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Grrrrrrrr Where the hell did you find that; I am still awaiting for a cd edition! (envy) I agree. It doesn't matter if he is playing Monk tunes, blues tunes, or with Lacy, Shepp, or as a leader. The whole history of the music comes through his horn, at any time. That is what I love about Roswell Rudd. I'd never say it better than this. You almost put on screen my thoughts

Somehow, in a way has little to do with technicality I fully agree. As you know I am a fan of your cd with Rudd "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground", and I really like the one Rudd did with C.Kohlhase too. I will buy your third cd with Roswell for sure. If it matches the aforementioned...

Indeed. Cherry is a scandal all the sessions long. I like the whole project (I bought the DIW four cds complete edition) really because it had Lacy and Rudd together. They play as they are known to, very good. The music is a bit too similar overall but is mainly Cherry -a musician I absolutely love- who seems to me here generally inadeguate and out of energy and concentration -not to mention intonation- on those performances.

Seems like he intentionally hasn't tried to, for whatever reason. Clifton Anderson, Mark Soskin, and Bobby Broom aren't it, obviously. True. To me this is always been a pity. In the years his awesome abilities inside a jazz ensemble seem to have gone, leaving an aureferential, solipsistic Saxophone Colossus. Always a giant (The Giant) but his musical developement completely stopped there in the '70s. I have seen him live twice 'recently'. Both times after the first hour of great soloing I really felt some well worth partner lacking.

Indeed Ubu majesty, indeed. I'd really like to try and make our pal understand this too!

Some months ago, as soon as was released I had the 'luxury' version of 'Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer' documentary. Well, it is fine and well done, a hard cover book, maybe 100 pages, containing the DVDs and essays about the singer's life and work (by Will Friedwald, George Eels -excerpt from the book 'High Times, hard Times'), many well readable articles and pictures from 'Anita's scrapbooks', papers and magazines in chronological order. Touchy suff with fine pictures. Pretty expensive; as I always blessed when I buyed her Mosaic nearly fifteen yers ago I thought it was worth it. Now after some incredible quality video seen on YouTube (see ) I am waiting to receive her Jazz Icons 4 DVD. The second DVD offers complete footage of the performances briefly shown on the documentary between the interviews. Anita at her best.

Now I received it and listened I can really say that 'crap sound' more than an exagerate expression is an untrue one for the 1994 McLean Mosaic. I cannot say these cds offer the best Blue Note/Van Gelder sound ever, but it stands pretty well the general cd sound of those recordings, nowadays' Conoisseur seies included. Bright, well separated, excellent drum sound, warm and definited bass sounds (the weakest feature, naturally, but not 'crap' at all), clean... I am happy I did not listened to such cr... arbitrary infos. The Ornette/McLean Let Freedom Ring cd is wonderful, a kind of manifesto for the jazz to came -almost never come bright as these two masters' music.

Yeah, I waited and watched until an Amazon seller had it priced around $15 per disc (ca $60.00). I figured it was worth that price, and after listening to it, I think I was right! (And I was lucky in getting the Vaughan and Washington Mercury boxes just as they were going out of print.) Many thanks to others for the recommendations on Merrill. I'll check those out! gregmo I had the Washington and Vaughan Mercury cds too. Whant a tease has been finding them one after the other! Never felt Merril's were as good as those, though (with the clear exception of the Clifford Brown - Gil Evans session). As it happens maybe I'm wrong; am I?

If you are amazed and intrigued like I am by Hawkins' magical music in the '60, I warmly reccomend you his masterpiece performances in Sonny Rollins' RCA 'Sonny Meetrs Hawk' and in Max Roach's Candid 'We Insist! Freedom Now Suite'. His playing in the 'modern' jazz music of the time, with some of the greatest players -like Rollins with Bley, max Roach, Shelly manne with their groups- was really not recognized enough, in my humble opinion.

Well mr.Colinmce you made reappear this tread on purpose to me. For years I have searched for this set, on and off, sometimes repelled by 'ebay craziness' and some foolish price. In these times of crysis with super-euro quotes I had it 'mint' finally. Weird as I found no bid on it, so I had the lowest price. Its cost -Big Euro withstanding- has been close the average nowadays inprint Mosaic Box, shipping included. Well worth occasion!

One of This year's discovers for me may well be Arthur Blythe. I already long had his Savants Spirit In The Fields and Focus, but somehow never heard those cds close, deep enough. Some months ago I finally did at lenght and was so thrilled and delighted by that alto/tuba/drums vibe I started to look for his earlier recordings. In The Tradition and Bush Baby had to be found somewhere in the internet, sadly no cd available ever to buy. Lenox Avenue is an awesome record, but Illusions thrilled me even more. Blythe's two recorings in trio with cellist David Eyges (Synergy and Ace) reminded me somehow of an american Trio Clusone - a trio I already I love, but a totally different one. Eyges and Blythe's duos are elegant and original. I've been less surprised by Blythe's collaborations in JB Ulmer's Music Revelation Ens. and in Roots group, where he sticks to his bebop/hard bop mastery maybe forgetting some of his originality. Blythe contribution in James Newton's cd The African Flower is again wonderful (well, he's given a kind of Hodges' pace here. Significant enough to me.). I still have to listen to the Gil Evans Orchestra cds with him. The Columbia Studio Recordings of Arthur Blythe would be a wonderful Mosaic. Wouldn't it? Anybody listening? One more year's best has been Gerry Hemingway. Following his contributions in classic Braxton's performances on Hat and more recently in Lisa Sokolov records, I had one by one all Hemingway's HatArt and '90s quintet recordings with Reijseger, Moore, Weirbos. Another serie of masterpieces I long overlooked back then, strong and thoughtful music where extended improvisation often appear hard to distinguish from the written sections. All the performances, to me particoulary Slamadam and Marmalade King are really some of the finest jazz music I know from the '90s.

This is a wonderful cd. Touching how he was still so good and so deep a player few weeks before his death. I think you should not miss Carmen McRae version, on Carmen Sings Monk, her late masterpiece. Rouse himself plays in two live tracks on the cd; Ruby 'only' has a beautiful solo from Clifford Jordan.

Now that's a nice match. I think both deserve mention as very good examples of jazz documentaries, with their little faults. Miles' clearly have had easily superior budget and video quality. The full IOW footage had to be inserted in some worth presentation.

Correct. I have that cd (along with Gunther Schuller and Ornette Coleman's 'Jazz Abstractions') buyed almost 15 years ago in a japan lp sleeve edition. Despite the wondertful musicians involved (Jim Hall, Phil Woods, large group etc.) Dolphy is almost unnoticeable in Essence, since does not take any solo. Just some sardonic bass clarinet vibe lost in the full ensemble, listening closely.

Thank you Ted, I'll try and preorder. I have a thing for jazz biographies -though I rarely found really interesting ones. After the famed 'Four Lives In BeBop Business' Miller's book may fill a disappointing lack of informations about a great artist

Clearly, a vast number of jazz biographies have been written, but which ones really stick in your mind - which do you consider unmissable? This would be a useful guide to me as to what to seek out next. My own list would have to include Art Pepper's Straight Life, Hampton Hawes's Raise Up Off Me and, possibly, Ross Russell's Bird Lives!. Also, in my youth I was very impressed by Alan Lomax's Mister Jelly Roll. I feel kind of "unmissable" Evan's biography How My Heart Sing, Coltrane's The Life And Music Of J.C. I love and I am emotively linked to Pepper's Straight Life and Anita O'Day's High Times, Hard Times, which complement ich other in a kind of borderline way (...). Another masterpiece of a jazz autobiography may well be An Unsung Cat, the life of Warne Marsh and the peculiar bio-interview with Lee Konitz recently published; its name fails me now I'm far from my library but it is really excellent and deserves to be considered.

Success to your project! Your previous collaboration with Roswell Rudd in Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground cd produced great, great music for my ears. I will be one of the first buyers of another cd from you, particoulary one with Matthew Shipp and Rudd. BEST wishes mr.Lowe. Edit: "he's a genius. I'm gonna write us some very basic blues, very repetitive but tonally ambiguous. We will see what happens. " A line like this already gaves me goose bumps, indeed

Correct! How could I forget that one with Manne, some of the best Benny Carter?

Generally agreed and aware of the problem, when it comes to jazz biographies...

I'll be preordering it as soon as it becomes possible -though I own nearly all the cds. Braxton set has been a great one. I expext no less.

Cannot think of Ruby My Dear today without hearing Carmen McRae's voice spinning in my head, her late magical performance of the tune in Carmen Sings Monk (1987), and in her Live In Montreal DVD (same year, same group).

That cd, must be the trio's first, is the Allen/Haden/Motian masterpiece in my opinion.

Apropos of this comment, I would add that, personally, if metaphysics allowed me to choose any period to hear Sonny live on a good night, it would unquestionably be in the mid '60s. I am deeply glad too, hearing the rising consideration for Rollins' work of the '60s, his last great, major period of creativity. Often -and mainly in the past, maybe- this 'middle' period has been overlooked because of the masterpieces in the previous decade, the hystorical collaborations he had (Davis, Silver, Monk, Roach etc.) and maybe because it gets close to the fusion years, the lower inspiration Rollins' music showed (it had to happen one day) in the '70s, after the second rertire from the musical scene.

Hi Mike. Yes, I am pretty confident he recorded with Humes the first of the three famous Contemporary sessions, 'Songs I Like To Sing', in the late '50s- maybe early '60s. It's an awesome big band record where he takes solos in just a couple of tunes (if I am not wrong a wonderful double-tempo version of If I Could Be With You is one of them; gives me goose skin just remembering the performance). Speaking of vocal jazz Masterpieces here you cannot forget some of the best Billie Holiday since her Lester Young days: the Graz's genuary 1957 sessions Webster and the singer have had with Sweets Edison, Barney Kessell and Jimmy Rowles in Verve cds like Songs For Distingue Lovers or All Or Nothing At All . ciao Armando