GA Russell

Thanks Aggie! I knew I could count on you. I've put it at the top of my queue.

Happy Birthday!

Sorry to learn he had been in such bad health for so long. I remember him fondly from his days on Shindig and as the bandleader of the David Brenner Show.

Thanks Jim! I really miss this place when it's down!

Jim, the new Collectors' Choice catalogue arrived Wednesday, and I see that they are offering The Hi-Lo's - Listen!, "their debut album for Starlite, which appears here on CD for the first time anywhere in the world! Includes June In January, Little White Lies, Fools Rush In, She's Funny That Way and more." I don't have any of those songs. By the way, it's $15.95.

I'm on the fourth disc and that commentary drives me nuts. I guess that drivel passed for interesting with the Eisenhower crowd. I'm sure Miles wanted to kill him. Back in those days The Tonight Show was live; and it was low key, assuming that everyone watching was near his bedtime and winding down. Nowadays Leno and Letterman are keyed up as if they're on during prime time hours.

It might all fit on one CD.

For my money The Hi-Los made good music over a longer period of time, but I have a few of their Columbia albums that I do not think are nearly as good as the Four Freshman Capitol 50s albums. I do not think that a comparably sized Mosaic of Hi-Los would be as good as the Freshman box.

Jim, you're wicked! You're going to go to hell for saying that!

I informed my contact in the Fantasy PR Dept. about this discussion regarding the mono vs. the stereo, and she arranged for the engineer of this 2-CD box Joe Tarantino to step up to the plate. Here is what he wrote me today: Hi Mr Moon I worked with Orrin Keepnews on the Monk Coltrane Box set. Orrin wanted to use the stereo tracks carefully transfered from the original masters. He explained how the stereo recording was done by a completely different company. Since Stereo was not very popular at the time, there was actually a separate 'make shift' control room set up and separate mics for stereo. Although the Mono recordings are more have more prescience, the stereo gives you the perception of being in the room with the musicians. Having Orrin share stories about the sessions while we were working was a real treat! Mono /Stereo? Enjoy the music. Thanks Joe

On Dec. 9, 1988, I bought my first two CDs: The Beach Boys' Christmas Album and Manfred Mann Chapter Three (the first album). As I recall, I had bought my first CD player earlier that day. I still play both CDs regularly, in season of course.

Chuck, you are making me laugh! No, Adventure is a small independent label with no connections to a larger company that I am aware of. Most of what I know about it I gleaned from the press releases at AAJ. The main man there is a mandolin player named Mike Marshall. I think there are two other principals, whom I expect do not do anything except supply the money.

It's been three months since I opened up the Moacir Santos, and I'm still enjoying it. I still listen to it regularly. Now that the warm weather is upon us (92 degrees here today), it's time for me to break out all of my Brazilian music. I enjoy bossa nova more in the spring and summer than I do in the fall and winter. The Moacir Santos was one of the few things I opened up between Christmas and Easter that I liked. Since Easter there have been a number of good ones, and I'd like to mention one now. A week ago I opened a new album that came out a couple of months ago. It's by a Brazilian pianist named Jovino Santos Neto called Roda Carioca. Santos Neto is from Rio, but has lived and worked in Seattle for the past twelve years. Unlike the albums listed above, this is an indisputable jazz album. Santos Neto reminds me of Manfredo Fest. The band consists of the core piano, bass and drums trio, which is augmented by six guest musicians, including Hermeto Pascoal and Joyce on vocals (one track each). Santos Neto wrote nine of the eleven songs. Pascoal wrote one, and the other is the song Nana which I have been familiar with but never knew that it was written by Moacir Santos over forty years ago. The various instruments in addition to the piano trio are melodica, flute, accordian, mandolin (which seems to be a staple on this label, I suppose due to the fact that its owner plays the instrument!), acoustic guitar and percussion. I expect that I'll be listening to this one all summer long. I recommend it.

md, I haven't heard the OJCs so I can't compare, but the sound on the box set is great.

That's great news Phil! I'll look forward to it!

Happy Birthday Jim! I learned not long ago that there is nothing German about German chocolate cake. It was named after a Mrs. German, who submitted the recipe in a baking contest.

Yes, on a few occasions. Not a whole lot, really.

There is a blurb about the box on the front page of this morning's USA Today, Section D Life: Prestigious box set hails Miles' birthday To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Miles Davis' birth, Concord Music Group has collected the jazz legend's complete output of his 1950s combo. The Miles Davis Quintet: The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions (out today, $60) contains 32 selections drawn primarily from five albums — The New Miles Davis Quintet, Cookin', Workin', Relaxin' and Steamin'. A bonus disc contains eight previously unissued audio performances from radio and television. What I find noteworthy is that a mass publication like USA Today refers to him only as Miles in its headline!

Well this is interesting. For this 2-CD set, CD Universe says: List Price $19.98; Their Price $16.89; Pre-Order Price $13.99. For the K2 Monk's Music that Chuck is recommending, CDU says their price is $13.49. So for the next month, you get the 2-CD stereo mix for 50 cents more than the single CD Chuck recommends. CDU is also selling the "remastered" (K2?) Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane for the same $13.49. So even if everyone agrees with Chuck that the mono mix is better than the stereo, the K2 price for the music is $26.98 versus $13.99 for this new set with the two bonus alternate takes.

Found it. http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...c=26506&hl=Monk

I think it was Tranemonk who started a thread about this, but I couldn't find it, so I'm starting another. I received the following email press release from Concord/Fantasy today. You will note that it will be a 2-CD set taken from four sessions, with two previously unissued alternate takes. Pianist/composer THELONIOUS MONK and tenor saxophonist JOHN COLTRANE--genius mentor and budding genius--joined forces in a fabled Monk-led quartet that worked steadily at New York's Five Spot Café for a five-month period, between July and December 1957. And in the spring and summer of that year, they met in the recording studio on four occasions for the Riverside label, with producer Orrin Keepnews and a varying supporting cast. The results of those sessions, which comprise the sum total of the music Monk and Coltrane created together in a recording-studio setting, have been collected in a new 2-CD Riverside set aptly titled The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. Due for release June 27, the package was compiled by original producer Keepnews, who also wrote a revealing essay about the making of the music. Two previously unissued alternate takes--"Crepuscule with Nellie," from the June 25 septet date with Coleman Hawkins and Art Blakey; and take 1 of the 19th-century William Monk-penned hymn "Abide with Me," recorded the following evening--are included, as is the first stereo release of "Blues for Tomorrow," which was previously issued only in mono. http://concordmusicgroup.com/artists/album/?id=4335 Sequenced chronologically, the set commences with the ballad "Monk's Mood," with Coltrane and bassist Wilbur Ware, recorded in April 1957 for the otherwise-solo album Thelonious Himself. On two late-June evenings, Keepnews assembled a Monk septet (with trumpeter Ray Copeland and alto saxist Gigi Gryce in addition to Coltrane, Hawkins, Ware, and Blakey) that produced the classic Monk's Music album. The final session took place in July, with Monk, Coltrane, Ware, and drummer Shadow Wilson--the original Five Spot quartet--cutting three tracks ("Ruby, My Dear," "Nutty," "Trinkle, Tinkle"). In his notes, Keepnews explains how it happened that the group was never captured live during their extended Five Spot engagement: Coltrane had just been signed to a Prestige contract, and though Prestige's Bob Weinstock would have permitted reciprocal use of his artist to Riverside, former Prestige artist Monk--who'd had a less than amicable parting with the label--would have none of it. At the time of the July session, the quartet had just begun their Five Spot run, the impact of which Keepnews describes as "unexpected and amazing. Somehow," he writes, "Coltrane, now becoming thoroughly compatible with (and actually enhancing) the Monk idiom, was reaching listeners in a way he had never previously achieved with Miles Davis. What I found most impressive was how immediately jazz fans with a sense of history were making comparisons to an event a quarter-century earlier, when the major New Orleans cornetist of that era had summoned his protege--twenty-two-year-old Louis Armstrong--to join his band at a club in Chicago. (To extend that parallel further, both Armstrong and Coltrane remained with their mentors for something less than half a year, but both pairings are probably permanently ranked among the most meaningful collaborations in the history of jazz.)" ============ In another nod to history, the cover image--Monk and Coltrane on a postage stamp--recalls the postage-stamp likeness of Monk that appeared on his Unique album. Riverside publicist Billie Wallington famously had perforated sheets of the "stamps" created and distributed, and, to the chagrin of the U.S. Postal Service, some of these pseudo-stamps, when affixed to letters, managed to get at least a few of those letters delivered. 6/24 edit title and subtitle 7/15 edit subtitle

Happy Belated!

Four is Disc 2, Track 8. Mind is Disc 2, Track 5.

She was named Cabaret Artist of the Year in New York in the early 90s. I bought one of her albums, Beautiful Baby. I remember when she died. I read the obit in the Baltimore Sun while visiting my mother, I guess for Christmas. Her dying wish was to get married, so her boyfriend married her I think in the morning, in the hospital, and she died that afternoon. That's how I remember the story. Nancy LaMott was about as wholesome as they come, artistically speaking. My sister loves her. It wouldn't hurt your collection if you added one of hers to it, but I don't consider her jazz. She's cabaret.

Thanks for posting that 7/4!