sidewinder

Have a very happy and moosey birthday !

Shake Keane 'That's The Noise' (Ace of Clubs mono) Kenny Burrell 'Midnight Blue' (BN NY USA mono DG side 1)

Time to sell the DMMs...

I may have a re-think then !

A Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all ! I'm off on a short hol next week but just time to spin a few festive Blue Notes and Mosaics before I go.

'Ray's Jazz' in London have this behemoth for £90 but I think I'll wait until my Amazon Xmas certificate arrives and go for the $120 deal from the US.

Very cool ! That must have been around the time that Jackie was appearing in the play 'The Connection'. Wonder who was in the band?

Bobby Hutcherson 'Knucklebean' (BN blue label)

Now if only JazzTimes was doing discounts on Mosaics...

Is it my imagination or did the price of vintage Blue Note LPs in particular go exponential in 2005 ? I suspect that it is more economical being a cocaine addict than a Blue Note vinyl addict ..

This will be a good set. I think I've got most of the material apart from 'The Cool World' on vinyl or (in the case of 'Jambo Caribe') on CD so will probably pass on this one. Some of the 'Cool World' material I have on a Diz anthology set. Particular thumbs up to the Lalo Schifrin arranged 'New Continent' - released on Limelight (as mentioned above). 'The Chains', in particular, is a real good arrangement and the whole thing is well recorded. Sounds like it won't be on this set though.

I'll add the 47W63rd Horace Silvers to the list of great sounding originals. Just listening to the DG 'Horace-Scope' after a bit of a vinyl clean and it is wonderful. Superb presence ! Still can't work out why they screwed up with 'The Connection' though..

Absolutely ! Very pleasing, neutral sound quality and very quiet in terms of background noise. You can't go wrong with these.

Again, starting the Xmas hols with a dollop o' Horace: Horace Silver 'Horace-Scope' (BN 47W63rd DG mono) 'The Cape Verdean Blues' (BN NY USA mono) 'The Jody Grind' (BN Liberty mono) 'Further Explorations With The Horace Silver Quintet' (BN 47W63rd mono, No DG no ear)

Have a fine birthday !

Good move ! That's a pretty scarce King LP and, indeed, a gem.

This one has been a past AOTW: Oblique

Joe Henderson 'Inner Urge' (BN NY USA mono)

They can be variable. I've had some (e.g. Lee Morgan 'The Sixth Sense') that are as good as NY USAs in terms of sound. The later ones can be a bit iffy though. As for originals, the best sounding one I've heard to date is the 47W63rd DG of Johnny Griffin 'The Congregation'. The similar vintage DG of 'Sonny Rollins Vol 2' and slightly later Art Taylor 'AT's Delight' are also amazing. Anything 47W63rd is usually great (single exception in my experience being Freddie Redd's 'The Connection' - not a great recording). Most of the NY USAs are also pretty fine, particularly early monos.

Mal Waldron et al 'Sweet Love, Bitter' soundtrack (Impulse, mono)

A reissue!?! I see Bernard Stollman wasn't very impressed with the vinyl from these guys on that AAJ interview (nice interview, BTW, Clifford )

Particularly fine work from George Coleman on the bonus tracks. 'Free Flow' was a tune he featured extensively on his live quartet gigs in the late 70s. Nice playing from Julian Priester also on this session. One of my favourite TOCJs.

Pat Metheny 'Zero Tolerance For Silence' or...... Miles Davis 'Agharta'

Mention of 'Siete Ocho' always invariably reminds me of what must have been the hippest in flight entertainment jazz tape ever compiled by American Airlines (or was it United?) which featured this track and selections from a whole bunch of other Conns of the time. Best flight I ever had ! They also had great Eddie Jefferson on that tape.. Makes a change from the usual Yellowjackets/SpiroGyra muzak on those flights.

Just the job for authentic playback of Lexingtons and 47W63rd deep grooves !