John L

Carefull, Patricia. You might get a warning for that one, maybe even two warnings for "In the Nutcraker Mood" alone.

I'd say that you were a little overqualified for that job, Chris.

I haven't heard this one, but my son played me the Madlib Blue Note disk not long ago. I was quite surprised. It was not at all what I expected. The disk is pure DJ Hip Hop with little to no fusion with jazz or (ironically) the Blue Note sound. He just used some Blue Note tapes for sound patches here and there. The grooves are really all his. In sum, this certainly didn't strike me as any sort of rip-off of Blue Note at all. It is often even hard to recognize where the samples come from. There is no "jazz" involved. Madlib is doing his thing, not a Blue Note thing. If I couldn't really get with the music, it had to do with my own personal difficulty in enjoying much of this sort of hypnotic laid back DJ Hip Hop groove music, not with any sort of musical piracy. I bring that up because this Bird thing might be similar. Don't jump to conclusions on the degree to which these professional Hip Hop DJs need to fall back on the structures behind the various pieces that they throw on their canvases.

In an interview near the end of his life, Mel Lewis told Francis Davis that Thad left the band for Denmark "for a chick, a woman over there who had some money and wanted him because she was pregnant with his baby. He left his wife in New Jersey with nothing, to raise a couple of very good kids on her own."

Gary: If you like Joe Henderson, you are in for a treat. This box is loaded full of exceptional music. Some of the later "out" recordings with Alice Coltrane and others might sound a bit dated. But a good majority of the music is solid and timeless, with Joe in top form.

I take back my last post! April 22, 1946: Pres made a JATP recording in a band that included Babe Russin, a white Pres disciple if there ever was one.

This is a good question. Having most of Pres' discography, I am inclined to say no with respect to recordings. It does seem a good bet that he shared the Jazz at the Philharmonic stage with some of them at some time. But I don't know of any recordings. In general, there are very few post-Basie recordings where Pres shares the stage with another tenor. There are several JATP recordings with Pres and Flip Phillips. But Flip hardly qualifies as a "disciple." There are no recordings that I know of with the likes of Getz, Zoot, Perkins, Brew Moore, etc. Does Gerry Mulligan count? He follows Pres on the 1957 "Fine and Mellow." Not an enviable spot to me in!

Tom: Take a good listen to something like Supersonic Jazz, Sound of Joy, Jazz in Sillouette, Sun Song, or The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra. Doesn't suck.

That pretty much sums up the way that I feel about this one too.

David Marsh must have had a hand in this. He thrives on making lists like this. What burns me up the most about these kind of lists made by "rockers" is that they pretend to include jazz, blues, soul, country, world music at all. It is as if they are saying, "yea, we looked at all forms of music and, in the end, the rock classics kicked everybody else's ass. Miles and Trane are OK, but they ain't the Beatles."

I voted for Goerge Cables partly out of personal sentimental attachment. I heard that unit live on a regular basis in the 1970s, and Cables never let me or Dex down. Sonny Clark, Kenny Drew, and Barry Harris also sounded great with Dex, or should I say that Dex always sounded great with them.

Actually, this is what has come out on DVD. Although the title is the same, it is completely different than the Impulse! record.

Thanks for the heads up. I wouldn't have know about this without you guys!

As I undersand, the Broonzy was released in Europe in September. No? You should already be able to get it in Spain. Also recently released from JSP is a 5-CD box of all of Memphis Minnie's early recordings. They are going to follow it up with a another box of her later stuff. The early recordings are superior, especially the collaborations with Kansas City Joe McCoy that take up the majority of this set. Tasty!

No, it is unlikely that Blakey's "fatefull visit" could have happened on the day that Bird died. Or at least that would cast serious doubt that whatever happened that day was responsible for Bird's death. Recall that Bird was in very bad physical shape when he first showed up at Nica's three days before his death. He was in such bad shape that Nica called a doctor, who examined Bird and recommended immediate hospitalization, warning of possible death otherwise. Bird refused to be hospitalized and died a few days later. The only way that Blakey could have really been responsble for Bird's death is if he had been the one who put Bird in that kind of shape, i.e. unless the fight happened earlier.

I bought a CD player in the late 1980s. At that time, I remember that Caravan was the only Art Blakey title that I could find. I believe that the first jazz disk I ever bought was the "Best of Blue Mitchell" on Riverside. Then I bought the Cannonball and Cleanhead Vinson disk that was recently reissued on CD for the second time. After that, I picked up a John Coltrane on Impulse disk that was just entitled "From the Original Master Tapes." It included several rare takes from the Village Vanguard that hadn't been released in the US before, and didn't appear as such until the complete VV set. Kind of Blue and Love Supreme started to go through multiple incarnations from the very beginning. At that time, MCA launched a "Peacock Spiritual Series" that looked poised to release most of the Peacock gospel catalogue. But that series bit the dust right away and has never been revived. One of the real gems was the Gospelaires "Bones in the Valley" and "Can I Get a Witness" on one disk. They also put out some great Dixie Hummingbirds, Sunset Travlers, Swan Silvertones, and Julius Cheeks. If only they had continued...

If I am not mistaken, one of the tapes that was used for the release of the complete Rockland Palace concert (Jazz Classics CD-JZCL-5014) supposedly originated with Chan. Of course, it could have been a pirated second hand copy.

If you would like to hear an additional bit of hyperbole from a Billie/Pres nut, I would say that this may very well be the best box set of music available.

I think that the latest remasters of the Billie Holiday Columbia recordings are miraculous. It is like night and day with all previous releases. You may find fault with the brightness or other specific qualities, but there is no denying that the music is present in a way that it never was in the past. Billie and Pres are brought closer to you.

Now that would have been kinky.

Yes, you have to buy no less than 3 of them.

Good picks, people, although a bit of bluenotecentricitity is shinning through. Blue Note cranked out some gems. But when it came to soul, it was Prestige that really knew how to let the chitlins just simmer in their own juice. Some of the tastiest: Gene Ammons: Angel Eyes, Jug, Up Tight, etc., etc., etc. Jack McDuff: Live! Tough Duff, The Honeydripper Jimmy Forrest: Out of the Forrest, Most Much Willis Jackson: Please Mr. Jackson Arnett Cobb: Blow, Arnett, Blow, Party Time Eddie Lockjaw Davis: ALL the Cookbooks. Every damn one of them. King Curtis: The New Scene of King Curtis, Soul Meeting Getting Back to Blue Note, you can't be without all of the Stanely Turrentine/Jimmy Smith collaborations: Back at the Chicken Shack, Midnight Special, Prayer Meeting. I'm getting hungry just typing this.

Well, yes, except not in that order. They took the name "Art Ensemble of Chicago" in Paris as a quartet before Moye joined. They made several albums in Paris as a quartet. Chuck writes on the cover of his box that the name "Art Ensemble" dates back to a December, 1966 concert. As I understand (correct me if I'm wrong, somebody), the original Art Ensemble was also a quartet but with drums (Philip Wilson) and without Jarman. That is the group that plays on the first "basement tapes" from 1967 in the box set.

Well hell, Trane even tried to take composer credit for "Saturn!"

Great thread, people! Nice stories all around. Yes, the AEC were very special live. I had the fortune to see them once in the 80s and once in the 90s. Are there any good videos around of vintage concerts? Somebody must have had the sense to capture the whole deal live at least once.