John L

Duke Ellington: Immigration Blues, The. Blues I Love to Sing, Blue Bubbles, Tishomingo Blues, The Blues With a Feelin', Harlem Flat Blues, Blues of the Vagabond, Rent Party Blues, Jungle Blues, Old Man Blues, Big House Blues, Rocky Mountain Blues, Home Again Blues, Wang Wang Blues, Blue Again, When a Black Man's Blue, Blue Tune, Blue Harlem, Blue Ramble, Blue Mood, Bundle of Blues, Blue Feeling, Farewell Blues, Diminuendo in Blue, Crescendo in Blue, Riding on a Blue Note, A Blues Serenade, Mighty Like the Blues, Blue Light (Transbluescency), Informal Blues, Lady in Blue, Blue Goose, Mr. J.B. Blues, Blue Serge, I Don't What Kind of Blues I Got, Blue Tears, C Jam Blues, Blue Belles of Harlem, Blue Skies, Go Away Blues, How Blue the Night, I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blues, Blue Cellophane, Carnegie Blues, Blutopia, New York City Blues, Let's Go Blues, Ballin' the Blues,

Wow! Thank you very much, Romualdo!

This has been my favorite lately. It is a little pricey ($23 a pound) but delicious.

Well, all 37 sides have been released before 100s of times. When they say that they are releasing them for the first time, the catch would appear to be "in release order." That is to be distinguished from previous releases that usually follow chronological order. It is difficult to imagine that they will be able to improve on the extraordinary sound quality of the Archeophone Records release from 2006. I have the vast majority of the other music presented here as well. While it is interesting how they compiled it, I don't think that the sequencing on discs 3 & 4 will make for frequent play. I would have much preferred including King Oliver's other great recordings instead. Those could use some good new remastering. And the price is quite hefty. This is the kind of package that I would usually grab right away, but I think that I may pass this time. John

I wouldn't call people jazz snobs because they like to listen to and discuss jazz, but don't always hear everything going on in the music. Maybe one of the reasons why these people like to discuss jazz is because they want information that would enable them to hear more? (I can speak for myself ) My idea of a typical "jazz snob" is somebody who sticks their nose up at other kinds of blues-rooted music as being inferior.

Yes, I recall that Bob Bowman shares both views - that Stax was never the same (i.e. the equal) of what it was in the 60s but that CBS and Union Planters played a major role in bringing it down.

Thanks, Soulpope. What you write here is indeed broadly consistent with the story told in Bob Bowman's book as well as Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music. It is, in fact, a fitting end to a fairytale-like story that we might want to believe. The first part of the story is a Mom & Pop startup that somehow created an environment in Memphis in the early 50s where black and white musicians could work together in harmony like a small family, and end up creating something very profound against all odds. That part of the fairy tale is true. So it is fitting that the end of story should be that the shattering of this small family through commercialization, greed, expansion, and the rise of racial tensions following MLK's assassination in Memphis would bring a decline of musical quality and management that would eventually take the company down. That story feels very compelling...except that I am not sure that it is true. While I had always sort of accepted this story, I have always been bothered by the apparent inconsistency between this story and what I hear in the music. When I listen to volumes 1 and 2 of the complete Stax singles, I really don't hear a fall in musical quality at all. Only by the end of Volume 3 does it sound like something is not right, although some good music was somehow still made until the end. I really appreciated the recent documentary because it presented a different perspective, and mostly that of Al Bell. This perspective may also be biased but it feels more compelling to me in light of the extraordinary music Stax continued to churn out in the 1970s. On another point, the term southern soul is indeed used in different ways. The reference in my post was to the current musical genre of "Southern Soul" that still has strong popularity in the US South (Ms. Jody, Pokey Bear, Omar Cunningham, etc.) and is commonly referred to as "blues" in the African American community. Those Don Davis-produced Stax sides for Johnnie Taylor are still covered quite often in current Southern Soul circles, and are widely recognized as pioneering music for establishing the current Southern Soul genre.

In some ways, I think that the Southern Soul focus at Stax became even stronger with time, even as it evolved. Yes, some influences from the "North" were brought in. But it could be argued that they were consistent with the particular stage of development of the music. The smooth Stax sides that Don Davis produced for Johnnie Taylor arguably became the blueprint for the further development of Southern Soul to this day.

According to the Losin discography, soundboard recordings were made for three nights in São Paulo - May 28, June 1, and June 2. Some of it has been bootlegged. I have a recording of the first concert that I got from somewhere (I can't remember where)

RIP to a truly fine musician. I recall him coming on one of the jazz boards once. Probably it wasn't Organissimo.

This Monk cover has always haunted me

That has happened to me numerous times for one reason or another. The files are still there but iTunes somehow lost the address to find them. I then throw away my corrupt iTunes library file and create a new library by reloading all of the files. On the other hand, my son had an even more worrisome experience. He says that when he agreed to an iTunes proposal to hold his library in a cloud, iTunes somehow deleted all of the music files in his drive. So now he can only access his music in the cloud, giving iTunes complete control over how much he will have to pay every month to hear his own music library.

Document is known for its comprehensive reissues of pre-war music recorded by other labels, in contrast to labels devoted to making new recordings of older styles of music themselves, which I understand to be the subject of this thread. Nevertheless, Document does have one series of issues - the 700 series - that consists of their own recordings of European musicians playing in American pre-war styles. So technically Document can be included here.

My wife invested in great expresso and grinding machines. But lately I prefer a simple French Press with a good light roasted Ethiopian coffee. As far as I am concerned, iIt doesn't get any better.

Testament Records Folkways Records Sonet Records Biograph Records Vanguard Records to name a few

I also have a general preference for Dunlop over Riley for Monk. But Monk could be relatively inspired or relatively uninspired playing with either one of them. They both did their job as a good foil for Monk, i.e. someone who didn't get in Monk's way and encouraged him on when needed.

So you are saying that it doesn't sound credible? Actually, I just looked at the database of my own collection that has entries mostly by recording session or concert with no duplications. I count 511. That is already more than 3000 performances. And there are a lot of concert performances, in particular, that I don't have.

If you include all the live recordings in the Lord Discography and more, you might get close to 833. So much was recorded for so many years. The discography is huge. Maybe only the Grateful Dead have more recordings.

Rhizome

I was excited to see him here in DC a few months ago. I went online to reserve tickets the day before and was surprised to see that they were all sold out. I regretted missing him this time but felt happy for his success.

I second this recommendation. There is some fabulous Pres here with Basie from 1944 that somehow did not make it to other releases that I know of, including the Prez's Hat series that focuses mostly on the 1944 broadcasts.

Another candidate -

Very sad

I have always assumed that it is because Bill Evans is a co-leader on Know What I Mean. If the box would have included all of Bill Evans recordings made for Riverside also as a sideman, then they would have had to include the Chet Baker albums as well.