hopkins

Billy Childs quartet at the Smoke Jazz Club tonight.

Off topic, but on the topic of my week long trip to NY, I was also sorry to find out that Bill Charlap is playing at the Village Vanguard, but tickets are sold out. Next trip will be better planned, and I will make sure to call the Jazz Museum to check if the recordings are available again!

Absolutely. It was quite a disappointment. I would be curious to find out why they were not available. I did manage to see the Mingus Big Band: And Savion Glover (fabulous show):

I'm in NY for the week, and went to the museum. Unfortunately I was told the recordings are "in storage" and not available. Bummer...

This version of What's Going On performed by Chaka Khan has good rhythm and phrasing... she even scats. Is it Jazz, or just Jazzy ?

All the Ellington albums recorded there (last one I played was "Midnight in Paris") have superb sound. That one was recorded in 1962, and I did not notice excessive reverb on the vocal track ("Autumn Leaves"). I am not a great fan of added reverb. Some producers add it to increase the feeling of a concert hall recording, but concert halls with good acoustics don't have reverb...

I wrote to Mosaic Records to ask them if they could somehow populate the AccurateRip database prior to releasing a box set. I don't know what the process is to do so, but it would be nice for those of us who rip their CDs.

Here is a short video of my app illustrating the content I put in each album, and how I can search and play them. Works well for me, and I am very happy with the results, but I spend quite a lot of time over the past 5 years to enter the content (and develop the app). Adding a new ablum involves the following steps: - rip the CD - hopefully the song titles are automatically added, but sometimes I have to enter them (in my "tagging" program, you can also enter a Discogs release ID if the data is there). I always clean up the tags a little, but I do not really use them - In the folder which contains my files, I put the nicest album cover I can find, and I add one text file (always named "album.md") which is used to simply identify the fact that this folder (and its sub-folders) correspond to an album... - I then run a program that scans my folders and updates my database with basic information read from the tracks (title, duration) and assigns a unique identifier for the album, which is also kept in a file in the folder. If I delete albums, those are removed from my database, and if I move folders around as well. The scan take about 20 seconds. I have something like 50.000 tracks on my computer. - then I refresh the web page of my app, and the album is displayed. I then edit it (text editor in the web page, or I can also do this editing the "album.md" file in the album's folder directly, with any text editor. - when I edit the album for the first time, the page just contains the list of tracks. I then add recording dates and credits for each session, reorganizing the tracks if needed. I then optionally add some comments and links, and save. A couple weeks ago I received the last Mosaic Box set - Complete Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions It took a while to rip the CDs, but you can multitask. The CDs were not referenced in any online database (ex: AccurateRip) and I had to add the titles, but did that automatically in MP3Tag (the music tagger I use). Here is the Discogs page (thanks to the Discogs contributors): https://www.discogs.com/release/27675135-Sonny-Clark-The-Complete-Sonny-Clark-Blue-Note-Sessions It took me about an hour to enter the session dates and credits, and add a few comments from Jan Evensmo on Hank Mobley (I like his short comments...). Here are the results: https://paulstephane.github.io/album#1690019046449 I can link a booklet if I have a PDF, but I actually like to scan the booklets, apply OCR, and copy the text under each session. This can take time, but when I go back and listen to the music I like to have the comments there. So I'll see if I scan them, or find a scan available online. The site MusicBrainz references albums and they sometimes add scans. You can also find a lot of booklets on the InternetArchive. I won't deny that I am proud of what I did. I learned programming (Javascript) just to be able to accomplish this. It is not perfect, but because I am just an amateur, I kept things as simple as I could, and chose to only put information that I find essential, for me. I was inspired by the work of Baoshan Sheng, who has developped a brilliant app (commercial): https://ton.al/. His interest is primarily classical music. The interesting feature is that editing is collaborative. I wish there were a better quality online database to be able to simply browse through the content of an album (or boxset), and use the data to search through your collection. It is not rocket science...and it only takes a handful of committed contributors to reach a sizeable database. But this may be for future generations, if they still listen to jazz! I got one of my three kids to be interested in jazz, which is good, but that ratio won't guarantee the survival of our species

How do you plan on using the Discogs data ?

Not just Ellington's catalog unfortunately.

Yes, also on Spotify (minus some credits) https://open.spotify.com/album/4ornuDeqxrpKPMnh5zKxNN?si=zDdZcksuSK-JpZOnlaDwyA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A4ornuDeqxrpKPMnh5zKxNN Steven Lasker is credited as the reissue producer. Perhaps someone can reach out to him for more specifics.

I could not find more information. I find it's a nice idea, as it is convenient to have these early dates with different labels in one compilation. I just wish they had the dates in the track titles. The credits on Qobuz give the musicians per track, but not the dates. I quickly compared the sound quality on a few tracks, and it sounds identical to the Centennial box set.

Yes, Ellington even played "Carolina Shout" for Johnson. His "Portrait of the Lion" is testimony of his admiration for Smith. Dance also quotes Ellington as having said of Bechet's 1921 recording of "I'm Coming, Virginia" as "the greatest thing I ever heard in my life...it knocked me out".

Vis a vis Monk, I forget where I recently read this... one of his musicians (Nance?) was playing Monk in his train compartment on his portable record player, Duke walked and asked who is playing, and commented: "he sounds like me"... Found it: https://www.quora.com/What-did-Duke-Ellington-think-of-Thelonious-Monk

All good guesses, and I assume there's little information out there. Coleman Hawkins only listened to classical at home. I read somewhere that Ben Webster in Europe had tapes of early jazz piano (Fats, etc). I was just curious if there were any info out there about Ellington. Also, he spend a lot of time on the road...

Just read Lewis Porter’s latest newsletter mentioning record purchases of some artists at the Colony record shop: https://lewisporter.substack.com/?utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web Delius is mentioned as an Ellington favorite (this is also documented elswhere) I have always wondered what Ellington listened to at home. Do we have an idea of what his record collection contained?

Perhaps you were filmed! https://www.facebook.com/ATJDonKaart/videos/duke-ellington-montreal-1964/374318239796529/ Were there any particular band members whose sound stood out, that you remember most vividly ? Stephane

Not totally relevant to the discussion, but I happened to listen this week to Blanche Calloway (Chronological Classics). Great music, and an interesting life. Too bad she did not record more. I did not find any videos of her, which is a shame as I understand she was quite a performer. Carry on!

I am curious to know which newsletters, or even YouTube channels you subscribe to and can recommend. I subscribe only to a few newsletters (Jan Evensmo,Lewis Porter, Mosaic...). I'm looking to expand my horizon. Thanks!

There are probably many but "Mr. Swing" (and the accompanying "The Swinger", same session, September 1958) comes to mind, even though it is not exactly a "jam session", but the first two tracks (9 minutes each) have that feel - "Love Is Here To Stay" and "Short Coast". Jimmy Forrest and Jimmy Jones gently swing in extended solos. Other similar sessions, with Webster, are "Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You" (March 1957) and "Sweets" (September 1956). The Edison/Webster 1962 session available on the Mosaic "Columbia Small Group Swing Sessions 1953-62" is good as well. It has been reissued separately on CD as well. "Reelin and Rockin" on Johnny Hodges' "Blues a Plenty" also comes to mind. Not exactly a jam session either, but some fine extended solos by all participants (including Webster) and a nice laid back atmosphere. The album is fabulous from start to finish. Note Johnny Hodges on "Satin Doll"! Concerning Hawkins, the "Live at the Village Gate" 1962 album with Eldridge and Hodges has some fine relaxed playing, especially the 16 minute long "Rabbit in Jazz"! EDIT: reading over this message, I am not sure all these references qualify as "jam sessions", so my answer is probably off topic... I'll be curious to learn of other similar tracks.

It was nice to meet medjuck and miles65! Safe travels back home.

I stopped drinking 15 years ago, so I cannot tell you about the current production, but have fond memories of a few Bordeaux. Call me a snob, but I believe wine is best enjoyed locally, with the "cuisine" (and that probably applies to all countries). So I hope some of you visitors this week will get a chance to treat yourselves to a good meal.

Anyway, it's great to witness first hand the enthusiasm of hardcore Ellingtonians! Last year, for example, they showed a long video of Marc Tucker discussing "New World a-Coming" and then performing the piece. It was fascinating (both the content, and then being able to listen to his performance of that composition). The presentations are all available on the Swedish society's website. I wonder if they filmed the presentations this week.

The eternal question was raised again as to how "preserve" the legacy of Ellington, and attract more "younger" people to his music. These questions apply to jazz in general. The only thing that is perhaps specific about Ellington is the well known idea that he really is "beyond category". As a result there is perhaps some form of neglect by some "jazz critics" today? He's not really considered to be a "jazz musician" like Coltrane or Miles, to name two that the general public is aware of. So Ellington stays out of the radar, in a sense ? To prepare myself, I listened to a lot of Ellington these past weeks. I have come to the conclusion that what I love most about Ellington is his piano playing, whatever the context (accompanying his band, in small groups, trios, duos, or solos...). But Ellington is mostly subtle, and I am not sure a casual listener would not simply miss out on this. But it's a lost cause. Kids don't read anymore

Last year's conference (I attended via Zoom) was all in English. Our Nordic friends are all excellent English speakers. Whereas here in France, we've been preoccupied with "preserving" French...