medjuck

"Word" to all of the above. (I think that's the correct usage. I've had to ask my 15 year old son what it means.)

Bird recorded with McShan on Decca and those recordings are available on cd. Various broadcasts and private recordings are available on the Stash label amongst others.

I saw that group around the same time I think. I was knocked out by Andrew Cyrelle. My (often faulty) memory is that I saw a Steve Reich concert the same week . A great musical week.

Oh, no! I think he was on every film scoring session I ever attended. I used to love talking to him about his earlier jazz recordings.

Only because no one else had mentioned it seriously I'd like to throw in a vote for The Czech Replublic.

The Dreyfus remaster is one extreme - you have much less surface noise but lose most of the natural room ambience. I think the instruments sound more natural on the RCA Centennial box set - haven't heard the new remaster. The two Robert Parker CDs stop in 1938, AFAIR before Balenton joined the band - Jack the Bear is not on them. I found the Parker remasters startling when I first heard them, but now I prefer the Centennial box - I guess the Davies must be even a notch better. I've got a Vol. 3 of Parker's Ellington releases and it does contain Jack the Bear. It does sound good but I'm made nervous by its being in "surround sound". On the centential set Jack the Bear is unlistenable. The Dreyfus cds actually sound the least compressed to me.

I saw so many of the living jazz greats '61-'65 that it's easier to list those I missed: Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell and Ornette-- and I still haven't seen Ornette. I almost saw him in Toronto but they wouldn't let me in because I was wearing jeans!! Most memorabale concerts: Ellington just before his birthday in '65. The audience kept calling out requests for non-Ellington big band numbers. He'd play one chorus solo on piano, then Johnny Hodges would do a chorus then the the whole band would come in with what seemed to be a head arrangement. I never figured out whether the audience were referenicing his "Will the Big Bands Ever Come Back" Lp or were just old swing fans. They seemed real old to me at the time. But then they knew enough to sing Happy Birthday to him. A double bill of Roland Kirk and Wes Montgomery. Kirk was great then Wes came on and just burned. One great solo after another. I knew people who said that he was never as good on record as in person. After I saw him I believed them. Gil Evans one night at Sweeet Basil. Best Rock concert: Bruce Springsteen in 1976. Best classical: Horowitz in what I think was his last NY concert. And Rostropovitch with a not very good piano accompiainist. After i suggested that he was probably an old friend of Rostropovitch Josef Skvorecky told that he was probably his KGB keeper.

I love TCM. A couple of weeks ago I TIVOed Lubitch's The Merry Widow which I've never seen before. Finally got around to watching it last night. After a slow start it just takes off! A realloy good film.

There is a Robert Parker remaster of Jack the Bear. The Dreyfus cd of this material is the best sounding I've heard.

What I want to know is how the thing in the trunk in Repo Man managed to get in the attache case Jules was carrying in Pulp Fiction! I thought it was the briefcase from Robert Aldrich's Kiss me Deadly. Or maybe it stopped off at Repo Manon its way to Pulp Fiction.

I have a 4 cd Ember release that's in one of those book-like box sets. It's put together by Robert Bregman I think. (It's at home and I'm not.) There's still some more music from Birdland that is combined with some from Cafe Society on yet another Embers cd. I've meant to buy it but haven't seen it recently. BTW There's some great music on the Birdland sets.

This is the 6th edition of Kind of Blue I've owned. (Lp, cd, remastered cd, Mastersound Gold cd, Miles and Trane box set, SACD and now DualDisc.) I haven't really compared the sound on all versions but the 5.1 DVD sound is pretty good. The DVD documentary isn't very good but has a few interesting moments.

Pretty good trick for someone who's obviously dickless. Maybe it's because I know her (though I can't claim she s a good friend): but am I the only one who thinks we should watch what we say about real people? Hey if she's a jazz fan maybe she's reads this board. And the same goes for coments about jazz musicians critics etc: If you wouldn't say something to someone's face don't say it on the web.

A couple of people (including me) have been trying to get access to the original tapes. I think (hope) that Steve lasker has been haviang more success than I have.

Agreed. As I just wrote on another thread: I wish all discographies were on-line and accepted help from readers.

I've found Losin's discography to be much more complete than Bregman's. At least the copy of Bregman thaqt I have whihc is more than 10 years old. I wish all discographies were on-line and accepted help from readers.

That's what the guys who do Duke Ellington discographies do. As a result the discographies run for several hundred pages.

Jason: You've probably read lots of accolades about your father but in case you missed it: the LA novelist Carolyn See is a huge fan and I remember a piece she wrote about your dad for the LA Times several years ago in which she talked about driving from LA toNY to hear him play. (At least that's how I remember the story. I met her once and discussed the story with her and she also talked about delivering a present or birthday cake or something to him on his birthday. As I remember it he was a bit dumbfounded by her arrival on his doorstep. )

One of my favorite moments in the film is when Ava Gardner says she'll sleep with Frank Sinatra or Artie Shaw if she wants just as Shaw's "Nightmare" is being used as bakcground score. Actually it's used several times in the film.

Is this the John Williams who's now a famous film composer but was a jazz pianist or is this the other jazz pianist named John Willams? I notice this was done on the West Coast so maybe it's the film composer. A classic confusion of names. John Williams is a very good jazz pianist who recorded an album of his own on EmArcy. He was considered a rival of Horace Silver in the early fifties. He recorded a couple of excellent albums on his own. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&t...10:mtsqoauaiijm Not surprisingly, the pianist John Williams entry in the AMG listing includes two albums: the EmArcy reissue of the jazz pianist John Williams and a big band date by the other John Williams! So the John Williams on this cd is not the film composer? I aways ask because Benny Carter told me that the film composer used to gig with him. So I figured he must have been pretty good.

There's a litle bit of information about Byas in the intro to the Dan Morgantern book.

Your home improvements would only be deductable if you were renting our part of your house and declaring the income. And even then you could only depreciate them over several years.

I was turned on to this movie by my kids. If they hadn't liked it so much I might have left after half an hour or so thinking (mistakenly) that the movie was making fun of Napolean and his family. Knowing my kids had liked it I figured he would triuimph by the end. This is one of theose films that really separates critics from young filmgoers. Critics just don't get that kids aren't just laughing at Napolean-- they identify with him. As do the fimmakers. On the DVD commentary the director keeps saying "This happened to me", or "This happened to my brother."

According to Peter Losin's Bird discography http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/BirdSessions.aspx these are actually from 3 different sessions.

Especially to us old guys.