king ubu

Strange thing about Dizzy, somehow... I have plenty of discs and still... not many really live up, for me, even though all of them are at least good or very good, including all the material with the Moody/Barron and teh Wright/Schifrin bands (mostly mentioned already). The meeting with Eldridge is indeed good fun. Also the date(s?) with Benny Carter (all of whom's Verve stuff is collected on "3,4,5", "Cosmopolite" and "Urbane" - would have made a great little box set, too!) are fine. Then there's the late 40s big band (RCA, the Pleyel concert that was part of the Original Vogue Masters series, there's a US concert too, but that one I don't have), the small groups, the earlier stuff with Bird (where always Bird is much more interesting to me, Bird the genius, Dizzy the great companion, sort of). The early 50s stuff isn't all that great, though the small groups on the "Cognac Blues" Jazz in Paris disc are pretty nice (there's some more similar stuff on another Original Vogue Masters disc). Anyway, I have all the Bird stuff, the Dizzy Odyssey 3CD set, the RCA 2CD set (some of that is great, but dull sound), the three Vogue discs (third is from 1952 or 53, mentioned above, I don't like it that much), plus the two Jazz in Paris (second one is a w/strings date, both of them have been compiled on a nice-looking 2CD by Universal France - amazon.fr via big-o link). All of this has some nice stuff, but none really is up on the level of, say, the Bud BN/Verve material, or the Bird Savoy/Dial stuff... Then all the james - favourite is probably "Duets" (old Verve CD, not part of the Master Edition), but the others have their moments, too. "Sittin' In" (LPR) is a good one, and the date on the "Norman Granz Jam Sessions" box w/Dizzy is great, too. Never liked the Diz/Getz and Diz/Getz/Stitt that much, "Sonny Side Up" is better, I think. THe 1957 big band: great, GREAT band, with Melba Liston, Al Grey, Billy Mitchell, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Lee Morgan, and Charlie Persip showing how great a big band drummer he was - the 2CD set from Verve is nice, but again doesn't live up for me, the live set on Jazz Unlimited is much better, longer tunes, more room to breathe for the soloists (there's a second companion disc to that, don't have it, both are boots - fire away, I know JU is associated with a cherished label, but looks pretty booty to me, still... been there...) (I just only got hold of a copy of the Newport '57 set, so I can't comment on that one, but I'm looking forward to hearing it - and the presence of Mary Lou Williams on two bonus cuts was an unexpected surprise!) Then "Have Trumpet, Will Exite" (Verve Master Edition) is a rather unlikely one, with no other horn but that Spann chap on guitar (and maybe - second horn - on flute on a couple of tunes, don't remember). Not bad, either. Then on to the Leo Wrigth/Lalo Schifrin band - "Gillspiana", "Carnegie Hall" (a twofer on Verve from the 90s when they still did it right), pretty nice. Also a live date from Paris in that series (likely at least 3 editions of that around, cheapest on that LaserLight label, I assume, pairing it with a set of the James Moody/Kenny Barron band). After that maybe came his greatest working band, with Kenny Barron and the great James Moody (who can be heard on a couple of earlier dates already). Most of their albums have also been mentioned already, teh twofer with the soundtracks is indeed pretty good, the live one from Paris may be my favourite, though. And for kicks, shrdlu has mentioned it already, there's always the fun one on Limelight - some great latin stuff on that, and it's indeed good enough not to be just stoopid fun! (It's a Verve by Request - no idea about availability). Then there's the great "Perceptions" - quite a departure from usual fare, a suite composed/arranged for Dizzy the star soloist by J.J. Johnson. This one came out as part of the great "Verve Elite Edition", was one of the more difficult ones for me to find, but definitely worth looking for! A great set of big band music with indeed a stellar soloist! After all that, I'm not that Dizzy savvy anymore - "The Giant" (Griff is just on one tune, btw) came out in the Jazz in Paris series and is alright indeed, then there's the Impulse one that magniloquent Goldberg loves that much. Another fine one recently came out in that euro Universal cheapo series, the Berlin 1968 big band set ("Live in Berlin", orig. on MPS, this recent series seems to be called "Jazz Club"), again a stellar band, but there's far too little music and far too few occasions for all the great musicians to step in front and play a solo. As for Dizzy with the Clarke-Boland Big Band, I'll definitely have to get that DVD (having Lou Levy shall be fine, too!) some day. All I've heard of Diz w/CBBB is some live cuts here and there (boots, or rather R.O.I.O.'s as they're seem to be called nowadays). Anyway, lunch break is over now. Summing up a few favourites: - the two Dizzy dates w/Bird (part of the 8CD Savoy/Dial Bird box) & the Uptown Bird/Dizzy CD - the Pleyel set of the late 40s be bop big band (John Brown - who was he, where went he?) - Perceptions - the Jazz Unlimited live set of the 1957 big band - the Paris concert of the Moody/Barron quintet - the session with Stuff Smith (part of the Smith Mosaic, also released on a great Verve 2CD set Smith/Gillepie/Oscar Peterson)

thanks to niko here's my own first version of the Rivers as a jpg:

Hm, have any BN sets actually timed out or do they have some kind of special agreement there, since they're closely related via MC? I ask seriously, I never so far got any BN (except the Byrd/Adams) in the last minute, had all the other long before they went OOP.

wow, this one's terrific John!

ha! both fine ones! now how about a BN cover for the great Barney JiP disc?

I had to redo the thing so it's slightly different looks great, thanks!

can you pull my word thing into a jpg and post it again? don't know how to do that, in fact since my computer got set up anew, I don't have any but the stoopid Microsoft software to work with images...

I was unable to do it differently (how to convert the whole word-text-box thingie with 3 textboxes into one jpg), but it's slightly more elaborate than my previous attempt...

Obviously, but I don't think Mosaic is going to tell you that. Well, I never tried asking, but I guess that's the kind of business information one doesn't pass along... but then don't we have a chance to take guesses from looking at earlier boxes and their timing out? Obviously BN sets rarely if ever do so, but maybe there's a difference in Universal ones (the Max right now) and Sony ones (the Bailey) that would allow to draw conclusions? Or are these deals done anew for each box set?

Why? Timing out is so and so many years after a set got on the market - all one would have to know is for how long they have a license for what set.Seems to me of late most sets were timing out long before their actually planned edition had been printed!

seems I was wrong (blame the messy threads so far on the board, I did do an Org-search and some reading before posting here) JSP also has a live box out: How does it compare to the Definitive? I assume it has better sound? What about the contents?

bumping this old one back up - question regarding the live material: There's no comprehensive live collection of Christian, besides the 4CD set Definitive put out? All live material I have so far is this one here:

bumping this up again - has anyone sorted things out between JSP boxes and Mosaic/Jazz in Paris releases? I have all of the later (JiP and Mosaic), so I assume I'd only need the Rome JSP and have all or most of what's on the first two JSPs?

The Django I've had for a while - word is that the JSP boxes sound a lot better, but I never started buying JSPs so far, all Django I have is the Mosaic, the Jazz in Paris discs (7 or 8 of them, a few nicely complementing the Mosaic and containing music that's at least as great), as well as the Definitive hackjob 4CD set collecting all he did with American musicians.

and backcover:

I asked about the Hodges when I ordered the Roach and got as an answer that it "should be around until the end of the year"... but I see that one as a likely candidate, I think it came out around the same time as the Roach.

seems so, the whole JC tour is listed in the itinerary on King's website... he's been the drummer of the JC organ trio for several years, it seems.

Thanks for your report, Reinier - I think I'll make my mind up depending on the mood a few hours before the concert...

I'm enjoying the fact that I finally got a shipping confirmation for my Roach set - phew! The Berigan still hasn't arrived, so I'm looking forward a lot to both of these! During the wait, I'll try and make my way all through the Mildred Bailey, a great one, in my opinion!

Hah, great ones John! How about some ECM-Booger?

modest attempt... had to do this with them cheapo paint things, thus no variation on fonts etc...

He's playing here with the organ trio on Thursday - should I check him out? I've never been too much of a fan, but then I can imagine him being a pretty good live act... (I found the "Baker's Keyboard Lounge" guests parade a very boring disc...) On the plus side: I don't think I *ever* actually saw an all hammond concert (seen concerts where keyboarders changed between grand piano, organ, rhoder, wurlitzer, etc, but never just a band with organ...)

Thanks for providing the info - looks interesting, what with Don Sleet!

Happy Birthday!