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Thanks Ron S for the overview. It sounds like a terrific set. Whew, you had me going there for a minute--Al Hirt?! Interesting to hear about the Ellis session... Asunto is an unfamiliar name to me and I was curious about that disc. I'm looking forward to getting this set soon.

1996 after seeing an ad somewhere--I requested a catalog and I think my first purchase was the Decca Armstrong set. One of the earlierst sets I ordered, perhaps the second one, was the Tea Capitol set. For some reason DHL left it at a neighbor's house rather than just placing inside my door or something. I remember being so excited for the set I stayed up late into the night wating for the neighbor to return from her job at a bar. I don't think I'd ever really spoken to her and she was pretty startled to see my goofy excited face at her door at midnight looking for my package. My wife thought I was nutty too.

Indeed. Coincidentally, I made a back-up copy of the disc with Benny Carter a few nights ago and it's been in my headphone set since--the Carter session may be the highlight of a box filled with highlights.

I hope you're right Lon--in the mean time, I can get my WH fix, if/when I need one, from the Columbias.

This is going to be a tough decision. If I go for this, I'll have to postpone some things I really want--in particular, the Moncur, the Byrd/Adams and the new Columbia set. My listening interests have changed over time and I hardly listen to vocals at all..so, the % of music on this set I'd like is, judging from the discography, maybe half. Ugh. Why couldn't the 4 freshmen have been next on the last chance list, or something I already have?

A little bit off topic I suppose, but when visiting relatives at Christmas I was watching S & S when none other than Herb Ellis appears as one of Fred's friends. The closing segment has Fred singing and Ellis accompanying on guitar. Was Redd Foxx a big jazz fan? I know that James Moody dedicates a song to him on the 'James Moody' Argo album.

Man, I'm excited to hear first impressions!! I won't be able to grab this until April and so, until then, my only enjoyment of this set will be vicarious----do tell!

I work with college students everyday and, I know this sounds paternalistic, but what they 'want' and what they need are two different things. If one student in a hundred has his/her ears opened, soul edified and enriched, by jazz--music that would not have been heard by the student otherwise--then WKCR as we know it is worth saving. edited for spelling

The Orrin Evans is probably the one I'm most interested in from this group. I've only have heard him as a sideman on a few CDs (Ralph Peterson and Bobby Watson), and I've been meaning to try something from his as a leader. Apparently his stint at Palmetto is going to be a short one--one album.

A response from Gerry Teekens to my request about forthcoming CDs: 1. Orrin Evans--Easy Now w/ Ralph Bowen, J.D> Allen, Mike Boone, Eric Revis, Rodney Greene, Byron Landham 2. Eric Alexander & Grant Stewart--Reeds and Deeds: Wailin' w/David Hazeltine, Peter Washington, Kenny Washington 3. John Swana & the Philadelphians--Philly Gumbo v. 2 w/Bootsie Barnes, Larry McKenna, Sid Simmons, Mike Boone, Byron Landham 4. David Binney--Bastion of Sanity w/Chris Potter, Jacob Sacks, Thomas Morgan, Dan Weiss 5. George Colligan--Past-Present-Future w/ Vincente Archer, Bill Stewart

Interesting lineup, Ghost..thanks for your show, I really appreciate it. The Grachan Moncur show in the archives persuaded me to get the Select Any plans to do a centennial celebration this year for Indiana's favorite son, Eddie Condon?

Black Saint is awesome--crank it up and step back...it comes out blazing, and never looks back.

I prefer the Carnegie concert produced by Avid--better by far than the crackling travesty produced by Sony. goodman BTW, I'm really annoyed by the Schapp version of the '56 concert too. The pauses, the long introductions (do we really need to hear a 4 minute spoken intro), the twisted programming..and I don't think the remastering is as spectacular as the press releases and hype would lead to believe.

This was my problem when I placed a fairly large order in December. Everything was 'backordered'. OUt of frustration I canceled the entire order a day or two later. Then a few days later the CDs showed up in my mailbox and my credit card had been charged! So, they definitely need to work out the bugs regarding the 'backorder' status.

The world needs more Art Hodes, so I e-mailed Mosaic with the suggestion of a Classic Chicago jazz set (kind of like the Condon mob set) that draws on the Mercury/Emarcy and Dot catalogs (both held by Verve, I believe). There are three sessions by Art Hodes recorded in the 50s with various combos for Emarcy, Franz Jackson and Muggsy Spanier sessions also on Emarcy, and some rare stuff from Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman and Pee Wee Russell on the Dot catalog. I received a polite 'we'll look into it' reply which, since I imagine they get a fair number of these types of requests, was all I hoped for....

Thanks! I overlooked the Vanguard connection--I just checked my collection and indeed, there's Marlowe Morris, on the Jo Jones/Basie Vanguard compilation 'too marvelous for words'..time to give it a spin.

They may have the best of intentions in purchasing this catalog, but--it's a bidness acquisition and bidness is bidness. Anyway, I remember reading a few years ago Glenn Barros ( I believe) talking after Carl Jefferson's death about Concord's intentions to preserve Jefferson's original vision for Concord, while also expanding the label into new areas. Well, they've expanded (Barry Manilow etc.), but Concord hardly records any new jazz these days and there have been, I believe, numerous deletions. Concord hardly resembles the label it once was. I recently picked up Budd Johnson (Four Brass Giants) and 'Basie Reunion' featuring Clayton and Quinechette...I do anticiapte a gradual withering away of this catalog. I hope I'm wrong.

I am familiar with Jammin' the blues, guess I didn't realize Morris was on it. So he was apparently a veteran by the time of these Columbia recordings.

The previously unissued Braff session (Disc 2) looks really intriguing. Pee Wee Russell is featured on this and it appears as thoguh there's time for stretching out a bit as the songs are in the 5 to 9 minute range. A lot of Buck Clayton, to which I give a hearty The unknown to me here is Marlowe Morris..never heard of him prior to reading about this set.

It was unintentional... I think it's 'sleep furiously', but your point is well-taken. I just had two wisdom teeth pulled this morning, so my muddled thoughts are even more muddled than usual...let me just say that I don't think the amount of time that a language has existed is the decisive factor here...you and I could make up a language today as long as we both had agreed-upon rules for our expressions. Meaning is public, shared, communal...perhaps there are rules in avant garde playing but they're fundamentally different from the rules that are traditionally found in jazz (by rules, I mean structure, phrasing, harmony etc.). If the rules are fundamentally different, this raises the canard about whether avant garde is 'jazz'-I know most people are bugged by that question, viewing it as irrelevant, but it's probably worth noting that avant garde musicians many times disavow the label 'jazz' anyway. I guess if the listener is 'in on' the rules that an avant garde musician is playing by, then some meaning is being communicated. For myself, I'm not in on the rules, the game, so it sdoesn't communicate to me. My loss, I suppose.

I've used Christmas gift certificates to begin digging into this catalog. I picked up Hal Singer (BLue Stompin'), the Louis Cotrell trio, Jimmy Heath (Triple threat), Charles Earland (Black Talk), Teddy Charles (Coolin'), Gene Ammons (Funky), and hopefully a couple of others. Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Some random thoughts after reading the introductory chapter and skipping ahead to some later chapters. First, it's hard to believe that writing this perceptive and thoughtful ever graced the pages of downbeat. The magazine is apparently a shadow of its former self...to quote a quote from the first chapter: "The question it frames in all but words/Is what to make of a diminished thing." Fortunately, message boards like this, characterized by intelligence, spontaniety, and community (like jazz itself), have filled the void. Expression in jazz is autobiographical, but not self-centered (or exhibitionist)... I like this distinction in the first chapter--"self-enactment should not be confused with self-exposure". I really don't want to hear jazz where the only goal seems to be for the 'artist' to provoke me to admire his technical skill. OTH, the avant garde strikes me as exhibitionistic in this sense. It occurs to me while reading this introductory chapter that avant garde is parasitic upon the mainstream because to violate linguistic rules (as the avant garde does, as a rule) presupposes the presence of a set of rules (the mainstream).... violate grammatical rules and what you get is an exhibition--"Bill bed sara's angrily in slept" where the end is simply 'look at me, i'm saying something new by going beyond any sense of linguistic order'. Honor the rules, "Bill slept angrily in Sara's bed" and you have the beginning of a story-a story or a drama. I think a lot of contemporary players are capable of telling compelling stories using the language, linguistic rules, developed in the first 50 years of jazz.

I think the sound is pretty good too. Eldridge's session with Hamp wasn't recorded at the Radio Recorders studio in Hollywood (instead it's at an unamed studio in New York) and that presumably accoutns for the decline in fidelity. But it's not a major drop off, imo. I'm very pleased with the music on this. The histrionics are largely subordinate to the musicality--and it's good to hear these swing veterans in a setting where there's a lot of fire and drive.

Maybe a better point of entry would be some stuff recorded by pre-swing greats in the50s/60s...you get the best of both worlds: hi fi and great music by some folks around at the dawning of jazz. ANything from Kid Ory recored for Good Time Jazz or the New Orleans Living Legends series for Riverside (produced, incidentally by Chris Albertson) would be good places to start.

Welcome aboard, PMF. The 'Dinah Jams' CD which has Ferguson and CLifford Brown side by side is pretty instructive, imo. Of course, not many trumpeters are going to cut Clifford Brown.