JSngry

Hamilton & Pujols both are never again going to be as consistently great as they once were. But they still have moments of greatness left in them, and if fate (or whatever it is) decides that they will have those moments at just the right time, then look out. That, however, is a gambling strategy, not an investment strategy.

"It's all music" is accurate, but really too easy...nevertheless, I can't help but be interested in the way some people do some things...Phil Spector as "music" is not really that important to me, but Phil Spector as "creator of sound" and "sociological phenomenon" definitely is. Important and interesting. As for Nilson, hey, as long as you have "songs", then the door is open for anybody/anything. Who comes through it and what they bring is liable to be any damn thing. It's always fun when somebody who's a little unique comes in with something that is also a little unique. Life is a parade that is fun to both march in and spectate. And, if you can find the right wormhole, to do both at the same time. But sometimes, doing that makes your head explode from trying to find room for it all.

I am serious, yes.

But nobody's gotten to Motivation. Somebody does, and it's a deal-changer, musically.

As an "industry", Country is pretty much a singles music. One story/one song at a time. And Country radio still matters the way that it doesn't for other musics. Hit singles are still very much the name of that game. But if you think about it, a song like "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is pretty much an entire concept album condensed into one song.

Here's an early Nilsson song, covered by the Ronettes in 1965 but not released until somewhere in the 70s. I think it's a minor miracle as a record (not so much as a song) and would have been a major miracle (as a record and as a teen-fantasy-song) if there would have been a third verse to tie it all together after the bridge. But that bridge...whoa.

I gotcher Monitor right here, baby! http://www.monitorbeacon.net/sounds/Monitor_Beacon.mp3

Wish I could have hear them like that...even when I got to them, it was obvious that this guy was deep into his own thing (to use a cliche...). I can tell you this though - Motivation has gotten all but lost, and it is all of that, and maybe even more.

There's a Load more topics link at the bottom of the page that I assume won't stop until you come out the other side, but other than that, hmmmm...

Dell monitors might be pricier than you'd like, but they'll last damn near forever and give you a good picture while doing so. That might be just as true of other monitors, but I'll vouch for it to be true for Dells. If you're like me, you look at some kind of monitor in some form or fashion more hours a day than you sleep, so get something good. A few more $ up front more than pays for itself over the life of the device, in both quality of product and quality of life.

All the more reason to push for a biggish box. Bill Barron cannot be denied...if not Mosaic, then no complaints when it goes shady. And if the number of discs doesn't meet the math, hey. World gone wrong. Again and/or more so.

You know who deserves a Select from his Muse work (if the quantity is there) - Bill Barron. Three albums of knotty compositions and knowing playing. Not a slack moment to be heard. Although - if Muse is now owned by Savoy, consider a combined Savoy/Muse set...hey, wouldn't that be something? Bill Barron is still grossly under-appreciated, imo.

Where was Evan Longoria THIS time?

OTOH, people used to complain about digipacks when the tray would come unglued and then there was no way to put it back right. Ain't no living in a perfect world, although my workaround for this set would be a gatefold LP replica-ish cover. That might be more expensive, though? But really, I'm not thrilled with either jewel box or digipack to be honest. The former just seems...wasteful, the latter not really sturdy.

Maybe he had a secret affection for space monkeys but didn't want to go public with it?

Woody was a warrior, imo. The later Muse sides are in no ways bad, at times often very good. It's just not the same...or at least it wasn't in real time...the cover photos (and album designs) are still sad for me to look like...it's as if he went from being presented as A Significant Musical Voice to Just Another Jazz Trumpeter.. But I have it all, because it is all part of the story, and it's a story that needs to be heard as much in its ending as in its glories.

The Rise And Fall Of Woody Shaw has been well documented, especially in the notes to the the Mosaic Columbia set. Woody seemed to be at his most engaged when he had a regular working band...something he did not have when the later Muse dates were done.

And please don't forget that 45s usually are mastered differently than the LPs. They can really get in your face that way. They're supposed to.

WOO!

Important point (although perhaps not an important consideration) - this material covers Woody on the ascent as an "important" (in high visibility/market terms) composer/bandleader/trumpet influence and then Woody after he had peaked in market terms. Still a great, great player, but his post-Columbia Muse sides are more or less blowing sessions on familiar tunes with a hired-for-the-session group of "the usual suspects" of the time. In effect, it's one set that serves as a two-part bookend for the Columbia set. All of it very good, but pretty dramatic in "how quickly things changed"..

The Shaw CDs (especially from the post-Columbia albums) would sometimes have alternate takes(IIRC). So if you were a LP baby like me, hey, good thing. I've got everything in here in LP and/or CD form, but hell, I'll buy it at some point, just because it's good (at times great) music, and because it'll be my money going into pockets against which I have no objection. Besides, Fred RULZ these days in my world.

It's a blue/grey label Ornette/Atlantic 45 of Una Muy Bonita (Parts 1 & 2).

I do have this one: One of the first jazz records I owned, in fact. A mundanely bizarre story about how I got it, but unless you want to hear about my cognitively challenged cousin, his father, who loved big bands, the friendship his father had with a DJ at the Kilgore, TX AM station, and all of that, hey, some other time, perhaps. But that's the basics.

I'm willing to give it one more shot, actually.