GA Russell

As promised, I waited until today to open up the box. I'm on my second listen of disc 1, and I'm enjoying it. I've seen comments that disc 1 is the worst, and I'm looking forward to hearing the others in the future. However, IMO the bass is too loud.

I received word today that Little Johnny C by Johnny Coles is no longer available and has been removed from my queue. No warning.

Happy Belated Birthday, BM!

I'm not Jim, so it's not official, but there you go http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?...=lk_organissimo Thanks Claude!

Ray Anthony had a TV show about 1957 on which The Four Freshmen were regulars. I have a VHS tape, of which an audio CD is also available, of just their performances on the show, called Easy Street.

Thanks for the link, md. I see that Amazon's price is $59.98, the list price. CD Universe says that Their Price will be $48.29, and their Pre-Order Price is $41.99. I note that the press release says 24 bit. Does that mean K2? Truth be told, I've been wanting this ever since it was first announced last fall. I'm more excited about this than I was for The Cellar Door Sessions. Jim, we need an official Organissimo link to CDU here!

I received this email press release from Concord/Fantasy yesterday when the board was down: In 1955, after his triumphant appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Miles Davis formed his seminal 1950s quintet with youthful up-and-comers John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Over the course of three studio dates, the quintet changed history, recording five albums for Prestige Records that are still, a half-century later, heralded as masterworks. Next month (5/23), these bebop, hard-bop, and balladic recordings, largely from five albums--The New Miles Davis Quintet, Cookin', Workin', Relaxin', and Steamin'--will be released together by the Concord Music Group as the Prestige boxed set The Miles Davis Quintet: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions. The music, all of which was taped by Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ, has been remastered in 24-bit from the original analog masters and presented in the sequence recorded. The box contains 32 selections, including such compositions as "Four," "Trane's Blues," "My Funny Valentine," "Tune Up," and "When Lights Are Low" that are to this day essential tunes of the standard repertoire. A bonus CD features eight previously unissued radio and television audio performances, including two tunes from The Tonight Show with Steve Allen: a fiery, hard-swinging romp through Oscar Pettiford's "Max Is Making Wax" and a lyrical rendition of Rodgers and Hart's ballad "It Never Entered My Mind," both introduced by the television talk show host. The set is packaged in an attractive box that features cover art by Davis (the painting "New York by Night"); five complete musical transcriptions of Miles's solos (suitable for framing); and a 40-page illustrated booklet with insightful annotations by Bob Blumenthal. Blumenthal points out in the liners that 1955 was a tipping-point year for the trumpeter/bandleader: "[T]he Miles Davis Quintet heard here was Davis's means of seizing the moment when his physical health and his musical concepts were on an upswing, and when the public and the music industry had finally begun to pay attention." Blumenthal adds: "This is the band Davis organized when he wanted his recordings to stand for more than snapshots of his momentary interests." The Miles Davis Quintet: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions celebrates not only the 80th-anniversary year of Davis's birth but also the 50th anniversary of the bulk of these recording sessions.

Since we now have a link to Amazon, I thought I would see if this would link to it. So I found the album using the link at the top of the page, and now here is what I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EF5ND...5Fencoding=UTF8 Hope that works! Jim, if it doesn't, feel free to correct it. I see that Amazon has it for $12.97.

My pick this month is Gabor Szabo's The Sorcerer. When I was in high school in the 60s, most record stores had only a token jazz section, with less than fifty albums. Of these, many were current Impulse! and Verve releases. As a result, I remember that Szabo's Impulse albums were always there, although I have no idea if there was a market for them. This will be my first Szabo album, although I have a Skye compilation with a couple of his sides on it. I see that it got a good review in the AMG quote at the Your Music site, so I thought I would give this one a chance.

Happy Birthday Alison! (Today is my sister's birthday too! Also, James Garner, Trapper John from the TV Mash, and Tony Dorsett!)

I don't believe that that is correct. I read in The Wanderer last year that pieces of two documents, one of which was St. Matthew's Gospel, have been found which suggested that they were written before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

What about Matthew? He was an apostle. Wasn't he a witness to what is included in his gospel? Mark was Peter's secretary. I think it's fair to consider Mark's gospel to be Peter's eyewitness account.

I don't have a problem with people who think that the Bible is baloney and that Christianity is bunk. But I have no time for people (including theologians) who say that the authors of the Bible were sincere but didn't really mean what they said, and that the things they were reporting actually happened in a slightly different manner than what they said.

What I need to do is have a wish list for Collectors' Choice. I don't recall if there is a feature for that at the website, but there are always a few items in their catalogue that interest me. I have a very short list at Amazon, and a very long list in my shopping cart at BMG (which really I don't think I'll ever get) and about a dozen in my queue at Your Music. The ones in my Your Music queue are the ones I want the most anyway, so maybe one day I'll move a bunch into my cart and pick them up all at once.

I was only 24 hours from Tulsa! When the British Invasion hit, Pitney and his contemporaries were wiped off the map. He left the music business, and was always referred to as a "successful businessman", aparently in an attempt to portray himself as a winner rather than as a has-been. I have no idea what he did. Maybe he really did have his money invested wisely. edit: By the way, he co-wrote Hello, Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson with Chuck Mangiaracina (sp?), who was a Dominican priest in the parish I grew up in in New Orleans. Twenty years later, Fr. Chuck found himself in the parish I attended in Atlanta!

That's pretty funny, Chuck, but I think CBS jumped the shark quite some time ago. When I lived in Atlanta, about ten years ago, Rush Limbaugh at one in the morning had better Nielsen ratings than Dan Rather at 6:30 in the evening. I don't think Katie Couric will be any worse than any of the other babes reading the news. She's intelligent. When I was a kid, the TV networks got their news people from newspapers; but for the past twenty years they have gotten them from local TV news channels. So I think both the men and the women lack the smarts to be good at the job. Nowadays they're just pretty faces. But in regard to Couric, she's one more liberal. While the liberals divide their audience among the three networks, PBS and CNN, Fox News has the conservative audience all to itself. So I don't think that Roger Ailes is shaking in his boots over this, but the folks at ABC might be concerned.

Happy Birthday!

HUH? FFA, if I knew why, I wouldn't confuse the two of you!

Clifford, Tina Brooks was a man!

Thanks guys! I'm think I'm going to play around with some of those other board settings options as well.

I think the worst I have is Soft Machine Third. Also bad is one of my favorites, Mike Nock's In Out & Around.

I use dial up, and I suspect that everything would load a lot quicker if I could eliminate the photos and such that many have included as signatures.

RIP I had the pleasure of seeing him once, with his son Rene. It was at the New Orleans Jazzfest in either '90 or '91. It was a great set, better than I expected. I've put on Jackie's Bag now.

Sidewinder, why were you surprised? Have you been listening to Sangrey?

Reminds me of the scene from Never Say Never Again!