Ed S

I'm a big fan of Stelly Dan. Will probably go see 'em up in Toronto this August. They put on a nice live show.

Let 'Em Roll rules. I'm a big fan of Boogaloo as well.

Anybody looking to unload their Conn versions of Judgement and Smokestack?

Threw my vote for Blue Hour. It's one of my favorite late night out on the deck relaxin' albums.

I voted for the Rare Groove poll. I've had about enough of those repetitive Conn polls. They're too random. They should have been favorite Conn year by year with a playoff to determine the best Conn of all

Howard McGhee RULES!

I hate these types of polls since I enjoy so many of them. I did vote for Kofi, probably because I've been on a late period Byrd binge lately. I'm a huge fan of the Pattons in this series as well as Two Headed Freap. The most kick ass version of Let's Stay Together I've ever heard. Dusty Groove has a bunch of the French Groove Experience releases for $11.99 including Foster's Sweet Revival - which I really dig. I really enjoy last year's Rare Groove releases - particularly Moon Rappin'. It's spacey and grooves like crazy.

Well, my two Djangos arrived today. Better late than never. I understand that the import titles can be a little tricky, so I'm glad to have them. Since I mentioned this earlier in the thread, I didn't want to leave a false impression of CDUniverse. They were a little slow with this one, but I got frequent order updates and notification of shipment a couple of days ago.

Speaking of tapped out, just how much more potential Rare Groove material is there out there? They've issued quite a few of these. Is ther much more left? Just curious as I'm a big fan of the series.

I have to agree with brownie and tonym. For me it's Lush Life.

The good new, then is that they must be just about tapped out as far as the Mizell stuff goes

Hey Scott, I know Hans already replied to you, but we were not talking about asking the question. Some of us want to know if the set is going to be released in LPs as well. It's just that when someone calling himself Gregore pounces on an SACD question not with an answer but an indictment of other formats a lot of us start to run in the opposite direction.

Yellow????? You can't possibly be serious. I've been looking at colors for over 46 years and yellow isn't even in my top 10. Everyone knows that green rules.

Well, I convinced myself. It was the only one of the jazz releases from the French Groove Experience site that was available at Dusty Groove that I had not picked up, so I decided to take a chance on it. It arrived yesterday. It's a 2 CD set, though the music probably could fit on 1 CD. I think the French BN folks are into that facsimile thing. For those who don't know this session - and I did not - it's apparently the second of two themed releases that Nat Adderley released in 1972 - the Soul Zodiac being the other, according to AMG the better of the two. At any rate, on this one, some cat named Rick Holmes introduces various tracks in narrator form over the top of the band, which then breaks into the main tune after the narration ends. To be honest, I certainly could do without the narration. I'm not religious, which is why I initially balked at picking this up, but then I figured if I can go to beautiful religious shrines in Europe and Montreal and enjoy the architecture I can certainly pick this up and enjoy the music. I'm glad I did. If anything, the narration adds a 60s touch to the proceedings, so in that context I find it tolerable. Now as for the music - I am loving this disc. It is filled with some deep, funky, serious grooves of the highest magnitude. There's plenty of electric piano for those who dig that sound, but the numbers with acoustic piano groove as well. Tons of percussion courtesy Airto, funky bass lines, and some spacey sounding vocals add to the overall mood. I learned a lesson here for sure - don't judge a CD by its cover.

That's exactly what drew me towards 50s jazz. The sound and feel was so different, yet so good. I might have gotten there otherwise, but it was these Conns really started me down the path that led outside the 60s and on to earlier forms of jazz. I'm glad I went down that path

Mark - Sent you a PM about the Parlan - On the Spur of the Moment

I almost hate to admit it, but between actual Connoisseurs, maybe a few regular releases and some Mosaics, I've got all of the the Conn material. I hate picking favorites, but I guess I'd have to say that my favorites of the bunch are SERIES IX (1998): Julius Watkins – Julius Watkins Sextet Vols. 1 & 2 Sal Salvador Quintet/ Kenton Presents... Howard McGhee Vol. 1/Introducing Kenny Drew Howard McGhee Vol. 2/Tal Farlow Quartet Frank Foster/George Wallington - Showcase Gil Melle – Complete Fifties Sessions I really dig these sessions. Maybe it's because these were, along with the Ventura/Phillips Mosaic, my first real exposure to 50's jazz. Some of my other favorites are The Sonny Criss - just because it was my first exposure to him, Ready for Freddie, Heavy Soul, Solid, Something Personal, the Braith and Wilkersons as well as the Blue Hour stuff and the Burrell. In all honesty, I'd be hard pressed to find a release I didn't like. Heck, I even like the Dodo Greene, but matbe that's because she's still singing here in Buffalo. If it's any consolation, I've only "upgraded" on about 6 or 7 titles in the RVG series. My ears have never been as discriminating as some board members and I enjoy the wide soundstage of some of the earlier releases.

Oh brother, here we go again. What's the saying? Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it or some such thing. I used to hate how so many threads discussing releases would degrade into format wars rather than discussions of the music. I really hope that we don't go down that path every time there's a thread about a reissue and someone asks if there's going to be an SACD release.

No, unforunately. That last time I contacted them about it was sometime in the December 2002 time frame and there was no release date for the CD set at that point.

I'm a big fan of the Mosaic as well. As the ghost mentioned, there's lots more on this set than just the Afro Bossa material - which if fabulous by the way. I think this set is available at the retail level so its possible to snag it during a sale.

I've emailed Mosaic about 3 times in the last 18 months to see if they were going to do the LP set. Each time the answer was yes.

I have to agree wholeheartedly Brad. Not all music is for everyone. I'm digging this stuff and you're not and that's okay. I'm sure that the reverse is true somewhere else along the line. Posters on these boards have a common love of jazz. Within the spectrum of all that is jazz and all that is related to jazz there's bound to be differences. Like you said - diversity.

Well, I've had 3 days to digest the latest U.S. Rare Groove release. My impression? Another excellent release. The Patton is exactly what you'd expect from Patton. Excellent recording, nice feel and groove. Grant Green is in fine form, as of course is Patton. My guess is if you like any of his other material, you're going to enjoy this as well. The other 3 are in a class by themselves. I'm very aware of the feelings on this and other boards about the type of music represented by these titles. These are definitely not for everyone. But for those who dig this stuff, these are classics. The Bartz and Byrd, being Mizell productions, are cut from the same cloth. Jazzy, groovy, funky, soulful, and yes danceable in a disco era way. I personally think this is great stuff. I've said it elsewhere including on this very thread, but this is some fun music to listen to. This stuff is going to go over very well at some of my summer outdoor parties. I'm also digging the Candido record too. Very late 60ish feel, tons of percussion and some nice Latin grooves. We're definitely not talking jazz masterpiece here. But like the Bartz and Byrd, it's fun. I have to tell you that I'm at a different point in my life and listening right now than I was when I first hit the boards 5 or 6 years ago. Part of what changed my outlook is personal, but part is a result of the exposure that I've gotten to so many various jazz styles in recent years. One of the things I've realized is that sometimes, the boundary between jazz and pop or other musical forms can get very blurry. That's fine by me, because I'm digging a lot more styles both within and near jazz than ever before. Kudos to Blue Note for doing a nice job on the packaging. These Rare Grooves have what has become the standard black and silver Rare Groove look, but the silver has more of a brushed aluminum look to it. Unlike their French counterparts, US Blue Note has chosen to reproduce the album info in a readable size print, using the inner pages of the cover booklet to provide information. It's been about the grooviest month ever for me as I picked up the 4 US Rare Grooves and 5 more of the French titles - Nexus, Black Rhythm Hapenning, The Final Comedown, Sweet Revival and Mind Transplant. By the way, I like Mike's suggested list. Let's hope BN continues this series. It's become a rite of Spring for me.

No hesitation for me either in picking Mother Ship. I'm a big fan of this session. Put into the context of how jazz and Blue Note were changing at the time makes it more remarkable. I would have loved to hear what Morgan would have done had he lived through the 70s, including a few more sessions with Larry Young.

Equally interesting - how did you come to discover this site?