Chas

With the Futura label active issuing new recordings as well as reissuing selected titles from the back catalog , I thought we should have a thread where the few who are acquainted with the catalog can share their recommendations with the rest of us who are less familiar with the label's output . Futuras never turned up in any of the vinyl bins I used to rummage , at least not the ones I was looking for viz. , the Dizzy Reece , Mal Waldron and Jaki Byard sides . The Reece record , From In to Out , has been slated for a CD reissue for some time , but as this earlier thread outlines , it was initially held up by a copyright dispute regarding the cover art . I recently wrote to the man who heads Futura to find out what the status of the Reece reissue is now . He told me that while he is committed to issuing older music in addition to new recordings , his finances have meant that he's had to scale back his ambitions somewhat . That said , he did inform me that the Dizzy Reece side should be out this year sometime around May or June . He also told me that the Jaki Byard solo record , Parisian Solos , will be available next month . No word on the other Jaki Byard Futura date , Live at the Jazz Inn , which is a trio recording . As for Mal Waldron , the Blood and Guts trio date is available , but not his solo effort for the label , The Opening . I'm interested in hearing people's impressions of the music on these and other Futura recordings both new and old .

No late sixties advanced hard-bop collection is complete without Chick Corea's Tones For Joan's Bones . :tup

Well, the point that it is irrational to starve oneself to death tomorrow in order to maximize current consumption -- I can't disagree with that. But we are not discussing that straw man. It's trivially true that as long as there are investments that offer positive risk-free rates of return, we'll be better off tomorrow by reducing current consumption -- but at the cost of being less well-off today. Whether the trade-off makes sense depends on personal preferences. To say that it depends on personal preferences is to ignore the normative aspect implicit in the concept of intertemporally optimal consumption and savings . Individuals are notoriously hyperbolic discounters and hence sub-optimal savers . Again, not true. Excepting those living in cardboard huts and subsisting on ramen in order finance the end-of-life consumption orgy, every single person you meet could increase lifetime total consumption by switching to the hut+cardboard lifestyle. Not so . From the standpoint of intertemporal optimality , it is just as irrational to have a negatively skewed lifetime consumption distribution as it is a positively skewed one given uncertainty , particularly concerning one's longevity . This is disingenuous . You know very well that I was speaking of an economic return of the kind that could justify borrowing . Return from consumption IS an economic return. The types of consumption you cited , unlike for instance , those involving education and healthcare , do not have an economic return of the kind that could justify borrowing . All this discussion of savings preferences is a side issue since what I am interested in , and what you have conspicuously failed to address , is what considerations support your claim that borrowing to consume isn't necessarily a bad idea .

This is disingenuous . You know very well that I was speaking of an economic return of the kind that could justify borrowing . Well, we'd probably be able to consume more today, but at the cost of consuming less yesterday. But that's just stating a tradeoff, not an argument in favor of reallocating consumption to/from the future (which is what saving really is).....When an individual chooses to save (or not save), they are comparing the worth of consuming that marginal dollar now vs the worth of consuming the returns from investing it...... It's not irrational to forgo future consumption for current consumption (which we all do every day), or to choose a lower standard of living in the future in order to achieve a higher standard of living today. To say that this is , "just stating a tradeoff" implies that it is just a temporal preference when it is not . The cost of consuming less yesterday is not equivalent to the benefit of consuming more today . A dollar of past consumption forgone , can be worth two dollars of future consumption , meaning we ( both individually and collectively ) are better off overall when we don't seek to maximize current consumption . Thus it is irrational to forgo future consumption for current consumption when doing so leads to less consumption over a lifetime . It is all the more irrational to borrow to effect this temporal redistribution of consumption , since doing so further reduces the overall level of consumption . I find it difficult to square your objection to my latest post with your approval of my earlier post which made the same point :

Now...of someone can tell me how much the Charles Brown Aladdin cost new, I can get it to a member who will enjoy it. I've looked through several old Mosaic catalogs to no avail. Back in '94 when the Brown came out , Mosaic's Q-LPs were priced at $13 , so that 7-LP set originally cost $91 .

Original Dixieland Jazz Band had a couple of early ones,Soudan and Palesteena, both from 1920. Gil Melle had a Bartok-inspired number called Soudan on his Gil's Guests Prestige album . As a result of his appearance with Dizzy Gillespie on his State Department-sponsored tour of the Middle East in 1956 , Frank Rehak wrote a couple of tunes based on their travels : Very Syrian Business , and Never Do An Abadanian In ( a reference to Abadan Iran , the site of the opening concert of the tour ) . Both these tracks appeared on Rehak's Dawn album , Jazzville Vol. 2 .

Debt-fueled consumption or consumption untethered from income or personal savings , is financially ruinous both individually and collectively . On an individual level , it is axiomatic that borrowing only makes economic sense if the borrowing is used to earn a return greater than the cost of borrowing . As there is no return on consumption , debt-enabled consumption today is purchased at the cost of reduced consumption and a reduced standard of living in the future . Collectively , debt-based consumption results in a grievous misallocation of savings away from economically productive investment of the kind needed to ensure future income growth and consumption . Substituting 'credit-fueled' for 'debt-fueled' in 'Debt-fueled consumption is not necessarily a problem' doesn't change anything either , for while the statement is true strictly speaking ( since grace periods allow disciplined consumers to avoid turning credit-based consumption into financed consumption ) , there would be no consumer credit industry if credit-based consumption didn't in practice become debt-based consumption .

More transparently plutocratic apologetics from The Economist . Their argument that income inequality doesn't matter absent any concomitant inequality in subjective economic wellbeing , is unconvincing . To argue that a focus on subjectively-measured consumption instead of income gives us a better picture of relative economic wellbeing ignores the extent to which so much present day consumption is debt-fueled . Against a backdrop of stagnant real wages , as debt loads and debt service increase , the ability to consume in the future is diminished , meaning that a focus on present consumption overstates economic wellbeing . Additionally , even if Americans' ability to purchase whizzy new electronics or appliances whose costs have been deflated by globalization makes them better off with respect to the richest consumers in their own country , they might still collectively have lower life satisfaction than economically poorer countries with more equitable income distributions . The article glosses over the very real growth in inequality of access to arguably the two most important bulwarks of economic wellbeing , namely higher education and health . It also ignores the disproportionate effects of food and energy inflation on economic wellbeing . The claim is made that food prices are not rising because of Wal-Mart's entry into the grocery business , yet official measures show prices rising rather dramatically . To the extent that Wal-Mart have not passed through the price increases , this is because they are still in the process of using food as a loss-leader to gain market share against existing grocery chains . It is completely indefensible ( if revealing ) for The Economist to ignore the impact of wealth inequality as opposed to income inequality on wellbeing . What kind of wellbeing can one have if one doesn't have the security that wealth affords against twists of fate such as job loss or other interruptions of income or catastrophic illness ? The inequality in wealth is far greater than the inequality in income and it too is growing rapidly . This grossly maldistributed wealth also has political ramifications , such that if one feels that wellbeing includes some democratic civic component as well , then one will be further inclined to see that Economist piece for the apologia it is .

Wish I could help you Hank , since as Dave said , those Murphy dates are most assuredly worth searching for , but I wouldn't dream of letting my copy go . Gone With the Woodwinds is every bit as interesting as New Orbits in Sound with the added benefit of superior sound . You may have to wait for someone in the Fresh Sound web of labels to put them both on a single CD . Gone With the Woodwinds was originally issued under two different covers . Here is the cover that Fantasy either couldn't find or chose not to use for the OJC CD , showing Murphy and the back of Curtis Counce's head : And Dave , I'll see your Rod Levitt and raise you a Sandole Brothers !

Anybody have Portrait , the date he did for Savoy when he was a teenager ? Is Yanow right in making a connection style-wise between Coates and Brubeck ?

How 'bout a whole album of Harmon-muted Freddie : He's also muted on Prophet Jennings from Hub-Tones , among others....

Haven't heard it in years, just remember it being a lot more "normal" than the titling would have you think. The title and packaging are misleading - they make it look like a Sun Ra record . That said , New Orbits in Sound is a gem . Murphy's roots in swing-era arranging are in evidence ( particularly harmonically ) ; the intricate ensembles are tight and swinging , the solos fine . As a point of reference , three of the guys from the Hollywood Saxophone Quartet are on the record . Regarding Frank Morgan's contribution , I recall reading on the Jazz West Coast list that Morgan had so much trouble with the charts that Murphy asked Benny Carter to spell him . Carter , who only plays in the ensembles(?) , is not credited on the record .

While Teo's contribution to jazz is secure ( notwithstanding occasional misgivings over the judiciousness of some of his editing ) , I feel he could have made quite a contribution to the music as an instrumentalist had he stayed on that path . He had an original conception on the tenor , tonally , harmonically and dynamically . At times his tone combined with his lyricism to give his lines an ethereal , diaphanous quality . I count him among those who , while rooted in Prez , managed to speak with an original voice .

The Peace-Maker was discussed here . I much prefer it to Head On for several reasons . First of all the writing is better on The Peace-Maker ; on Head On only one of the four longish tracks is by Hutch , and the tracks are somewhat unfocused . Harold Land's playing is much more interesting on the Peace-Maker . Also , I think the larger group on Head On gets in the way of the special interplay that makes the earlier Hutcherson/Land collaborations so terrific . I'm all for CD reissues of albums that have never been on disc , but the Hutcherson I would like to have seen in this latest batch is the Live at Montreux date with Woody Shaw ( on CD in 1994 , but currently $ 50.00 on Amazon ) .

Up , for discographical tidbits........... Mark Miller in his book , Jazz in Canada : Fourteen Lives , writes about obscure Toronto tenor player Ron Park and his contributions to Moon Rappin' . Apparently , Park ( who OD'ed in 1971 ) takes both a tenor and a flute solo on Flat Backin' , as well as the tenor solo on Loose Foot . The CD lists the tenor and flute player as "Bill Phillips", but this second tenor would have to have been Newark tenor player Bill Phipps who gigged with McDuff ( and who's still gigging ) . Miller doesn't list the trumpet player on the date so his identity remains a mystery , but he does list Melvin Sparks on guitar . That two guitars can be heard both on Flat Backin' and on the title cut seems to confirm that Jerry Byrd wasn't the only guitarist . I say seems , because there is overdubbing on the record ( McDuff overdubs himself on the title cut ) and a single guitar line does occasionally pan between channels , so there may have only been a single guitarist .

More details about the interesting life of Fred Katz and his chef d'oeuvre , Folk Songs For Far Out Folk : Source : http://www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?...ticle&id=80

While Art may not be playing on this record ( see here ) , he sure is smoking on the front cover :

That Acker Bilk cover is from the days when the Surgeon General's warning included , 'risk of deforestation' ?

Don't think this one's made it to CD yet : This one's made it to CD , but without this original cover :

No . Offhand I can think of two earlier ones - Big John Patton did Ain't That Peculiar on Got A Good Thing Goin' in 1966 , and Stanley Turrentine did Ain't No Mountain High Enough in the summer of '67 ( first issued in 1979 on the lp New Time Shuffle ) . There are no doubt others .

Bethlehem sometimes marred Burt Goldblatt's cover shots with overlaid text . For instance , this cover also exists with " The Thinking Man's Music" scrawled across it .

Here we have Shorty puffing on the front cover ; turn the sleeve over , and Shorty's sparking up another butt !

Well that , and the genuine soulfulness of Hootin 'n' Tootin . This is a by-the-numbers , commercial , funk product - an apple fritter fished from between sofa cushions after a week would be fresher ! I'll leave the sanctimonious admonishments about the evils of copyright infringement to others , but use a little discretion will you ? You can allude to the source ; there's no need to hotlink it . EDIT : Now that the album download link has been removed , you might be wondering which Earl Van Dyke album is being referenced . It is the 1970 album , The Earl of Funk on Motown subsidiary Soul .

Kinda surprised no one's posted this one yet : And here's another one like the Trudy Pitts I posted upthread , where the CD reissue got an ugly Legends of Acid Jazz cover in place of its original :

No Phyllis Diller Miss Pitts ! Shame on Fantasy for reissuing this in one of their already-dated Legends of Acid Jazz covers ! One of Stan's first 12"ers for Norgran was this minimalist beauty :