garthsj

THANKS SO MUCH FOLKS FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES ..... I was sequestered away in a gorgeous suite in a luxury hotel with three of Hugh Hefner's recent castoffs for the past three days ... so I was indisposed and unable to respond till now ... I really do appreciate all of the good friends I have made on this list ... and newly reinvigorated, I hope to make many more contributions for the foreseeable future .. Thanks again .... Garth.

Can I make a suggestion that won't require any additonal fruitcake investment? Just bookmark this page and, once or twice a day, go to it and fill in the number 1 under "Stuck", the number 502087 (their new stock number for the Basie Mosaic) under "Nr.", and then hit the "aktualisieren" (update) button (sorry for being so pedantic if you speak German ). It seems that when they have fewer than 3 sets of a title in stock, it will not show up on a search of the artist's name, but can still be purchased this way (this is how I bought the Eldridge Mosaic from them a few weeks ago). Of course, if the set really is out of stock, you'll get that message when you hit the update button. But this way, you're more likely to catch the Basie set the next time they have it in stock (which I'm confident they will) than you would be relying on the fruitcake cravings of our European friends. Thanks Ron, I have that number, and also the number for the Sonny Rollins set .. and I will hit the button at least twice a day ... However, if any of our European friends really do have a craving for fruitcake, I have several I could pass on to them...

Damn! I keep missing out on the Basie Box Set. Could one of our European members please sit outside their store, and let me know when the Basie box becomes available again? ... I will send you a Christmas Fruitcake for your trouble. Many thanks in advance, Garth.

UNFAIR! UNFAIR! Just as I was settling down to complete a publishing deadline, this set of 9-CDs arrived in the mail! So far I have worked my way through four discs ... you have to follow the music with the notes, so it could not just be "background" music while I tried to compose thoughts. Allen is to be heartily congratulated on this realization of this very important project. As a practicing social/cultural historian myself, I appreciate the enormous effort that has gone into the preparation of this material; the music sounds wonderful, considering the sources, and the meticulously researched and extensive notes (contained in a thick booklet) are almost worth the price alone. As I already have Allen's book, this makes the whole enterprise so much richer and complete. The packaging is superb ... if only more sets were this well put together, and it takes up a minimum of space considering the number of discs. CONGRATULATIONS ALLEN! I cannot wait for the next installlment ... just sign me up for the series. When will it be available? Garth, Houston.

\ Damn, as I looked closer i now see that the alto is lightly embossed "Paris, Texas"!! ... and I thought that $49.95 was a real deal that Ackerman was offering to me .. Anyone want a Texas model mark V!? Very rare ....

Or how 'bout this: You trade me the Mark VI for my almost-working Realistic turntable, a solid state Panasonic receiver and a pair of Craig 6x9 speakers taken out of my '75 Nova? Can we met to effect the exchange in a parking lot somewhere in El Paso? Just name the place .. and could you throw in an extra cartridge for the turntable? Thanks, Garth.

Ahem ... well .... here goes! I just have to agree with the statement above. I know, I know .... but I have listened to a lot of jazz in my life, and I like to think of myself as a rather astute jazz appreciator, but try as I might, I have NEVER understood the mystique surrounding Wayne Shorter, in all of his phases. I do perhaps like his earliest stuff (on Vee-Jay) best, and then with Miles (but George Coleman, and obviously Trane, and even Sonny Stitt on tenor excites me more), but basically I find his improvisations boring and his tone grates on me. I even own most of his Blue Note albums (go figure ... collecting truly is a mania!). I have tried, seriously, I have tried, but to absolutley no avail. I have worried myself silly that I am aesthetically deficient, and have a tin ear; but I have finally come to the conclusion that for me, the emperor really has no clothes. I guess that I have just listened to too much Stan Getz, Benny Golson, or Dexter Gordon in my life .... BUT .. Hey! This is what makes art, right? We can't always agree on everything.

Thanks for all the good information guys ... My model year sells for about $2,500 to $4,500 on Ebay, depending on condition, and seemingly a range of other often indeterminable factors, such as the time of the month, and somebody with money to spend. It really is quite variable. The sax has very few dings, still has about 60% of the original lacquer, and has no repair soldering. I guess I will have a technician put it into condition enough to sell it, and I will contact Warren Sneed, who I have met in the past. I intend to use the money to upgrade my stereo system .. and I am hanging on to my clarinet and flute!

I have decided to sell my Selmer Mark VI alto. (Circa 1973). Can anyone offer advice as to which online site is the best for this purpose. Or would I be better off trying to sell it locally through the classifieds? If i do try sell it online, how much information do I need to provide. The instrument is in great shape, but could probably do with a repadding. (I have not really played it much in the last 10 years). Should I have it repadded before trying to sell it, or let the buyer choose his or her own technician?

In 2001 I sold my entire collection of about 8,700 LPs, and I mean practically every vinyl LP I had in the house, except for two 10" albums, the first I ever purchased ... I had been collecting since 1952! I just wanted to downsize, and by then I already had about 1,200 CDs ... I regret to report that I now have about 3,800 CDs, and gaining fast. However, I have obvioulsy not been able to relace everything I had, but certainly many of the albums I loved the most. I am constantly and pleasantly surprised over what actually does find its way onto reissued CDs these days. Who would have figured things like John Laporta's Fantasy stuff, or Fredrich Gulda, or Jazz Studio 6, and recently Harry 'Sweets' Edison's "Sweets" and Herb Ellis's "Ellis in Wonderland" ... But on the other side, where are all the Norgram/Clef/Veve and Polygram Buddy DeFrancos???? I still feel a great loss, especially when I see great cover art, but I have plenty of music, and lots of "album art" books to make for it. .. and I just scored the Complete Emarcy Roland Kirk for a really good price ...

From various record label catalogues (and old magazines) I have, prices for LP albums in 1959-1960 were: - Atlantic mono LP $4.98, stereo $5.98, - Blue Note mono $4.98, stereo $5.98, - Contemporary mono $4.98, stereo $5.95 (probably adjusted to $5.98 later), - Prestige mono $4.98, stereo $5.98, NewJazz $3.98, - UA mono and stereo $4.98. By 1963, Prestige had all its albums at $4.98, except their Tru-Sounds series at $3.98. I have had this discussion with my popular culture students many times ... consider the prices of LPs in 1960, and then compare it with the price of LPs when they began to be faded out in , say 1995. The prices at that time were only $7.95 to $9.95. There were almost no other enterainment commodities that had only doubled in price over that period of time. Movie prices had gone over four or five times in the same period. Books have gone six or seven times their 1960 prices. There was a definite consumer resistance to paying above the $10.00 price for an LP ... when CDs came along, which are much cheaper to produce than vinyl LPs, the record companies loved the fact that this broke consumer resistance to the point that we now have many CDs priced at $18.95 and even above ... Still compared to cars, houses, and even movies, this is still quite a good deal ...

That's an interesting observation Larry. What he actually does is more like humming (he has a tune called "The Humming Blues" on his Xanadu release titled "Flute Flight"). This technique came about at an early age as a result of, as Sam says, "trying not to make too much noise" while practicing in his parents house. Sam can scat and sing pretty well too. Not to mention his command of the clarinet, tenor, alto and baritone saxophones. This is an interesting observation ... in fact, Sam Most was the originator of the "vocalization" technique later used by Sahib Shihab, Jeremy Steig, and Yusef Lateef. When I was doing my radio show and mentioned this fact, I was "attacked" by a large number of my listeners, who were usually very friendly. I believe that the discographical record (no pun intended) will back me up, however. Sam is recently featured very prominently on a lovely album by bassist Paul Gormley, "DROP ME OFF IN HARLEM: The music of Duke Ellington orchestra" on Talking Dog Music. (Also with Larry Koonse on guitar, and Paul Kriebich on drums). Highly recommended. I should also add that he plays some wonderful early Guiffre-like clarinet on this album.

I emailed Mosaic about a Tony Scott set several months ago. Mosaic emailed back saying they'd look into it. Not a firm commitment, but it's something. The Tony Scott RCA material has been available on import CDs for some time. (I have them) .. but they could do with a solid remastering job, and if Mosaic could also include the Brunswick material (I know, I know -- different label)... what a joy that would be! Essentially I am sure that everyone on this board could name at least 20 albums that could be worth issuing as "singles". For starters I nominate Bill Holman's big band gem "The Fabulous" (with Charlie Mariano, Mel Lewis, etc.) on Coral 57188 (1957). Why that album has never been reissued I do not know? (John Norris did put out a Canadian LP reissue on the Coda label a decade or so ago..)

More interesting stuff for your consideration: Kind of overkill Miles Davis wouldn't have wanted his out-takes made public, so why all the box sets? By John L Walters John L Walters Friday February 10, 2006 Guardian When they were little, my daughters assumed that I owned the complete works of Miles Davis. After all, my collection - vinyl and CDs - sprawled over large areas of shelf space. In addition to several versions of classics such as Kind of Blue, Aura, In a Silent Way and Sketches of Spain there were live albums and videos, semi-bootlegs on dodgy Italian labels, curiosities such as The Man With the Horn (since given away) and oddities like Directions, a bits-and-pieces compilation released while Davis was out of action in the late 1970s. The Miles section took up more shelf acreage than the Beatles and Stravinsky put together, yet it wasn't that he was my favourite jazz artist, or that these were my favourite albums. It was just that CBS (aka Columbia or Sony, now Sony BMG, which owns the Miles catalogue from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s) was very good at putting out recordings that I felt I had to have. Through concerts, albums and investments, Miles has always been one of the biggest earners in jazz. In 1971, he claimed to be earning nearly $400,000 a year. By the 1980s it was $1m a year. Whatever the state of jazz, Miles always sells. So throughout the 1990s, Sony issued more and more "new" Miles albums. He remains a cash cow: Kind of Blue, his most famous and enduring album sold more than 12m copies worldwide, most of them in the past decade or so. Sales of Bitches Brew and Sketches of Spain exceed the million mark. Despite the fact that jazz's biggest superstar had left the company (and, in 1991, the planet) the company has managed to maintain a steady stream of releases ever since. This is why the Miles Davis section of my music library continues to expand with a steady flow of exquisitely packaged multi-CD sets with the word "complete" in the title. There was Miles Davis/Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings. The Complete Miles Davis Quintet Sessions. And so on, each bearing an elaborate engraved metal spine that makes the set look like a miniature tome from the British Library. They're expensive, too, I handed £50 over the counter for a discounted Miles/Gil box (my original copy of Miles Ahead set me back £1.50 in a charity shop). Miles Ahead is one of those "desert island" discs I've studied and enjoyed and shared with friends dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, yet I've only listened to the Miles/Gil six-CD set a handful of times in full. Somehow, life seems too short to go back for another listen to the seventh overdubbed solo Miles played on Springsville (he nailed it by take 10). So the imminent release of yet another multi-CD Miles boxed set, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970, provokes a new set of mixed feelings: anxiety about having time to listen; excitement at the thought of uncovering a treasure trove of unreleased gems. But is it really worth it? "It's more than the music," says Sony BMG's Adam Sieff. "Miles is such an important guy. What we wanted to do was something that had a beauty all its own, an object of desire. People will have the original classic album for the car, while the box sits on the shelf at home." Sieff confirms that the boxes have had significant sales - in the hundreds of thousands. Their best-seller to date has been the 3-CD set The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions. I remind him of the forthright comments from Miles's producer Teo Macero about these "bullshit" reissues. On many occasions, Macero has asserted that Miles would never have agreed to the unreleased material being heard. "Well, there are two schools of thought," says Sieff. "But when you're not constrained by vinyl, the box set allows you to include all this extra stuff. It may not all be of the same high standard, but historically, there's a damned good reason for all this to be released, and I get great pleasure from it." And he admits that Sony BMG is not short of even more repertoire to release. "Every time Miles farted they had the tape machine running." There's something intimate, even creepy, about listening to the vast quantity of recordings on these boxes; many of the tracks are out-takes - never intended for the market. And they seem to have become more obsessive, more microscopic. While The Complete Miles Davis Quintet covers three years (1965-68), The Complete Jack Johnson spans just 16 weeks. Now we have the Cellar Door recordings, taken from just four consecutive nights, December 16 to 19 1970, at the Washington DC club. Sooner or later, someone's going to find a tape of 24 hours in the life of Miles Davis and put it out as an 18-CD set. Maybe it's churlish to make fun of record companies for exploiting what they've got. At least the Miles boxes are thoughtfully done, with extensive (though often badly edited) notes and information, and first-hand testimony from the musicians. The comments from Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira and pianist Keith Jarrett on this new box are particularly illuminating. And one advantage that the Cellar Door Sessions has over, say, The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, is that each CD is a complete live performance you can enjoy in one go. When Miles played the Cellar Door he drew on a small repertoire of seven tunes: Directions, Yesternow, What I Say, Inamorata, Honky Tonk, It's About That Time and Sanctuary. If you have the 1971 album Live-Evil, this material will seem very familiar, since Miles and his producer Teo Macero chopped up their favourite bits to go on this very powerful and visceral double album. So when I tell trumpeter Byron Wallen about The Cellar Door Sessions, he says: "Oh my god, I'm going to have to buy it! Live-Evil is one of my favourite Miles albums." He argues that the quality of the music is less important than what the musician represents. "For me Miles is more a conceptualist than a trumpet player, though you hear Miles long before you hear about Lee Morgan or Clifford Brown. He's important for the social way he took the music, demanding respect for the music and for himself as a black man - that's very important." Adam Holzman, the ex-Miles sideman who co-produced the Cellar Door box, makes some big claims in his liner notes: "With the release of The Cellar Door, history might need to be revised; this music lays the foundation for what would later become the most enduring aspects of electric jazz and contemporary music." Yet to write history, you have to make choices. And Miles and his team chose the right tracks for Live-Evil. "When you go into the archives it's always a dangerous thing," says trumpeter Abram Wilson, "because those artists have moved on. Some artists, like Soweto Kinch, are uncomfortable hearing things that are just a few years old for that reason. But when you're hearing these boxed sets, you're not necessarily listening to them to worship the artist, you're listening to understand the process." Every artist has to make choices - you can't put every take on the DVD, every alternate chapter at the back of the book, every take on the CD. "Completism" is a curse rather than a blessing, whether in rock (all those dreary BBC sessions), classical music (perhaps the worst offenders) or jazz. The Cellar Door package is interesting, because Miles is never dull. Yet its existence - carefully packaged, annotated and over-marketed - in early 2006 says more about the record industry majors than jazz history. They don't have a new Miles, so they keep on selling us the old one. In Mike Dibb's film biography of Miles Davis, musician after musician tells us how maddening and iconoclastic and creative Miles was to work with. What finely tuned instincts he had. Guitarist John McLaughlin laughs: "Miles would find a way to clear the garbage out of the way and get to the essentials." I can't help thinking that Miles would have viewed most of these alternative takes and jam sessions as "garbage", though he'd probably use the same term as Macero: "Bullshit." Wilson is right in saying that we listen to these extras to understand the process. Wallen, who bought the Plugged Nickel box, points out that many of the performances on that live set are substandard; Miles was unwell for many of the dates, but was on good form for the album that was released at the time. "The question is," says Wallen, "would Miles be happy with the idea of releasing it in this way? In terms of the way people listen to music, who's got the time?" Big Lounge vocalist and trombonist Ashley Slater (formerly a Loose Tube and Norman Cook's other half in Freak Power) thinks about it all for a short while. "I know very little about Miles, except that he's my favourite jazz musician," says Slater bluntly. "Because he knew when to stop." · The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 is released on Sony BMG on February 20. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Here is an interesting article for your consideration .... calendarlive.com http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/c...oll=cl-calendar THE ENVELOPE One lone Grammy RSVP Many jazz ensemble nominees, including the winner, were too busy making music (and ends meet) to attend. By Scott Martelle Times Staff Writer February 10, 2006 Bill Holman wasn't at Staples Center on Wednesday afternoon with the throng of other Grammy nominees. If he had been, he'd have heard Dave Holland Big Band's "Overtime" announced as the winner in his nominated category, large jazz ensemble. It's not that Holman had something more pressing to do; certainly he wasn't boycotting anything. The Grammys just aren't that big a deal to him. "It's the afternoon thing, not the TV presentation, and so usually we feel like we're bringing up the rear anyway," said Holman, nominated for his "Bill Holman Band Live" album. The composer, arranger and bandleader added that he hasn't belonged to the Recording Academy in years. Big band music doesn't pay enough to justify the $100 annual dues — making the annual awards ceremony a whole different world for Holman and dozens like him in the lower-profile categories than it is for the pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B and country stars who soak up TV camera time each Grammy night. "I never have made a living from the band," Holman, who began his career in the 1940s, said this week from his home in Hollywood Hills. "Nobody does." In the upper echelons of pop music, success is measured in millions of units sold and, it seems, tons of bling on display. Nominees in the album of the year category have total sales of nearly 15 million copies. In Holman's section of the Grammy program, sales totals seem to be short a few zeros — some 15,000 units combined for all five large jazz ensemble finalists, according to a Nielsen SoundScan tally of sales through retail outlets. Not surprisingly, the winning entry, Holland's album, accounts for 12,000 of those scanned sales. The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble's "A Blessing" is at the low end of the SoundScan tally, with 100 copies. The artists and their labels point out that their actual totals, supplemented by sales at gigs and through websites — and typically not tracked by SoundScan — is closer to 20,000. That's still just a sliver of the 5.2 million copies Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" has sold. For these relative unheards fronting large jazz bands, a Grammy, while nice, probably won't transform a career. A few extra commissions might come through, a hall might get booked a little more easily. But there will be no need for Ray-Bans and floppy hats, or checking into hotel rooms under assumed names. Still it's better to be nominated, and to win, than to be ignored, said Holland, who won Grammys in 2003 for large jazz ensemble album, and in 2000 for jazz instrumental performance, individual or group. It "lends credence to your work," Holland said before the ceremony from his home in Ulster County, N.Y., where he was writing new music for a follow-up to "Overtime." In fact, he's never been to the Grammys, blaming lack of time and a disinclination to travel cross-country for a bit of industry elbow-rubbing. Though it's rare for contenders for a top award to miss the Grammys, only one of the five large jazz band ensemble nominees took the time to be there Wednesday. That was Chris Walden, a Los Angeles musician whose career is built on writing and arranging for other performers, Diana Krall among them. Walden was nominated for "Home of My Heart." Most of the other finalists were busy doing jazz. Sue Mingus, director of the Mingus Big Band, nominated for the "I Am Three" album, was in San Francisco for a gig, and Hollenbeck, the experimental percussionist, was at a sound check at UC Riverside's University Theatre for his evening performance with singer-performance artist Meredith Monk. "It certainly gives a lot of validation to the music," said Hollenbeck, a New Yorker whose West Coast appearances this week were planned before the Grammy nomination came down. "It gives a lot of hope to a musician like me. It's possible for the mainstream world to accept it a little bit." Hollenbeck says he's already noticed the effect. "It's always an upward battle for someone like me," Hollenbeck said. "I do my own bookings, and it's opened a few doors already for me." If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. TMS Reprints Article licensing and reprint options Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

I regret to inform the group that the great west coast tenor player, and also most notable as an arranger, Jack Montrose has passed away. His death was announced yesterday. Montrose was one of my early jazz heroes, and his fine albums on Atlantic and Pacific Jazz were cornerstones of my collection in the mid-fifties. He was a regular at the annual jazz weekend events put on by Ken Poston in Los Angeles, and was always a most affable man to talk to. He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered, as his music lives on. I am playing the album he arranged for Clifford Brown as I write this ... great, timeless music!

I bought the Mulligan Sextet from Caiman, through Amazon for $8.99, plus postage ... this seems to be the average price here in the U.S. to this point.

For what it is worth, all three have been longtime favorites of mine ... particularly the Herb Ellis ... it is a great swinger. Somewhere on this list I complained several years ago about the fact that Verve needed to reissue this one ... AND ... can we now possibly hope for a few more albums from the ABC-Paramount catalog? I certainly hope so ... ... and, of course, I ordered all three at the pre-order price. CDU added them to an order from yesterday ... so 7 CDs for about $6.00 in postage ... not a bad deal.

I picked up the DeFranco with Peterson for $9.00 (incl. postage) through an eBay auction .. the remastering is very good, considering that this album was recorded in 1954, and the entire package, in a digipack with good notes (in three languages!) was very well put together. I would like to get a few more of these .. Does anyone know of a site here in the U.S. that sells these?

I thought that some of you might enjoy this ... http://www.transbuddha.com/index.php/buddh...ants_on_parade/

There are two labels (among many) that could still be mined for very interesting, and necessary selects. Those are ABC ... with Brookmeyer, Raney, Farmer, Sunkel, etc. and Metrojazz with Gigi Gryce, and others. These selects might be more along the lines of the recent piano one with Fischer, Rowles, Twardzik et.al. I would also be obvious in ponting out that there are many Buddy DeFranco albums on MGM, Verve and Polygram that I, for one, would love to see on CD. Also, isn't it about time that the Emarcy Mulligan sextet material (including all of the takes, each of which had their own charm), and once available on three Japanese LPs were reissued, probably on a double-CD album.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "recorded"? (Do I sound like Bill Clinton here?) ... If you discount Duke's sitting at the piano during all of those sessions over fifty years with the orchestra, and include all of the sessions a pianist did as a sideman/accompanist, then I think that Oscar would win outright. I looked that the listings for Evans on CDUniverse, and there are lots of duplications ... not quite as many for Oscar, and many of his albums are OOP (pun intended!).

There is also a "Blue Mitchell Plays For Lovers" (RCD-6201-2) in this series. starting of with "The Nearness of You" .. and going from there. These are all Riverside recordings .... I know this becaise up until they were sold to Concord, Fantasy used to send me freebies of all their new releases (not the OJC reissue series unfortunately!) This was a legacy from the days when I had my radio show here in Houston. I have ALL of these compilations, and will wait for the day when a complete set can command an enormous price on eBay!. Anyone out there interested?

Interesting .. I just did the "math" on ordering the Basie set, and it comes out to $85.00 or $97.00 depending on the postage that you choose. It is worth it, I wonder, considering that most Mosaics seem to hold their prices on the aftermarket when you go to that big jam session in the sky?

The DeFranco-Peterson Quartet album has also never been reissued on CD (and it is a very good album) .. there was a very good remastered Japanese LP several years ago .. long unavailable .. I am not sure that the Herb Geller Sextet has previously made it to CD either, although the Quartet album has (I am looking at it now) and is also available on the Verve Vaults list. Is there a U.S. source for these? .. strictly for car play, of course .... quote name='brownie' date='Dec 27 2005, 02:43 AM' post='453194'] I don't think the MGM 'Hot vs. Cool' and 'Cats vs. Chicks' has been reissued in full since their original vinyl releases.