duaneiac

! Johnny Lytle made some terrific music, but he seems to be seldom remembered these days.

What ever became of the lovely Carol Merrill?

Arrived in the mail yesterday: It features both big band and smaller group recordings.

I do wonder if there is any one alive who has ever listened to Disc 3 ("The Future") from that Sinatra set more than once. It's certainly a bizarre work and I wonder what everybody was thinking at the time they were recording it. Still, there is enough good music on the first two discs to make up for that bad third disc. I have intentionally never listened to the Sinatra Duets albums, so I can't name them my least favorites, but I'm sure if I had listened to them they would be. I think every Sinatra album I have heard has had something musically worthwhile going for it, so even being "least favorite" would not mean it is a "bad" album as such. I'd have to listen to them again, but perhaps my least favorite might be Cycles or Some Nice Things I've Missed (I do not need to hear Frank Sinatra cover Neil Diamond or Jim Croce songs!). I've never heard that Sarah Vaughan album.

! One of my favorite CDs purchased this year. Now playing: I'm tying to picture this concert taking place at Bimbo's 365 Club in SF. I've only seen two shows there -- one by Keely Smith and a solo performance by Randy Newman. It's a little difficult to imagine this great Thelonious Monk tribute concert taking place there 29 years ago with George Cables, Jessica Williams, Buddy Montgomery, Don Cherry, Jeff Chambers, Ralph Penland and the featured star saxophonist. Well recorded by the late Bud Spangler.

For some reason, the first thought that came to my mind was of the undertaker saying to Mr. Hall's heirs,"You can keep what's in this box or you can trade it for what's behind the curtain". Summer vacation as a kid always meant watching lots of daytime TV game shows. Let's Make A Deal was a fun show that required absolutely no thought. It also proved to me as a kid that adults -- these people willing to dress in those costumes and act like idiots just to get on TV -- weren't all they were cracked up to be. Anyway, thanks for the entertainment Mr. Hall -- Rest In Peace.

Jazz has a rich history of musicians who doubled as vocalists. Milt Jackson's name will not be enshrined among them. It's not that he was a terrible singer, but he certainly wasn't a very good one. It's a 1978 recording so you also have a synthesizer on some tracks and Cedar Walton on the dreaded electric piano. It all adds up to a recording for which the most polite thing to do is simply avert one's eyes & ears and pretend it never happened.

The other day I found an inexpensive new copy of this CD for sale on Amazon. It is somewhere in the mail and headed in my direction now. The first Joao Gilberto CD I ever bought. I love this music, It's perfect whenever I need some "quiet time" music. Earlier I listened to: And now, for something completely different: Disc 1 of 2. I had two older teenage sisters back in the 1960's. I recall hearing the DC5 coming from their portable record player much more often than, say, the Beatles. I guess I owe some of my musical taste (for better or worse) to them. I also heard a lot of Supremes, Peter, Paul & Mary and Paul Revere & The Raiders music on their record player, all music I still like today.

My only exposure to singer Rebecca Parris. I like her voice and style, but some of the material here is rather forgettable and some of the arrangements definitely sound dated now. Gary Burton has some fine moments.

Just a fun movie which one can watch to disengage the brain and enjoy the colorful, action-packed roller coaster ride.

Absolutely. All of these will be a matter of taste. But hearing about what music other folks find to be lacking is kind of interesting too. I for one will have to go back and listen to the Hampton Hawes All Night Session! recordings again. I liked them, but maybe I will listen with a more critical ear now to see if I can hear what Larry Kart and T.D. found wanting in them.

I'm surprised there has not been a "deluxe expanded edition" of this album (or has there?). Surely there must have been more material recorded at this concert (or concerts -- did she perhaps do more than one show at that engagement?) than was released on the original album. Any newly discovered "live" material of Aretha at the peak of her powers, as she was here, would surely be welcomed.

Beautiful song by Jule Styne & Carolyn Leigh given a sensitive performance by the wonderful Maxine Sullivan and Glenn Zottola's muted trumpet is icing on the cake. I believe Ms. Sullivan's recording of this tune is the only version of it in my collection. More singers should consider adding it to their repertoire

I'm sure every one here has a number of favorite ,musicians and likely each of us has a number of recordings made by those favorite musicians. Many of those recordings we love, some we like, some leave us feeling indifferent. But every once in a while, a favorite musician, some one whose work we really love and admire, puts out an absolute clunker of an album. There's all kinds of threads here to discuss favorite albums, so how about a thread to discuss the clunkers. A few ground rules: 1) It must be an album by a musician whose work you love overall. If you don't like Kenny G, don't complain about a Kenny G album. 2) The album must be an officially released album, not a bootleg over which the musician had no control. 3) The album should have been released during the musician's lifetime. After exiting this veil of tears, the musician again has no control over what leftover alternate takes, miscellaneous unreleased material found in some record label's vault or some "re-imagined" remixing of their work might get released under their name. 4) It must be an album you have actually listened to (in its entirety -- no fair bailing out after a disastrous track or two) and not just heard about. I'll start off with one which features two of my favorite musicians. At first glance this would seem to be an unlikely pairing, that these two musicians come from very different backgrounds & eras and that they would have little in common musically. Listening to this album only proves those assumptions to be correct. The two never mesh musically and McCoy Tyner really sounds like he was holding back to try to make this session work somehow. Stephane Grappelli just goes about his usual business. A complete stone cold dud of an album. So who else has some notable duds by favorite musicians they would like to share?

This one always seemed kind of ghostly/supernatural to me:

Very good album from 1983. It's prevented from being an excellent album due to Gene Harris having been asked/required to play electric piano on a few tracks. I hate that sound.

Disc 5 of 7, which includes the albums Sonny Rollins Plus Four and Tenor Madness.

Disc 1 of 2.

Earlier: Currently: The Verve CD reissue of which also includes the album Affinity, both with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen.

So do I. I don't have a lot of her music, perhaps 8 or 9 recordings, but this is among my favorites along with her Maybeck Recital Hall CD. I only saw Ms. Brackeen perform twice, each time in a solo setting, so perhaps that's why I like her solo recordings. Her other Arkadia Jazz CD, Pink Elephant Magic, is really good too. Dave Liebman, Nicholas Payton and Chris Potter appear on that one

Disc 1 & 2 of this 1985 concert.