gmonahan

Disc 1

Agreed. The ballads are to die for.

They also did the Peggy Lee/June Christy Capitol Transcriptions set.

I watched the first two episodes of "Citadel," the new spy series. Stanley Tucci is in it. I'll watch anything with Stanley Tucci.

And they could probably do that. Kirk recorded for Decca, and Mosaic has usually been able to license stuff from Universal. They could probably get hold of the Asch label material too, but who knows about the other stuff? She recorded some for Victor, Continental, Savoy, and Vogue. Sony owns the Victor and Vogue material and have been unwilling recently to license it. But a Decca/Asch set would be cool, and the Asch stuff could use a good sound magician like Doug Pomeroy to try to bring it back. I'd go for that set.

I managed to get hold of this one for not too crazy a price, though reading it without all the pages falling apart is tough. Wish I could get hold of his second one, but it's even harder to find!

The author makes pretty clear, I think, that Sonny's constant dissatisfaction with his own playing often extended to the playing of others in his various groups. Getting fired by Sonny became something of a badge of honor!

A couple of fun stories as I approach the end of the book about how Sonny intimidated other players: Terrence Blanchard was going to play with him at Carnegie Hall. "I called Branford. I said, 'Man, Sonny called me to do a gig with him at Carnegie Hall.' Branford said, 'Go ahead and get your ass kicked like all the rest of us. This is your time." Jackie McLean was also going to play with him. He "went to Boston to give his horn a checkup with legendary saxophone technician Emilio Lyons. 'He said, Emilio, chick my instrument, 'cause I got to go in the ring with Sonny Rollins'.:" I love stories like that!

Saw "Air." Thought it was pretty good. Afleck does a fair Phil Knight.

Ditto.

I just read this section last night (I'm taking my own sweet time reading it!). Fascinating and *so* Rollins to turn down what would have been a LOT of money.

The grand master of spaces. What a great touch he had. RIP.

Gheorghe, your English is just fine, and you have excellent taste in Bop-era trumpeters!!

Some very fine Brown on this one

Just watched Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" recently. Despite its 3-hour length, it moved quickly. Fascinating film.

Disc 5 of this one, among my favorite Mosaics

Disc two of this very good comp

It seems like I remember Mosaic once considered a Betty Carter set, but begged off due to those licensing issues. Given recent attention to "women in jazz" (finally), a Mary Lou Williams set might actually sell, but I wouldn't want to have to pick through all those Andy Kirk things to find the jewels in the rough.

Hey, if these things actually do succeed in turning someone on to the music, then, great. It can use all the listeners it can get.

Finally got hold of this one. Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning.