mjzee

Amazon has a "back to school sale" on Kindle ebooks that includes a number of books on jazz. Some that I noticed are: Visions of Jazz: The First Century, by Gary Giddins, $2.49 The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68, by Keith Waters, $1.99 Why Jazz?:A Concise Guide, by Kevin Whitehead, $1.99 From Birdland to Broadway: Scenes from a Jazz Life, by Bill Crow, $2.99 Being Prez: The Life and Music of Lester Young, by Dave Gelly, $2.99 Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter, by Nick Catalano, $2.49 Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing, by Michael Dregni, $2.99 Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James, by Peter Levinson, $2.49 The History of Jazz, by Ted Gioia, $2.49 Hi-de-ho:The Life of Cab Calloway, by Alyn Shipton, $2.99 The Thelonious Monk Reader, by Rob van der Bliek, $2.99

Could a moderator please lock this thread? The horse is dead.

The difference might lie in the ability to improvise. In the thread on "Midnight Train to Georgia," Gladys Knight, who I think everyone would agree is a great singer, confessed to an inability to improvise.

The mangy, road-stained group of rockers tumbled out of the Rolls-Royce limo onto the lawn of a tidy brick house in rural Maryland. It was the fall of 1967. Flush with cash from a show nearby, the members of the group Canned Heat had taken a detour for their biggest score yet. The promised stash had the beardos drooling: thousands of rare 78-rpm records, one of the best collections of prewar blues on the planet. Here was the stuff they craved most, like "Canned Heat Blues" from 1928, a song about the perils of drinking Sterno—an alcohol-based cooking fuel that, for down-and-outers, served a double purpose. It was that song, heard a few years earlier after they first caught the collecting bug, that had given the band its name. Their host, a crew-cut Goldwater Republican, hated hippies and didn't allow rock 'n' roll in his house. But he made an exception for these longhairs because they shared his infatuation with country blues. That, and he had a nose for a deal. A beat-to-hell copy of "Pigmeat Blues" by Smokehouse Charley went for $50, followed by stacks of other choice records. When the dust settled, the group had spent nearly $10,000, almost as much as the fee they earned at the Woodstock festival a couple of years later. More here: WSJ

Track list for the new reissue can be found here: Amazon

What's weird is that there are 3 alternates (I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good, I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart, and I'm Just A Lucky So And So) that are not on the new reissue that are on this: I guess they didn't realize it?

As Gladys Knight's recording of "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" climbed the charts in 1973, she asked Jim Weatherly, the song's composer, for another love song. He sent along "Midnight Train to Georgia," which Cissy Houston had recorded a year earlier. Envisioning a seductive, punchy instrumentation behind her, Ms. Knight turned to producer Tony Camillo for an Al Green feel. Within weeks of its release 40 years ago in August, Ms. Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia" reached No.1 on the pop and R&B charts—earning a Grammy in 1974. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Recently, Ms. Knight, 69, Mr. Weatherly, 70, Ms. Houston, 79, and Mr. Camillo, 74, talked about the song's evolution—from a phone call with Farrah Fawcett to Ms. Knight's famed ad-libs. More here: WSJ

Yiddish Dictionary Online

If you're a fan of late Sarah. Gary Giddins couldn't get enough of her; I find her better in small doses. You should be a fan of vocal pyrotechnics, deep glissandos, wide vibrato, and a deep voice that can pass for a man's. However, there are times when Sarah could really cut to the heart of a lyric. Oh, for this package, you also must be a fan of Ellington's songs.

Kinda random. I had the LP and sold it years ago, but I had put 2 songs on a compilation tape. I'm transferring that tape now to mp3, and looked (as I do occasionally) to see if it's available: as a download, a foreign reissue, or whatever. Prior searches came up with nothing, so I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to see it available. Per Amazon, the mp3 release date was August 6, 2013.

A random search today on Amazon revealed that Savoy just "released" on mp3 the Sammy Price "Rib Joint" package. Greeeeeeezzzzy!!! Finally!

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded sound has 22,000 LPs with your name on them. The records represent decades of unsolicited donations, for which we already have at least one copy in great condition. Now we need the space to bring in more unique materials for you to enjoy and study. Whether you are a hardcore collector of foreign classical releases, lover of 70s country music, Funk aficionado, or devotee of Ronald Reagan's spoken work, stop in anytime between August 8th and August 10th to get your paws on your sonic favorites known and yet to be discovered. All genres and styles represented. We've priced the records to sell with all proceeds going to support the ongoing expansion of our collections. Details here: NYPL

I don't blame you, Blue Train. But you should definitely check out the Sunshine Daydream concert (Veneta, OR); there's a Dark Star that's simply stunning.

Sorry, this is what happens when posting by phone and on the run. I meant yes, or no on should I buy it since it doesn't fall under my unscientific theory about Dark Star? I like your theory, and think it has a lot of validity. It was fascinating watching "Sunshine Daydream" and seeing the guys create an amazing Dark Star out of nothing. There was a creative mind meld going on, where they could effortlessly create this intense thing of beauty. And I think that's what you're referring to. By 1977 I think they were on route to becoming a different sort of band. This was documented in Lesh's book, and can really be heard in the '77 box. I think they liked each other less, and wanted more of a distance, a more "manageable" relationship rather than the wild, creative thing they had before. (My own personal theory is that the readdition of Mickey also greatly inhibited their creative flow.) The band on the '77 box is now slower, nicer, more approachable. They're playing more "set pieces," and even the improvs are more songs-strung-together than organic flow. But I like the box, because the vibe is amazing. Each concert is like sinking into a marshmallow; you just want to stay there. And the sound quality is great. The only downside is having to buy a limited-edition box; I'm not sure I need 5 concerts of this.

The calendars are fun too, but definitely not PC.

You are correct, no Dark Stars in the May '77 box.

Hey, Jim, it looks like you live near Ruth Buzzi. Twitter

If you don't spend a lot of time at the Museum of Modern Art, you might not notice that the comfortable padded seating outside the third-floor restrooms is missing. In its place, a familiar yet displaced sight: a 10-foot wooden subway bench. And when you sit down, the timber hums in a way that can be felt rather than heard. That buzz comes courtesy of strategically placed transducers installed by the New York-based sound artist Sergei Tcherepnin. The piece, "Motor-Matter Bench," is part of "Soundings: A Contemporary Score," a group exhibition opening Saturday that is the museum's first dedicated to aural art. More here: WSJ

Jeez. Read the threads you want to read, ignore the rest. I like Aloc's posts. Too many cover threads? Ignore. Better yet, discuss your own listening experiences: discs you love, discs you recently encountered, thoughts on old favorites. This site is what you make of it. There's not much happening in jazz these days (time was not so long ago that a Pablo reissue program would be mocked rather than appreciated), so good vibes are important during this dry spell.

There were (on vinyl) two Montreux '77 boxes; each was 8 discs: Count me among those heartened that Concord is continuing a reissue program.

Very sad. At the Zappa shows, it was always very cool to hear the crowd erupt when he was introduced; he was the "star" of the band (outside Zappa, of course). At the end of the '70's, he did those jazz/disco albums, but he had that goofy sense of humor: RIP for all the good times.

There are also CDs that are mastered too softly. Two that I can think of are Lee Konitz's Round & Round and Kevin Eubanks's Live At Bradley's. I had to use Amadeus to make them louder.

Heck . . I still have only listened to DaP's 6 one time all the way through, let alone May '77. I've barely touched the surface of Spring 1990 as well. Since this is not going to be limited edition, I will wait a while before I purchase Really? Dead.net says it's an "individually numbered, limited edition of 12,500." Will there be a more general release? That would be good; I just want the music.

4/24/78 just arrived. I'm still working through the '77 box. Another reason why I'm not springing for Sunshine Daydream. As The Beatles sang, it's all too much. A note about the film: very disappointing that there's so little Keith footage. That may have been the fault of the amateurish cameramen, but still. The segment of the baby with the ice cream and the dog is priceless; worth the cost of admission.