king ubu

Same as Sangrey here... enjoy bits of Kaempfert now and then - of course all the better if Herb Geller, Jiggs Wigham or Ferdinand Povel were involved (as on the album "Swing"). Even bought half a dozen of the reissues that have appeared 2009-2011 (seems they did all the albums again... I dimly remember reading so in an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine at least - probably written after the final batch was out somewhen ealier this year).

The Real Earl Hines

Earl Hines Plays Fats Waller

Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan at Basin St. East How is that one? I only have "Tears for the Children of Soweto," which I like. I just found it on my little trip to Germany last week... was a first spin - pretty nice! But like the second album ("One for Dudu") it isn't quite as good as "Tears...", I think. That one's a favorite here!

Joe Malinga - Sandile

Happy Birthday, Bill! :party:

Anyone? Would be very interested in that, too!

very sad news - r.i.p.

[tongue-in-cheek mode]But with the Fresh Sound reissues we exactly DON'T KNOW how these albums DID SOUND back in their day![/tongue-in-cheek mode] Seriously: Fresh Sound did a few hundred reissues - fine. If you don't count the Prestige, Riverside, Pacific Jazz, Verve, Mode and other reissues that were also reissued in recent years by the proper owners of the recordings, there's still plenty left, I assume. That's fair enough to point out. "Frankly, I can't think of a single jazz musician who has ever complained to me about their earlier works being re-issued by Fresh Sound. Most have told me they're happy that the label has kept their names and music alive when American record labels have failed to do so." Fair enough, of course... that is, if they've given up all hopes of earning a penny with their old recordings (and I guess most have given up, due to criminal practices being just as wide-spread among majors and non-thief-labels in the US and everywhere). Oh, and believe me, when I'm making some snide or sarcastic remarks on such topics, it's never about exclusivity... I don't own more than three or four semi-rare LPs, I assume, and I couldn't care less. And I would - of course! - fully endorse the majors doing regular reissues, keeping their back-lists alive etc. etc. You might know that many times I've voiced my disdain of reissues such as the "Verve Originals" (taking a step back from previous reissues by omitting bonus tracks etc.). I'm no friend of the majors, I buy my music where I can find it (often used or on some marketplace sites) and I'm not feeling the least holier-than-thou.

most 50s albums? really? Guess he should be knighted and accepted as a member of légion d'honneur and receive all kinds of medals and decorations for that achievement! The lone saviour of 50s jazz, the noble Duke of Barcelona...

Lee Morgan Blue Note Fifties - parts of CD3 & CD4 (The Cooker)

Oh, holy, holy! Love his music. r.i.p. Terrible days, lately!

I'd love to be able to get single one from this set... any online retailers offering them in their own?

going for all vocals - guess that's one of your planned things... would be too bad if you had to mix up two of them into one!

Would you mind telling it that's indeed Webster on #7? And yes, jeffcrom sounds right! will look it up!

Happy Birthday, Rolf! Hope you're doing fine!

Ah, I see - then it does indeed make sense! I don't see why that turns up here again and I skipped that part, so I didn't get what Colin was referring to...

I don't quite get your point... but I assume you're not talking about me. I buy probably 5CDs a week, some old, some new, some reissues, some (admittedly much fewer, and in most cases several months/years behind schedule) new recordings.

Finally got my copy of the CD today - amazing! Fantastic cover reproduction (as was expected after the wonderful Dixon reissue), and the music is effin' great! Love to finally own all of it on a CD! And as others said: the discussion here is fascinating and definitely helps to really appreciate this particular album the way it ought to be appreciated!

Well, that makes three of us who own this disc but couldn't ID a tune from it! I'm listening to it right now, and I now distinctly remember wanting to put a track from this album on my last BFT, but I could never settle on any one track: I liked them all, but I wasn't familiar enough with any of them to be comfortable putting one on. I mean, it'd be kinda silly for me to not be able to identify tracks on MY OWN BFT!!! Oh, if you smuggled a track from one of my own BFTs in and didn't tell me, that might just as well happen to me

ah well... honestly thought I could drop the names of Hot Lips and George Adams... but I don't know either of them well enough yet... got the Ferguson disc, of course, but haven't played it more than once or twice yet - that has to change!

Some spontaneous babblings typed while listening for the first time - without having done any reading above... #1 - sounds very familiar... reminded me of Woody Herman at moments, the trumpet has dizzy overtones. Very nice baritone, good alto, too... but I think I like the baritone best here! The tune's familiar, too, but hell if I could pin it down. #2 - hum... smooth production, all too smooth for my taste. Professionally arranged and played, but not quite my cup of tea, I'm afraid. The bass sounds quite good, though. The sax players (assuming the tenor in the intro and the soprano later on aren't the same guy), I'd really need to hear them in a less "produced" setting to give any judgment. Does the second tenor spot sound quite some like Joe Henderson or is that just me? Ah, but then he goes wilder and wilder... nice! But still, as a whole, I'm not sure what to say or think. Ah, gotta love the Nino Rota-tag in the end... dearly love his fantastic "8 1/2" march! Wins me over... guess this here's really good - at least my interest is definitely piqued and I'm looking forward to learning more about this cut! #3 - Latin far, blaring 'bones, fine rhythms, flowing piano. Sounds authentically Cuban to my lacking ears... the rhythm feel is definitely there in the piano playing - reminds me quite some of the late Don Rubén González! After the piano solo's over, it gets a bit boring to my ears... but it's a nice groove that could just go on and on - and would surely be great to catch live! #4 - "After You've Gone" - cute, for sure... and swinging! Phrasing sounds heavier than I'd expect from Grappelli, who's name might be the most obvious to drop in this context. Nice guitar and piano, but not quite a favorite, I'm afraid. #5 - Boogie woogie piano - I'm no good in guessing there, but this is nice! And I guess it's not very old, at least not from the days when Albert Ammons and The Lion and Meade Lux Lewis were around? #6 - Now we're back in the days... what's the name of this tune again? Do I hear strings, faintly in the background? Artie Shaw? Hmm... nice tenor, tasty trumpet... sounds almost like a JATP session during the solos, probing, bouncing, forward-looking music. Guess none of the soloists will be too big a surprise, but I can't really pin anything down... would love to pin down at least the tune though! #7 - Starts out like a variation on "Honeysuckle Rose" at the beginning... stomping rhythms, somewhere along the lines where the 52nd street scene crossed over to bop, but not quite yet. Very nice sound on trumpet! Webster-ish tenor at the end, short but sweet. #8 - The tenor sounds vaguely familiar, but I find it really hard to even pin down the era from which this comes! Wonderful track, sublime, I think! Got to listen to this with more attention... could it be a player that was pretty seasoned when this was taped? Sounds very laid-back and at ease, yet poised, committed! Beautiful! #9 - Somewhere in between Miles' tuba band, West Coast and third stream - nice to have an oboe in there... and the huffing and puffing tuba. Interesting, to say the least! Not Boyd Raeburn, I think... Thornill or another band from that era, roughly? Great opening on the trumpet solo and great passage 2:00-2:10! That trumpet solo is easily the highlight here! Tuba sounds a bit awkward in its short solo, rhythmically off... nice idea to have that short round of bit between the trombone and the oboe in the end - the later's cool, though nowhere near to the heights Yusef Lateef reached later on. #10 - Make it funky! Yeah! New Orleans stuff, I guess - love the deep horns, tuba, baritone... very cool! The only of these bands I know a very little bit is the Dirty Dozen Brass band, other than that there's plenty left to explore (ah yeah, once got in touch a bit with a tuba player called Sean Murphy - not from New Orleans, but he had/has his own brass band and he sent me the CD, very cool stuff, too!) (Reminds me of a previous BFT, quite a while ago, which had a great track by NO brass band... got to dig that up and finally order that disc, can't think of it right now, though... anyone knows what I'm talking about? If so, please help my memory!) #11 - Funky we stay... darn, another tune I know but can't name. Got to refresh my memory, it seems. What's that instrument heard first on the theme and then taking the first solo? Blues harp? Nice groove, but not a favorite track. #12 - Change of pace... tenor in a very sparse setting. Bass sounds almost like an electric bass guitar in some spots - not very nicely recorded. But the tenor is cool, takes its time to develop lines and turn out quite a great solo! I like the bouncing groove and the swing coming from deep within the tenor... bet this guy would swing as much if he was playing unaccompanied! Bass solo... well, the sound's really rather ugly, I'm sorry. But I definitely blame the engineer for that and pity the bassist. Nicely understated short drum solo at the end, before the tenor takes it out - cool idea to sort of "manually" fade out. #13 - Can't be bad if the baritone opens it! Nice mixture of swinging NO sounds and boppish elements. Nice solos... ah, more violin? And there's that struttin' beat beneath it, and the baritone... very nice! Sounds a bit impromptu there... will the piano or the 'bone take a solo now? And finally there's the baritone... cool one, lose and swinging. #14 - And here's a rhythmically fine-tuned band. Sounds like they know exactly where they're headed. Boppish head, but of recent origin, I'd say... Lovano maybe? Hmm, kind of hard to pin down... alto has a nice tone, could be someone like Kenny Garrett (though I've not heard any of his music for some time). It all sounds very accomplished, but ultimately fails to really grab my attention as it just kind of goes on and on. It feels too... how to say it? As if they're pressing their purpose a bit too hard. I'm kind of missing the fun here, the moment where they let go and loosen up a bit. (I do like the bass, however!) #15 - Nice groove set up by the bass... and then a tightly arranged ensemble tutti. Catchy! What time signature's this really? Touches of Don Ellis in the second ensemble part, touches of European Renaissance in the first strain... - is that Gianluigi Trovesi with one of his projects (maybe with the WDR big band)? Even though this might be more "purpose driven" and "accomplished" than most other tracks, there's still a looseness to it that I enjoy! And I love how the bass is left alone again and again in between, how it builds in waves. #16 - A moody closer fits the bill very well now! Vibes, interesting score for brass and saxes on a steady beat. Very lyrical trumpet carrying the line. Like how it builds into a torment of sounds, with layer upon layer, still retaining the mood and the groove at the heart of it. Many thanks for this interesting selection! As usual I'm useless when it comes to recognizing musicians, but there are several tracks in here where I'd like to hear more! And now I'm going to read this thread, hoping to find at least a few tune id's for the ones where I miserably failed...

Those Kühn-reissues were culled from various Universal-owned labels, I think - and Impulse is one of them, too... that might be all there is as far as explanations go (but I wouldn't really know - and I can't locate the CD right now).

Because laws changed - just read the interview (or the posts above)! Laws are not man's (small man, that is) best friend.

little trip ahead next week... Monday Nov. 14 - Sex Mob (in Cologne, with Niko! ) Wednesday Nov. 16 - Henry Threadgill (at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam) Friday Nov. 18 - Craig Taborn Trio (again in Cologne) Then there's Bill Frisell's 858 group coming to Zurich Monday Nov. 21 (not sure I'll go but I had a weird dream [not a wet one, mind you] about Jenny Scheinman recently, so...) And at the end of November, there'll be some great stuff at this year's Unerhört festival - planning to catch: Friday Nov. 25 - Christoph Grab, Co Streiff/Russ Johnson/Gerry Hemingway, Lake-Weber-Ulrich feat. Nils Wogram As for Ingrid Laubrock, her Octet will appear in Zurich Dec. 10 and I plan to attend - missed her previous appearances, alas. On Mar. 7, The Nu Band will ply, and on Mar. 22, I'll get to hear chapter 2 of Matana Roberts' "Coin Coin" project, titled "Mississippi Moonchile"... quite exctiting times ahead! Last live concert I saw was George Gruntz' Concert Jazz Band, in a small club, me first row... amazing! The band included Dave Bargeron, Larry Schneider, Gary Smulyan, Luciano Biondini and many others. Was half deaf in the end, but there's nothing like a great big band!