John Tapscott

Fade-outs.

Thanks for the b'day greetings, everyone! It was a busy day with not much time for music but I did get a chance to watch another DVD in my recently acquired Jazz Icons 5 series. Today - the Johnny Griffin, very enjoyable.

I don't care what Miles said, or even our dear Chuck, for that matter. That was a very fine band, often excellent. The only thing I will say is that the track Feather chose for the blindfold test was rather strange and not totally representative. Remember that it was a Garnet Brown chart and honestly, it wasn't among the band's finest moments. Certainly I wouldn't include it on a a "Best of Thad Jones/Mel Lewis" compilation.

Happy Birthday, Marcello!!

All true, except that I believe "Balanced Scales = Justice" was by Tom McIntosh. Brookmeyer's chart on 'Presenting' is his original "ABC Blues" , a real tour de force and one of my all time favorite big band charts and performances.

Paul Desmond

"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" - MJQ Mosaic set, Disc 2 Track 2

Rock - quite possibly. But "and roll"? Doubtful ... (Yes I know you were just quoting what the website said ) Don't know what the Horse Flies are exactly but certainly not "rock and roll" in the actual sense of the word, judging by their Youtube clips ... "Progressive Bluegrass", maybe? Cowpunk? Dunno ... But certainly fun. Good to see, though, Dick Hyman is still so very active. Whatever it is, Dick should be able to handle it quite nicely.

Happy Birthday, Ken!!!

Gee, I feel like a fool on a couple of these which I should have gotten - esp. the Rogers, the Pomeroy and the Moore. I have the latter two recordings; man, that tells me I have way too much!

Very fine jazz trombonist. RIP.

Our Man in Paris

I have Vizutti on this Direct-to-Disc LP from 1978. Cost me $20 at the time (ouch!) Allen plays a virtuoso solo on his own composition, Fire Dance, which is the the 1st track on the LP. Guess they figured they'd get the tough one out of the way first.(Those d to d Lp's must have been brutal to record). Anyway, Allen plays wonderfully on it. BTW, in one of the Herman bios, it's told that Herman wanted to get rid of Vizutti soon after he joined the Herd. Seems Woody wanted a strong player in the lead chair rather than a virtuoso soloist. But the other trumpet players recognized how great Allen was and begged Woody to keep him on, even adjusting their playing a bit so Allen seemed stronger than he was. Soon, Allen was giving Woody the power from the lead chair that he wanted, though it was a bit of a learning curve.

Good but not of the quality of the Black Lion dates and much of the SteepleChase material. The Columbia stuff traces the end. I know, but I still like it a lot. My favorite Dexter albums are actually "The Apartment" on Steeplechase and "Our Man in Paris" on Blue Note.

Again - love this set!

The Powell is excellent, exceeding my expectations, actually. Bud is in top form, even if it is '62. Decent sound quality, very listenable. Highly recommended. The Pepper is interesting too, though the sound quality is not as good (Art is decently recorded, though). But it's an interesting mix of "old" Art and "new" Art. In fact, it's the most "old-style" Art I've heard on a recording this late in his career. By way of comparison I would consider the VV sides recorded right around this time almost all "new" Art. It's too bad the rhythm section on this one is not recorded better, because it's as good as any rhythm section Art ever recorded with and better than most (and I'm not just flying the Canadian flag here, this was truly a world-class section).

Reminded of this one by Brownie's post # 49 above Surprising photo. Wonder if Keith ripped the photographer?

Just ordered one. Will let you know. Looks like a good one for bop fans!

Nice article here: http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/09/bill-evans-carnegie-hall-1976.html Comprehensive website here: http://billevans.nl/ The more I read about Bill Evans and his tortured life (obviously much of it self-imposed), the more I am amazed that he was able to function as well as he did or live as long as he did. It's frightening.

Yeah, they did it on one of two days in the whole year when there is no wind in the windy city. Well, I see the "Other VV" tapes on a CD set, (lower right quadrant), so along with the LP's I think he's got it all. Also no "One Down, One Up, Live at the Half Note," but it's likely on one of the LP's. He doesn't look like one of these guys who has to have everything on CD as well as LP.

Looking forward to these, especially the Pepper. Thanks.

Well, it's not showing up right now on my computer , but "sorry" was/is a hyperlink takes you to one of those "Make $700 a Day Working at Home" scam sites.