Peter Friedman

Justin, I have not heard Min Rager. In fact she is completely a new name to me. But I do have a number of CDs with Kevin Dean as leader of sideman. He is a fine trumpet player whose style reminds me of Kenny Dorham and Art Farmer.

Dvorak - Cypresses Bruch - Violin Concerto - Oistrakh / London Symphony Orch. / Matacic

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see Ed Bickert play quite a few times. He was a truly marvelous jazz guitar player. Ed Bickert was unquestionably one of my very favorites. This is very sad news. R.I.P.

Disc 2 - Op.20/4, Op.20/5, Op.20/6

I agree, a very good recording. Previn had a diverse and truly amazing musical career. Though not related to the music, it was interesting to see that over the course of his long life he had five wives.

The Meastro X 2

Ira had music he loved , music he liked, and music he did not like. That sounds like all of us. But he was willing to say so in print. The key for me personally was that when Ira wrote very positive things about recordings, it was 99% certain that it would be music I would like, and so something I would want to check out. On the other hand when he wrote about the music he did not care for, it was almost certain that my view would be the same. Though I can understand why those whose taste in jazz goes beyond what Gitler liked could be frustrated or angry with what he had to say, I found him personally to be a highly reliable source. I followed the writing of Stanley Dance quite closely. He would piss me off when he had nasty and sometimes sarcastic things to say about Bebop and Hardbop. However, I also loved the Mainstream/Swing music that he championed, so focused on what he had to say about that musical genre.