neveronfriday

I was referring more to other people's comments on this thread. Cheers!

And I don't want to open THAT can of worms, but that Monk was more, err, experimental or whatever is certainly true. But how much sameness is there in Monk recordings? I have quite a few of them, and I like them very much as well, but Monk is as much Monk as OP is OP. And, the word sideman can certainly not be given to Monk. Every tune Monk played on turned into a Monk tune. He definetely put his stamp on there, so if we want to talk about sameness, we've got lots of it here. It takes a few seconds, and you hear Monk. And that's it. Fire away.

Yes, I DO like Oscar Peterson, very much so. I have a lot of his stuff and although there's the odd dudd in there, I greatly enjoy his music. The reasons are, as they should be in these matters, very personal: a) I've had the good fortune of seeing him live many (!) times and the man has a great passion about music, about jazz and about giving an audience a good time. I have never come out of an OP concert dissatisfied. b) The man swings, hard. In my eyes, few musicians were and are able to produce such energetically swinging music as OP ... you have to like that kind of music though. c) He's very much a traditional player. He knows where he's from, he knows what he can do, and he does it. Now if you don't like that kind of very melodic (sometimes overly melodic to your ears, perhaps) playing, you won't like OP. d) OP is NOT a man of statements, other than, perhaps, that music should be approached with a sense of professionalism. To my knowledge, he doesn't try to oppose this or that trend, he doesn't actively try to trash-talk others and their attempts at getting their art across ... he just "does his thing". e) The players he surrounds himself with or has surrounded himself with are equally important (and are treated that way as well). Ray Brown, NHOP, Ed Thigpen, John Heard and the many, many other players didn't play with him because he's an ass or show-off. Just ask them (or read what they have said about playing with OP). f) Liking OP DESPITE what he supposedly does when he plays with others is, if I read my many OP sources correctly, not exactly the way most musicians see it. Maybe my sources are one-sided, but what I've read and heard is that OP actually is very good at being a musician's musician, toning down his role and giving the others the spotlight. I don't really know many pianists who are able to do that to such an extent. And, correct me if I'm wrong, some statements above implied that OP either ruins other people's recordings or is unable to ruin them completely, despite his whatever way of playing. Bunch of BS, if you ask me. There are more reasons, but I'm too busy right now. Cheers!

I'm always surprised how "in" it is and was to trash OP, how everyone but him seems to know how to play piano (much better, of course), how everything he can do is just showmanship, a bag of tricks, ***t and crap. I'm a amazed how people can spend hours, days, months, years and entire careers glorífying some second-rate Blue Note "I sound like everyone else who ever recorded on Blue Note" guy while at the same time using all the often-heard, a thousand times repeated cliché arguments against Oscar Peterson ... and think that's really cool. It's tiring. And it doesn't make the criticism any more valid if you quote someone who distanced himself from the artist in question, presumably so he wouldn't be called "uncool". Sickening, in fact, especially if you look at some of the artists promoted heavily around here, who don't have anything to show than, well, a bag of tricks. Pretty small bag at that. Just my 2 cents worth.

Me, myself and I. Cheers!

At the Smithsonian, no less: http://americanhistory.si.edu/juliachild/ Cheers!

Thanks, but no thanks. I have been there before. I'm looking for a late Garner live recording of that tune. The one you linked to ain't it. But thanks anyway. Cheers!

Hi everyone, in the beginning of the 80s, my dad sent me - I think it was - a 10- (or 5 or 7?) LP box published by Germany's weekly nespaper, "Die Zeit". They used to have a whole series of those boxes and my dad, living in South America at the time, mail-ordered those for me to be sent to my place in Germany, I taped them for him and then sent those tapes off across the pond. Now, 2 of those boxes got lost somehow. On one of them, I think it was just dedicated to piano music, there was a live recording of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" by Errol Garner. I can't for the life of me find any CD with a live recording of that tune. It's one of my favourite ones, although some of you might call that version "kitschy". I'm doing some wild guessing here, but the recording was late Garner at some jazz festival. Can anyone give me some hints or tips as to where I might find a release with this tune possibly on it? It has to be a live recording. Cheers! P.S.: I know the Garner trio recorded a studio version of that (at least I think it is a a studio recording): Title: The Most happy piano. Published: [New York] : Columbia, [195-?] Description: 1 sound disc : analog, 33 1/3 rpm ; 12 in. LC Call No.: Columbia CL 939, M1366.G37 M6 Notes: Performed by the Erroll Garner Trio. Girl of my dreams -- But not for me -- Passing through -- Time on my hands -- Alexander's ragtime band -- Full moon and empty arms -- Mambo 207 -- The way back blues -- Ol' man river.

I (we) will be out of Basie land soon. BTW: I heard some people have complained about the accuracy of many entries at that site?

What really got me is this one, which dumb me didn't know about. I found the link on the Mercury site: http://www.jazzdisco.org/ Wow.

Hi, just a quick question. I was looking for a photo of Butch Ballard and found this one: Butch Ballard Since I don't have another photo to go by, is Butch Ballard the guy with the snare on the far right? Thanks!

Mine got here safely, thanks. Will listen this weekend. You forgot to write the postal code on mine, so the German mail service delayed it while trying to figure out where it had to go to (which is about as easy as pie, so they just did their typical slow work). Cheers!

Because of this thread, I hunted around for some Shorty Rogers at the various second-hand sites I frequent. The first one arrived today: Shorty Rogers and His Giants. The Big Shorty Rogers Express. RCA Victor Jazz Classics (BMG), 1994. Paid 5 Euro. They had it at one site .... spankin' new for 4.99 Euro. Great stuff. Excellent arrangements. Amazing how much swing and pure power you can get out of a ten-piece horn section. Wow. Sounds like they just had tons of fun at these sessions. Nice sound as well! Cheers!

Looking for a photo or whatever of: Aarons, Albert "Al" (trumpet)

Hi everyone, work on the Basie site is progressing smoothly. But, we need YOUR help: We're compiling a long list of musicians who were in Basie's various bands, providing a brief bio for each one. For some, it is difficult to find images which are supposed to accompany each entry. Because those images are scaled down drastically (see example below ... basically only showing the face), we would appreciate it if you could help us find some images we can use. I don't think copyright issues would be such a big deal (don't slap me for this) at that image size, so if you could provide images for the people whose names I will be posting these next 10 days or so, you could make one webmaster very happy. If you can, please, along with the image, post the source you got the image from and the name of the musician whose image your posting (to avoid confusion). I will at least cite that source, if one is given. Thanks! Please check here regularly - I will post names of people whose portraits we're looking for as they pop up. Example (Fats Waller): Please help!

I have them all, I think. Bought them here and there, second-hand. I also think I have fallen out of love with them a bit, but I still throw the odd track on once in a while. Essential (IMHO): Bop! (1988) - That one got me hooked on them and shows their style best. Live (2000) - Again, mostly pure vocal style. Lacking a bit, here and there, but not bad at all. I actually like their most recent one, "Beautiful World". Although, like all the other recent albums, it has added musicians which I am NOT a fan of, this one has some good tunes ("Takin' It To the Streets" [the old Doobies hit], my fave, "Grandma's Hands", plus some others). The rest of the albums are very mixed and suffer from, as mentioned above, their attempt to cross over into Boys II Men territory. Live, they are a real blast to see. If you get a chance, check them out, if you don't mind the religious aspect of their lyrics. Cheers!

Oliver, you IDIOT! ( ) You just had to post that link, didn't you? God@@@*. I just bought 24. Cheers!

My little nephew, pride of the family! Cheers!

Still my fave post on this board that made me laugh so much that I needed a stiff drink to calm down. It was posted by Jazzmoose shortly after we passed the 100.000 mark. Call me weird, but I laughed my ... off. Thanks B3er for this board! I'd have a life without it. Cheers!

Well, I started the 200.000 thread. I'll start this one as well then. It'll only be a couple of months anyways. Cheers and greetings to all the people on this board. I love it here. deus62

Unfortunately, some entries were published in this thread prematurely (from an old version), but the Count Basie Team has almost completed the discography. It has been checked, double-checked, and triple checked, and it currently contains 4540 entries. Some sessions, which have not been identified properly yet, are not included (yet). That's another 40 entries or so. Lord ... has been checked against Sheridan ... has been checked against personal files ... has been checked against private collections. We believe it will be the most accurate one available, and we will make it available in various formats. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to display this info online, because the program of choice for our upcoming Count Basie Site cannot, unfortunately, "loop" through the entries to pull out all the tunes for each session. Well, wait and see what we can come up with. Cheers! P.S.: Although tons of people have put in an incredible amount of work (and at the moment, Agustin is still slaving away at it), big thanks go to John Couwenberg who put in more nights than anyone else on the team, including the last hours until the sun rose up before he went on a well-deserved holiday. I don't want to mention any other names as yet, but there are many. You will find those listed on the site when it goes public.

Which CD is that? Title/Year?

Danke De nada. Arriba!

Please let me know your impressions after listening to it. Shall do. Will take about two weeks to get here. Cheers!