MartyJazz

I saw Jim Hall guest with Sonny Rollins at Carnegie Hall back in '91. They played "The Bridge" among other tunes from their early '60s repertoire. It was great to see them together again back then after so many years, but I felt there definitely was a drop in intensity compared with those Victor recordings. Now, 19 years later, one hopes that this reunion will somehow spark a creative resurgence.

This was the very last out of the game that Joyce screwed up. Definitely, should have been reviewed. To those purists here, Joyce has to live with the fact that he simply choked in a critical spot, I mean the play wasn't even close. Meanwhile what's in the air that this would have been the 3rd perfecto within a month after it took over a century to produce only 18 perfect games?

"Minor's Holiday"!!!!! Fabulous track.

My story of how I came to CDs is a little more unusual and somewhat ironic. I resisted for quite some time, still buying new LPs as late as 1989. Having gotten married a little later in life - I was 40 - my wife knew what she was getting into as by that time, circa '85, I already owned the bulk of my 5,000+ LPs. So her attitude re CDs amounted to, and I'm quoting, "As far as you're concerned, 'CD' means 'Certain Divorce'". Anyway, in the spring of '89, I attend a jazz record fair sponsored by WBGO-FM at the Sheraton Hotel in Newark, NJ. At the door, attendees paid the admission charge and were asked to fill out a form that included name, address, phone number, etc. I remember hesitating to write accurate information as I knew that WBGO would use these forms to solicit donations to the listener-sponsored station. But, I decided to be truthful. I bought some wonderful LPs that day, including a mint copy of Rollins' "Our Man in Jazz" for $20. Went home, happy with my purchases. A couple of days later, I receive a letter from WBGO, stating that they were sorry that I wasn't there at the time my name was called, but I happened to be the grand prize winner of the "door prize" for a lucky attendee. Sure enough, the grand prize stated in the letter was a NAD CD deck, and I should let WBGO know when I would be coming to the station to pick it up. I showed the letter to my wife who read it and said, "Oh, shit". Now that I own over 2,000 CDs and many box sets, I understand her point, but hell she herself has a collection of about 150 CDs.

Meanwhile after writing that I never knew of the existence of the I LIKE JAZZ ! lp having been familiar with an abbreviated 45 RPM ep for many years, something prompted me to finally take a second look at a box of albums I received some time this decade from an acquaintance who was disposing of a deceased relative's belongings. Sure enough, as an evident sign that I must be losing it somehow, there was a nice clean copy of the I LIKE JAZZ ! lp. In any event, Musicbox above correctly noted the connection between "Makin' Time" and "Audrey" from the BRUBECK TIME session. The liner notes on the back of the LP state: "The Dave Brubeck in this collection is of special interest to collectors, for it is a blues which was recorded a few seconds after the completion of Audrey...and is in reality a variation on the same mood."

I too know it exists. In fact, Desmond's solo on "Makin' Time" concludes with an exact quote that he plays on "Audrey". Was the I LIKE JAZZ sampler a 45 RPM ep only, which I've owned for many years? I never did see the I LIKE JAZZ lp, if in fact it ever existed.

Mark Teixera may play an excellent first base, but truth be told, he absolutely sucks at the plate this year. Continually strikes out, often on bad pitches, or when making contact, it's either a weak fly ball or a ground out. I know the Yankee lineup is depleted due to injuries, but I would drop Teix down in the batting order until he starts to hit. He's a liability hitting third, snuffing out rallies left and right (handed).

I regularly attended Studio Rivbea back in the early and mid '70s and got to know Sam pretty well at that time, the main reason being that I gave him a copy of the Miles Davis Quintet in Kyoto, July 15, 1964, the evening after the Tokyo concert that was originally released by Columbia in Japan only. He was extremely grateful for that and in fact, received the open reel tape copy from me by coming to my apartment in Brooklyn Heights with Beatrice one glorious weekend afternoon. Anyway, to get to the point, Sam thereafter loaned me quite a few of the taped sessions that were made at Rivbea during that time from which I made copies, open reel tapes that I have yet to transfer to CD-R. They are all pretty similar in that for the most part, the sets consisted of free playing by Sam on tenor, soprano and flute, backed by bass and drums only, usually David Holland and Barry Altschul. As would be expected, there are moments of tremendous energy and excitement throughout. The fidelity is generally quite good as Sam would have a semi-professional open reel deck on stage when he was recording in the intimate setting that was his venue and living quarters, Studio Rivbea on Bond Street in the East Village of NYC.

I wonder if the Angel Eyes Japanese release has the two takes of "Will You Still be Mine". Some time back I discovered that the mono take released on the original Columbia ("CL") LP is substantially different and is about 1-1/2 minutes longer than the stereo take released on the Columbia ("CS") LP. Both LPs list the take with the shorter time on the bottom back cover. After having owned the stereo LP for many years, I was in a local library where on the "disposal" shelves, I found a clean Angel Eyes mono LP. I took it home and made the surprising discovery of the alternate take then. No Brubeck discography that I'm aware of has noted this. I did make a CD-R of the stereo LP with the addition of the mono take of "WYSBM".

Also available from Marc Myers' blog JazzWax which you can subscribe to and thereby regularly receive his columns via e-mail: http://www.jazzwax.com/ He spices his columns with lots of unique photos and interviews as well.

Concert was a mixed bag as I'll explain, but very glad I went. Werner is an unusual player, consistently toying with time within a piece, but very ably supported in particular by the drummer, Ari Hoenig. Joe Lovano is a tremendous saxophonist, or as Lee Morgan once said of Trane, a "mahnnnnstahhh". Where the "mixed" comes in, is that not publicized in advance, but indeed mentioned in the program given out to the ticket-buying public as we walked into the concert hall, was the presence of Judi Silvano, who contributed her questionable vocal talent to quite a few numbers, at least one of which was her own composition, "Bougainvillea". NMCOT. Again though, well worth attending.

Yeah, I had no problem with C.C. retaliating for Beckett's wildness the previous night, but I didn't like that he chose Pedroia as his victim. Martinez has been tough against us, I think a pitch in his direction would have made more sense. Meanwhile I'm quite surprised at how the Bosox are floundering (despite the four game sweep of the enigmatic Angels), especially as I thought that their pitching at the start of the season was the class of the AL East. Tough, tough road for them with the Yanks and Rays playing major league leading .700 ball.

There ya go! Here's a smattering of favorites: The first cover above, that of the Reunion Big Band recorded at the 1968 Berlin JF, is a great, great album. AFAIK however, the cover cited is that of the LP only. When I finally got this session on CD, the cover shows an older Dizzy, but of course the music is still great, particularly a hellacious version of "Things to Come". Here's the CD issue available currently in the U.S.:

Looking forward to this. First chance to catch Joe in concert. Tix are quite reasonable, $35 for non South Florida Jazz members. Not a bad seat in the house. South Florida Jazz site

I've always liked these two with Desmond:

Anyone who doesn't think this latest incarnation of Miles' Prestige output is a terrible "conception" is in "denial". I see no logic whatsoever in this 14 CD monstrosity. There's no chronological order consistency whatsoever, witness for example, the four track session with Dave Schildkraut being split into two discs ("I'll Remember April" opening CD4 while, the other three tracks are placed in CD5). While I retain much Miles Prestige vinyl, I do dig the 8 CD box set that came out 2 decades ago, along with the Coltrane 16 CD box that contains his sideman work with Miles. That's enough forever.

I grew up in the Lillian Wald projects on Avenue D, one long avenue block from Slug's which was located on East 3rd St., just off Avenue C. Yeah, pretty tough neighborhood although I do recall that Jackie McLean also resided in the Wald projects. And while I had moved to Brooklyn Heights by the time of his death, I did witness Lee's last two sets at Slug's, but I've told that story before.

Nothing better demonstrates the continuing relevance of Tadd than the Joe Lovano Nonet's 52nd Street Themes. Strongly recommended!

Speaking of which, is it still possible to get a carousel CD deck? I enjoy putting in 5 discs (the maximum my cheap RCA deck will take), pressing "shuffle play - all discs", and being constantly surprised (and sometimes tested, especially if I've put in 5 individually different pianist trio CDs). The only major problem I have is that the deck will frequently not read a CD-R well or at all. I do own an Oppo single play deck which I use strictly for DVDs; it plays all region commercial as well as DVD-Rs made by myself or people abroad with whom I've traded. It is a truly excellent machine. But an upgrade on an audio CD carousel deck would be great. However, if one can now only get a quality single play CD deck, then the previous recs on this forum may be the only way to go.

I last saw him duetting with Gil Evans at the Greene Street Cafe in MYC, circa 1980. In terms of most of the jazz I listen to, that's pretty recent.

Get Bobby Hutcherson's DIALOGUE. It's a mid-'60s accessible Blue Note that is essentially Hill's music with Hill present on the date, but somehow the nominal leader of the date is Hutcherson. Features Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard and includes Richard Davis & Joe Chambers. Well worth picking up.

It was a wonderful concert. The NG band behind Burton consisted of guitarist Julian Lage, Ukrainian-born pianist and composer, Vadim Neselovskyi, bassist Luques Curtis, and drummer James Williams. Besides Burton who remains a consummate virtuoso on the vibes, the real standout for me was Vadim N., a truly original, marvelous pianist. Repertoire for the two sets consisted of quite a few originals plus a few well known jazz and Broadway standards, e.g., "I Hear a Rhapsody", "Monk's Dream", "My Funny Valentine", "My Romance", "Bags' Groove".

Tough to choose just three especially that I'm neglecting his excellent work with Dolphy, but I venture that I listen to these the most: TIAJUANA MOODS BLUES AND ROOTS TONIGHT AT NOON

Burton is now a full time resident of Ft. Lauderdale, so I've seen him a few times, e.g., duets with Chick Corea, Makoto Ozone, so this will be the first time I see him with a complete rhythm section. Burton always performs well, looking forward to checking out this group which seems to consist of real youngsters, if you check out the photo in this link: http://southfloridajazz.org/

And again, eternal thanks to you for letting me have his A DAY IN COPENHAGEN (MPS), a great '69 session that features Slide Hampton and Dizzy Reece along with Dex. Every cut's a winner.