mjzee

Who owns the Warwick masters?

IIRC, the original authorized album was on Prestige. Gus Statiras claimed ownership of the alternate takes and released them on Progressive. Prestige sued and won possession of the alternates, and the Progressive album was withdrawn.

Mark: I'm reading the liner notes to The Best Of The Four Tops - 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection. In it, it states: "A dozen of their first 15 releases made the Top 20 and five crashed the Top 10. Few of the millions who bought these rock 'n' soul singles realized the quartet, which formed in 1954, had spent a decade as an accomplished live jazz act, applying complex vocal harmonies to sophisticated standards and show tunes." In the course of researching your book, did you come across any recordings of theirs during this early period?

https://musicfestnews.com/2021/07/rick-laird-bassist-for-mahavishnu-orchestra-dead-at-80/

Release date August 15: No other information given on the Amazon page. Interesting that jazzdisco does not list any 1962 sessions with Moore or Byas (or Elniff).

Both Louis In New York and St. Louis Blues are available pretty inexpensively on this:

So we're talking about Brilliant Circles? Which edition is the fixed one? Can someone post the cover?

A musical name perhaps most closely associated in many minds with the band Oregon which he co\-founded, Ralph Towner (b.1940) the classical composer is particularly beloved of guitarists and is a prolific writer for the instrument. Having studied composition at Oregon University, Towner spent four years in Vienna studying classical guitar with the Czech teacher Karl Scheit. Having previously favoured the piano as a medium for his improvisational talent, Towner swung towards the classical and 12\-string guitars. His very individual approach to the guitar and its tone\-colour potential has been described as pianistic or even orchestral, with his renown as a performer on the guitar as high among classical musicians as in any other musical sphere. His solo recitals on the instrument have been primarily focused on his own numerous compositions, of which he has recorded over two hundred. This record follows the short guitar solos – many of them linked to the group Oregon such as Hermia’s Galliard from the band’s 1998 incidental music for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and When The Fire Burns Low originally for piano and recorded with Oregon in 1991 – with the Maddalena Variations (2011) a prelude and four variations. This larger\-scale work exemplifies Towner’s return to the more traditional classical forms in which he was originally trained in the 60s.

Try it now, Chuck - they made fascinating music.

Release date August 6: Available for the 1st time. 1974 live-recordings of US - Jazz and World Fusion artists Oregon documenting the band at their mesmerizing best. Oregon, formed in 1970, comprised Ralph Towner (classical and 12-string guitars), Paul McCandless (oboe and English horn), Glen Moore (double bass) and Collin Walcott (sitar and tabla). The band's music has always been almost totally acoustic. ''Acoustic instruments sound more expressive to me,'' Towner explained to Jazzwise magazine (UK) in September 1997. He further explained his guitar style: ''With classical guitar [you're] using all the fingers of your right hand to pluck which means you can be sounding anything from two to five notes in exact unison, rather than a strum.'' As well as their core instruments, Towner has played trumpet, synths and piano with the band, McCandless bass clarinet and flute, Moore flute and violin and Walcott clarinet and dulcimer. To name but some. ''At one time we were carrying eighty instruments on the road!'' McCandless has said. The combining of instruments from disparate musical traditions and the musicians' range of influences meant that 'jazz' was always an inadequate label for the band. ''Live In Bremen 1974'' documents Oregon at their mesmerizing best. The interplay between the four players is stunning and on each piece mood and texture are ever-changing, yet always following an aesthetic logic that seems irrefutable. ''Live In Bremen 1974'', however, is a reminder of a band that made music that had never been heard before, that had never been imagined before. One track is titled ''Brujo'', Spanish for ''sorcerer.'' Truly, Towner, McCandless, Moore and Walcott were musical sorcerers whose playing retains its power to enchant not only the band's original fans but even, surely, anyone lucky enough to be hearing the band for the very first time. Track Listing: Disc 1: Brujo Ghost Beads Dark Spirit Ogden Road Disc 2: Distant Hills Embarking Raven's Wood Canyon Song The Silence of a Candle Per the group "Oregon Jazz Group" on Facebook: Shortly before the release of their third album, the commercially very successful “Winter Light”, the quartet toured Europe and also made a stop at Radio Bremen’s Sendesaal on 14 March 1974. In the past weeks, the Austrian sound wizard Johannes Schreibenreif meticulously prepared the 47-year-old tapes under the critical ears of Ralph Towner and Paul McCandless. More info here: http://www.mig-music.de/en/oregon-will-release-live-album-on-the-moosicus-label-news/

Release date August 15: Release date September 15:

I bought my first stereo from Crazy Eddie himself, Eddie Antar. He had one store, on Kings Highway and Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. The store wasn't called Crazy Eddie (he wasn't well known yet), something like Stereo Exchange. It wasn't far from where I lived. I was working during the summer, saving money so I could buy a "real" stereo. I had a subscription to Stereo Review, so I kinda knew what to look for and what was in my price range. Every so often, I'd go to that store, listen, and ask questions. The summer ended, and I had enough money, but this was a big purchase for me and I couldn't pull the trigger. I was told to come to the store that evening and they'd give me a great price. I went back with my dad. They had me speak to Eddie, who was wearing a dirty white t-shirt stretched over his belly. He gave me a final price of $525 for the whole thing. I still wasn't sure. He got angry and said "This price is for tonight only!" The pressure worked, and I bought. I got for $525: a Garrard Zero-100 turntable, I don't remember the cartridge (probably a Shure), a Marantz receiver with 30 watts per channel RMS (and this really cool blue and red lighting scheme for the stations), a pair of Martin speakers (the guitar company, making a foray into speakers), and Sennheiser HD-414 headphones.

The only time I saw Mingus was at the Newport Jazz Festival in NY in 1972 at Philharmonic Hall. It was a double bill with Ornette Coleman (quartet + orchestra) performing Skies of America, which I thought was complete dreck. Mingus was a welcome relief, full of energy and a lot of fun. He was obviously energized playing to his hometown audience on his big comeback. I don't remember who played with Mingus, but it was just his band, no orchestral backing (also note that this was not the concert that resulted in the Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert album). I imagine the evening was sponsored by Columbia, since both Skies of America and Let My Children Hear Music were current albums at the time. Here's a contemporaneous review of the concert: https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/05/archives/colemans-skies-of-america-in-debut.html

R.I.P.

I bought the JPC edition (thanks for the tip, RiRilll). 4 discs: the movie and the "director's cut," in both BD and DVD. The entire package is in German, so very little guidance for English speakers. I started with the movie disc. Stunning graphics, but all the interviews are dubbed into German, so, for example, you'll hear Cuscuna start to talk in English, and then hear a gruff German speaker drowning out Cuscuna's English words (there are no English subtitles). Based on where you are in the BN chronology, you'll then guess what the interviewees are saying. Then I checked out the "director's cut" disc. There, the interviews are in English! (Except for a few interviewees who spoke German.) It's always fun to be immersed in the BN universe. The movie itself is a straight history of Lion, Wolff and BN, told in mostly strict chronological order. It takes a hagiographical and reverential approach to Alfred and Frank. The movie makes it seem like they were motivated by the civil rights struggle (as opposed to just trying to make a living). For example, it paints their choice of using Rudy's studio in New Jersey as heroic, because they were bringing black musicians to a white suburb to record; however, no mention is made of Prestige, Savoy, and other jazz labels that were doing the same. Very little is said about Rudy (though the movie does contain his last interview), and only one short scene is devoted to Reid Miles. The graphics are wonderful. There are animated sequences that really add to the movie (especially the ones set in Germany and Rudy's studios) and must be seen. For anyone getting this JPC package, I would advocate seeing the movie the way I did: first the dubbed German version and then the director's cut. While the dubbing was frustrating, it forced me to focus on the visuals and the overall presentation. The director's cut reveals it to be a straightforward, almost pedestrian presentation of the BN story. For a more enjoyable, fun (and, in some surprising ways, a more in-depth) presentation of the BN story, I'd recommend seeing Blue Note: A Story Of Modern Jazz. Some of the interviews in Schwing are taken from that earlier movie. The new interviews are great. There's Cuscuna of course, and also Herbie, Ron Carter, Sheila Jordan, and many others. Lou Donaldson tells a great story about the Night At Birdland recording.

This disc, in the recent Monteux box (yup, made by Universal), has 85 minutes:

If you'd like to experience a self-induced headache, try to follow the saga of London Records: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Recordings

Yeah, I see Jackie Vernon, and I also see Jackie Brenston (also a huge comeback).

I seem to recall a problem based on how the dollar amount is entered. I think if you want to donate $50, just enter 50...no dollar sign, and not 50.00.

Doesn't seem to work (maybe because it "Just Sold Out!"):

Another pet peeve: going to dustygroove.com, clicking on either Used CDs or Used LPs, and seeing every title on the first page followed by Just Sold Out!

I have this on vinyl, and it also came out on CD. Given that Portrait was a CBS label, it wouldn't surprise me if it has similarities to Chuck's suggestion.

Interesting that these tapes didn’t burn up in the Atlantic fire.

In September, to mark his centennial year, Mack Avenue Music Group and Octave Music will issue “Liberation in Swing,” an impressive boxed set of 189 Garner tracks. An accompanying coffee-table book samples his surprising visual art and offers insightful essays by singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, drummer Terri Lynne Carrington and Thelonious Monk biographer Robin D.G. Kelley.