinois Jacquet, James Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Sacha Distel ... Anyone knows a good online source for the Lewis CD?

Flying Home all his life - finally reached his home. RIP, Illinois!

I'm totally shocked by this unecpected news. Saw him with the Messengers many years ago. The Spirit of Camaraderie displayed in the Contemporary Piano Ensemble was remarkabale, now it's sadly time for them to do a tribute record. RIP and thanks for the messages!

Leo Parker did four sides with Sir Charles Thompson in the summer of 1947. They are on the latter's Delmark CD DD-450, including three alternate takes.

It is these two tracks that make comparison so interesting! Maybe the first pressing of the Argo was sold out by the time he recorded the Blue Note.

For starters I'd recommend the great 1987 Denon CD "The Art of the Saxophone", which has Wallace encountering sax giants Harold Ashby, Jerry Bergonzi, Oliver Lake and Lew Tabackin, with the unlikely but fascinating and swinging rhythm section of John Scofield, Eddie Gomez and Dannie Richmond! Comparing him with other saxists in such close proximity is a good way to appreciate his originality. And the sound of this CD is excellent, to these ears!

I liked Rodney Kendrick's piano playing from the first note, and bought all of the four Verves immediately - I vaguely remembered having a listen to that Hip-Hop record in a record shop but being somewhat turned off by what I heard. Well, maybe I will re-check. I think he got those chords more from Randy Weston than from Monk - Weston was his mentor, and one of the Weston-influenced trio tracks would have been my choice for a BFT. With his dreadlocks and rather wild attire Kendricks didn't quite fit into the young lions scheme, as he reported in an interview. I remember Justin Robinson from the Harper Brothers Verve album and one of his own for that label - competent players all, but without without that special individuality Kendricks has. His were the CDs I kept ... if I want to hear good harbop, I'd rather put on a Mobley record.

The bass sound is the major reason I did not recognize Haden on this one - I understand this was released on the audiophile label of a manufacturer of High-end components, NAIM, and these often have a remarkably different approch to recording than other labels. They did not care for the sound familiar from hundreds of recordings, but had their own way of hearing this bass. The choice of notes reminded me of Haden, but that pedestrian walking is below the level I am used to him playing at - he's much more inventive on the Hank Jones Steal Away you mentioned. Turns out I sold all the Chris Anderson CDs I had - he is harmonically very sophisticated, and if you are into that, he's jazz heaven, but I prefer groove to that, and there he misses out a bit.

Thank you very, very much, Nate, for your elaborate comments. The most striking message I get from your BFT is that there is so much music happening, especially on the small labels, that it is virtually impossible to keep track of everything. And, having the oppurtunity to write a handful of percussion-centered reviews each year, and knowing that trade a bit, I admire your care and respect you give to this mountain of music sent to you for review - I am much more critical in details, as you might have noticed from my guesses. Some notes to individual tracks below.

After receiving a double CD with more of his beautiful piano music I felt the urge to start a thread about this too little known composer, and found out he was born exactly 131 years ago, on July 20, 1873. He is one of my top five favourite classical composers, although I know only his piano music, but this is among my desert island music. He was born in the South of France, in St. Félix de Caraman en Lauragais, studied law on demand of his parents in Toulouse, but his desire for music was stronger - he moved to Paris in 1896 after first studies in Toulouse - Albéniz was among his teachers. Details about his career can be found in any major music encyclopedia - the online portrait I had bookmarked seems to have gone. He moved back to the South, to Céret on the Mediterranean coast near the border to Spain after ten years - many cubist painters he had made friends with in Paris followed him there. He left only for performances of his greater works - 3 operas - which are very rarely heard; he is best known today as a composer of piano music - on that field he rivaled Debussy and Ravel during his lifetime, and was premiered by the same pianists, Blanche Selva and Ricardo Vines. His piano pieces are the perfect soundtrack for the warm and beautiful landscape of that region of France, "Cerdana" is my favourite, its opening arpeggio takes me to heaven in seconds. CD recommendations: A comprehensive 2-CD selection of all major piano works: "Sunflower Sea", Finlandia 8573-87181-2 (2001) played by Izumi Tateno, who lovingly took photos in Séveracs birthplace and plays excellently. Excellent sound, too. Cheapest introduction containing his two most famous cycles, Cerdana & En Languedoc, Naxos 8.555855 (2004, recorded 2001) by Jordi Masó, a Cantalunyan pianist. Cerdana & three shorter works on Pianovox PIA 543-2 (2000) played very well by Billy Eidi - there is an identical edition of this recording on another label - a little superior to Masó in sound and interpretation. My favourite is the OOP CD by Jean-Joel Barbier, Oeuvres pour piano, Accord 200322 (1988, recorded 1970 & 1988) Aldo Ciccolini recorded the complete piano works in the 1960's for EMI France, they were reissued on a 3-CD set that is available on Amazon Marketplace etc., but I found his playing somewhat less poetic than the others mentioned, and the piano sound too harsh. His complete organ music is on L'oeuvre intégrale pour l'orgue, Aeolus AE-10141 (2000) played by Michelle Leclerc on a Cavaillé-Coll organ in Paris, with works by Henri Mulet, Vincent d'Indy & Ernest Chausson. Most of his songs for voice and piano are on a Hyperion CD which I haven't heard but plan to purchase, it got very good reviews. I doubt any of you has heard any of his music, but if you like French piano music (Debussy or Ravel) or Spanish (Albéniz or Granados) you might like him, though he has his own sound with only resemblances of these. His music holds a special place in my heart, so I thought I'd share this, especially as I had this idea on his birthday!

What is the difference compared to the previous 2-CD box from Columbia Legacy? Better sound?

According to the CD Universe entry they did!

Received a 2-CD set of beautiful, well-played piano music of French composer Deodat de Séverac, rendered by a Japanese residing in Finland, Izumi Tateno. Ordered a copy of James Carter's Layin' In The Cut.

We should make that a habit! Would double the fun!

You can send your copy to randyhersom - see three post further up. Sorry to hear to have too little time!

He generally sounds to me like he is not that developped in his two-way coordination - I know this is a helluva thing to do - but maybe he is more used to play with bass and drums accompaniment. Playing piano without bass and drums needs a lot of practice to learn how to coordinate these two or more voices, and in his first solo passage from around 2:10 he sounds to me like he didn't clearly know how to get to the end of the chorus, the left hand sounds insecure. On the whole, he's not enough to the point, to these ears, rhythmically, in particular. I'm very ctritical about these things ... The saxist takes less chances, stays within certain limits, but he knows more what he can do and what he wants to do. I started liking this tenor player all the more after a few more spins of this track, he reminds me a little of Art Pepper, but with a softer attack. Who is this?

Forgot to mention I really dig this album, ALL players involved. My peronal favorite among Rivers' Blue Notes. I thought Sizzle to be a strange misconceived album. All tunes jump along in lively tempos without much diversification. I sold that almost immediately. Sounds like an underrehearsed one-shot studio affair, even though Holland and Altshul were frequent partners at the time. The Impulse Trios, OTOH, are all great. Good impression of how he sounded live then.

It's not a problem of his playing, but of the way he was recorded: From what I know from photos made in the Van Gelder Studio, Rudy used to place the mikes pretty close to the cymbals. Steve Ellington had his ride cymbal suspended very loosely on the stand, swaying back and forth at a wide angle, thus causing a phasing effect. If Rudy had placed one or two mikes overhead 6 or 7 feet high, he would have avoided this. The first Dave Holland quintet CD on ECM has Ellington too, if you listen closely, you can hear it but it won't distract you.

I remember seeing him live on some Frankfurt Jazz Festival - an unplanned appearance to take advantage of his band passing through town at the time of the festival. Nice music with an original touch. He was a prominent, important figure on the Polish jazz scene back then. But I never saw any of his records.

I haven't heard the Ellington Dreyfus but own several others - they sound spectacular, but compared to transfers from the metal parts I tend to prefer these. The Dreyfus remasterings have much less surface noise, more dynamics and thicker bass and clear treble, but lose on the natural room ambience the Centennial set has. The Django Reinhardt CD sounds great - I think their method works best with pre-1940s recordings.