LAL

For vocalists, I would nominate Betty Carter.

Joe Pass discs 4 & 5. Two of the best discs in the set IMO (For Django and a live session).

Thanks Ubu for starting this thread. Excellent big band and one of my favourites; great arrangements, good soloists and very polished sound overall. The Masters of Jazz series is indeed the best way to get their material up to the early 40s. Classics also has one disc of their music made after the leader's passing and with many of the top players no longer in the band - some fairly good material there but for completists only. Anyone knows if there is a DVD of some of the band's performances? Can't seem to find any in stores

Got most of them.

Definitely going to get this. Thanks for the heads up!

Not surprised at all about the winner. Simon had been 'pimping' her to win from the start. And his words seem to carry a lot of weight most of the time. Well American Idol may have ended, but the local one (Malaysian Idol) is just about to begin. Very much looking forward to the auditions. From the trailers, these promise to offer plenty of William Hung-type entertainment.

Liverpool F.C Erratic and riddled with injuries to key players all season, they came into this final with odds heavily stacked against them. Three nothing down at the halfway mark, they seemed like goners then. But, they struck back within a 7 minute period after the break to tie the game and bring it to extra time and the goal/penalty kicks. Yeh, penalty kicks are never a neat way to settle a soccer game, but that's how the game is. After 21 years, the trophy returns to Merseyside. Kudos also to their great Spanish coach, Rafael Benitez. Downside is, they may not be able to even compete in this competition next year since they didn't qualify from their domestic league. But for now, the partying goes on...

I had the chance to buy this box at the equivalent of $225 some years ago at my local store but passed up the chance. Still cursing myself for not grabbing it.

Ditto, especially the former.

Agree, it's gonna be a rather dull finals. But I'll at least check out the results show next Wednesday. I believe they're gonna bring back the rest of the finalists for a group performance, FWIW. So, anyone buy the Idol 4 CD recently?

These sets are solely available from Hip-O, but I'm told Universal (they own Hip-O) might distribute the sets in Europe, which seems to be the reason why Hip-O is no longer allowed to ship them to Europe. I asked an American friend to order the set for me. Maybe an idea? Thanks Hans. Something to consider.

Anyone knows where else to get these sets apart from Hip-OSelect (they don't ship to UK, EU and many other places )? Thanks!

Thanks to all for the information!

R.I.P

R.I.P I just got the Fantasy MJQ set, so I'll be listening to it this weekend.

I'm still waiting for this season's "bad" auditions show.

Yep. Wish the word except weren't there either - was hoping to secure a few of the booklets on the list.

I've bugged Mosaic folks, mainly Scott Wenzel, over the past few years for some early jazz sets. Have always received a reply, which is often "would love to do that... but maybe someday."

Urgh. Now I've just gone and placed an order for some Teo Macero and vocal jazz discs.

What is it? Could this be it?

I received liberal doses of Bee Gees, ABBA, Boney M etc at about age 3 or 4, when the music was all the rage. Still like some of it today.

Thanks. That is indeed great news!

Joe Pass discs 2 & 3 (second part of disc 3 has too much 'easy listening' music )

Just saw them last night. Blew me out my seat. They played mainly the famous Mingus tunes (Good Bye Pork Pie Hat, Fables of Faublus etc) plus one recent composition I think by the current bassist. Most of the band members got a chance to solo, with the band leader, Craig Handy, taking a good share of solo space on tenor and flute. Boris Koslov was the bassist and Johnathan Blake was on drums - both powered the rhythm section very well. Fantastic 100 minutes of live music!