mjzee

I want to explore a little bit the notion that Bud's playing "declined" in the last decade of his life. Everyone says it's the result of the shock therapy, yada yada yada, and I understand that Bud in the late '40's was amazing. But yesterday, I was going through All Music Guide, and here's what they say about Bud's later recordings: 1964: Ups and Downs: "The great bop innovator had declined greatly since his prime days but actually plays better than one might expect." 1964: Salt Peanuts: "The recording quality is a little erratic on this set but Powell often sounds quite inspired." 1964: The Invisible Cage: "Accompanied ably by bassist Michel Gaudry and drummer Art Taylor, the innovative pianist (even with a few missteps) is mostly in excellent form, particularly on "Like Someone in Love," "Blues for Bouffemont" and his calypso "Una Noche con Francis."" 1963: Bud Powell in Paris: "this was one of Powell's best late-period recordings; he is in near-prime form throughout." 1962: Round About Midnight at the Blue Note: "The innovative pianist is in excellent form." 1962: Bouncing With Bud: "This Delmark recording is an excellent set by the great pianist Bud Powell." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 5: "On a whole, this series is as essential as the Blue Notes but has its strong moments and is worth picking up by lovers of bop piano." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 4: "Powell generally sounds in pretty good form for the period." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 3: "makes up for its low quantity (just 34½ minutes) with some high quality." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 2: "The entire series is worth picking up by listeners who enjoy bop-based piano; Powell is generally in fine form." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 1: "Five CDs have been released from two of his nights at the club and they find him playing in generally good form." 1961: A Tribute To Cannonball: "Both Byas (who had hardly recorded since 1955) and the erratic Powell are heard in superior form." 1961: Live at the Blue Note Cafe, Paris 1961: "the Bud Powell sessions are uniformly fine, with the excellent Live at the Blue Note Cafe, Paris 1961 a particular standout." 1960: The Essen Jazz Festival Concert: "Pianist Bud Powell is heard in top form throughout this CD." 1959: Bud In Paris: "the passion in the playing generally comes through and Powell's fans will want to search for this one." 1958: Time Waits: "Powell is in surprisingly fine form throughout the enjoyable session." 1957: Bud Plays Bird: "Actually it is a mystery how such excellent music could be unknown and go unreleased for so long." 1957: Bud!: "feature Powell in surprisingly inspired form." 1957: Swingin' With Bud: "Powell is in generally good form on this trio session." 1956: Strictly Powell: "Powell actually plays better on Strictly Powell than on his Verve dates of the period." The above is every Bud recording between 1956 and 1964 that All Music reviewed. The Verves, for whatever reason, don't have reviews, just track listings. We know that many artists' performing styles deepen and change as they get older, but the rap on Bud was that his quality declined. I don't see it from the above. The tone of most of these reviews is "Yeah, he's bad in other places, but not here." So where, exactly, are the bad performances?

Without having the details, it's possible that the problem doesn't come from you at all. Someone whom you once sent an email to might have had their computer compromised, and the spammer/virus writer put your email address as the "from:". When I've asked about anti-virus software at the Apple stores, they've actively discouraged me from buying any.

Has anyone heard this? Just noticed it on the Vintage Vanguard site:

I had a very enjoyable double-LP on Omnisound, solo piano by John Coates, Jr. named "In The Open Space." Very melodic and thoughtful. I know he's been around for awhile, and is said to have influenced the young Keith Jarrett. I see that he's had some subsequent releases on Pacific Street Records (www.pacificstrecords.com), but I haven't heard any of them. Any thoughts on this artist?

Does anyone have this, or has heard this, and has comments/opinions? Mozart Edition: Complete Works

I second this. He's a very notable, enjoyable player - as I was listening in the car, I had to grab the cover - "who is this tenor player?!?"

Got mine today. The packaging is nice, nostalgic and silly - it's the original covers, including liner notes, shrunk down to CD size; i.e., the liner notes are largely unreadable. But they're fun to see.

I'll miss him. His liner notes for 32Jazz were quirky and real. The pricing was excellent and he made the reissue category come alive.

256k bitrates for Amazon, vs 128k for iTunes (tho iTunes plus are 256k). Also, Amazon can be a lot cheaper - check out the prices for ECM downloads.

The Bad Plus - Prog Rosemary Clooney Sings Ira Gershwin Abbey Lincoln - It's Magic Russell Malone - Live at the Jazz Standard Vol. 2 Moondog - A New Sound of An Old Instrument Bob Marley vs. Lee "Scratch" Perry - The Best of the Upsetter Years 1970-1971 Marti Jones - My Tidy Doily Dream Dar Williams - The Beauty of the Rain

For those of you not keeping up with the tabloids: Desperate Plea by Amy's Mother

Does anyone have info on this album on LRC (recording date, musicians, and whether it's any good): Gerry Mulligan - LRC

"What It Is" is now available at Costco for $37.99: What It Is I'm thinking of getting that and the Mozart box.

Regarding customer service: I had some problems recently with Apple iTunes downloads, and their customer service was exceptionally fast, solicitous, and helpful. While their bitrates aren't as good, I thought this was a great way of doing business.

Good deal; I've just ordered it. I already have the "Classic Quartet" box set, but that doesn't include the Village Vanguard or Duke Ellington albums.

The photos are in a magazine called "Movies Rock," which is a special supplement to a number of Conde Nast magazines this month, including GQ. The basic idea is the confluence of music and movies. Besides the Miles shots, there are a number of very readable articles. I liked the piece on Elmer Bernstein by Nick Tosches, the one on the movie "Tommy" by James Wolcott, and an excellent long biography of Jimmy Van Heusen by James Kaplan. The magazine is worth searching out.

Interestingly, NO Gambit titles are currently available on eMusic - it looks like they've all been pulled. Coupled with Adam's post, I wonder whether legal action has been initiated against them.

Shelly Manne - The West Coast Sound Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights Mary Lou Williams - Solo Recital - Montreux Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton - Saturn... Sonny Rollins - Horn Culture Milt Jackson - Big Bags Barry Harris - Magnificent! Red Garland - Bright and Breezy Red Garland - Rojo I wanted to download Charlie Parker - Complete Live in Sweden, but don't see it anymore.

Wow. Caught wind of this issue late yesterday, and just spent the last hour plowing through this thread. Not sure I'm a lurker; most of the time, just don't have much to contribute. I'm much more reading and learning; compiling a long list of Zoot Sims albums to download, for example. When I have something to say, I contribute. But then, I'm still not comfortable with a lot of the Internet. Not sure who'll read these posts, what they'll make of them, and just the idea of having these words appear through a Google search through probably the end of time...yuk. But I do log on here virtually every day, just to read what's going on. I avoid the non-music discussions - learned that from the old BNBB. Still don't feel entirely comfortable with some posters because of what I read there. Ah well, live and learn, as Gordon says to Thomas. This board does mean a lot to me. I was moved by what Jim wrote. I hadn't given much thought to what it takes to run this board; my bad. A $50 check is in the mail. But Jim, if you can, you should also take heart by what you've achieved here. This board is a great place to read - the mix of styles, opinions and content is priceless. You took what was great about the BNBB and made it better, by some mysterious alchemy - you knew best when to leave alone, and when to direct, and when to enhance. You're the producer, literally this board's Alfred Lion. Hopefully, the past tenses in the last paragraph will change to present tenses, and the board will continue. But if it doesn't, I've really appreciated it. Oh yeah: coffee1000 at gmail.com. I can't get any more spam there than what I currently get. Michael

Little Big Town - A Place To Land Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars - Sunday Jazz A La Lighthouse Volume 1 Jackie McLean - Lights Out Art Farmer - Early Art Roberta Gambarini - Easy To Love Pat Martino - East! Lennie Tristano - Continuity Emily Remler - Together w/Larry Coryell Art Pepper - The Way It Was Wes Montgomery on Riverside, discs 7-12 Zoot Sims on Pablo w/Art Pepper

R.I.P. Another one gone.

Yes, this is the ad I complained about here: Album Covers So it wasn't the website's doing, and I encountered it the first time I accessed the website. I too own a Mac, so (hopefully) it didn't install anything. Safari did not block the pop-up, even though I have "Block Pop-Up Windows" checked.

(The original can be found at http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/scn-g...,4761375.story) Devotee of old 78s captures long-lost refrains By Martin B. Cassidy November 4, 2007 After cranking up his Edison Diamond Disc Phonograph by hand, Timothy Brooks gingerly drops a needle onto the black plastic disc, bringing forth a boisterous jazz tune. Along the walls of his Glenville home, Brooks has more than 10,000 other antique records, representing almost a half century of collecting 78 rpm records at rummage sales, auctions and through the Internet. While showing off several of the ancient phonographs, Brooks explained how the primitive state of recording technology forced singers to belt out every song at top volume to imprint a sound. "There wasn't a lot of crooning in the old days," Brooks said. Brooks, 65, a television executive and writer, said that from the melodies of minstrels and street singers to spoken orations by world figures, old records are a portal that provide important historical insights into early 20th century America. "I think there is a lot to learn from them," Brooks said of old records. "They should be part of the historical record and add another layer to what life was like." In recent years, Brooks has focused his energy on preserving the history and recordings of pioneering African American singers and musicians who documented songs in the first flush of recorded music between 1890 and 1919. In 2004, Brooks published his book, "Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry," which featured the stories of dozens of African American singers and musicians from that era, forgotten outside of a small community of collectors. In 2005, Brooks compiled a two-record audio companion to the book featuring 43 of the artists, which was released on Archeophone Records, which specializes in historic music. "Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922," received a Grammy Award last year as Best Historical Album, with Brooks nominated for a separate Grammy for his well-researched liner notes. While a majority of the selections on the set were drawn from Brooks' collection, preparing and, in more than one case, salvaging the primitively recorded and often damaged songs required diligence and ingenuity. While working on the project, Brooks used a specially designed adjustable speed turntable to play the antique records, which were often manufactured to play at speeds other than 78 rpm. Some of the songs were recorded on wax cylinders, a medium so delicate that Brooks and other collectors risked destroying them by playing them. "It is very soft material and you only play them once to make a copy and put them away," Brooks said. Hoping to include "The Whistling Coon," a song recorded by George C. Johnson, a street singer who enjoyed more than a decade of success at the turn of the century, Brooks knew the sole surviving copy of the song was a shattered record, he said. A dentist who had expertise in putting together broken records was enlisted to repair it, and a coherent version of the song was pieced together using digital files, Brooks said. "It's a good example of how the stuff gets lost," Brooks said. "I knew a collector who had heard the record in 1980 and it sounded fine but by the time I got to it it was completely deteriorated." A small percentage of Brooks' thousands of 78s are recordings not of songs, but of speeches and talks by presidents, athletes and other notables that helps bring them to life and shed light on the times in which they lived, Brooks said. In the case of Jack Johnson, the famous African American boxer, a recording of him describing a fight and praising his white opponent after defeating him belies the sometimes arrogant reputation with which the athlete was stigmatized. "You realize that you can learn a lot about these people," Brooks said. Brooks, who is executive vice president of audience research for the Lifetime network, is also the co-writer of an exhaustive encyclopedia of night-time network and cable shows which has sold 500,000 copies in its nine editions. "Keeping up with that amount of TV is Herculean," Brooks said. "It might be time to hand that off to another generation." As a high school student growing up in Hampton, N.H., in the 1950s, Brooks' passion for 78 rpm records was sparked by reading a regular feature in Billboard magazine, which each week included a chart listing from a previous decade. "The hits of the day were Elvis but I started to get curious about Glenn Miller and what were these artists and songs all about?" Brooks said. Unlike other pastimes such as collecting fine art, jewelry or other arcana, Brooks said collecting 78 rpm records has remained an affordable hobby. He corresponds by computer and mail with a network of like-minded collectors to buy his records, or if necessary purchase a copy of the recording if the owner won't part with it. "It's nice to have an original but it is the sound that matters," Brooks said. Brooks said he plans to retire from his job at the end of this year, which should allow him to put more energy into studying the early history of recorded sound. "It's something I want to continue because I think there is a lot of important insight that can be gained," Brooks said.

Another aspect is the name of the new album: Mondo Grosso. Besides the cover being reminiscent of a Wayne Shorter album, the title is reminiscent of another:

eMusic sometimes puts an artist's music under inconsistant names. For example, are you looking for "Cityscape"? Look here: David Newman They've filed it under David Newman, not David Fathead Newman. When in doubt, do a search under the album's title.