DrJ

I have very few Lacy CDs but would love to hear more, these are great recommendations. REFLECTIONS I love - some of the best Monk interpretations ever. He's great with Herbie Nichols too - recently got a used copy of the disc that I think was under Mengelberg's name CHANGE OF SEASON: THE MUSIC OF HERBIE NICHOLS (Soul Note). As much as I like the Herbie Nichols Project (and I like them a LOT, especially their first disc LOVE IS PROXIMITY), I have to say this CD puts all of theirs in the dust, in large part due to Lacy's getting so far inside Nichols' head. I recently scored a copy of the out of print Novus CD ANTHEM which is outstanding and has made me want to explore more from that particular configuration of musicians he was using around that time. All the Novus discs look really promising based on the AMG writeups at least.

Well, YOU in turn HYPED ME Rooster...I just placed my order with D.G. (otherwise known as T.B.). This sounds like a winner to me. I almost pulled the trigger on his early live Canadian recording too but went for Lucky Thompson's LUCKY MEETS TOMMY instead. On a totally other type of trip, was also THRILLED to see notice that Hal McKusick's QUARTET and CROSS SECTION SAXES are slated for late November release and that D.G. plans to stock them! WOO HOO! Have my e-mail notification set up.... the Bastards

Snagged the Conn of CONTOURS yesterday and A/B'd it with the Mosaic version. Definitely the bass has been BOOSTED on the Conn compared with the Mosaic. Still quiet, and still I believe strongly something that was in the original recording, not something to "fault" McMaster about...he actually brought it up for the Conn, sacrificing a little clarity in the high end but overall the Conn is an improvement over the (perfectly acceptable) Mosaic remastering.

EASTERLY WINDS is a good one, listened in the car this AM to the TOCJ. I'm still not that enthused about the first cut, it may be more creative than most of the "Sidewinder" wanna bes but it still sounds somewhat dated and half-hearted to me (Billy Higgins just never seemed to be in to a lot of those types of tunes - his rolls and fills at such times sound almost tongue-in-cheek). But the rest of the record is quite strong, with a lovely ballad and some nice modal up tempo numbers. McLean takes solo honors for me, sounding quite like his usual self and bringing an edge that is much needed, while Morgan is a little laid back but still great. Wilson peels off some nice ideas, though I would never be able to pick him out of a piano players' line up blindfolded, and it's ALWAYS good to hear Garnett Brown get some solo space. It's worth noting that the sound on the TOCJ is not fantastic - it sounds very much "veiled" with the high end rolled off, unusually for that series. It could very well be in the original tapes (it has that kind of "distant" sound that many later 60's BN had, so very different than the nice, intimate sound of stuff from earlier vintage), OR the Japanese may not have had access to the original master and had to use an inferior later generation copy or even may had to have dubbed it from LP. I'll have to listen on my home reference system to see if I can pick up any tell-tale surface noise. The point is, it will be interesting to A/B compare with the Conn. Back to CONTOURS: I snagged the Conn yesterday and listened in the evening. Overall, it's a clear sonic improvement over the Mosaic box. The bass has been boosted a bit, most definitely - so those of you who felt it was quiet on the Conn would REALLY be dissatisfied with the Mosaic version! That sacrifices just a little bit of clarity on the high end, but it's still more than acceptable and overall there is better balance throughout the dynamic range and also some increased sonic detail (possibly due to a higher sampling rate or some other techno advance since 1996 when the boxed set was done). The good news is: the music still smokes! A truly timeless recording.

I've been thrilled with my Audio Note tube DAC set up: DAC 2.1 Signature which was fairly pricey but worth every penny CD Zero transport - very inexpensive entry-level transport This set up is really a joy. I have yet to induce ear fatigue, even after 3-4 hour listening sessions at fairly good volumes, including many less than pristine recordings with rather harsh high end. Interconnect between the DAC and transport is a huge deal too. Audio Note silver (I don't recall the grade but it was upper middle range for them) is working great for me, nary a jitter or other problem so far. This should be the next most expensive thing if you're on restricted budget. Don't skimp on this aspect of the set up. To answer Leeway's question: depends. If you get an all-in-one tube DAC and transport, right out of the box should work with any system. BUT you probably need to strongly consider a good tube amp and tube-friendly speakers to really make it sing. Some people would mix and match tube and solid state, though. If you get a separate DAC then you need to be very careful about good interconnect and pairing with a transport to avoid problems with jitter and other bugaboos. Otherwise, though, again you can go with either solid state or tube amplification etc, should work with any set up.

No fight implied, Jim. "Campy" probably isn't the best word choice in retrospect (hey, it was early in the AM my time!). I guess what I was getting at is that every once in a while the big band arrangements he did don't sound quite as fresh and modern to my ears as they usually do, and sound a bit more rooted in the times. For the sixties, probably due to my own internal associations than anything "objective" or common to others, that can sometimes sound campy to me. But I agree with your general points pretty much completely - and there's precious little that I'd place in that maybe "dated" category from Nelson (maybe for example some of the stuff with Jimmy Smith, very occasionally - although taken in total I LOVE those recordings as I mentioned on a Smith-related post recently). I total agree about the power comments. I think one reason he made such a good pairing with Dolphy to me is that he had some really unique stuff going on with the inner voices and there was that sometimes barely concealed dark power.

Yes, all great points Chuck. I'm sure it's probably no coincidence that the Blue Note sound became more reverb-heavy right around the time that a similar pop sound was dominating the charts, and more immediately as Lion exited and Francis Wolff (aided heavily by Duke Pearson) took over. As a case in point of different sounds for different labels, I was listening to Milt Jackson's JACKSON'S-VILLE recording on Savoy last night (1955 or 56, I can't recall which). That's a really outstanding, vintage RVG recording (not to mention the desert island quality of the music), and compared to his Blue Notes from around that period there is indeed a much drier sound. So much so that I was actually surprised when I went to the liners to find out "Who did this amazing recording?"

You're right David. Take a tune like "Fungus Amongus" from BLACK CHRIST, here she both skewers the avant garde AND provides a guidepost for where she believes it should be headed (and she makes a hell of a convincing case)! Not too many artists who could have turned out something that original and challenging at that point in their career (by then about 45 years in the running!).

Sounds worthy of investigation, David. I've been on a kick to expand representation of Fantasy Jazz reissues in my collection. With all the limited edition BN and Verve reissues, Mosaics, and hard to find small label stuff out there I have tended to grossly neglect the Fantasy Jazz holdings like the OJCs - due to their relative ease of locating them. It's like "well they'll be there when I'm ready" but ready never seems to come! So I've begun to include at least 1 or 2 of their titles in every batch of new discs purchased and I'm really enjoying discovering some dates that I should by rights have heard LONG ago - most recently PORTRAIT OF SONNY CRISS. The Oliver Nelson OJC stuff I haven't yet heard, like this one, is near the top of my list. I love most of the Oliver Nelson I've heard so far, even some of his campy-er large group arrangements. The guy was a real craftsman in that department, and I think his soloing is vastly underrated. What he lacked in sheer chops he more than made up for in the ideas department. While everyone recognizes BLUES AND THE ABSTRACT TRUTH as the utter masterpiece it is, it was SOUND PIECES (Impulse!) really turned my head around about his sax playing, and his collaborations with Dolphy (in the COMPLETE PRESTIGE Dolphy box) cemented his overall genius for me. Not an innovator, but a real artist.

As I often do I've been re-listening to the sessions I'm going to be snagging new Conns of very soon - this included: CONTOURS - a great, great session no doubt but I was struck on listening again that Rivers himself is strangely subdued. It's ultimately Hancock, Chambers, and Hubbard who seem spotlighted. Herbie and Chambers in particular, they put on a friggin' clinic of outish post-bop playing on the first cut, Hancock getting off a solo that rivals his masterpieces on Miles' "Circle" and Hutch's "Components" from around that same time. Hubbard gets a WHOLE lot of solo space, and sounds like he often did on these types of date: bravely game and hitting the mark more often than you might expect, but at other times spinning his wheels with pet Spanish-tinge licks (the tone is never short of beautiful, but he never sounded comfortable to me on this type of recording - he could play "out" more convincingly, but a different kind of "out" than Rivers went for). Highly worthy, I'll be interested to listen for differences in sonics. Carter's bass is fairly quiet and I don't think it's him playing intentionally softly, it's a recording thing - but my system has good bass response and he's still very audible and enjoyable - and I like what he does here. OF LOVE AND PEACE - other than a really rousing, no-hold-barred "Seven Steps to Heaven" this is merely good Young, not great, but that's still worth listening to. Young's post-UNITY recordings to me are almost defined by their very inconsistency and failure to reach the very lofty marks he seemed to be striving for. I don't think he always had the caliber of supporting musician to realize his vision (witness the trumpet on this one) - even when he had greats with him like Lee Morgan it was often a "wrong guy, wrong place" phenomenon. I also think part of the problem was that his vision was a little fuzzy, it never quite gelled into an actual conception or approach that he was able to communicate to other musicians. But this stuff still makes for a fascinating, worthy listen and sounds very fresh and modern, not all that very far off from the current "downtown scenes" in some of the larger cities in America. Young's organ sound is also a joy, instantly identifiable and refreshingly different. Have DANCE WITH DEATH ALREADY. After the above, EASTERLY WINDS and NOW (I only have that one as a dub from a cassette copy!) will be next, then Horace (never heard that one at all).

Yes, that was what I was assuming wolff as my ears told me it had to be so. Thanks for confirming! To my ears Rudy didn't have a problem with over-trickery until about 1966-7 or so. Up to then, even though there is a bit more reverb than some others might use, his recordings sounded incredible to me. Still, back to the original point - it seems interesting that RVG did NOT "trick" the original tapes of PASSING SHIPS, clearly...I don't know what that means, could it have been that he already knew that it wasn't going to be released? An oversight? Certainly other moderately large ensemble recordings he did from around that era (e.g. THE PRISONER) are floating in reverb. Odd.

There are simply too many Mosaics and not enough time and money!!! I've been salivating over this one since day of release. It WILL be mine, but probably not this Christmas as I am still catching up with older releases. I can't see any way this set could miss. On a more technical note, I like Kevin Reeves' remastering work. On a less than great listening system some of his remastering sounds bright, but the detail and presence is amazing, and with a tube system that de-emphasizes brightness the Verve Elites he did sound incredible. I can't wait!

Quite an accomplishment, and it looks like a fascinating read. Hope to pick it up very soon, thanks for the heads up.

Yeah, kind of a depressing thought but probably closest to the mark. Too bad given what a classy operation JSP once seemed to be. When I bought the JSP box I honestly had no idea they were doing this stuff now - guess it's yet another company whose stuff I will be avoiding in the future.

Fantastic. I've never seen it so WELL explained (and I'm being serious, not facetious). Print that puppy out and hand it to anyone who is silly enough to ask you to "define" or "explain" jazz. BTW, few people know that "Yogi Berra" is actually an anagram of "Confucius"!!!

Ah, thanks for setting the record straight Lon. Assuming the 2nd JSP is from same remasters as the Mosaic, it is very interesting how different they end up sounding. Maybe the same type of phenomenon at work that results in US and Japanese RVGs sounding different even in those instances where there is the same RVG remastering source.

The thing I'm more and more struck by is how much Williams was a truly giant musician. Note that I carefully and consciously avoided using the term "jazz musician." Not to take anything away from jazz or get overly semantic, but by doing this I mean to place her in the same company as the true greats of the music - Ellington, Armstrong, Monk, Miles, Mingus - all of whom were certainly steeped in jazz but ultimately sound like nobody but themselves. Duke played Ellington music, etc etc. So Williams played Mary Lou Williams music, period. You put on one of her discs and it takes you deeply into her world. It's hard to put into words precisely, and I'm probably missing the boat in trying to, but you never feel like she's "playing jazz" - again not an insult, since it's a pretty great thing in its own right, but the vast majority of musicians DO sound like they're "playing jazz." You have to be a true giant to transcend that and create your own little personal genre - and this is something way deeper than grafting on little bits and pieces of other types of music self-consciously. Williams sounds to me to have done that near impossible thing - creating a truly unique sound world and then finding a way to let us all in on it. Why it's not more widely acknowledged is kind of mysterious to me given how accessible her music is - warm, inviting, if sometimes a little on the religious side (nothing wrong with that per se but as a not at all religious person it does make some material a little less immediately inviting to me personally).

The more I listen on a good system, the more I realize that the vintage of the CD remastering is not always a concern. Despite being relatively early in the CD era, the Emarcy series of CD boxes/reissues overseen by the Japanese - including Brownie, Kirk, Merrill, Webster - was uniformly excellent, including sonics. You won't be disappointed at all with these remasterings. There are basically trade-offs to my ears: in some ways they are better than the more recent single discs (less over-emphasis on the high end), in some ways a bit inferior (less sonic detail). Overall I think I prefer these earlier versions, but the point is, all things weighed equally (having it all in one place, excellent booklet, etc), the box (particularly at a good price) clearly seems the way to go.

PASSING SHIPS is almost unbelievably good sonically, given the vintage. I would say it could make an ideal "blindfold test" if you wanted to fool someone into thinking it was a brand new Andrew Hill session (assuming they hadn't heard it yet). It's that good - puts to shame 99% of current recordings. Speaking of PASSING SHIPS being so good, I have often wondered how Addey did it. Not to take anything away from his skills, one thing that strikes me about that session immediately is the LACK of reverb, even though this was an RVG recording from the later 60's and many of his for BN around then were kind of awash in a reverb that I personally don't like much. But the point is there doesn't seem to be much way for people going back to those tapes to remove or de-emphasize the reverb, it must be on the original tapes (e.g. not added afterward). A good example is a date like McLean's DEMON'S DANCE - while some remasterings are better than others, ultimately this one is apparently never going to sound great because of that weird, spacey reverb that was used around then. With PASSING SHIPS the reverb just isn't there, and that was definitely in Addey's favor...everything sounds crisp and like you're in a great listening room. So Addey gets props, but give it up for Rudy too, who showed admirable restraint with the reverb! More Addey gems (not all BN but reissued at least by BN): Blakey's THREE BLIND MICE Vols 1 and 2 Basie - CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD (more blindfold test fodder - this is the most realistic big band recording on CD in my collection) Several Mosaics - Django, Kid Ory, I believe the 2nd Hodges set (stunning), and there are many more that I'm forgetting

Pryan - in some ways the Ory set could be considered "too much," if one were to look at it as something to be devoured in one sitting. But I like to savor these types of sets over a very long time period, gradually exploring periodically. In that sense I think it's just right! As far as musical quality, I don't think Ory's tone suffered even a little bit as he got older. It's hard to directly compare his work on the Armstrong dates with this later stuff given the huge differences in recording technology, but he sounds mighty fine in both eras to me, really changed very little although as Hadlock shrewdly observes Ory had very "big ears" and was always open to new ideas. You can hear the influence of the swing era masters and even a bit of bop and pop in his playing on the Verve set. BTW I'm really looking forward to the Teagarden Roulette - and will probably be getting a second copy for my dad for Christmas, he's a huge Teagarden fan. tatifan - I only compared the Mosaic with the 2nd of the JSP sets, that one COMPLETELY overlapped with the Mosaic box (pretty much identical). You're correct about the first JSP volume of earlier Django, that one is mostly NOT represented in the Mosaic so I kept that one. I have not delved into the Rome recordings yet so can't comment there. You may be right about the common sources for the Mosaic and JSP stuff, but for some reason there are sonic differences - maybe these reflect differences in CD production or something. However, I didn't think the remasterings were actually the same, even if they were working from common sources - Addey did the remastering for the Mosaic, but I thought Davies did all the ones for JSP (although now that I don't have the set anymore I can't check to be sure)? montg - I am looking forward to those Allen sessions!

Found used copies of both ZONING and ZODIAC SUITE in the Bay Area last weekend. Have only listened to ZONING so far, and again I am knocked out. The trios are fantastic - I even enjoy Bob Cranshaw's electric bass playing in this context. How have I been so clueless about Williams and especially her reissues on Smithsonian Folkways for so long? Can't wait to delve into ZODIAC SUITE.

In the Rivers Mosaic box, the bass is also quiet on this session overall and on the solo in question. I personally don't think it sounds "bad" just a bit quieter than on many contemporary recordings. It's in the original recording, I'm pretty confident of it. Haven't heard the Conn yet but will soon and will comment on whether my opinion changes, but I doubt it. RVG's approach during that time to me was defined in general by a relatively quiet bass level (another recent example: I just was listening last night to PORTRAIT OF SONNY CRISS done for Prestige, but another RVG recording of about the same vintage, and the bass is defintely a bit lower than many engineers would have gone for). Perhaps this was because he tended to record everything a little "hot" and with bass pumped up it might have tended to overload/distort or "whump" in the lowest registers? FWIW, I did pick up McMaster's Conn remastering of Andrew Hill's DANCE WITH DEATH last weekend and that sounds really good - nice full bass sound, although again not highly prominent - consistent with RVGs overall balance. I'm not a defender of McMaster for sure - as far as I'm concerned BN ought to ask Malcolm Addey to do all their stuff, even in preference over RVG - but I do think he's greatly improved his work in the past few years.

Well, having had a chance to listen to at least a couple discs worth of each, I'm thrilled with both of these sets. The Django is definitely a step up in sound from even the JSPs - although perhaps this is a preference thing, some could conceivably not feel any great improvement. The JSPs to my ears sound just a bit more "transparent" but they lack the immediacy and presence of the Mosaic remasters. On the Mosaic, it is truly like being in the room - really remarkable. Also, and I'm not sure how Addey does it, there is less noise in the Mosaic remasters but as I mentioned it didn't seem to sacrifice any of the presence (and specifically didn't filter off the high end like some of the processes such as NoNOISE seem to do). Also the booklet is Grade A, superb - that alone would make it worth trading in your JSP set (hey it was cheap anyway, so no big loss). Again I'm focusing on sound because I'm assuming if you've heard this stuff you already love it - so no need to convince you there! The Ory sounds fantastic - another amazing Addey job. The music is for me uniformly good, sometimes great. The booklet is quite informative although I feel it's one of those Mosaic essays that is overly critical. Some of the stuff Richard Hadlock points out as being negatives I don't hear, at least not yet. Basically, I don't think this is the type of music that stands up to deep analysis - you listen and you let it take you and you enjoy it when you're in the mood. So far these are the only New Orleans jazz recordings in my collection that actually sound and (more importantly) FEEL as though you are watching a group on stage - and it brings back some fond memories of local traditional jazz festivals like the one down in Monterey (which features some hokum "dixieland" stuff but a lot of really legit performers). Plus you can bask in Ory's remarkable tone. The Atlantic New Orleans Jazz Mosaic sounds real good, but either the original recordings or the remasterings (or both) can't touch these in terms of bringing the music to life.

Ah, great, the anticipation is building! Glad to hear that the Ory is so well-regarded. I really am criminally short on Ory knowledge and material, looking forward to making his greater acquaintance.

Yeah, sidewinder, from what's in my collection, the JSPs of Django's stuff sound really quite good to me. So if it's improved, it will have to sound REALLY excellent. Will post my opinions about that when the set arrives for sure.