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Release date August 26:

Release date August 19: A long-time fan of the front-line pairings of the 1950s bands of Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Horace Silver (for whom Silver Mine is dedicated), Swainson shaped both his compositions and the blue-chip rhythm section of pianist Renee Rosnes (with whom he'd worked in the 1990s cross border band Free Trade) and Lewis Nash around this stylistic post-bop conception. With compositional dedications to musical influences (the aforementioned Silver Mine), to impactful places (Kyushu, a musical reflection of time spent on this Japanese island), to people (Fell Among Thieves references a biblical parable that Swainson relates to some wonderful people he has known who fell into difficult company and circumstance), this new recording offers a personal glimpse inside Swainson's musical and compositional mind.

Release date September 2: Elastic Wave presents dummer Nilssen's powerful trio with fellow Norwegian Andre Roligheten on reeds and Swedish bassist Petter Eldh (recently heard with Kit Downes). The group's dynamic interaction, dancing sense of pulse and boldly etched themes - all three players contribute compositions - make Acoustic Unity one of the most engaging bands on the circuit today, able to address fiery anthems and poignant ballads with equal panache and conviction. Release date September 30: The grandmaster of improvised bass & the electronics-playing son of Hungary's great contemporary composer share a deep commitment to making new music in the moment, informed by their different lives & experiences. With his subtle use of synthesizers & digital percussion, Gyorgy Kurt g Jr shapes shifting spaces for Barre Phillips to negotiate, an acoustic labyrinth illuminated in detail in Manfred Eicher's crystalline mix. Recorded at Studios La Buissonne, Face … Face is a fascinating album.

Just got the July Newsletter from Blue Note. It includes: JOHN COLTRANE BLUE TRAIN TONE POET VINYL EDITIONS OUT 9/16 John Coltrane’s 1st masterpiece Blue Trainwill be released in 2 all-analog Tone Poet Vinyl Editions on Sept. 16: a 1-LP mono pressing of the original album & the 2-LP stereo collection Blue Train: The Complete Masters which includes a 2nd disc featuring 7 alternate takes, none of which have been released previously on vinyl. The Complete Masters comes with a booklet featuring never-before-seen session photos by Francis Wolff& an essay by Ashley Kahn. Both Tone Poet Editions were produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes & pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI. The Complete Masters will also be released as a 2-CD set & digital collection.

I highly recommend volume 6, “Blues For The Fisherman.”

I liked George Winston's "Autumn." I think it holds up as music; whether it holds up as jazz is a different conversation.

I find the concept of buying speakers online (without auditioning) problematic. How can you know in advance whether you'll find their sound appealing? Having said that, I'm nonetheless intrigued by Monitor Audio's Silver 500 7G loudspeaker. They're $3,200/pair, which doesn't seem "middle class." However, in the realm of other speakers reviewed by Stereophile, they're comparatively dirt cheap. I was especially struck by the quality of the rave review - this is not a typical positive review in Stereophile for anything less than $20k/pair. The review ends: "At $3200 for the pair, the Monitor Audio Silver 500 is one of the great audio deals of the pandemic era." See for yourself: https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-500-7g-loudspeaker

I have this. Disc 3, with Cookin' The Blues and Another Bag, sounds awful. To replace them, I downloaded from Amazon the two titles (instead of Cookin', I d/l At The Jazz Workshop, which is Cookin' plus additional cuts).

My current stereo has many components from Emotiva. They sell direct to consumers from their website, and their products sound great for the money. (I wouldn't recommend their CD deck, though.)

I find it interesting that they're combining BN and Impulse. This might open the door to present other artists on both labels (and Argo, etc....Universal owns so many labels).

I see you are correct. Ya learn something new every day...

Just started listening to this box, put out by Atlantic in 2008 and compiled by Joel Dorn. Already, on side 1, there's something interesting: the track Listen Here by Eddie Harris is 7:42. The original, on the album Mean Greens, is only 3:37. No indication in the book that this is the unedited version, but it appears to be.

The venue, located at Broadway and 106th Street, is scheduled to fully reopen for the first time in more than two years on July 21st. https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/smoke-jazz-club-rises-from-the-ashes-after-pandemic-shutdown

Sad to hear. I was working in a jazz record store when his vocal albums appeared (and sold well). I guess they were positioning him as the new Billy Eckstine. I barely believed he was the same guy who played on those Miles albums. Very talented, always in the pocket. RIP.

The Hoffman Forum is reporting that Craft will issue "a 60th-anniversary edition of The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra." Does this mean that Fantasy/Craft owns the rights to the Savoy catalog?

Allen, I hope all goes well with you health-wise (and music-wise). The music is obviously keeping you going.

Great; let me know your thoughts. My reaction was: it reaffirmed (or reminded me of) many things I learned in the '70's, which was the last time I paid a lot of attention to the subject; and it brought me up to date on developments since that time, especially connections between devices and the digital/streaming revolution. Obviously, it can't replicate the actual aural experience of testing/comparing systems, and it (sadly) reminded me that so much of this is a rich person's game. I wish there was more guidance as to putting together a "middle-class" home system - not too rich, not too poor, but just right. But in terms of what goes on inside those electronic boxes, it's a good resource.

It's been a brutal summer here in Houston, but not as bad as in Dallas.

The Freddie will be 7 CDs, so will probably cost $119. It consists of 10 albums, so each album costs $11.90. While it won't have original artwork, it will have a new essay that will lend historical perspective and continuity to the period in question, and will probably have striking Frank Wolff photographs, many perhaps never before seen. Bonus tracks are still an open question.

I think you need to enter a round number, with no dollar sign and no decimal.

Click the link in the first post on this page.

Me, for one. As I've said, I own some of these albums, but Freddie was never one of my favorites. I much preferred Lee Morgan - a little more relaxed, less continually intense. But tastes change as we get older, and maybe I can hear more than I could before, or maybe it's just that those times are gone, they ain't makin' 'em like they used to, and this is still a frontier to explore. On the contrary, I wonder about those people who need to own every Blue Note title. There's such a wide range of styles and quality - doesn't discernment also play a part?

When you see that, click "log in." On the screen that follows, click the x in the upper-left corner.

Start by being on someone's Twitter feed page. Start here (just as an example): https://twitter.com/bluenoterecords

Twitter tip: When the sign-in pop up appears, click “Log in.” On the next screen (“Sign in to Twitter”), just click the X in the upper-left corner. The pop up will then disappear and you can resume reading.