ejp626

I think I've caught up with all shipments and stuff in hold piles. Thanks so much. It was a crazy weekend, so I didn't prepare a long list -- more tonight hopefully: consolidated

Also gratifying to watch a Miami team just kinda sit there and wait for their greatness to explode, not realizing that the opposition had them totally figured out and that if they wanted an explosion, they were going to have to dig deep and find a way. Instead they got a coach who was telling them to "stay the course" when they were down by nine in the third quarter of an elimination game. Yeah, stay the course, keep losing, don't make any adjustments or bump your your intenisty with your season on the line, just stay the freakin' course, the course that's got you on the verge of failure. The players actually seemed to believe that bullshit! ... And Cuban insisting that the trophy first be presented to Don Carter was a truly class act by a man who doesn't always seem to have a class act in his repertoire. Big kudos for that one! Whether it was too calculated or not, I agree presenting the trophy to Carter was a class act. I think a lot of people liked that and may be willing to cut Cuban a bit more slack going forward. He does seem to finally realized he needs to tone it down a bit as well. He actually showed some restraint from time to time in press conferences. I wonder a bit about the stay the course thing, though in reference to the Bulls. I thought Thibs did a lot right, but he was a bit too stubborn in the Heat series, only playing Kurt Thomas when it was absolutely necessary. I honestly think that cost the Bulls 2 games (probably still would have lost in 7). Now to be fair, the Bulls are built a little bit like Cleveland was -- a superstar and some decent role players (though they played harder on defense than Cleveland typically did). In the playoffs, teams had figured out that really they just had to triple Rose and if the others were having an off night, that was it. The cubbord was pretty much bare for Thibs. The good news is that the management does realize this and is trying to bring in some reinforcements (and I presume Thibs would play them ), but who knows if there will even be a next season.

Au contraire, mon frere. It is extremely simple to find region free DVD players (or do the simple hacking that makes most players region free) and also most players and TVs can handle PAL vs. NTSC conversion. I suppose maybe it would look funny on a hi-def TV, but on my set-up it looks fine. I would guess about 15% of my DVD collection is Region 2 with a tiny number of region 5s thrown in as well.

I'm sort of half-tempted to read the full, expanded version (from 1991), which is 60,000 words longer. However, I suspect the editors did Heinlein a huge favor. That's usually the case, but in this case, I think the expanded version is much better. I read it when it came out in '91, and thought the additions made the novel flow a lot better, and cleared up some dangling questions. Hmmm. That is interesting. Well, I have probably at least 200 books to tackle before this, but maybe someday... Three Junes is actually pretty interesting, for a book that sure looked like an Oprah book club pick. Not to totally dis' Oprah -- she had some challenging novels on her list -- but a few too many of them were one step above The Bridges of Madison County, esp. Wally Lamb. Couldn't make it past the first 20 pages of She's Come Undone.

Can't tell from the Amazon blurb whether this does or does not include Gryce's Reminiscin' LP. I would tend to think not and it focuses on the unreleased material, though this LP seems pretty rare at the moment. I will welcome it either way.

Not quite 100 but close. New listings 6/10/2011 HOLD 5 Dollar Brand Reflections (1201 music, 24-bit remaster of Black Lion material) HOLD 5 Abdullah Ibrahim Knysna Blue (Enja) HOLD 6 Abdullah Ibrahim Echoes from Africa (Enja) HOLD 8 Shirley Scott Queen of the Organ (Impulse) rest consolidated * free with 1 CD purchase (as above)

I always enjoyed the interactions of "Remington" and "Laura" but I agree I much preferred the original series with the 4 characters. I actually strongly disliked the older, bumbling woman who joined the firm (Mildred?) and if she had a really prominent role, I often would stop watching. Interestingly, in the commentary on these CDs, one of the writers claimed that a trio of characters makes for more compelling storylines than a quartet. Not sure I would agree (I almost always prefer complex storylines to simple ones), but certainly the ratings improved.

What's really crazy is they are selling the MP3s for the exact same price. That's certainly not very appealing to me.

My contact tells me that the out-of-tune portion of Sentimental Mood is not included. That's good to know. Yeah, they're saving it for the 10th anniversary "complete" edition when it is remastered with a bonus DVD of the performances.

Even if you order a box of stuffed animals? Or a crate of them?

I'm sort of half-tempted to read the full, expanded version (from 1991), which is 60,000 words longer. However, I suspect the editors did Heinlein a huge favor.

Decided to go ahead and sell the Andrew Hill - Solo Select for $30. The CDs are near mint, and the booklet is in very good shape. Some dings to the cardboard box. Hopefully I can list another long list of CDs tonight and then over the weekend. The kids were "helping" me alphabetize them, so that has added some time to the process.

I'm thinking how hard it is to sell books back. Probably 10 times harder than selling off CDs and this is surely harder than it was a couple of years ago. I took two boxes to Powells and they took one, and that was a pretty good day. I only took books that should have been of interest (no airport books) but they still only took 50%. I'll try two more places and then a few will go up on Amazon and the rest will get donated somewhere.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for but there are 4 Mozart sonatas here on 1 CDMozart and 10 Beethoven sonatas on 3 CDs here Beethoven The Beethoven sonatas are also available on Brilliant for even less: Brilliant Beethoven Oddly, the Brilliant are reissuing a mono version and the Decca is in stereo. At least according to some of the more informed reviewers. Of course, some of the same reviewers claim the balance on these sets is way off, so who knows.

New listing (6/8/11) consolidated * Free with any other CD purchase (free CD does not count towards 3 CDs for free US shipping)

Well, hard to go wrong with both if you have the stamina and the resources. As far as Shostakovich string quartet cycles, there are 4 or 5 complete ones, and the Pacifica Quartet is now recording one, though this will add in other Soviet composers for a bit of variety. Given that I saw them do the cycle live here in Chicago, they may become a sentimental favorite, though I suspect it will be 2-3 years before the entire cycle is available. Here's the projected schedule of this upcoming Shostakovich cycle: Pacifica News (yeah, probably not technically a bargain, though they do say each two-CD set will be sold at single CD prices. ) Do I need more CDs -- absolutely not. Will I get these anyway -- probably so.

Miyuki Miyabe "all she was worth" I picked this up since it was pretty cheap and I thought the cover was cool. It is sort of a police procedural set in Tokyo with several side trips to Osaka, and indeed the ending may too literally follow these conventions since it ends rather too abruptly for my taste. It dfeinitely picks up around page 50, then there are some other interesting twists and turns. However, the last 50 pages adds in one twist too many where the story becomes too unbelievable for me and thus boring. Another major problem is that it reads like a hybrid mystery/lecture on the evils of easy credit, sort of like someone had been given the task of popularizing a civics text book! Hard to believe it won so many awards in Japan. On the whole, I wouldn't recommend it. Just started Julia Glass's Three Junes. Not bad.

Some of these are only a bargain if you go to the Amazon zStores and resellers, but the music is pretty grand. Apologies if already posted: Szell-Haydn Munch-Romantic Masterworks Levine-Mahler Van Cliburn - Piano Concertos Argerich - Piano Concertos Leinsdorf-Prokofiev Haitink - Shostakovich complete symphonies Not as jaw-droppingly low as some of the others, but still very much value for money. I would rate Haitink a bit higher than this cycle by Barshai (Barshai - Shostakovich) but really at these prices you might get both. I did -- over the years.

Ok, stuff mailed out on Monday. Thanks! Updates to last chance, some price drops upthread. New listings (6/7/2011): consolidated HOLD 7 Sambalanco Trio Improviso negro Box set: HOLD 18 Nat King Cole Riffin: The Decca Jatp Keynote & Mercury Recording (Hip-O-Select) 3 CDs

Hmm -- Grappelli on piano also shows up as "Unique piano session - Paris 1955" Sounds like a bit of a novelty act frankly, so I will refrain from purchasing Improvisations for the third time. But still good to know. Probably not a deal-breaker but neither of these newer releases have the three bonus tracks which are on the JiP CD.

Of course now that I want to listen to it, I can't turn it up, but I'll keep looking! I was obviously confusing that recording with this sextet date. Stephane Grappelli - Stuff Smith Sextet Oscar Peterson (p) Herb Ellis (g) Stephane Grappelli, Stuff Smith (violin) Ray Brown (b) Jo Jones (d) Paris, France, May 4, 1957 21120-2 Mean To Me Verve MGV 8270 21121-3 I Want To Be Happy unissued 21122-2 Medley: A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square / Moonlight In Vermont / The Nearness Of You / Embraceable You unissued 21123-1 Don't Get Around Much Anymore Verve MGV 8270; Pablo 2310-907 21124-3 No Points Today - 21125-1 Chapeau Blues - 21126-2 The Lady Is A Tramp - * Stephane Grappelli And Stuff Smith (not released) (Verve MGV 8270) * Stephane Grappelli/Stuff Smith - Violins No End (Pablo 2310-907; Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 890-2) I guess two of the titles weren't acceptable, but 4 came out on Violins No End along with this session: Stuff Smith With Oscar Peterson Quartet At JATP Oscar Peterson (p) Herb Ellis (g) Stuff Smith (violin) Ray Brown (b) Jo Jones (d) "Salle Pleyel", Paris, France, May 2, 1957 Desert Sands Pablo 2310-907 How High The Moon - Moonlight In Vermont - * Stephane Grappelli/Stuff Smith - Violins No End (Pablo 2310-907; Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 890-2) As far as I can see, Violins No End is only 43 minutes long, so they could easily have included the track "Mean To Me" that was on the never issued Verve LP. Anyway, I will put in an order for Violins No End sometime this week, even though it is absurdly short. In other JiP news, there is a relatively new version of Grappelli's Improvisations (JiP #42) that adds 10 additional tracks from the 10" LP Jazz Aux Champs-Elysees No. 2 with pianist Jack Dieval. Improvisations I'll probably end up picking this up as well.

Well, Boston just needs to win at home, and suddenly this series becomes a real nail-biter.

Saw Charles Lloyd at CSO last night. To be honest, a big part of the draw for me was to see Jason Moran on piano. That did happen but for probably only 1/3 of the show. The main focus was on his Sangam grouping with Eric Harland on drums and Zakir Hussain on tabla. Charles came out and did a somewhat loopy introduction where he talked about being inspired by Billy Higgins and so forth. He lost his train of thought a few times, particularly when distracted by some late-comers and the sound check guy. He wasn't nearly as nasty as Jarrett can be, but it was still a little off-putting. Even Zakir, who probably hears this spiel a lot, was getting bored and starting playing a little bit in the background to try to get him to wrap it up. After the talking was over, it got a lot better. Harland and Hussain have really got quite a rapport, throwing stuff back and forth, with Charles occasionally playing on sax or flute (a bass flute perhaps?). Then the second piece, Lloyd went over a played the piano a bit, and eventually Harland moved behind him and started messing around with it, making it play like "prepared piano" (in the context sounding a little like a sitar) and sometimes directly pounding the inside to get some bass sounds. In performance it sounded better than I am describing it. Anyway, then Charles moved over to Harland's drum kit and did some messing about (shades of an AEC concert perhaps). It was all very odd and a bit trance-inducing. The only thing that concerned me was that if they were going to mess around on the piano, I thought it would be better to do this after Moran had a chance to play it, since they certainly didn't have time to retune it. So these two pieces took about 45 minutes. Then Moran and a bass player made a quartet and Hussain sat out for a bit. They did a Monk composition and something else which I probably should know, but don't know the name of. Then Hussain rejoined and they did a relatively short piece. All enjoyable, but the strongest stuff had been the Sangam material. Then a lot of people fled for their Metra trains when the group left the stage. Lloyd seemed a bit put off by this when he came back on. The five musicians did an encore, and this next piece was probably the single most beautiful music they did. Would love to get a sound check of that... Then it was 10, and time for me to leave. Apparently, Lloyd came back out for a second encore, maybe playing solo, but I was through for the night. Enjoyable, though if the whole set had featured all five musicians and they could have sustained the magic of that first encore, it would have been truly incredible.

Not entirely sure, but perhaps the Grappelli Sextet is also new to the JiP series. There are a few Oscar Peterson/Grappelli collaborations but as quartets not a sextet. I'll definitely take a closer look when Dusty Groove gets this in stock. The Grappelli was out as "The Nearness of You", the one-off that appeared a while after the original JiP series had stopped! Oh, that's the one that took me forever to track down. They never did get it at DG, and I finally ordered it from Amazon.fr.

Now this is getting even more interesting. The Night Session in Paris with Zoot Sims and Henri Renaud is this one obviously: Zoot Sims Et Henri Renaud. But DG mentions there is another session from 1956 that includes tracks with Jon Eardley on trumpet and Henri Renaud on piano. It certainly sounds like Zoot Sims: Americans Swinging in Paris, which would be the first time these two series met (I think). Well, if that is the case, I won't be getting this, as much as I like the cover, since I have both these sessions already.