Big Beat Steve

No kidding? You're at my hometown tomorrow? At the Jazz Open? Would be nice to meet you for a chat. Though I will be out of town tomorrow evening. Passed by the downtown venue of the Jazz Open this evening, BTW. (I'll confess: We caught a local rockabilly group at a live gig at a club just around the corner. )

Wel, there actually IS a CD featuring Bud Powell, for instance.

Well, as of now the EU hasn't crumbled to pieces yet ...

I have no idea. They were produced by "Editions ATLAS" (a French editor that does a LOT of series of collector's editions - sometimes distributed via newsagents - in a wide variety of fields) with affiliates in Belgium and Switzerland. There also is a very small imprint in the paperwork of the CDs that says "Guilde Internationale de Disque" (a record club AFAIK). The recordings span a rather wide time frame and at the time this edition was released (1991) cannot have been a matter of public domain recordings as some of the recording dates go up to the mid-70s. The recordings they selected are a bit of a helter-skelter affair. E.g. Art Pepper is represented by some of his very earliest 50s recordings (on Discovery etc.) whereas Dexter Gordon has both some of his Dial sides of 1947 and some 70s recordings, the Art Blakey disc has his "Hard Drive" LP on Bethlehem BCP6023 plus part of BCP6027 (not his most representative items, I'd say), and the John Coltrane disc includes live recordings from Birdland from Feb. and June 1962. But this is what I find interesting as you get some nice items overlooked elsewhere. And who's to complain at THAT price ... At any rate the books that go with the CD sets include full bibliographical and copyright details (also stating that the original publication came from Spain) as well as the names of those involved in the production and cannot possibly have gone under the radar of the rights holders if this had been a production that tried to go the "public domain, no licenses due" route.

Thanks. Sounds like a book that indulges in clichés. Any other opinions? BTW: I had to snicker when I saw the "second" pic of the author you linked in the comments section of your review. THAT photo seems to say "Oh my god, what book did I write there??"

As bad as Joe Buzzard and John Tefteller? If I got your impressions right they must be prime candidates for this category. @medjuck & Paul Secor: Would you mind elaborating on your impressions/mixed-feeling reactions? To me, at first glance this sounds like a fun book to read, even (or particularly) if it is fictional. I guess I can poke fun and laugh a bit at myself and my (probably not THAT terminal) collectionitis and probably don't take myself 100% seriously in that respect. But I am eager to listen if my impressions I got from your comments are way off. So ... what is it that annoys you with this book? Where does it get unbearable? (Thx ..)

No problems here. The booklets of my set are all the same. Not too tight, not too loose. But as I've been annoyed a bit before by booklets waaay too loose and sloppy and slipping out as soon as you open the jewel case I would not even have complained about somewhat tighter fits. While we are at it - re-fidelity: Very good indeed. But I do wonder - recording buffs being what they are, I wonder how long it wil take for someone to tackle that Stuff Smith track on disc III (Crescendo in Drums) that has noticeable interference from a neighboring radio station and really dissect it to listen THROUGH the music to find out and transcribe what EXACTLY was broadcast on that other station? And as for the discographical details: Session P by Count Basie: Could it be that the recording date of May 19, 1939 is incorrect? The Basie band did a studio session for Columbia on May 19 so how likely is it that they had a live gig the same day? According to Ken Vail's "Jazz Itineraries" book on Count Basie they started a 6-week residency at the Panther Room the day after, on May 20 (and broadcast from there most nights). Just sayin' ...

Liquidatzia! Ha! And this collection does not seem to include other early films by Bergman films that were shown, for example, many moons ago on TV here in a retrospective of the early years of Bergman. Films you never had seen before and probably never saw again afterwards. E.g. Musik i mörker and Det regnar pa var kärlek Interesting, though, for cineasts as even these early films have a very special atmosphere.

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 ...