HutchFan

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.

The late sonatas, Opp. 109 - 111

My reaction as well. I have lots of respect for Springsteen's music. But I find I that just don't groove to it.

One I've been playing a lot lately:

The John Abercrombie Quartet with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald at the '79 Antibes Jazz Festival: Fantastic! I would love to have a high-quality recording this entire concert.

I just ordered these CDs from a seller on Discogs: JAZZ **************************************************** The Bad Plus - Never Stop (eOne/EmArcy) Baseline [Hein van de Geyn, John Abercrombie, Joe LaBarbera] - Standards (Challenge) Lee Konitz with Alan Broadbent - More Live-Lee (Milestone) Enrico Pieranunzi - Autour De Martinu: Live at The Bird's Eye (TCB) Wayne Shorter - Footprints Live! (Verve) Cal Tjader - Primo (Fantasy/OJC) OTHER STUFF **************************************************** Beethoven - Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4 / Fleisher, Szell, Cleveland O (Sony) David Oistrakh - The Complete EMI Recordings (EMI Classics, 17 CDs) Rachmaninov - Symphonies & Orchestral Works / Ashkenazy, Concertgebouw O (Decca, 3 CDs) Schoenberg - Gurrelieder / Sinopoli, Staatskapelle Dresden (Teldec, 2 CDs) Elvis Presley - Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old) (RCA) This order was a great bargain. A total of 30 discs for less than $40 (plus shipping). The 17-disc Oistrakh EMI set was only $10.50!

Dave Douglas - Leap of Faith (Arabesque) with Chris Potter, James Genus and Ben Perowsky Very Ornette-ish.

So far today, it's been Charlie Haden duo recordings with two different pianists:

About a decade ago, I finally got around to reading my first Roth novel -- American Pastoral. It blew me away, and I immediately went on a Roth bender, reading a dozen or so of his books. What a voyage! Mention Roth's name, and people inevitably bring up his focus on sex, his enormous scabrous streak. But the scope of Roth's writing was so much broader than that! He was a heavyweight, a GIANT. I'm sorry that he's gone, but I'm thankful for the legacy he's left behind. R.I.P.

Now this: