king ubu

Just edited my post above to make it a bit clearer - italics are unissued tunes, others have record # in bold now.

Nate, those tunes where there's an "unissued" next to them are not on the Mosaic, either, as far as I understand - for the others, the "Record [no.]" is given, and a "-" means "same as preceding tune", I assume, as usual.

Flurin, The CD-set is on Warner Bros., not Atlantic (see my post above). Sorry, my bad... I was thinking along bigger lines... TimeWarner - why don't they all merge, anyway?

Ouch! I was just finishing "This is Criss" when I posted... fine one! Now I did want to give for Chris Connor, however! Just playing this one again: Some nice things, but some rather corny tunes, too... not essential, and not all that greasy, either... at least on the first half, which is how far I've played it yet... second half is tunes by Newman (2) and Newman-McDuff (1), so it should get a bit more bite there. As for Chris Connor again: here first Atlantic album is terrific, and most of her mid-fifties albums are great. I have her Bethlehem recordings and some of these early Atlantics and enjoy them all. She's one of those rather thin-voiced, cool song-specialists... if you happen to enjoy June Christy or Peggy Lee, go for it. The missis will like it, too...

I have that Atlantic box, too. Here's the Mosaic discography (don't have the Atlantic box here to compare): I think the Atlantic spreads the sets out of sequence, no? Just going from memory... I guess the Mosaic has them in chronological order... don't have the tracklist of the discs, above is all I've saved.

Ah, I see... some pretty nice ones included, most of them I have as part of some box sets, but here are some favourites: - Kirk: Inflated Tear (essential!) - Mingus at Antibes (very good one) - Mingus: Tonight at Noon - Ray Charles: Genius After Hours, The Great Ray Charles (and all others...) - all Cotranes, of course... (some/most of them are in the US series, however...) - Mingus: Pithecanthropus Erectus (essential!) - all Ornettes (again some/most are in the US series, too) - Herbie Mann: At the Village Gate (still a great one, despite all the crap he did and the bad rep he got...) - Jimmy Scott: The Source (terrific!) - Mann/Evans: Nirvana (a nice footnote in the Evans discography) - Sonny Criss: Criss Craft Some of these could be the US versions, no? I am not sure if I ever saw Lateef's "Detroit" of MJQ's "Porgy & Bess" and a few others as digipacks. Also - if the jpgs are reliable - some others may be the US ones, too (Coltrane Jazz and Coltrane's Sound definitely exist in such editions, for instance). Anyway, for someone who doesn't own the Coltrane, Mingus and Ornette Atlantic boxes, there's plenty of nice stuff here! tjobbe, that's the Sphere I have, too, the other one I still miss.

those i have seen are (possibly german) digipacks... no piano keys That's the "Atlantic Masters" (or "Warner Masters" or "Elektra Masters"), then, I guess (the German series). As I said, they're ok, and with many fine albums, they're the only way to go, as the US series (jewel case series with piano keys) does not include that many albums (yet? hopefully!). Some fine Atlantics I have as digipacks are Roland Kirk/Al Hibbler "A Meeting of Times", one of the two Sphere albums (both are fine, it seems, but I never saw the other one), Carmen McRae's "Great American Songbook", and for those inclined to like some grease, there's "Double Barrelled Soul" by Brother Jack McDuff and David "Fathead" Newman. Oh, and Eddie Harris' "Instant Death" is a great stoopid little thingie... but those EH albums are covered better on Collectables (and on some old Rhino twofers, prob. all OOP now, alas). The two Max Roach discs, "Members Don't Git Weary" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing" are fine, too, but likely rather inessential - there's lots of better Roach around.

Which atlantics would that be, tjobbe? The only *really* good ones are those in jewel cases with clear trays and piano keys on the spine (prolonged over the inside of the traycard. I have several others, both from the swiss (? those with Claude Nobs' little note an never no recording dates given) and german digipacks - they're ok, but I only pick those up when I see them on sale...

David, my post was not at all directed at you, just to make sure! The fact that you started this thread already opposes a general lack of interest for vocals. It were some of the later reactions that I didn't enjoy that much... Thanks for FFA and Sangrey for turning in interesting points here! I don't know Jefferson besides some Moody sideman things, so I can't really say a lot, but the lyrics of Hendricks, as Mike has pointed out, are eternally hip, in most cases I know. As for LHR: I enjoy their "Sing a Song of Basie" album very, very much (it's been reissued as VME some years back) - Annie Ross doing the high trumpets is giving me chills again and again, just plain astonishing... and "Fiesta in Blue" is soooo nice!

Hm, somehow I find the general negativity and lack of interest towards vocal jazz rather astonishing... I am not someone who listens to vocal jazz of whatever kind (songs, scat, vocalese) all the time, but it's part of the whole thing we call jazz... and hey, the old ones knew you couldn't play a standard without knowing it's clichéd words about love and joy and sadness (and death?)... Sheila Jordan's Monk album (with Clifford Jordan), reissued in Bluebird's First Edition digipack series with several bonus tracks, is another prime example. I think she only has words for the themes, though, and they're not her own, I assume (don't have it at hand). Then of course she does wonders on her Blue Note album, mainly with these Oscar Brown Jr. lyrics, twisting them around for her daughter etc - beautiful! That disc, with Swallow, Galbraith and Denzil Best, is one of the greatest modern jazz vocal discs I know. And Oscar Brown Jr. is the next name, then... his "Sin and Soul" (Sony/Legacy) is another favourite - feel-good music of high quality, with some tunes being classics, notably "Work Song" and "Dat Dere" (which is the one Sheila adapted), and "Signifyin' Monkey" is such a fune tune... I love that disc! Again, his words are for tunes, not solos, so...

Larry, I don't know Robertson as a leader, just from several sidemen albums, live recordings, and one concert (Barry Guy's New Orchestra) - a rather impressive technician, but as far as I am aware of his playing, sort of a role-cast player, too (high, strong, loud...) Some others: Jean-Luc Cappozzo (with Louis Sclavis' great quintet - 2002 ECM album "L'affrontement des pretendants") Stéphane Belmondo (he and his sax-playing brother Lionel did a terrific album with Yusef Lateef, "Influence", released on their own label this year - check it out!) Massimo Greco (with Gianluigi Trovesi Ottetto)

The "Live at Pep's" are terrific! Great band, featuring unsung Richard Williams on trumpet. I don't think these live albums are comparable to the other Impulse albums - I only have "Golden Flute" and "Psychicemotus" - both are very good, but rather different from the live session, which is rawer, more intense, sometimes maybe ragged... As for the Savoys: the early ones I think are even better than the sessions on the "Last Savoy" package. I know the Mood one and "Jazz for Thinkers", both are terrific! The Verve album you mention is great as well! Mostly tenor there, for a change. He certainly is a great tenor sax player, but then I think all together he's *much* more than just that. He was a true pioneer, some of his 50s albums already have a vibe that was to turn into "world music" (whatever that means), exploring musical styles and heritages beyond jazz limits and always turning up great albums in the end... "Eastern Sounds" is a case in point - there's so much more to that than to most other albums of the same time (1961, I think, in this case). This kind of "all-encompassing" thinking is what impresses me most with him, kind of a "universal" musicianship. Maybe it's just this what led him to do all those weird-looking (I haven't heard any, thus "looking") albums he released on his own label in the 70s and 80s? Is there any of those that are recommended? I have heard most of the two tenor albums (and I own the one with Vonski), but nothing else from YAL.

To continue the Atlantic discussion from above: I only have "Blue YL", "YL's Detroit" and "Part of the Search". I enjoy the former two a lot! "Part of the Search" is a rag-bag, some of it is alright, though... but the 32jazz edition I have (pairing it with the 3-side Rahsaan) doesn't even give line-ups for the individual tracks, very carppy. I wouldn't take the Blue and Detroit albums apart, I enjoy them a lot just as they come. I would enjoy hearing more straight ahead Lateef of those years, though... the few quartet cuts indicate he still had a lot going on!

Bringing this one back up. Have heard a fantastic live show of Lateef & Belmondo (on radion only, alas...) and found that even more impressive, with Lateef still playing powerfully, honestly, directly... great that he's still in such astonishing shape! Mark, I dare ask: do you have a few nice photos to share here?

And here's a page with a few names and infos mentioned, not updated for 3 years, though... http://ralf.org/~colomon/vocalese/vocalese.html And if I think about it, there's a disc I got from CDbaby some time ago that has a wonderful take on Ornette's "Peace". There are a few other marvellous things on that disc, and the band includes Matana Roberts on alto, Ed Schuller on bass, and Avishai Cohen on trumpet. Here's her website. Her second disc is out on Tzadik but I haven't heard anything from or about it, seems like a somewhat logical place for her, though, judging from the non-jazz influences discernable on her first disc (which is a "jazz" album, for sure, whatever that means...) Samples on CDbaby, as usual - including "Peace". ON THE EDIT: I realize this is not "bop vocalese" at all, but LHR aren't exactly, either... still, if you're interested, this might be nice to hear, David. She did write her own lyrics onto "Peace", so it's "vocalese" for sure...

dussygoof have it:

Can't say I'm an expert but I picked up Babs Gonzalez' Blue Note disc from Lon quite some time ago and I like that one a lot - you probably have it... Then there's this weird disc on english Spotlite, I found it in a sale last year: Then I think I once had some Spotlite (?) LP from a friend's dad that included some cuts with Dave Lambert and someone else (another male vocalist, that is), maybe featured with Red Rodney? Can't recall for sure... You don't like LHR, or am I understanding you wrong? If you see it, get "Newport '63" - it's with Yolande Bavan instead of Annie Ross, and the band features Clark Terry and Coleman Hawkins... a very nice disc, if you ask me! (I have it as old, jewel-case, french RCA disc, not sure if there are any US and/or later editions.)

A great musician! Saw him twice, first in a "classical" concert (playing C-trumpet), then later with Dhafer Yousef - fantastic concert (with Dieter Ilg on bass and the great Jojo Mayer on drums).

a few that haven't been mentioned yet, I think: Paolo Fresu Franco Ambrosetti Matthieu Michel Thomas Gansch Axel Dörner Dusko Goykovich Herb Robertson Pino! PINO MINAFRA!!! (megaphone included...) I'm sure there's plenty more...

Very sad news. I remember him from 2003 when I was still on AAJ as well.

Arrrghhhh - I have this - this bassist should be the first to come to mind when one plays some funky bass with Ray Brown's tone! Have that one, too...

That's one of the funnier episodes of that great book, but I don't take too many things in it too serious... that doesn't make it any less impressive a work, of course!

And I thought that was Joe Maini's you got

New Horse? VDMK for president? Maybe Brötz could be secretary of defense, then...

Well, now I hadn't read your next post before writing mine... I didn't think it was directed at me - rather a general (and valid) observation.