Brad

Frankly, taking Marvin over Kurt Elling is not an appealing choice. I was more of a Four Tops man myself. It would be hard to argue that soul didn't influence what we call soul jazz. I don't think that's the question. If it were, maybe someone should insert european classical music into a blindfold test. Obviously that went into the gumbo of what became jazz. The question is does Marvin belong in a jazz blindfold test. I don't think it does. Obviously, there are no hard and fast rules of what belongs on a test so it was your right to choose these songs. And don't get me wrong I didn't hate them. But I think there ought to be consensus that it's jazz in the blindfold tests, whether its' Baby Dodds, Zutty Singleton, Howard McGhee, Blue Mitchell, Jack McDuff, Brotzmann or jazz in all its variations, but jazz. Let the raking-me-over-the-coals now begin .

I'll have to disagree about the JB (if that's who it is) but even if it's considered "jazz" for the reasons Jim alludes to, the Marvin Gaye (if that's who that is) has no place in the Blindfold Tests. This is Organissimo, not Soul-issimo. I think something should be remotely jazz and in my view, the latter track doesn't qualify.

For those of you who may be so inclined, WKCR is running its annual Bach festival, starting this Thursday night at 12:00 am EST. I've listened to it a little bit in the past and recommend it, if that's your thing.

Dova, $76 is a lot but what the heck I've spent some big bucks before on a single cd. Hey, it's the holiday season, reward yourself

I saw DH recently here in NJ and loved Steve Nelson. Funny that you mention about Chris Potter being on sax because when I saw them, Antonio Hart was on sax. Maybe he was just temporary. Eubanks had incredible energy!

I assume you're not including airchecks in your definition? This may be a dumb question and I assume I probably ought to know better but why are they called transcriptions? Is it because they were "transcribed" or "transposed" from the radio station to record?

Sheldon's thought has occurred to me before (not often, however). What would I do with my collection or what should I do with my collection. It's probably worth a few dollars so I suppose I'd direct my wife to somewhere to sell them but on the other hand I'd probably like to leave some of them to some people here who I know would appreciate them.

Happy Birthday to THE MAN!

Dudes, you don't want to see my face

Stitt, Mobley and Blakey but I'd remiss if I didn't put in a vote for the HRS Sessions. That's a fantastic box. Not to be confused with favorite is the question of what's the best. I don't have the set but it would have to be the Commodore Sets.

I'm not that wild about the Woody Herman set, especially some of the later sessions, which I was actually listening to last night, principally Woody's singing. Also some of the arrangements are actually pretty boring. The best thing on these later sessions, btw, but you don't get enough of them are Richie Kamuca and Vince Guaraldi. I know this is heresy with many people but the Jimmy Giuffre set just doesn't it do it for me. In fact, I'm thinking about getting rid of it. Also, Illinois in small doses is definitely a better way to go. I knew a lot of people weren't wild about the Joe Pass but I kind of liked it.

In last Sunday NYT, there was a very nice review of a The Complete Lyrics of Frank Loesser, edited by Robert Kimball and Steve Nelson, from Alfred A. Knopf. According to the review, Mr. Kimball has assembled similar compilations of of Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin. Loesser, who was one of the great lyricists and songwriters, wrote one of the greatest musicals ever, Guys and Dolls. When I was a kid I must have worn the grooves out on that LP and still love that music. I was never a huge fan of his other hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but Guys and Dolls is memorable. Frank Loesser in the 30s worked with Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy McHugh and Jule Styne. Two of his better known songs, at least to jazz fans, are On a Slow Boat to China and Baby, It's Cold Outside. On a Slow Boat should be know, at least, to all Bird fans.

Well, another early Xmas present for Dan. At lunchtime, I heard on WFAN that Petitt's agent at the last minute called the Yanks and asked for 4 years, $52 million but the Yanks said no. It should have never come to that with a guy who's in the prime and won over 20 games. Decline and fall is starting to set in. If you're a Yankee fan, you gotta be ticked.

Take a look at this auction for Jack Wilson's Easterly Winds, currently $46. I wonder if we can trust this seller. Some guy named weizen . Maybe I should think about selling my copy. Heck, I was lucky and only got it for $12 new!

That's totally nuts for this 3 cds of Dexter's. I've got 2 of the 3, which I got for about $40. Secondly, it's possible that these may be reissued as a Mosaic Select in the near future. But, if you've gotta have 'em, well I'm glad it's not my money.

Sounds like Rooster is a finance guy. I work at a big corporation and divisions and subsidiaries get charged for everything so if there's a low income product that is taking up manufacturing space that could be otherwise used for a high income product, corporations will try to get rid of that product or outsource it to a third party manufacturer. What's happening with Blue Note's parent is no different than what happens in most corporations, regardless of industry.

Brownie, apparently Amazon UK has it. I think mailing time (at least to US) is about 4-6 weeks. Went ahead and ordered it.

I wanted to order this book from Cadence and they've told me they don't have it in stock any longer and I called the Jazz Record Center in NYC since they usually stock books that are hard to find but they too are out. Although Amazon UK say they have it, does anybody have any helpful suggestions? Anybody care to sell their copy?

Again, I have to agree with this. There's going to be stuff that I'm sure I'm going to completely hate on future discs. But what the hell I'll give it a listen, once anyway, to see if I can expand my horizons. Heck, I've only been a jazz fan for about 5 years so I don't want to me so narrow as to channel out anything that could be new or different from what I've been listening to. These tests seem to be segueing from this is a blindfold test to this is what I like, which I think is fine. My idea of jazz is probably a lot different than John's (couw) but I'll give it a listen. I'm not sure we should get involved with a debate as to what is jazz, since it's all subjective. But rest assured that when my turn comes, it'll probably be heavy on bop, some swing and hard bop. Those are just my predilections, my interests, what drew me and what still draws me to jazz and you'll get my orientations, just like John will give us his orientations.

I'd agree with the second and third paragraphs of Dan's initial post. I'm looking for music that I might enjoy but which I haven't heard and which I might enjoy having the whole album to. In this respect, the Continuum CD of Tadd Dameron comes to mind. I also realize that I'm going to be exposed to a lot of other music that people really like but which I may or may not be interested in. For example, in Jim S' case there's some that I like, others I don't and wouldn't be interested in pursuing in. In addition, I'll be getting exposure to music that I may normally not get to hear or because of budget limitations not want to experiment with getting. For example, somewhere along the way someone is going to stick some Brotzmann on a cd. I don't think he appeals to me but I'll give it a shot. There have been lots of things I've heard initially that I didn't like and then later on remarked (like Jim's buddy ), "this might be good!"

A couple of weeks ago, in the Selection Process Thread, I posted up some similar sentiments and got raked: . Couw wrote in reply: . In retrospect, I agree and believe we should follows those view here.

The past is in the past that's true but there was some real important information that was lost and I'd love to have access to it again. One that comes to mind was the thread about lost sessions and what had not it made to cd and why not and what, as a result of that thread, did eventually see the light of day.

I agree with Tom. Just because you don't know, you're the better musically (if not economically) for having participated. For instance, from Dan's test, I picked up the Junior Mance with Eric Alexander cd and the just released Madd about Tadd CD from Continuum. Now, since I love Dameron, it's possible that I may have seen that from jazzmatazz but no way would I have found out about the Junior Mance Cd without participating in Dan's test. One good thing about the tests that have been run so far (including the current #4) is that you're listening to music that may not have been released on CD yet or ever. So, if you don't have a turntable, you're getting some good exposure to new song. Thank you Tony (Dr J.), Dan, Jim R and Jim S.

You're darn tootin! That makes two purchases on my part from your BF test. I better go back and check to see if there's some more stuff that I should be getting

I have no problem with this. There was some good information in those old BNBB posts, which I'd like to be able to access. As far as reading old posts, no interest, but people did post some very good information. And I'd like to be able to access it. This obviously means that there will never be a new BNBB. Hasta la vista BNNBB.