Late

It's not good for one's health to go too long without listening to a Ben Webster record.

I was listening to that album when I made my post above. 👍 That one would be close for me, but it feels like I'm not remembering another title...

If you could only take one Gene Ammons album to your desert island, what would it be?

Whoa—24 cities. I wonder if/how many tapes exist.

A huge missed opportunity, for those Half Note recordings, to include the track "Creation," the best solo Coltrane ever recorded.

Received a parcel from CD Japan this week that contained three of the above-mentioned Elvin Jones titles. The sound on two of the three is really, really good—which leads me to believe/guess that these are new remasters. Those two titles are The Prime Element and Merry Go Round. These new Japanese reissues, to my ears, sound better than their Mosaic counterparts. The title that doesn't sound like it's received a new remaster is Mr. Jones. Great album, but this Japanese reissue not only uses all the paper inserts of a previous (TOCJ) reissue, its sound is fairly boxed in. For this title, the Mosaic sounds better to me. Merry Go Round has a fairly wide stereo spread, and the saxophones sound great. I've always loved this album for its first three tracks. (Jan Hammer and Chick Corea go at it on "Lungs." Hammer holds his own.) And Frank Foster, on the last track, lays down what has got to be one of the best alto clarinet solos in jazz (if only perhaps because there are so few). Very happy to have this album on a single disc in great sound.

Yes, I know. 😉 I was responding to your question: "What do you want Hat Hut to release?"

Because Giuffre played the cornet:

Good point. The first ezz-thetics release, Jimmy Giuffre's 1961 Graz concert, had never seen a digital release; I was grateful for that one. I'd like to see Hat go that route—finding live concerts that have never seen a digital release. There's an even rarer Giuffre concert from 1961, recorded in Tübingen. The vinyl sounds awful. A cleaned up digital version would be very welcome.

Paul Bley Trios Play Annette Peacock 3/6 tracks from Ramblin’ (BYG) 5/10 tracks from Blood (Fontana) 6/8 tracks from Mr. Joy (Limelight)

👍 The choice to reissue the classic Miles Davis Prestige titles is not just perplexing, but silly—especially when the Hat back catalog could be mined. That said, the live Ayler reissues were licensed from Desiree Ayler, so the label isn't full bootleg...yet. The latest Paul Bley reissue (Trio Plays Annette Peacock) is of value, though it does appear to be a bootleg. Michael Brändli resuscitated the old Limelight LP ("Mr. Joy"), which sounded absolutely atrocious on vinyl. Now it's quite listenable. Verve was never going to do anything with this obscure record. Still...

Time, once again, to be imaginary...

This was the very last title in the series. I finally landed a copy. Excellent music. Happy to have it in the collection. Also landed a copy of this one, though it took a while. The vocals are probably an acquired taste, but it's a taste I like! Well-recorded too. Robert Banks on piano.

Black Jazz reissues on CD are currently $9 at Dusty Groove. 🖤

The Chris Barber Collection I don't know Barber as a musician and trombonist, but rather as a collector/purveyor of excellent early jazz. The series on Timeless Records with his namesake deserves mention alongside Frog Records, Jazz Oracle, and JSP. Any collectors here of this series? What titles do you recommend, and what are your favorites? The selected 1934-1939 European recordings of Coleman Hawkins on a single disc is excellent: Also want to recommend this title, one of the most pleasurable single-disc offerings of early jazz around: Listen to the whole album here!

Ha! I admit that I used to think your avatar was of Clarence Williams. But now...the abstract truth has revealed itself. 🤭 This series is increasingly difficult to find in the U.S. Every disc I've heard from Timeless Historical (which isn't too many) has excellent sound—thank you, Mr. J.R.T. Davies. I'm listening to the Mound City Blue Blowers as I type. 👏 (As long as you don't mind Red McKenzie or the wax comb.) Oops—here's the whole series. 👉👌👈

Nice! This series is super-rare these days, but look for Jamming In Jazz. It's perhaps the best-sounding of the series, and the music is superb.

I was thinking specifically about the Tone Poets series. When they reissue the Don Cherry Blue Notes, I might bite. 🍒

Listened to this on YouTube yesterday. Very, very fine. Of course I went scouting for an actual hardcopy, but discovered it's quite scarce. 😟

What if Linda Sharrock were on the record. She would've only been 18, however.

We have an "Ascension Name Game" thread that I should bump back up. Jazz fun!

Me too, but it seems that "Blue Note" is, when reissued these days, only about hardbop.

Quinn Wilson! Been listening to him on YouTube as part of Tiny Parham's groups. What clarity—especially for recordings from the 20's.

I'm realizing that I don't have the track "Days Beyond Recall" on any CD—or, more accurately, any CD that I can currently locate. Those BN comps (Jazz Classics, Vol.s 1&2) cherrypicked Bechet tracks from a number of sessions, but their programming was really good. They played as albums. Checking online, it looks like those CDs only came out via EMI France (in 1993), and were therefore not impossible to find in the U.S., but also not very likely.