John L

Junior Mance is one of those pianists who ALWAYS sounds good.

If you can handle three trumpets, you might look into this Here you have Clifford Brown, Maynard Ferguson, and Clark Terry all out for a little bit of blood. Dinah is in top shape too. And DEFINTELY check out the disc with Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge together. The new Mosaic Roy Eldridge set has the complete set of recordings with those two. But the 70+ minute CD released about 8 years ago (Roy and Diz) hit like lightning. Then there is always the session with Fats Navarro and Howard McGhee.

Yes. Universal made a decision to lower its retail prices. Let's hope that it pays off.

Yusef Lateef

Or, to put it another way, they made it just about as big as a big jazz band could make it in the 1960s.

For Stax/Volt, there was often a reason for this that went beyond the nature of the sound. Their primary aim was cutting hit 45s in mono. If a song become a hit, then they would usually re-record it in stereo for the album. But the re-recording rarely captured the excitement of the original.

Razor Shavers

Cold Lips Page?

The Stones. They weren't the best for most of the 1960s. But by the latter 1960s I think that they were. The sound that they created then was so influential that it is easy to forget how original it sounded at the time. The Stones generated power.

That looks like some Beatles that I could get on too.

If it was Tiger Rag from 1947 with Edmond Hall, it could have been the Carnegie Hall concert from February. In that case, it would have been Jimmy Crawford on drums. This was indeed released on Drive Archive as "Struttin' " I don't play the CD much as the sound suffers from very bad tape drag. The pitch just swirls around and around. Does anybody know if there is a better sound source for this concert?

I like this one too. But my favorite James Carter CD by far is the one he released simultaneously with this one: Layin' in the Cut. I wish that Carter would do more of this kind of electric funk stuff. He is amazing in this territory, and his inclination for excess is put to good use. By contrast, I didn't care for the new one, Gardenias for Lady Day. It sounds to me like an overproduced overdose of overdubbing.

If Eric Lewis got together with John Reed for 10 days, I bet that would really shake the jazz world.

No problem with that. Dexter Gordon just sounds better and better and better every year. What a fabulous and individual musical voice! Fortunately, we have quite a lot of outstanding recordings to keep Dex always fresh in our minds and souls. ...of course, if I could just go back once to one of those many nights when I sat in the front row of the Keystone Korner with my ear hooked to the bell of that tenor.... Great memories. Happy birthday, Mr. Gordon!

I assume that the correct spelling of the name is "Curly Russell." Yet virtually half of my discs with Russell on them spell his name Curley. Of course, AMG has a listing for both "Curly" and "Curley." Did they ever play together? Were they ever seen in the same room together? Were there also really five guys named Moe? Any thoughts?

Thanks for that information, Mike.

Good question for a thread. I think that Chick Corea is a good example of an extremely talented artist who got sidetracked into dabbling in too many different things, as opposed to developing a single musical direction in a determined and concentrated manner. He has produced a lot of good music. I can't help but feel that he could have done much more. I am also partial to the earlier pre-electric albums. He is sounding pretty good right now.

This is quite a nice release. It got me hungry for listening to more Joe Henderson trio music. I threw on "State of the Tenor" immediately afterwards, and was struck by the contrast. As good as "Montreal Tapes" is, "State of the Tenor" is on a higher plane altogether (IMO).

Basie 1937-1940 is my absolute favorite big band, full stop.

I was listening to the Hindsight box set: Big Band Jazz: the Jubilee Sessions the other night. I was struck again by a basic question. We all know that the war years were tough for big bands. Even the best and most popular bands experienced very high turnover and a decline in average quality of personnel. So how at exactly this time did a certain Mr. Wilbert Baranco assemble and keep together an absolute dream band with the likes of Charles Mingus, Lucky Thompson, Melba Liston, Vic Dickenson, Willie Smith, Snooky Young, Howard McGhee, Hobart Dotson, Britt Woodman, and other solid talent? Or maybe the question should be, "why isn't Mr. Baranco more well known?"

I bought the single disk "Best of" from the Self Portrait box. It is so damn good that I am kicking myself that I didn't take the full plunge. I inevitably will.

Damn!

Fantasy made almost all of its money from Creedence Clearwater Revival. Jazz has been more of a labor of love. They have done a superb job with all of the labels that they acquired. I would have hoped for the opposite direction, that Fantasy would acquire another label like they did Specialty, and then do it complete justice. Duke/Peacock for example. I guess that the wind in the industry is really not blowing in a good direction these days.

In the mean time, what can you do? You'll just have to throw on some Hooker N'Heat and go with the groove. Isn't the 25:00 version of Boogie Chillin on that one? Good God!