Chas

I wouldn't say I DISLIKE his arco work, but yeah, it's not very good. I agree with both of you . Leaving aside the question of tuning , the interjection of a Chambers' arco solo tends to break the rhythmic continuity/momentum of the music in a way that brings the swing to an abrupt halt . My favorite Chambers-led date is First Bassman , but that's largely because of Yusef Lateef's contribution both compositionally and instrumentally .

And this cover belongs in this thread because...........?

Same facade used again here : Is this the World Trade Center? It certainly reminds me of one section of it. Since the Cherry was done in 1966 it can't be the World Trade Center which wasn't completed until 1970 . The facade looks like travertine . It looks like the side of Avery Fisher Hall :

Here's an interesting one from Harry Geller who played trumpet with Goodman in the Thirties before leading his own orchestra . The cover is split down the middle and opens like a book , revealing a night-time shot of the Gotham skyline : The cover for one of the three EPs of this material shows the skyline at night :

Great record and a great cover :

Same facade used again here : EDIT : You also might want to check out my current avatar ( right click , view image ) .

French Cookin = Budd Johnson , Hank Jones , Kenny Burrell , Everett Barksdale , Milt Hinton , Osie Johnson , Willie Rodriguez and Joseph Venuto Off the Wall = Budd Johnson , Joe Newman , Albert Dailey , George Duvivier , Richard Davis and Grady Tate

I've yet to see any Esquire cover that surpasses its Prestige counterpart . Another example here . I don't find Esquire's more literal cover , done in a DSM style , to be superior to Esmond Edwards' intriguing photographic original .

One that a lot of people will overlook is : Modern big band with swinging arrangements , good blowing by local Miami musicians , and Kenny Drew guesting . The CD is a needle-drop , but the sound is good . The band's rendition of All Blues is mislabeled as Flamenco Sketches , thus recapitulating the error on the original Kind of Blue ; kind of odd since this record came out almost a year after Kind of Blue by which time presumably , the error would have been known .

I really don't think Musart is on the level of Braith's Bluenote output . The title track starts out promisingly but during Braith's solo any musical narrative or development is lost . The two ballad standards don't approach anything memorable ; Laura being particularly unrewarding . The lowpoint of the album is Evelyn Anita , which tenders some pretty tired funkiness . One track stands head and shoulders above the rest and that is Del's Theme . The wordless vocalizing is hauntingly lovely on this , and George gets into a relaxed , hypnotic groove in his solo . Splashes of Love is the next best thing on the record , but it gets an injudiciously quick fade out just as Jane Getz is getting going ! According to Lord there are six unissued tunes from the sessions that went into Musart ( one titled intriguingly ( or alarmingly ) , 'Monkey Cha Cha' ) . In addition , according to Lord , Braith did four more tunes for Prestige in the fall of '67 with John Hicks , Herbie Lewis and Roy Haynes , but there is no listing for this session in Fitzgerald's Prestige discography .

Of the Spanish RCA CDs that I've heard the only one that I thought was subpar was the Hal Mckusick Jazz Workshop ( one of my favorite RCA jazz records ) . I recall the original vinyl of that one sounding rather better ( don't recall if the tape stretch heard on Lydian Lullaby was heard on the LP either ) . Other Spanish RCA CDS sound good however . The Freddy Merkle sounds good , though that's one I never heard on vinyl . The J. J. Johnson's are fine ; not surprising I suppose , since the orignal LPs were Dynagroove ( RCA's 'new coke' ! ) . Not that the RCA CDs are perfect . TheTotal J.J. CD has no pauses between the tracks . The J.J. ! CD has an incorrect recording date , and is missing the two Tom McIntosh numbers that are on the Mosaic Single ( I've asked about the quality of these McIntosh charts before and never gotten a reply . Didn't anyone buy the Mosaic Single ?? ) .

While I agree that the article suffers from overlength , and reports on an 'experiment' of questionable value , your gloss , " We be stupid " , misses the point . It's not that we're dumb , but rather that we're too busy , too harried as a result of the increasing prioritization of work at the expense of leisure required by American competitive consumerism . I read the article as an attempt to demonstrate that the collateral damage from this not only impairs our ability to discharge our familial and civic responsibilities , but extends into our ability to appreciate art . As to why it matters whether one exercises one's aesthetic sense or not , I suppose that might depend on whether one feels that art stands in a reciprocal relation to The Divine , in the sense that art can be a gateway to spirituality , a spirituality which can itself inspire artistic achievement .

Includes the smash hit , " Drinking with my Easter Bunnies Polka " . And yes , it is available on CD...

Can't agree with you there . For instance , I think those Don Martin Prestige covers are a gas . Compare this Don Martin Prestige cover with its really unimaginative Esquire counterpart :

There are often two imaginative leaps required in an exercise such as this since some of the fantasizing also involves imagining that unheard material is worthy of issue . My roster is too extensive to list in full ( I have a very active imagination ) , but these few would find a place in any such reckoning : --Oscar Dennard Trio on Henson --Alonso Levister on Debut --John LaPorta on Debut --Voice of America Newport Festival broadcasts --1957 Mary-Lou Williams Roulette --Complete Herbie Nichols Bethlehem ( including the six tracks previously thought lost ) --Complete Stan Getz Sweet Rain ( with the three unissued tracks ) --Complete Bill Russo --Complete Herb Pomeroy

It really doesn't matter.....to Best Buy , since : a) there is no necessary connection between being a progressive , liberal or pinko and being opposed to Best Buy , and b) even if there were such a nexus , Progressive , liberal , pinko dollars aren't exactly the lifeblood of an electronics retailer selling music as a loss-leader , and c) Best Buy has already voted their own dollars

'Culture-jam' for our bread

I don't understand this . What possible cachet could the Mosaic brand have for someone interested in Earl Klugh or Alex Bugnon ?? I mean , if Mosaic was a purveyor of bottled water or organic food or some other 'lifestyle' product then maybe , but this branding strategy makes no sense whatsoever . Mosaic's press release states that their mission is , " to fill a vacuum where the established recording industry is lax " . An Amazon search for Earl Klugh yields 96 results , including a two-volume 'best-of' compilation . Also notable is that the resale value of some of these titles is in the one or two dollar range ! So in the case of Klugh at least , we have a market that is already well-served , and with a secondary market exerting extreme downward pressure on new-issue price points . Seems to me like a poorly thought-out venture born of financial necessity .