GA Russell

Happy Birthday, young man!

Last year Fantasy issued a series of Best Of albums, some of which have been available from BMG/Your Music. Ten of the Prestige artists are being re-released October 25 in a new series entitled Prestige Profiles. These ten are: Miles Davis, Red Garland Quintet with John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean, Kenny Burrell, John Coltrane, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Lightnin' Hopkins. The list price is low, 11.97. It looks like CD Universe will sell them for $9.79. Their pre-order price is only $8.38. Now here's what I find appealing about this: Each CD comes with its own free sampler CD of other Prestige artists who would probably appeal to the fan of the artist in question. Each sampler will be 40+ minutes long. I received an email today which states that "a major marketing campaign will kick off upon the release of the series next week, with print ads in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Yorker, ICE magazine, Down Beat, Jazz Times, Jazziz, and other publications; a national cable TV ad campaign running between Thanksgiving and Christmas on outlets including Discovery, B.E.T., BBC America, CNN, and Fox News; NPR underwriting on Weekend Edition and Fresh Air in the same holiday time slot; a direct mail campaign in the L.A. and New York markets; and substantial retail point-of-purchase promotion, including full-size posters." Television ads for Prestige??? Direct mail??? Maybe they will use their mailing list for the old Fantasy catalogue. Looks like Concord/Fantasy is going all out for these to be Christmas presents for those who are starting to get into jazz and those who know they won't be buying all of the OJCs of an artist already available. For example, most of my Coltrane is on Impulse! I have only two Prestige Coltrane LPs. Before I spend a lot of money on Prestige Coltrane, I will probably pick up more of his Atlantics. But a Prestige compilation I expect I will enjoy. I have three on the way: Coltrane, Red Garland and Kenny Burrell. After I have a chance to digest them, I'll report back and let you know what I think of the compilations and also the free samplers, which I am curious about. Anyway, I think it's great news that Concord will be spending money to promote Prestige for Christmas.

I think she's kidding herself, probably whistling past the graveyard. I think that the covers are chosen to prompt sales, which will attract some but perhaps alienate many. I don't think that most people thought a nude John Lennon was acceptable to look at, for example. edit for spelling

Congrats!

Steve Swallow - Damaged in Transit. This came out two years ago. Chris Potter on tenor sax, Adam Nussbaum on drums and Swallow on electric bass. All songs recorded in concert. The liner notes are simply the sheet music of the tunes! Not bad, but I have to be in the right mood to listen to a sax trio without a chordal instrument such as a piano or a guitar.

Great job!

Happy 50th John! Break out the black balloons!

I forgot about...Ike Turner

By coincidence, I'm listening to True Blue now!

I can't answer your questions, but I saw McNeill in the fall of '68 in DC. What a great concert. It was one of the first jazz concerts I went to. As I recall, Eric Gravatt was in the group.

Ron, thanks for the heads up about Your Music. I've added it to my queue.

Steve Marcus - Larry Coryell's Offering McCoy Tyner - Wayne Shorter's JuJu (controversial pick, I know!) Chick Corea - Stan Getz's Sweet Rain Joey DeFrancesco - Pat Martino's Live at Yoshi's John Coltrane - Miles Davis's Relaxin (I haven't heard the new Monk at Carnegie Hall yet.) Larry Coryell - Steve Marcus's Count's Rock Band Jim Hall - Paul Desmond's Bossa Antigua Paul Desmond - Dave Brubeck's Time Out Chet Baker - Gerry Mulligan's first album on PJ Scott LaFaro - Bill Evans' Sunday at the Village Vanguard

Reginald Veal (Nov. 5) also in music: Roy Rogers Art Garfunkel Peter Noone (Herman)

Now that I've had In Session about eight weeks, I find that I don't listen to it as much as I did at first, but I still listen to it more often than any other vocal album I have. Still like it a great deal. Sidewinder and Alfred, do you have any thoughts on the Mosaic box you got? Pleased with the purchase, or too much of a good thing?

I was always fond of Gordon Hathaway and "Hi ho, Steverino!" I think there was a gentleness of much of that era's humor that doesn't exist today. For example, I saw Ernie Kovac's name in the paper this morning. Kovacs' humor was nothing like Steve Allen's, but it was gentle nevertheless. I suspect, and you may disagree, that the main influence on comedy for the past thirty years has been Lenny Bruce, and that is why we are not seeing shows that try to be funny without pushing the envelope.

I believe that the #1 online retailer is http://www.minidisco.com

I've owned this one a month now, and I still play it almost every day. I'm starting to like some of Stephen Scott's solos better too. Any second thoughts from those who have it?

Congrats Bill! I am under the impression that retail stores will hire just about anybody willing to work for the low wages. As a result, it is not uncommon to have employees who will do just enough work not to get fired. So I recommend that you be ready for employees with bad attitudes. Don't let it grind you down!

I met Vitous when Infinite Search was just out, and we chatted for ten minutes. He didn't seem egotistical at all to me. This was about 1969, and he was playing with Herbie Mann.

BFrank, I have ordered from DeepDiscount DVD a few times. They are reliable, but a little slow. Edit: The Danger Man and Saint Early Years sets look appealling.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the Miles Quintet with Coltrane live date that was packaged with the Round About Midnight Legacy Edition. Does anyone have this? How does it sound? Is the performance any good? Or is this just for completists only? I see on the Your Music thread that it is backordered there, so they must have sold quite a few. I wonder how many more they would have sold if they hadn't bundled it with the other album that most folks already have.

Noj, when my order in May didn't arrive, they made me wait four weeks before they would consider my request to look into it. When the four weeks passed, they admitted that they had received the CD back, and they sent me another one without hassle, which arrived in three days.

Great news that they're carrying new ECMs again! Thanks for that heads up.

Nice effort! I don't think I would have included Headhunters. In the jazz rock fusion category, I might have substituted one of the two mentioned in his recent obituary: Steve Marcus - Tomorrow Never Knows or Count's Rock Band.

Bertrand, I'm working from memory, so if you're sure that you're right I'll go along. It seems to me that the Mosaic catalogues from the 80s often included references to tracks previously unknown. Maybe that was just a little hype. I think I have a catalogue from that era somewhere, but I wouldn't know where to find it quickly.