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But they are very good choices for when the wife tells you to put on some dinner music for the guests to enjoy. Although I almost always go with the MJQ 'Last Concert' or the solo Kenny Barron set 'Spiral' in those cases.

Totally with you on JMac 'High Frequency' - can't think of a BN CD I'd rather see released. OTOH, I've always considered 'A New Conception' to be something of a disaster, that the rhythm section and Rivers aren't in sync or something (I've only heard it twice, 25 years apart, but was turned off both times). Maybe I just can't hear it somehow, but I like the other Rivers BN"s and even his freer stuff on Impulse! etc. just fine.

PM sent on the following: Tom Christensen - New York School (Playscape) w/W.Weiskopf, K.Driscoll, S.Takeishi $4.5 $4 Tomasz Stanko Quartet - Lontano (ECM) $6 $5.5 The Vandermark 5 - Acoustic Machine (Atavistic) digipak $6 Rabih Abou-Khalil - Nafas (ECM) $7 $6 $5.5 Bill Evans - The Solo Sessions, volume 1 (Milestone) $5.5 Branford Marsalis - Braggtown (Marsalis Music) $4.5 $4 David Hazeltine-George Mraz Trio - Manhattan Sessions (Chesky, hybrid SACD, will play on all cd players) $6.5 Clifford Jordan Quintet featuring Junior Cook - Two Tenor Winner (Criss Cross) $7.5 (on hold) Herbie Hancock - In Concert (aka "The Jazz Channel Presents Herbie Hancock") (DVD, 116 minutes) $3

Yes. I don't like the sound he got on 12-string on 'Desperado'.

From the Associated Press, found on MSNBC.com: NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Music sales have continued to slump in 2008 as the increased number of downloads of digital tracks failed to make up for a plunge in the sale of compact discs. Year-end sales figures released Wednesday by The Nielsen Co. show total album sales, including album equivalents made up of single digital tracks, fell to 428.4 million units, down 8.5 percent from 500.5 million in 2007. Physical album sales fell 20 percent to 362.6 million from 450.5 million, while digital album sales rose 32 percent to a record 65.8 million units. Digital track sales, such as those conducted in Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store, were up 27 percent from last year, breaking the 1 billion mark for the first time at 1.07 billion. The report continues a troubling trend for the recording industry, which has a harder time maintaining profits when consumers buy single songs instead of albums. The number of transactions rose 10.5 percent to 1.5 billion, although the figure treats single track and whole album purchases the same. "You can see the overall unit sales as a positive, but their model is really built on album sales and that just continues to decline," said Silvio Pietroluongo, director of charts for Billboard magazine.

If you like Destination...Out! You'll LOVE One Step Beyond. Agreed, as great as 'Destination....Out' is, 'One Step Beyond' is clearly better to me. If I could only have one Jackie McLean CD (what I sad thought!), this would be the one, as great as his other stuff is. This album is a landmark in jazz history. It, 'Destination Out!", Grachan Moncur's 'Evolution' (all from 1963), and 'Action' (from 1964) are the recordings that McLean did with Bobby Hutcherson, and all are spectacular. 'Action' has Charles Tolliver on the front line with McLean, and the others have Moncur, with Lee Morgan added on 'Evolution'. Amazing stuff.

"Desperado" ranks up there for me too. And I never tire of "East!" either. In fact, time to haul that one out and give it a spin! Eddie Green is no slouch either. I remember not liking the sound Martino got on the 12-string on 'Desperado', and moving it along. 'El Hombre' on the other hand is a monster! Good, make that great, Philly Organ Jazz. From the same city that brought you Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, and lots of others. 'Desperado' was also an all-Philly affair, using the Catalyst rhythm section (Eddie Green/the great Tyrone Brown/Sherman Ferguson). Both those albums were Martino working with musicians he probably came up with, rather than the usual excellent hired guns on 'Strings!" (Cedar Walton, Joe Farrell, et al), hence the difference in feel. I enjoy 'Strings!' a lot. I enjoy 'El Hombre' noticably more.

PM sent on Eric Alexander Alexander the Great (High Note) 5

The Bert Myrick was also on Strata, not Strata-East. Had one tremendous 15 minute track, I think called "Scorpio" (not the Dennis Coffey "Scorpio"). I bought the album after hearing that track on WRTI in the mid-70's, but lost the album along the way at some point. Wish I still had it, although the rest of the album didn't come close to that one track in my memory.

Agreed. The Blue Notes sound very much like the Miles Quintet with Shorter/Hancock/Carter/Williams. That was pointed out ealier in the string, but I wanted to also give my agreement, as there is no avoiding the reference to my ears.

Remedied that with a trip to Half Price Books, where they had the 2-LP The Art of Freddie Hubbard. Spinning it right now; very nice! Yeah, thats a nice set - I'm going to bring it out today too. A good way also to sample the 'Songmy' material. The Atlantics are underrated. 'Sing Me a Song of Songmy' is patchy (it was an experiment which the Hubbard group was only one element) and 'A Soul Experiment' is a waste, but 'Backlash', 'High Blues Pressure' and 'The Black Angel' are all terrific.

Really sorry to hear this. At his best, he was my favorite trumpet player of all. I only ever saw him once, and it was too late in his career to really experience his gifts, but it was quite entertaining all the same. At Penn's Landing in Philly in the early 90's (92?) there was weekend afternoon show which was supposed to be Dizzy Gillespie big band (I guess the United Nations Orchestra), but Dizzy took ill (he would die later that year), and the show instead was a big band tribute to Dizzy. The trumpet section was pretty awesome - Hubbard, Jon Faddis. and Wynton Marsalis. Hubbard and Faddis started messing around just doing high note pyrotechnics on every solo, having fun, and Marsalis looked like he wanted to throw up and purposely did all of his soloing in middle register in protest. The best moment of the show was when David Sanchez, then the supposed young hotshot on tenor (I was never very impressed), played a solo that you could tell he thought was hot stuff. Mario Rivera was next up at the mike, and Rivera first played Sanchez's solo note perfect, then played a comic, burlesque, version of the same solo, then played his own solo which blew away Sanchez's. Beautiful stuff. My favorite Hubbard solos are "Aries" on the Impulse album 'The Body & the Soul', and "Ugetsu" on the Blakey Riverside album 'Ugetsu'. I consider his Blue Note/Impulse/Atlantic/CTI run from '60 to '73 to be an amazing accomplishment, covering a stunning range of styles incredibly well, and he had moments of brilliance even after that. I liked the first Columbia, 'High Energy', and liked his 80's work except for the blatant sell-out moments. He had a wonderful career and gifted us with some beautiful music.

PM sent on Jackie McLean -Rhythm of the earth BMG edition (antilles) MINT $3 John Scofield -LIVE (enja)1987 $3 Barry Harris /Kenny Barron -Confirmation (candid) $3 Acoustic Masters Vol. 1 (charles lloyd, billy higgins,Cedar walton) $3 McCoy Tyner w/Stanley Clarke & Al Foster (Telarc) MINT $3

1 - I bet our Andorran friends will address the Handy Roulette's in the next few years when they reach 50 years old. 2 - To me, "Spanish Lady" on the Monterey album is Handy's finest moment and a landmark moment in jazz. The other two albums, to me, are good, rather than great, but unique and nice to have. But I'll take 'New View' over either of them. The Roulette's, to me, are also good rather than great, but I'd love to have them on CD. I'm not familiar with the additional live material which will be on the Select, and will buy it for that. 3 - Maybe Mosaic just made a licensing deal with Columbia for the January Zeitlin and Handy selects (I'll buy both, and will also order the Akiyoshi/Tabackan at that time, the first Selects I've bought since the Hutcherson), and the Roulette stuff can still happen. I would think the Roulette licensing would actually be easier for them since it is held by the same group that holds Blue Note (still EMI. I believe?). 4 - Select already has done two Andrew Hill's, so I don't see where they'd be adverse to doing two Handy's. 5 - I'd also love to have those Watson Roulette's on CD!

Which reminds me - why hasn't the Noah Howard Judson Hall album ever made any of the ESP-Disk reissue programs? That's a great album, as good as anything ever done on that label. Also, the Archie Shepp-Philly Joe Jones album would be nice to see on CD.

PM sent on Jackie McLean - Live at Montmarte (steeplechase) MINT $5 Ryan Kisor- Power Source (criss cross) MINT $4

I have some "interesting origin" ECM mini-lp's (Jarrett, several Garbarek's) and some other jazz mini-lp's (Cohn-Sims, Corea Tones for Joan's Bones) that I got in trade from a guy in Russia. Well, that's interesting. I wonder if they pirate them primarily for the Japanese market, and then a few end up here. I don't think so - these have clearly Russian markings on them for some of the company credits, etc. Not nearly pure enough in appearance for the Japanese market.

I have some "interesting origin" ECM mini-lp's (Jarrett, several Garbarek's) and some other jazz mini-lp's (Cohn-Sims, Corea Tones for Joan's Bones) that I got in trade from a guy in Russia.

I got the Sugercane Harris through DeepDiscount, and am delighted with all aspects of it.

Up with edits

I'm curious too. Great compilation by the way. At first it seemed weird, but if this is a way to keep good music available, maybe it's for the best. I'm a lot more encouraged by this than I am by the whole download thing, if the packaging matches the original CD and if there is a legal secondary market for them (meaning I can resell it if I decide I don't like it and don't want to keep it).

Would make nice bonus cuts on a 'Natural Essence' reissue. Love Joe Chambers on 'Natural Essence'!!! I think there is a fair amount of Freddie Roach stuff that hasn't been on domestic CD, though some of it is pretty poor. I would like to see the New Heritage Keyboard Quartet session from the early 70's on CD. I think there are several Horace Parlan's which have not been on domestic CD, and they're good. Some Duke Pearson trio stuff from the early 60's. The Jutta Hipp Hickory House albums. A Jackie McLean late 60's session with Moncur which was on one of those Brown-covered twofers in the 70's/80's. Still some Jones/Lewis to go. Some 50's Hank Mobley. There's still plenty that is worthy, if not essential ('Natural Essence' is essential).

PM sent on the Hank Jones.

Norman Connors - Slewfoot. For the incredible "Mother of the Future". The rest is dreck.

No doubt, Concord will soon reissue an abridged version of it with the title "James Taylor Plays for Lovers". As far as Taylor, I liked his first thee albums, the self-titled one on Apple, 'Sweet Baby James', and 'Mudslide Slim...', but was greatly offended by the sacrelige his "How Sweet It Is".