Shrdlu

Bearing in mind that "too many tone poems" was the reason given by Rabbit for leaving the Duke in 1951 ( ), I'd go for the "Far East Suite". This is partly for reasons of nostalgia, as I got it at the same time as I saw the band live (about 1969, I think). "Ad Lib On Nippon", as Bev mentioned also, is my favorite piece on that album. Great clarinet, and "The Piano Player" has a fine solo, too.

I can't quite fit my comment in with any of your three questions, but I would like to say how important Richard Davis was to those sessions. This is not an original thought, I know, but it's worth saying again. I would not say that Hill brought out the best in Richard Davis, though, as he is always terrific. Although he had been around for awhile, in 1964 he was suddenly on just about everybody's recording date. It was almost as if he had arrived, fully matured, out of nowhere.

Too much Oscar for me, too, Jim. With all the fine pianists that were around in the 50s, it's a shame that Oscar was on so many Verve sessions to the exclusion of others. How about some Teddy Wilson, for starters? Imagine Teddy and Roy together. Anyway, it is what it is. By the way, I am pleased to see the release of the Pearson set. But it would be a lot better if they had done it completely right and made it a definitive set, as this will probably be the last release of this music before the tapes decompose. By right, I mean using a good remastering engineer, putting in all the tracks from those sessions, and listing the instruments properly. These drawbacks now remain forever, and with a little more care they could have been avoided. Perhaps those who work on these sets are pushed for time and unable to smooth out the wrinkles. Our world is like that anymore.

From memory: the Mulligan (of course), a Getz, the O'Day, the Herman, the Basie, and the Montgomery (I really like that one, and have the 2 CD set as well). Perhaps others, but all were from the first set of issues. They were going for $12. I still maintain that this sounds like a warning of their soon disappearance. I've seen it all before, and I have learned that official expiry dates are not always honored. And Ken Druker did tell me that they make just the one production run. I wouldn't pay the full $18 for these, as there always seem to be sales about, if you look around. I have never paid the official price for them. How are the Getz's and that Basie? I have never heard them.

Wow, did I say 1995? I sure was tired when I posted that! '05 obviously. (That makes me sound even older!)

This is a fine collection. Here's the list http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/series.aspx?sid=7 They have little or nothing in common, but most that I've heard have great sound, and I personally love the LP-style covers. The first batch have been around for awhile now, and are said to expire in May 95. But I saw a lot in what appeared to be a closeout sale at Borders a couple of days ago. It was a warning that they may vanish fairly soon. So, ... I do know, from an email from Verve's Ken Druker, that they only made one production run of each CD, and won't be doing more. My email to him was sent to submit some corrections to the personnel on the Cal Tjader reissue (the main point there being that Richard Davis is on all but one track, as the original LP notes said).

Yes, it is, Bob. Amazon, for one, lists it. Depending upon the postage charge, it might be cheaper to order it from the U.K. or Europe, though. But if memory serves, the Amazon U.S. price is about $18, and the set is well worth that amount. Not only is the music very good, but the playing time is very generous. You could rightly call this a "poor man's Mosaic set", meaning that if you are short of funds right now, here is a fairly cheap way to get in on the fun. You get a sizeable chunk of the band's repertoire, and it is from the same period, of course, as the first few sessions for Verve. If you also grab the Vanguard mini-LP CD, you have yourself a nice little package. By the way, that mini-LP CD disappears by May 95, and I sense that it may vanish before then. A couple of days ago, I saw a whole slew of these (at least 8 copies, all stuffed into a bin together) in Borders at a slashed price. It was rather sad to see this excellent release obviously on its way out, and I also felt strangely sad that I already had it - I felt like grabbing it again! They also had several others of the first batch of these mini-LPs, apparently on a closeout sale. You have been warned.

Mike, there is only ONE previously unissued track (unless there is one from that Christmas carol session, which I have always deliberately avoided - soon, the stores will all be pumping that junk out again; ugghh!). The new track is "Dialogo". I am also sad to see that an old error in the instrumentation listings still persists. On "Canto Ossanha" (a great track, by the way), Frank Foster does not play an alto clarinet. He plays the Eb clarinet an octave below the alto, which is best described as an Eb contrabass clarinet. It's pitched a fifth below the regular Bb bass clarinet. With an extension down to its low C (which Frank's horn definitely has), it can get down to Eb (concert pitch) a half-tone below the bottom E of the bass fiddle. On the track, which is in E minor, you can hear Frank playing the bottom E of the bass fiddle. That's how you can tell that he's not playing the usual bass clarinet (much less the alto, which also doesn't have a low C). This horn sounds very similar to the Bb bass clarinet. The manufacturers sometimes call it an Eb contra-alto clarinet, which is a stupid name in my opinion. I went into this with Michael Cuscuna a few years back, when I emailed him to ask for the release of the three unissued Pearson tracks. It took several emails back and forth to convince him of this, including a link to the French Leblanc website, which has details of the horn in question. But I do understand how busy Michael is, and I guess he forgot about it. It is not exactly a major world issue. As a side note, there is another superb version of this Baden Powell tune on Cal Tjader's "Hip Vibrations" album, arranged by Benny Golson. On that album, they play it in Eb minor, for some reason. I wonder who knows the original key, and why someone shifted it a half-tone.

I did not mean to suggest that I thought that you were complaining, Mike. I'm sure that you do enjoy this session. Your question about the missing trumpeter was quite reasonable, though. Trane was nowhere near his best in 1956, as he was still strung out on heroin. A lot of his playing before he went cold turkey is rather muddled. This Dameron session is a major exception to that rule, and is outstanding by any standard. It is also much better than a lot of those rather shallow blowing sessions that Prestige recorded.

The Pearson is a disappointment to me, though, setting aside the likelihood that Ron messed up the sound again. Only one previously unissued track ("Dialogo"). They left out the other two unissued tracks from those sessions (B and C), namely "Come On Over My Love" and "Is That So", as Michael Cuscuna does not like them. I guess he changed his mind about "Dialogo". I'm not paying $39.00 for this box. However, if you have never heard this music, then grab it - there's some terrific stuff here.

I think it's an excellent session as it is, too, John. I guess Bob Weinstock could answer this question, but who would want to bother him with it?

Here's a funny court ruling that WAS made by the judge. In England, a guy was fined after a roadside random safety check on his car discovered that his windshield washer fluid reservoir was empty. He got three points on his license! Tut, tut! What a road menace!

I duly and dutifully bought the Jack Johnson LP when it first came out, and I hated it. This, plus listening, dutifully again, to the extra tracks in the Bitches' Brew 4 CD set, sure puts me off getting this new set. Basically, I only enjoy the B.B. tracks that were on the original two LPs, and even then I don't play them much. Now, the 3 CD "Silent Way" box is another thing again. I love that, the highlight being the shattering uncut version of "Shh, Peaceful", which was a shock to hear after knowing the cleverly edited LP version for 30 years. I am amazed at what Teo did with the raw material. It was basically a re-composition, and the results are outstanding. Who, in 1969, could have realized what had been done?

Sulieman is an excellent guess, Jim. Better than my Byrd suggestion. Tadd would have gone for someone connected with the bop days, probably, and Idrees was in Diz's big band, wasn't he?

Thanks, Mule. That's the first time I've seen these covers. I used to have this music on some French Musidisc LPs, which, for some reason, were very cheap (but were not inferior pressings).

Going back a tad (or even a Tadd) earlier, how about the early Art Blakey session(s).

I think Donald Byrd would be a likely candidate. He probably missed the date because he had two others that day.

Getting back to the level of American culture, have you watched Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" recently? I don't know whether they deliberately pick the most stupid and ignorant people; I hope not. The funniest one that I recall was a girl who was asked what the Canadian term for "president" is. She said, "Oh, I don't think they have a president. They just have a mayor."

Hey, Jacman, you forgot a turkey call in your codger kit - which I enjoyed, by the way. That's very pertinent about "cultured" people usually not liking jazz, David. I have liked jazz since I was a toddler, and have had to put up with it being looked down upon by many classical music lovers all my life. I was thinking again about this a few days ago, when the issue came up in the notes for a Benny Goodman set. It is ridiculous for anyone to dismiss jazz as supposedly low-class music. Granted, some performances stink, notably a lot of fifties and sixties "trad", but obviously the vast majority of jazz recordings are musically excellent. They are not inferior, just different. The classical snobs who dismiss jazz apparently fail to notice that most famous jazz musicians are masters of their instruments, and a lot are superb arrangers, too. Arturo Toscanini was a notable exception, who told the trombone section to listen to Tommy Dorsey to hear a fine player.

This is good news. Thanks for posting, Mule. Where is this store at? I guess Google will link to it. My first purchase, depending on price, will be the Milt Jackson sessions with Lucky Thompson (1956, I think). Someone sent me a dubbing from a 2 LP set of these delightful recordings, and a decent CD version would be very welcome.

Michael Cuscuna is not keen on those two Turrentine sessions, Reinier, so I doubt that he would put these out. I have them (in the form of horrible "Liberty Applause" CDs and an LP of one of them) and although I like them, they are not like the earlier, hard-bop albums by Stanley. They are more pop-orientated, and there are many albums in that vein that I prefer to these; for example, the Sergio Mendes albums. I don't reach for these Turrentines very often.

Thanks a lot for the information, Claude, Brownie, Vincent and King. This is all very interesting! It's also good to know that these releases are not bootlegs. From the sound of it, it does not seem likely that Mosaic will be releasing these performances. I am planning to order the Zurich and California (not sure of the city) CDs, as soon as I can afford them. They are listed on the Amazon.com website, but are much more expensive than the Paris set, which was amazingly cheap. It is well worth having alternate versions of this band's performances, as they left a lot of room for spontaneity in their arrangements, and one is not hearing just a pile of alternate takes. You mention the sound quality, Claude. The Paris set has very good sound, and I don't think that it needs an upgrade. Also, the mono is very "full" and rich, and you don't get that narrow sound that is on some mono recordings. The original engineers at Olympia were obviously very good.

Meddy, the De Soto remark is a quote from the old Groucho Marx TV show. He ended each show by saying "When you go down to your De Soto dealer, don't forget to tell 'em Groucho sent you." There is a website somewhere with a few video clips of Groucho, including that sign-off. I found two more albums of live performances: "Concert In The Rain" (from California) and "Swiss Jazz Days", from Zurich (11/17/60, only two days before the Paris performance). The Verve live performances (in Berlin and Milano) are from the same tour. I now suspect that all these concerts (Berlin, Milano, Zurich, Paris and maybe others) were recorded for Norman Granz, and that he and Gerry picked what they considered to be the best performances for the original LP ("On Tour"). That would make the four issued CDs bootlegs awaiting the ministrations of Mosaic. Finally: "a" again! (And thanks to Mike Weil for showing me how to delete a thread. The "Help" feature gave no clue as to how to do this.)

"Utter Chaos" is, at least, in the 2 CD set of live recordings from Paris, France - see my post in the Box Set section.

At this time of excitement about the new Mosaic set of the Verve recordings by the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, here's a great companion set, which just qualifies as a "box set": it has 2 CDs and comes in a small box. It is quite a handsome box, and is put out by an outfit called "Laserlight". The box also says Delta Music and gives a website: www.deltamusic.de. It contains what seems to be everything performed at a concert in Paris, France on November 19, 1960. Selling at about $10.00 at your local De Soto dealer, it is a real bargain! The personnel is almost the same as at the Vanguard session (December 11), the main difference being that Zoot is present and Conte Candoli is there instead of Clark Terry. All but one of the charts from the Vanguard are included, and it's very interesting to hear these other versions, which, not surprisingly, are quite different. ("Let My People Be" appears under the title "Spring Is Sprung"; these are basically the same piece, as a skeletal structure, though so much was left until the performances that they are not identical.) The 15 pieces performed are all familiar items from the band's repertoire. There is one error in the listings: "Moten Swing" turns out to be "Broadway". (I was a little disappointed by that, as I was keen to hear how they would play that swing classic.) The sound is very good, I think - a clear mono. Mono is quite reasonable, as the sound would be virtually mono if you were sitting in the audience several rows back from the front. The balance is very clear and you can hear each instrument perfectly. Definitely recommended! This is the only published non-Verve set that I have seen. It may be one of the sessions referred to by Michael Cuscuna in the latest Mosaic catalog - he says that Norman Granz made several live recordings of the band, and that these might appear in a future Mosaic set. I don't know whether this 2 CD set is a bootleg, by the way. (The liner notes stink, and the package would be better without them. They are by some pompous armchair critic, whose criticisms are the height of impertinance. But these can be ignored.)