John L

Is this better than the first RH Factor CD? I like Hargrove in general and I like funk, but I found the first CD to be a consistent bore.

King Ubu: Yes, I do have that and enjoy it. But I actually like Gene Harris Trio + 1 even more. It has a bit more spark to it.

That's right. There is probably a better chance that Concord will keep jazz titiles in print than gospel. Fantasy was the only major company that devoted considerable energy to high quality reissues of classic gospel. That is a non-profit activity to be sure.

It takes me about 6 minutes a full disc. Actually, a lot less. I pay my kids to do it for me.

Yea, enough of that knee slapping and finger snapping! We want instruments!

I actually used to enjoy the solo Garcia concerts more than the Dead. It was more low-keyed. You could sit right up with the band and groove with them. And there were no 20-minute drum solos to wait through. Actually, I did miss not having Phil Lesh behind Jerry. But it was worth not having Lesh if I could get rid of Bob Weir as well.

Dan is certainly the man to give you recs for Gene Harris. I haven't even heard more than half of his output. But if you also like Stanley Turrentine, the Gene Harris Trio + 1 disc is VERY satisfying. I love it.

40 GB is the limit on the iPod itself, but not the limit on iTunes. So you can keep a lot more music and add and subtract things from the iPod regularly. I am living most of the time away from home now. So I bought a 120 GB external hard drive loaded up about 100 GBs in iTunes. It sure beats lugging around 2500 discs all over the place!

I've probably heard some of them, although not on disc. I am from Berkeley, and used to go hear Jerry at the Keystone all the time.

I'm reposting Z's message because I think that it needs to be re-emphasized.

Yea, knowing your taste, I think that you will dig this one. It is deep. This album really makes you wonder about what might have been if the right artistic choices had been made. Of course, the fact that this artistic triumph wasn't even selling at $2 a pop might not encourage her to fix her ways any time soon.

In jazz, the results are usually great. The vibe of one piece is typically present at the whole session. But I tend to do this purchase bit on the basis of one track more often for pop music. Now that is a mine field. Now that I have an iPod, I have started selling back all of my one-track wonder discs.

I especially like Michael Blake's "Drift." "Elevated" is also excellent. The Collective works at a very high overall level.

After many years, Randy Crawford has finally become a musical revelation for me. (OK, I know. She may not really be a “jazz singer.” But what is a jazz singer, anyway? Hell, she even sang on a Cannonball album.) I never paid her much attention in years past. In fact, I was certain that I didn’t like her at all. Her early commercial breakthrough on “Street Life” caught my ear because it had a sort of unique sound. But subsequent songs that I heard sounded like the epitome of everything that is wrong with the Smooth Quiet Storm: bad production, bad taste, uninteresting arrangements, no room for real creativity. So I wrote her off. About 6 months ago, I walked into a CD store that was having the final day of an every-must-go closeout sale. All remaining discs were $2 a pop, although there was nothing left that I had ever heard of. But the music playing in the store really struck me with its beauty and originality. It turned out to be Randy Crawford’s record, “Permanent.” There was a big stack of “Permanent” piled up in the corner. So I grabbed my copy for $2 and marched out. Since this time, I just keep playing it more and more. It has become a favorite disc. The material is excellent. Her pitch is precise, her emotions are mature, and she has an uncanny ability to sing in a sort of whispery mode that makes sounds just hang in the air. Randy Crawford has an extraordinarily distinctive voice. Some of these songs, especially “When I Get Over You,” can bring tears to my eyes on a given evening. After this revelation, I went out and bought a number of her other records to hear what I had been missing. For the most part, I was very disappointed. They mostly confirm the reasons why I never thought that I liked her. The “Best of Randy Crawford” would have been better titled “The Worst of Randy Crawford.” But "Permanent" is the shit. Any other opinions out there on Randy Crawford?

"It is a suite written in four movements for a quartet consisting of saxophone, piano, drums, and fingered string bass." The fingered string bass must be where Coltrane went wrong. Bring back the bows! The whole thing should have been scored for string quartet from the outset. I wonder if this guy is aware that the musicians are not supposed to just play the score as it is written, but are actually expected to improvise some of the suite spontaneously?

A seven-page thread listing overrated trumpet players. Now that is depressing.

Of course, there are always King Oliver, Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson, Big Eye Nelson, and so on. It would be fantastic to hear what they sounded like at an earlier age. Herbie Nichols was over 30 before he got a chance to record. Ornette was almost 30. Then again, today we have "young lions" who are over 40.

Well, you've got all of the great recs that you need. But do also consider picking up the Atlantic box set. You can't do much better than that.

I haven't heard this one. But I've been there, done that. Roy Hargrove's recent fusion project left me really flat. That one disappeared so fast from my collection that I can't even remember what happened to it. I may have just tossed it somewhere dark.

Yo! I bought my copy today!

You mean they haven't pushed it back to 2014 yet?

I sure wish that Mulgrew was on 90% of the CDs I own.

The Chicago scene is certainly something special. I make sure and hear Chicago musicians whenever I can when they come to town. We have had the pleasure of having the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble in Washington a few times in the last few years (with Ari Brown in place of Joseph Bowie). That kind of music just drives staight into your soul, and makes so much else in the jazz world seem rather artificial.

I'll join the misery here. I bought my iPod in September. At that time, the fully charged iPod had about 11 hours of battery life. It is now down to 2 hours. I have been very careful not to charge it when the battery is not dead, although I don't know if that does any good in this case. Every time I charge it, it gets weaker and weaker. In short, this battery thing really sucks.