John L

I personally have this music on other disks. If you can print out the contexts of each JSP disk here, I will give you my opinion.

I am partial to the earlier recordings that appeared on Modern, King, and various other labels. They have been packaged and repackaged so many times that it is difficult to recommend single disks. On the other hand, this one is a fine single disk collection of vintage Hooker that includes all the early hits: On the other hand, It would be more than worthwhile to pay 10$ more and get the whole shabang: Most of his Vee Jay recordings are excellent too, although (as is pretty much the case with the early recordings too), you want to listen in small doses. As good as it is, it can get a bit repetitive. They are available on various collections. His more recent comeback albums with guest stars have interesting moments. The Healer is probably the place to start. An alternative top notch sampler of his whole career would be:

My opinion: I consider "That's My Story" to be one of the less interesting Hooker recordings. Jones and Hayes just slum through it, laying down a steady beat. In fact, if they had tried to do anything more, it probably would have been worse. As a result, it is certainly highly listenable Hooker, just not anything approaching his most powerful work. On the other hand, I think that "It Serves You Right to Suffer" is prime product. John Lee is clearly inspired by his musical surroundings on this one.

King Ubu: OK, here goes: MOJ Count Basie vol. 1&2 is all the Bennie Moten studio material. There are no broadcasts on volume 3. Volume 4 is 100% broadcasts from the Chatterbox and Savoy from February and June, 1937 Almost half of volume 5 is a broadcast from Cedar Grove, NJ. 10/37. The rest is Decca sides and the Bennie Goodman jam form Carnegie Hall, 1/38 the majority of volume 6 is broadcasts from CBS (American Dances (7/38)) and the Famous Door (7/38). The rest is Decca sides. The vast majority of volume 7 is broadcasts from the Famous Door (9-10/38). The balance is Decca sides. Volume 8 is about 1/3 broadcasts from the Famous Door (7/38) and Carnegie Hall (Spirituals to Swing). The balance is Decca sides. Volume 9 is only Decca and Columbia studio sides. Volume 10 is all Columbia studio sides. Volume 11 is almost all broadcasts (there are only 5 Columbia studio tracks) from 1939 from Chicago (Hotel Sherman) and New York (the Famous Door). John

The Basie series, which unfortunately only reached 11 volumes, is tremendous. A full half of the material is broadcasts of the greatest big band that ever existed, mostly in quite good sound. I consider it to be a cornerstone of my entire music collection.

Come on, Mosaic!!! Time to give up the gold!!! And to think that this stuff is locked away in the Blue Note vaults no less!! Shame, shame, shame. Well, OK, how about at least a Mosaic Select of the trio sides? PLEASE!!!!!

I really liked Aquemini. Stankonia was good too. I listened through the new double CD package once, but didn't feel sufficiently impressed to pick it up. Hey Ya! is a good track.

This is good stuff!

The Unique Jazz Stuttgart CD has a total of only 40 minutes of Fables: 1) ATFW USA 4:15 2) Sophisticated Lady: 4:04 3) Fables of Faubus Pt. 1: 16:41 4) Fables of Faubus Pt. 2: 24:16

I hear a strong Coltrane influence in everything that Pepper did from the 60s on. As Jim S. points out, he never actually lost his own voice to Coltrane's. He was too far advanced for that. Live at Donte's (1968) is a good example of Pepper in his maximal Trane period.

I love both of these records. But then again I don't get what there is not to get.

It should be a good game. Home field advantage should give Green Bay the edge.

Your wish will certainly come true. I would guess that it will already be true 20 years from now. In not, then certainly in 50. Not meaning to knock Clapton, the main difference between EC and the guitarists listed by Eric above is that those guitarists used their guitars as extensions of their own individual voices. Their sounds and approaches are unmistakable. True, Clapton can also sound like all of them. But we already have all of them.

So Dinah Washington doesn't count? Of course she "counts", as do Aretha, Etta James and all the others AFTER Sister Rosetta Sharpe. I will qualify my original post by saying that Sister Sharpe had many records of her gospel singing released before she moved to other genres. I don't think that Dinah or any of the other singers who sang in their churches as young women recorded gospel, before they began their careers in blues, jazz or r&b later. Yes, Rosetta Tharpe was maybe the first major female crossover from gospel, although you had old country blues singers like Memphis Minnie making occasional gospel records too, sometimes under an assumed name. I would say that an interesting distinction between Tharpe and the other female gospel crossovers is not that she made gospel records BEFORE crossing over, but that she continued to make gospel records AFTER crossing over, and managed to be a secular and gospel artist at the same time for many years. Somehow the church was more merciful to Tharpe than to other women who sold their souls to the devil and possibly ended up juiced in a wacko bus.

So Dinah Washington doesn't count?

Jim Pepper had a fantastic sound. I love all of his work with Waldron.

I don't understand the question. Why do we suspect Vince Guaraldi of not being jazz? Because he spent some of his time writing television soundtracks? Then I guess that Duke Ellington and Thad Jones aren't jazz either. Listen up The "Vince Guaraldi Trio" (OJCCD-149-2) and tell me that's not jazz.

How about Hamid Drake? If we are talking about innovative, influential, and original, it is also hard to overlook Billy Cobham

I felt a bit disappointed with a number of releases this year. I gave my new Roy Hargrove away as soon as I heard it. The new Jason Moran is quite interesting, but doesn't really grab me the way some of his other discs do. I don't care too much for the new Ravi Coltrane either. Maybe my biggest disappointment was the new James Carter, because I was expecting much more. The new live Tim Berne was OK, but it is hard for me to get excited about Science Fiction after Bloodcount. I can't comment on the new Dave Holland since I haven't heard it yet. I'll stop there, but there were other disappointments in 03 as well for me. There have been better years for jazz releases.

I hear you, Milan. The sound quality is great. The liner notes are excellent. But the box set could have been so much more. A lot of the best is missing. A few complete small group dates from the 1950s and a vastly incomplete record of the 1939-1940 band.

Basie unable to rise to McDonough's intellectual level in the discussion of his own music? Basie the naive primitive being guided by the "invisible hand" to create "unpremeditated" music "free of the distortions of unnecessary knowledge?" Poor McDonough. He is so burdened by intellectual superiority and "unnecessary knowledge" that he mistakenly distracted Basie from time could have spent "wasting his money at the race track" in a futile attempt to carry on a high level discussion of music. WHAT A TOTAL CROCK OF SHIT But this is just par for the course for Mr. McDonough.

I heard that Muggsy Spanier was a big baseball fan, and took the name from the great manager of New York Giants (and former player): John "Muggsy" McGraw.

Thanks, Guy and Lon. That is interesting information. John

Thanks, Lon. It looks like that 3/26 date might be something new. There is no mention of it in Wild's discography either. Could you tell me one thing? On the version of "I Want to Talk About You," is Coltrane plagued by a sqeaky reed? On the version included in the Magnetic Half Note CDs, which is listed by Cool and Blue as well as Wild as being from 1963, Trane actually begins the solo on a squeak, and hits a few others before he is through.