michel devos

True.His discography is incredibly expanded and of unequal quality...If you like the trio sessions, "Groovin' at Small's Paradise" and "Crazy Baby" are musts. For more quartet sessions with Turrentine, 'Midnight Special , Fourmost are excellent, as well as Home Cookin with Percy France. For a touch of big band, try Bashin. But frankly, isolate his top 5 is a very hard job...

Agreed on that version of My Funny Valentine : this is definitely Jimmy at his best, including the beautiful sounds of Eddie McFadden.I can't imagine a better version, although that song went along with Jimmy for years :he played it again with Grady Tate on the date Fourmost and , sign from the Gods, the only time I had an opportunity to record him live, he played that tune as well. There really MUST be something in that tune

What about these 4 great Jimmy Smith : -Crazy Baby -Plays Fats Waller -At Club Baby Grand Vol.1 and 2 and : BabyFace Willette 'Stop and Listen'

Sounds silly, but I'm glad to see these reissues again : I still had no opportunity to buy any BabyFace Willette : I'll go for face to face, while waiting for Stop and Listen. Any hope for this one?

I confirm the sound quality is very good, even when compared to more contemporary standards...When checking Groovin' at Small's against the more recent reissue "The Boss", one notices the failures of the latter recording : lack of space, artificial reverb, the only thing that gets "improved" from the LP issue is the background noise...I mean more noise, of course. What's lacking here (maybe) would be some presence in the bass region and the clicking from the keys : probably RVG was not using some kind of direct injection gear..? Regarding the music played here, it is probably one of the most daring and progressive album of Jimmy's.Listen to the intro and finale of Laura, or Slightly monkish.My Funny Valentine gets an extraordinary treatment here.Some premices of these sounds are to be found upon Blue Note 1556 'The Sounds of Jimmy Smith' track 'The Fight'. Definitely buy this one...

Forget this one

Although Murray Perahia and Maria Joao Pires rank very high on my Schubert list, it would be a mistake to forget Wilhelm Kempff on DG....Very moving playing here.Also check availability of Richter for sonata D 664 and the Wanderer Fantasie : the sonata playing is absolutely incredible, especially the adagio.Lots of fire on the Fantasy Christoph Eschenbach is very good on D959-960, as well as Maria Joao for D894 But these are just personal suggestions according to my taste...all of these works are gems by themselves I made a live recording of Kemff in 1975, playing a full Schubert program : listening these tapes almost 30 years later show how right he was to concentrate on the works of Schubert at the end of his life : nothing sounded more appropriate for his technique and the produced sounds were just magnificent .Happy times...

Mike, There is at least an opportunity for you to hear the Diabelli live there.... Ingolstadt 24.11.2005 Solo L.v. Beethoven: Diabelli-Variationen

Are you serious?

Thanks for the excellent transcription job you did , Jim. I agree the interviewer is a bit on the light side : we would have liked to hear more from Van Gelder views over SACD, surround sound microphones , DSD recorders etc...Even so, the reading is worthwhile and shows the man is keeping up the pace. Thank you again to have shared this interview with us.

I know of no pianist who would accept playing in front of an audience, not to mention recording, a piano out of tune...talk about responsability : everyone is to be blamed here, the producer, the engineer, the studio manager and the player.

Normally, manufacturers mention in their CD-R specification sheet the burning speed that produces the least errors.For the best brands, 8x is generally recommended.

Damn! I was hoping it was from when he was a member of Ken Moore's Craftsmen... Oh yes you are right...my mistake....it was indeed in 1953 he joined the Moore's Craftsmen before leaving in 55 for the SilverGoldstones under the direction of Alan Buescher.... yeeah, looks like it is time I seriously reread the sears catalog...

This Sears LP looks like the Cd that was published in May 2002 by Empire Music(?).Jimmy is part of the Don Gardner and the Sonotones. Al Cass plays tenor sax and Gardner is the drummer and provides some vocals as well.Probably recorded around 1955. No serious reason why this session was not left resting in peace...

Very good for used cd's when available :http://www.djangomusic.com/artist_music.asp?dt=&pid=P+++++7686&cid=&sid=&mediatype=&sort=&pdir=o&ppos=1 Need some luck, though

I had given up buying complete sets of CD by one artist....usually, that meant listening to about 70% of the music on the set, the rest being, to my ears, rather uninteresting. The Gerald Wilson Mosaic made me change my mind about this : even CD#5 is thoroughly enjoyable, my favorite one being naturally 'You Better Believe it " featuring Groove Holmes.Top marks for the sound quality and the booklet. My advise : break your piggy bank and GO...

The Neumann U87 is probably the top all around mike on the market and would give you a magnificent sound....but at a price... However, since microphones are a long term investment for serious musicians, I would advise you to get a Neumann KM184, which is reasonnably priced and will last forever : I use it frequently for alto sax, and I get very fluid results

The Jimmy Smith Trio toured extensively Europe in the first quarter of 1987. They played a club in Brussels, with Grady Tate on drums and a guitar player that appeared to be Barry Galbraith, but I do not think this possible, since Barry had passed earlier than 1987...Would a quasi homonym Terry Galbraith exist...? Any help would be greatly appreciated

I like Johnny Lytle sound : it blends beautifully with the organ background, with rich harmonies and colourfull tones...Especially Moonchild and Village Caller. I liked also Walt Dickerson in concert, playing tasty variations on To my Queen...And finally, let's have a word for Freddie McCoy...

My 2 pence worth of reply : who could be against such an idea..?I expect no one. However, I have serious doubts about the viability of such a project. Each of us has his own taste in music, be it Rock, folk, classical, whatever : personally, I'm mostly interested in classical music from 18th and 19th century and jazz ranging from 1940 on, with a strong emphasis on soul jazz and Hammond organ. As a result, there is simply no time for me to go thru all the postings on the site, not even to mention posting myself and this section will simply be a new one to be scanned occasionally to pick a subject I'm connected with. I feel a forum should be as specialized and thorough as possible within the limits of its declared field of interest(application dedicated? ) otherwise I can't see how anybody could survive the flood of mixed threads that will overflow it. Now, how do we define these limits....? In short, I'm not against the project but I do not believe it to be practical. Nevertheless, this will be an interesting experience.

Well deserved and well done guys...Now that you are "buddies" on that list, can we expect a collaboration with Houston Person ?