John L

There are few box sets as satisfying.

I love the Armstrong Russell Garcia albums. There is something very majestic and deep about Armstrong's singing and playing on those albums. The 2-disc set contains a number of alternates, false starts, etc. from the sessions in addition to the masters released on the two albums. .

If you have the 3-CD set with Ella, the 2-CD set with Russell Garcia, and the disc with Oscar Peterson, I believe that you have all the masters and a lot of the alternates. There may be more alternates that haven't been released.

There was a single source for the collaborations with Ella - a 3-CD set with everything, including Porgy and Bess. Another 2-disc set released the sessions with Russell Garcia. Then there is the album with Oscar Peterson. That is about it, right?

Having lived in Nigeria for four years, I can confirm that this is actually a common problem. Many women are hospitalized for related issues.

Interesting. This is about the only live recording that we have of the Monk quartet from 1962. Right? It is a very good one too. For studio recordings from 1962, there is only Monk's dream.

Ok, Keepnews was obviously an important individual in some ways, but calling him a "towering figure" (side by side with Sonny Rollins!) is absurd. (GA, sorry about the harsh wording. No offense intended.) ... and yet that might just about be how he saw himself I still find it hard to believe that Orin had the nerve to write in the introduction to the liner notes to the Monk on Riveride box that this collection represents "all of my work with Thelonious."

RIP Orin was a producer with a vision.

Interesting discussion. I get the feeling that Charlie Rouse was often used as a sort of straight man to support Monk's "comping" or whatever you want to call it. Rouse would be playing the piece in a correct and rather predictable manner, while Monk would insert accents that would make it all sound so unpredictable and dangerous. I find that combination quite satisfying.

I see no contradiction. Monk's music was serious and humorous at the same time.

Those are my impressions as well. I really enjoyed the book and learned quite a bit from it. I didn't mind that it focused primarily on the earlier years, as that is the period of Basie that interests me the most.

Thanks for that information. It just goes to show how difficult it has become to enforce copyright laws. I guess that Amazon will keep selling downloads of pirated music until a judge tells them to take down one or another item / label.

RIP - One of the last in his line.

Why Prestige rather than Atlantic? Sheets of sound? Personally, I find Coltrane's later work (1957-1958) for Prestige and his recordings for Impulse! to be two pinnacles of a very different sort, while Atlantic feels like a transition between the two. Ultimately, I find it less satisfying.

There must be an 80-minute Favorite Things from 1966. The one from Live in Japan is 57 minutes. Seriously, I think that the suggestions here have been good. I would concentrate my selection on Impulse! and Prestige, as opposed to Atlantic. As for the exact mix, that would probably depend a lot, as Lon indicates, on the target audience.

Moms - You are continually proposing that we should rank Dylan's albums, accept the best and reject the rest. But maybe some of us here who greatly admire Dylan are interested in the whole ball of wax, warts and all. I don't think anyone on this thread would try to claim that there are no warts in the Dylan catalog, even if we might disagree about where exactly they lie. Dylan was somebody who never hesitated to put all his cards on the table, good and bad, and I admire him for that. I also admire him for never resting on his laurels, which he could have been doing for some time now, always pushing in new directions, taking risks, and never playing the same music the same way twice. The new album is a case in point. It is a sincere effort to move into new and very challenging territory that leaves Dylan exposed. You might not like it, but should agree that it is a much better thing for him to do at this point in his life than playing Blowing in the Wind and Tambourine Man at folk sing alongs in old peoples' homes.

I agree that the fidelity of this recording is not good. I have no idea why.

Bingo! Dylan's phrasing is certainly a big part of what makes him so special and unique.

I noticed a recent onslaught of music for downloand at Amazon under the "Doxy" label: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=doxy+collection Is this legal? The prices are VERY low. Massive collections of Roy Acuff, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong, Andy Kirk, Roy Acuff etc. can be had for $4.99 each. Some concerts of Miles, Coltrane, Rollins and Evans are mostly $1.99 each.

Heartily seconded. I don't think I could live without "Monk's Dream", "Tokyo" and "Big Band and Quartet" albums especially. My three, or actually it's me four. He may have made a few lesser albums for Columbia, but a lot of that catalog is absolutely essential for me.

RIP

I actually enjoyed that book when I read it, although I certainly didn't take the parts on avant garde and more recent jazz very seriously.

From the 60s, we have a number of R&B singing group live recordings, but the majority of live recorded African American group singing still seems to have been in gospel. We have great live recordings from the 50s and 60s of the Soul Stirrers, the Pilgrim Travelers, the Violinaires, Swan Silvertones, Staple Singers, Pilgrim Jubilees, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Sallie Martin Singers, Caravans, etc. etc.

I also like the way that Misha Mengelberg and ICP play Monk.

Yes, it is amazing how much better the Armstrong book is than the Ellington. Hard to believe that the same person wrote both of them. Yes, that name on a book is a clear warning not to waste your money.