jazzbo

It's an interesting set. The series that Tod mentions is an excellent one, but it's a bit like apples and oranges to me. I haven't visited the Mosaic recently but I do like it. If you have an interest in New Orleans traditional music, this is a good set to get your feet wet.

Vibes, I can help. Email me at lonjazz@yahoo.com

Wow! Maybe we should instigate a one letter a day writing campaign to Mosaic to compile and release Babs' complete recordings. . . . I'd love to see it, no lie, but feel it would be an exercise in futility. A good cause to be involved in Steve and I hope you turn it up!

My answer to the question differs from Harris' as well. It's a definite "yes." The blues has been the musical language I have used to understand a lot of music and the lingua franca of all the musical sharing I have done performance-wise in the past. It was in the streets of Philly when I was growing up (I mean, I lived on the same block as a bar called "The Red Rooster!") and it was what I heard on the radio and in the air in Africa and it became my musical focus when I came back to the states at age seventeen and got my hands on a Gibson SG. I don't think it's necessarily necessary for anyone else but me, but it is a cornerstone of the musical world in my noggin and flavors much of what comes out of my equipment when I listen.

I really like Tyrone. He had that soulful Blue Note groove going and also the language of Sanders and Trane and Ayler and Ornette going . . . he integrated it very well to my ears, especially on "Natural Essence." Maybe we'll see this as an RVG one day in the next few years? I don't ever expect to see the "Trainwreck" until Michael Cuscuna steps down from heading the BN reissue program. THAT I don't expect to happen this decade. . . or maybe next.

I don't know about Fresh Sounds. . . probably. . .but there was a Bandstand cd from Italy. AND a Natasha Import from Stash-Daybreak as well that also had additional material from broadcasts (non-nonet).

What I wonder is. . . did they move to digipaks and drop the price point because of customer complaints? Or did they decide that these would sell better this way? Or is it a mistake on Tower's (and possibly others') part?

Yeah. . . an obi strip on a cd for 9.99. . . they know how to get the juices flowing!

Hey I didn't know the Timmons had those two dates. They're good ones!

Well. . . I only have one that I am aware of, and it's not even an lp, but a MoFi aluminum cd of Someday my Prince will Come. . . . It's really nice sounding, it has a reall deep and natural bass sound, and a mellow treble. . . .

Duke, that may possibly be the only one. . . that is the one that I know of. It's . . . different. I've learned to like it.

I've been spending more and more time at home. I'm a happily married man, and my wife has been happy to spend more and more time at home which is okay with me. Going out for dinner suits us both and that happens several nights a week, usually a weekend night and a weekday night. I started going out less and less when I quit smoking nearly thirteen years ago. The first year I couldn't BEAR to go where smoking was--too tempting or irritating or both, and there was still a lot of public smoking around then. And then I just got out of the habit. . . . And spent all my money on cds and tube equipment. . . .

That's a fair, not ignorant question! Yes they do. They're mastered at the beginning of the process at half speed for supposed sonic reasons but they're regular playing products at the end.

I like digipaks. I like lp facimiles. I like jewel cases. I just want 'dem shiny discs however I can get 'em!

Damn. . . it's Pretty Eyes Jackson cryin' the blues. The Board Blues "Woke up one mo'nin' My whole damn board was gone Now what am I gonna stomp on What am I go'ne stomp on. . . .

Africa Brass, the digipaks are very similar to the Verve by Request series.

I wouldn't say that the arrangements on the Kuhn is like Evans arrangements. . . it sounds identifalby McFarland and most of the time rather sparse; the first side of the lp has a string quartet backing, the second side has woodwinds and a harp. BUT the trio really is the centerpiece. . . at least that is how I heard it here at work.

I find it interesting that they made these digipaks. . . could they have listened to customers? NAH! Wonder if any of the non-Impulses in the series are digipaks; it's not unusual for Impulses to be that way ultimately. I'm going to get the "Afro-Harping" eventually---that is a COOL lp!

I wish they would do a second box, which would have the next volumes. Those are GREAT as well.

The Hines is very good. Very good. Ellingtonians. . . with a few ringers including Elvin Jones on half the album. I really like it. I like the Kuhn a bit more than Mr. Larsen does. And maybe the Ayler a little more too. The Shepp I've enjoyed on a German cd that I have. . . I'm eager to compare the remastering. It's in line with others of the later Impulses from Shepp. . . . It's no Fire Music. But it has some great moments of drama! The Pee Wee is really good, though I really reach for much earlier Pee Wee more often. Yes, these are available til some time in 2006. Gives you plenty of time!

Well, I picked up five new Impulse! reissues, the Kuhn, the Shepp, the Ayler, the Hines and the Russell. They're digipaks! Not like the Alice Coltrane in the last batch which was a gatefold. They have an insert that has photographic reproductions of the inside covers . . . so you get the art, but they're not really "lp reproductions." Listening to the Kuhn now, which is nice indeed with McFarland orchestrations. Great sound. And the best thing is that Tower was selling them for 9.99---and lists them at 12.99. Mistake? Maybe. A lot better than the last batch which was 18.99 list or so!

I really admire Hank Jones, especially the fifties work. The "Hank Jones Quartet" on Savoy with Bobby Jaspar is a real delight. I also like the Savoy "Trio" which is out on cd as if it were a Kenny Clarke release. . . that was recorded in Hackensack the afternoon I was born (in Canton)! His touch was so precise and pristine. . .it does tend to make some think of him as lightweight in the jazz department but as the originator of the thread has so rightly said: t'ain't so; his ideas are heavy, deceptively so. I'd give a lot to be able to play that way! Here's hoping more of his fifties sides see the reissue light of day---there are still a few that could get the treatment. And his Impulses are absent as well. . . . Those Jones brothers. . .you can't ignore ANY of them!

I share your opinion, definitely. I got this for myself for Xmas the year the set came out. . . . It was a very good holiday season, and I pop these discs in and get enjoyment from them fairly often. GREAT stuff.

I listen a bit all day long. But just a bit. And I hardly listen to anything else but jazz (well, Brazilian music has invaded my listening time of late.) The most time I get to listen however is on the weekends. The first hours of the weekend mornings I get undivided listening and they are the hours I live for! There are other reasons that the music may sound better at night, especially in urban areas: power is often cleaner in the evening hours (especially late night to the early morning hours) and I honestly believe that stereos really shine when the power is clean.

This set mentions that OKEH organizer Bob Stephens insists that it is not Hawk but Castor McCord of the Mills Blue Rhythm band. . . . They list it that way in the discography!