Late

What he said. What you said he said.

Up — to go with Colin's new post about the previously unissued 1965 recordings. Rejoice!

Confession #1 • I have no Lou Donaldson-led Blue Note dates. I've owned a number, and all have been sold away; I just can't get with his musical ideas or phrasing. My loss. What's weird is that I do dig Lou on Blakey's Birdland recordings for Blue Note. Confession #2 • The only Jimmy Smith Blue Note recording I have is Open House/Plain Talk. (Had to complete my Jackie collection somehow! ) Smith is something of a paradox for me. I love his technique and ideas, and then am totally unmoved by his playing. I've been trying to "get" him for more than 20 years. Again, my loss. (But maybe it'll click some day.)

I would guess that news of the next (April/May?) batch (if indeed one is coming) would be posted here first ... ? http://store.universal-music.co.jp/fs/artist/c/bluenote_bnmw I've been checking (OK, somewhat obsessively) for a while now. Would be nice to have Booker Ervin's The In Between included.

I like this video a lot too — I think Guy (a member here) posted a link to the Vimeo version a few years ago. I have it bookmarked, and watch it from time to time. For fans of McLean, I'd say it's required viewing!

Ether, thanks for the links to HMV, and correcting my assumptions. Sometimes I go by what CD Japan says, and forget to check other sites. (And I've even ordered from HMV before; good service.) The real odd duck in this series is Sanford Gold's Piano d'Or. I don't think this title was even in the old OJC series. Has anyone here picked this title up? One track is on YouTube if you want to sample the playing. I agree — I want more interesing titles too! How about Ran Blake's The Blue Potato & Other Outrages (though wasn't it originally on Milestone?). Seems unlikely, but that'd be a nice curveball. Some Randy Weston would be nice, too.

I have a sneaking suspicion that these (Prestige) SHM-CDs are going to go out of print faster than the Blue Note counterparts. The "Miles" SHM-CD linked to above has the dreaded "3-7 days" availability marker — if that's actually any indication. It was only released in June of 2013, but some of the Japanese Bethlehem reissues that came out last year are already out of print (the Dick Wetmore, for example). Not trying to create an artificial panic — just speculating. I haven't picked up any discs from this series. I'll have to purchase the Monk Quintets disc soon.

Why does the cover art of a bootleg always give itself away as a bootleg? Are there any bootlegs that don't look like bootlegs? (Other than the current "official" bootleg series of Dylan and Miles Davis, which still somewhat look like bootlegs.)

The cover makes Miles' left arm (and hand) appear to be in a Black Power gesture. Looks weirdly (and poorly) photo-shopped.

It really was. We all had a good thing there ... (Don't know why Groucho might be appropriate here. Just felt right, somehow.)

Oops. I forgot I had 13 of these discs, not nine. The additional four: three Eddie Harris's, and To Whom Who Keeps A Record. I need to listen to the Harris titles again to make any kind of coherent review. The Ornette title is a rare improvement to my ears. I haven't heard the Water edition of this disc, but the WPCR edition sounds better than the U.S. box set. I think my problem with this series is that I purchased the Ornette titles first, they sounded OK to me, and then I dove in for more thinking they'd all sound along these lines. Nope. Frustrating. Will the Billy Taylor title ever be given a decent remaster? Perhaps not. You can tell (well, I'm assuming) that the session is actually well-recorded. The mp3 download I have from Amazon of this record is actually better than the Japanese edition.

Good ol' Bourvil! I have him on a crazy French pop compilation. Need to dig that one out. To note — I very much dig the track "Flute Salad." It is what it is, and it is that very well. (How's that for a Sangry-ism! )

With some trepidation, I bring this thread up (from two huge months ago) ... ... to discuss sonics and music . I, wisely or unwisely, ordered nine titles from this (24-bit WPCR) series. If it helps anyone regarding purchase decisions (within this series), this post will have been a moderate personal success. Here are some subjective reactions: 1. Lennie Tristano: "Tristano" If you have the U.S. edition, no need to purchase the Japanese disc. The sound on the Japanese disc is not bad (the session wasn't well-recorded to begin with, I'm guessing), but is no better than the U.S. disc. This Japanese edition sounds like it uses some compression. There are peaks that hurt the ears. I wish I would have purchased the 20-bit AMCY edition when it was available. 2. Lennie Tristano: "The New Tristano" Get this one — not because the sonics are superior to the U.S. edition (they're about equal), but because it reinstates the missing track from the U.S. edition: "C Minor Complex." I haven't heard the EU edition. 3. The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan I haven't heard the U.S. edition(s) — I think there are two. This one doesn't sound so good (a fair amount of hard-panning, and the piano sounds fairly distant and brittle), BUT the music is ... so good. Who knows, maybe this edition is the best out there. I wouldn't know. But for 952¥, you can at least hear it. There's still a TON to be written/thought about regarding Hasaan's playing. And how much Monk influence there is/isn't. 4. John Lewis: Improvised Meditations & Excursions Again, I have no comparison, but this one sounds GOOD — . Drums are clean and (seemingly) not boosted. Piano isn't bloated (how could Lewis's piano ever be bloated)? Bass is somewhat thuddy, but not booming. This is my first exposure to this album. I love the "squareness" of Lewis's piano. That seems like a slight, but I don't mean it to be. In fact, I find Lewis's playing to be hip in a way that Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, or Herbie Hancock could never be. The pleats are ironed, and the aftershave (not too much) is on — neat (like a proper martini). 5. Billy Taylor: One For Fun Eff. I LOVE this album. This disc sounds too loud to me. Eff. Eff. Eff. Again, I wish I'd purchased the AMCY edition (how many years back?). I don't like this Japanese edition (but will listen to it anyway). The music, to me, is some of Taylor's best, hippest, playing — very much overlooked. Earl May is killer. 6. Shorty Rogers: Martians Come Back! Oh eff. What the eff. Are you effing kidding me? What the eff did you say? I couldn't hear you! This disc makes Jimmy Giuffre's (heaven-sent) clarinet sound like a barge horn. If I were a cartoon character, I would stomp on the disc, take a bite out of it, throw it out the door, run outside, and then stomp on it some more. I love the music on this album. The sonics (maybe it never sounded so good to begin with? I hope so ~ ) kill me. I never use this smiley, but here it goes: . Please, someone, tell me I had too much whiskey when I listened (listen) to this. Tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I will keep trying. 7. Ornette Coleman: Ornette On Tenor Finally! This one sounds good. Ornette's tenor is personal and up-front, Jimmy Garrison's bass is better-defined than in the U.S. box set, and it's not too loud. (It's louder than the U.S. edition, but not in a peak-hitting way.) I will go on record again as stating that this is a grossly under-valued Ornette recording. What tenor player could or can play like this? Here is a marker for bad-ass: . Thank you, Ben Wallace. 8. Ornette Coleman: Ornete! To be honest, I haven't listened enough to this one to give it any kind of review. To be continued. 9. Roland Kirk: The Inflated Tear Overall, sounds better than the U.S. "deluxe" toilet paper roll edition — whew. Piano parts are cleaner, bass does boom on parts, and Kirk's horn is up-front, but not glaringly so. Does anyone else get choked up (not all the time, but sometimes?) listening to the title track? Jesus — what a piece of music. A great album. Jimmy Hopps = underrated drummer. Also has to be one of the best (most fun) bonus tracks ... ever. Scientific? No. Informed? Partially. Literary? Definitely Not. But the music itself keeps a person up into the night, listening ... .

I hate that! But it's still a thrill to receive (a la a package from Hiroshi ... alas) that parcel from Japan.

My experience with CD Japan is that if the item is marked in stock within: • 3-5 Days They'll be able to get a copy. • 3-7 Days You'll wait a long time, and they won't be able to get a copy. Not a rule, but my experience. They're excellent with pre-orders. I've received discs just a few days after their Japanese release date when pre-ordering. Their coupon/bonus points also get customers to return (at least it worked on me).

Agreed, and yet some of the voicings that Hasaan and Nichols lay down do sound similar. The way they play eighth notes and melodic lines, in contrast, is much different. I'm not pushing for a connection, but the similarities strike me as curious. Also agreed. I know jazz afficionados get prickly when someone says, for example, that Herbie Nichols sounds like Thelonious Monk, but I do wonder, say, how far Monk's approach to the keyboard made its way — consciously or unconsciously — into other piano players' work. With Monk, Nichols, Hope, and Hasaan, you have four very individual players, and yet they're loosely connected (or not loosely in the case of Hope and Hasaan) by a larger jazz family tree. I guess what I'm ultimately saying is that I can't buy wholesale the idea of "this person was this person," and developed-in-a-vacuum. The liner notes of the Atlantic record offer up some peculiar quotes from Hasaan. Almost like he had his own version of Lester-Young-speak.

From the NPR column: Journalist and critic Colin Fleming considers this show one of three or four greatest concerts ever given. The irony, he says, is that the experience was miserable for the musicians, who'd had an argument just before showtime. "Miles Davis is 37 at this point; his drummer, virtuoso drummer, Tony Williams, is 18; Herbie Hancock, the pianist, is 23," Fleming tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "Davis says, 'We're doing this for free.' And he's rich — drives, like, a Ferrari. Everyone else is like, 'No, we're not doing it for free.' They have a big row, they go on, and basically they play this kind of speed-metal, punk, thrash-jazz, with Davis acting almost as conductor." ======================= Ugh. This kind of quasi-reportage seems careless to me. Did Davis own a Ferrari in 1964? Were the ages of Ron Carter and George Coleman somehow irrelevant? (Why were Wiliams' and Hancock's ages relevant?) The word "basically" in journalism is an empty intensifier — it's meant to signify an in-the-know posture, whereas it almost inevitably points to the very opposite. And ... "speed-metal, punk, thrash-jazz" ... ? Please. Maybe in 1974, but not 1964.

I get where you're coming from. Even though it's a comp, you might try this one, especially if you can find it used: I often find that I like Cannonball best when he's playing other people's compositions, or is in other people's bands. That said, this: is one of my favorite (early) Cannonball leader dates. Some great solos therein.

I like that this is the only post from "HomageToDonByas." Listened to the Atlantic recording today. Tom Dowd panned Hasaan's piano far left — right on top of Art Davis's bass. Max gets (pretty much) the whole right channel to himself. The record (not the recording) itself is killer. Though Hasaan was mentored by Elmo Hope, I hear quite a bit of Herbie Nichols in his playing. Almost a missing link between Monk and Nichols. Anyone else hear this?

I'm on board with Nelson much, much more than I am with Leroi Jones. I also understand the somehow, somewhere. (Jones could have benefitted from that terra firma.) Marlboro Country? Sure, why not — as in this album, not yet mentioned I don't think: With Cannon, Nelson's touch works. Works well. I gave up my GRP edition of Sound Pieces many years ago. It's probably time to sleuth out the 2011 SHM-CD version right about now ...

Further thoughts on Sound Pieces ... ? I guess, I don't know exactly why, I have a love/hate relationship with this record. At times, it seems so prescribed and constricted. And then, at other times, it feels cosmically right — as if there were absolutely no alternatives to what ultimately was put into the wax. Fans of this record? Do you dig "Flute Salad"?

Bumping this to remind myself to check the Japanese version this week. I think there is no legitimate alternate take, and that the master and "alternate" are actually one in the same. It's a good excuse to spin this disc again. Haven't in some time.

May I ask where you ordered your copy from? (Amazon?) CD Japan recently cancelled my order for this disc.

I was just reading about this edition. Sounds interesting. Anyone here heard it? And ... anyone here happen to have the Japanese hybrid SACD version of the Klemperer (TOGE prefix) ... ? (It came out in 2012, but is already out-of-print.)