skeith

Evan, If he's playing I would highly recommend seeing Ernie Krivda. He's a marvelous local tenor player who can really surprise you. the Boarding House in University Circle has some great local guys and Nighttown on Cedar Hill hass both local and national acts. Check it out. As for cds, Record Exchange used to be so good, but is dropping in selection over the years. Not sure there's a great place to buy jazz.

Bol, I think you did the right thing. The box is about one third alternates and other material that I found I rarely turned to. It's a bit of overkill and also the packaging and particularly the booklet for the box I found to be disappointing. With your 4 cds you have got what you need, I think.

Joe Henderson - The State of the Tenor Volumes 1 & 2.

I agree with you Clifton. That's why I started a similar thread a couple of weeks ago. I see you are having the same luck I had. And I thought it was just me.....

It's one of my all time favorites. This one should be a revelation to those who think Joe is strictly a "licks" player. The sound is not bad, but I would love an RVG of this one.

One of my all time favorite albums. Great tunes, great players and great playing. It's a monster.

This is one of the greatest records of the 90's and one of my favorite tribute records. No attempt to ape the playing on the original records and the instrumentation is quite different- just drums, sax, electric guitar and bass. Brilliant playing by Motian, Lovano, Frissell, and Marc Johnson. Can't say enough about this great record. Just reissued on winter & winter from the old JMT label and the sound is now 24 bit and a bit more sharp at that!

Well, you have put a lot of restrictions in your post Hutch head. The best single Cd on lester young is, in my opinion, the Ken Burns Jazz series - it's a compilation but great picks and the sound is excellent, to my ears. my favorite Lester Young is with Count Basie 1936-40, but this necessarily involves multi-disc sets either the Decca Box or the Hep labels volumes 1 and 2. Next favorite is the Aladdin Years, but that is a two disc set - great stuff.

I am more in the camp of JSangrey, DR J, and others who are fans of Joe Henderson. He actually seems to me to be less of a licks player than a lot of other guys out there (and I note that if you compare his solos on the same tunes from different recording they are often quite different) And as for being a "mike" player, I managed to see Joe about a dozen times and in small clubs (such as Fat Tuesday's in Manhattan), he often turned away from the mike or else seemed to be completely unconcerned about whether the bell of the horn was on the mike and he filled up the room at all times. I can't get into a big analysis of why I think he's so great, others are more intelligent and articulate, but I can't get with the devaluation of the man.

Please, take the strings and/or sappy choirlike vocals off of: Bird with Strings Clifford Brown with Strings Ben Webster's - Music for Loving Ray Charles's - Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music (especially the Marty Paich arrangements!!!) If these are already available "naked" please let me know. I'm sure you have your own list

An interesting story about Horace's business acumen. Like Sangrey I have heard Horace is a good businessman. However, the only time I saw him live was in the mid 90's at Fat Tuesday's in Manhattan. It was before he got that recent contract with Verve or Impulse of whoever it is. After finishing an excellent set, he pulled out a ratty cardboard box from under the piano and proceeded to attempt to sell these cds from his own label to members of the audience. This actually brought me to tears!

I got interested in my middle to late teens and my first jazz album was "The Inner Mounting Flame" by the Mahavishnu Orchestra which I got right when it was released and this led me to Miles and Trane etc. and within about a year I was getting a lot of the nonfusion classic jazz stuff. I think that my prior interest in rock groups that used a lot of improvisation(Cream, etc.) and my interest in the blues prepared my way for liking jazz.

No one has mentioned Bird with Strings???? And for the record, despite some great solos, I hardly ever play it.

I owned the LPR and compared it to the 3 cd set. The sound might be a tad better in terms of fidelity, but I find that the LPR has an echo or reverb that I found very annoying so I sold it. I agree with Chuck that Nick Stabulus's playing is quite good. I even once did a blindfold test on a jazz knowlegeable friend and he couldn't tell Elvin from Nick. Of course Elvin is not playing like he does with Trane.

I agree with Dave James on this one. I picked it up and am loving it. Somewhere I read that this set won't replace the Fillmore set as the greatest live rock concert ever recorded, but this set is definitely not inferior. ABB fans will love it. One thing though, the liner notes say that Johnny Winter guest stars on one track (Mountain Jam- second day) but I can't discern that he took any solos.

SEK, does The Mountain contain the complete EKAYA album?

Thanks for the list Mikeweil, but no it wasn't on the list.

My favorite is called "Ekaya" - I wish it were out on Cd!

DRJ I guess everyone's equipment and ears are of course different. I am liking this FSS Conn a bit more than on first listen. I don't hear the air in the sax that you mention, but more and more I am liking the Conn. I still think Tony is down in the mix more than I would like and that the treble is a bit rolled off. Nevertheless, I might agree that it sounds better. By the way, my copy goes haywire in the last minute of track 10, seems a manufacturing defect so I will be returning mine for what I hope is a copy that works. I suggest everyone check theirs.

To those who say the new Conn of Fuchsia Swing Song sounds better than the Mosaic version, I have a few comments. I just got the Conn and immediately compared it to the Mosaic. The first track I played - Beatrice, obviously. I noticed that the tape hiss is gone on the Conn, but also it seems to me that Tony Williams is down in the mix (I hate that) and that maybe the treble was a bit rolled off-leaving less "air" in the mix. But in other ways, maybe it sounds better. I am still not sure what I think at this point.

Just got it and on first listen, I like it. It features Joe Lovano and Gonzalo Rubalcaba as other soloists. AfricaBrass might be interested in one of the tunes. Anyone else have it?

Just got this one and I like it better than Grass Roots or Lift Every Voice, but not as much as those first five Blue Notes, it is just not as adventurous in the writing and the soloists aren't quite up to that level. But hey, overall, I am enjoying it!

Jeez Lon, The only reason to come to NYC is to visit the Armstrong house? You are making us New Yorkers feel bad about our hometown. what about a visit to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx where you could drop a flower on the graves of Duke, Miles, Hawk, Bags and others? You could visit Bird's apartment. And yes, there are even some living, breathing musicians in NYC that are worth seeing!!!!!!!!!! And you can always check out your organissimo buddies.

One reason to actually buy the Times as opposed to just reading Dan's links are all the great color photographs that accompany the article.

Some of Gato's finest playing and compositions are on Under Fire, which is to me actually better than Bolivia (which is the lead album under this cd), which is also good. This is before Gato went commercial with Herb Alpert on A&M, and if that's all the Gato you have ever heard, this will be a revelation. the sound is quite good (24 bit) and superior to the european jewel box version.