John L

Thanks Allen. I listened to most of the samples, and confirmed my suspicion that this was not a live date surfacing 70 years later but merely a not-too-generous portion of Newton's studio dates from the 1930s, many of which have sub-par fidelity for the late 1930s. I don't quite understand the motivation of the fraudsters; it's not as if there's a huge international pool of Newton devotees to fleece. Interesting question. Given the fact that, by now, anybody with an interest in Frankie Newton probably has most of the recordings, you probably have to come up with a new marketing twist to get some of them to re=purchase them.

Does that solve the problem? Yes. iTunes is not a problem on my iMac, just on my PC (although it's still an awful program) Thanks. That is good to know. That is another argument in favor of getting an Apple for my next computer. This first argument is Vista, which sucks even worse on a PC than iTunes.

Does that solve the problem?

Earl Palmer was an American musical institution. RIP

Warning: These downloads appear not to work outside of the US and Canada. The connection to their server resets every 30 seconds and cuts off any downloads.

Thanks for the warning. I have been delaying my upgrade to iTunes 8. I always delay upgrades in fear that they will put some sort of spoke in the wheel. I have a very large iTunes library, and progressive upgrades have generally added negative value for me. Most of the new features concern videos and playlist functions that I never use. Yet the additional baggage has made iTunes itself much slower with large music libraries. Since iTunes 7, my computer freezes every half minute or so for at least 10 seconds.

The whole box is a blast. I say start at the beginning, and listen all the way through it.

The track list would suggest that it is this disc: There is no Monk here, but maybe that is why he is "lost." Maybe after they suggested that he play Fairy Land, he conveniently disappeared.

If you have gone to the advanced menu and selected the external drive as your default iTunes drive, when you add folders to your library from the external drive, iTunes will not copy MP3 files to your laptop's hard drive. It will leave them in the external drive and recognize them there.

One easy solution is to go to "add folder to iTunes library" from the file menu, and then select the iTunes Music folder in your external drive. A faster, yet somewhat more complicated solution is to copy latest "iTunes Library" file to the external drive along with the MP3s. When you load iTunes, there is a key you can push (I forget right now which one. Somebody else can probably help out here) that allows you to choose a library file manually. One you do it once, you won't have to do it again.

Are you downloading the WMA version? Are you going to convert it to MP3?

Well, I have a 520 GB iTunes library, and am living away from home and my CD/LP collection. So I was rooting for an even larger iPod.

Those who want a 160 GB iPod better snatch it up fast. It appears to have been discontinued in favor of a 120 GB.

The complete Bill Evans on Verve costs 9.99 in WMA and 189.99 in MP3. That's quite a difference.

When Rouse just "sits there," I find him to be a great foil for Monk. I absolutely love the way Monk comps around Rouse. That is one of the real attractions of the Columbia period for me.

Thanks for the heads up, Jim. I know most of those Russian cartoon songs. So it should be interesting.

I attended the Saturday night post-Egypt Winterland show, and it was quite memorable.

That is indeed the end game for Monk. For us, the listeners, we are very fortunate that Monk "himself" was also a highly creative musical genius. You still hear the opinion expressed in "educated" circles that Monk was a great composer, but not a great pianist (as in good Monk covers are better than Monk himself). I can't believe that anybody who holds that opinion can really hear Monk.

I also love Monk from all periods. I usually reach for something that I haven't heard in a while, hoping to be surprised. That is also the reason why I snatch up every single one of the many boots of his European performances from the 60s, despite the strong similarities. There is nothing like hearing fresh Monk.

Ironically, one of the problems with the book is that it is so good. Despite these examples of "blathering," there is no other jazz guide on the market as comprehensive and thoughtful. For that reason, quite a number of new jazz fans use it as a sort of bible for discovering the music. While there is a lot of excellent advice in the book, there are also very strong biases. I don't know about more recent versions of the Guide, but the earlier versions basically tell you to steer clear of anything resembling American soul jazz or (their ultimate insult) "blowing sessions." As I recall, not a single artist loosely associated with soul jazz (Gene Ammons, Jimmy Smith, Stanley Turrentine, ect.) got a single **** rating for a single slbum in earlier editions of the guide. At the same time, even minor European artists would usually get at least a few of them.

Not at all. For me, the music is first, and the sound definitely second. Well, almost. There are some types of audio distortion that bother me more than others. For some reason, I am particularly bothered distortion that comes from recording at too high a level - when only the higher end gets blotted out by static. On the other hand, if the static or distortion is fairly constant throughout a recording, I can usually put most of it out of my mind and listen beyond it.

Thanks a million, Medjuck!

I just had a chance to hear this recording. Pretty astonishing! It certainly raises serious questions about the commonly held view that Armstrong dumbed down his sound in the latter 30s. He and the band perform here with a loose abandon and level of energy that matches, and maybe even exceeds, Pops' recordings with larger bands from the late 20s and early 30s. Although Armstrong made some fine recordings for Decca during this time, these broadcasts can't help but make you think of lost opportunities. I downloaded it from emusic, and wonder if there is a precise discographical reference for who is playing in this particular Luis Russell orchestra. I assume that it is similar to the personnel that recorded for Decca at this time, but would like to know for sure.

I haven't read the Penguin Guide in years, and due mostly to aggrevating passages like this one. I vaguely recall what they wrote about Houston Person in one of the early editions of the book: "One either likes this musical version of soul food, or one doesn't." Hmmm, I wonder which camp Cook and Morton were in.

Horace is the MAN. Happy birthday, Mr. Jazz!