Rooster_Ties

I was faced with a similar quandary when I downsized in the move from Kansas City to Washington DC back around 2010-11. (Not a solution for you, Chuck, I totally realize.) But we had a house we had to get shaped up and put on the market in MUCH shorter order than I would have ever guessed. (My wife decided to start throwing her hat in the ring for DC-based jobs with the Federal department she's worked for, for ~25 years now. She thought it would take 1-2 years before the she got selected for a job that was also a good fit for her (maybe even 3 years?). About a week or so later, out of the blue a job came up that she thought sounded like a good halfway match, which she interviewed for 2 weeks later, got selected for another week later, and then 2 weeks after that she was in DC -- so barely 5-6 weeks after the initial decision just to start looking, she was gone!). So I was faced with downsizing and packing up a 3BR (arguably 4BR) house, so it could all fit in a small 625 sq-ft 1BR apartment, and had to repaint 70% of the interior of the entire house, and get the exterior repainted (which I didn't dare attempt myself - 2 story house), and a whole bunch of other stuff I won't get into the details of. All while working, and while my wife was already in DC. So I "hired" all my under-employed jazz musician buddies to come over and help me pack everything up, and they helped me paint practically the entire house (interior), and I "paid" them in used CD's -- as many as they wanted -- from what I was ditching to cut my collection in half. Ultimately got rid of about 3-4 thousand CD's (still kept close to 4,000). But it was worth EVERY penny I theoretically "lost" by not trying to sell the stuff outright. Got TONS of help packing and moving, and fixing up the house, and loading the moving van even. Would have been a nightmare to try and sell all that stuff on-line, and I wouldn't have gotten more than $.75 per disc trying to sell it to any of the used CD places in town (well more than half of which had closed their doors in the preceding 5 years), to say nothing of the time it would have taken. Good deal all around, for everyone, I think. LOTTA nice guys I knew got a lot of good music out of it, and I was quite happy for all the help.

Never got around to getting Paris, but I've had Stockholm on CD since back around 1991 (a CD release that appears to date from 1987 -- some 30 years ago!). Don't have Copenhagen either, so I suppose I'll get this eventually -- but it's certainly not any kind of priority (the only other thing I have from this tour with Trane is Zurich, which I only got around to picking up the Swiss Radio Days of which maybe 2 years ago). To be honest, I've always preferred Miles with Sonny Stitt (I've had that 13-Oct-60 Stockholm show on CD for over 25 years too). And NOT because I prefer Stitt to Trane, but rather I think Miles plays with a lot more fire (with Stitt), presumably to compensate for the lack of Trane. Fondly remember those two separate 2-CD sets of the two different Stockholm shows, which I found at a record store on my first ever trip to Europe (Barcelona) on a college-choir tour spring of '91. I think I only owned about 100 jazz CD's (at most), but close to 25% of them were all Miles Davis titles. Never dreamed (back then), that I'd stumble on such high-quality live recordings of material from the KOB band (I'd been collecting Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd bootlegs for 3-4 years, but never expected to find jazz bootlegs or grey-market stuff -- let alone on CD -- in a million years. A couple short years later, I think I had 6-7 different live Miles grey-market European titles (2nd great quintet, lost quintet, and a couple early 70's dates). And in fact, it really was exactly those 3-4 live discs of live Bitches Brew material and such from '69 that finally got me (more) into the actual Bitches Brew studio takes (which took me the longest to really wrap my (young) ears around). Bitches Brew was really one of the last Miles studio albums I felt like I really "got" (not sure if I'd heard On The Corner yet, by that point). In any case, all those live dates from 67, 69, and 70-71 were revelatory for me back then. That said, this new one isn't my biggest priority, but if it's 3 discs, and I ever see it available for $24 or so, I'm sure I won't have any will-power to resist.

Details please!!! Holy cow, and in a small-group context? Do tell!

I hereby give user "disaac" above right of first refusal (or anybody else here too, just jump on in an contact Allen). But, Allen, if it turns out nobody else here wants 'em -- and before you just go donating them somewhere -- I'm about 90% sure I'd be glad to take 'em off your hands.

First ever concert: Julian Lennon - July 1st, 1986 - Muny outdoor concert series, St. Louis (I was age 17). (My family regularly attended community band concerts, including the local military band out of Scott Air Force Base. And the local Belleville Philharmonic, and occasionally the St. Louis Symphony (maybe once a year, tops). And my mom liked musicals, and we went to hear 4-5 shows every summer at the Muny in St. Louis, which had free(!) seats in the very back 25 rows, farthest from the stage. But until I finally ventured out on my own, gingerly my senior year of high school, I rarely went to hear anything else.) First ever real jazz show that I claim: Either/Orchestra, in a bar in Galesburg, IL in 1990 (my junior year of college). Years later learned then unknown drummer Matt Wilson had recently joined the band, and he was originally from the next town over, and the band also included then unknown John Medeski on Fender Rhodes (bar didn't have a piano). Dug it mightily! First ever actual jazz concert with a named artist (a few weeks before the E/O gig above): The Ed Shaughnessy Tonight Show All Stars (no idea who else was in the group, all then current Tonight Show band members, before Johnny retired a year or two later). First "real" symphony concert (that wasn't Handel's Messiah, or a Christmas Concert, or a college/community orchestra): Chicago Symphony, circa 1991, with Mahler's First on the program (forget the rest of the program).

I'm not uninterested, but please feel free to email Allen (which I haven't even done yet). I just didn't want to pass up such an incredible bargain (only to have them ultimately donated somewhere). But it sounds you have way more definite and specific plans for them than I do. If you'd like to take advantage of the offer, by all means feel free. Or if nobody else wants them here, I'll be glad to take them (but don't have my heart set on them or anything).

By any chance, is there a YouTube upload of the LP version? With the saw; I've never heard it. Or some other streaming source? Thx!

How much to ship to Washington DC? (Zip = 20010) Or lemme know if you need a specific address to price the shipping. I'm about 75% convinced I ought to buy these, and get a decent (modest) system to go with.

Oct 5-9, 2017. Mrs. Rooster and I are headed up on the train after work that Thursday night (10/5), back Monday evening (10/9). I'm scouting for stuff to do, including live jazz (or even interesting classical) either Fri, Sat, or Sun. We're probably going to catch a Broadway (or off-Broadway) show too. Plan to see the Highline, and a number of museums, and take in some architecture. Open to any/all suggestions, including interesting restaurants. We're staying a little less than a mile due north of Penn Station, fwiw. I've been to New York for business (few very brief work-related trips, since I moved to DC in 2011) -- but we haven't gone to just do stuff for close to 20 years (back when we lived in Kansas City, just a couple years after we met). Ever since we moved to DC, it's been the mountains of central and northern VA, West VA, western Maryland -- or central PA, plus also Pittsburg and Philly -- and also the beaches around the Del-Mar-Va -- that have been all the places we've headed for our out-of-town down-time. (And two trips further north, to Buffalo and all around upstate NY -- and also Rhode Island.) I kept saying I'd go to New York when some specific jazz thing called me there, but I finally decided just to go and finally visit a hell of a lot of Museums that I should have seen years ago -- regardless of who's playing (or even if anyone's playing). Many thanks in advance for any advice.

I think I've got about 70% of Hino's pre-1976 output (maybe closer to 60%, if there's a bunch more I don't know about). About 18 maybe 20 CD's? - if I include sideman appearances. And it's all REALLY damn good! Some days, I'd rank him right up there (almost) with Woody Shaw and Charles Tolliver. He's THAT good. And if I could find a really comprehensive discography, and if his Japanese CD's were so damn expense (some of them), I'd gladly search out practically all his 60's and 70's, every last session maybe. One of the 2 or 3 most underrated trumpeters I can think of (or maybe 'under-known', at least here in the US).

I think I probably ought to pass. Must confess, every system I've ever owned has been a unit that already came with speakers. So I'm not even 100% sure I could use these speakers with my current (modest) book-shelf system that I currently have in the bedroom -- let alone whether they'd work with a new system I haven't even bought yet. Easily 8,000+ CD's (and maybe 1,000 albums) purchased over my lifetime (collectively, half of which I don't own any more) -- and horror of horrors, I don't know the first thing about stereo equipment. (Well, maybe the first thing (just barely), but definitely not the second thing.) Ever since my bookshelf multi-disc player in the living room died (after 10 good years of use), I've been playing CD's through the DVD player hooked to our HD-TV (using the TV's speakers for sound). And I have a old thrift-store turntable Spontooneous got for me, along with a similar tiny amp and separate speakers. It's really pathetic how little I know about stereo rigs, to be honest. And yet, my gut tells me this is a pretty sweet deal that I'd probably love the results of, if only I could pair them with the right sort of (modestly-priced) system.

How do they connect, RCA-type phono jacks? Or bare wire? I'm needing to purchase a new bookshelf type system, and I suppose I could be tempted by these (even before I've identified the system I'm buying). Thx!

Was he rushing or dragging?

I met both Michael Ray and June Tyson at the only Arkestra show with Sun Ra that I ever saw (in around 1990/91, in Chicago). Both were very friendly, and VERY gracious. Got both their autographs. I'm sure Ray was on one or two of the Arkestra shows I heard after Mr. Blount's passing, but I thInk Ms. Tyson had left us by that point, unfortunately. I count them as two of the most amazing voices in the entire Arkestra, right up there with John Gilmour and Marshall Allen, far as I'm concerned. Not quite their longevity with the band, of course, but every bit as impactful during their years in Sun Ra's orbit.

I recently got the Bee-Hive set too, and although I was a little trepidatious about doing so, I did break off two (2) teeth on each of those inside spindels, with a pair of needle nose pliars, and it works like a charm, perfectly. Two teeth alone still grip like a mofo, but it's WAY easier to get the discs out. With the needle nose, it took about 2-3 minutes total to fix all four boxes. No regrets, and quite as easy solution.

I have to admit that McCaslin is bit of a puzzle to me. (But -- confession - I haven't heard many of his leader-dates yet, something I'll surely get around to one of these days -- and I'm streaming his latest album here at work, now, as I'm typing this.) His approach (and his tone) is nothing like the tenor-players I like best. I was initially, not so much "put-off" by his playing on David Bowie's Blackstar album, as I was just intrigued that here was an "inside/outside" approach -- something that (in the abstract), I really espouse and love. And yet, his particular language seemed entirely foreign to me. Of course, after 10-20 spins of Blackstar, I absolutely fell deeply in love with the album (in general), and 30-40 more spins later, I also love McCaslin's playing on the album (which I now think is incredibly beautiful). THAT SAID, his approach is not a style I'm instantly drawn to (or at least not yet). I heard the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra several months ago, here in DC (first time hearing them live), and best as I'm recalling, a LOT of the reed-players had an approach not entirely unlike McCaslin's (or maybe my ears aren't discerning enough to say how their approaches differed a lot). Maybe there's an inner logic to his style that gets better with repeated exposure. I seem to remember spinning (streaming) a couple of his more recent albums ~8 months ago, and my initial reaction was either ambivalence, or puzzlement. But now, as I'm typing this and spinning his 2015 album Fast Future, I'm connecting better with it than anything I'd tried last year. Maybe all the repeated exposure to Blackstar (along with Maria Schneider's most recent CD), is also getting his sound in my head. There's a simplicity to his approach, that's very melodic, and chromatic - but one that isn't afraid to bend damn near every note a bit. And his sense of time is elastic, to put it mildly - but his attack isn't especially hard-edged either. All just a very different approach than what I'm more used to. He's playing here in the DC-area (at UMD) in December, and I'm pretty sure I'll end up going (though it's a pain in the ass, cuz I probably need to rent a zip-car to get there).

I'm temped too, and in retrospect I should have gotten one with the Bee-Hive box I ordered back in May.

As acerbic as Dolphy's tone was on alto and bass clarinet (and I don't mean that negatively)... ...I think it's astounding how pure his tone and technique were on flute -- arguably as good as anyone outside of a handful of upper echelon classical players. Three wonderful flute tracks on the less-well-known (posthumous) Other Aspects (Blue Note, 1987). Here's the first one:

This clip of Glen covering the Moody Blues song "Question" popped up in a prog music forum (subreddit, actually)...

Andrew Hill big box and the Hill BN Select (probably), off the top of my head. (Was anyone surprised?) Next, maybe the Larry Young? Jackie McLean is up there too. I'll have to look at home, and see if any more jump out at me.

Again, come hell or high water Jim, you've gotta see the Obit documentary, on the NYT's obit department.

I do too -- as well as the Jordan Mosaic box now. Looking for a good home for the P-Vine CD version, though I haven't really been shopping it around or anything.

Uptown, maybe, perhaps. But I cannot see Blue Note releasing this material, I'm afraid, unless it was download-only perhaps. There were quite a number of other unissued takes from the same nights as the already 3CD release of live material by this band. It would seem unlikely that BN would release other material by this same band (same year), unless they had already exhausted what they already had in their own archives. Don't mean to be negative, I just wouldn't chase the Blue Mote option until my dying day.

Happy B-Day‼️ ???????

Probably, yes. But yet, I know there have been countless theoretical "proposed" Mosaic sets discussed here (and surely elsewhere). I'm sure I could easily come up with every specific ideas for 10 sets I'd personally buy myself, and another 10 I'd at least be tempted to buy. (None of which are probably the least bit commercially viable now -- and may have never been, perhaps, either -- even if they'd been more seriously contemplated 15-20 years ago. A hell of a damn LOT of their mission was certainly accomplished, but I'd say that if market demand (and market forces) were difference, they could have been as much as TWICE as many sets that could have been produced (total) -- meaning AGAIN as many yet unproduced, as has been Mosaic's entire output to date. That is in NO way meant to be a criticism (in any way, shape, or form). Not suggesting for an instant that any "in our wildest dreams" sets were ever really possible. But in a different universe, where there was many twice as much interest in jazz overall (among the general populace), coupled with a continued interest in buying things on physical media (like CD's), one could certainly conceive of any number of great sets that 'could have been'.