[Charles Mingus Sextet Live in Rotterdam 1970]

I heard about this cd on the Duke-Lym list serve and got it (at great expense) because it has a bonus track of the Ellington band doing The Clown with narration by Ellington and I've always wanted to hear that. That track is good but the bonus for me is the Mingus concert. There are very few recordings of Mingus between '65 and '70 and this concert is a great addendum to the Mosaic box set. For me it's even more exciting than any of the concerts on the box set.

The "great expense" is because it cost 9 Euros to get it from Europe via snail mail. One hopes that it will be available in North America soon. But for those of you in Europe......

I have had and keep that double DIW cd. I buyed it maybe 15 years ago for the very same Medjuck reason: no Mingus music available from UCLA (Music Written for Monterey, not Heard...) 1965 to this 1970 concert, due to pretty likable health problem of the bassist.

The sound is really good compared to the last live recordings he had made. I remember an impossibly frantic version of OP (aka The Man Who Never Sleeps, Oscar Pettiford).

[Jazz albums reissued on CD by Atlantic Japan]

Thanks Hans.

I see John Lewis's Jazz Abstractions is in there. I've got the LP. Has it ever been on CD? I know the tracks with Ornette are on the Ornette box.

Yes, I own the first CD edition I had back in 1993 (if I remember well the year).

In the Beauty Is A Rare Thing box there are only two ensemble tracks from Jazz Abstractions, Criss Cross and Variants On A Theme Of John Lewis (Django). The original have two more pieces.

[Is Paul Bley Retired?]

Yeah, that would be it, at the Cité de la Musique. Doesn't seem that long ago! I brought a friend who is pretty new to jazz and he said he thought Bley sounded a lot like Keith Jarrett sometimes.

A b s o l u t e l y true.

Just, truth is it's the other way around. Listen to George Russell's Jazz In The Space Age (1060), Sonny Rollins' Sonny Meets Hawk (1963). Jarrett himself -as others- took inspiration from him.

[JLH reissue plans]

Painted Rhythms was on CD, though.

Sure but try getting a copy.

I did it, two cds Vol.I and II.

Had it from japan many years ago. Pretty essential solo Blake performances, true.

[Which jazz musician do you listen to the most frequently?]

In 2011 I discovered Billy MItchell, his few recording, mainly two Xanadu sessions, via my passion for Rufus Reid and his Perpetual Stroll cd, a fine Sunnyside session with Kirk Lightsey. I found by chance Rufus performed in a Billy MItchell's session recorded six months later that cd, with a gorgeous version of his Perpetual Stroll composition: De Lawd's Blues (Xanadu 1980; w. T.Flanagan, B.BAiley, J.Cobb and Reid by the way)). I listened to it an hundred times around while jogging and driving to work (my main occasion for accurate listening, nowadays), copied that damn rare Japan cd edition to some friends: An absolute, absolute gem. As it is the saxophonist's previous Xanadu session Colossus Of Detroit. Then I had some of his early recordings w.Al Grey, Thad JOnes, his only previous album 'This Is B.M.'. His Xanadus remain the greatest pleasure I had musiclly in 2011, with a few others.

[is Billy Mitchell of the 80s the same Billy Mitchell of the 60s]

Here's a pic of Billy Mitchell the sax man with Joe Turner and members of the King Porter band (taken from the "Before Motown" book) in 1948.

Is it only my imagination or does he look uncannily like young Wynton M., He Who Must Not Be Named On This Forum, here?

Not particularly, to me.

Nice picture, thank you. After some months I still often listen to his Xanadu 'De Lawd's Blues' and 'Colossus Of Detroit'. What a great, soulful and strong sax player.

[Which Jazz box set are you grooving to right now?]

The 2009 Black Jazz records 20 cd Japan ed.box.

I had this very expensive Japan edition because I'm a kinda compulsive/obsessive for completist compilations (I know, I'm in good company here). I decided after some readings stating short lived Black Jazz as very close to Strata East (wich I long love) and some YouTube tastes of their records (by Eric Reed, Henry Franklin, Walter Bishop mainly).

As many of the Japan reissues this is really an accurate and satisfying edition ( japanese-only booklet apart).

Billie Holiday 'Complete Verve', discs 7 and 8

Webster - Rowles - kessell - Edison...

1957 LA sessions masterpiece

[Dave Brubeck & Carmen McRae: Tonight Only!]

Well, I splurged on a copy of the early cd of "Take 5, Live At Basin Street." Very good release. Hopefully one of these days they'll reissue it on cd. (Yeah, right!)

They did already..... in Japan, where I had this very in 2007 attracted by Carmen singing Take Five.

This is why I will look for 'Tonight Only'; thank you for the clue.

[Sam Noto]

Act One is a favorite of mine. It is very good. In fact, I may go and put it on right now.

[Two nice Shelly Manne albums from 1967]

Yes, I'm a fan of this band, too! "Perk Up" is fine, and I've had a chance to hear "Jazz Gunn," too.

I started to love those two cds as soon as they appeared. I lookd for Perk Up later, because it has the same group of Jazz Gunn.

After some classic Manne, at the times of the university I was really in love with his drumming and his groups (More Swinging Sounds on OJC, 2-3-4 on Impulse!). And I still am.

[Arthur Blythe - Illusions]

I am recommending this fine Arthur Blythe Album! John Hicks on piano and James Blood Ulmer on guitar! Plus one of the tracks is titled "My Son Ra"!!

oh - and there is even a tuba!

carpe diem!

Wellcome aboard... It's a great record, really on the level of Lenox Avenue Breakdown. As said ALL Blythe's Columbias I know have great music, strangely overlooked. I love them, and I am insanely fond of these japan cd edition. If only they had produced In The Tradition too!

[Kenny Clarke & Francy Boland]

Hope they will be better distributed than the previous (limited editions) on Rearwind!

I had that as soon as it was available. 'Blowing The Cowebs' or the like was its title. The most unpratical cd edition ever, kind of a long black hard-paper box...

I am really happy for this 'Golden Eight Encore'; always liked the original Blue Note album, CBB's first if I'm not wrong. Maybe these are recordings from the early years of the band.

Edit:

"All the tracks, taken from the second of the May 1961 Golden Eight recording sessions, are now released for the first time, with liner notes by Mike HennesseyThis reissue is great news for the jazz-loving community. The multi-national Golden Eight ensemble assembled by Gigi Campi featured Kenny Clarke and Jimmy Woode (USA), Francy Boland and Chris Kellens (Belgium), Dusko Gojkovic (Yugoslavia), Raymond Droz (Switzerland), Derek Humble (UK) and Karl Drevo (Austria). And it was the forerunner of the legendary Clarke-Boland Big Band. Seven of the eleven pieces in the album are distinctive originals by Boland, the remaining four tracks being devoted to classic standards.The album opens with You Dig It, a brisk, marching blues by Boland with sprightly solos by Dusko Gojkovic, Derek Humble (in Parkerian mode), Karl Drevo and Kenny Clarke. There follows the Arthur Schwarz/Howard Dietz ballad, Alone Together, written in 1932 for the musical, Flying Colors. It is taken at a lively tempo and has Raymond Droz playing the melody on alto horn, followed by solos from Boland, Drevo, Humble and Woode."

Good enough for me. Hennessey is the writer of the fine, only Kenny Clarke biography 'Clook', an enjoyable jazz bio long OOP I had some years ago.

[Henry Threadgill]

(....) the closest thing I've heard to Dolphy's solo on "Mendacity"--something brutal, tough, and true, kind of lugubrious but fluid and unstoppable.

Now I follow you!

Verty finely expressed, congrats and thank you for the inspiring insight.

[Charlie Haden and Fire Music]

not least of which is my fiancee's unbelievable enthusiasm for the first,

CONGRATS!

That was my first thought too.

Congrats; envy.

[Threadgill and Air]

How many of you guys know this music already? Or are you just replacing your LPs?

Apart from the unreleased X-75 session, I have all the music in one form or another ie CDs, CD-Rs & LPs. It's music I keep returning to and I'm really pleased to see it available again.

I have all the cds too, even the CD-R edition of X-75 part 1. At DMG New York they said it was sold them by Threadgill himself. Anyway, I long waited for this Mosaic as I did with the great Braxton one. Ordered mine a few days ago, and just received shipment confirm today.

[Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets]

I emailed CAM to ask if they were going to be selling this batch of the direct like they did for the first sets. I didn't hear anything back, which suggests they might be on vacation?

I had some poor experiences of the likes with CAM customer-centric ways in the recent past.

This is disappointing, being italian myself. I'd not reccomend them.

[Threadgill and Air]

The upcoming Henry Threadgill Mosaic set can be pre-ordered now. It is scheduled to be released at the end of September and it will have 8 CDs. Sony engineer Mark Wilder did the mastering.

discography

Had it; already waiting for Ahmad Jamal's one. Now these are two different artists.

I met Henry in april, afther an awesome Zooid performance; kindly signing all the cd covers I had with me he talked about this incoming Mosaic box and its very good booklet essay.

[Henry Threadgill - any recommendations]

For those who like to buy new stuff, the latest Pi release is a gem, as were the two prior to it.

Threadgill's music has consistently be an ongoing orgasm for people like me who like to hear drummers...in the music. Don't know that I've ever heard a Threadgill record where the drumming is anything less than distinctively outstanding.

Strong point. His music is uniquely cynetic, indeed. Great drummers among great musicians.

[Favorite jazz books of 2009]

I'd like to read Szwed's Miles bio myself--thanks for reminding me of it.

The most enjoyable Miles book of the several I've read. Szwed's one a hell of a good writer (IMHO).

Have you read his Sun Ra biography? That one was immensely helpful to me when I was putting together the "Second Magic City" show about Sun Ra's Chicago years.

Indeed Ghost. That book has plenty of love and respect for all the SUn Ra bizzarre complexity. No wonder Szwed is an Anthropologist... I never forget that whole page and more list of all the weird names under whose Ra and his groups played in their career.

[Joe Chambers]

Any thoughts on his latest release?

I ordered it after reading a review stating it is some of the very best Savant productions ever.

Chambers plays hommage to some of the music I grew with and love best, here. I like him very much in his classic Blue Note recordings with Shorher Hutcherson and Hill, where he is really GREAT, but he never convinced me much in some other more recent recordings as a leader (maybe the impossible comparision issue, though).

[New? 4CD Anthony Braxton set Old Dogs]

I'm intrigued. Not too familiar w/ Hemingway's work outside the AB Quartet, so I have just ordered Demon Chaser, Double Blues Crossing and Waltzes, Two Steps & Other Matters of the Heart.

I'd reccomend you to listen to all the GH quintet/quartet on Hat Hut.

The american quartet with Helias (Johnny Corner Song, Devils Paradise) also performs great music.

[Geri Allen]

Not easy to find anymore, but excellent: TRIANGULAR (Blue Note, 1989), released under drummer Ralph Peterson's leadership.

Yessir, that one's a bit of a gem!

Great one indeed; I was lukcy enough to find a copy of it.

Geri added some tasty acoustic piano solo (and less memorable synth) to the early Steve Coleman and Five Elements.

[Black Saint/Soul Note Box Sets]

[name='tranemonk' date='06 April 2010 - 06:51 AM' timestamp='1270551076' post='1014009']

I just saw him once in concert and REALLY didn't like his music....

Nice how world is different. I am going to a concert of Henry Threadgill's ZOOID on 6th of May and I am REALLLY excited and happy.

It's more than 15 years I love his music and I wish to see him performing in concert.

I think I'll try and ask him to sign some of his cds I love best. And his new Soul Note cd box.

[Ran Blake]

[That Certain Feeling, a Gershwin album with Steve Lacy & Ricky Ford. Out of print, but I bet Hat Art will get around to reissuing it one of these days.

That is really a superb session. Magical moments; Lacy and Ford are in their best attitudes.

The best version of Lover Man out of the Golden Age of jazz (and a pretty 'free' different one) I ever heard.

Made me understand why Blake is famed to be so interested in visual arts, in Cinema and soundtracks.

[Archie Shepp]

For later Shepp...

aaah yes!

I recently got a copy of the album Hi Fly he did with Karin Krog. I am ashamed to admit I haven't even listened to it yet. Is it any good? (easy to answer by listening I know, but maybe someone has something to add)

Yes, it definitely is; listen it some times. It's a very good session and they match in an unpredictable, very interesting way; Krog here seems more 'black' than him! Hi-Fly is some of the BEST later Shepp, in my opinion. He seems really stimulated in the setting and clearly by the singer's performance.

I am another severe judge of the last forgettable 20 + some years of mr.Fire music's work. I saw him live twice and found both experiences quite embarrasing I'd never take another risk. He 'sung' more than he played, and he merely, poorly shouted and played pretty bad.

I long Love his Impulse!, BYG and Enja's Steam cd, though.