ghost of miles

tjazz, just looking at the listing on CD Universe (and not having the Essentials in front of me), it looks like there's a fair amount of overlap, but by no means will this set contain everything that was on the Essentials. (I'm sure it will be in much better sound, however.) None of Disc 4 is on the Essentials, though--that's all live material (which I think has, for the most part, been out before on several different labels).

Yeah, I'd say we're less likely to see titles such as George Russell's KANSAS CITY ever see the light of day on CD now.

You know, Tony, the ironic thing is that I ordered the set primarily for the Krupa, too (haven't gotten it yet--it's coming with the three new releases), and thought, "Eh, the James will be interesting too..." and shortly afterwards I went on my James kick. So my excitement about that set has doubled. I also stumbled across a remaindered paperback of TRUMPET BLUES, which looks like a decent bio of James, and I'm really looking forward to the Hindsight set. Thanks for everybody's recommendations. I'm now eyeing the James/Basie Hep...

Thanks for posting this, Kinuta. I just recently read Le Carre for the first time (THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, of course) and am hoping to give the Smiley trilogy a go as soon as work/projects allow it. I've heard great things about the BBC series and will definitely have to check it out.

An old maid named Dodo?

You haven't heard it yet. You're only whetting my appetite! Man, I'm starting to feel like this is the cursed big diamond in an Uncle Scrooge story I read as a kid. Whoever got it was glad at first, till lightning and hail started hitting him and hurricanes broke out over his head...

Harry James, ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL (Hindsight) Sam Rivers, FUSCHIA SWING SONG Various, 50 YEARS OF DELMARK JAZZ & BLUES Stan Getz, LOST SESSIONS: BOSSAS & BALLADS Various, BIRD UP (Charlie Parker re-mixed)

OK, another guy I sloughed off for a long time as a nascent young jazz snob (outside of his early hot work as a sideman, of course). But lately I've been listening to him more, particularly the '39 band, and I just ordered the Hindsight box BANDSTAND MEMORIES 1938-48, as well as the Krupa/James Capitol set. Any other recommendations/thoughts on this trumpeter?

His "loss" will be my "gain"! Thanks, jacknife!

Yeah, word in the industry has been that it sounds somewhat like his 70's stuff... I'm eager to hear it, as well as the forthcoming Al Green. Wonder if their label has a BB where fans can discuss these exciting new releases?

Thanks for the opinions, Ray & Ed. I'm really looking forward to hearing it.

I'm still waiting on the Hazel Scott... pre-ordered it from Deep Discount and still waiting for it to show.

Good news about the Auld, and even better news about Lil Green! Her stuff is really hard to find on CD (or on vinyl, for that matter); I keep hoping that Bear Family or Mosaic will do a set of her. That is quite a coincidence, Swinging Swede, that we were both talking about Shaw's abrupt departure on the same day.

Glad to take it off your hands! I passed this one up years ago, but I'm such an Ike fan (and Grant Green) that I want it anyway--neither one will be putting out new records again. Just curious--why do you guys regard this as one of the worst Conns? Are her vocals really that bad?

Excellent! You guys are priceless--thanks!

That is quite a coincidence, Swinging Swede! And thanks for the account, Matthew--does it give a date for that performance, BTW? I'm really hoping to track down the specific night...

Hey all, anybody know of eyewitness accounts or otherwise to the night that Artie Shaw walked off the stage at the Cafe Rouge in New York's Hotel Pennsylvania circa November 1939? He gave up his big band and disappeared for a couple of months--re-surfacing in Mexico, I believe. I don't know if our library's Downbeats go back that far, but I'm very interested in any stories about this night that have been printed anywhere. Surely Shaw's talked about it before (he mentions it fleetingly in the SELF-PORTRAIT liners, I think).

Scores from tonight: Yanks 13, Baltimore 1 Red Sox 8, Tampa Bay 2 Texas 6, Seattle 4 Looks like the BoSox have a good shot at snagging the wildcard... Baseball books sitting on the shelf that I need to get around to reading: THE CATCHER WAS A SPY and Arnold Rampersad's bio of Jackie Robinson (he also wrote a two-part bio of Langston Hughes)

Sounds like a haul to me, man! The Urso, Benny Powell and Upper Manhattans sound particularly intriguing.

Wow, already? Didn't they license that for 10,000 copies? Whether it's sold that fast--or sold that little--in 4 years, I'm surprised. In any case, yes, get it while you can! SO many good albums hear--SYMPHONIC ELLINGTON, AFRO-BOSSA, JAZZ VIOLIN... this, in fact, is one of my favorite Ellington collections, and one that I re-visit often. Not to be missed! Hell, I even like the Mary Poppins stuff (you ain't heard it till you've heard it arranged by Strayhorn); that album was one of the unexpected delights for me when I picked up this box.

Jimmy Lyons, BOX-SET disc 1 (yeahhhhhh!) A.K. Salim, PLAYS PRETTY FOR THE PEOPLE Bunny Berigan, Mosaic set discs 1 & 2 Red Garland, MANTECA

Mine arrived this afternoon and I had time to listen to most of Disc 1 and read the booklet before I had to go to work. Beautiful! Ben Young's liner notes fill in a lot of Lyons' background that I didn't know about, and the music--what I got to hear of it--was amazing. Can't wait to check out the rest of it after midnight tonight...

Either way it's still an interesting discussion. I've sometimes heard the Blakey Birdlands referred to as the birth of hard bop, and I've also sometimes seen Bud Powell's 1949 session with Sonny Rollins (what were they billed as? "Bud Powell and His Modernists?" In any case....) given the same label. Everybody will say, "You can't nail down the start of a movement to a specific date/session/player," and while that's often true, trying to do so can dig up some interesting, overlooked moments in the making of the canon. I'm thinking that hard bop's roots/precedents have to predate even the Powell '49 session... haven't listened to the Blakey/James Moody NEW SOUNDS disc in some time, but I might pull that out tonight and give it another listen.

Al Grey, SNAP YOUR FINGERS J.J. Johnson. J.J.'S BROADWAY Webster Young, FOR LADY Bud Powell, COMP. BLUE NOTE & ROOST (disc 1) Randy Weston, GET HAPPY

Wesbed, are you sure you didn't read that ANABirdland was the beginning of "hard bop?" Bebop was at least 10 years old at this point (actually older, if you trace the roots, etc.--the classic point-of-departure has been the 1941 Minton sessions in Harlem). Some day I'd really like to do an "echoes of bop" show that would focus on the bebop precedents set in the 1930s.