king ubu

Happy birthday to the Prez! One of the greatest of the all!

I rate the Prestige dates very very highly. Only because they did such a bad deal (what was that, can't remember for sure - Keepnews "bought" him for 103 something $$?), that does not mean the music is not up to what Monk was doing in those years. I agree with John L on both the trio sides and the date with Miles and Bags - essential! (I also agree on the Columbias, by the way.) It seems to me that many, far too many people consider Monk's BN and Riverside output to be far ahead of what he put on disc for Prestige and Columbia. I have to disagree with that, by all accounts. ubu

Sounds interesting, for sure! Have read the Shelton book when I was 15 or something, a long time ago. ubu

Bought this used today - great stuff! And very nice to hear Benny Powell in such company! ubu

arcana major is da shit! ubu

My presence on the board lately is quite rare, as most of my spare time goes into the Count Basie website some of us are doing... some listening, of late: What a fantastic disc! HELLYEAH! This is some of the best no-nonsense jazz I hear, lately! Disc one is quite good, I think. Billy Hart makes a difference, and Harrell has some good moments. Disc two is more conventional, but good, as well. As Lovano is quoted in the liners: the group with Miller, McBride and Hart is about "swinging", mainly. Elegant mainstream, while disc one has a more open feel, that I do prefer. Lovano, though, is at home in both settings, for sure. Another fantastic one! Howard Johnson, James Newton... great band playing. Haven't heard much of Blythe's music, and none of his releases as a leader, so far, but I definitely need to check out more. I remember having read somewhere he was a rather erratic player? Quite good and interesting big band. Among the members are Manfred Schoof, E.-L. Petrowsky, Larry Schneider, Howard Johnson, Chris Hunter, Marvin Stamm, co-founder Franco Ambrosetti... If you find Gruntz' "MPS Years" compilation (one of those Motor Music late Nineties MPS-reissues), GET it! He has made some great records with the Concert Jazz Band. Founders were Gruntz, Flavio & Franco Ambrosetti (they're father and son), Daniel Humair, and a few others. Gruntz has led this band for decades now, and still gets top players from all over, though mainly it seems from NYC. Schoof is a big asset, though, on this one. Then I got some nice ones from D.D., but haven't listened to the discs more than once, and thus won't post any comments yet. Suffice to say: I did like what I heard, so far. ubu

Happy birthday to this great artist! I was extremely impressed when Footprintslive came out! A very very daring concept of music, mastered with great results. Will spin Alegría again. Just got it, and was a bit underwhelmed, but then I think it's not one that jumps at you from the beginning. ubu

Guess it's time again to change my signature...

O du, Geliebte meiner siebenundzwanzig Sinne, ich liebe dir! - Du deiner dich dir, ich dir, du mir. - Wir? Das gehört (beiläufig) nicht hierher. Wer bist du, ungezähltes Frauenzimmer? Du bist - - bist du? - Die Leute sagen, du wärest, - laß sie sagen, sie wissen nicht, wie der Kirchturm steht. Du trägst den Hut auf deinen Füßen und wanderst auf die Hände, auf den Händen wanderst du. Hallo, deine roten Kleider, in weiße Falten zersägt. Rot liebe ich Anna Blume, rot liebe ich dir! - Du deiner dich dir, ich dir, du mir. - Wir? Das gehört (beiläufig) in die kalte Glut. Rote Blume, rote Anna Blume, sie sagen die Leute? Preisfrage: 1. Anna Blume hat ein Vogel. 2. Anna Blume ist rot. 3. Welche Farbe hat der Vogel? Blau ist die Farbe deines gelben Haares. Rot ist das Girren deines grünen Vogels. Du schlichtes Mädchen im Alltagskleid, du liebes grünes Tier, ich liebe dir! - Du deiner dich dir, ich dir, du mir, - Wir? Das gehört (beiläufig) in die Glutenkiste. Anna Blume! Anna, a-n-n-a, ich träufle deinen Namen. Dein Name tropft wie weiches Rindertalg. Weißt du es Anna, weißt du es schon? Man kann dich auch von hinten lesen, und du, du Herrlichste von allen, du bist von hinten wie von vorne: "a - n - n - a". Rindertag träufelt streicheln über meinen Rücken. Anna Blume, du tropfes Tier, ich liebe dir! ********************* Love him! There was an exhibition recently in Basel, on Schwitters, as well as one on Schwitters and Jean/Hans Arp. Great stuff! (I have the hatART release, not this one, mine's not read by the man himself) ubu

Jim you're perfectly right about Geri! Also on Soloff you made a good point. Ernie Royal, yes, guess Snooky Young (post-Basie) would also fit in there. ubu

I love Dinah Washington. Invested in the complete Mercury CD boxes. And it was worth it. Not sure about those Roulette sessions! I got a couple of the LPs, listened to them and never got back to them. Not that they were bad but they did not compare with the Mercury stuff. I only have the CD with the Benny Carter-arranged dates from her Roulette output (well, and only two Mercurys...), but I think that one's quite good! ubu

Those previously unissued Holman dates will be to your likings! What a great musician!

A Sony ad for their ATRAC3 format? Didn't seem so, no, was in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine" and to me it seemed well-informed and serious, but then I am not at all an expert... It was sort of a comparison of the available formats allowing digitalization of music. ubu

I never really misplace CDs, except for Moncur's "Some Other Stuff" (or what's it called again?) - I haven't found that in more than a year... Things can get chaotic, but usually I know exactly where I have what discs. But they always got back into the jewel case right after listening. ubu

Hey Chuck, this is a great read! I'm sure you'll succeed doing that Wells thing, too! Take it easy!

I use minidisc for recording from radio, too. It seems that the compression is not as much as it is with MP3s, thus sound quality seems to be better (I read an article in a German newspaper on this topic, recently, and they said minidisc was still the best among "walkies" and portable sound devices - obviously they didn't include CD/CDRs). Editing is extremely easy with MD-players, you can set marks during recording, or after - like an old floppy you can "save" the disc, then you can't delete it accidentally, can't move tracks etc. I have many LPs on MD as well, and if I don't really sit down and listen, I often just put in the MD-copy. I only have a small player (have had three, all Sony, the first two gave up, each after maybe two or three years of heaviest use), but you can of course always connect such a "walkie" with a hifi-set. ubu

Strange. Seems that site doesn't work anymore, or at least not at the moment. Sorry, I didn't check the link before posting it, and it's been quite some time since I did download that concert. Again, sorry! ubu

available for free download here. edit: sorry, that link does not work anymore! ubu

I agree on the Adderley, but then I always thought it was a very strange-sounding disc, no? Can't explain it, and it's been a while since I heard it, but I didn't really like it, soundwise. ubu

"The Limey" "Il Gattopardo" (film and book, or rather: book and film) Nino Rota's scores. "8 1/2" "La dolce vita" Thomas Mann's "Doktor Faustus"

booze... Single Malts (see the respective thread for some more elaborate comments) beer (same) red wine

The first album of Portishead. Björk. "Blue Lester" (from the Savoy date with Basie) My tenor sax.

Joseph Losey "Accident," "The Servant," and many more... Dirk Bogarde. "Modesty Blaise" (again, Monica Vitti...)

"Zelig"

My girlfriend, my parents, my sister. "A Love Supreme" & "Crescent" The smell of a forest after the rain. Sun rays shining through trees in a forest. Mingus, Monk, Trane, Miles, Dolphy, Ayler, Duke, Prez, Basie. Abdullah Ibrahim. A sky full of stars at night. Fresh air. Rush hour, watching people, slendering around aimlessly. Luis Buñuel. Jean-Luc Godard. Michelangelo Antonioni. Federico Fellini. Howard Hawks. John Ford. Billy Wilder. Joseph Mankiewicz. Sergej Eisenstein. Boris Barnet. Martin Scorsese. John Cassavetes. Stanley Kubrick. Jean Renoir. Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, Lauren Bacall, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Sterling Hayden, Michel Piccoli, Emmanuelle Béart, Jeanne Moreau, Charlotte Rampling, Catherine Deneuve. Monica Vitti. "A bout de souffle," "Le mépris," "La notte," "L'eclisse," "L'année dernière à Marienbad," "Staschje," "Mean Streets." Cézanne, Picasso, Paul Klee. Klimt, Schiele. Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rilke. Hölderlin? Jarry, Ball, Arp, Hausmann, Huelsenbeck, Schwitters, Man Ray, Duchamp. Sun.