king ubu

The "dance sessions" are indeed great! The best way to get them, as well as lots of other good Basie material, including the great first album with Joe Williams, is by getting the Clef/Verve Mosaic. As for Roulette, I like the Atomic album, too - Lockjaw being the big asset there, to me! If you want to check out a later album of Basie's, I'd recommended "Basie Plays Bond", a pretty cool United Artists album (recently reissued on CD by Blue Note) based on some tunes from early Bond films, including of course the famous 007 theme song. Davis is great on that one as well! The main gap of course is still the Columbia period - some of that will be covered in the new Mosaic set with Prez's Basie sides, some other parts are covered in the Sony 4CD set "America's Band #1" (inlcuding most or all of the 1950/51 octet studio sessions and a full disc of fantastic live material previously to be found on Masters of Jazz discs, which alas are OOP but would be the best way to cover the missing Columbia period... at least the first years, I'm not sure how far they came before the label vanished). So to fill the gap you'd have to get all the Classics plus some Neatworks for the alternative takes. There's also the Definitive route for master takes only, but those boxes are very crappy in all respects, someone kind made burns for me (ripping of the thieves...), but I got most of the music in other form anyway by now.

The "dance sessions" are indeed great! The best way to get them, as well as lots of other good Basie material, including the great first album with Joe Williams, is by getting the Clef/Verve Mosaic. As for Roulette, I like the Atomic album, too - Lockjaw being the big asset there, to me! If you want to check out a later album of Basie's, I'd recommended "Basie Plays Bond", a pretty cool United Artists album (recently reissued on CD by Blue Note) based on some tunes from early Bond films, including of course the famous 007 theme song. Davis is great on that one as well! The main gap of course is still the Columbia period - some of that will be covered in the new Mosaic set with Prez's Basie sides, some other parts are covered in the Sony 4CD set "America's Band #1" (inlcuding most or all of the 1950/51 octet studio sessions and a full disc of fantastic live material previously to be found on Masters of Jazz discs, which alas are OOP but would be the best way to cover the missing Columbia period... at least the first years, I'm not sure how far they came before the label vanished). So to fill the gap you'd have to get all the Classics plus some Neatworks for the alternative takes. There's also the Definitive route for master takes only, but those boxes are very crappy in all respects, someone kind made burns for me (ripping of the thieves...), but I got most of the music in other form anyway by now.

How about Martin Speake? I picked up his ECM disc (with Bobo Stenson - one of those cases where the music upon its issue is five years old already, why do they do this?) and thought it was pretty good!

I don't know whether this one is recent enough to have escaped your notice, but I like the Domino Quartet's Radio 3 Sessions a great deal. This is the group with trombonist Gianluca Petrella, bassist Antonio Borghini, drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist/flutist Sean Bergin. That sounds interesting! There seem to be some relations between Italian and South African jazz musicians, too... Moholo I think recently did concerts with Italians in his band...

Oh, man I want to get a definitive edition of Big Band & Quartet! Why can't they just finish their great run of Monk reissues and do that one, finally? (And the Nelson one, too - I've never even heard it and being a big Monk fan I'd definitely buy a new reissue, while I'm not sure I want to look for the old one...)

hah, the Jordan Transcriptions I also ordered!

yes, and the concern I expressed was also just for the position of the people involved... I guess MC earns more from his work for big labels than from running Mosaic, so... as for the Braxton Arista, I'd be all for it!

Oh, and I have Continental Vol. 2, and that one is stellar! Here's hope Vols. 1 & 3 are similarly good!

I sent in an order, too - but I forgot to enter my email to my account info, so I just hope the order will actually ship... it included the Wax and the two Continental discs, the Edwards/McGhee, the Jubilee Jams (I have the Prez portions), the Griffin/Taylor, and one or two more I can't remember (sent it in yesterday, so... and got no confirmation mailed... as I didn't enter my email...)

ok ok, so I peed on Williams then... I have the Select, but it's still on the pile of unheard discs... The Johnny Smith then might be with Paul Quinichette... I'm unaware of other sessions he did with horns (and don't have any, except for the Getz ones in the Roost box of Getz', will get the Mosaic once it's running low...) Oh, and I'm a tiny bit proud I could pin down Wes M. - as I said, guitar players aren't my forte... But then Blue Mitchell is tough again... fooled me! I have that Mosaic, but to be honest so far I always liked the quintet dates best (plus the opening album with Leo Wright and Joe Henderson). Will have to check out the last two albums again soon! Oh, and just for the record: I love Paul Desmond, both on the few Brubeck albums I've got, as well as on all of the RCA albums! And then the "First Prize" one (on Warner CD), the albums with Mulligan, Jim Hall's "Concierto, and the A&M duo album with Brubeck (Universal LPR), but other than that... I never checked out his later/more commercial stuff so far

a more varied programme, and hence me didn't like some tracks that much, but others very... here you go: #1 He he, Eddie who - lovely stuff, got this of course! Too bad most of the jazz listeners are so dreadfully serious as to not take Eddie for full and give him at least part of the recognition he deserved. #2 Hm, nice... what's this? I've got trouble pinning down the time frame for this one. Trumpet is nice, lyrical, not a big sound, but good ideas. "Blue Moon", or a close take of it. Tenor has heard some Coltrane (piano post-Tyner?), that whole ostinato thing going on is pure Coltrane, roughly 1960, I'd say, Atlantic era, before it started getting all too wild... the arrangements aren't that great here, but there's something to this performance I like. Might well be something I have, in the end... is this a Tyner date? Can't be Woody Shaw? Have to repeat to hear the trumpet again! Good one, but not something I'd just put on in the background... trumpet is good! #3 Hmmm, rather nice, isn't it? An elderly chap, I assume... can't pin him down, but I like him, and I assume I should know him... oh wait, is this Chet? Very touching performance! #4 "Mean to Me" - sweet, ain't it? I wonder what it would sound without a mute? More Little Jazz-ish? Guitar has a nice sparse sound. Like it that there's no piano, very uncluttered, minimalist accompaniment. Lovely! #5 More brazilian touches... I like the trumpet solo but the whole thing is too much in the comfort zone again... #6 Oh well, I guess you can guess my take on this... not that #5 or this one are bad or something, just not stuff I'd actually listen to... #7 not much more to say... than I said for #6, sorry. #8 Flowery, but somehow I like this one! Nice support from the rhythm section, too. I'm not that great in identifying guitar players... the sound's too lush for Farlow, I think, Johnny Smith maybe? But then I've only got very few of his recordings... hm, repeating this one! Ah hell, sure, this is from one of the Roost sessions Smith did with Stan Getz (the little sax backing line just after the solo gave it away for me). #9 Cute, don't like the sound, however... it's a bit cold, the drums sound dead. Some Milesian moments in the trumpet, and some Hancock-voicings behind... the drummer takes it much too easy, alas, and his sound has no body (might not be his fault...). #10 Hm, what's that tune again? A Wes Montgomery one, no? Like this. Ugly bass sound, though... #11 Hodges again, and lovely as always! Is this from "Back to Back" with Duke and Sweets? Time to dig that one up again! Would be Les Spann on guitar then, and Jo Jones... great one! #12 No guesses here, but I like this! #13 Ha, funny programming here... Fred Wesley would be the first association, but then this might also be one of Ray Anderson's projects? No, not Anderson. Not bad. #14 Hm, another change of pace... a touch of Corea's original Return to Forever (plus vibes, that is). Nice one... Booby? #15 So then, a mellow closer... very nice opening, film music-like. Another nice track to end this compilation Thanks a lot, Big Al! I enjoyed the ride quite some! (more so disc 1 though, to be honest!)

well yes, he's got a maximally rated Coltrane Sutherland set... the ones I've heard all left a lot to be desired, sonically, including the latest upgrade... also there's the usual crappy annotation - a grab & run dimer, I assume... might be smarter for this fellow to stick around there, rather than pee in this pond...

As far as I understand the Bley/Swallow enterprise is Watt/XtraWatt and they have a distribution deal with ECM, but it's not actually ECM. Also I wouldn't blame ECM in this case, as that lack of variation in mood (also a lack of change in volume, sort of a sameness in the recording levels or whatever it is) is to be found on most of the recent discs I have, like "Songs with Legs" (which is by the trio that with the addition of Drummond turned into The Lost Chords), "The Lost Chords", and Swallow's "Deconstructed" and "Always Put Your Uniform on Top". I don't mean to put down these albums, I kind of like them all, but there's something that may have just as much (or more) to do with the technical stuff than the actual music that does bother me about them. The new album with Fresu I've only heard on the radio, from live shows.

Release planned for March (I won't buy it for a while... it's hard keeping up with the running low items already...)

effing crap, just lost a long post, can't re-type it all - in short: recommended: one final note review bagatellen review (the kenny wheeler there is great, too - even has a cameo by Derek Bailey!) Joe Harriot: not "new" (as in the topic's title) but I'm a big fan - look for his two ReDial discs "Abstract" and "Free Form" - great great stuff! John Butcher: freaking mad! might be THE most impressive sax player around, total control, extremely nuanced playing... Tony Kofi: alas never had a chance to see him live, but I think I have the Rivers London show somewhere... I assume though that Kofi wasn't heavily featured in that context? And yes indeed, he's filled in with the WSQ and I think some concert tapes are circulating, too.

Yeah, but the period of 1933-1939 is not covered at all by the RCA box and as I found, there's some fantastic stuff from those years (mostly for Columbia/ARC labels Brunswick and Vocalion). I managed to find several of the Classics covering those years, but some of them are very OOP... they'd amount to 14 discs, to cover the gap, whilst much of the material on these 14 discs is obviously part of the Mosaic, cover the small group dates from 1936-1940 (the years from late 1932-1936 are about four discs, the rest of 1936-1939 is ten!)

I like the Xanadu disc, but I wouldn't pay that much, either... Finally got the shipping notification for The Thumper, Triple Threat and On the Trail!

I'll have to dig this one up... didn't hit me quite that, but then it's been a while and I haven't played it often yet...

easy one, just phonetically, but without english accent (latin accent wouldn't be all that wrong... Italian or Spanish even better...) sorry, but that's not an easy one to transcribe... I thought about it for a while now... and no, T-ay-t-ay is wrong, it's just Tete, no double vowels, and the T is short/voiceless, not hard/accented. Mon is as in monastery or monster, only with actually the other "o" (as in "saw", I think), not the one going towards "a", but the "pure" one. Same for the second "o" (or similar), the "l" is heard, and "iu" is like "you", but the stress is on the end, on the "u". Really difficult, sorry! Maybe someone can do better!

Anybody know if there's still a Blue Note? I wished them luck in a mail regarding a proposition for a Mosaic Select, and in his recent (well probably two weeks by now) reply, MC said they didn't know anything about their future yet... I guess it takes a while to evaluate things and decide how to milk that cow...

Oh, wow, don't have this one yet... will need it! Wasn't aware Morgan ever did such a tune, sounded very much like Silver to me (at least not only to me)

So then, the rest of disc one: #11 Sounds like some Horace Silver stuff (Psychedelic Sally comes to mind, if I don't mix that up with something else. The sax solos aren't doing that much for me, tenor is run of the mill, but alto had some good moments (escpecially the entry!), trumpet is nice, almost muted. Not sure if this actually is Silver, I couldn't tell, as my exposure to his music ends in in the mid to late 60s, while after that I don't have lots of his music. Ah, there's the piano solo... yup, should be him! Not bad at all, the jumping bass is nice (though I usually enjoy double bass more in such settings, it's just earthier and has alltogether nicer sound). So this kind of boils down to a sextet performance (Bennie Maupin on tenor? Or is that the Breckers and Randy forgot to take his compressor with him? ) with some horns during the theme... not bad. #12 Ah, now we're talking! Great! Silver was a master at that kind of stuff! This is likely hellish to play, very difficult... try tapping your foot! And yet it's striking... reductionism. And of course it grooves like hell! Trumpet is very nice, not overdoing it (while I do like some of the more shining trumpet players now and then - Brownie, Booker Little, Woody Shaw, sometimes also Freddie Hubbard - it seems we share a general like for this kind of rather restrained and lyrical trumpet players!)... hmmmm, the piano solo makes me wonder if this indeed Silver... or he just thought to do a reductionist solo for once, too? Is this the Cook/Mitchell unit? #13 Woaw! Love this tenor sound! Freddie Green again? Lockjaw? Basie? Some Basie jam? Or a later (70s) JATP thing? I need to check out more JATP anyway... Who's that first tenor? Then Roy Eldridge on trumpet, I assume, Hawk on tenor. Then Ben, rather sad to hear him so weak... still, the sound is there, and that descending vibrato thing at the end... lovely. Some glimpses of the Count and off we go (rather annoying drummer, btw... not heavy enough and not sounding good). #14 Hm, Milt Jackson with some of the older chaps? What's that tune? Reminds me of "On a Clear Day". Don't like this kind of bossa thing much, it's fake, no? And too serious to be funny "stoopid music". (Well, I guess you'll disagree here, or you wouldn't have chosen this track...) #15 More of them doorbells, infectuous! More good mainstream (that's what #14 is, don't get me wrong... I just don't think the bossa thing is very deeply in there, rather just an icing on the cake added on top of the whole performance). Trombone is what I like best here - probably some older chaps again here? Not Al Grey, by chance? #16 Nice, a piano trio to wrap up the party... Bill Evans, I assume?

Yeah, you're right... I got to play "Time of the Barracudas" again soon! Escapes me why everyone thought this was such a failure... I assume it's got to do with times and general assumptions... the period on concept albums (or just somehow planned and executed, concepted, albums) was over, the music went into searching mode...

Lon & Chuck, thanks for your replies regarding the RCA live and rare set - I guess I'll take a pass then... a rough guess would be I'm somewhere closer to having a third than to having half as much Ducal discs that Chuck thinks I ought to before jumping for that one... There are definitely more important periods I still need to get more of, such as the DETS and the other Transcriptions - that's all great music, I assume, and compared to that, this RCA box may indeed just be some kind of weird footnote...

haven't read anything here yet, but this one I find pretty good, stumbled over it in a sale... http://www.tonykofi.com/ Here's a short review from The Guardian: