gmonahan

Must...use...superpowers... gregmo

I'm absolutely with Hans when it comes to the Andorrans ripping off legitimate reissue labels. I think it's nasty, and I won't buy that stuff. I had no idea the Japanese had ever reissued any of those John Graas records. I do wish some of those Japanese reissues didn't require a second mortgage on my house. gregmo

I agree with this, but (and how many times have we had this debate?!) if the material is available nowhere else, well, I get it. Example: The John Graas Jazz Studio and Jazz Lab recordings originally issued on (I think) Decca. They're only available from Lonehill. Mosaic has never touched them, and neither, to my knowledge, have any of the "legitimate" reissue labels. So I got the Lonehills. I don't feel great about supporting the label, but I want to hear that music by a (pretty well forgotten) fine jazz artist. gregmo

Review of the book on Daily Beast site: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/23/what-made-charlie-parker-great-reviewing-stanley-crouch-s-biography-on-bird.html gregmo

I queried Scott Wenzel about this, and he indicated they had listened to several sources for each track, choosing the one that sounded best. He didn't know if their engineer had tweaked the cd-sourced material or not. I didn't ask him about waiting for metal parts. I have the GRPs (Mosaic used two, "Spinnin' the Webb" and "Ella Fitzgerald: The Early Years, Vol. 1"), and they all do use some noise reduction, though I always thought they sounded pretty good. Not Mosaic good, but pretty good. I'm as mystified as anyone else about this choice, and I'm anxious to hear the set to find out how it sounds. Decca material hasn't always fared that well over the years in the hands of MCA/Universal. Some of the aged here will remember the execrable "reprocessed stereo" sound of the old Decca Jazz Heritage Series!! gregmo

Not possible. Can't do it. Too hard.......... gregmo

The Arlen record was reissued on cd years ago by Sony Special products through K-Tel, I think. I remember snagging a copy from an Amazon seller. Of course, it and all of the great singer's other recordings were reissued in the massive Complete box, so getting hold of it to run these new copies isn't tough. It's a good record, however one finds it. gregmo

Al Di Meola has done a recent album called "A Tribute to the Beatles": http://www.amazon.com/All-Your-Life-Tribute-Beatles/dp/B00E1SM5UA/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1379635215&sr=1-1&keywords=Al+Di+meola+beatles gregmo

I'm in. Use of the Australian 78s is new to me. I'm also a bit bothered by the cd transfers, but not enough not to preorder the box! gregmo

Woody Shaw Muse Sessions, disc V.

Oh, I can so id with canyon walls of cds. Determined to dig my way down in the next two weeks. Probably hopeless, but some good listening will be a nice byproduct! gregmo

Check on its way. gregmo

I liked Dizzy's Club Coca Cola despite the Wynton association. Thought it had a nice ambiance. Also liked Smoke. Thought the Blue Note was just too stuffed with people, not good angles for seeing as well as hearing musicians. Liked Birdland. gregmo

I'm listening to that one right now! Ellington medley was pretty "calm" for Mingus. "Meditations on Integration" is a bit wilder. One can hear that powerful bass driving the entire composition. Mingus was something else. gregmo

Classic Earl Hines Sessions, disc 2. I've been listening to this one backwards, from the most recent to the earliest sessions. gregmo

ARC never ceases to offer Byzantine pathways, does it?! So, Sony and Universal together do own it all, then, right?! gregmo

I'm not a partisan one way or the other (though now, it's Jim who's been suggested to rewrite the book!), but one could conceivably do both of these at once--read the book while listening to Bird! gregmo

Some here seem more receptive to the book than others. I'm prepared to keep an open mind about it. I hope those of you who get it early will offer us a more extensive review. gregmo

Who on earth controls those?! gregmo

Long Live the Great Saxophone Colossus! gregmo

Well, that would be about all of them, wouldn't it? Universal and Sony together control all the Brunswicks, Sony has the Victors and the Okehs. What's left? gregmo

Welcome to the Board! The "Handy" album is wonderful. Another one in a similar vein is "Satch Plays Fats," which is my favorite Armstrong album from the 50s with the All-Stars. "New Orleans Nights" on Decca has Teagarden, who sadly did not stay into the Columbia era. Happy listening! It's hard to go wrong with Satch. gregmo

Get in the way of 'what'? ...'who'?... - You? Read Crouch's liner notes for all those Wynton Marsalis albums and you'll know what his agendas get in the way of, though I might have put it differently, feeling that there's not much more there than the agendas themselves, and thus little or nothing for them to get in the way of. As for Crouch's prose, here's an excerpt from the new book: "Parker was basically a melancholy and suspicious man, a genius in search of a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs.” I kind of see what he's getting at there, but "a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs” is the kind of b.s. "poetry" that leaves me grasping for my secret decoder ring. Well, you may see what he's getting at here, but it's a mystery to me. gregmo What he's getting at, I think -- and I'll have to get a bit flowery myself here -- is that Parker sought a solution in music to a broader "blues" condition/state of life that was at once intensely galling and that, in its pain, stimulated in him a correspondingly intense musical expression of that state. Whatever, if I were Crouch's editor I sure would have suggested that he swap "a blues that wore razors for spurs" for "a blues that wore razor-sharp spurs." Also, unless surrounding context does this, I would have suggested that he not use "blues" in such a way that the term's literal musical meaning and its broader metaphorical meanings (as in the title of LeRoi Jones' "Blues People") could be confused. Something tells me that it would read better if you rewrote it, Larry!! gregmo

Not that I've ever been tempted to go swimming in the Seine, but if a reason were needed...... gregmo

Get in the way of 'what'? ...'who'?... - You? Read Crouch's liner notes for all those Wynton Marsalis albums and you'll know what his agendas get in the way of, though I might have put it differently, feeling that there's not much more there than the agendas themselves, and thus little or nothing for them to get in the way of. As for Crouch's prose, here's an excerpt from the new book: "Parker was basically a melancholy and suspicious man, a genius in search of a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs.” I kind of see what he's getting at there, but "a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs” is the kind of b.s. "poetry" that leaves me grasping for my secret decoder ring. Well, you may see what he's getting at here, but it's a mystery to me. gregmo