John Tapscott

Most of the Pablo albums are range from quite good to excellent, with a few duds thrown in. Sometimes I find the after music production values sloppy, like they didn't put a whole lot of thought into it or were trying to do it on the cheap. After Benny Green stopped writing the liner notes for Pablo, the notes (if there were any) were often not very good or very informative. Sometimes personnel were incorrectly identified or not named at all. The Basie big band albums are a particular pain in this regard, with the soloists or even the small group personnel hardly ever credited

Disc 4 of 4 - such a tremendous set. The fountainhead for modern jazz piano.

Thanks. I will have to listen; that is a fine set.

You have to ask yourself, "Do I really want/need these?" In these albums the band mostly covers pop tunes for AM radio play. Very little real jazz. I had 2 or 3 of these which I junked.

Now: Disc 3

Producer Michael Cuscuna mentions them in the notes to the Columbia box set. Lots of big egos involved. Cuscuna had asked the musicians to rehearse some Cedar Walton tunes the day before the session. When Cuscuna flew in from Europe the day of the session, and found out they hadn't rehearsed, it seems he was none too happy. Finally, Art Blakey came to Michael's defense and got the musicians to lay something down. It's surprising the session happened at all, let alone come off as well as it did. You will notice that it has rather short playing time.

Excellent Thad Jones on this.

I really liked "Sophisticated Giant" when it came out in the late 70's, but I was mildly disappointed after listening to it recently on Gordon's Columbia box set. Kind of lifeless. On the other hand, the "Gotham City" session, which was beset with problems in the studio, is a really fine recording, which I had not remembered. Time does change one's perception.

"Our Man in Paris" is not included, probably because Bud was not the leader. Now

Now: Disc 2

I agree with Peter on this. I'm generally a fan of Evans but I am disappointed that just when the trio starts building up a swinging head of steam, Evans hands it over to Gomez for a lengthy bass solo. Sometimes it happens after just a chorus of piano soloing and it seems to bring the musical intensity way down. Gomez is a highly skilled bass player, but long bass solos...I don't know.

Sweet Basil is a really fine set. Now:

I'm listening to this one now. Has some very good Hicks . This is an excellent record IMHO. This one is very good, too. Two more good ones

That's a good one. I was thinking about Hicks just yesterday and realized that I haven't listened to him recently. Must get to it.

Another one I really like:

Disc 1