gmonahan

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

Well, to me, the songbooks Ella is THE Ella, and I think her interpretations of those songs are truly what made her an icon. Occasionally, people become icons because, well, they deserve it! gregmo

She was preceded by (at least) Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, & Carly Simon. Simon's Trust is actually a nice album if you can suspend disbelief about her vocals and just get into the accompaniment). Also, Motown had a thing about getting their bigger acts to do "standards" as part of the grooming for Vegas. Ronstadt has never struck me as a particularly bright person (but who am I to judge?) or singer (and although she got what was probably Riddle's most uninspired ever "high profile" work out of him and was by more than a few accounts more or less a total dolt about how to "get into" that material, hey, she had the desire and the money, and by god, she made it happen, so, good for her!)), but I always dug her for not letting that get in the way of her enthusiasm and curiosity (remember her doing "Pirates Of Penzance"?). I give a whole lot of the credit to her great run of great-sounding records in the 70s to Peter Asher (and yeah, the Greatest Hits thing is one of the fewer times where that's what I'd prefer over whole albums) but she had the chops to give him something to work with, right? Really, "harmlessly & pleasantly clueless" is perhaps the phrase that keeps coming to mind about her actual singing. She's always had, again, a good, at times great skill set to be clueless with. All of which is just to say that as a "singer", eh...., but as a "voice", somebody you couldn't miss no matter what the context, she's been there since "Different Drummer" and stayed there for all of my adult life, and even if I can't really take her seriously as an "artist", I still like her a helluva lot, and yes, this is sad news. I agree with this assessment of Ronstadt. I've always thought she was rock's version of Ella - nice singer, iconic, but brought little to an understanding of a song. Well, since Ella is the greatest pop/jazz singer of all time, I'm going to assume you're doing just a bit of trolling here. gregmo

She really started the whole "rock singers sing standards" thing with Riddle, didn't she? I remember being charmed by some of those efforts and impressed, at least, that she gave Riddle the work. I too am sorry to hear she's having so much trouble. gregmo

Few comedians could match Cosby in his prime. Great story. Thanks for posting it! gregmo

Perfectly put. gregmo

Those are the two I visit now and then. Music Millenium is far cooler, but has fewer used cds. Its new cd selection is better, though, IMHO. gregmo

I'm just glad to see SOME kind of reissue series coming. If it survives (a big if), less well-known stuff may eventually see the light of day. I have most of the Bethlehems I'd want. gregmo

Thanks for this. It looks like they're all alternate takes. I'll have to think hard about this one. gregmo

I never found myself mistaking Sarah Vaughan's voice for a man's, but to each his own. The Ellington Songbooks are among my favorite Vaughan performances, and my collection of Sarah is fairly complete. She does a wonderful job on every tune. Six more performances, especially if they are new tunes and not just other takes of older ones, would be very attractive, but for my money, this is very, very fine "late" Sarah. gregmo

Discs 5 and 6 for me. Fine set! gregmo

Hope you find a way to have a good one, Lon. Sending jazzy thoughts your way! gregmo

French CBS did complete sets on Ellington, Basie, and Lunceford. Can't recall ever seeing one on Goodman. Well, if *Jack* can't recall it, it didn't happen! Sorry Steve! gregmo