JSngry

Huh? Have you checked out Profoundly Blue on Muse with Houston Person?

A Mosaic of all known Ra recordings from his time in Chicago in chronological/session order would be a wonderful thing, but I don't think there's a business opening for that now. That's a good thing in that there is an active and ongoing market for all things Ra right now. Fortunately, the resources to "build your own" such set are available, so...carpe diem

Happy Listening! The Emerson was the one that really got me going, but since then, I've just sorta looked for different versions from different eras and regions. The music stands up to that sort of "different angles" approach. Really remarkable compositions. Right now, I'm keeping an open ticket for the Beethoven & Bartok cycles. Elliot Carter's too, but there's not a lot of options there yet. I guess it's the old section player in me, but a good string quartet and a good saxophone section can reach me when nothing else can. NP: The put this in the same CD as the Berg and ...that explains a lot of things LOL

Berg has for me always been the "warmest" of the "Big 3" of the Second Viennese School. The Juilliard reading here doesn't really play to that warmth, but it certainly doesn't sacrifice passion or other feelings. AFAIK, this 1950 version appears on CD for the first time here. The JSQ would record it again for RCA in 1959. Comparisons should be interesting, but that's for another set later this summer!

Truthfully, I never really found Pharaoh to be an "out" player to begin with. Very technically sound and working with the instrument's intrinsic mechanical capacities. Reactions are of course subjective, but the methodology is not. Mark's liner notes should cover this in inarguably sound detail. Looking forward to it!

There is the Blue Note release of Sinatra live in Australia(?) backed by a Red Norvo small group...iirc they basically, but not exclusively, limn the original arrangements. But it swings well enough! And then there was this outlier...

How often was "need" the only thing involved in making a Pablo record? Bags & Cleanhead swapping blues choruses with Jaws and Sweets commentating might have made for an even better record. Or not. It's a moot point now. They're all dead, so...missed opportunity.

A wasted opportunity, perhaps.

Does anybody sing? There are certainly options there!

That beard is value added!

In my next life, I will do my damnedest to make sure that I get to this music at the earliest opportunity, study it thoroughly, and reach an old age without a strong sense of regret fow not having done so.

WNBA is a good summer product as well.

Being included;

Is this an album of Roxy Music covers?

Yes!

Yes that one. This is the .oney cut, but the whole album is worth your while!

Would that all long times were good ones...

Needed to check ..yeah, this one is imo much more on point than this new one.

Mostly as a section player, right?

Are those the same guys that do Nintendo mariachi?

Well...the tempos are just too fast. Not radically so, but...,"The Barbara Song", no master how gorgeous, needs to hang in the air, not feel like the gentlest of gentle breezes. And don't ask either of these tenor players to assume the phantasmical spectre of Wayne Shorter. Otoh, times keep changing and Gil certainly did as well. So maybe this is as it should be, or close to it. But I still like the big hairy slo-mo codeine spiders of the original. Slow that shit down!

I was advised at one point to look for interpretations of these works with a "Hungarian" flavor, and I'm glad I did. These 1950 readings do not have that, and it's boldly apparent. But what they do have is a brash mid-century boldness of "modernity" and the works more than hold up to it. Either way, miraculous music.