Bluesnik

yes, i like the actual covers a lot. they fit the music inside perfectly. so it's not like i'm complaining. these CDs are very nice the way they are. it's just that i don't feel like i really have the album unless i get hte full artwork, or at least the front cover. i hate reissues with fantasy covers (something that doesn't apply here). and there are made up covers that are really artful. just think of P. Roques. also, the booklets are b/w. and maybe many of these albums didn't even have a cover in the first place. like 78s and some 10". oops, i just saw there WERE some new titles issued last year. i don't know why i had the impression nothing new was added, though i knew the series had been extended. and i vaguely seem to remember now that the publisher stated that after these last releases the well was empty now and declared the collection closed. i think i read that from Universal, on their release info. can't remember for sure though. and it sounds strange. not very plausible.

and i still recall the older Gitanes, with hteir whitish covers and bigger Gitanes logo. i suppose they were all duplicated and reissued in the Jazz in Paris series. or is there some difference between collections? the Jazz in Paris is a collectable, beatifully packaged and carefully remastered series, though it could do with original cover repros. but i guess they wanted a unified look and faced the dillemma that most releases combined more than one album. still, they could have been included in the booklets, an alternative but plausible solution.

these "hors series" are a couple or three special editions which were issued together with the first 100 releases but as special "out of series" items, maybe because they are double. they are not usually found together with the main releases and are a bit rare. I have Sacha Distel - Jazz guitarist, which is a double CD. The Coleman is too. And now i can't remember which the third "hors series" was and if it was also a double CD, if there was a third, something i'm almost certain of. the Jazz in Paris series, which i think was finished around 2002, saw a couple new releases last year, but they were just compilations of existing tracks. the four big boxes and a 5CD comp of the 100 most beautiful tunes of the series. and i don't know if i'm forgetting anything else. so the series should run to something like 104/105 references. and i seem to recall the series is closed because there's no more mineable material out there, no more French 78s, 10" or 12" from Barclay, Fontana or labels under the Universal umbrella that could see a release. i'm always a bit intrigued by this. you wouldn't believe all jazz recorded in Paris from the 20s to the 70s would fit into these 100 CDs, even if restricted to some labels.

no, no she's got great looks. wanted to mention that on the first post but forgot finally... completely my type, btw and about the connection, there isn't necessarily one, but with her kind of hippy/traveller upbringing i imagine she's more the real type, more into reality than reality TV, so to say. more active than passive. it's just a guess, but what's sure is that she's into some kind of MySpace and online runnings boycott. and i can completely understand that. just look at MySpace, it's fucking ridiculous. might be a useful tool for some to get gigs and everything (i know of many) but it's the lamest thing i've seen in years. a place for unfriends. friends are people you can touch and you dont' need to impress with a fake persona. though i know there's heated debate pro and con. it's just that i'm seeing the start of a downturn in that whole web 2.0 thing. it's fake. and that's just not to talk about Second Life, where people spend real $ for 3D constructs and to lead an imaginary life that's the opposite ot their real one ... it's the end of communication and, taken to its extremes, of social life. look at this this

you're lucky. Plectrist is a very good album. at least i enjoy it a lot. and i'm surprised it hasn't been reissued more often. from the other VEEs i have (and remember at this moment) i don't enjoy the Louie Bellson so much and i quite like Illinois Jaquet & Ben Webster's The Kid and the Brute, though it's one of those typical Granz jam sessions.

in the meantime i found out the new Classics series is supposed to supersede the VMEs, although it features much less titles than that great collection did and others have been added (big focus on vocals). it's also possibly a Uni Germany initiative, though i'm unsure about that. i could be wrong. so it's more of a repackaging program than a proper reissue series. a kind of all time jazz greats line to go along with their shrinking mainstream and vocal jazz catalog and to possibly supersede all reissue series. or that's what it looks like. let's hope i'm wrong, but lately they have only launched new reissues in their vault program. so the logic would go hard digital for a handful of big sellers, soft digital for the residual fan items. and The Köln Concert gets a reissue

i got all my Impulses midprice (all over the years), though some of the crown jewels you mention have always been full prize. but i even got Ascension at midprice at a lucky moment. and it's true they're resurfacing again, even some rarer Alice Coltranes or that Blakey session. maybe i shouldn't be so negative about it. maybe that means it's time for a new generation to discover those gems. still, with so much material still to be reissued (if ever), so many great albums to be uncovered, it's a pity ... and a lost opportunity to see long wanted titles resurface from the depths of the vinyl oceans.

they are all in that new Verve Classics or just Classics collection which has been in the shops for some weeks now, together with the usual suspects which were last reissued as VMEs, that is Getz/Gilberto, Coltrane Ballads (sorry, that was an Impulse, just as Trane and Hartmann, which is also in the new collection), Oscar Peterson's Night Train, Bird and Diz and others. From what i have seen only Ella's Mack the Knife and Sarah Vaughan with Brownie (i almost bought this personal favorite only to put it back at the last moment and to discover later at home that I already had it and that my early 90s version sounds really good, being a Japanese remaster) are fairly new having last been reissued at the dawn of the CD age. i suspect they are just repressings of the existing titles, which are all from the mid to late 90s and sound pretty good. at least i haven't been able to find any remaster info on the packaging, something that as a strong selling point is usually made clear somewhere. and they're not midrange, they cost almost the same as the VMEs did. so now we have a new reissue series for existing titles thrown together out of already good Impulse and VME reissues. that's good news .

i second the Chaloffs, all PJ Chet Bakers, the Mulligan/Baker Quartets, the Navarro set, the Lester Young Alladin sides (and so much more...) there was a good series of prebop BN comps around 1998/1999 covering 40s recordings from Ike Quebec, Sydney Bechet, JOhn Hardee, Edmond Hall and other swingtets and small group swing. i got them all and don't know if they're already OOP, but they're highly recommendable and get you a glimpse into the pre 50s BN. Plus they're the only instance on CD of this material (if you except some Japanese TOCJ-66xxx reissues which i also mostly own, hehehe).

i also like her voice. though she's not so young her solo career is just in its first steps. i think she has some solo singles on Jazzman, a British label devoted to deep funk reissues. no lp so far, though i think she's working on one. she's the daughter of a German krautrock musician, i think from Embryo, and as such hates MySpace and the whole online virtual thing. so you won't find much info on her out there. i know her from collaboration work (vocals on top of programmed/live music) with bands like Beanfield and other similar artists on Compost and from I can no poet be, but that was at the beginning of the 2000s. but she really has a great soulful voice and i think she could develop into an interesting artist if she finds her own angle in more organic productions or probably with a proper live band, which might be what she's doing now with German deep funk band Poets of Rythm.

I have some of them though not all. They were part of a DSM 10" album collection put out by Universal Japan some years back and are all now hopelessly OOP. A collection compiled around coverart, something of a first IIRC. The Japanese can't be beat at this. Some of my favourites among them: Johnny Hodges - Collates A funny DSM cover playing with Hodges' nickname. One of my fave DSM and one of my favourite jazz covers as well. You got to view it at full size though to appreciate it with its miroesque colour touches. Lester Young - Collates No.2 I think there's a another Lester Young album using almost the same cover although with a different background colour. It's been reissued on VME. Kenny Drew - The Ideation of Kenny Drew A beautiful cover in the modern art influenced 50s illustration style that i love so much. There were also Flip Philipps and Roy Eldridge collates, some Billie Holidays, some Charlie Parkers, a Machito, a Tal Farlow and I think even a Toshiko Akyoshi album in the series. I also have other reissues with DSM covers, like some Billie Holiday, a Buddy de Franco, Gillespie's Afro (an altogether different DSM) and Buddy Rich with Sweets (both as mini LPs), the Kid and the Brute (depicted elsewhere on this thread), the beautiful covers included in the Norma Granz Jam Sessions (some of my top DSM work: more typographical) and the covers to Bird albums compiled in the Verve Master Takes, at least. I'm a sucker for (prefereably 50s) album cover art and collect covers compulsively. That's why I always prefer original reissues with good artwork repro and everything else. I also have books and vinyl LP covers and really enjoy those artworks. But as an artist working in that field DSM is probably the greatest, togeher with Jim Flora, Burt Goldblatt and some others. Claxton was a photographer and I also like Gil Melle's work.

Moacir Santos was part of a wave of Brazilan musicians who came to the States invited by Creed Taylor to record watered down bossa tailored to the pop sensibilities of the moment (think Sergio Mendes, Wanda de Sa) following the seminal 1962 CArnegie HAll concert that introduced Amreican audiences to the bossa nova generation. Move to the seventies and the more jazz oriented of those artists, already permanently living in the USA, were working in fusion/jazz. People who had been into jazz before bossa nova, like Flora PUrim, Dom Um Romao, Airto Moreira, Joao Donato, Eumir Deodato. Moacir Santos also did that brazilian/jazz/fusion thing so representative of that era (I don't like fusion, I prefer the sixties) and recorded for BLue Note, the BN of the Seventies, mind you. I know of at least one more BN album by him (called Saudade if I remember well) which was recently reissued by Toshiba in Japan. And I think there is a third. The record whose cover is posted here was called Maestro and like his whole BN run is from the mid seventies.

Having said that, if I wanted to explore Elis Regina's work I'd probably start with her first records, her sixties material. The records from the seventies are more in the romantic ballad tradition as she was developing into a very popular crooner. I'd stick to her first Philips releases.

I don’t like Elis Regina much. Though she’s widely considered Brazil’s best female singer ever. She was a childish selfabsorbed character who was constantly putting down rival singers and engaging in personal fights over fame with everybody. The (selfproclaimed) diva syndrome. Yes, she had a great stage presence and a great voice but I prefer other more interesting singers with more soul. I much more like Nara Leao, even with her weak voice, Sylvia Telles or Maysa, though the last two also had very very strong personalities, in a different way though. Oh, and I also like Joyce very much. Though from a later generation, she’s carried the flame of bossa all through the years until today. “How is it some of us are like wine and others turn into vinegar?", she offered recently after returning from a Japanese tour. And it's true, she's as good as ever today, if not better. Most Brazilian records from the golden age are either eponymous or titled after the style contained within, like bossa nova, sambalanço, black samba... I guess it was a way to avoid misleading the buyer. The labels wanted to state clearly what the customer would find on the record. cheers

A great album. I also love it. Even the covers, though I admit I also was a bit puzzled about the Elenanor Rigby remake on first listen. When the album was over I wondered why I hadn't heard it, a coupla tokes too much maybe? But I love how Aquarius was pulled off. Overall a great organ groover. And it's even dancefloor friendly ... for one of those jazzdance clubs. I'm sure it was played a lot in the old acid jazz days and all its subsequent revivals.

I love that sound, particularly the Odeons and Elencos. But there's so much to recommend and it all depends so much on personal taste that I don't know where to start. So I'll just mention some of my fave records, even if some were recorded for other labels than the two mentioned. Sylvia Telles, Lucio Alves & Conjunto Menescal - Bossasession, Elenco Baden Powell - Baden Powell swings with Jimmy Pratt, Elenco Claudia - Voce Claudia Voce, Odeon Evinha - Cartão postal , Odeon Joao Gilberto - O Amor, O Sorriso e a Flor, Odeon Sambossa 5 - Zero Hora, RCA Som Tres - Toboga, Odeon Antonio Adolfo e a Brazuca - Antonio Adolfo e a Brazuca, Odeon Chico Buarque - Chico Buarque de Hollanda Vol 1, RGE Os Cobras - O LP, RCA Marcos Valle - Garra, Odeon Marcos Valle - Previsao do tempo, Odeon Bossa Tres - Os Reis Do Ritmo, Odeon Sergio Ricardo - Um Sr. Talento, Elenco Lucio Alves - Balançamba, Elenco Os 3 Morais - Os 3 Morais, Odeon Nara Leao - O canto livre de Nara, Philipps Tamba Trio - Tamba Trio, Philipps Sidney MIller - Sidney MIller, Elenco Orlandivo - Orlandivo, Copacabana Roberto Menescal , A bossa nova de Roberto Menescal, Elenco Pedrinho Mattar - Bossa Nova, Farroupilha And I could go on and on ... This covers from the beginnings of bossa nova to samba jazz to groovy late 60s post-bossa, a la Marcos Valle. By the way, the mentioned Valles are his absolute peak, much better than the two early bossa records mentioned in an earlier post (though I also have them and like them). There are also interesting 50s albums, like one of my favorite singers, Silvinha Telles' first, Caricia (Odeon), early Joao Donato or some of the vocal ensembles or the sambistas... but I concentrated on bossa related territory, since that's what you'll probably like best. You'll have to find your way from here....

same here and there are times I prefer the feel of good ole paper to starting up the computer (which incidentally is not in the listening room). though I admit the online version is more updated. I usually use it when away from home.

I don't have much John Lewis, but the original Afternoon in Paris with Sacha Distel is a gorgeous album and the Koch edition is well remastered (HDDC). I'd recommend that one any minute. I like hardbop albums with guitar. And another very good album I've been trying to get my hands on for some time is Grand Encounter, a laidback east-west session on Pacific Jazz with players from both coasts (with Bill Perkins, Chico Hamilton and Jim Hall, so ... more guitar) recorded at the height of West Coast jazz. It's been reissued recently at half price (1500 ¥) on Toshiba as a jewel case (last release was an expensive mini LP from around '02), so I figure I'll pick it up on my next Japan order and close that gap. And like Afternoon in Paris it also exists as a Spanish Lone Hill or Gambit reissue but I'd always go for the original (tapes remastered release).

Undercurrent is a great session. I have the late 80s first CD release and the JRVG, the latter being far superior to the flat US release. So I guess the new RVG must also be a big sonic improvement over the old CD. I really like Kenny Drew and another great session is Kenny Drew Trio on Riverside, a great piano trio, which to my ears sounds astonishingly good for a late 80s/early 90s OJC. There must be a VICJ of that one but I'm still happy with my OJC. Recommended. And I disagree with the dismissal of the Hall/Evans Undercurrent. I find it a great session with nice guitar/piano interplay. Together with the Riversides it's one of my fave Bill Evans. And last remastered to great 24bit sound. Nice cover by the way, and I never understand why some reissues get new or modified covers in lieu of their original artwork. If there was no title mentioned on the original cover, why not don an obi with the required info instead of altering the artwork? Sound and cover are the two main reasons for a reissue. At least the way I see it.

Just to clarify who's who... AFAIK Disconforme, which is based in Andorra and includes Lonehill, Jazz Factory and a myriad other sublabels, is one company and Fresh Sound, with their Fresh Sound New Talent arm, an altogether different thing, although I'm always told they're connected. But connected as in sharing interests in third companies or joining forces for some projects, like the Jazz Messengers shop and web operation, or maybe even in exchanging investments in their respective portfolios. I've never known the exact root of that closeness and have always assumed they were close friends, but it's plausible that they're relatives. So apart from some joint efforts, these are separate companies and I think one can feel that in their reissue policies. I have sympathy for Fresh Sound, whose reissue programs I follow with big interest (I'm a big West Coast fan...) and am not so fond of Disconforme. As I see it, FS are operated out of a fan mentality, making available obscure or highly sought after pearls and they usually do it quite well. For me they are an important player in the reissue game, focusing on areas nobody else is covering. The Nocturne boxset (of which I was assured by JP a second part was in the pipeline) for which he worked with relatives of the deceased label owner, and many other projects like the Johnny Mehegan or Phil Sunkel albums or Bud Shank's Cool Fool release (reissuing some of his first and unavailable PJ releases with the artist's collaboration) are a good example. Disconforme on the other hand work out of a more market oriented mentality, reissuing mostly big sellers on compilations at low prices and salvaging Mosaics, Toshibas and whatever gets in the way. They are centered on Bird, Miles and the big names, but also on lesser artists where a big demand exists, like the MIldred Bailey boxes. I also dislike the packaging of the Disconforme-group labels and prefer FS' methods. Plus FS is actually investing in new talent at grassroots level, something not many labels do nowadays. Just think who first released Brad Mehldau, The Bad Plus, Chris Cheek or Kurt Rosenwinkel ... Granted, Lonehills, Disconformes et al. are poorly annotated. Not so FS releases in most cases. In some notorious occasions FS has collaborated with the artists and their estate. I don't know if that's the general practice, but in most cases they give accurate discographical and historic data and include interesting pictures. Maybe they lack some session info or insider details. And what I miss most is the exact release information, i.e. the official album release for each session. But they keep their releases as "album detached" as possible. That's the reason why they are mostly timeframe centered and why they abuse the "Complete ..." tag. One thing I dislike and they both do (proving there is actually some interoperation between them) is repackaging under new concepts (and often "cross-repacking") material they have previoulsy issued. See the Shorty Rogers RCA albums FS had reissued now revamped into a S. Rogers boxset or the Lonehill Hal McKusick packages. But everybody else does that too. (For the record: most FS CD reissues have previously existed as FS vinyls. By the way, who remembers the Jubilee Hal Mc Kusick & Betty St. Claire album FS reissued back in the 80s?). And a word about the vinyl FS reissues of the 80s: I cant' say for sure because I wasn't buying jazz in those days, but I have the feeling most of the first wave of vinyl reissues wasn't licensed and properly done. But as I say I'm not too knowledgeable about that. I have wanted to make all this clear for a long time. Specially in light of the hatred these labels seem to command from stateside buyers. Although their rip off antics are objectable (see the cover of the recent Morgan-Shorter comp from Lonehill) these labels' activity is completely legal. What's not so legal is their distribution in the US where a different copyright law applies. Direct your hatred at the retailers who make money out of circumventing US legislation. Or just ignore them. Not even the big corporations care about that fringe market. So why be upset? Could it be these non US labels are resented for cashing in on THE American artform par excellence and having better reissue programs than most US labels, or for uncovering gems American labels choose to ignore?

I also have seen a Bud Shank live set recorded at The Haig around 52-54. I think it was issued by Choice.

One more reccomendation for the Quartets. It's an unmissable GG release. If I had to keep one GG album it would be this one, even though it's a comp. But I understand your questions, Wesbed. I have often asked myself the exact same thing. There was a time when I thought I had unearthed a Blue Note policy of repackaging slightly modified Mosaic sets: Herbie Nichols, this one, the Edmond Hall/James P. Johnson/Sidney De Paris/Vic Dickenson Sessions, the Chet Baker & Russ Freeman PJ sides, the Stan Getz Roost material ... But I finally found out they were all newly remastered and reissued and in no way connected to the Mosaic sets, or maybe just conceptually. I even wanted to start a thread on BN revamped Mosaic sets at one point. SBM, by the way, has two flavours, 20bit and 24bit (just like K2 now). So this set was probably remastered by Ron McMaster in 1997 on 20bit SBM, although I think I know of some early 24bit SBMs from around that time. But I'd have to check, I'm speaking off the top of my head.

And so do I. I have some forties BN sessions on Toshiba, but I want more. Some Bechet, Quebec, Lewis material has already been released in compiled form (plus different BN Jazzmen incarnations), but I want the original sessions with their covers from the 7000 and 5000 series. The Art Hodes, Sydney de Paris, James P. Johnson, Port of Harlem Jazzmen, etc. And, no, not all 5000s were released on the 10" Conn batch. AFAIK there are some Erroll Garners, a Wade Legge, James Moody with strings, The Cool Brits, a Fats Sadi, a Jutta Hipp, a Lou Mecca, the two Best from the West and the famous Urbie Green still to be reissued, if not more (I'm speaking off the top of my head). I have the Urbie Green as a TOJJ and the Jutta Hipp and the Mecca as TOCJ mini LPs. So there's still much important historical material to be pulled from the vaults and I always hoped BN would not be waiting for their 70th anniversay to do so. But under the present climate even that would be a scenario to look out for.

As has been said above the tracks are the same but in different order and maybe some differences in alt takes. But I'm speaking off the top of my head, without the discs at hand. What really sets them apart is the RVG remastering on the recent (2001-02, I guess) RVGs and the cover art. The RVGs use the covers of the first (pre '55) release, the 5000 series, while the older versions (the first CD release) use the more popular Reid Miles covers of the 1500 series 12" LP reissues of those 10 inchers. I personally prefer the older covers (John Hermansadder, I think), but I'm a sucker for 50's cover art. So I would recommend the RVGs, even if only soundwise. And they also carry repros of the Reid Miles covers inside, if I remember well.

A good and classic hard bossa album, if by that you understand rythm driven groove-bossa, is Joao Donato A bossa muito moderna. It's an instrumental piano trio with added percussion. More on the jazzy side. A very nice record and available on CD through Universal. At least as a Japanese and Brazilian editions. [i've seen a different Polydor cover, but this is the one I have]