Shrdlu

So, they are going to issue new CDs. Good. Now, let's have the remaining unissued Gil Evans tracks recorded for Verve in the 60s. The ones I know about are a large group version of "Punjab" and a quartet version with Gil on piano and Tony Studd (bass trombone), Paul Chambers and Clifford Jarvis (drums). They could include the other two quartet items, "Cheryl" and "Ah Moore", which were issued on vinyl in 1973 - I've had those since the LP came out. There is nothing that could hurt Gil's reputation (of course). Ken Druker has yet to issue the two J. J. 45 tracks that I sent him last year. A new remastering of "Proof Positive" is overdue, to replace the 1994 CD, which doesn't have the 45 tracks ("Amen" and "Across The Karoo).

This is a timely reappearance. I got the "In A Silent Way" LP when it first came out, and it's a firm favorite of mine. When Michael Cuscuna (and others?) put out the 3-CD set, I was amazed to hear the original footage of what became "Shhh, Peaceful". What Teo did with it is genius. The original has a repeated theme that doesn't appear on the issued album. I was given the "Bitches' Brew" 2-LP set to review when it first appeared. I have never liked that much. Not then, or now. For me, it is nowhere near the class of "In A Silent Way". I also found the 4-CD set of "Bitches' Brew" boring: strictly play once and shelve. Same for the previously unissued material in the "Silent Way" 3-CD set But Teo's work on the "In A Silent Way" LP is outstanding.

I wish that Elvin had had a pianist on all of his Blue Note albums. I find sessions without a keyboard a bit on the dry side.

Grant and Larry's Blue Note albums are great. My favorite is "Talkin' 'Bout". Primo stuff.

For vinyl after 1970 (approx.), just use a turntable and connect it to the "line-in" on a computer*. I record the line-in with some free software called "MP3MYMP3", which includes WAV format. (I used to use Musicmatch Jukebox to record, but the creators of that shut it down and, after a hard-drive crash which lost it, I can't activate it anymore.) Pre-1970 vinyl is almost always Rice Krispies sound. For some reason, nearly all LPs from before 1970 have been badly treated by their owners. They are invariably sold as "VG+", and the sellers usually say that they have no way of testing the LPs. Of course, you can get USB turntables, but that is unnecessary and connection to the computer can be done through the line-in port. __________________________________________________ * If the turntable only has "phono" output, a booster to "line level" is needed. My turntable already has line level output.

I saw the Ellington band in Adelaide, Australia, in 1969. For whatever reason, Cootie was in a foul mood and was rude to one of the saxophone players as he walked down to the front mike to solo. Grouchy bear. On the subject of unreleased (by major labels) Ellington, I have a 10-CD set called "The Private Collection". This material is from the 50s and 60s, and even includes a version of the Far East Suite. Nothing substandard about this set.

Billy is superb on the Ampex Gil Evans album. He is featured on "So Long", with a typical Evans carpet of sound. That's all I have heard of Billy. I'd love to hear more, but the albums mentioned in this ancient thread are probably very hard to chase down.

A most enlightening article. How did I manage without it for so long? Sgcim, I have a pretty good idea which forum you mean. I posted there for a while, but they are so dumb that they can't undertand irony and hyperbole, or, in fact, an obvious joke. They deleted one of my posts under their troll rules, and deleted another because they thought it was political. I don't intend to hang around to be insulted, so they can get stuffed. I don't really care: it goes under the heading of "Meh".

The CDs that I have by Larry Walsh are fine. But if they are going to use these masterings again, they should say so.

All the ones pictured are smartly turned out. Very nice. Grunge clothing is not cool when you are supposed to be entertaining an audience. I don't care for piccolo bass stuff, and when bass players play the cello (which they tune in fourths, rather than the correct fifths), they are always out-of-tune, whether it's Oscar or later ones - Sam Jones etc. Stick to the bass fiddle, guys.

Well, the E.U. interference is a damned nuisance to users in the E.U. If you ever find anything useful about the E.U., do let me know.

Mosaic has a Sunday Jazz Digest (or some similar name) on its home page. An E.U. "directive" blocks that blog because of some data bullshit.

Another annoying member of that family. The one that plays the trumpet is mega annoying.

I get a warning whenever I log in. I use Firefox and Avast antivirus. Nothing bad has happened. I also use a VPN on my phone and on the computer. It's only about $30 a year. For texts, I mainly use Whatsapp and its successor, Signal. The annoying E.U. has blocked Mosaic's jazz blog for people in the E.U. A VPN rectifies that petty annoyance. Typical of them.

Discogs is massively helpful to me. Equally as helpful as The Jazz Discography Project. Both have the odd error here and there, but if you know your stuff you can make corrections where needed. The Discography Project people will accept corrections. I got sick of Frank Foster's contra-alto clarinet being listed as an alto clarinet (not their error) and they fixed that.

The people aren't busted yet. It is just that I wasn't tricked by them. However, I have kept all the emails as proof, and I need to report this gang to the police/cyberpolice/whatever. I have a name, phone # and address. It's like in that "As Catch Can" movie: they can't change those details. The lawyer involved is Dr K. Jean-Louis in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

A pic of a horse's ass.

Many of you will already know about this. I first came across this in the days of MySpace, which Face Book has killed off. I had a profile there and that produced a lot of interesting begging messages, mainly from Nigeria. A guy from there said he was a woman in Chicago who wanted to marry me. He had one (fake) display pic, on msn. I was asked to send "her" airfare from Chicago. I asked if "she" had any more pics and never heard another word. Another guy in Nigeria said he loved me and he asked for airfare from Nigeria. About a week ago, a "widow" in Côte d'Ivoire, supposedly dying from cancer, said that her late husband had left $3.5 million in an account, to be passed on to the needy. As it happens, I have friends with orphanages in India and Ghana, so the money would have been very handy. I knew what was coming. Sure enough, I was asked to send $1500, to pay for legal clearance of the funds. Involved in this is a real lawyer's office. The lawyer is called Dr K.Jean-Louis. So, in case you didn't know, be on the alert. I already was.

Thanks for the news. There are many outstanding albums here, too many for me to comment on. I'm glad that I already have the ones I like. If they are using old U.S. masterings, then tut tut. For me, a sonic upgrade would be the only reason for purchasing.

I still remember a copy of Cal Tjader's "The Prophet" going for $1000, with $1.26 postage. It's a pleasant album, but nothing to get too excited about.

Excellent pic: one I haven't seen before. I hate the cover pic of Hank on "Workout".

Nice to see a thread about Andrew Hill get bumped. I still remember a friend bringing "Judgment" and "Point of Departure" around. The "feel" of it reached me staight away and I had to buy my own copies. That was when Rudy pressings were still in print (about 1968): they were just very good LPs then, not holy grails. Both sessions are top-level performances. I got the Mosaic set when it came out. Its mastering is great. The "Point of Departure" session is haunting, and it leaves the sound of that bass clarinet ringing in my ears. I really miss it when I get to the next session. Dare I say that I like "Grass Roots" (I only have the CD). That contra-alto clarinet* on "Diddy Wah" is nice, and the session has Ron Carter's superb sound. ___________________________________________ * That size of clarinet is an Eb instrument, a fifth below the regular Bb bass clarinet. I prefer to call it an Eb contrabass clarinet. Since they call the common Bb clarinet a "soprano" clarinet, and since there is an Eb "alto" clarinet a fifth below it, why not continue carrying over the saxophone names? The common Bb "bass" clarinet corresponds to the tenor saxophone (and the reeds of the two are nearly identical) and should be called the tenor clarinet; after all, its top note (easy to get) is the first Bb above the treble clef. Its range is nearly four octaves. This would permit the "contra-alto" clarinet to be called the baritone, and the Bb "contrabass" clarinet (an octave below the Bb "bass" clarinet) could just be called the "bass". Hey, this will all be on the final test.

Sounds interesting, Brad. I have not come across this guy's videos. Must check him out. I won't be sending any money, but asking for donations, for free software, video collections, various ministries, etc., is extremely common. I see it all the time. Nothing out of the ordinary about it. This raises the point that, in the last 10 years or so, hundreds of amazing videos of jazz perfornances have been posted online. Recently, I found a corrected video of Ahmad Jamal's trio (yes, THAT one) playing "Darn That Dream". That is right in the pocket. My favorite part is when Ahmad bangs out D flats in octaves in the bass and there are short gaps and the drums come back real slick. Don't miss that one.

Fats playing a B3. Although this was early days, it looks just like the ones I have doodled on.

Our beloved jazz music is, sadly, now a niche music. We all know that. House music is not. It is very popular with millions of young people. Eric Prydz is a big star, and deservedly so, as are a lot of other of its composers/producers. That genre is at the cutting edge of music, and has been since the early 90s, or even earlier. There is a lot of shallow junk, but the best of it is superb. It swings like crazy, and incorporates a lot of Latin rhythms, jazz and Weather Report. That is what drew me into it. And its audience, mainly people under 30, consists of people who behave nicely (in clubs and bars), so I can have a good evening if I go to a venue where it is featured. Where I live, most of the few jazz fans are grumpy old farts who want to argue all the time. I do not hang out with them. They have a bad attitude. Who needs that? I listen to jazz at home, where I have a massive collection of superb music. House stars to check out (as well as Eric): Dana Bergquist, Jimpster (Jamie O'Dell), D. Ramirez (Dean Marriott), Tiesto, Mark Knight, The Freemasons, Sixteen Bit Lolitas, Deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman), and many others. New, good, producers pop up all the time. It is hard to keep track of them all. Jimpster has studied Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Gil Evans and other jazz giants. These guys know their stuff. They even used Tiesto, from the Netherlands, to open the olympic games in China. Since the 60s, the places where I have lived have had lousy radio, so I don't turn the radio on. The few places I was in that had a jazz radio station were Southwest Ontario, where I could get a Detroit jazz station, and the L.A. area which had (has?) KLON, from U.C.L.A Long Beach, which had Chuck Niles when I was there, and had jazz 24/7. Maybe WNEW is still operating in New York City, but I haven't lived near there, so I don't know. So, how could I have heard of Pink Floyd (until recently)? No offense intended to anyone. Moving on ....