Shrdlu

"The salsa was made in New York City?? Quick, get a rope!"

Don't miss Cowtown Boots while you're there. They have Justin and Tony Lama "seconds" (but with their label on them) for about $69 for styles with "normal" leather. You would never know that they are seconds. This is a chain that is not just in San Antone, but that was the last CB location that I visited. The guy in the store told me about this dude in France who faxed over an outline of his son's feet! New boots need to be broken in. After buying a couple of pairs, I was in a Wendy's and took them off, whereupon a staff member told me that that was illegal, though he had guessed what was going on. Hey, Lon, have they resurfaced I-35 yet? On sections between San Antone and Ft Worth the last time I was there, it was so rough in the right lane that you had to drive in the left lane most of the time. I can't remember whether the bad stretches were North or South of Austin.

My sincerest sympathy, David. Will be praying for you and the family. God bless. "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (I Peter 5:7)

"Poor Eric" is definitely a masterpiece. And I agree about the TOCJ, too.

It isn't surprising that there are so many Duke CDs in collections, surely. Having a large number of Lee Morgan albums is easily justified: the guy was just so consistent and never sounds boring to me. I have 30 under his own name, and many with him as a sideman. They are all great to hear! There's a guy who really worked hard when he played, and poured out his soul.

I didn't say that Michael never responds to requests. Just that he does not necessarily respond to requests. I have emailed him several times, and found him always to be very courteous, by the way. But obviously very busy, too, with not a lot of time to look into all the things that try to claim his attention. I'm purely speculating when I say this, but I get the impression that he's not an audiophile, and probably doesn't care a lot who does the remastering as long as it's reasonable. That is, Ron's work does not bother him. Ron's work is journeyman work that suffices for the job at hand. (I knew a pianist once who used to say jokingly "It's good enough for jazz.") To repeat, this is speculation, so don't take it any more seriously than that. I do wonder why Ron stays on, though. Reinier's suggestion is very likely to be true - sheer convenience and pragmatism seem to be the answer. Anyway, enough of this worn-out topic, and we now return you to the Reece set, already in progress.

Re Michael Cuscuna using McMaster, the fact that Ron is used so much does not necessarily mean that Michael loves his work. I think the label is just stuck with him because he is there. Maybe they don't want to get rid of him for fear of hurting his feelings. The Capitol company probably doesn't really care about this one way or another. My feeling about Michael Cuscuna is that he does not necessarily do something just because there are requests for it. If he has decided about something, that tends to be it. So protests about McMaster are likely to be brushed off. Anyway, getting back to the Reece set, I highly recommend the material (though I won't be buying the new set as I don't want any more McMaster stuff). One thing that's special about this collection is that it includes a session ("Star Bright") with Hank Mobley at around the time when he is generally considered to have been at his peak; that is, the time of "Soul Station", Roll "Call" and "Workout". As well as Dizzy playing so well, Hank is every bit as good as on his best recordings on this session with Reece. And, you get Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers, whose work contributed such a lot to Hank's best albums, plus Art Taylor sounding better than ever - even as fiery as Blakey at times. I think that Dizzy's best session is "Flight To Jordan", where he is heavily featured. This is not meant to criticize his own sessions, though.

Upgrading for me mainly means Blue Note upgrades (and Mosaic in the case of Blue Note sets). It is sad that this label, particularly, has suffered from a bad CD engineer who has been used so much, and is still used. That this problem should never have occurred is proved by the OJC series. 16 bit remastering does not have to be bad, and very often isn't. I have re-tooled most of my BN and BN Mosaic collection, to a mixture of TOCJs, JRVGs, RVGs and, where available, CDs by Malcolm Addey and Larry Walsh. They are better, and make a serious difference to the listening experience. I'm not an audiophile; I just want a CD to sound reasonable, so that I can settle into the music and forget the technical aspects. This is an old topic though. We are, as Johnny E rightly said not so long ago, repeating ourselves.

There's a simple answer to the original question. Get the child the instrument that they passionately want to play. Ideally, the child will have heard one or more heroes on that instrument, and will be very keen to learn it. If not, there's little point in making them learn any instrument. When the keen-ness is there, it will get them through the tedious learning stages, which aren't exactly 100% fun. Many's the time I've heard a child (even in their teens) play in a dull manner, with obviously little or no real motivation to do much. I ask them who their favorite player is, and they always say that they don't have any in such cases. That's really sad. "Have you ever heard so-and-so play?" "Nope." Don't think that I don't want to encourage a music student. I DO want to encourage. But I can spot when there's no real interest. Young ones should be exposed to some brilliant players from the classical and jazz worlds - live where possible, and on recordings. The TV and radio won't help much, if at all, so it's up to us parents to provide the goods. Let's show them that one doesn't have to limit oneself to Britney Sprears and Justin Timberlake, and all the other shallow "pop" rubbish. Play them some David Oistrakh (violin) and Louis Armstrong, and Miles Davis, etc.

The Tjader one is a favorite album of mine, mainly because of the one track, "The Prophet". They just play the one chorus, but the sound and feel of it are outstanding, mainly because of Richard Davis's superb walking bass line, which is very prominent in the mix. (I heard a sound bite of an earlier version of that piece by Cal, with a different bassist, and it only served to show just how essential Richard is to the "Soul Bird" version.) The track ends with a passage that reminds me a lot of the end of "Along Came Betty" on Blakey's "Moanin'" album. Recommended! For anyone who is not likely to get the Mulligan Mosaic, I recommend the Mulligan Village Vanguard LPR CD, with its handsome gatefold cover. The sound is not as good as Malcolm Addey's in the Mosaic, but it's still pretty good.

Definitely. And Hawk played well for very much longer than Pres. As one liner note writer said in the 60s "he hasn't peaked yet." (Mark Gardner, I think.) Try his three recordings with Kenny Burrell on Prestige. If these had been Blue Note sessions, I think they would have received a lot more attention in recent years. Is there not a "Fantasy syndrome", that is, do we tend not to buy many OJC CDs "because they are not limited editions and I can order them later after I rush to grab the Blue Note, Mosaic and Japanese CDs before they disappear"? I have definitely been that way. Anyway, I heard a sampler CD of Burrell a few years back and there was this lovely track "Tres Palabras" with Bean (also featuring Tommy Flanagan in great form). It made me want to get all the Burrell/Hawkins albums. The titles are "Bluesy Burrell", "Soul" and "The Hawk Relaxes". Another superb collection, some of these not often mentioned, are Bean's Impulse albums. "Today and Now" is very good, as is the bossa album "Desafinado". The better-known one with the Duke (no, not John Wayne) is a gem, partly because it gives a unique opportunity to hear Bean in a small horn section with Ray Nance, Rabbit, Lawrence Brown and Harry Carney.

Horace Silver, Hank Mobley and Wayne Shorter are usually very identifiable. A similar topic would be artists whose albums are identifiable, let's say in the 1960s.

Well said! So do I.

... au piano, 'Erbie 'Ancoque, à la contrebasse, Ron Car'tair, ...

I really like "Soul Station", but I picked "Roll Call" as it also has Freddie Hubbard (otherwise I would have gone for the quartet one). But there are several other great albums. The JRVG of "Roll Call" has a very lively sound. This is partly because Rudy recorded very "hot" at that time, of course. I haven't heard the more recent NONJ-RVG.

Not to put any of the other sessions down, but I have to go with "Curtain Call", mainly because of Kenny Dorham; and also because of Sonny Clark. "My Reverie" is enough to decide this for me.

Look out on eBay for copies of the recent U.S. CDs "Standards" and "Black Orchid". These have some very tasty tracks. All, apart from the original "Black Orchid" LP tracks, are previously unissued, but not inferior to what was issued on LP. Apart from that, if it's the original trio that you want, you will need the TOCJs and JRVGs, of course. I recently also saw their Limelite LP on eBay. You won't have any problem with Gemm if you directly email a seller and find out if the item is in stock. (This process then bypasses Gemm when the sale takes place.) I have bought many an LP after seeing it on the Gemm site. It is the place that I always visit when I want an LP.

"Row Your Boat" is a typical 6/8, not a 4. "Pop Goes The Weasel" is another. This is as certain as the fact that F major has one flat in it (B flat). There's no question, or room for debate. If there's any uncertainty, you'll have to have some basic music lessons, on any instrument. So, next question, please?

"I Talk With The Spirits" is a superb album. I've played that many times since I first got the Limelite LP of it, and it still sounds fresh. It has some prime Horace Parlan, and makes a nice follow-up to Horace's BN albums; his solo on "Trees" is a gem. The idea on this album is that Kirk plays flute "only", but that's no limitation at all for him! That's "Rowland Kirk", as the guy with the funny accent at Ronnie Scott's called him when I saw him there in 1972.

"Row Your Boat" is an excellent example of a 6/8. 6/8s are usually brisk like that. The one-two, one-two thing that I mentioned above is perfect for marches, as it becomes left-right, left-right, ... There is a similar difference between 4/4 and 2/2. 2/2s are usually brisk, too, and are used a lot for marches and so-called "incidental music", such as "The Land of Chocolate" music on The Simpsons. "Colonel Bogey" is a 2/2 march. 2/2s, also known as "cut time" and sometimes denoted by a C with a vertical line through it, show up in jazz and dance music. Miles used 2/2 a lot in the 50s, with "All of You" being a typical example. He got that idea from Ahmad Jamal. I sometimes lead the songs in our Church services. I remember that one song was written as 4/4, but it was really a 2/2 and I had to conduct it that way. They are not the same.

You often hear that the flute is the quickest instrument, and it certainly is very fast, as its keys are small and light and don't have to move far. But I think the clarinet is a contender, for the same reason. Maybe we should be asking "who's the fastest player?" A lot of classical violinists are stunningly fast.

Brad, it's been pretty well covered already, but 6/8 is a thing unto itself. It has a definite feel of its own, and isn't the same as 3/4. A 6/8 is mainly felt as a one two, one two, thing, where the one and the two each cover three beats. Lots of marches are in that time signature. (I don't know the names of the well-known marches, so I can't give you an example - sorry!)

I think the Umlaut is missing, Lon. I haven't played these for a long time, except the Three Sounds one, which gets my vote both for being very good, and for making available previously unissued material. But I recall really enjoying the Morgan CD. Really, they're all very good.

I was wondering about that, too. Does the board software block the Umlaut in topic titles?

I know of one OJC that isn't available on CD: "The Red Garland Trio" (that's the LP title, as well as the group's name). So I guess that one is digital-free. It is also the only album of Red's trio with Paul and Art that I have not yet obtained. If anyone would kindly post a discography of the recordings of that unit, I'd be very grateful, as I want to listen to their work in order. Their output has been scattered over many albums, and the Prestige discography book is too expensive for me. A box set would be a great idea, of course. I always enjoy Red, and he holds my attention throughout each track. Nothing experimental, just very good. As it happens, I am more than happy with the sound on the 16 bit OJC CDs. The only thing I don't like is the thin, trebly way that Rudy recorded Paul Chambers during 1956. He must have changed mikes in early 1957, as there is a big difference on the recordings from then on.