garthsj

I was away from the computer so that others have already responded to Larry.. but I would certainly get the "Artistry of Artie Shaw" ... for some perverse reason I am also very partial to Joe Temperley's albums ... Those lovely bright yellow MGM 78's were the first "modern jazz" records I bought ... after wetting my teeth on RCA Goodman's and Shaws. I will never forget the shock when I first listened to DeFranco's version of "Carioca" .. it was enough to make this budding clarinet player want to give up the instrument. It still sends shivers up my spine today. No one can really play the clarinet that way! Most, but not all, of the MGM 78's have been collected in Japan, first on an LP (which I sold with the rest of my collection) called "King of the Clarinet" (which was the title of the very first 10" LP I ever purchased, and which I still have in a frame on the wall of my study where I am writing this note), and now available on a Japanese CD entitled "Gone With The Wind" (Verve Polydor POCJ-2608). There are a few titles still missing ... IF ever there was a MAJOR jazz artist calling out for the the full Mosiac treatment it would have to be Buddy DeFranco! They did a great job with the Sonny Clark - DeFranco music .. but why not the rest? Just look at the price that set goes for today ... I would even settle for a DeFranco-Tommy Gumina Select .. that would fit nicely, and the music is very harmonically "progressive" ... I am very pleased to see that Buddy has so many fans on this list ... and he continues to play great modern jazz! "

Actually I rather enjoy the Double Six album (as I do the Double Six with the MJQ) ... Dizzy plays very well, and this is what Charlie Parker with The Dave Lambert Singers should have sounded like in a perfect world ... I do hope that they include it in the set. Of course the real gems are "The Greatest Trumpet of Them All" (never reissued on CD) and "Have Trumpet, Will Excite" (recently reissued on a very poorly remastered CD .. but great Gillespie and Junior Mance solos ... listen to "My Man" for example.

AT LONG LAST!! This music may not be of interest to everyone (although it should be) but Hep Records have just released a wonderful album of all of the music recorded by the Buddy DeFranco Big Band in 1949-1951. This music had never been all pulled together in one place before, except for a very obscure and rare Japanese CD, which was not as complete as this issue. The music ranges from the George Russell "experimental" "Bird in Igor's Yard" to fine a "dance band" treatment of Jerome Kern's "Why Do I Love You". The album concludes with six early cuts of DeFranco's small groups recordings for MGM (with Kenny Drew, Jimmy Raney. Teddy Kotick, and Art Taylor) which were among the very first 78's I purchased at age 12! These small group recordings demonstrate why DeFranco was so far ahead harmonically of most of his contemporaries then trying to play bebop. (I wonder if he had played a different instrument than the clarinet, say, the tenor sax, whether he would have been considered one of the absolute giants today ..?) Allegro has a sale on Hep CDs .. there is some great stuff here: http://www.allegro-music.com/online_catalo...?sku_tag=HEP377

Thanks Larry ... I have not been a regular on here these past months, and missed that very interesting exchange ... I do love the fact that there are those of us troglodytes who still find a great fascination with all things Tristanoish ... and Yes, that Ind solo bass album is a stunner in many ways ... I was never sure why I enjoyed it, but your eloquent words captured some of the mystique for me ... We do have Ind to thank for providing us fans with Konitz and Marsh material during the very dry spell of the 70s with those weird albums of edited solos on his Wave label ...

Well .. as a DeFranco fan, I think that his prowess might also have something to do with it, too! I am intrigued by this price, because all of this material has been reissued in the last few years on very cheap sets (but good quality audio) by the Spanish and Andorrean labels ... I own a pristine LP set, which I can no longer play ... I wonder what that would be worth today? ... and thanks to the kind Organissimo friend who made me a CDR of this set, which I can play!

My copy of Peter Ind's book, JAZZ VISIONS: LENNIE TRISTANO AND HIS LEGACY has just arrived ... unfortunately I do not have time to read it immediately, but will do so over the holidays. Has anyone read this yet? A brief glance shows the book to be quite anecdotal, but with lots of biographical detail on Tristano's day-to-day life ... There is so little available on Tristano that this should be a valuable contribution ... after all Ind did have a close personal and working relationship with Tristano.

As an update .. this was not a one-of-a-kind special .. I noticed just yesterday that Half Price Books had five copies for sale at $14.99. I assume that all of their branches may have this item ... At least two of their Houston stores have it at that price ... It is a big sucker, taking up a large space on your wall ... but the photographs are the usual evocative material that we have come to expect from Claxton. It is particularly gratifying to see that famous shot of Art Pepper walking up the hill in a large format. I have loved that photograph since I first saw it sometime in the mid-fifties. As a total aside ... and perhaps this belongs in another thread .. But, my reason for frequenting Half Price Books all over this vast city is that I am doing a project on Nazi propaganda for the Holocaust Museum, and have been acquiring the latest material on that era. of which there is a considerable amount. Have you any idea what kind of looks one gets when checking out with six books on Nazis in your arms..???

This was always considered to be one of the greatest "double entendre" albums covers of all time! Congratulations on finding it .... Surely you are going to frame it and hang it up on a wall somewhere?

I just noticed this in my local Half Price Books last night for $14.99! I succumbed ....

Just a note to say that Part II is now up on the BBC site .. This really is very fine music and worth a listen .. Shank is playing like he is 25 again ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/bigband/

C'mon .. why do you need another's opinion to validate your own tastes ... Show that you are able to stand on your own feet and GO FOR IT!

I am not sure if this has been mentioned on here before ... I have missed a lot of time on this list recently. As a very amateur alto player (I still own a lovely Mark VI), who never gets to play these days, I was very intrigued by a new book, THE DEVIL'S HORN: THE STORY OF THE SAXOPHONE FROM NOISY NOVELTY TO KING OF THE COOL, by Michael Segell (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2005 -- $25.00). I was a little leery of it from initial reviews, but once I started reading it, it was hard to interrupt my enthusiasm to go back to more important writing chores. Segell was able to get a great deal of insight from current jazz musicians such as Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano, and Lee Konitz (particularly interesting IMHO), about the relationship between the instrument to the player. Despite fooling around wih saxophones for nearly fifty years, I was never aware of how "alive" they are, and how the instrument can literally change in tone and playing quality from day to day. I guess i should have spent more time playing, and less time reading! I highly recommend this book ...

You can hear some great Barry Galbraith on "The John Lewis Piano" .. now available on a Collectables double album CD ... Col CD6251. Highly recommended ... And, of course, his important work with Hal McKusick on "The Quartet" album .. now available on Fresh Sounds FSR CD41. This is also now available in a new release .. see below ...

For those of you who would like to lift your soul a bit, tune into this great concert ... Bud Shank playing Bill Holman arrangements (and some Lennie Niehaus too), with the magnificent BBC Big Band ... great stuff, and only available for a short while. The interviews are very interesting too ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/bigband/

Thanks so much for those Ubu ... intense would be a good description ... and you could really feel it when they played too!

Larry .. perhaps we should be having this conversation offline but I did want to tell how much I enjoyed your book. I took it with me on my road trip to visit my son in Toronto, so you were read in some strange motel rooms in red-state America, as my schanuzer Sam and I shared the bed. I do wish I had the same powers of description that you have, and you shot down some of my jazz favorites in places, but I have never been confronted so eloquently! An I do wish that you had forced them to buy you an index ... I know what you mean about being ambivalent about getting an agent. I have deliberated getting one for what will be my last academic magnum opus ... a "social history of American television" as bookend to my earlier social history of moviegoing ... but I really wonder what an agent can do that I cannot. I am also torn between going my ususal academic publisher route and being kept alive for a long time (as is true with my propaganda book) with average (2-3,000 copies) annual sales, as opposed to a trade house with a bigger advance, but where you can be on the reminder list in 18 months! How has your experience with Yale been? ... At least Sage (with whom have done several books and projects) market the hell out of anything remotely successful. Yes, I realized after I had written that earlier plea that it was Allen who was writing that book on early experimental jazz ... I do hope that he finishes it, as apparently there are at least three of us who would buy it. Actually, if the JWC list, and the attendance at Ken Poston's Jazz Weekends are anything to do by, there are a lot of us 50-60 somethings still interested in the music of our youth who would welcome a project of that nature. Also, I was hoping to get your take on those two Shelly Manne albums ... any insights on that music?

Here it is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brubeck-list

The album is called "Dave Brubeck in Berlin" and was issued on SME records -- SRCS 9530 -- in Japan (a Sony subsidiary). It is a mono recording. The track list is as follows: St Louis Blues (12.02) Koto Song (6.59) Take The "A" Train (7:42) Take Five. (7:09) The music was recorded at the Berlin Jazz Festival September 26, 27, 1964. As I said, there are people on the Brubeck forum who are in direct contact with him, and who have, I believe, accurately relayed his wishes about certain albums. Three years ago, he authorized the private release of a concert given at the White House on April 14, 1964 to certain members of the Brubeck forum. (Apparently these concerts were routinely recorded, so who knows what other treasures exist out there?) I was one of the lucky underwriters of this project, and I now own a rare 24:21 of the Quartet's music. A group of us "purchased' the tape when it was up for auction, and donated it to the Brubeck archives. Dave personally authorized this very limited release on condition that it not be widely distributed beyond the original group making the purchase. The music is typical, the tracks quite short, and somewhat loose ... with intros by Dave interspersed. I assume he wanted to educate his audience. The track list is: Cable Car Take Five Shim Wah St. Louis Blues. What's the tracklisting of the Quartet in Berlin, 64 date?! When was that issued in Japan? Is it a professional recording? What label is it on? Where did you hear about Brubeck stopping the reissue of "Anthing Goes?" Does this mean these titles aren't likely to be reissued on CD? ←

The CD reissue "problem" is a very big topic on the Brubeck list ... Apparently Dave has very close control over the reissue of albums, and he has stopped the CD releases of such albums as "At Wilshire-Ebell," "At Storyville, 1954," and "Anything Goes" because he does not like the way the Quartet sounded on those albums. There are others albums which await CD reissue in the U.S. -- "D.B. and Jay and Kai at Newport," "In Europe," and "At Junior College" .. all of which I have on Japanese CDs .. I was surprised that Jazzbo mentioned "Southern Scene" was available in Japan, as apparently that is high on Dave's no-no list! I have a Japanese album .. "The Quartet in Berlin, 1964" (not with Mulligan) that is very nice.

I have been so busy completing a writing project that I have not had much time to enjoy myself here these past few months. The manuscript is now in print, and the pages proofed, so I am finally seeing the end of the tunnel, and now I can say a few words of thanks to Larry for his very incisive take on Duane Tatro's music. Like I have said so many times on this list, it is very satisfying (and validating) to see music of my own youth so well received by a (slightly) younger generation. Not all of the West Coast Jazz was pallid, uninspired stuff! I have loved the Tatro album from the time I received my first "hard-cover" copy, smuggled home to me in Cape Town from the U.S. in 1956 by a merchant marine older brother of a friend. Admittedly I found it a bit "strange" at first, but after several spinnings on my little "Hi-Fi" (with the 258 gm. tone arm!!), I began to see some of the things that Larry articulated so much better than I could. I have always thought it a very "rich" album, with new joys to be discovered on each listen. A funny thing ... although they are quite stylistically different, I have always kept this album next to Lyle Murphy's album "Gone With The Woodwinds" (Contemporary 3506) ... both are Koening guilty pleasures. Also, it is reminiscent of some of the music to be found on Shelley Manny vol. 1 and the more experimentall vol. 2 also on Contemporary ... What a great job Lester Koenig did of recording this music, and thanks also to Fantasy for making it available again. LARRY .. YOU HAVE TO FINISH THAT BOOK ON THE EXPERIMENTAL STUFF OF THE FIFTIES!!! If I had your musical knowledge and powers of description I would do it myself ... but I know my limitations. Garth, Houston.

Here are the remaining two Rearward CDs ....

I have been carefully trying to collect all of the CBBB (and offshoots) material for more than twenty years ... it can be frustrating trying to locate this material, but as many of you have indicated, some of this great music is now appearing once again ... (By the way, the Hamilton-Clayton Big Band continues very much in the CBBB tradition, and their work is highly recommended to those of you who have not listened to this aggregation.) Just to add to the salavation level, here is a scan of the Rearward CDs discussed above ....

I have more than 450 OJC albums in my CD collection .... I have enormous appreciation or what Fantasy has done with their various catalogs. As a fan of "west coast jazz" I am particularly appreciative of their keeping the Contemporary catalog alive, and maintaining the sonic quality of that label (all fifties recordings should sound THAT good!). LONG LIVE FANTASY!!

I would just like to add a plug for KCSM-FM in the Bay Area .. I find their music eclectic, and with a very friendly presentation. Also, the Toronto station (formerly CJRT-FM) and now www.JazzFM91 can be wonderful at times, especially late at night, and with great sound ... Garth, in Houston, the 4th largest city in the country, and without a fulltime jazz radio station!

How about the great solo by Oliver Nelson on "Stolen Moments" on the "Blues and the Abstract Truth" album .... Nelson's solos are so beautifully constructed that I wonder if he worked on them ahead of time. Of course, I am VERY partial to Buddy DeFranco's incredible bop clarinet tour de force on "The Bright One" with Sonny Clark ... a must for all clarinet fans... There are also several John Lewis solos that just blow me away, and I never tire of listening to. Oscar Peterson's version of "Sax No End" is not exactly chopped liver either ... chorus after rolling chorus of amazing piano (not everyone's cup of tea, I know.. but it certainly gets to me!)