T.D.

Thanks again. DG came through and the disc arrived today. Your comments on sonics were absolutely spot on, and I'm happy with the purchase.

Links incl. above indicate the band was formed in early 1944, which would make Monk (b. 10/17) 26. That's a surprise, I agree with you on Monk's youthful appearance in the pic.

You mean trumpet (Benny Harris) and bass? Eddie Robinson on bass? If correct, credit to Messrs. Google; I didn't recall. The band is named in Kelley's Monk bio, which I've read but no longer own. See e.g. https://www.richardvacca.com/on-march-18-1944/ The relevant excerpt from Kelley is also on Google Books.

Dunno about the former, will offer Euro PD labels for the latter.

The "Conclusion" of Art Pepper's book Straight Life is a 2-page description of an on-stage competition with Stitt at the Black Hawk in SF. Great passage, highly recommended, I'm too lazy to type it all in. Starts (more or less) and ends with "But Sonny is one of those guys, that's the thing with him. It's a communion. It's a battle. It's an ego trip. It's a testing ground. And that's the beautiful part of it. ... and when I finally finished I was shaking all over; my heart was pounding; I was soaked in sweat, and the people were screaming; the people were clapping, and I looked at Sonny, but I just kind of nodded, and he went 'All right.' And that was it. That's what it's all about."

Fully informed is a good way to go! I had a product alert for the disc once before, but it sold out before I made up my mind. I used to maintain a lot of product alerts at DG, but switched to using a watch list because I was getting too many tempting e-mails about pricey Japanese reissues.

Many thanks for the helpful comments. I have the Black Lion CD and agree about the woeful SQ. Considered purchasing this reissue, but held off because I didn't see any reviews mentioning improved sonics. Too late now (sold out, my fault for failing to carpe diem), but I'll buy a reasonably priced used copy if one surfaces. Still showing "in stock" at DG, ordered! Maybe the most I've ever paid for a single CD, but I just finished my tax return and have a surprising refund coming, call it a YOLO buy.

Cool. You got a good chunk of the poetry in attractive formats. I found the poetry not uniformly excellent. Many awesome pieces, but quite a few that aren't particularly good, and Ra's verbal/typographical permutational tricks wear thin in large doses. Needless to say, YMMV. The Thmei Research pamphlets, broadsheets, etc. discussed in Sites's recent Sun Ra's Chicago seem weirder and more interesting. I'd like to read more of that stuff. Revisiting my copy of Szwed's outstanding Space is the Place bio, I was surprised to see no mention of Thmei. There seem to be archives at https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.ABRAHAMA (Alton Abraham collection at U of Chicago - the mother lode!) and http://archives.nypl.org/scm/29921 (NY Pub. Library, much smaller, from Pat Patrick estate)

This has a lot of writing, far from cheap but still on the charts: I have a copy, and to be honest I found it a bit disappointing. Having just finished the Sites book Sun Ra in Chicago, I think The Wisdom of Sun Ra (unfortunately, given availability) would be a better read.

This recent release got my attention due to Bach being played on Fender Rhodes, but only on 1 track. The English Suite No. 2 in A minor, BWV807, played both on regular piano and Rhodes. Rest of the disc looks interesting, but I haven't heard it. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8795778--bells

If I can check out a copy via interlibrary loan*, will do so. Won't purchase, though. *Not that unlikely; only last week I finished Sites's Sun Ra in Chicago. Searched for the title on a whim, not expecting to find it, but a brand new hardcover came in through ILL.

April 18 "Premieres" https://live.bangonacan.org/april-marathon-2021/ Incl. Matana Roberts, Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Good luck. I put together a "synthetic" Hill Mosaic a year or two ago (took about a year - I didn't want to pay really high prices) by picking up the individual discs I didn't already own. I see one on discogs from a Netherlands seller at $15 and change shipped to USA, would go for that in your position.

I avoided Hovhaness for the longest time b/c I couldn't imagine I'd like his music. Only this year I got a recording of Mysterious Mountain (cond. Schwarz, part of a Delos American composers compilation via Berkshire) and (surprisingly) loved the piece. But he seems to be a polarizing composer, so it could go either way. I don't have a desire to acquire many recordings of H's work - huge volume of compositions and perhaps a lot of them are somewhat similar.

I was once an intrepid explorer of new music (particularly from Berkshire, as that was a cheap way to experiment), but cut back dramatically because far too many discs failed to provide lasting pleasure and got culled. And there was little market for the obscure US composers. I did a big Euro-contemporary classical cull 10-12 (or so) years ago and was able to make decent money off it via eBay and Amazon. Nowadays I just give the stuff away; local public library won't even take CDs. Some even go direct to dumpster these days. From the above list, I culled a Brant and some Martino; still have a Martino piano disc that probably won't survive. Saw Eighth Blackbird once in concert and loved them; bought one compilation disc and hated it, rapid cull. Have one Lazarof recording which only survived because it's a postscript to good Varèse performances on a Vanguard Classics disc with Abravanel conducting. My jazz and standard repertory classical culls have mostly been single discs that became duplicated by box purchases. Larger ones may be forthcoming.

Agreed. Honestly, IMO most of Mosaic's communications and actions over the past 3 or so years have pretty much screamed "Liquidation!" So I expect basically nothing and regard any further releases as gravy, pleasant surprises, whatever. After extended fence-sitting I went for the J. J. Johnson, one I'd long considered but held out on. No doubt heresy, but I've been in a downsizing mode (getting old, etc.) and Mosaic's bulky format appeals less and less.

I was notified by e-mail: Restored Version of February 21 Marathon Available Til 3/15 Tim here, on behalf of the whole team at Bang on a Can! Thank you so much for tuning in, for giving generously, for being part of this experiment in Online Marathon-ing. There were a few unfortunate blackouts in our last concert, so we went back to the live feed from headquarters and found that none of those issues originated with us (thankfully, since the performances are still intact). As we move forward with our next Marathons on March 21 and April 18, we hope to test all possible solutions, and fully expect to stream great shows without interruption. Remember that we're here to answer questions and generally correspond about all that we're doing to get back up and running post-pandemic. As always, we're looking to commission more than a dozen new pieces for the next (April 18) Marathon, and if you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to reach out to me (Tim Thomas). If, for instance, you want to partner with other Can Bangers and pool your resources, by all means let us know and we'll help you do some match-making! Again, thanks. And now, on with the show: FEBRUARY 21 BANG ON A CAN MARATHON RERUN

I've never liked the sound of the recorder, regardless of how well it's played. Fortunately, it's never been a problem in jazz listening.

If you're thinking of ordering direct from the label, take a look at this page: https://www.newworldrecords.org/pages/special-offers Gives a little incentive.

I bought the Japanese reissue of Billy Harper's Black Saint on 12/29. Took slightly longer than usual to arrive (DG shipping to me has always been fast), but not slow enough to raise any red flags. [Added] But my last Corbett vs. Dempsey order, placed at roughly the same time, was slow to arrive. Still within 2 weeks, however.

+1, emphatically.

Even in the short time I watched (arrived as Ingrid Laubrock was being interviewed after performing) there were several AV dropouts. I've always considered BOAC highly uneven, and wouldn't expect to dig the whole program. I get your point about the long quiet tones. My personal thing is pieces that sound like Morton Feldman (or to a lesser extent, like Cage "number pieces")...nothing against the originals, which I'm very fond of, but please, no more soundalikes.

Thanks! I saw this too late, was only able to catch the last 2 pieces. At least I got to hear the Lucier. I just signed up for BOAC e-mail list (duh, should've done it long ago), so won't get caught out again.

I own one of the Euro RVGs. Didn't know about the copy protection thing, (years ago) bought online the cheapest copy I could find, which was of course that release.

Slightly OT, but has anyone heard any of the Butch Morris Testament collection of "conductions"? Originally a 10-disc box, now sold individually, definitely got my attention.