neveronfriday

Never..., I think you missed the point about the book. It's not supposed to be THE book on jazz photos. It is a recollection of the travels that Claxton and Joachim Berendt made in 1960 through the various jazz cities over the United States. As such it is quite remarkable with a stunning number of interesting photos I had not seen before. And even if the reproduction of the images is not perfect (the book would then have costs thousan$$s, the standard raised here is quite high. Much better than on the previous Taschen Claxton book 'Jazz Seen'. Look at the new book with a fresh eye. There is quite a lot to enjoy there! ← I don't think I missed the point - I do have the original book and love it (and know it inside out). I'm questioning the purpose, really. It's basically the "remastered" version (with a bunch of extra tracks) and, to state again what I said above, Taschen, in my eyes, has been doing too much of that in its past history: recycling. What I meant was the following: just imagine they would apply more time (remastering doesn't take half the editorial effort), more editorial effort, and some ideas of their own to actually produce something new. At this price something else would and should have been possible. As it stands, this edition is great for people who don't have the original, but for people who have that one there's simply not enough here to merit the price tag (besides the much better reproduction quality) - and I'm speaking for those for whom 150 Euro is A LOT of money to shell out! For others it probably is worth the upgrade. I'm not trashing the book at all, I'm just voicing my (slight) disappointment with it. I'd rather spend my money on something else.

Have a nice one!

Definitely get it. It's a great book no matter what. Doesn't cost much more than a Mosaic box, really.

Hey, old friend... care to tell me what's this tune like? I can listen to the music but cannot read it ← It's Max Roach's drum solo in "Study in Brown".

I have a couple of these but forgot to ask William Claxton to sign them. This would have suited him better than the very heavy copy of the book he signed! He had a bit of a trouble lifting it and opening it to the first page to sign my copy! The book is quite astonishing. One of the very best jazz photos book ever! ← Of course the flyer comment was a joke referring back to the various JiP collectibles we were talking about a while back ("mine's bigger/rarer than yours", kind of thing). I got my girlfriend to get the flyer (it's actually a heavy cardboard card) signed by Claxton at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Sunday so I can put that into my rather torn first edition of the book. Today I spent quite some time studying the new book and without trying to be the party pooper here, frankly I was more disappointed than anything. Sure, it's a stunning book, but I expected more than what's in there. Moreover, some of the images are overly grainy, blown up to the size they are (and yes, I know they were supposed to be grainy in the first place). I'd rather get the huge Kubrick tome, especially since most of what's in there is new for me whereas the Claxton book I know inside out. Now just imagine they would have turned that one into a complete jazz photography of ... kind of book. There would certainly have been enough space for that. This way I think it's just another one of the by now many half-hearted Taschen Books, a reprint which didn't demand all that much editorial effort. Sorry, but that was my first impression.

Happy birthday, old friend! And a small present, just for you ...

But you DON'T have the signed flyer ...

Is that what the disk looks like? I DON'T think I want one. Does a bottle of Rum come along with it? And if not, why not? The mind boggles. Literally.

And another one. Verve Club No.5 opened in Berlin. Dancefloor jazz. With DJ Impulse, VJ: OchoReSotto and Mark Murphy? If that ain't eclectic bull. Get effing lost. I forgot to remove my name from the Verve list. But I'm about to ...

I don't have any kids but fall asleep on the floor anyways half the time. Inbetween my speakers. Happens to the best of us.

26 years on death row. Isn't that enough?` What ELSE do people want?

I have the original British hardcover lying here (never read it, though) 1990 (second printing, one year after first edition). It doesn't seem to conatin any extras besides an alphabetical list of names. The last chapter is "Chapter 125: The Key". After that, the above-mentioned list. Maybe he wrote something for a later edition?

This is about how I feel. Except, I don't think society owes him anything, considering the nature of the crimes he commited. Williams was a murderous piece if shit thug back in the day, but he has no doubt done some good since. For that, society can and should give him the opportunity to continue his positive work and live out his life behind bars. ← In this special case I disagree in one aspect. Society does owe him. If you study closely what the man has done, he probably prevented an uncountable number of murders. I see this completely separated from his earlier crimes. The guy was a gang member and a notorious gang leader in his youth. To my eyes, he's completely reformed and society should honour this. But this being American (and especially Californian) society, it probably won't (no matter how many people are fighting the death penalty).

That is the problem. There are too many people in the US who simply adhere to the old "an eye for an eye" shtick and find it to be impossible that a person who has committed a crime (no matter how heinous) can actually see the error of his ways and do some good from that point onwards. And, no, Tookie is certainly NOT innocent. He'd be the first one to admit that. But if you look at his case, the development afterwards etc., society actually owes him for all the work he has done. He certainly doesn't expect to be pronounced a saint, but I'm sure he has done more than enough to be allowed to live. And please spare me the "what about the vitims" speech. Just today, in my country, two young men were convicted of having killed their teacher because she gave one of them, a totally obnoxious pain in the neck who never showed up for class, a bad mark. They beat her, stabbed her countless times and doubtlessly had a good time doing it. One of the murderers got 8 years in prison, the other one will walk in 18 months (if I remember correctly off the top of my head). I'm a teacher myself and am outraged at the crime, but I also believe that perhaps, those two can somehow be reintegrated into our society and live some sort of useful life. I don't believe in revenge. A legal system based on revenge sucks.

I've been following Tookie's story for decades. This news is sick and depressing.

Well, I sent a brief thought and I hope some other people here will find the time to do the same. There should be 5 minutes left for most people here to help an aspiring journalist out. We're not THAT busy (as hanging around here all day long proves).

Mine is in Germany and is probably NOT happy. The CDs were immediately removed a) from the box and b) from those stupid double-CD jewelcases that you need a screwdriver for to get the CDs out of sometimes. The box was then stored approximately 10 meters away and hasn't been touched since an evening of intensively reading the enclosed book(let). Hey, I have a reputation to keep.

Would be lost without you. Seriously.

Thanks Jim, I already have the first CD (love it). The problem is not really the shipping or whatever, it's on the European (German) side here. Sometimes I'm lucky and things go the way they should, other times I'm faced with numbskulls who I have to debate endlessly with just to get stuff I don't even have to pay any fees on out of customs. I've been importing stuff ever since the beginning 80s, on a regular basis, but now I've finally given up. It's become a total hassle in my area here and it's just not worth the trouble. Even rarer CDs usually show up somewhere in Europe with the dealers I regularly buy from, so I just have to be a bit more patient, that's all. BTW: Even going the Mosaic surface shipping route didn't cut it for me anymore this time (the shipment was held back by some moron in customs who DEMANDED I personally show up to pay the fees (they used to allow payment by transfer and faxing of receipts so they could detrmnine what I had to pay ... not anymore). Summary, I've told customs to shove the last three shipments I was expecting sideways up their rear ends ... and haven't heard from them since. I also vowed to myself not to order overseas anymore. That limits the number of Mosaics I can buy, for example, but all in all, everything is available here (or through Caiman, the only shipments that regularly make it through). Besides, I have several thousand CDs to listen to.

It's my own fault that I signed up for this shite, but it is amazing to see how many potential customers these labels scare off by endlessly sending these ****ing mails. If it wasn't for jazzmatazz (and the big O., of course) I wouldn't really be informed of what's new or what is being re-released. I think all the labels should give their money to jazzmatazz and just close their own PR shops down.

How many more Impulse Remixed-, Verve Downmixed-, Blue Note Upmixed-, Katie Meluah-and-Jamie-Cullum-crap-mix-mails are the various jazz labels going to send out? Why do I actually sign up for an e-mail newsletter with jazz labels if they don't put out any more jazz? No, I don't want to see Jamie Cullum, Peter Cincottit, Katie Meluah or any other 14-year old new jazz sensation live ... and I don't want to buy their stuff either. And I don't want to have or hear about another jazz remix project. NEVER. AGAIN. @@**! I'm going to have my name removed from every label newsletter, change my e-mail address, move house, ... What a bunch of freakin' clowns. Thanks for listening.

Sounds like a true horror show.

Yeah, the rapport between the two was amazing. But she also has 100% command of her set and incredible dynamics. Wow, again.

It's a wearable cake.