wesbed

Ohhh..! Poor baby.

You'll receive your Krupa/James Mosaic in... what? About three months?

I ordered my Dizzy Mosaic last night. It will be my first Dizzy Reece too.

I'm thinking, with the help of the new hosting service, the Organissimo site will keep working through the ENTIRE weekend.

In celebration of the rebirth of the O. And, in recognition of the recommendation made by xricci, tonight, I placed my order for the Dexter Gordon Mosaic Select. Dex always makes me think of good steak and Scotch. B-)

Concerning art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's so difficult to judge whether a certain work of art, music in this case, is worth having. For me, all the Mosaic boxes offer something of value. However, some Mosaic sets do offer more of value than others. The Krupa/James box is worth having. But, is it something you just gotta have? Probably not. I enjoy the history of the music. I like knowing what came before bebop. I like learning who the players were, looking at the pictures, etcetera. If you like the pre-bop sound, the Krupa/James is good. One evening it was all I wanted to listen to. I got lost in the music and had a hell of a good time going back in time with the boys in the bands. Much thanks to Harry and Gene. If I were on the fence, concerned about the cost, concerned about desiring other Mosaic sets... I'd skip the Krupa/James box and go with your suggestions regarding the Mulligan Concert Band or the Jazztet Mosaics. If money isn't a question, I recommend the Krupa/James. It's been a nice addition to my jazz collection. I've learned and enjoyed much about two jazz icons I've not been familiar with.

When I first received the Krupa/James box I played a bit of the Krupa then placed the box on my shelf to enjoy the latest batch of RVGs instead. Initially, the Krupa/James box seemed a mish-mash of odd material. This is not meant to be confused with 'bad' material, mind you. In the last few days I've begun to play more of the Krupa/James box. I'm beginning to enjoy the hell out of the Harry James sets. The entire box is a good collection of instrumentals and vocals. Many of the vocal numbers sound quite nice to my ears. As usual, with Malcolm Addey involved, I believe the Krupa material sounds as good as it can. At the same time, Ron McMaster has done a very good job with the Harry James material. In my mind, the Harry James material should sound better than the Gene Krupa material, by default, because the Harry James material is more recent. Still, McMaster has done some nice work with the Harry James sessions.

I had to look at her website and her pictures. It's not like I'm familiar with this broad. They don't seem to sell her records at the Blue Note or Mosaic sites. The first time I heard her name, via the Saturday Night Live broadcast, I thought maybe she was one of The Simpsons, as in, the TV Simpsons. I was expecting an Ashlee Simpson Muppet kind of thing on the stage. Yes, time for an intervention, indeed. Now, where did I put that Krupa/James Mosaic box?

Fuck you, you fucking no-talent media-whore cunt. I agree 100%. And, her album, if she has one (I don't know?) will sell enough copies to keep her very comfortable for the remainder of her years. Fuck me. I'm not certain she makes for good eye-candy, even.

Liar, liar pants on fire! The last time I watched Saturday Night Live with regularity was when the cast included Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. The show seemed quite funny when I was 15 years of age. I do wish I could find a way to enjoy Saturday Night Live again. When I go to said friend's house on a Saturday night, if I'm there late enough, Saturday Night Live will be on the television. I usually find myself on the back porch, where the TV can't be heard or seen, with a cold beer and my laptop computer. It was a little too cool in Tucson this past Saturday night. Damn, it must have been under 70°.

I never watch Saturday Night Live. Ironically, I happened to watch the Ashlee Simpson episode because I was at a friend's house. I watched the Simpson performance, understood what had just happened, and didn't think another thing about it. I didn't expect her to leave from the stage the way she did. I assume all the crap music on the TV is lip-synched. The lip-synch mishap was definitely not a surprise to me. I've seen lip-synching on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show from various popular bands. I don't have proof except that the live performance sounds exactly like the radio version of a given song.

If we could just, someday, learn that Malcolm Addey has been hired to do all future K2 releases. A sort of AddeSeries. The logo would read, "These are the titles you need to Add to your jazz collection, the AddeSeries of Jazz."

The K2s are very good. Not only are they very good, they are consistently good. As with all old, remastered recordings, the K2s are not perfect. But, they are, many times, the best I've heard. The original recordings from Prestige, Riverside, and Contemporary are every bit, equally as good as the Blue Notes, regarding the quality of the musician's performance and the selected songs. The K2 remastering, though, is, to my ears, some of the best. If not the best. The remastering engineers, Tamaki Beck and Shigeo Miyamoto, simply never have a bad day in the remastering studio. In comparison, there are many Van Gelder remastering attempts that sound electric. Some McMasters sound a little flat and distorted. I've written various Board entries in regard to the excellent quality offered by the K2s. I made a recent post here. And a few other posts here, here and here. From my experience CD Universe has a good selection of the K2s. CD Universe offers a competitive price tag as well.

Oh good. It's not just me.

Jack Wilson, Easterly Winds. This session must have been a breath of fresh air in 1967. Or, a breath of wonderfully refreshing, comfortable, old-fashioned, stale air. There is some damned nice playing here. Nothing incredibly provocative or boundary breaking. Rather, good, wholesome, old school, solid material. Most excellent. The first tune, Do It, starts the album and gives a hint of yet another Sidewinder wanna-be. Soon, you realize Jack Wilson is not going the way of the Sidewinder and he creates a very nice opening number. This session offers no distorted, electric, beginning of fusion sounds. No odd Duke Pearson-esque vocals (although it is produced by Pearson). No "I wanna sound just like late Trane" attempts. No wailing Miles Davis-style trumpet. Again, only good old-fashioned, handsome, bop offered here. Wilson reminds me of the sublime, light-touch style of Red Garland. Lee Morgan and Jackie McLean offer solid, stable, stylish playing. Sometimes, to me, in the spirit of the Leeway session. Garnett Brown's trombone is quite good and fits the session in a perfect sort of way. Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins offer their usual strong support. The Easterly Winds session falls, to my ears, somewhere between Leeway, The Sidewinder, and Joe Henderson's Page One. Yet, in a certain inexplicable way, is stronger than all three. I'm enjoying this session very much. I believe I would have been falling head-over-heels for this type of material in 1967.

A quiet board leads to a bored board.

I believed I had all the sets that might go OOP this year with my purchase of the Kenton Presents and JJ Johnson sets. Out of the freaking blue, the Krupa/James goes OOP. Fek.

I felt the same way the first time I listened to the Christy/Lee set. Upon repeated listening, however, June Christy has become my preferred singer from the set. She is just oh so cool. I really enjoy the "You're Blasé" track.

I've been hearing stories about the hidden meaning behind Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" for years. I've never done any research to find a truth about the stories. However, an internet search found this site to confirm what DTMX writes. It appears this song is about Phil Collins' divorce. Somewhere on the internet I read that Collins caught his wife with another man. In my mind, the words to "In The Air Tonight" are written to the man who was caught with Collins' wife.

Thanks for the information, John. Sheesh.

From my experience with jazz, there are low spells, but the interest never fades. I'm just now reaching the end of a low spell. I was playing jazz the last several weeks but wasn't enjoying it as much as normal. It could be a result of purchasing too many Mosaics and other various jazz CDs during the spring & summer months of this year (2004). I don't really know what causes a low spell. I discovered that a friend of mine had an interest, but not much experience, with the jazz of MMW and The Greyboy Allstars. I showed my friend that some of the sounds of those bands were pioneered by Jimmy Smith. My friend liked Jimmy Smith and he got me listening to Jimmy Smith again by having me dig out my Jimmy Smith CDs for him to listen to. As is always the case with jazz, a few listens to Jimmy Smith and I was listening to Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, and Kenny Burrell. Tina Brooks led to Jackie McLean and on and on...

If you go to the manufacturer's website, you can probably purchase a new drive that meets the computer's specifications perfectly. Hewlett-Packard, for example, has directions for how to replace the computer's hard drive as handy as within the Windows Help file. These directions may be on the website too.

I believe the RVG of Monk's "Genius of Modern Music" is much better than the older McMaster.

This title, third in a series, features "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (duet with Dolly Parton). Yes sir. A couple of old-fashioned jazz singers, Rod and Dolly, sharing the same song. Gack is right.

The Hutcherson is better than this stupid-looking thing. The first time I saw this Donaldson in the store I thought the picture was of some little kid. My thought was, "Is this a young Lou Donaldson?" When I looked closer I noticed the 'kid' was wearing earrings.