Peter Friedman

Yeah, this is a nice CD. Both sessions are on the obscure side, so it especially nice to have them reissued on CD.

In my view, Cedar is one of the very best jazz piano players on the scene. He deserves a special thread devoted to his playing/ recordings.

I have a Comcast cable box that combines digital, high definition and their version of TIVO (it is has a Motorola label on it). This box allows me to record two separate programs simultaneously.

As much as I love Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Hodges, Rollins, Trane, etc. to my mind, the two greatest jazz soloists were Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. I started listening to Bird back in the mid 50's and have been listening to him ever since. His greatness has been unsurpassed in my opinion.

I have tickets to see Sonny Rollins this evening here in Tucson. The newspaper indictated that his new CD would be for sale at the concert. Unfortunately, he is performing in a venue at The University Of Arizona that is generally a lousy place to hear jazz. It is way too large, and if you don't have especially good seats the sound is poor and it may be hard to see the performers very well. I usually avoid going to this auditorium, but am making an exception for Sonny Rollins. Our seats should be reasonably good ones which will help a lot.

This is definitely among my (many) favorite Ellington recordings. I had it on LP, then got the French CBS CD, and now have the recent CD with the extra tracks.

At one time I had an original copy on LP. My copy of the Mighty Quinn reissue on CD arrived a few days ago. The sound is fine. I have always enjoyed this one as well as the Quinchette on Dawn and the two on Prestige. All four have that Basie feeling, while the others he did on Prestige with Trane and with Sonny Red veer away in a different direction though I like them as well.

For those concerned about the Missing track (Bird Feathers) from the "Alto Madness" CD, here is one solution. Buy a copy of this CD - "Bird Feathers - New Jazz OJCCD-1735-2. This CD has the missing track, plus 2 tracks by the Phil Woods/Gene Quill Quintet, and 3 tracks by a Quintet with Hal McKusick, Billy Byers, Eddie Costa,Paul Chambers, and Charlie Persip.

My taste is rather conservative. I love the Miles group with George Coleman, but am not particularly fond of the playing of Sam Rivers with Miles. The only Sam Rivers recordings I personally like are a couple of the dates he did for Blue Note.

Don't delay, buy this material in any form available. It is great stuff. At one time I had all of this music on original Transition LP's, but now have the Japanese CDs.

Early in this thread there was a discussion of the Gigi Gryce tune "Social Call". One of my favorite versions of that tune is on what I believe to be the first recorded version. It is on the Art Farmer Quintet session on Prestige titled "When Farmer Met Gryce". It's a terrific tune and there are many other worthy versions available as well.

I am also a lover of Beethoven's piano sonatas. I have the complete set by Kempff as well as individual sonatas by Emil Gilels, Richard Goode, Arthur Rubinstein, Murray Perahia. Just listened to a wonderful performance of Sonata No.18, Op.31, No.3 by Richard Goode.

What Brownie said!!!!!!!

I agree with Brownie. This is also one of my favorite vocal CDs. There is also some fine playing on this CD by Lou Levy, Pete Christlieb, Eric Von Essen, and Joe La Barbara.

This quotation comes from the beginning of a movie review by Stuart Klawans in the October 23,2006 issue of "The Nation" magazine. "Great artists do more than express emotion; they also invent it. The difference comes through most clearly when there's no subject matter to distract you - when you listen to Beethoven and Chopin, for example, or Armstrong and Coltrane, and hear how they called up ranges of feeling that were new to the world."

I have two very powerful memories of seeing Red Mitchell in person. The first was when he was leading a trio at the Village Vanguard in NYC. This trio had Tommy Flanagan on piano, and Nisse Sandstrom, the fine Swedish tenor player. The trio was terrific, and Red's solos were outstanding. Mitchell's rhythm playing was good, but not special the way his solos were. The second memory is when I was living in Rochester,New York and the Eastman School of Music brought Red in for a masterclass and a concert. The concert was held in the wonderful small auditorium called Kilbourn Hall. One very unique aspect of the concert was when Red held up a copy of the Atlantic LP by the late trumpet player Tony Fruscella. Red indicated that he loved this LP and especially Tony's playing on the tune "I'll Be Seeing You". He then played bass along with the recorded version of that tune. Pianist Bill Dobbins was on the Eastman faculty at that time and Red played a number of tunes with Dobbins and a local drummer. Once again, Red's solos were fantastic. In fact they are among the most enjoyable bass solos I have ever heard. They were not exercisies in technical fireworks, but rather were beautifully melodic and highly creative. Great stuff!!!!!

I was quite surprised when I read the following in Jazz Journal about Conte Candoli by jazz writer Alun Morgan. " As a mark of his standing he was the first man Max Roach turned to as a replacement for Clifford Brown after the terrible road accident. (Conte had to refuse the offer as he'd just succeeded in making headway in the competitive Hollywood studio scene.)" Were others here aware of this?

Ben Webster is not what one would usually think of as a West Coast saxophone player. Benny Carter lived on the West Coast for a long time, but he is not thought of as a West Coast musician either. The key thing here is that the Ben Webster recording is a damn fine one so don't hesitate in getting a copy

I had the Nat Pierce on LP but thought it was not among his best recordings and disposed of it. I have the Joe Locke, The Teddy Edwards, The Joel Helleny, and the Larry Vuckovich all on CD. My clear favorite would be the Joe Locke which I like a lot. The Teddy Edwards is also well worth getting. The Joel Helleny and Larry Vuckovich are both ok, but not anything special.

I like the two CDs at Yoshi's. I have most if not all of Mulgrew's CDs but to honest, I usually prefer his playing as a sideman. For some reason he seems to generally play in a more relaxed and swinging manner when he is a sideman. I saw Mulgrew live about two years ago, and he was outstanding. None of his own CDs compared to the way he played when I saw him live. I do have one somewhat rare CD by Mulgrew that is very enjoyable. It was issued by the Bang and Olufsen stereo company as a demo for their products. As you might expect the sound quality on that CD is very very good. It's a duo session with Niels-Henning Orsted -Pedersen on bass. This CD is a dedication to Duke Ellington.

I have the JOHN HICKS - IN CONCERT compact disc on Theresa. It's a good one, but my favorite John Hicks CDs are: Beyond Expectations - Reservoir Is That So - Timeless

I am sure this will rile some people up, but Eddie Gomez is a strong example of the kind of bass player I don't (as a rule) like very much. He is very technically proficient, but plays long solos primarily in the upper register. His playing fits the phrase I recall hearing of " a butterfly in a cigar box". many bass players strike me as wishing they were playing a guitar, rather than a bass. To my ears, the bass should be primarily a lower register instrument. I want to hear big rich round swinging notes with a sense of the wood. My taste runs toward Ray Drummond, Rufus Reid, and George Mraz to mention just a few. This is of course just my personal opinion.

Impossible to limit my list to ten. Here are some of my favorite recordings from the '70's. Count Basie - Kansas City Five Zoot Sims - Warm Tenor Sonny Criss - Saturday Morning Tommy Flanagan Trio - Eclypso Art Farmer - To Duke With Love Paul Desmond Quartet - Live Charles McPherson - Beautiful Johnny Griffin - Bush Dance Jimmy Rushing - The You And Me That Used To Be Dolo Coker - California Hard (w. Art Pepper & Blue Mitchell) Modern Jazz Quartet - Last Concert Barry Harris Trio - Plays Barry Harris Warne Marsh - All Music Sarah Vaughan - How Long Has This Been Going On Dexter Gordon - The Panther Sonny Stitt - Constellation Al Cohn _ No Problem Benny Carter - The King Bill Evans - The Paris Concert, Edition One

Stanley Cowell is a truly marvelous piano player. The strange thing is that while I love many of his recordings, there are others that leave me cold. At times Cowell's playing takes on a clinical/sterile quality to my ears. I have 3 of his Steeplechase CDs that I like very much. There were a couple of other on that label that I didn't care for and sold. The ones I like are: Stanley Cowell Trio - Sienna Stanley Cowell Trio - Departure #2 Stanley Cowell (solo) - Angel Eyes The 2 Stanley Cowell Trio sessions on D.I.W. are excellent, in my view. Close To You We Three The two CDs on Concord are well worth having. Live At Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 5 Back To The Beautiful Cowell's most recent recording is a terrific trio date on the Japanese venus label. Dancers In Love

The Charlie Parker on Dial is my favorite . Another one I like not yet mentioned is the version by Stan Getz on the Verve recording titled West Coast Jazz.