mjzee

I saw that same combo at the Nassau Coliseum on 5/18/73; pretty sure that Leo Kottke opened instead of John Hammond. Zappa debuted (at least to my ears) the songs that would appear on Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe.

I noticed this anecdote as part of this article: https://www.stereophile.com/content/why-do-you-need-all-those-microphones Before recording at the Village Vanguard one evening, Paul Motian—okay, so I dropped a name—asked me why I had to use all of those microphones on the drums when they hadn't used nearly that many when recording the Bill Evans Trio at the same venue years before. I motioned toward Geri Allen's piano and asked, "Did Bill Evans have a monitor speaker mounted on the piano to hear you and Scott?" "No," Paul replied. "Did Scott LaFaro play with an amplifier?" I asked, pointing to Charlie Haden's bass amp. "No," Paul replied again. "Did you use such a large drum kit, have a monitor speaker, and was a PA used in the Vanguard, back then?" "No," replied Paul, yet again. Well, that's why I need all of these microphones, for you, and Geri, and Charlie. It's to counteract all of these differences in performance since then." I knew that, when it came to mixing Live at the Village Vanguardfor Japan's DIW label (footnote 2), all three of them, Allen, Haden, and Motian, would each have a different perspective on how the recording should sound. If I didn't have all those aural perspectives, provided by all those well-placed microphones, I wouldn't be able to shape the sound they were all expecting.

Verve Records/UMe and Third Man Records have partnered to resurrect the popular reissue series, Verve By Request, with a vinyl twist. Focusing on rare gems and fan-requested jazz albums from the Verve Label Group’s stable of iconic labels, the series will offer two titles per month – each hand-picked by Verve and Third Man Records. The records will include both long-out-of-print titles from the vault as well as the first-ever vinyl pressings for albums released in the ‘90s and aughts that were only originally released on CD. Albums will be newly remastered from original analog sources, when available, and pressed on audiophile-quality, 180-gram vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit. Black vinyl pre-orders available now from Verve. Each month, a limited Third Man Edition yellow color variant of each LP will also be available exclusively via Third Man Records Detroit and Nashville storefronts and uDiscoverMusic. Each of the Third Man Editions will come in a limited edition, two-color, screen-printed jacket on archival French cover stock, custom printed and assembled in Detroit. The series launches on November 11 with a nod to Third Man’s birthplace with two of Detroit’s finest: Alice Coltrane’s Ptah, the El Daoud (1970) and Roy Brooks’ long out-of-print Beat (1964). https://thirdmanrecords.com/blogs/news/verve-records-ume-partner-with-third-man-records-to-relaunch-verve-by-request-as-vinyl-reissue-series

This is a pretty good set for the price, and worth getting. A lot of good memories, stuff I'd never buy (especially as a kid) but, yes, never forgotten: Bob Lind - Elusive Butterfly (ever try writing a poem in 7th grade? It sounds like this), Shirley Bassey - As Long As He Needs Me, The McCoys - Hang On Sloopy, Joe South - Games People Play, Brenton Wood - Gimme Little Sign (I have this single, on Double Shot Records), Lou Christie - I'm Gonna Make You Mine, Crazy Elephant - Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' (I have this one too - Bell Records), The Tremeloes - Here Comes My Baby (great party record), The Showstoppers - Ain't Nothing But A House Party (covered by The J. Geils Band), and that's just CD One.

The disc I really like is the Marian McPartland "Piano Jazz" show. Also kinda like the dates with horns and guitar, but more for the horns and guitar. I got the feeling that, early on in his career, his manager saw that the trio format (and, to a lesser extent, solo performances) was the gravy train, and so kept him in that mold.

I'm only seeing "stream only."

Great name for a tune title: Elvin Elpus.

Just as a reminder, there's a trove of live Elvin from this era available on this Gene Perla site: https://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/archives/gene-perla/index.php

I can't believe I own 4 Bill Evans boxes, because I don't even like the guy's music. I guess with each box I thought "OK, maybe I'll like this phase of his career," but nope. I have the Fantasy box, the WB "Turn Out The Light" box, the Verve box, and "The Secret Sessions." I especially regret the last one because, in addition to the music not interesting me, the sound quality's pretty bad. I often think of box sets as a process - you get to hear a musician's career and concept evolve; it's part history, part evolving tastes, part evolving technique, part maturing and getting older, part hearing how different producers affect a musician's sound. So at the end of a box set, I feel like I learned a lot about a musician's work, almost like reading a biography, and so it's rewarding even if I don't feel like listening to it again. After all, how often do we reread books? Sometimes, but not often. Agreed.

Heartwarming. Sweet Poppa Lou!

I want to put in a good word for this box set, still available on Amazon for $55.58. Legit release, good sound quality, very convenient to have them all in one place.

Art Laboe, the pioneering radio DJ credited with helping end segregation in Southern California, has died. He was 97. Laboe died Friday night after catching pneumonia, said Joanna Morones, a spokesperson for Laboe’s production company, Dart Entertainment. His final show was produced last week and broadcast Sunday night. Laboe is credited with helping end segregation in Southern California by organizing live DJ shows at drive-in eateries that attracted white, Black and Latino listeners who danced to rock-n-roll — and shocked an older generation still listening to Frank Sinatra and Big Band music. The DJ is also credited with coining the phrase “oldies, but goodies.” In 1957, he started Original Sound Record, Inc. and in 1958, released the compilation album “Oldies But Goodies: Vol. 1,” which stayed on the Billboard’s Top 100 chart for 183 weeks. https://nypost.com/2022/10/10/oldies-but-goodies-legendary-radio-dj-art-laboe-dead-at-97/

RIP. He was a mighty burner.

Glad you like it. All of Pepper's pianists brought their own thing to the group's sound; Leviev's perhaps a little less bluesy and direct, but more harmonically interesting. I agree that Pepper's late period is my favorite. Perhaps he never achieved that conceptual breakthrough he thought was within reach, but damn his performances are enjoyable. I have 3 en route from Tommy: Volume 7 (Osaka), Volume 10 (Toronto), and Volume 11 (Atlanta).

Thinking of all my Florida fellow board members (and relatives and friends who live there as well). I hope it all turns out well.

There was a light-hearted yet interesting story recently in The New Yorker about France and its tradition of hydrotherapy, aka "thermal cures". Read it and tell me: Does it work? Does it not work? It's all subjective: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/30/seeking-a-cure-in-frances-waters

That was the writer's point. Many people think chiropractors are quacks. Your experience told you otherwise; so did the writer's.

Anyway, I’d encourage others to read the article. I think the writer makes some good points.

And yet, no one would dispute that a $200 stereo would sound better than a $50 stereo, or that a $1,000 stereo would sound better than a $200 stereo, just as no one would dispute that a $2,000 flat-screen TV has a better picture than a $500 flat-screen TV. There are improvements that come with innovation, design, better materials, newer technologies, and, yes, costlier materials. Where the line is drawn of "I can't hear (or see) any improvement for the money" differs with every individual, but flat statements that imply you'll get good sound regardless of how much or little you spend seem like a caricature.

The attention paid to the number might be silly, but I believe Mosaic Selects would have sold better if they were numbered. Human nature.

Although you may be less familiar with Aaron Seeber than the other artists on this live recording, you will immediately recognize the tradition of jazz drumming in his steady and sure cymbal beat. A native of Washington D.C. whose visibility on the New York jazz scene continues to rise, Seeber is both studied in the recorded legacy of his instrument and equipped with over a decade of experience.

Release date November 4: The unexpected always seems logical with him, wrote one critic. On Live in Ottobrunn Martial Solal proves this from the very first note: Only one D is heard at first, which keeps you on tenterhooks until a pianistic whirlwind follows: expressionistic disharmonies dissolve into blue notes, glissandi runs lead into long sustained chords, classical motifs merge with echoes of half of jazz history. Everything is rhythmically varied in a highly complex way, without ever falling out of time. And only slowly does the standard emerge that provides the melodic basis: My Funny Valentine. As if under a burning glass, the first piece of the performance now documented as a double album at the Ottobrunn concerts in December 2018 thus already shows the entire high art of the leading French jazz pianist, as it understatedly says in the encyclopedia: Martial Solal, who has just turned 95, is a solitaire in the history of jazz, indeed in the history of music. Live in Ottobrunn is nothing less than the shining last example of the outstanding importance of Martial Solal. As a link between tradition and modernity, between genres and styles, between his predecessors and descendants. And for the core of jazz that is reflected in his style: In a miraculous way, the sum of the many twists and turns makes sense to him in retrospect. For the moment, for the respective piece and in the end for the whole album. A legacy.