medjuck

I do not think the views expressed about the album are a product of suspicion of the popular; it's about the content of the album. If a Gerald Cleaver or Mary Halvorson record were afforded the same "buzz," I don't think you would see the same negative reaction. I'm not sure of that. I don't recall any newcomer getting acclaim where there wasn't some negative carping on this board. (Then again, I don't recall a lot of things.)

The liner notes to the new Mosaic Condon/Freeman box make reference to a famous joke about "Come to Me My Melancholy Baby". AmdI the only one who doesn't know it? What is it?

It all goes back to this, French RCA, 1981: Not sure how THAT got released, but it was the first - and last - vault-dipping into RCA's fairly expansive Rollins holdings (Coda once pulished a discography of all known unreleased sessions, and the list was pretty...mind-boggling). Sonny heard about this, immediately put the kibosh on further sales of this item (a few got imported into the US, but not many), went lawyerball on RCA and the final deal was that the vaults would forever more be sealed, this little bit of leakage excepted. I'm pretty sure that not everything that's still left in there is going to be worthy of release. But the stuff that came out here was such a joyful mindfuck at the time, that I've got to think that there's more of merit to be found, if/when Sonny reassessess his attitude. And funnily enough, watching the material on this set come out on the RCA box and the various individual releases of 60s Sonny that Bluebird did, people who hadn't known any better just assumed that it was all of a piece and so many of them were all holy shit, this is GREAT how did THIS get so overlooked, and the answer is, because it's never really been heard until now, that's why. You can still get The Complete on RCA that contains these cuts from Amazon.

Indeed it is!.. There's one of those deluxe editions with alternate takes.

There's a European Columbia CD from the Jazz Originals series that contains the correct take of "Up and Down, Up and Down": http://www.discogs.com/Duke-Ellington-And-His-Orchestra-Such-Sweet-Thunder/release/6563425 The track length is 3:06, as opposed to 3:00 on the f'd up newer discs. Not sure how available the Euro CD is, as Discogs doesn't list any for sale. I've had it a long time, and think I may have gotten it at Borders back when they used to still have a reasonably impressive CD selection. That is a much earlier edition. I have Such Sweet Thunder from the Ellington Columbia box, and Up and Down shows a time of 3:09. As I said earlier: You can get the correct version of Up and Down on a cd called "Ralph Ellison: A Life in Music". It's available on Amazon and in fact you can download just that cut as an mp3 for 99cents. That cd lists the time as 3:03 but I assure you that it's the mono version on which Clark Terry closes the cut with "Lord, what fools the mortals be."

Is that the one on RCA? I remember decades ago Coleman Hawkins naming it as one of his favorites of the year.

Great. Thanks.

I noticed that their Sonny Rollins discography only goes to the year 2000. And I vaguely remember looking something else up that was incomplete. I recently sent them a small correction but got no response. Are they still operating?

You can get the correct version of Up and Down on a cd called "Ralph Ellison: A Life in Music". It's available on Amazon and in fact you can download just that cut as a an mp3 for 99cents.

Maybe Sonny will buy a one and replicate it selling it himself. IIRC he did that with a London recorded bootleg.

As is often the case I'm confused: The Discography states that Milt Gabler numbered the takes in order of preference so the master take would be take 1. However starting January 1948 the master takes seem to be those with the highest numbers: eg. The master on Fidgety Feet is take 4. What am I getting wrong? (It shouldn't really matter to me, I love almost all the takes-- especially those with Pee Wee.)

I saw Patti Smith with Philip Glass doing an homage to Alan Ginsberg and quite liked her. Then I saw a boring documentary about her that featured some scenes with her and her band. They rocked. Made me wish I could see her with the band and my wish came true and they were great.

Wow! Teagarden and Desmond: I want that dream!

Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Scott and Ronnie Ross - but who's the altoist? Hans Koller? (I'm just quoting what someone posted on YouTube.)

I've been listening to the alternate takes. There's a lot of great Bird here that hasn't been heard in a long time.

Rockland also has a version of Stardust with strings that isn't listed here. (And btw I just noticed that the listings of the songs on the 2nd disc are all screwed up.)

I'm not sure if you're joking, but the Hendrix is called The Wind Cries Mary and I think I read that Miles said it influenced Bitch's Brew. (They Call the Wind Maria is from Paint Your Wagon.)

Happy Birthday Jim!

I've always liked the Chet with strings record.

It's on Amazon too with the full listing. At least one track, "On the Alamo" isn't in Peter Losin's excellent discography. For $10.99 I think I'm going to take a chance.

Give in. Get it. Don't worry about the strings (and more oboe than you can shake a reed at) , Bird sings.

Happy B'day young man!

I had business dealings with him a couple of times and he was always gracious. (He also gave me the Monk and Bud Powell Blue Note box sets.) A very nice manin a business where you can't say that about everybody.

I was at an event last night at The Ace Theater in downtown LA (it's really the old United Artists Theater built by Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks and Griffith) where they did a live reading of the first year's season final then showed the last episode of the series with Weiner and most of the cast present along with an audience of 1600 people. Both episodes got many laughs and huge applause when it looked like Joan and Peggy were going to open a business together. They all got a standing ovation when they took to the stage but I thought the most satisfying thing must have been to hear a large audience responding to their work. I presume you don't usually get that in tv. BTW I think there was one historical mistake in this episode. I don't think you answered "I'll accept" for a person to person call. You did that for a collect call. Person to person just meant you didn't get charged unless the exact person you were calling was there. That sort of thing drives me nuts. I remember in the first couple of years they had someone going to a Dylan concert months before he'd ever given a concert. However I disagree with Larry's note about smoking. People smoked constantly. (Though maybe actors don't don't do it quite naturally enough.) Until he quit completely my father smoked in bed after he'd turned out the lights. And it continued later than we think. If you watch the first Ghostbusters movie (shot in 1983) the guys are smoking all the time. By the time we made the sequel in 1988, nobody in it smokes at all.

So my Eddie Condon box from Mosaic was shipped more than ten days ago via USPS media mail. I checked my shipment notification and saw that there was a tracking number. Googled USPS tracking, put in the number, and learned that it sat in Jersey City for a week before arriving in Atlanta, then next day n Memphis and is now in Bell Gardens Ca. I don't know whether I should be pissed that it's taken so long or impressed that I'm able to track it.