Harold_Z

There are a LOT (unfortunately) of mistaken people, who THINK they like music, but really only dig one thing (and probably for the wrong reasons). For some of them, finesse, polish, slick are negative words - for me it's a positive. Taken to it's logical conclusion, this would make John Lee Hooker a better guitarist than Wes Montgomery. It's ludicrous.

WORD ! I really love hearing guys like Ory - the pioneers of Jazz - in good sound. The early records are great, but it adds another dimension to them to hear the participants in recordings without the limitiations of earlier records - you get a more realistic sense of their sound and you can bring that to the earlier records. They come alive. The Django also sounds great -the best I've heard that material sound. Mosaic sound on vintage material as been outstanding. This set and the first JSP Django and you've got it going on.

I have most of the Verve stuff above on vinyl and I like them. They swing like mad - the charts are good, the rhythm section always has the goods, etc etc. The only problem with them is that by this time in Jimmy's career, there is a certain sameness to his solo's, i.e. his blowing on Mojo is not that different from High Heel Sneakers, from Walk On The Wild Side, from Hobo Flats. Those are all 12 bar blues and the groove is similar from tune to tune...It could be due to production values superimposed by Verve, or it could be Jimmy in a rut with this material. That being said, they are very good records, and the obvious solution is to listen to them in small doses.

That's it for Ernie? I'm surprised - I thought more people were digging him. If you haven'thecked him out - do so. The man can play. Yes, GOM, he was with Quartet West - and aquitted himself well.

Ernie Watts is a gas !

About the closest thing for a listing of what's currently available can be found on the web site for Worlds records.

....and Jimmy Rushing's THE SMITH GIRLS COL CL 1605. As far as I know this has never been reissued.

Yeah...and it's a gas. For some reason (I can't remember why) I knew CM was involved with JB somehow. Reading this rant somehow didn't come as a complete surprise. As usual...the music biz sux. Soul On Top: It's a gas. I missed this the first time around (maybe I thought it would be jive for some reason back when it first came out - WRONG) and I have a pretty sizeable JB collection and have been buying JB since the early 60s. I grabbed the reissue. The Jim Sangrey Blindfold test hipped me to the THAT'S MY DESIRE track and led me to the BALLADS cd. More good stuff. I've always dug JB doing PRISONER OF LOVE. I have it on 45. A couple of other related cds I've grabbed recently are the JAMES BROWN'S FUNKY PEOPLE things. So far I have Volumes 1 and 3. OH YEAH !!!!!! SMOKIN', BURNIN', GROOVIN' and any other good thing you want to say about these.

YES ! I have the first two and they're terrific.

I've been going to the same guy for about 30 years. He's kind of become a friend. He owns the shop and for years I didn't tip. The guys ahead of me ALL started tipping him....under my breath I'm swearing and calling them jerkoffs - but eventually I was shamed into it. AHHHH ....he's a good guy...he puts out a couple bottles of booze at Christmas and we can help ourselves. He likes a little taste now and then so the past few years the bottles have been out until mid-July. I'm going tomorrow and they may still be there. It's Saturday morning then...a little hair of the dog. He charges $13.00 and I've been giving him $15.00. He got me a gig once with another of his customers who was a musician. (BTW I used to run into Lou Mecca at this shop regularly. We would catch up with each other). He probably makes more at this shop than I do (cash business) - I know he drives a nicer car. He's getting old and has bad sciatica and is having trouble standing up. He takes breaks because his legs hurt and the waiting time is getting to be a drag. About 2 haircuts ago I went to another barber because he was so crowded everytime I attempted to get a haircut. When I came in the shop it was like a Seinfeld routine...." HEYYY...where were you...you went to another barber????".

I agree. That's what I was attempting to convey in my post when I said "singer, entertainer, actor, etc., but cinematic conveys the concept in a much clearer concise way. I think that's a big part of Sinatra's oeuvre.

Good question, Jim. I don't really think there is an absolute answer, but the real WOWS seem to come about on the ballads when the delivery, chops, and soul come into play. You sit back and say YEAAHH....the cat had it all together! .....and then you listen to "Come Fly With Me" (the album). It's swingin' like an MF for the most part and then he hits APRIL IN PARIS - starts it on the bridge- and it's WOWWW again. I think he was into the contrast - he KNEW the effect of the change up. (Apparently he knew a hell of a lot ! He knew who the best arrangers were. How to get the best contractors or musicians. State of the art recording at that time. The Capitol shit is CADILLAC all the way!! Too much so to be an accident.) The corn factor seemed to creep in later -moreso on the Reprise material than the Capitol - but that's natural considering the passage of time, advancing age, etc - . He was a giant, but he wasn't infallible. Sinatra's a special case. He's a singer, an entertainer, an actor, an icon. He's larger than life in many ways - espescially to us North Jersey guys who grew up with him as a soundtrack to our lives. I mean he was THERE all the time. Radio, Jukebox, TV and family time on the Victrola (intentional use of an antiquated term). We were innundated with him - and for awhile I was sick of him - but not for long. I'd be working a gig and during the break "Skin" or "Time After Time" or some other great tune would come on the Jukebox and I'd be drawn in...and if the band happened to be the type of group where we would play that stuff, I realized that the tunes were great. The changes were great. It was GOOD MUSIC and I was playing and swinging and having a blast.

Of late I've had the same experience as Kevin on several occasions. I think Django's has become a loose confededration for many used cd outlets. I know I see the same bar code label on every disc I order from them and ALSO at the local CD WORLD and CD WAREHOUSE. If a cd sells in a store and the inventory isn't updated quickly - you get the email that the item is not available. I'll continue ordering from them if the price is right, but it sucks when they don't come through.

I dig Sinatra's records. All I can add to the ESSENTIAL list is "Come Dance With Me" and "A Swinging Affair". The Capitol stuff is probably a great place to begin. Frank is at his peak - the arrangements, recording, band are all outstanding and consistently so. That having been said - the Capitol stuff is not the ONLY stuff and the Reprise things mentioned are excellent also. I've just begun to explore the Columbia material. I started with a disc called "Frank Sinatra Sings his Greatest Hits". Many of the songs were later done for Capitol and the comparison is interesting. Columbia emphasised "the crooner" aspect over "the swinger", but two of the tunes in this cd, "I've Got A Crush On You" and "Body And Soul" contain absolutely GREAT Bobby Hackett solos. I heard "Crush" on the radio recently, recognized Bobby, and decided to seek out the recording. It was well worth it. A pretty good BOOK about Sinatra is "Sinatra ! The Song Is You" by Will Friedwald. It's about the music, not the sensationalist aspects played up and distorted by some "journalists".

Sorry to see "The Thin Man" go. When I was a kid one of the Newark or maybe NYC disc jockeys used to use HARD TIMES as a theme. I heard it countless times and always enjoyed it.

Circular breathing is only the first step. Circular HEAVY breathing is where it's really at.

The only way to avoid it is to not put off putting in the right jewel case. What seems like a shortcut at the time turns into a major time consuming pain in the ass. I have a related problem - I try to keep things in some kind of order, but I have run short of shelves and have been stacking cds on the floor and in shoeboxes. Sometimes I have a pretty hard time finding something I want.

Wasn't there a song by Kim Carnes about Sammy's eye ?

I also like to walk and listen thru headphones. I get A LOT of listening done that way.

I'm not shillin' for EBAY, but I know some of you guys will be interested, espescially if it doesn't go sky high. CONDON SET

Great show. I liked almost all of the talent presented - and YES ! Tammy Pescatelli was very appealing to the eyes. A theory: I think the deal made beforehand was that all of the ten finalists would be kept before the camera as much as possible - that win or lose, you would get as much exposure as possible. When all is said and done I think Alonzo Bodden has provided the most laughs for me.

It's a good set. Lon described it really well. Small group Swing and Dixie and it's interchangeable. I think it's revealing that jazz went through it's New Orleans/Chicago period into the Swing deal and that the 40's Dixieland/Nicksieland (which led to the 50s NYC Dixie scene) incorporated the Swing deal as much as the earlier New Orleans/Chi deal. In other words 40s NYC Dixie was as much a 40s thing as BeBop, in so far as it couldn't have happened any earlier than it did.

Who do I almost always instantly recognize? These guys: Armstrong, Bechet, Monk, Wild Bill, Hodges, Bud Freeman, Albert Nicholas, Pee Wee, Ayler, Trane, B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Bird, Ben Webster, Max Kaminsky, Bobby Hackett, Jack Teagarden, King Curtis, Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Jack McDuff, Larry Young, Eldridge.... on and on. A tenor player friend of mine used to refer to guys like this as "rugged individualists.

Bertrand, going by memory, I'd say that came out around 1966 or so.

Yes - same tune. That's one of JB's Jazz records. I like it - It's for real in that the players are involved with what they're playing - they are NOT mailing it in. Its not about the strongest chops or most involved changes. JB plays "enough" organ to get across his groove. Back in the 60s many R&B or show bands played a lot of this type of material to open shows or as "warm up" numbers for the band. A lot of musicians who did not get the oppoortunity to play jazz full time were able to get there jollies in this way. Besides all that - the band grooves.