mjzee

I've been on many juries. Inevitably someone in the audience will ask the judges how they could possibly choose a winner from among the group of extraordinary talents on display. It's an awkward moment. To respond that jury members are music professionals who discern more acutely than most listeners the differences between performers has a tinge of arrogance—though it is true. Yet the question really is a good one. Last year, when my fellow judges and I discussed our decisions at the end, it was clear that we had all heard exactly the same things. And yet each of us assigned slightly different weights to the qualities we noted. How does one value a hugely talented but impetuously irreverent young pianist against a more mature one whose restraint is marred by a streak of sentimentality? They each exceed the bounds of good taste, but in different ways. The age of the performer can become a determining factor here: It is natural (even important) for young people to go a little wild, and that is forgivable—the rough edges will probably smooth out over time, and one hopes a creative spark will live on. In a jazz competition, one might imagine that other factors come into play, but there are far more similarities than differences. For example, the jurors who chose the five APA jazz finalists this year engaged in a vigorous side-debate about the legitimacy of a well-known professional performer who seems to have severed all connections with tradition. Signaling an awareness of the history of the art can be important. More here: WSJ

I don't know what these are. Track 5 sounds like it came out of Hollywood in the late '60's. Track 1 sounds like a NY band in the '80's.

If you can find it, this is a good multi-faceted overview of his work: (Originally on Muse; the version pictured was on 32Jazz.) The album's tracks are in a number of different styles. There's a quartet with Roy Ayers, Kenny Barron and Billy Hart; duets with Barron, with Ayers, and with Jimmy Rowles; and one track where the quartet is augmented with percussion and voice. The presence of Ayers gives a clue: another musician who was comfortable in many different musical settings, who wasn't that concerned with the way he was "defined."

Just saw this on Amazon: $10.01 + shipping from a reseller:

Uh oh, now we have to say nice things about EI!

The Mobley '50's albums remind me of Prestige blowing sessions. If that's your thing, go for it.

I find '60's Mobley more interesting than '50's Mobley (one exception: the All Stars date with Bags). YMMV.

I'm now up to disc 3 of the Jazz Crusaders set. It keeps getting better and better.

The last time I saw Sonny, in 2000, I remember Cranshaw laughing at some of the things Sonny was doing; he got such a kick out of it.

Curious why you went to the concerts. To hear Mary Lou and Max? As I recall, Cecil was all over NYC at that time. Gary Giddins praising him to high heavens, the New World releases getting wide acclaim, all these Japanese Trio releases hitting our shores (like Akisakila), etc. I kinda knew what Cecil was about, but it doesn't hurt to experience it for yourself. At least I thought it wouldn't hurt. The Cecil/Max concert was the worst. Max is a great drummer, and I could always focus on him when the going got rough, but I thought Cecil's music was pure aggression, sort of the piano pummeling my head for however long the concert lasted. It felt like punishment. I remember when the Cecil/Mary Lou concert was announced, Mary Lou saying there was enough common ground in their music and in the jazz tradition to make for an enjoyable, enlightening concert. I kinda suspected it would be a train wreck, albeit perhaps an enjoyable one. It was even more of a hoot to see Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker as the rhythm section. This would make sense as a Mary Lou rhythm section, but they had no insight, affinity, connection with what Cecil was playing. It was so weird to hear Mary Lou w/bass and drums playing something traditional, only to hear Cecil chattering away concurrently, almost like Unit Structures and Earl Hines played at the same time. It was nice to see and hear Mary Lou; that's about all I can say. The recording's around in case anyone wants to check my impressions. It's still remarkable to me to see how many people profess a love for Cecil's music; the most recent one is in the Bill Cosby article I posted. Perhaps someday I'll "get it"; that why, every so often, I'll try again. But I think I'd rather bash my head against a wall than hear another Cecil concert. Bob Cranshaw's recollection (from the Do The Math interview): BC: Yeah. I remember when Mary Lou did a concert at Carnegie Hall and she had Cecil Taylor. I guess it was just going to be her and Cecil Taylor, but Cecil was out, so she called me and Mickey to help her. She got pissed at us at the end of the gig, because there was no way we could control Cecil Taylor. When he went out, he was gone. There wasn’t nothing we could do about it. EI: I must admit, I was so excited. I remember in high school, I thought, “Oh my God! Mary Lou Williams and Cecil Taylor did a record together. I can’t wait to hear this.” BC: I never heard it because it was so out. EI: Cecil doesn’t really let up his thing. It’s too bad. BC: She thought that we would be able to control it, so when we got through, I just remember Mickey saying to Mary Lou. She said, “Well, I thought you all…!” Mickey said to her, “Look…” The only way we could help her with it is, I grab one arm and Mickey grab the other arm and carry him off the stage. There was nothing that we could do musically to be able to help. EI: She thought that you guys would help. BC: Yes, she thought we would be able to help whatever, but it was as strange and as new to us as it was to her. EI: Maybe she thought if there were some good, solid swing from Cranshaw and Roker, he would hear that and change. 
 BC: But we couldn’t change it. We didn’t know what was happening. I just remember him playing. We took an intermission. He went backstage, and they had a piano backstage at Carnegie Hall. He played through the whole [intermission]. Backstage, he was still playing; it was like he never stopped. EI: Wow. It sounds like he didn’t talk any of the other musicians about working out how to make this quartet concert more successful. BC: No. He was into his thing and there was no way out. EI: Interesting. BC: It’s humorous to me because we tried to control it while it was happening. It was nutty. I have the CD. I asked Mickey the same thing; he never played it. He had it, but he said no. It wasn’t a happy experience when we were there, so I wouldn’t listen to it.

There's a review of the Mosaic box in today's Wall St Journal: His Renaissance on Record.

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/letters/fadinggigolo.htm

We saw Fading Gigolo tonight (we really enjoyed it, btw). It has Gene Ammons all over the soundtrack - more than half the music in the movie, by my tally. Gene even rated a special thank you in the closing credits.

Happy birthday!

1) R.O. Blechman! 2) What was the first tune they played? It sounds so familiar... 3) Hubley and Dizzy worked together on "Voyage To Next." The film was released on VHS, but not sure it's made it to DVD: and the music is available on CD; I believe this disc is comprised of soundtracks to the Hubleys' films:

I also wonder, when I rip a CD to iTunes, whether it will sound better as an .aac rather than as an .mp3.

eMusic can be far cheaper with a membership. Also, Amazon has occasional sales.

The thread about Sun Ra's 100th birthday mentioned that 21 of his albums have been "remastered for iTunes." The thread linked to a JazzTimes news piece, which itself linked to an Apple document regarding "Mastered for iTunes" (see http://images.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/docs/mastered_for_itunes.pdf) The document claims that "Recently, using the most advanced AAC encoder, the iTunes catalog was upgraded to iTunes Plus: a variable bit rate (VBR) 256 kbps AAC encoding format. iTunes AAC encoders are now able to transparently encode high definition audio, creating files that retain the small footprint, portability, and ease of use iTunes is known for. And they sound amazing." Earlier in the document, they claim "you can achieve dynamic range that’s superior to red book audio and a final product that’s virtually indistinguishable from the original recording." In essence, they're claiming that the same album "Mastered for iTunes" and downloaded from the iTunes store will sound better than the same album downloaded from, say, eMusic in 256VBR mp3 format. It would be interesting to test this claim.

Emotiva has a 10% off sale this weekend. Enter code: EMOTIVACLUB at time of purchase and the discount will pop up.

I don't have 2 of the 4 albums on the Coltrane. I went back and forth for a long time as to whether to buy the Paul Chambers Mosaic Select just to get Chambers' Music. So I may get this set; depends on how low the price drops.

I just got the new Howard McGhee Uptown disc. Popping it into my iMac, I find that the track listings are not yet in Gracenote's database (the tracks show as Track 01, Track 02, etc.). I'm now going to enter all the data into iTunes myself. Question: Once I'm done, am I able to upload this data to Gracenote? Has anyone here done it? If so, how is it done?

Prior thread on this box:

I think that then leaves his Atlantic titles...which would make a good boxed set!

I loved her records for Concord, which were much later ('70's - '90's). She had a great sense of swing, unerring taste, and a nice way with a lyric. I haven't paid attention to her earlier stuff; heard the Ellington date once and thought it was pleasant. I wonder whether Mosaic picked this because the material will be revelatory in some way.

Just finished listening to it. Pure pleasure. Just sink into it and enjoy. The program is structured like a concert: before the first track, you hear the band coming onstage, it builds to a climax with Why Was I Born?, and there's a short encore of Don't Stop the Carnival. I liked that the audience was miked up in the mix - it's exciting to hear how they react to Sonny. I liked the bands: Clifton Anderson was fine, and I loved Steve Jordan's contributions - he's really a great, unsung drummer. Peter Bernstein's really good too, there just isn't enough of him on here. All in all, another great release - buy with confidence.