BruceH

Yeah, we vegged out and watched Wizard of Oz, Gunga Din, and Only Angels Have Wings last night. I'd never seen Gunga Din before, but have to agree with my wife that Only Angels was the best of the three, (sentimental feelings about The Wizard of Oz aside). TCM pointed out something interesting: versatile character actor Thomas Mitchell (who played "the Kid" in Angels, and the forgetful uncle in It's A Wonderful Life) was in several other significant films in 1939, namely The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Gone With the Wind, and Stagecoach. Not bad!

Another vote for Mary's viewpoint. I couldn't vote for any of these. Now if there was one that said, "Important composer who deserves his proper due," then I'd vote for THAT.

You said it! With the earlier Guiffre Atlantic/Capitol Mosaic now OOP for some time I don't see why they would be shy about doing a complete Guiffre Verve, aside from the usual legal/copyright issues, of course.

I believe you're right, couw, and I've got to agree with that logic. Why kill more trees if you can already read the back just fine?

Good choice!! About time we had an Ellington AOW.

Just heard this today. Soul Stream, if you get it, you won't be sorry. It's got me thinking that a complete Giuffre Verve set would be nice.

Just got The Easy Way last night---no insert in mine. Damn good album, though.

Chris! I heard your Fresh Air interview today in the early afternoon---very good interview. Congrats on the new edition of your book. I taped the interview off the air, so I will no doubt be listening to it in my car over and over again in the coming weeks. (Perhaps it's the American in me, but many things sound better in a car.)

My Mulligan-Hodges had no insert. (Don't think it really needed one though.) Sounds like they're slapping those inserts in at random on the new batch.

And here I am without a color printer! Damn! I'm with you, JSngry. A coffee-table book of Julie London covers would be the ideal gift. Of course, I wouldn't ask my wife to get it for me...

I call this the "button" spindle and have just noticed it on some of the new Verve digipaks. I much prefer the semi-flexible tines on the traditional spindle because you can always press in on them to get the thing to let go of a tightly-held CD. You can't do a thing with the "button." Of course, the tines sometimes crack and fall out, but nothing's perfect. I personally haven't had any trouble with the button spindles on the digipaks so far, but with my luck...

Favorite performance: Holiday, with Cary Grant. R.I.P.

That's funny....I was expecting something on the level of Ozu, Renoir, or Tati at their best.

I once saw Max Roach perform live, in Cambridge MA. He was superb, but now that I think about it, this was about 1990 or maybe even '89. Time eventually catches up with us all. But being arguably the top drummer in jazz for roughly 45 years or more, well, there are worse things to look back on.

YES! I do the same thing, though at medium or low volume (neighbors). This is just a fantastic album, one that almost restores your faith in contemporary jazz. Many good artists are coming out with new releases lately, it seems: Solal, Cyrus Chestnut, Crenshaw, Fountains of Wayne, Steely Dan... A nice coincidence, if a bit tough on the wallet.

This album, despite its brevity, is very good music, well worth the money. In fact, if it weren't a digipak and had a decent cover, I'd call it a no-brainer. At least Verver stopped using those stupid cardboard slipcases that the CD's get stuck in! This has great sound, too. (Gatefolds, mini-albums, digipaks.....sometime Verve is going to come full circle back to regular jewel cases.)

I've found that if a CD is in too tight, one thing you can do is reach over with your thumb and (gently) depress the inner spindle (the tines that hold the CD in by its center hole) while simultaneously pulling the CD up by its edges with your other hand. Once in a while the tines might crack or fall out (which means you're in trouble) but only if they were already damaged in the first place. Generally this works like a charm for me.

My thoughts exactly! Love that picture!

Truth to tell, I bought this album yesterday without listening to it yet. I'm a little behind in the listening lately. But this was a re-issue I'd been waiting for. And White Lightning's rewiew has kicked it to the top of the line-up!

By the way, doesn't anyone here like Don Byas?

Lists like this were just made to piss people off.

Yeah, I hope everything's all right with him.

My rule of thumb is, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is just that. There's got to be a catch here somewhere.

That's one terrific wife you've got Chuck! I recently found a near-mint (looks like it's never been played) copy of "The Guitarists," about the only issue of the Time/Life Masters of Jazz series that I didn't have, for only $5.95. I almost bought a more beat-up copy of the same thing at a different store a few months ago for $35!! All I can say is, once in a while things work out.

This would be a very nice one! Never heard any of these records! And how about a complete set of the Hardman/McLean/Griffin Messengers. They recorded for Bethlehem, RCA, Savoy and some other labels. I think they generally were a little bit better than usually thought. Griffin does some bad solos on the Bethlehem album, for instance. ubu Both of these are good ideas. They get my vote.