John L

Safari is useful for viewing PDF files. Firefox on a Mac is problematic in that regard.

It is confusing. According to the Lord discography, Black Lion recorded Webster during two stays at the Montmarte in 1965, one from January 30-February 6 with Kenny Drew, NHOP, and Alex Riel, and one during September 5-21. One a few tracks in September were reportedly recorded with the the quarter of Drew, NHOP, and Riel: Close Your Eyes, There is No Greater Love, and I Got it Bad. The rest of the September recordings were with a larger band of local musicians. So most of the quartet recordings apparently come from early 1965, and mostly from January 30-31. Of course, the Lord discography has a lot of errors. So this information is not definite.

The whiskey is.

Pres and Bird back-to-back on an extended Embraceable You is one of the great moments of recorded jazz. If I could have only one JATP set, it would be this one.

Actually, I think that Yanow scores fairly well for accuracy and consistency. It is just that most of his reviews are rather shallow, which no doubt reflects the number of recordings for which he is responsible. He usually gives a couple lines about the artist, where the particular recording stands chronologically in his or her recording career, who is playing, slaps a genre label on the record, and then indicates whether or not some of the songs introduced on the recording "became standards." As an information source for most of recorded jazz, it can be useful, even if not terribly insightful.

You ears?

For those who are interested, it is no longer necessary to track down the rare Moon CDs to get the concert that Jim S. cited. You can find it on this double CD (on one of the many Spanish labels)

I'm not sure what is missing from the Savoy Complete Live Recordings box other than extended Symphony Sid monologues and radio commercials. I have the whole ball of wax (Savoy issued it on four CDs a long time ago), but find the extended Symphony Sid parts to be repetitious and grating after a while. It is interesting to hear it all once or twice, but I now always reach for the Complete Live Recordings box when I want to hear this music. Charlie Parker's studio recordings for Savoy and Dial are justifiably celebrated as a cornerstone in recorded jazz. There are box sets of all the masters, or of the masters and alternates. I would recommend the latter. The alternates are just as good as the masters, and usually quite different. For Dexter Gordon, there are only a handful of albums pre-1961. Certainly, get his first recordings on Savoy and Dial. Thre are also extended live jams from L.A. with Wardell Gray and others from that period. Then there are three recordings that he made in the mid-1950s between his times in the joint. It's all good, but I would get the earlier recordings first. The Dial recordings fit on one disc, and the Savoys were reissued on two discs (although minus some of the alternates).

RIP: A real character and blues original. "It's the Blues Man" is a stone classic in my view. It was first released not on Prestige, but Tru-Sound Records, with King Curtis on sax.

I bought a Penguin Guide to Recorded jazz back in the 90s, and I recall it being quite negative about post-war Lester Young. They have the right to their opinion, which is shared by some others. And I had the right never to buy another Penguin Guide again.

AMG may be closer to the truth here, but the citing of this version of Just You, Just Me as "definitive" makes me wonder if this reviewer has ever heard the classic version Pres cut for Keynote.

I agree that the Verves are not happy music, but disagree that the Columbia material can be labeled as such. The Columbia sides contain some of her most devastatingly sad performances, for example "Mandy is Two" "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," or "Without Your Love"... The Columbias do have a much larger emotional range than do the Verves, which is one reason why I love them so much.

Tanya's place? Tanya's Place?!? Qu'est-ce que c'est? Intrigued Parisien would like to know. Just a quip. "Tanya" was a long track on that album. So if she is a Parisian, maybe that is where they took the picture. But maybe not. In fact, quite doubtfully.

Love the Verve, couldn't live without the Columbia.

Tanya's place?

Dexter Gordon's ballad style also sounds solidly rooted in vintage 1940s Lester.

I agree with most of that... but some of the titles done with John Lewis in the period you mention are pretty darn good! I think that the work with John Lewis comes from 1951, a very good year for Pres, if not quite up to 1950. During 1952-1955, Pres mostly worked with Horace Silver and Gildo Mahones.

Pre-war Pres could do no wrong. Post-war Pres did not always have the physical or mental strength to do that, but often made music that was just as sublime. I think that there were various up and down times for post-war Pres. 1950 was a peak of sorts. A low point (IMO) was late 1952 through most of 1955, where he often (although not always) sounds physically weak and relatively uninspired. But he came back strong in 1956. Pres even at his worst could make very profound statements.

I believe that there was more than one Pres LP on Charlie Parker Records: some were late 40s recordings from the Royal Roost and some were vintage 1950-1951. Listening to the more than 3 CDs worth of live recordings from 1950 on the Japanese Live Lester Box (mostly with Kenny Drew and Jo Jones), as well as the incredible 1950 live session released on Savoy, convinces me that 1950 was, plain and simply, one of Lester's greatest years.

Is there any current compilation/collection of the material first issued on Charlie Parker records? That stuff is inconsistent, but when it is good, it is exquisite. Jim - I think that virtually everything that came out on Charlie Parker Records was reissued on the Japanese box set in more complete form. If you don't have that set, you NEED it. Roi Ubu can fix you up.

I always cringe when a new version of iTunes appears. For those of us with very large collections, speed and less freezing are the top priority. Sometimes upgrades address this, but sometimes they add on more bullshit like this that actually slows it down.

What's an opinion?

Borders has certainly gone downhill in recent years, especially for music. For better or worse, however, it is the last large bookstore and music store still standing in many areas. Without borders, the market really does shift almost completely to the Internet.

Looking at the price of this box (and it is only two discs of music, right?), I get the impression that Sony is not looking at a large market. They know that they can sell a limited number of expensive sets to libraries and RJ die hards. They probably won't manufacture too many.

It is hard to recommend particular compilations in this day and age, as a lot of the "legit" discs have gone out of print, and the European reissues are all over the map. Take a look at the Lester Young discography, see what sessions you don't have, and then try to track them down on what is out there. You do have the Aladdin recordings. Right? If not, grab them immediately. Then there are the numerous live recordings. The Japanese put out a nice box set a while ago...