John Tapscott

Happy Birthday, Wes! Have a great day and enjoy a Mosaic set or two!

I'm in the same boat. I used to buy it quite often from the late 70's through the early 90's, but it became very expensive in Cdn $ and I couldn't justify the cost anymore, so I stopped. It was available at a specialty magazine shop, and even then, rather sporadically. It certainly had a "mainstream" bent and I always enjoyed the reviews and Steve Voce's column. I have some old back issues I'll have to look up.

I have the orignal LP and am really surprised (but pleased) that there is enough unissued material for a 2 Cd set. Great session.

I always thought the LP sounded crappy - I always chalked it up to the pressing rather than the mix ('70's era vinyl was notoriously inferior). The CD sounds much better. I'd recommend that you get it. The music is way too good for you not to enjoy it because of lousy vinyl.

Thanks Paul. From the musicians you listed, it looks like it might have been recorded in Las Vegas (I believe Carl lived there at the time). Also the tunes reflect the fact that Louis had just gotten off the Basie band. Would like to find this one.

Wow. great album cover. Has this one ever seen cd reissue? Yes, a Japanese import. This is a Bellson recording I know very little about. Hardly any info at amg. FFA, could you kindly give some details? Thanks

I have all three books. I read ALS first, really enjoyed it, then went to KOB. It's good too, but I didn't find it quite as interesting. I think there's a bit more depth in the ALS book. For me, "The House that Trane Built" was the least interesting of the three.

Yes, this is sad news. I really enjoy my Bellson recordings and fondly recall the time I saw him live with his big band. Quite by coincidence, I have been recently listening through the Count Basie Live Roulette Recordings on Mosaic. Discs 5-8 feature Bellson with the Basie Band live in Sweden (lots and lots of great music), and I have been reflecting over the past couple of days on how great Bellson sounded with Basie. He gave the band a slightly different feel (perhaps a bit more on top of the beat) but it was still the swinging and satisfying Basie groove and sounds wonderful. RIP Louie Bellson

I was thinking about this, and then Lon posted pretty much what I was going to say. You remember how Wes "smoked" on Impressions? I actually think there would be quite a bit of compatibility. Three great soloists, each with their own individual voices, all playing on the same field, if not the same position, yet inspiring one another. I bet Wes would have sounded great with Elvin behind him.

The particular electric piano used on the date sounds "crappy" to my ears, muddy, mucky, blah. Of course, I only have it on a 1st pressing Columbia LP, so perhaps it sounds better on later issues.

I think Getz himself plays very well on the session, and I do like Corea's compositions, but the whole thing is marred, in my view, by the crappy sound of the electric piano.

At the old Sam the Record Man store at 347 Yonge St. in Toronto (a great store in its day) there were 3 floors - the 1st floor had rock and country and the cashiers; 2nd floor - jazz and classical; 3rd floor, I think, had sale items and concert ticket sales. When you came in at ground level, they were always playing rock music at an ear-splitting level. I don't know how anyone could have worked on that floor. You could hardly speak to any of the check-out clerks. If you were a jazz or classical fan, you raced for the stairs to get to the 2nd floor as quickly as possible. One day, and this would be around 1979 or 1980, I walked in the front door and to my absolute amazement, they were playing the Bill Evans Trio throughout the whole store - 1st floor included. It was truly beautiful, like I had walked into musical heaven. I was never so proud to be a jazz fan as I was that day.

Count Basie Live Roulette '59-'62 - My first Mosaic purchase and still one of my very favorite sets!

Thad/Mel

I hope you enjoy this set as much as I do, Peter!

Complete Atlantic Recordings of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh

Just ordered the Pacific Jazz Piano Trios and Gerry Mulligan Selects plus the Ellington Newport '58 single - $100 even, including shipping. Not too bad at all. 5.5 of the 7 CD's are music I've never heard before. I have a feeling I'll enjoy all this.

No, someone has a listening problem.

Speaking of offenses, I am never all that impressed with the Steelers offense. They sometimes seem slugglish to me, I thought they played rather poorly when the game was 16-14 - what was that 3rd and 1 pass at midfield out of the shotgun all about? (not to mention the near misses by their punter). Even the Steelers fans were booing. Big Ben and the O rarely light up the scoerboard big time, but they seem to do just enough to win the game. Ben generally is able to avoid the big mistake or turnover, and sometimes he gets lucky, like that floater that went for a TD. But I'm guessing that Steelers offense is really going to click against the Cardinals defense. I'm thinking this could be one of those boring blow-out Super Bowls, especially if Hines Ward plays.

Well, I know I'm in the distinct minority here, but my reaction is that if it was anyone else BUT Wynton playing that solo, we'd all be talking about what a great solo it is and what great chops the guy has!

Thanks Peter, for the rec. I listened to the samples at CDBaby (what a great site) and ordered one! My kinda jazz, for sure.

Stick with it. You may not get it, but some day Evans will "get" you. Guaranteed.

Indy Miami Minnesota Atlanta

Alan Broadbent was born in New Zealand; Valery Ponomarev in Russia.

Haven't seen too many articles or reviews by Yanow in recent editions of Coda. My appraisal of his work is quite the opposite. I tend to think he's too superficially un-critical.