Brad

Jazz By Gee is a real classic. This is his only leader date and it's got a hell of a lineup: Ernie Henry, Cecil Payne, etc.

Brad, Nothing wrong with appearing overly patriotic Sheldon, I suppose you're right but ever since I've been a kid, I've always believed what Stephen Decatur said.

I forgot about Joe Wilder. Joe Wilder for sure. Way underrated. At least he got a little attention a year or so ago in Jazz Times.

Did Bird ever put out a bad record? Although strings may not be to everyone's fancy, he never did a bad one.

Two cds of Roy that I really, really love are Just Us and We Three that he did for New Jazz. They are really fantastic. They should be easily available on OJC.

Sent you a pm about the Bobby Watson and Eric Alexander.

Chris, That's awesome. My son, who is waiting for me to get off the computer, said you have a lot more cds than I do.

Updated.

Yes and many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more

I was hoping someone would raise D-Day. Although D-Day was not the beginning and the end, it was obviously important. Without appearing overly patriotic, without the sacrifice many people made during WWII, who knows what this world would be like today. Being of Jewish origin, I don't think I would have been here had Hitler triumpthed. We had a branch of our family in Poland. After the war, they were not to be found. Presumably, they met their end in the camps. Here is an editorial from today's NYT: June 6, 1944 Sixty years ago today, the free world held its breath. In America, daily life paused almost completely, subdued by the news that the invasion of Europe — D-Day — had begun. From the 21st century, we try to imagine the scale of what went forward in that gray dawn after years of preparation — the ships and men and matériel, the reserves of willpower and determination. What we sometimes forget to imagine is the almost prayerful nature of the day, the profound investment of hope and fear it entailed. It was a day in America and in Europe when civilians as surely as soldiers felt the whole of their lives concentrated on the outcome of a few hours. There has not been another time like it, when we knew that history was about to turn before our eyes. In a way, D-Day sums up for us the whole of World War II. It was the frontal clash of two ideas, a collision between the possibility of human freedom and its nullification. Even now, we are still learning what to make of it, still trying to know whether we are dwarfed by the scale of such an effort or whether what happened that day still enlarges us. It certainly enlarges the veterans of Normandy and their friends who died in every zone of that war. It's tempting to politicize the memory of a day so full of personal and national honor, too easy to allude to the wars of our times as if they naturally mirrored World War II. The iconic starkness of the forces that met on the beaches of Normandy makes that temptation all the greater. But beyond the resemblance of young soldiers dying in wars 60 years apart, there is no analogy, and that is something we must remember today as well. D-Day was the result of broad international accord. By D-Day, Europe had been at war — total war — for nearly five years, at profound cost to its civilian population. American civilians, in turn, had willingly made enormous material sacrifices to sustain the war effort. There was no pretense that ordinary life would go on uninterrupted and no assumption that America could go it alone. We may find the heroics of D-Day stirring in the extreme. We may struggle to imagine the special hell of those beaches, the almost despairing lurch of the landing craft as they motored toward France. Those were brave times. But it was a bravery of shared sacrifice, a willingness to rise to an occasion that everyone prayed would never need to come again. This is a day to respect the memory of 60 years ago and, perhaps, to wonder what we might rise to if only we asked it of ourselves.

Getting back to jlhoots' original question, can someone recommend four of the best ones to buy here. Buying them all would seem to be a little expensive.

That one from Jazz Loft looks interesting, the one by Evan less so: where do you put the inserts. To me, that's critical. I'm constantly making room. But even that capability is running out of usable space.

I'm not really into it either but I lived in Nashville for a year back in the 1970s and you can't help but become one, especially if you go to the Opry which I did a couple of times. I'm not really one now but that's probably because I don't listen to it that much anymore. I remember reading somewhere that Bird liked country music.

The US box likewise has no indications other than the Tarantino reference. My guess is that it's not.

I see your point your point Jim. It's inevitable that whatever people are listening to and find appealing will find its way into jazz inevitably. That's how we got soul jazz I'm sure. Change is always a good thing and our music is a dynamic living organism so change is necessarily a good thing.

Yeah, same here.

As soon as my son's school ends, we're going to France and England. Six days in Paris, then a train to Brittany for a couple of days, 3 days in Normandy (whole reason for the trip; my son's a WW II fanatic and wants to visit the landing sites) and then a couple of days in London. I'm hoping to see where Bud lived and check out the Blue Note.

That's awesome. I've bookmarked that site. But here's a question. Do any of you sellers include paypal or ebay fees in what you charge a buyer. I knew there was one guy who used to visit here who did that.

I guess joining the Marines ain't such a bad thing. Must pay well . Mark's my kind of guy. That's the kind of logic I love.

If you're talking about underrated people, how can you not mention Freddie Webster, one of the greats who had an influence on Miles. I believe a while ago, ghost of miles started a thread about him. Many of the people mentioned in this thread are not really unerrated (Kenny D, Buck) but Freddie truly is. For those interested in Freddie, check out this site, which ghost brought to our attention at that time.

Jim, I've generally agreed with everything you've said in this thread so far, except your statement about getting used to hip hop or rap and accepting it. Why? Why should I get used to a form of music (and I'm not even sure it's that musical, frankly) that generally is demeaning to women and that promotes a lifestyle that I would have nothing to do with. I hear nothing of beauty or desirable in this music that would make me listen to it as I do jazz, which is beauty, which is art. Now, I'm sure that when I started listening to the Beatles when I was a kid in 1960, people whose age I am now felt the same way so maybe if you want to call me an old fuddy duddy, so be it. But even adults got into the Beatles, the Stones, etc. because their songs were also beautiful, well written and with great tunes. Heck, a lot of the early Stones were based on the blues and to some of us that might have been an introduction to Howlin Wolf and the blues. I see nothing of this in rap. Just to prove that I didn't reject your statement from the start, after work yesterday as I was driving to a local cd shop I listened to a rap station for about half an hour until I got to where I was going. I heard something that was almost tolerable because it had some latin rhythms going on but other than that forget it. Now you also say, accept it. I'm not dumb to deny that it's not there and that a lot of people like it. I admit it's existence but to accept it, that would mean I'm embracing it. No, thanks.

This may not help you answer your question but you also need to get the flavor of the man. In my view, the book by Robert Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker, does that. I'd pick that up. Amazon has it in paperback for $12.60.

I never really cared for fusion but I would be stupid to deny that it has a place in jazz and that it is a style that will be remembered. If you ask is it a predominant style historically, I would say no, in that swing, bop, hardbop and avant garde are the principal jass movements.

I'm only familiar with the Sonny Stitt Roulette album that's on the Mosaic but based upon that, count me in.

Catesta said it all. If your memory is anything like mine, you won't even know that you bought a new house by then