John L

Claude: Have mercy on some of us impressionable folks who have been very content with the Mosaic up to this point! I haven't even gotten around to selling my original McMaster Black Fire that became redundant after I purchased the Mosaic. I was not planning on shelling out again right now! In any event, it looks like CDs are going to be obsolete soon. So there!

And I will respectfully disagree with this overly simplistic notion. I imagine that the distinction between being "freer of mental illness" and having enough "reserves" to "keep at bay the demons" is one that only a professional could understand. The rest of us always run the risk of falling victim to overly simplistic notions.

I have a bootleg of Miles with Stitt in London in 1960. That should be added to the list.

Even before his later years, Monk was clearly an eccentric. Intensely creative people are often eccentric. Monk and his music were one. Which was the cause and which was the effect is unclear.

Yea, I guess that I could get used to not having music too. I could probably even get used to maximum security prison. The only point is that I don't want to.

I am going to be spending a LOT of time away from home in the next few years. So I just bought the 40GB iPod. Now I am ripping 40GB of what I want to always have with me. Damn, that's a hard choice! I've already ripped 6GB, and I haven't even gotten out of early jazz yet.

Of course, John Lee Hooker had some minor blues that went I-I-I-I I-I-I-I-I-I I-I-I-I I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I ...

Well, it would be very possible to compile a bad Ellington album with some of the commercial trash that the band churned out for living in the 1930s. But I don't think that anybody has thought to do that yet. On the Chronological Classics series, masterpieces stand side-by-side with Irving Mills pop numbers and the like.

Jim: Fair enough!

If you love the Prestige recordings, you should at least like these very much. They may not quite reach those heights, but sometimes they come pretty close.

This disc on Storyville has the Cafe Bohemia material: This was an LP, but was also released on CD. It may now be out of print.

If we are to believe the Leslie Gourse biography (believing Leslie Gourse is not usually a good proposition, but she did interview Monk's widow, Nica, and others close to him), Monk suffered from very serious mental illness during his last years. On the other hand, I have never heard anything recorded by Monk that lacked inspiration. It is only a matter of degree.

This is a truly fine session. You will enjoy it. It includes the entire Congo Lament Lp (which was also just reissued on the Mosaic Select Bennie Green box) and three other numbers from the session.

Lon: I could really use a hit off that one.

You NEED them, believe me.

This is a very interesting discussion here. Just a side question: Do people think there are bootleg labels releasing private tapes of people like Warne Marsh out of profit motive? I would be skeptical that there is much money in it. On the other hand, I can understand very well why Warne Marsh himself and other artists would want some control over exactly what is recorded and released. But that is another question.

This is top drawer Ellington (IMO). I love all three.

And like Blanton, he was the bass player in Duke Ellington's orchestra in the late 40s and early 50s. He was also the bass player in the Donald Byrd-Gigi Gryce Jazz Lab.

Thanks, Michael! I'll have to look for that! John

Almost everyone in jazz has played on some recorded version of Body and Soul. But what about Miles? I don't think that I have a single recording in my collection of Miles on Body and Soul. The match would have been so perfect.

How many Apple Execs serve on the Board of Directors of Duke University? Just curious... Having been a part of a private university system myself, I can tell you that required purchases for students often reflect cozy behind-the-scene deals.

Yes, it is. As might be surmised, it is also an Art Blakey Jazz Messengers date, not a Woody Shaw Quintet date.

I am going to turn the volume up to 10 tonight for about three or four versions of Flying Home. Then I'll cool down with that special Blue and Sentimental that he cut for Prestige. RIP (Will somebody up there let us keep at least a few giants among us for awhile?)

Most of the Leo label discs are not among the most accessible Braxton. On the other hand, Standards 1993 might be the most successful example of Braxton working in a completely straightahead framework. No accessibility problems there. I agree with alejo that the live European quartet recordings on Leo from the mid-1980s are exceptional. They may not be the most accessible Braxton, but they reward as much attention as you want to give them.

Really? Thanks. I usually only think to go to Cadence when I am looking for relatively new avant garde jazz.