John L

Yes, Robert Cray is a major talent. But I can't help but feel that he has lost a lot of the inspiration that made his earlier albums so exciting. He can still do it all live when the mood is right.

Well, Mal spent a lot of time himself in Japan. Maybe she did too.

That would be almost 83 minutes. Damn! Missed "perfect" by a mere 4 minutes. Why couldn't the producer have been visionary enough to warn Wood and Gordon of the 80-minute constraint of the coming CD age?

Jimmy Wood's Awakening and Joe Gordon's Looking Good: two rare birds of a feather that fit perfectly on one CD.

At least you're not a "reformed fusionhead." Are you, Lon?

This is probably my absolute favorite Coleman Hawkins. The Pres tracks are also beautiful.

I haven't heard it. But Smokey Robinson singing somebody else's compositions doesn't make much sense to me. Other people singing Smokey Robinson compositions? Now that makes sense. At least he couldn't do a worse job than Rod Stewart.

Sounds good!

We love you, Pops!!! Happy birthday!!! Time to go way back to those good ol' gooduns and get baptized in the pure waters of Louis Armstrong.

Since they used the older cover for the RVG J.J. Volume 2, I wonder why they didn't do the same for Volume 1? J.J Volume 1

I pretty much agree. But there are still quite a number of older blues artists who still deliver the all the goods. Magic Slim keeps the Southside Chicago stuff very much alive. Quite a number of artists still play top notch Chicago Westside stuff: Jimmy Johnson, Eddie Campbell, John Primer to name a few. Soul blues is still very much alive: Otis Clay, Bobby Bland (although his voice is getting very weak), Solomon Burke, etc. On the other hand, Lucky Peterson does nothing for me.

I really like this early comeback period of Art Pepper, especially the Village Vanguard recordings, the Trip, and Living Legend. Some critics downgrade these recordings as Pepper still trying to come out from under his ill-advised Coltrane influence of the time. But I actually like a little bit of Trane in my Pepper.

It is spelled Nonaah Mr Smarty Pants. And, it will be a 2 disc set. Is there a release date yet?

A few comments here: The article correctly identifies the demise of record stores, not a fall in the popularity of music or the decline of the music industry (although that is a serious question as well). Record stores used to be the best and most convenient source for obtaining music. Now there are so many other possibilities. Downloading is only one of them. Amazon.com and other on-line stores generally offer lower prices and better selections than do record stores. I wonder if those companies are showing a decline in purchased CDs? Personally, I really lament the decline of record stores. I just love the activity of brousing through bins of records. But maybe that is somewhat irrational, simply rooted in all of the enjoyment I had in past years uncovering gems in record stores. Now a 5-minute on-line search will usually turn up more than a week-long record store hunt used to. I visited one of the best CD stores in the US a few days ago for the first time in a year: Amoeba Records in Hollywood. It was rather depressing to see that the jazz selection shrunk by about 40% in one year. In particular, it appears that Ameoba is no longer ordering rare imports from Japan and other places. The end of record stores really does seem to be near. For us "serious" music fans, it gets to be a vicious circle. When record stores begin cutting back by only ordering from major labels, that drives us, their potential best customers, away to Internet.

Thanks, Lon. Yes, I was confusing Sony/Columbia with Concord/Prestige. It's the new 1st quartet collection that contains a few of the tracks from Miles Tones. Right? That is a good question about emusic and boots.

I am very sorry to hear your sad news, Kevin. It sounds like your father's strong memory is very much alive and well in the family. John

I imagine that emusic will carry the entire set indefinitely.

The Charly Live in Paris that I know of is only 1965 recordings from France (Paris and Antibes). This disc is highly worthwhile: essential Coltrane. It contains a rare live version of Ascension (Blue Valse) and a killer version of Naima, among other gems. It looks like this: Miles Tones contains a mixed bag of live tracks from 1956-1959 that are available on a number of boots. I think that a few of them popped up on the 56 live recording that was recenlty released by Sony/Columbia together with Milestones. A number of earlier Coltrane Half Note releases apparently confused One Up One Down with One Down, One Up. (Understandable, I guess). The former live recording comes from Birdland in 1962. The latter is from the Half Note in 65, and was released on the recent Impulse set "One Down, One Up."

So does "It's All in Your Mind." That could be a great jazz number.

Thanks. So it would appear that he is still alive. I wounder why he disappeared from the scene?

Does anybody know his story? He plays some beautiful stuff on the MJT+3 sessions. Willie Thomas is nowhere else to be found in my collection.

Naomi's OK. Just don't EVER mess with her tomato, mozzarella and dried ham starters.

35 years already. Wow! I really regret having never seen Pops. But his records do me just fine.

In terms of importance in life, I think that Pres probably comes in third, after family and fundamental moral principles of living.