king ubu

That's great news! (To me, LP would have been even better, I guess!)

You bet! I can fully endorse that. The sun is shining and The Band is playing (Long Black Veil as I'm typing - here's a link, but clicking it may infringe copy rights!)

thanks for the tip re Sunburst , found a copy , it's a really good session. Mine's still on its way... guess it will arrive while I'm on vacation next week. Does sound exciting, for sure!

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/06/edgar-varèse-and-the-jazzmen-mp3s.html fascinating stuff!

FWIW, when they bought the Sanctuary Music Group, the jazz reissues of the ASV label completely disappeared. F So these might depend on previous reissues by labels such as ASV? But those were never complete, to my understanding... I only have a single disc and not a very convincing one. Guess we just need to wait for the boxes to appear!

I know, that's what puzzles me about these! Don't think Universal would co-operate with any such outfit as Proper, though (not even distribution-wise).

Yes, PD - but still... if a major does this, is one to expect decent sound/versions/remasterings? Would Universal get access to the best sources of RCA's Bechet catalogue? It's well-known that Universal has stepped in a European distributor for Concord ever since they took over the whole Fantasy catalogue.... and honestly, they're not doing too bad a job, bringing back many OJCCDs (with different catalogue numbers, but other than that identical). I'd only wish for a better website with more complete listings than what you can find on jazzecho.de!

In cases like this I buy the box, sell the older duplicates and both make some money back and free up some space. Par for the course for long-time jazz collectors! I've never wanted to get into all that hassle with selling stuff... some discs have scratches, some digipacks don't look like new. Too much work there, I think!

That's of course true - but there's no blaming the European labels for that (again: of course!) But as the majors don't give sh*t, it seems they're being sold widely in the US.

Is there any way to know which tracks on these Singles sets are mono and which are stereo? I don't see any general remarks anywhere in the booklets! The earlier Polydor compilations (many of them based mainly on singles, too) have alyways included that information... (I'm asking as I've been sorting out JB stuff for a few days now, ripping and ordering chronologically all Singles volumes... now I want to add the missing/extended/stereo/mono version from other compilations, but that's kind of hard if I don't know about stereo/mono regarding the Hip-O-sets!) Btw, Vol. 11 is coming soon - and it's the final volume of the great series.

Yes, just read it... but it does leave a few open questions, at least to me. 1) Why are so many Fresh Sound records of such so-so quality when they have these reel-to-reels, what are those anyway? 2) Would paying licensing fees allow Fresh Sound to negotiate about using masters? 3) Why does Fresh Sound so often put forth compilations of stuff that just a few months ago was readily available? Doesn't gain them sympathy points from me! 4) Why does Fresh Sound so often combine a wide-spread album with a rarer one? If they're really catering the serious collector, it would be nice to stop that crap and change the concept a bit! The main point, though, as BBS says, is the reluctancy of the majors, to do anything... but I'd still wish for better quality reissues! Just recently got the EMI Japan Joe Puma disc and it beats the crappy Fresh Sound disc by many a mile!

Happy Birthday! :party:

Happy Birthday, Jeff! :party:

I've been playing bits of the Wes set in the past days. Sounds fine to me (though I've yet to compare with "Impressions" and the VMEs I have). The reproduction of the covers is wonderful, the liners seem to fairly short and on the point. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that there's no real discography. You have to piece together the line-ups from the original covers and get the release info at the end. Also, in some cases the bonustracks are with the albums and in others (I assume for lack of time) they're at the end of disc 5, paired with the four Half Note overdub tracks. None of this is a big issue, but it just makes this a step away from the perfect Wes Verve collection (but what's worst is of course what Mike Weil has mentioned above... hard to find out though, as Hip-O NEVER, EVER [why the hell!?] give track timings on their sets). Anyway, I guess the Creed Taylor set remains my favorite for the time being - presentation there is absolutely wonderful (and the Ray Charles and Kai Winding albums good enough new/recent discoveries to make it of interest... the Charles is fantastic, and honestly I'm not 100% sure I'll listen to the three jazz albums on the other 2CD reissue of it all that often).

I'll want to see some tracklistings first...

Would be cool but I doubt it as most of the albums reissued on twofers so far aren't in the box. There's no news on jazzecho.de, the site where Universal Germany shares some (but never all, alas) info on their jazz releases and reissues. (edited for multi-post... love that new feature! a message about "this is a duplicate post" would make more sense!)

Savoy for me! That 5LP box (with great liners, too, btw!) was the first major chunk of Parker I heard (I was probably 16 oder 17 when I got it). Some of the most amazing music... and speaking of drama, you get "Ko-Ko"!

Okay, okay... so the Scott's not half as bad as I'd expect, then there's the Gibbs, the Rivers, the Albam, the Klemmer... will see. Stitt it's silly that you'll have to buy a 50 (!) CD set to get these!

Has this been reissued on CD? Never head this though I have a dvd of a live gig of the band which is ok but I've always fancied the studio album. No idea - I recently found the LP!

Yes! The whole discography is pretty messy, with some sessions from unknown dates etc. And the early Rearward releases (Calypso Blues, Sahib Shihab and All Those Cats, Griff'n'Bags) didn't exactly help... nor did their decision to change to actual albums and re-duplicate things again!

ok, so there are four albums of interest in there... I'll pay 50$ then

If the price for this is cheaper than for a Japanese "Into the Hot", I might care... else this is a very silly compilation. Some uninteresting stuff (who the hell is Jef Neve?!), some rarities (how's the Albam? the Gibbs? the Sims seems not be that great... the Manne is, got the LP, would love to get "Into the Hot" and "Streams" on their own! Also the Szabo). The rest has been around up and down and again... or has little interest (tell me if I'm wrong on the Klemmer and the Tom Scott and the Brecker). Just send me the Gil Evans and Sam Rivers and I'll shut up!

He's had a few albums released by Art of Life Records including one of him playing live at Appleby Jazz, I see! Gordon Beck on Art of Life Records I can definitely recommend "Experiments with Pops" & "Gyroscope". Seems I've been to that site before... the "Jazz Trio" with Humair and Mathewson looks tempting, too!

Anyone knows anything about this series? Seems to be official (from Universal) but seems to also include - if the titles are correct - tracks from the vault of the other major labels. New development there? Charlie Parker - The Complete Masters 1941-1954 (13CD) Should be the Savoy, Dial and Verve material, plus some early sides? Great entry point for anyone new to Bird's music, I'm sure! Sidney Bechet - The Complete American Masters 1931-1953 (14CD) This one has me puzzled... the major chunk of Bechet's music from those years was on RCA, some on Blue Note (EMI), some on Columbia (see the Mosaic Select). Why would Universal do this box... anyway, it does look tempting, even though I have the BN Mosaic and the Select on the way right now! Louis Armstrong - Complete Masters 1925-45 (14CD) pre-order price here is much higher... either way, this one's not really needed, but again, to those new to the music, it might be great! Billie Holiday - Complete Masters 1933-59 (15CD) Guess this would include the Columbia, Commodore, Decca, and Verve Masters... Ella Fitzgerald - Complete Masters 1935-55 (14CD, Decca) Probably all her Deccas...

Heard it yesterday, gave "No Tears... No Goodbyes" two spins, and will give it at least one more spin tonight. Wonderful disc. Don't know that much with Beck, and as leader albums go, the only one I have is that Bill Evans tribute (on MPS) - also gave it a spin today, it's pretty good!