Tom Storer

Let me just reiterate that Europe doesn't get ECM--the UK does, but not the continent. At least I think so. I'm in France and my eMusic page says "eMusic Europe": ECM is not available (with the inexplicable exception of Miroslav Vitous's "Universal Syncopations," where the label is given as ECM/Kontor). UK posters here, however, report getting ECM with their eMusic subscription. And North America gets labels we don't get over here, too! I can't remember which ones but I know I've been frustrated by this in the past.

Their first album, virtually all instrumentals, is great testimony to the jazzy, soulful dance music of the period.

I'm delighted to have been introduced to this extraordinary (well, let's hope so) piece of Americana. I watched many of the plentiful YouTube clips featuring ol' Jesco. What a guy. The jailhouse interview was posted two months ago. Does anyone know if Jesco is in the jailhouse now?

UK members get ECM?? I'm jealous! I thought UK was the same as eMusic Europe, which doesn't have ECM. Huh. Absolutely right. I'm going to stick with them, even after the new system hits eMusic Europe, which I'm sure it will soon, because come what may they're cheaper than the competition and I'm very far from exhausting their catalog, even after having spent months pumping tracks nonstop back in the days of unlimited downloads. But they screwed up big-time.

Let's hope he comes out of this healthilee and happilee! (two potential song titles for his next album)

Album pricing is fairer, I think, than track pricing, and it's clear that classical and modern jazz labels, which tend to offer longer tracks, were getting the short end of the stick. If two albums each last 60 minutes but one has two tracks and the other has 12 tracks, shouldn't they really be priced the same? We all got used to looking for advantage in track pricing by finding albums with long tracks, but often I've regretfully passed over albums that have over 20 tracks. The tendency with album pricing will be to reduce the proportion of low-track-number albums that were priced too low and also the proportion of high-track-number albums that were priced too high. Meanwhile, eMusic Europe has not mentioned SONY or any change in their pricing. Yet. I'm sure it will come soon.

Forgot to mention another essential Mose album, "Mose Alive!" It's available on the Collectables label, paired on the same CD with "I Don't Worry About a Thing." "Mose Alive!" has his iconic version of "Parchman Farm" as well as a couple of great originals such as "Smashed" ("I'm smashed, just like a busted fender / Crashed, where can a man surrender?") and "Tell Me Something": You say the world is mad You say that you've been had You don't like your part In the floor show You say it's all a bust There's no one you can trust Well, tell me something That I don't know You say the world's a mess It's anybody's guess As to who will deliver That low blow You suffer from the strain You don't dig pain Well, tell me something That I don't know

I saw it a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's arranged on a timeline, focusing on graphic design and influence on other arts, with plenty of early sheet music, advertisements (including for some Storyville brothels), record covers, magazine covers and photography, paintings, literature/journalism, and lots of film clips. The film clips are musical, and as you move further into the exhibition you hear more and more of them, building to a sort of soft and joyful cacaphony. Very well done.

Has Mose put out anything new since "The Mose Chronicles," the live-in-London from seven or eight years ago? One of my favorites is "Ever Since the World Ended" from 1987, with Arthur Blythe and Bennie Wallace providing horn solos (sample lyric: "Ever since the world ended / I don't go out as much"). Then there was the excellent "Gimcracks and Gewgaws" about a decade later, which included "Old Man's Blues," an echo of "Young Man's Blues" from 30 years earlier.

You would think that competition would force prices down rather than up. I see two different markets corresponding to different communities of taste: mainstream, major-label music, on the one hand, and historical or non-mainstream indie-label music on the other. Obviously there's overlap, and a given customer could be interested in both, but a very large proportion of the mainstream listeners aren't going to be interested in the indie stuff and vice-versa. For the mainstream market, eMusic will now be competing with Amazon and iTunes, with lower prices. So competition will be forcing prices down there. For the indie labels they already offer, eMusic just about has a monopoly, so they can afford to up their prices. Their sales will go down but in exchange for that they'll enter the larger and more lucrative mainstream market. In addition, as Captain Wrong surmises, they might have been pricing too low to retain their indie labels anyway. BWTFDIK? Anyway, John, having seen your collection, what surprises me is that there remains any jazz or blues for you to purchase anyway.

This whole thing is not aimed at their existing customer base of aficionados mining for independent-label gold at low low prices. They want to expand their customer base, and that PR campaign is aimed at people who have been getting mainstream MP3s elsewhere, not at you. The raised eMusic prices will be competitive with iTunes and Amazon. They've decided to target a much wider audience. Some long-time customers are already feeling betrayed and canceling their subscriptions in order, apparently, to pay more per track on Amazon, which I confess I don't quite get. There's still huge amounts of music on eMusic I couldn't get at Amazon or iTunes, so when they get around to jacking up prices for eMusic Europe, I'll stick around as long as they're still competitively priced.

This one sounds interesting: Steve Kuhn Trio with Joe Lovano, Mostly Coltrane Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone and tarogato Steve Kuhn: piano; David Finck: double-bass Joey Baron: drums Release date: July 7, 2009

I'm assuming the volumes already out will continue to be sold as long as supplies last. I'm going to be getting the ones I don't already have right quick.

Any idea what the release date will be? The 1957 set did come out. But the European Union has just voted to extend copyright protection from 50 to 70 years. The compilers of the Trésors du Jazz series, André Francis and Jean Schwarz, are elderly gentlemen. So that, I'm afraid, is that.

Not if the European limit is extended to 95 years as proposed by the European Commission. Read in the paper the other day that they compromised: the limit was extended to 70 years and voted. This means that the Trésors du Jazz series of 10-cd boxes per year is now over. They got up to 1957.

In the June issue of the French monthly Jazz Magazine, there's an ad that says "Label Bleu reissues 12 essential references." Their website is currently online. The content of the site seems to be two years old and doesn't mention these reissues, but apparently the Maison de Culture d'Amiens, a municipal cultural center under whose auspices the label was created, has found a new distributor for the back catalog, Sphinx Distribution, in Paris. Here are the 12 reissues: Marc Ducret, Gris Daniel Goyone, 2 Daniel Humair, Edges David Linx/Diederik Wissels, Bandarkah D'Andra/Humair/Rava/Vitous, Earthcake Enrico Rava, L'Opéra Va Barbara Casini/Enrico Rava, Vento Palatino (Romano/Benita/Fresu/Ferris), Palatino Palatino (Romano/Benita/Fresu/Ferris), Tempo Enrico Rava, Carmen Henri Texier Trio, The Scene Is Clean Henri Texier, Skopja

Some unintentional humor...

Maybe he can marry Veronica, be hired as vice-president of the firm by his father-in-law, then they'll have kids, who'll grow up, a whole new cast of characters... then they can "reboot" or whatever they call it for Superman comics, where they go back and create entirely new, alternative story lines. Alternate universes of Archie. Why not? If it's good enough for DC...

It makes nice background music, the tunes are somewhat catchy if generic, but so far I haven't found anything in the lyrics that I find particularly inspired, and that's what Dylan is all about, so...

OK, OK, already! What exactly is a CHICAGO SOUL DOG? Found this here: But now that I think about it, the place is called Soul Dog and that's just the house sandwich. A commenter on the web said about this eatery: "I come here for the hot dog toppings: roasted poblano pepper salsa, caramelized onions and lots others." I'm dying to know what a SOUL DOG is in Chicago.

Another great one is "Red 'n' Me," a duet album with Red Mitchell.

A couple that I like are "James Street" and "Ain't Misbehavin'", both quartet albums on High Note featuring John Hicks, Dwayne Dolphin on bass, and Cecil Brooks III on drums.

No, AntiVir is not the same as AVG. I started using AntiVir recently after reading rave reviews in consumer computer magazines. It seems to work just fine. Only drawback is that when it downloads updates it pops up a window encouraging you to buy the Pro version.

When even Japanese noise artist/musicians are freaking out over swine flu, what is the world coming to?

Over the last few days I've ordered: - Lou Rawls, Live! - Lou Rawls, Stormy Monday - Fly Trio, Sky & Country - Jack DeJohnette/John Patitucci/Danilo Perez, Music We Are Anxious to hear the last one!