JSngry

Might want to break these down/up some more, because there was another post-Roulette stint at Verve that kinda ran parallel to the Reprise years, and then that kind broke down into the Dot years (two albums w/The Mills Brothers here, btw, in addition to the instrumental ones), which kinda ran parallel to the years spent doing one(or two)-offs for various medium (ABC Command, for example)-to-smaller (Flying Dutchman, Groove Merchant, MPS, etc)-to-smallest labels (Happy Tiger!), both with and without various singers such as Bing Crosby, Kay Starr, and Jackie Wilson. The Pablo years were defintiely a return to stability as far as label affiliation goes, and it had been a long stretch in between. Seeing as how those years found the band sorta wandering in the desert labelwise, maybe you could call them the Blazing Saddle Years.

1970 as far as consciously, actively, and critically listening goes, so that's 34 years, right?

I got #1898 and they told me there were two more left after that.

Jim, he's already aged 1200%. Think about that.

Saw this band live, and as great as the records are/were, live was that much better. A genuine band of eclectics, and it WORKED.

Thanks for bringing this back up, Nate. I've been meaning to do so myself. Yep, you hear it the same way I do.

Would be improper to ask you to share some of this?

kerfuffle?

You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.

The cool thing about this album is that nobody's changing their game one bit. JB is still sings entirely on instinct, the big band still plays like it's a 100% jazz gig, and Oliver writes his ass off (can't stress that enough). A few cuts are less successful than the rest, but by and large, this record is a blast. And did I mention that Oliver writes his ass off?

Yeah, that's right!

Yeah, that's right!

That John Hammond really knew how to leer, didn't he!

Shame on Peter Nero for dissing a fellow labelmate. The least he could have done was dump on Roger Williams...

Yeah, I almost sent Lucille a sympathy card and flowers...

Every major loose end tied up too neatly, with nothing lingering, and no serious repercussions, especially emotionally. Think that Tony's going to get freaked about how he ended up killing his cousin for nothing? Nah, by next season that'll all be forgotten. All the other tensions were pretty much cleared up. Time to start over. Might be a necessity for the writers, not knowing who's coming back, etc, or maybe they're angling towards making it a "long running" show, which I think would be a drag (it was with Wiseguy, that's for sure), but hey, money talks, right? All I know is that I was on edge until the Feds busted Johnny Sac, and Tony walks home, finds out that he's home free, and gets greeted by his loving and concerned wife, and it's "Honey I'm home" (I halfway expected him to morph into Carl Betz!), game over, period. I'd have liked to see an ending that was as heavy as what led up to it. All I feel that I got was a TV show. Not fair!

Get the video RAISE THE BANDSTAND. Trust me.

First impression was that the ending was a major cop-out. But that's not my final answer...

It was about as broad as is humanly possible.

Can't comment on Snoop's acting ability, but Mos Def was pretty impressive on that HBO thing that's been running.

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?...ic&frm=lk_jzmtz Link through http://jazzmatazz.home.att.net/upcomingjazzreleases.html The Godfather w/Louis Bellson's orchestra, arrangements by Oliver Nelson, late 1960s. This album has long been a favorite of mine, and some of you might remember a cut off of it from my Blindfold Test. Not 100% perfect, but pretty damn fine nevertheless. The program's surpringly weighted towards swinging blues and standards. and Nelson's charts are far above the often-usual "rote" work that he turned out for singer's dates. In fact, this might well rank as some of the best writing he ever did for somebody else's date. The band is kick-ass, Maceo gets room to blow, and Ray Brown on "For Once In My Life" will swing you into bad health, as the old folks used to say. A date that will delight fans of the finger-poppin' , and surprise many who think of Brown as only a Funk Monster. He proves here that if a groove is a groove no matter what groove it is that he can get in it as deep as he wants to be. One or two cuts fall short of the mark, but the rest is pure fun. Preorder priced to sell @ $13.15, so if it sounds good to you, carpe diem!

Just preordered for $12.59, linking through http://jazzmatazz.home.att.net/upcomingjazzreleases.html This one ought to be good!

Try reading the various biographies written/co-written by David Ritz.

Feather conducted a similar test with Black Jazz label founder Gene Russell in the early 70s. Russell was a lot more accurate than was Eldridge.

That I don't know for sure, Jim. I was in England when they were first released, and we only got the pseudo KC 7's on 78 rpm discs. I have never seen any reference to them on USA Lps. in my Ebay etc, searches. So I'm quite happy that Ocium are doing this. If they were issued on an American LP, it must be quite rare. Frankly the music is O.K... not exceptional, and perhaps that is why it is not easily available.. but if you put on your Basie Completeist hat.. well then its a somewhat unusual part of his output for the time. Thanks, PD. You jogged my memory re:the Jacquet stuff. So what was on Basie Rides Again! (1952) & Basie Jazz (1952)? The material on PARADISE SQUAT? And to think I didn't buy it back then...FOOL! We REALLY need a Mosaic of this stuff or some kind of cohesive/coherent plan from Verve (Japanese or otherwise, but wouldn't American Verve seem the proper -no pun iontended- place?), or else this is going to become one of those "exceptions to the rule" deals (ie - it ain't likely to be coming out anywhere else in MY lifetime) when it comes to my buying those Eurodomain discs. This is COUNT BASIE for crying out loud, and important material at that (among other things, plenty of Wardell Gray, if I read my histories correctly...). Everybody's doing right, or fairly right, by so many bands, it seems, so when I see, say, a collection of Ellington stuff on one of "those" labels at a "can't resist" price, well, I can resist. But Verve has not been doing right by this material (are you going to tell me that if they can't make the numbers work that Mosaic can't/won't do it for them?), and if they don't get off the stick pretty soon, my impatience will.