Larry Kart

It's pronounced "Sook," you dick.

Me, too, but it's much harder for me to find classical works at Half-Price that are new to me, while in the jazz realm performers (and therefore their "works") that are new to me are far more common. I'm not interested in, say, another Beethoven Violin Concerto recording unless the soloist is someone I find intriguing like Josef Suk (to mention one CD that I went for recently and was delighted by). For classical stuff that's new to me, looks interesting, and often enough is, I usually go to Berkshire Record Outlet. Do you know that on-line place? It's quite something. Huge stock of cutouts, good prices, and lots of labels you won't usually find otherwise. Shipping isn't Amazon swift, but everything does get there. One label that Berkshire stocks a lot of and that I've come to find valuable is the German label MDG. Among other things, MDG CDs are in the top class in terms of sound.

My local Half-Price book store periodically gets a number of indie label or self-produced jazz releases, most of them by players I've never heard of, and prices them at $2 each. If I'm in the mood, and I usually am, I look through what's arrived and buy a fair amount, hoping to find something that's really good (sometimes I do) but also thinking that this amounts to a random oblique cross section of what going on at ... well, not necessarily at the grass roots but at levels and places I might not normally visit or even be aware of. Further, it fairly often happens that some of what turns out to be not very good IMO also is fairly odd, as in, why would anyone think to do that? or are these guys just plain inept but in somewhat novel ways? To encounter and process such "messages" can be interesting. Today's batch has yielded one possible gem, an album, "Dreams," by Danish vocalist Sinne Eeg, and another "Unfiltered Universe" by Pakistani guitarist-composer Rez Abbasi, with Rudresh M. and Vijay Iyer as sidemen and Dan Weiss on drums. Can't say I cared much for Abbasi as a player at first listen, but it's some of the best Rudresh I've heard. Everything else in the batch was boring and not even semi-redeemingly strange. You can return things at Half-Price, but at $2 an album that feels creepy to me. Instead, I just donate the rejects to a library sale.

Anyone know this Danish singer? So far (the album "Dreams") I'm impressed. Nice band too : Larry Koonse, Jacob Christofferson (piano) Scott Colley, Joey Baron. This track is from somewhere else, don't know who's with her here.

About two-thirds of the way through now -- just mind-boggling, unlike anything I've heard before, even from Roscoe. How the music was produced is complicated, and Stuart Boomer explains this at length in his excellent notes, so I won't try to squeeze down what he said into a few sentences, other than to say that it involves previously recorded improvisations by Roscoe, Craig Taborn, and drummer Kikanju Baku that were then transcribed and orchestrated (mostly by Roscoe) for a large ensemble of winds, brass, and percussion. The music itself is complex too but also perfectly clear -- as I said a while ago to Chuck, it's like a giant puzzle solving itself. And my subjective emotional impression is that it's joyful. If there are prizes to be won that are worth winning, "Ride the Wind" should win them.

Just beginning to listen, and I find to my surprise and delight that so far Art is playing (albeit with a few "expressionistic" gestures and at greater lengtrh) with much of the compact phrasing and shapeliness of his mid- to-late '50s work. No signs yet of any strain to incorporate Trane.

Amazon lists it but says it's unavailable. I found mine at a library sale. Given its origin, I'm afraid that only a small number might have been manufactured.

Altschul, Joe Fonda, Jon Irabagon. Concert in Krakow in 2016, vividly recorded. First time Irabagon has sounded convincing to me, and I've heard him several times in person and on record. Altschul is in excellent form.

targeted at those 85 or older offers to pay one's sure to be onerous burial expenses. Can't be cancelled as long as you pay your premiums, and -- there's no medical exam! That's a relief.

Maybe the best Hank Jones I know in a trio setting, The presence of Richard Davis and Elvin (on brushes throughout and taking a number of solos) certainly helps, but I get the feeling that Hank is in charge. His recasting of "Satin Doll" is worth the price of admission.

Lovely so far, rather like Marais. Simone Eckert is a fine player of the Diskant-Viola da Gamba, not that there are many of them.

That second movement!

Excellent cover.

I'm happy to say I gave a very positive review to Tim's first album (see below) in the '80s, when he was still based in Cincinnati playing with the Blue Wisp Big Band. I've liked most everything I've heard from him since.

Obscure (that means I'd never heard or heard of it) but lovely and quite individual music, gorgeously played, especially by clarinetist Friederike Roth.

I very much admire Zacharias' complete Mozart Piano concerto set; so far his complete sonatas are top-drawer too.

Yup -- pretty crazy. Martin Williams once wrote (but then, this was Martin) that, other things being equal and genius a given, the unacknowledged key to how Bird sounded on any night was how high he was, on what substance and nature/quality of that substance he was high, and where in the course of his high he was. I've always thought Tommy Turk sounded like he was playing an un-musical saw. Yeah, Shelly is right there. It also sounds to me like he's really enjoying it all. I'll go back and listen again to Hank.

IMO this is the Ring you should go for: Dynamic conducting, a better cast that Furt's, great price, decent mono sound. Only drawback is that there's no libretto. I'd suggest that you buy Andrew Porter's translation in paperback. Shop around for the best price (e.g $27 for the whole thing): I believe most versions of these perfrmances are sonically similar. The Pristine Audio re-mastering i(see review at the bottom) is supposed to be a substantial upgrade, but I assume it's fairly pricey. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/16/arts/worthy-versions-of-the-ring-a-critical-selection-clemens-krauss.html http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Apr10/wagner_ring_paco039-41.htm

I believe the implication of "friendly" here is relaxed, casual, off-the-cuff, compared to some other Christy recordings.

Try these latter-day Jordan recordings -- two takes of the same tune with Art Farmer, and as a sideman with Eddie Bert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SOS2rgRsBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_52nSCtlVow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsLwAlyoSSA

Sam's solo on this track from "Mostly Flute" is far from "thuddy" IMO: Most also is bushy-tailed on this Sam Noto Xanadu album: https://www.discogs.com/Sam-Noto-Noto-Riety/release/4038769

"... I remember a lot of thuddy phrasing going on, and a Most/Duke Jordan combination would fit that bill." Can't imagine why you would think that a Most/Duke Jordan combination would be less than excellent. And I can't think of a pairing between Jordan and ANYBODY that was the least bit "thuddy." Duke was one of the great accompanists. Looking through Most's albums on Amazon, I don't see a live date. Oops, I stand corrected: "Sam recorded 2 albums in 2012; “A Time for Love” with Bob Alcivar and the live album “Indian Summer” with the Rein de Graaff Trio." Never heard either one. You can find tracks from"Indian Summer" on YouTube. The bit I just heard sounded rather "thuddy."

Though I knew of Strazzeri, I think that was the first of his albums as a leader that I picked up.

Raney is on this one: http://csgoshow.com/musics/619869-sam-most-the-amazing-mr-sam-most-1957-2014-bethlehem-album-collection-1000.html Haven't listened to it yet.

My impression isn't that they're sent into a minor frenzy at the hint of a honk from Flip but that they anticipate they'll momentarily have a chance/excuse to get full-scale frenzied in the prescribed JATP audience manner, but in this case the chance/excuse doesn't come.