jazzbo

Also Wynton Kelly. . . .

Helen LIVED in Japan a number of years. I wish someone could release all those albums domestically on cd!

Yes, Blues in Orbit will contain two takes of Track 360, and Sentimental Lady and Brown Penny (one track each) which were NOT on the original album, PLUS alternate takes of Pie Eye's Blues, Sweet and Pungent, The Swinger's Jump, and Blues in Orbit! Also to be released (but I haven't seen a date) are expanded versions of Piano in the Foreground and Piano in the Background.

That information about SACD and Blue Note was also posted by Kevin Bresnahan on the AAJ board, as a quote from Blue Note. Doesn't mean that Capitol entire are not going to put out more SACDs, and Blue Note will possibly change their tune, ESPECIALLY if they get a lot of requests for Norah SACDs.

I think Monk visited the studio but I don't think he appears in the recording. But I don't know and wouldn't be disappointed if he did!

Oh I'm sure we all understood that Ubu! It took me a long time to appreciate Helen Merrill, but when I did finally. . . it was akin to falling in love! RCA should (if it doesn't) DEFINITELY add a Merrill to their "Falling in Love With. . . " series if they have any of her material at all!

Does look very interesting, and as soon as I don't have a stack of about 50 books sitting staring at me wanting to be read I'll get me a copy!

I certainly agree, that Merrill is an amazing work! BUT. .. it took me a long time to realize that and really appreciate it!

Good points Chris. Art in general yes. I guess as much as I love literature, it is a less spiritual/religious experience for me than jazz. It's more . . . worldly. David, no haven't read that one! Coltrane is definitely someone who was concerned with spiritual matters, who had had a religious transformation and it permeates his work as a leader. . . . He was a great communicator because he communicated religious and spiritual emotions and longings to many!

Agreed. Or rather I would say not all religious emotion and spirituality is of a benevolent nature. . . so jazz as an expression of religious emotions and spirituality would reflect that.

Eubie Blake has been quoted as saying "jazz is the Negro's way of expressing his religious emotions." Many musicians have linked jazz with religious feeling or spiritual matters. . . . Some, perhaps many, fans also link jazz with religion or spirituality. I fall into that camp. In a general sense music in GENERAL is a candidate for being viewed as spiritual or religious emotional expression. It's a powerful communicator with or without words, it's intangible really but very effective in moving humans emotionally and/or intellectually. Somehow jazz has a special allure and claim along these lines. In some ways jazz and blues resonates with me in a way that Gnosticism does: there are written texts but they don't tell the whole story (how do you show all the colors and rhythms?) and the player becames an adept and finds within himself the secret to his own sound and great playing, the journey to mastery can be the education that creates the power and the reward. . . . There can be within the playing and enjoying of jazz a sort of status as an outsider, one with an appreciation or knowledge or skill that is not the norm, is treasured by a few, rebuked or unnoticed by the many; Gnosticism can include these elements. Also, as music that was influenced strongly from its creation by (let's not argue whether it was created solely by or not) an enslaved, oppressed body of Americans who were discovering and struggling for their freedom, jazz and blues have that "from the bottom up" viewpoint associated with many of its creators, which can resemble a religious longing and move towards transforming one's life and "soul." Also I respond to jazz in a way that I did also in the past to religious writing and figures. Nor can I be alone, with all the mention I see directly or indirectly referring or inferring that jazz pioneers such as Bird or Trane are "prophets" in the music. . . . The music brings me hope and joy and comfort, much as a religious text or a sermon or a religious figure could. And pursuing the enjoyment of jazz and the discovery of the tradition and the history of the players has led me into a community of fellow "believers" that can resemble membership in a church or religious community. I don't myself put a lot of personal weight in religious beliefs of "personal salvation," (a religion with heavy emphasis on personal salvation repels me) but I think that there are musicians and perhaps fans who feel that the music has profoundly changed their lives (for the better) in almost a manner of religious transformation. Certainly there are jazz works that are created for spiritual or religious purposes; musicians from Duke to Mary Lou to Sonny Blount to Coltrane and Sanders and Marsalis and many more are deliberately inserting spiritual and religious material and/or beliefs within their work and hoping to communicate this material through their music. So I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I know the side of the fence that I come down on. I know that I feel a spirituality in many jazz works, and I know that jazz does seem to express some of my religious emotions as well. Just tossing this out there. . . not sure how to invite discussion, but chime in if this sparks any thoughts. Thanks!

Very good suggestions above. I also very much enjoy his final years of recording; he had become a very emotionally expressive and in some ways very risk-taking player. Any album with Kenny Barron or Jim McNeely at the piano chair makes for great listening.

Hey, I think more and more Duke was one of the Dukes of r and b---isn't that much of a stretch really!

It's a very good set, very well compiled and annotated. I'd list the highlights about the same as David would and I really have to dig this out and listen to the set again soon!

He seems to be quite a collector and historian of the r and b and vocal jazz material, and he's got good taste along those lines.

As Brad points out, this is an amazing assemblage of music. The sound holds up very well, for early remastering it is quite good, though there are better remasterings of the material out there in the last half a decade or so. At quite an expense however for Verve "Master Editions" and imports from Japan. If you can get a good price for this, you'll not regret having the music to hear and explore.

Those are truly beautiful covers! GREAT WORK!

If you can live without the alternate track that was on the US original, and can find it, the Spanish "Time Life" version is from the TOCJ. . . and should be cheaper.

It WAS a very good year for jazz fans, in many ways. . . .

Cool, nice to see it is on cd. . . and hope one day there is a cheaper version around!

Well, it certainly is no "Let My Children Hear Music!" But it's cool. . . I don't spin it that often and couldn't really tell you why.

Hmmm. . .maybe I'd better ask for the "Step Lightly" model. . . .

Got your email Tod, and will comply. I'm not sure this has ever been on cd either, never saw it listed. . . Leon Sash fans are probably frustrated as all get out!

This set is all that AND a bag of chips.

Let's NOT and just say we did!