Peter Friedman

Clifford Jordan - Summer Serenade from Live At Ethyl's

I have these two Mickey Tucker CDs on Steeplechase. Both are quite interesting. Blues In Five Dimensions with Ted Dunbar,Rufus Reid,David Jones Hang In There with Greg Gisbert,Javon Jackson, Donald Harrison,Ray Drummond,Marvin "Smitty" Smith

This is a CD I can easily recommend. Gianni Basso & Guido Mansardi Trio - Live at Down Town - Splasc(h) Recorded in 1994 in Milan, Italy

I am a serious record (CD) collector and have been for more than 50 years. Having been involved for so long I have accumulated a lengthy list of recordings by many many musicians that I like. If I feel highly positive about a musician I usually try to get everything I can by that player. So for example, I have just about everything by Miles until he changed in a direction that was not to my taste. I am close to being a completist on a large number of jazz players.

I have these 3 Red Richards CDs on Sackville. LULLABY IN RHYTHM DREAMY These 2 are solo piano sessions. As John Norris accurately states in his booklet notes, "Still evident in Red Richards playing is the bustling energy of Harlem's Renaissance period as well as the quiet understatement of a musician who has found a style which complements his own personality." On DREAMY, Red adds his charming vocals to two of the 15 tracks. ECHOES OF SPRING This is a quintet session. Red on piano and vocals is joined by Norris Turney on alto sax, Claude Williams on violin and vocal, Dave Green on bass, and Joe Ascione on drums. Only 3 of the 10 tracks have vocals. All 3 CDs feature a well rounded selection of tunes.

I have "Walking in L.A." on Elabeth from 1980, with Hemmeler, Ray Brown, Shelly Manne: a wonderful straight ahead piano trio recording. Another nice one is "Easy Does It" on Elabeth, a trio recording from 1981 with Ray Brown and Daniel Humair, mainstream piano jazz at its best. It is a shame that Hemmeler did not record more often. I found that one a while ago (after having posted here), of all places at Mediamarkt in Sihlcity, on sale... fine disc indeed! It seems to be on deezer and on iTunes, as well as still available on CD. Fine album! As you can see from the back cover, Stephane Grappelli sits in on one tune. That's the one. Never would have dreamt of looking for jazz cd's at Mediamarkt though... I can strongly recommend the following: Live In Paris (Challenge), a twofer with Heyn van der Geyn and André Ceccarelli Live in Japan (Cam Jazz), a twofer with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron Ballads (CAM Jazz) also with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron I consider Pieranunzi to be a fine jazz pianist. However, he seems to be , in my opinion, two very different players. Some of his CDs are very ethereal to the point where I find them rather dull and unswinging. On the other hand, some of his CDs are melodically and harmonically rich and to my ears truly delightful. Here are the ones I particularly like. Special Encounter - Cam Jazz Ballads - Cam Jazz Live In Paris - Challenge Infant Eyes - Challenge Alone Together - Challenge

Marvelous!!!!!! Griffin, Wes, and Solal all in top form.

Probably my favorite playing by Ron Carter is in a sideman role on this album. Bobby Timmons - The Soul Man - Prestige This is a quartet session with Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Shorter's tune "Tom Thumb" , and these two tunes by Ron Carter - Ein Bahn Strasse" and "Little Waltz" are all special favorites of mine.

Brownie said it perfectly for me when he said that music was not a hobby, but a passion. I began collecting jazz recordings back in the mid-1950's and have never stopped. Over the years I have branched out into blues and classical music too, though jazz is my first and greatest love. I have close to zero interest in any form of rock, pop, country or world music . I did make the switch from 45's to LPs, and eventually to CDs back in the mid-1980's and now have a very large collection My acquisition rate has slowed down a bit as there are fewer things being released that appeal to me. Nonetheless, I am always on the lookout for new releases or reissues that do fit into my areas of interest. I always seem able to find some that make their way into my collection. One thing I do to at least make an attempt (however minimal) to keep my collection under some control is to every so often identify some recordings that no longer interest me the way they may have when I purchased them many years ago. They go into what I call my disposal boxes.

Peter Bernstein had a very interesting CD released not long ago. It's a trio date titled MONK on the Xanadu label. Peter's approach to Monk tunes is rather unique and well worth hearing. I had an opportunity to hear Bernstein play live a couple of years ago at a Jazz Party and he was highly impressive. At this point, Peter Bernstein is one of my favorite living guitar players.

Billy Higgins plays on a very large number of sessions where the leader is Cedar Walton. You can't go wrong with almost any of them. Here is just a brief sampling of other post-Blue Note recordings with Billy Higgins that I would recommend. Tete Montoliu - Secret Love - Timeless Junior Cook - Somethings Cookin' - Muse Slide Hampton Quintet - Roots - Criss Cross Frank Morgan - Lament - Contemporary Jon Mayer - Round Up The Usual Suspects - Pullen Rob Schneiderman - Smooth Sailing - Reservoir Bertha Hope - In Search Of...Hope - Steeplechase Milt jackson - The Prophet Speaks - Qwest

I would love to see more comments about the sound quality on these Blue Note SACDs. I don't want to buy another version of a CD I already have unless the sound quality is truly superior.

Thanks for mentioning this Hines / Ellington material. It has been quite some time since I heard it and this encouraged me to pull one of the CDs off the shelf and play it.

I have this sick urge to just once file jazz by label (and then probably by recording date, though maybe release instead) just to see what it looks like. However it's a hell of a lot easier to do with a couple of mouse clicks in the database, so that will have to suffice. :rsmile: My system seems to be different than most. I file jazz cd's by label in alpha order. Within a label I file by artist in alpha order. If I have a large number of CDs by an artist on the same label I file in order of recording date. To crosscheck I keep a 3X5 card for every jazz cd filed by artist in alpha order. this allows me to go to my 3X5 card file to look up all my cd's by - for example - Zoot Sims. The cards have the label written down so it is easy for me to find any Zoot CDs I may have forgotten about. It may sound complicated, but is actually quite simple once you understand how it works. It helps that I have a pretty good memory for what I have and the labels they are on. For my classical cd's I file by composer in alpha order. My collection of CDs is well over 6,000, I haven't done a count in a long time, and this filing system works fine for me.

It's too bad that Mickey Tucker's albums on Xanadu and Muse have not, to my knowledge, ever been re-issued on CD.

Sonny Rollins He is greatly appreciated as a player, but people often don't think of him as a composer. Here are some of his better known compositions. Oleo Doxy Airegin Valse Hot Sonnymoon For Two Pent-Up House St. Thomas Tenor Madness Paul's Pal

Bertha Hope If you are unfamiliar with her playing I recommend the 4 CDs with her as leader. Elmo's Fire (Quintet) - Steeplechase In Search Of.. (Trio) - Steeplechase Between Two Kings (Trio) - Minor Music Nothin' But Love (Trio) - Reservoir Jennifer Leitham (bass player formerly known as John) Renee Rosnes Mary Lou Williams Lorraine Geller Marian McPartland Mary Osborne (guitar) Karoline Strassmayer (alto sax) Nicki Parrott (bass) Toshiko Akiyoshi Dottie Dodgion

Some more small group recordings that have good playing by Richie Kamuca. Stan Levey Sextet - Grand Stan - Bethlehem Stan Levey Quintet - Mode / VSOP Shelly Manne & His Men - Yesterdays - Pablo Jake Hanna - Kansas City Express - Concord (unfortunately not reissued on CD)

An element of this may be true, but I think there has to be some other reason too. Well, everyone plays the shorter Ellington tunes, but hardly anyone plays the suites or the pieces that are heavily orchestrated (no touring big bands left to speak of). Much of Mingus' output is pretty complex and does need a larger group to play. I don't know if there is any concern with stepping on the toes so to speak of the Mingus Big Band, which is keeping his music alive. But could we turn the question around and ask how many other composers post 1950 say have a lot of their work covered? Monk yes and a subset of Ellington. Herbie Hancock. Maybe Horace Silver and Tad Dameron. A couple of Brubeck(Desmond) tunes are frequently covered, and a handful of Coltrane's. Possibly the top ten hits of Lou Donaldson and Lee Morgan. It doesn't seem that many to me. Seems to me most people go right back to the true standards rather than covering songs from the bop era or more recently. There aren't that many jazz "hits" that musicians want to cover -- or think the audience would recognize -- and that they should stick to originals or the true standards. Maybe I am wrong in this. There are tunes by a number of other jazz musicians that are played quite a bit as well. Tunes by Benny Golson, Gigi Gryce, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker are some that quickly come to mind. The point that is true though is that there are many very interesting tunes by jazz players that have been recorded only once or maybe twice. It's (in my opinion) unfortunate that some jazz tunes such as "Round Midnight" and "All Blues" get recorded over and over and over while there are so many other very good tunes that get passed over.

Charlie Parker - The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Sessions , Disc 2 - Savoy / Atlantic Presenting The Ross Taggart Trio - Cellar Live Buddy De Franco - Gone With The Wind - Verve

I've got the original LP's. Both sound fine. Don't blame the original engineers because the hacks at Charly couldn't get it right! While I agree that these may not reside at the top of either leader's discography, they are decent sessions with plenty of worthwhile music. My copy is on a French Vogue CD. It is titled "Percussion Discussion". I agree with Stereojack that while not the very best by these two groups, there is nonetheless some good music here.

Charlie Parker - The Complete Savoy And Dial Studio Recordings 1944-1948 - Savoy / Atlantic

What a drag! Buddy was a fine piano player (and vibes player) who was not recorded as much as he deserved. I particularly like these 3 CDs by Buddy as leader. Here Again - Sharp 9 A Love Affair In Paris - Space Time Live At Maybeck - Concord Jazz

I knew Harry Abraham slightly when he and I both lived in Rochester,NY. Hung out with him a couple of times. Unfortunately, after Harry left Rochester he got into serious trouble - involved in bank robbery - and I believe spent time in prison. Harry and Will Moyle were the two major jazz voices on the radio in Rochester back then.