mhatta

RIP. My personal favorite Spolite releases are: Invitation / Al Haig Proto-bopper / Joe Albany Hi Fly / Peter King Together / Billy Eckstine That's Earl, Brother / Earl Bostic

My verdict -- I really love this box set, but I also found that Descent into the Maelstrom (East Wind, 1978) was actually a pretty good summary of this Tristano Archive. The biggest surprise for me is the last tune of Disc 1 -- "Restoration". This is the one missing unissued tune from recordings in Dec. 23, 1947. When I was compiling a Tristano disco at jazzdisco.org some years ago, I wonder where it went. Now here it is!

Maybe a bit of an oddball (and obscure), but I always like Anita O'Day and the Three Sounds. I guess it was a kind of rush job (I think it was her last for Verve), but Anita is in a good shape and the accompaniment by the 3 Sounds is simple and superb. There are also very swinging trio tracks (better than most of Blue Note's, IMHO), too.

The first one is "Yesterdays". The second is one of Stitt's favorite blues lick -- I don't know the exact title, but usually it's called "Deuces Wild". Gene Ammons called it "New Sonny's Blues".

I saw several Croscrane CDs at Disk Union (a Japanese record shop) in ca. 2000. Unfortunately I was not wise enough to buy them then. There are strong following of J.R. in Japan (The Message is a cult classic), so I guess Japanese distributors like Disk Union imported directly from Mr. Donnaruma. They did the same for Allen Houser, a fine trumpeter who released his material as private CDs and some of them are popular in Japanese Jazz Kissa crowd. There are many complete collectors of J.R. in Japan I think this guy has all of Croscrane materials (his website is dead, so I link to Internet Archive): https://web.archive.org/web/20201206112529/http://www014.upp.so-net.ne.jp/jrmonterose/jrmdisc/ Another collector's page (mostly n Japanese, but you get the idea): http://modernjazznavigator.a.la9.jp/frame/jrf2.htm

For me, it sounds like a variation of "It's You Or No One" (one of Lennie's favorites). I guess the title comes from the lyrics "It's you or no one for me / I'm sure of this each time we kiss / Now and forever and when forever's done / You'll find that you are still the one". I should say my ear is awful, so I might be dead wrong.

Blue Note Book: The 21st Century Edition (p. 277) has pictures of test pressing discs of BN4210 & BN4211 (I scanned it, but somehow I can't upload pic now). Seems they were made in March 3 & 10, 1965. The rumor has it that a set is now in a posession of a Japanese collector, and according to him, the actual contents are: BN4210: Children's Books, Story Teller, Play It Straight, I Don't Love You, Architecture BN4211: The Ark, Sadness, Doughnut, Taurus, Dedictaion to Poets and Writers And Ornette didn't join Nappy Allen's band.

Seems he was still going strong at least until 2018...RIP.

They should release BN4210 & BN4211 properly (ESP's "Town Hall Concert" is incomplete) or "Complete Trio At The Golden Circle Stockholm" (there are lots of rejected/unissued takes). I can dream, can't I?

I have a CD reissue, but the last tune "Olinga" is heavily edited (the original length must be 20 min or so, but the CD version lasts only 11:25). Great playing aside, I love Al Gafa's compositions -- I think "Barcelona" and "In the Land of the Living Dead" are exceptional. Al Haig somehow found these rarely revisited gems and played on his last album Blue Manhattan. Haig's renditions are beautiful, too.

I love San Francisco, but the production seems to have been a bit sloppy. The song titles were completely messed up -- originally the first tune was labeled as "A Night in Barcelona" (actually it is "Goin' Down South") and the second was "Goin' Down South" (the real title is "Prints Tie"), etc.. Also, even though I am not familiar with the oeuvre of Joe Sample, I doubt the title of the third tune is really "Jazz" -- maybe it was a working title?

RIP. Barry visited Japan several times until recently and played and taught, always great. "Live at Dug" (a live recording at a Jazz café in Tokyo) is one of my favorites, even it had a not-so-good drummer. I don't think it's wrong to call Barry Harris a follower (or even copycat) of Bud Powell, but it's interesting that Barry doesn't sound like Bud (and Bud doesn't sound like Barry, either); Barry owes a lot to Bud stylistically, but always sounded authentic and original. For me, this is one of the mysteries of jazz.

Damn, isn't it an April Fool joke? I feel I'm doubly fooled. Anywise, I believe that we'll soon observe a plethora of "new" recordings from dead masters thanks to shiny AI/machine learning technology. I miss those days when Natalie & Nat King Cole duet was the thing. I also should say that Kenny G (and his marketing team) is a kind of genius...not so many people can raise hell and grab attentions this way.

My favorites not mentioned yet are: Inner Fires (1953, I think its intensity and sound quality beats the Birdland airchecks) Swingin' With Bud (1957, I think it's much better than its companion Strictly Powell) A Portrait of Thelonious (1962, unstable but swinging Bud with the three bosses -- Kenny Clarke and Pierre Michelot) At The Golden Circle Vol. 3 (1962, contains possibly the best version of I Remember Clifford, Bud's tribute to Brownie (and possibly Richie, his brother killed with Brownie in a car accident).

I'm still listening to Honkers & Screamers... This is the worst CD jacket I know of, but music is good. Mostly from the Vee-Jay vault. Including Julian Dash, David Shipp Combo (incl. the legendary Porter Kilbert and the young Andrew Hill), Tommy Dean, Wardell Gray, Big Jay McNeely, Al Smith, Arnett Cobb and Nobel "Thin Man" Watts. This one contains the music of Warren Lucky, Al King, Frank "Floorshow" Culley and Buddy Tate.

Long time ago I heard Sue Mingus and her Revenge Records was planning to release this Ronnie Scott's recordings, but after all they didn't. The 3-CD bootleg has been circulated since then. Not bad, the sound quality is ok (some dropouts and clumsy edits are audible, I hope they fix them), sometimes exciting, but I think most of tunes are just too long (33 min of Orange Was The Color, 31 min of Mindreaders and 35min of Faubus, etc.) And Jon Faddis is blowing rather aimlessly as usual. Mindreaders In Milano (aka My Music Emission, I don't know which one is the correct title, I hope liner notes shed some light) is a small suite, a nice addition to the Mingus oeuvre, but I think the most memorable version of this tune is played by the (original) Mingus Big Band at Village Vanguard in Apr. 1972. In both occasion Jon Foster shines. Chateauvallon 1972 is an interesting document. Fable of Faubus played in a quartet setting is quite refreshing.

Somehow I'm in the middle of Honkers & Screamers craze again, and listening to several old compilation CDs. This one contains the music of Red Prysock, Charlie Singleton, Morris Lane, Red Holloway, Big Jay McNeely, Julian Dash, Noble Watts and King Curtis. And cool jacket! This one contains the music of Chuck Higgins, Joe Houston, Lorenzo Holden, Roy Milton, Jack McVea, Floyd Turnham, Jonesy Combo(?), Brother Woodman(?) and Jake Porter. Most of them are west coast-based I guess.

My audiophile friends praised highly about Marantz M-CR612. Seems it is sold as Melody X outside Japan? Not so expensive, small footprint, great connectivity, etc. You still need speakers. https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/marantz-melody-x I should say that I usually listen to awful sounding airchecks from Cafe Bohemia in the 50s or such, so I am no audiophile at all. These days I usually listen to CD-ripped MP3s or streaming music via Bluetooth. Olasonic IA-BT7 is a crazy Bluetooth (and 3.5mm input) powered speaker I use. I think sometimes its sound quality beats more expensive pure audio equipment. But I'm not sure you can buy it outside Japan (I can't find reviews in English). https://www.olasonic.jp/product/?id=1526269723-648034

Oh, I forgot to mention this one...Dakota is great, but the very best Houston Person can be heard on this album.

I tend to think the sound of the 80s Soul Jazz revival is a bit too "healthy", or not greasy enough for me, but still cherish some of them: Swedish Lullaby / Richard Groove Holmes (1984) Steppin' Up / Hank Crawford & Jimmy McGriff (1987) Mean Streets No Bridges / Jimmy Ponder (1987) and other Muse recordings Front Burner / Charles Earland (1988) and other Muse recordings Out Of Nowhere / Snooks Eaglin (1989) well, kinda honorable mention...

With regard to the 80s Jazz, Sting comes to mind. Now it's almost forgotten and I guess many of you might disagree anyway, but I think Branford Marsalis and especially Kenny Kirkland's best work is heard in Sting's Bring On The Night (1986).

I don't usually rate Scott Hamilton highly, but Soft Lights & Sweet Music is my favorite Mulligan in his later years. Also, a guest appearance on Mel Tome's live recording is nice. Unfortunately, a US version of CD omitted a terrific medley of three Mulligan compositions (Line for Lions / Venus De Milo / Walking Shoes) with Mel's great scat. A Japanese 2 CD version contains all of them.

I'm not sure they are really "legitimate" (well, in the good ol' days some Japanese record companies distributed Italian Joker LP/CDs as "legit"...) but AFAIK the recent Freedom releases were produced by a company called MUZAK. It was established in 2003 and already did lots of Jazz reissues (including Julius Hemphill's Dogon A.D. CD). Even if you can't read Japanese, their webpage will give you some idea: http://www.muzak.co.jp/

Good for you, I've never seen both in person... Berndt Egerbladh is not well known outside his native Sweden, but a fine pianist.

I thought Wild Bill Moore's heyday was '40s (and some studio work such as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On), but he made 2 Jazz records in 1961 and they are not bad. He plays Sister Caroline, a Nat Adderley tune! Big Jay McNeely is sometimes despised as a mere honker & screamer, but actually he was an able Jazz tenor saxophonist. His rendition of How High The Moon is elegant and soulful.