HutchFan

Thanks for the heads-up on that, jlhoots. I'll have to check it out. Vinding has made some excellent records. His trio record on Storyville, Open Minds -- with Jean-Michel Pilc and Billy Hart -- is outstanding too. NP:

Mads Vinding Trio - The Kingdom (Where Nobody Dies) (Stunt) with Enrico Pieranunzi and Alex Riel

NP: Enrico Pieranunzi - Untold Story (Egea) with Marc Johnson & Paul Motian

That's a terrific LP, one of my favorites by Jimmy Rowles.

I've enjoyed it. NP: Frank Kimbrough & Joe Locke - Saturn's Child (OmniTone)

Disc 6

Enrico Pieranunzi - FelliniJazz (Cam) with Kenny Wheeler, Chris Potter, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motian

Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) - Zimbabwe (Enja) with Carlos Ward, Essiet Okun Essiet, and Don Mumford

Jay McShann and Buddy Tate - Crazy Legs & Friday Strut (Sackville) Wonderful duets from 1976.

Joe Bonner - The Lifesaver (Muse)

The Two Sides of Hampton Hawes (JAS, 2 LPs) LP 1 - originally released as High in the Sky (Vault); trio with Leroy Vinnegar & Donald Bailey 5 stars.

Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets / Belcea Quartet (Alpha Classics) Disc 1 - String Quartets Nos. 6 & 12

Curtis Fuller - All-Star Sextets (Savoy/Arista) - LP 1 - originally released as The Curtis Fuller Jazztet with Benny Golson with Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Charlie Persip

Yes. Especially the First Piano Concerto. Ravishing.

NP: Rudolf Serkin Plays Beethoven (Sony) CD 1 - Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - with Eugene Ormandy & the Philadelphia Orchestra So beautiful.

I agree 100%. The Pieranunzi trio with Marc Johnson & Joey Baron made a bunch of top-shelf records.

That's interesting, felser. I guess I have a different perspective on box sets. I usually find it easier to get a foothold on music in box sets when I re-sequence the music back into the albums -- like the music was when it was originally released. (Obviously, this doesn't hold true for music from the 78 era.) For example, when I ordered Mosaic's Art Blakey 1960 Jazz Messengers set back in the day, the music was much more meaningful (digestible?) to me when I divvied up the tracks and re-sequenced the music as it was released on the original LPs. I still tend to listen to listen to (and think about) that music as Like Someone in Love or A Night in Tunisia or The Big Beat rather than The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Art Blakey's 1960 Jazz Messengers -- even though I'd never even heard most of that music before buying that set. Maybe I just have an "album predilection."

CDs became the dominant medium right around the time that I was first getting into jazz, and I remember reading music critics talking about the duration of the format, wondering if a 75-minute (or more) album experience was too long. At the time, I thought: "What's not to like? You can just turn it off if you lose interest, right???" As I've grown older, I suppose my thinking has changed. Partly, it might just be that my attention span has grown shorter -- no doubt about that. (For me, this is true of both music-listening and reading. Age has a way of making that happen. ) But I think the evolution of my thinking is attributable to more than that. I'm beginning to wonder if an ideal album duration might be more like 35 to 45 minutes -- the length of an LP -- instead of the 65 to 80 minutes that's common with CDs. Of course, this assumes that a listener is still interested in sitting down and listening to an "album" as a cohesive, unified experience -- rather than just listening to a series of tunes. I know that "album listening" is WAY less common these days -- but it's still my model for thinking about recorded music. If someone asks me for a musical recommendation, I don't think about single tracks. I'm almost certainly going to recommend an album, regardless of format -- whether it's a CD or LP or download. A possible analogue: A movie that's longer than 2 hours better be pretty darn good -- or your average viewer is going to lose interest. The industry has settled on a convention that says 100 minutes or so is about right, a good movie length. I'm wondering if an 75-minute CD is the approximate equivalent of a 2.5 hour movie. Sure, it can be done. But it better be some DARN good music; otherwise, something is lost. It's hard to maintain cohesiveness and momentum during an experience that goes on for too long. So, just like a fidgety theater-goer in an over-long movie, the music listener loses attention, the mind wanders, and some of the power of the music is sapped. One last thought: I bet there are some long-time jazz fans who were listening to 78s and felt the same way when LPs came along. "What?!?!? 35 minutes is too long. Those soloists are just dragging on forever!" I realize that. Who knows what's best; there's probably no such thing! I just wanted share some of my reflections on this interesting intersection between our experience of music and technology. So... what do you think?

Curtis Fuller - All-Star Sextets (Savoy/Arista) - LP 2 - originally released as Imagination with Thad Jones, Benny Golson, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison & Dave Bailey Per the liner notes, this was McCoy's debut on record.