DrJ

danasgoodstuff - well, right back at ya...the "I'm too cool to be fooled by the backlash against the hype" bit is pretty arch, really. No offense, but that type of attitude I find way more reactionary than having the temerity to point out Clapton's many limitations as a guitarist. With many years of hindsight, it's clear that while he hipped many to the real deal, the emperor in many ways had no clothes. I'm a big fan of pop music and have no problem admitting it, including acts that are "hyped." This has nothing to do with a backlash against hype..for example I'm a huge Jimmy Page fan and I'm sure that's very uncool these days among those "in the know" because Zeppelin was so popular. But his work holds up far better than Clapton's...sloppy at times, yes, but the man went for it in ways Clapton never dared to dream. It's honest, chance-taking, and unmistakeably Page. I try not to pay any attention to hype issues at all. It's just that I hear nothing unique or compelling in Clapton's guitar playing whatsoever. As a guitarist, I feel I know what I'm talking about...you can sit down and ape Clapton in minutes, including the (lack of) emotional content. He don't do it for me, and I think many others feel the same after hearing the real deal. His voice, as I mentioned, is appealingly inadequate to me - it's not a strong voice, but one that communicates in a way that his guitar just don't do. I can't believe anyone would mention him in the same breath as a great communicator like BB King! I hold to my original opinion - a good vocal stylist, and other than a few early successes and the wonderful riffing and rhythm playing on LAYLA, vastly over-valued in the guitar department. skeith - well, I agree about Beck's later years, but he cranked out some masterpieces in my view. Take an album like BLOW BY BLOW - chops to spare, and some pyrotechnics, but ultimate restraint (a tune like "Freeway Jam" just sounds fixing to burst into flame but he keeps reigning it in, building almost unbearable tension). He kind of lost that within a few years and never did regain it, but for a time, unbeatable. We will have to disagree about Page, one of my all-time favorites. I never hear Page playing just to play...he was into building textures and layers and his solos, although often sloppily executed, never failed to delight and surprise me in the Zeppelin years. He went for it, plain and simple, and wasn't afraid to make mistakes. Just as importantly, he was NEVER a slavish blues imitator...while Zeppelin did some deplorable things in terms of aceing out blues artists from getting their due songwriting credits, as a player, Page build on the blues without copping wholesale. At his best there was a quality to his playing where he sounds always like he's about to careen totally out of control but somehow manages to keep it together. Personally I feel he peaked as a blues inflected soloist in the middle of their tenure, perhaps no more splendidly on ZEPPELIN III with the amazing reconstructed blues of "Since I've Been Loving You" (captures the energy of the first couple albums without the bombast of overlong and overplayed tracks like "Dazed and Confused.") After that he did some amazing things with texture building (large portions of HOUSES OF THE HOLY and PHYSICAL GRAFFITTI) but I'm not sure he ever reached the same heights as a soloist.

AWESOME!

Clapton is overrated vastly as a guitarist, I agree with that completely. I've always felt his strongest suit was his voice, which is appealingly inadequate and fits just right with certain pop material...I actually tend to prefer his pop work for that reason, although Cream was fun at the beginning (FRESH CREAM is just that). But I simply don't understand the appeal his guitar playing has had for so many. Not bad on riffs and as a rhythm player, but his soloing is generally sterile and unimaginative. If you're going to talk about blues-influenced soloists of that era, give me Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Michael Bloomfield, and a long list of others WAY before you give me Clapton.

I would think Dexter Gordon typically sells at least as well as many of the artists who've gotten the Select treatment so far, and probably far better...this makes great sense. My only thought is that he is well-known and sells well enough that they may just decide to reissue these on the BN label rather than through Mosaic...either way, hope Malcom Addey is asked to do the remastering!

Vibes - getting back to the Sony MDRCD3000 headphones, so far I absolutely LOVE them. Very "true" sound (no overtly boomy, artificial bass OR tinny high end - full audio range is reproduced with great distinction among lows, mids and highs). They do an outstanding job of creating a sense of space, avoiding that "in your head" problem so many headphones have. I've been sitting here surfing the Web for jazz stuff and listening for over an hour and it's like I haven't even started to listen yet - NO ear fatigue, and I do tend to push listening volumes a little too high sometimes. Ears aren't sore either, extremely comfortable. These are amazing headphones, I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Congratulations! Love that parenthood...

Lots of good stuff! The "big one": Anita O'Day - COMPLETE CLEF/VERVE SESSIONS (Mosaic). What a GREAT boxed set this is...I had held off on buying any of her sessions from this era awaiting this box, and it has NOT disappointed. Superb music, O'Day has rocketed to the top of my list of vocalists...Malcom Addey did his usual amazing sonic work, too. Pricey, but recommended HIGHLY. Baby Dodds - TALKING AND DRUM SOLOS (Atavistic) Red Rodney - 1957 (Classic Records DAD edition) Wadada Leo Smith - GOLDEN QUARTET w/DeJohnette, Davis, Favors (Tzadik) Benny Carter - 3,4,5: THE VERVE SMALL GROUP SESSIONS (Verve) Hamilton-Clayton Jazz Orchestra - GROOVE SHOP (Capri)

I got a DMM of Leo Parker's ROLLIN' WITH LEO and it don't sound that bad to me.

I've picked up a few more of these lately. The original larger mini LP sleeve ones were overpriced at list IMHO, but this was on joining BMG and getting a bunch of free discs. Dizzy Gillespie - AFRO, and Basie - KING OF SWING. Both highly recommended and in good sound. Have been saving Alice Coltrane UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS for the right mood, which may be this evening so can't comment on that one yet. Of the Digipack types, Giuffre THE EASY WAY is superb and again in great sound.

Happy Birthday, Jim! I've been starting to enjoy your packed 2 CD blindfold test package...no WAY I am going to have time to weigh in on opinions/guesses anytime before the new year, sadly, as we are going out of town tomorrow for 2 weeks, but let me just say I've enjoyed the majority of disc 1 (as far as I've gotten so far) immensely and I'll be catching the rest of it on the road in the car. It perfectly illustrates why it's so great to have you around here for all of us to learn from, not to mention that you sure seem like a genuinely nice person. Here's to many more years of BB friendship, I hope.

Thanks for the compliment on our little one, AfricaBrass...and by the way, I LOVE that seasonal avatar of yours! I can just hear the music playing in my head ("I'm TOO MUCH, ba bom bom bum, ba bom bom bum...")

And more recently...

My wife and I, a couple years pre-baby!

Probably the Illinois Jacquet, which is still quite good in small doses but just not at the top of my list (despite my abiding love of Jacquet's ballad artistry). I was also disappointed by the Bud Shank set...it has its moments, but overall I don't return to it much. Also, I find the hype about this music somehow debunking the West Coast stereotypes to be, well, hype - this stuff sounds quintessentially West Coast to me, which is not a bad or good thing but I do feel has to be acknowledged. FWIW, I love the June Christy/Peggy Lee set!

I've been on a big Evans kick, since picking up the Complete Verve Recordings box used at a great price. What a fantastic collection. I also just picked up the Analogue Productions hybrid SACD of SUNDAY AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD. I wasn't disappointed - like all the other classic Riverside SACDs I've grabbed that this fine outfit has produced, this one sounds absolutely superb. It's frankly amazing how much better the sound quality is compared with even the regular CD layer on the hybrid, and certainly compared to the old OJC issue. This is the type of music that demands the ability to hear every nuance and detail, and Doug Sax has brought it all out of the shadows. A bit steeply priced, but worth it - I'll be picking up the WALTZ FOR DEBBY and PORTRAIT IN JAZZ SACDs very soon.

Is Hamilton the drummer in the Diana Krall DVD, the live one from Paris that has some small group only stuff and some with the orchestral arrangements? Memory seems to say that this is so, and if it is, he's pretty damn talented.

Dan, I am happy to attribute this purchase to your BF disk...got mine last Saturday, and it's a winner from start to finish.

Ooops, what was I thinking about that Oliver tune! There is a Thad Jones piece on the same CD but obviously not that one! Thanks for the tip Free for All, I am particularly interested in the Rosnes big band recording, being a fan of her small group work.

I've been on a big band kick lately, big time. Was just turned on to trombonist Fedchock and his band by a jazz loving friend, who knew I'd enjoy their stuff. And I did! ON THE EDGE is a fantastic album, full of interesting originals, great arrangements, and a real connoisseur's choice of covers ("Isfahan," Lee Morgan's "Ceora," Shorter's "Virgo," Jaco's "Teen Town," and Thad Jones "111-44" to name a few). Rick Margitza is one of the best soloists, along with Fedchock himself and pianist Allen Farnham, who is absolutely on fire throughout this album. Wonderfully recorded date, too. If you dig modern big bands, get it, get it, get it.

And I been snoozin', apparently, since I've never even heard of 'em until now. Although I am quite familiar with many of the members (Rickey Woodard I've always felt was an underrated tenor player, so glad to see him there, and of course there's Snooky Young). So what's the verdict? Very favorable reviews of their recordings in All Music Guide. Are they worth it? Where to start if so?

You gotta get all the Dizzy you can find from that era...great stuff. I am still partial to BLUES IN TRINITY (the opening cut alone is worth it) and COMIN' ON, which is one of the more remarkable pieces of vault mining in recent years. As much as I like SOUNDIN' OFF and STAR BRITE, which is a lot, they pale in comparision to those two dates in my view because they are more of the mainstream mold of the era, less quirky and adventurous. You get Dizzy's full compositional genius on the first two.

Still need to check out the McFarland, as well as about 95% of the rest of the box! I'm gonna be immersed for weeks. Will post impressions...

I'll definitely be spending some yuletide cash on Mosaics. In my crosshairs are: For "regular" Mosaics: The Stuff Smith and Anita O'Day boxes (I'm going roughly chronologically from oldest to newest releases, and those are up next, plus I've been on a major O'Day jag ever since seeing her amazing performance of "Sweet Georgia Brown" in the JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY Newport documentary). For Selects: Chambers, Patton, Amy, and Pearson are all fair game - probably will boil down to one or two and again probably will go with the "oldest" (Chambers and Patton)

I had really good luck this weekend, picking up used copies of: THE COMPLETE BILL EVANS ON VERVE box - $129, in excellent condition! Richard Williams - NEW HORN IN TOWN (Candid) - this on LP, a 1977 Barnaby reissue that's in pretty darn good sound, for $6 Re: the Williams, I have seen a CD version listed of this in the past but just did quick searches of Ebay, Half.com, Dusty Groove, and some other sites and didn't see any CD copies available. Has it ever been relatively widely available? Seems like some of those Candid reissues of 60's sessions have been as rare as hen's teeth.

I made what I think is an EXCELLENT find this weekend - the COMPLETE BILL EVANS ON VERVE box for $129, used but in perfect condition! I can't wait to tuck into listening to this one in detail, so far have just sampled Disc 12 (some of the Vanguard material with Gomez and Philly Joe - outstanding!). The notes to this box are truly wonderful, you get way more for your money's worth than in many boxed sets and the quality of writing and analysis is strong. I love the interviews with the musicians, many of them (e.g. Marc Johnson) played with Evans for years, really knew the music and the man inside out. Some touching stuff. Now to the original subject of the thread: my box is pretty rusty all over, and I think it looks kind of cool (although it's too big to fit on my storage shelves, so into the closet it goes). I've seen some much more artistic rust/age patterns on other copies of the box, but as they all were selling for $250-300, given the price I got, I can live with a generic looking rust pattern!