Big Beat Steve

Make that American-Housewife-Dispatched-Anywhere-in-Europe-With-Her-All-Volunteer-Army-Hubby demographic, then ... Fair enough but still odd ...

AFN = AMERICAN Forces Network! See what I mean now?

I still remember those nonstop musical hours broadcast on AFM FM over here (contrary to their AM stations, FM was very, very cheeezy MOR easy listening) where they had hours and hours of ... what? ... background music (not quite muzak) for various chores where lush instrumental music from a period that even then (mid- to late 70s) would qualify as "oldies". And in between orchestras like Percy Faith, Mantovani, Nelson Riddle or Hugo Winterhalter (the first time i ever "heard" THAT name - sticks in your mind if the first time you HEAR it it is pronounced by an American ) you ever so often had a recording by Ahmad Jamal. Which was the more listenable stuff among the rest to my ears and as far as I remember the most prominently featured piano trio in between these orchestras. Did listeners tuning in to orchestras like this really make up that much of his target audience at the time, I wonder?

39 seconds. A case of Tourette??

Well, Bob Rusch's review of Seven Standards and A Blues in the All Music Guide to Jazz book more or less duplicates Tynan's impressions. And he found Henry's interacting with his group on "Presenting Ernie Henry" "at times almost awkward" too. Rusch meh too? I don't think, though, it is a "puritan" attitude to point out that apparently the chops to express what one hears inside oneself aren't always there. I bought the Presenting and Last Chorus LPs a good twenty years ago when OJC special offers were all over the place and came across these reviews only several years later. But to me his playing did sound a bit off-putting at times. Time to relisten, maybe ... (and yet ... )

Not or now?

Wouldn't this require ALL the Home Nation divisions/premier leagues to be worked into ONE first? And how likely is that to happen?

I suppose you are aware of the DB reviews of "Last Chorus" (by Martin Williams) and "Seven Standards and A Blues" (by John A. Tynan)? Ouch ...

Honestly, Spanish and French are not quite as far removed from each other as Spanish and English are (though, as for the latter problem, I'd rather not go into the question of which language factually still is THE "lingua franca" in today's world ...). However, if the protesting spirit seen elsewhere at this event continues then THAT pairing might raise more than a bit of protests by the French if they should decide to follow the "role model" of the Serbians (who were stupid enough to infer that the referee in the match against Switzerland was biased on grounds of nationality because "as everybody knows, part of Switzerland is a GERMAN region" - I have a hunch I know what the Swiss living in this region would have to say about THAT insinuation ... )

If you remember that war, maybe you also saw that cartoon circulating at the time (at least in Spanish satirical mags): An angry flock of the MAJORITY inhabitants of the island holding up a huge sign proclaiming: "LAS MALVINAS SON PINGÜINAS!°"

For your convenience: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTFEfbzc7dRX7O9xwRe_fPxS1CpZOTLJv (Opening track - third-streamish - to start with, others clickable on the right) Am just listening to my orig. copy (signed by The Man himself - "To Milt for a real happy 15 minutes" - BTW) and find it quite enjoyable for what it is.

Hey, his LP on MODE ain't that bad ...

Compared to the Body & Soul track on the Saga LP, the fidelity IS better but still I am a bit puzzled in this case since this is a standalone track and not part of a full set. And given that the Savory discs must include a LOT more music never issued before anywhere I find the priorities a bit odd. No to mention that a set of 3 or 4 more tracks could easily have fitted on disc 4, for example.

Working my way through the set (re-listening to disc 2, in fact- for the pleasure of it) and enjoying it a lot. Though i must say I am a bit baffled by some details of the track selection (realizing that the following will come across as nitpicking and of course it is only a very minor quibble but still ...). No doubt these 6 CDs hold only a small fraction of the never-before-released music discovered on those metal discs (not even counting the Goodman items). So what is the idea of reissuing tracks that have indeed been reissued before, I wonder? There aren't many but there are a handful - e.g. the Bobby Hackett 1940 version of "Body and Soul" on dics III. The Fanfare LP this was released on and a UK release on Saga aren't that hard to find. So why would this track be that mandatory? Was there such a dearth of Bobby Hacket unissueds? Nothing against Bobby Hackett but no doubt there must be much else to be disocoverd out there ... Similarly for "Liza", the Chick Webb flagwaver issued on JA-33. Was there no other new Chick Webb ripe for inclusion beyond what is on that set? (In this case I'd understand the inclusion somewhat, assuming they wanted to present ALL surviving tracks (assuming they are all?) from the program and not refer people to an OOP LP from 1976 for the rest, but still ...) On the other hand, the liner notes detailing the highlights of the discoveries mention performances that do not actually seem to appear on the set. E.g. that mention of the "forgotten tenor saxist Tony Zimmer of the Larry Clinton band" (or was he named Zimmers? cf. "Lost Chords"). Now if Glenn Miller rates inclusion in this set (and according to the liner notes not even with the hottest all-out swingers) then a sampling of Larry Clinton would have been worthy of it too? Just being puzzled ... but like I said, minor points ...

That's what happened to me yesterday. Normal procedure and to be expected ... and if the invoice attached inside the red plastic sheet on the outside of the parcel had indicated the full amount I would stil have been asked to pay VAT at the customs office because the threshold was exceeded by far. And so nothing gained and the same one way or another ... It will make a difference if you know the total is below the threshold where VAT/Import duty becomes due but not if the total is higher. That one incident where they collected the import duties due at my door was one case quite a few years back (no idea if the laws have changed since) and there definitely was a hefty extra handling fee collected at the same time. For an unsolicited service ..

An all too well-known situation. Over here the threshold used to be some $25 and shipping fees were NOT subject to customs fees, just the value of the goods. Then the state decided they needed to "levy more revenue" and abolished the threshold in the sense that once the value exceeded this threshold the ENTIRE amount became subject to duties, not just the amount exceeding the threshold, and on top of this the shipping costs were charged too. Happened a couple of years ago but like you correctly say, it still is a reason to feel that if anybody is being ripped off it is not the state.

I must admit I cannot quite figure what the bone of contention is to Neveronfriday. Is it OK to be asked to pay the customs fees due or isn't it? The way I have experienced things it makes no difference if they indicate the ACTUAL value or if no value is indicated at all or if the value indicated is so low that this alone makes things look suspicious. Even in the "worst" case you never pay more than the actual fees due. And sometimes items just slip through and you are lucky. I don't know about other regions of this country (though I doubt that the law differs by regions) but I'd HATE to have the carrier (who delivers the parcel) or postman collect my import duties at the door. I have had this happen to me ONCE years ago with a shipment from the US and this meant that in addition to the import duties (applicable VAT on the total purchase price, i.e. item price plus shipping) I had to shell out for a handling fee that was not exactly negligible (not sure if it was as high as the 28.50 EUR I mentioned in the Savory thread but it was a handful). I certainly can do without this because I'd feel like I seriously overpaid in that case. And usually I manage to go to the customs office within the 10-day storage period when I have some business or shopping to do in the same area so it's not that much of a fuss. As for Neveronfriday doubting my statement that this experience was neither better nor worse than with other shipments form the US - if you have been dealing with US sellers for about 18 years (mostly through eBay which runs the whole gamut from pros to mom and pop affairs to downright clueless characters) you could write a book about it ... Yet strangely what happened on the customs side very often was unrelated to how professionally the seller had handled his part of shipping (and many of thse sellers declared the customs values - e.g. on the green slip - on the low side). I actually remember cases where I received 3 or 4 separate shippings (of identical size etc.) of "bulk" orders from one and the same seller in the US where half of them ended up with me having to go and pay customs duties whereas the others were delivered to my door with no questions asked. It's all part of the game to me so you just have to take it in stride if you want the stuff ... Anyway .. I am surprised about what Mikeweil said about asking Mosaic specifically to attach copies of the invoice to the package. I'd have figured they have a standard procedure that they adhere to, particularly now that shipping is handled by an outsider. The $15 quoted on my parcel in fact is on a form called "CN23 Customs Declaration". Looks like the kind of paperwork intended for customs processing. I did not ask for that low amount and would not have been surprised if the customs people had doubted that amount. But in fact they seem to have ignored it because the letter I received told me that NO value had been given on the parcel and I therefore had to come collect the parcel at the customs office, invoice in hand. Some you win, some you lose ...

Well, looking at the finer print on the shipment sticker I did notice that my Savory box set was shiped with an indicated value of $15. Conveniently overlooked by the customs people here, maybe because more stickers (by the 3rd party shipper and by Swiss Mail that was brought into play for no good reason at all) were stuck on the OTHER side of the parcel. All in all not better and not worse than how many US shippings fared en route over here. Sometimes you pay customs duties, sometimes the item slips through. And since the set still is not listed with Jazzmessengers and judging from how comparable Mosaic box sets are priced there, I ended up paying maybe 5 euros more (customs fees included) than what a purchase from Jazzmessengers likely would cost me. I guess I will survive that ... Yet these Asendia people need to clean up their act and learn something about overseas shippings and about dealing with their counterparts in the ACTUAL country of destination, not some third-party country that only causes detours and delays.

Thanks for putting into words what I really couldn't think of at the tine. Boxy and awkward dancing indeed. Whatever you tap your feet to, it's not to her dancing.

Listeing ot disc I now. I really cannot say I am underwhelmed by the Fats Waller tracks but apart from the fact that fidelity seems to be better on this one I'd rate this set set on a level with other live recordings of his that have been on the market for a long time, e.g. his "Live At The Yacht Club" LP on Giants of Jazz (GOJ 1029) which in fact was recorded only a few days before the Savory tracks at the same place. In short, Waller is what Waller is and the performances are very enjoyable (and a nice addition to his discography) but not out of this world. And I agree about the silliness of that "jolly joshing" remark. Where and what would Fats Waller be if he hadn't thrown in his bits of fun? So, Mr liner note writer - man, be glad he was no groaning Keith Jarrett!

"Handling fee" on top of the customs duties? They tried to cheat me out of that too here. If I had not wanted to go collect the parcel at the customs office (a 10 to 12-mile drive, except that today it was more due to several construction sites and detours en route) I could have had the customs clearance handled by the postal office - for a fee of a whopping 28.50 euros (on TOP of any customs fees - i.e. VAT - due). No thanks.

Prime candidate for the next Darwin Award ...

Was able to collect my set from the customs office today - exactly 4 weeks in transit. Oh well ... that was to expected, given the detour via Switzerland and Swiss Mail (discussed in passing in the Mosaic "trouble" thread). Two remarks: Very pleased to see some Basie recordings from that Randall's Island open air concert have finally come to light. Ever since watching that footage in the Ken Burns documentary where they say that unfortunately no recordings were known to exist I figured this was something you'd sure like to get the soundtrack of. Now this has been partially taken care of. On another aspect, I found the packaging box of the set a bit on the skimpy side. Well wrapped in bubble wrap but not so much round the edges but rather on top and bottom, and as the box set just oh so narrowly fitted very sungly inside the cardboard box, dinged or split corners really were only a small step (of postal manhandling) away. Beware, and something maybe to give some thought to (given how finicky most collectors - understandably - are about the condition of the Mosaic box itself too). A shipping box that is slightly larger, offering more space for all-round bubble-wrap really could not have done any harm. BTW, my set is #549 FWIW.

Why not do it the other way round? Do a discography of "collected accompanying noises". I think the grunts by Oscar Peterson would come in an honorary second. Seems to be a topic of some concern: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-groaning-jazz-pianists-thread.62376/ http://observer.com/2015/12/the-great-groaning-pianists/ etc.

Prestige LP 181 is on 12in LP 7085 (When Farmer Met Gryce) - along with the contents of LP 209. Prestige LP 177 and 193 are on the New Jazz LP 8258 you show above but also on Prestige 7665 with identical contents. Reissued often.