John L

So this box also includes his later recordings? I've been looking for them on CD, but have only found the older hits and other songs from that period.

In that case, someone should let the record company know that spam like this has just the opposite of the intended effect on boards like Organissimo.

I saw Jaki Byard play once at a benefit for WRVR about 30 years ago. He played solo and started up with something very out, and with each restatement of the head he went further back until he finished by playing ragtime! In the space of about 15 minutes he had played the history of jazz piano. Absolutely brilliant. James Carter can do something similar on saxophone. My problem is that I rarely want to hear the whole history of jazz in 10-15 minutes. I like Byard, but sometimes what he gives is a bit much for me to swallow at once.

Thank God that Ornette has never been in his right mind.

"Genius" is best understood as a multidimensional concept that can exist in different people in different ways and in various degrees. The idea of dividing all people into simple genius-not genius categories is rather empty, in my view.

I heartily recommend this: It's a four-disc set that I suspect is OOP, although Amazon has it for $67 and there are heaps of cheap 2nd-hand copies there, too. It covers 23-34, so a selection of King Oliver, Hot 5s/7s and early big band stuff. This would be my recommendation as well. No matter what Armstrong's music means to you personally, jazz fans need to come to grips with the music on this box. Everything that came after it is at least a distant relative.

It seems pretty clear that CDs are on the way out and downloading is quickly taking over as the medium for purchasing digital music. In this context, the ability to obtain discographical information, cover art, and (in many cases) liner notes on line is becoming more important. Many sites now offer high resolution cover art with the downloads that they sell (e-music, Amazon, iTunes), although back covers or inserts are more rarely available. Sites like Vintage Vanguard that offer original LP covers in high resolution (and sometimes backs) are quite valuable. I also like the Paris Jazz Corner site quite a bit for good quality LP scans that are updated with new entries on a daily basis. Are there other good sites of this nature? A lot of discographical information can now be obtained online, thanks to the Jazz Discography Project and other sites. Between those sites and the Organissimo board, most information can be obtained. Liner notes in electronic form are more rare to come by. I don't know of any retailer that sells liner notes along with downloads. Itunes sometimes has digital booklets with new releases, but not reissues. What exists on-line? This Thelonious Monk Site is a great exception, containing liner notes for most original releases and reissues. I wish that there were sites like this for other jazz greats. Are there?

I spent some time in Bulgaria, and was amazed at how musical a country it is. So many rich musical traditions in a small country - and almost everybody can really sing.

Wow, I forgot that I even started this thread back in 2003. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to talk to Andrew Hill again, and have never received an answer to my question.

I also do not like using my computer as an MP3 player. What would really be nice would be larger and more luxurious iPod-like machines that hold huge amounts of music, offer user-friendly options for accessing it, show large images of cover art and other information, etc. They could also have automatic back-up features for insuring collections. Of course, iPods are large enough to hold the vast majority of peoples' collections.

Yes, that was one of the claims: two of his relatives were supposedly in the Tower. Right after 9/11, he also came on the Jazz Corner board as if ignorant of what happened, and posted the flight name of one of the planes that crashed into the Tower, claiming that his parents were on that flight. He asked people to help him understand what is going on. After eating up the huge emotional reaction, he let us know the happy news: unknown to him, his parents decided to change flights at the last minute.

Yea, those Lincoln Hotel tracks are a bitch to track down on CD. Masters of Jazz did not make it to 1944 in their Count Basie series. They didn't even make it to 1940. Some cheap labels have issued a few of them, but typically mix them together with the widely reissued Lang-Worth transcriptions or Jubilee recordings from the same time period. I still have far from all of them.

Who are the other members of the trio?

It was never clear at all if he really died. He gave us one sensationalist story after another, and then this one. Another site also caught him using another account and username at a time when he was supposedly unable to participate on the board for some sensationalist reason. On the other hand, who knows. People do die in real life.

i think it's basically the (first) quintet with Miles and perhaps also the trio with Red Garland plus the quartet with Trane. Take a look at some of the other albums listed here. Some of my very favorite Philly Joe + Chambers is on the Sonny Clark Trio (Blue Note) and Kenny Dorham's Whistle Stop.

The Decca and Columbia recordings are both essential (IMO). The Deccas perhaps capture the Basie band at its absolute peak better than the Columbias. But if I had to choose between the two for Pres, I would take the Columbias. One reason is that they give Pres a lot more room than the Deccas. Sometimes, Pres might not make as perfect use of that room, but still...l My absolute favorite session from Columbia is the small group date that produced Live and Love Tonight. I would even give up both takes of Taxi War Dance and the entire Lester Leaps In session before that parting with that track.

Interesting thoughts. You are not alone in your preferences. Many people prefer the earlier Pepper. I am a bit more unusual, in that my favorite Pepper is probably from exactly around the time of this Village Vanguard Box, when he was still showing the direct new inspiration from Coltrane (which I don't find to be a downside as many people do). I like the later recordings as well, although some of them sound to me to be to be a bit more deliberately mannered, as if preprogrammed for deep emotional content.

It seems that Mosaic probably did get more orders for this set than expected. It went temporarily out of stock twice last year. I can't think of another Mosaic set that did that. The music is incredible, of course.

This is a great topic for a thread. Philly Joe and Paul Chambers! What incredible music they made together. It just don't get no better.

My feelings exactly. I usually make a point of not repurchasing music, and I have never bought a Mosaic set before of music that I already have. But this will be a big exception. The music that Armstrong recorded during this decade is just miraculous. Forget the inconsistencies, the sometimes poor material, the sometimes stiff arrangements. Armstrong gets inside most of the songs here and delivers them with devastating musicality. This is Pops at his absolute peak (IMO).

I purchased and heard Grooveadelphia for the first time last night. VERY ENJOYABLE!

I was always hoping for a Braxton Arista set, although I never made the request. When they first started making Selects, I put in requests for Les McCann's Pacific Jazz trio sessions and the Three Sounds' early Blue Note recordings. Did they listen to me? How would I know? But I get the strange feeling that I didn't have much of an impact.

In some sense, the Parkway session is the closest thing that we have to what the original Muddy Waters band (the Headhunters) sounded like. Unfortunately, Muddy himself couldn't do any of the lead singing on that session for contractual reasons. (He officially wasn't there.) By the time Len Chess came around to allowing Muddy Waters to record with a full band three years later, Willie Dixon stepped in pretty quickly to "modernize" its sound into something a bit different.

That whole 1950 Parkway session is fantastic, not just Rollin' and Tumblin'.

Certainly, acquiring a full understanding of Armstrong's art requires digesting the whole package. Yet it is still possible to love his music without doing so. It is understandable that some people may have a problem swallowing the whole package, particularly in this day and age. More sad is the prospect that the presence of the whole package can prevent some people from enjoying the music, even just as music.