John Tapscott

Music does NOT have to swing to be good. Do you really think that Eicher is telling Kuhn, a musician for over 50 years, to cut an album that is ethereal, and not what Kuhn intended? As a matter of fact, I'm almost positive that the Venuses that you so love are the ones where the artists are being told what to play. Avant doesn't swing. Energy music doesn't swing. Hell, most Nessas don't swing. And yet, a lot of you guys are ALL OVER those. More misplaced ECM bias. No one would have to be told anything. But I don't care who you are. If you walk into the ECM studio, you know what's expected in general terms and you deliver. You record for Venus or Reservoir, well sure, you'd make a somewhat different kind of album, no doubt about it. Good thing Steve records for both types of labels. If the ECM style is to your liking, listen to that. If it's the other labels, listen to those.

I was there on Saturday afternoon. So was I. It was my 3rd visit in 4 days. I was staying about a 10 minute walk from downtown Princeton.

The Mosaics I saw at the Princeton Record Exchange last week were cheaper than that - usually in the $100-150 range, a few closer to 200, and the price didn't seem always related to the size of the set, or to whether or not the set was out of print. The OOP Selects were almost as much as the black boxes. If you really want some OOP Mosaic set, I would check with them first. I got a bargain, though. I bought the Duke Ellington Reprise set for $50. Only disc 1 had been opened; discs 2&3; 4&5 were still in shrink wrap. Also got the John Coltrane Interplay box for $20. They had a note on the sticker saying Disc 4 was scratched - more scuffed than scratched, I would say, and it plays perfectly. At least they were honest.

There has been a rather lengthy and vigorous discussion about this very track among Kentonites. The consensus at the present time based on examining the score (but even that evidence is not totally convincing and there is a strong dissenting position), is that Tres Corazones was NOT part of the original Cuban Fire Suite, though recorded at the same session. Tres Cor. was apparently written by Johnny Richards for the Music '55 summer TV series for which Kenton flew in every week from wherever the band was playing to conduct a NYC studio band for the show and do the MC'ing. I don't know whether or not TC was ever played on that show. So TC was not part of the original LP because it was apparently not part of the CF Suite. However, it fits well and IMO provides a fitting close to the Suite. If it was an earlier composition it certainly provided a model for Cuban Fire (which was written in early '56). Wasn't 30-35 minutes just about the usual length for LP's in the mid '50's?

Not "rare" perhaps (easily obtainable), but this is a marvelous recording IMO:

I have a 20+ hour round trip coming up in 2 weeks. So I'm also asking myself, "What music will I take to listen to in the car?" I'm travelling solo so that solves one problem. Right now I'm leaning towards CDR's that I've recently received in trade from Board friends. A nice variety of jazz music. Hence, that's my vote for you, Dan.

"Brownie Speaks" from The Clifford Brown Memorial Album (Blue Note), with an amazing trumpet solo that must be still sending trumpeters to the 'shed nearly 60 years later. I can imagine Lou Donaldson waiting to solo and thinking, "Oh man, I hope my solo is going to be OK. I don't want to screw up this take." He didn't, but it's really all Brownie. Wonderful.

Just received mine in the mail today, along with the Dexter, direct from Champlain, NY.

A hard swinging version of John Coltrane's "Red Planet" from . Outstanding tenor solo by Chris Potter. In fact, the whole CD is very good with an excellent rhythm section of Gary Mazzaroppi (bass ) and Glenn Davis (drums). Honorable mention- "Gloria" from a private CDR of the Clarke-Boland Big Band, May 16, 1968, Stuttgart, featuring a wonderful tenor solo by Tony Coe.

Social reasons absolutely played a big role in my musical tastes. ANTI-social. I suppose it was somthing of a revolt against my peers - or, more kindly, a desire to establish myself as an individual, not a "sheep" - that I gravitated away from the "pop" music of my times and classmates. I suppose one might add this to a long list of things I did to define myself as "unique" (my leisure travel destinations, my early career choices, the high school I chose to attend instead of the one I was expected to attend, my political leanings...) On the end, it circled back, and I was at least superficially accepted as a token everything-we're-not in various groups. The guy that listens to that strange music. Oh yes, most of that I can relate to. 40+ years as a teenager I started listening to jazz partly because all my peers were listening to rock (which I didn't really like anyway), and I wanted to be a "snob" in a way, an "expert" in something that no one else my age knew much about. Actually I did like jazz, esp. big band jazz at the time (which I still enjoy), and I found it takes a certain dedication to keep listening to jazz when hardly any one else you know really gets it. What I didn't know at the time was how danged addictive the music would eventually become to me. A couple of things helped broaden my jazz horizons. One was the existence of some good jazz programs on Toronto FM radio stations including Board member Ted O'Reilly's "The Jazz Scene". The other was meeting one or two friends at college who were really into jazz. (I met them while browsing in the jazz section at record stores, naturally!) But there weren't too many of us. Oh, people would go to concerts and clubs, but not that many really listened to jazz seriously and collected good jazz records (not even the music students, as I recall). One day the guy in the college residence room next to me came into my room while I was playing Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else." I will never forget it - he said, "You listen to some weird sh**!", as Miles took a solo. Actually made me feel pretty good!

thanks. close, or perhaps mary lou williams? Of course, Roland Hanna didn't play saxophone, but his stylistic versatility was in the same ballpark IMO. Likewise Dick Hyman.

Actually two, and they may come from last week: - Scrapple From the Apple on Jim Hall Live (Horizon/Verve)- it's not just Hall's great playing but the interaction of the whole group that really grabs me. Collective improvisation (without being 'free') at the very highest level. No wonder Hall loved this group. (And yet another incentive to think about getting the Hall set on artistshare, in spite of the $$$) - Blues for Philly Joe from Sonny Rollins' Newks's Time (Blue Note) - always loved this performance; one of my favorite jazz tracks of all time.

I hope you've been making up for lost time. The border-crossing into the US has become such a hassle I think twice (or thrice!) before even popping over to Buffalo these days. More pleasing to fly to Zurich or Stockholm or Madrid... What kind of hassles are you having, Ted? It's been a few years since I've been stateside, but I'm driving to Princeton U. for a continuing education course the first week of May. My passport is in order so I can't imagine there should be a big problem. Looking forward to cheap gas(!)- at least cheaper than ours, and and visiting the Princeton Record Exchange.

That's a good point. In theory it shouldn't cost Jim Hall a whole lot more to remaster and duplicate and do liner notes and package older material than it costs Uptown, for example. You get 2 CD's in the new Mobley set for less than the price of one CD in the Hall set. Looking at the website description, it seems like they are relying on the "limited edition" nature of the set to justify the price. It is strange that the new CD is less costly than the 37 year old remastered material (good as this latter is, no doubt). I still think the new set is too expensive. If that proves to be the case and sales are slow, then Jim Hall will have made a strategic business blunder.

Jim: Just to make a slight correction to your post. The "Live at Birdland" is 18.95 (no problem). The 3 CD Live set is $75. (I would be interested at the Mosaic Select price of $44, but this is too much). When I read the first post I was assuming that it was all 4 CD's for $75, but when I checked the website, the pricing structure is as I've outlined.

David: This is probably the first time I've seen someone on this Board complain about the amount of recorded music in the world! We here have likely added to the problem - too many CD purchases, overflowing shelves, too much time spent on jazz bulletin boards, demanding the release of new CD's - like - "get those new Uptown CD's out NOW!" etc. etc. I think new music has to be recorded. I have no problem with that. Creativity is an artist's life-blood. In fact, I myself have made some small donations to artists in order to help their projects along. And in retrospect the price for the new Jim Hall single CD was really OK. It's the price point of the 3 CD Live set that I am questioning. Jim S's points are well-taken.

Well, I certainly like the "Jim Hall - Live!" session, but $ 75 for three more CD's is serious coin, a little rich for me, I'm afraid. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the Artist Share model. Most everything they do seems a bit pricey.

Ends Saturday, April 7.

Happy Birthday, Claude! All the best.

I should have that one, but I don't. Not sure how I missed it.

I like Bennie Green, so if it was, that's OK with me. I'm sure the liner notes will reveal all. Hank's name on the cover no doubt sells more. Looking forward to hearing Walter Davis Jr., too.