Leeway

I've been all over the map this weekend with my listening: Anita O'Day- "Waiter, Make Mine Blues" Procul Harum- "The Best of Procul Harum" (P.H.- one of my guilty pleasures) "Gabor Szabo Live with Charles Lloyd"- I need to give this another listen. LLoyd is on flute. The Band- "Stage Fright" Carmell Jones- "Jay Hawk Talk" Bergenfield Prestige issue-great stuff, great sound. Lee Morgan- "The Sidewinder"- a scratchy NY USA pressing. Barney Kessel- "Easy Like Vol.I" (Contemporary C3511) And my weekend favorite- Pete LaRoca- "Turkish Women at the bath"- a reissue on Douglas label; pretty good sound, great music!

The free shipping has me in an ordering mood, although having just purchased the VeeJay sets, I shouldn't. Still, that shipping can add up! I have a lot of Hodges on LP, plus some CDs, so am passing on that set (for now). Ditto J.J. I'm close to ordering the Elvin Jones set, as all of it is OOP, and I have none of it. I don't see Blue Note reissuing much of this material separately (although they have done so with Blakey, Hill, McLean, etc). When the Elvin set goes OOP, it's going to be hard to find this material. I'm also mulling over the Gerald Wilson set, in addition to Elvin (OK, wretched excess, right?). Wilson has such incredible taste. His arrangements are sophisticated and swing. Anyone have this set?

You need to cut down on haircuts! My haircuts cost $11.00 (due to recent price increase from $10). That $14 price difference can pay for a Conn, or an RVG with something left over. Plus I've been working on a 60 day haircut schedule. Just think, if you skip six haircuts @ $25 each, you'd have enough for a Mosaic!

More Johnny Griffin: Recently picked up a Johnny Griffin LP recently: "Big Soul Band," Riverside mono pressing. Sounds great and everyone is in fine form. Bobby Timmons, Clark Terry, Julien Priester, et all. I like Johnny's playing here, even though he takes the lead, he really tries to work within the ensemble concept.

This actually happened to me once. I was at a bookdealers storehouse. The books were shelved on metal industrial type shelving. I pulled a book out from the shelf- mind you, nothing out of the ordinary, when a whole series of the shelves collapsed domino fashion. It was scary for a moment . I ended up pressed under some books but I was able to extricate myself without too much harm, to my body at least- I was freaked out, as was, of course, the bookdealer. Rather surprisingly, he didn't shoot me. It does sound lame to say,"It wasn't my fault," even if it wasbn't, when standing hip deep in what was once a book colection. My removing the book from the shelf was the proverbial straw, or tipping point, that revealed the weakness of that type of shelving. I prefer wood! And attached or banked to the wall.

Don't worry, I'll make room. What a lovely view!

Been getting into some funk/fusion stuff: Roy Ayers Unbiquity: "Red, Black, Green" Grant Green "Live" Charles Earland- "Leaving This Planet" with Freddy Hubbard and Joe Henderson

I freely admit that my knowledge of Hines' work is regrettably very limited, especially for an artist who had such a long career. However, I just had this sense of a "showbizzy," even somewhat cheesy style of performance, at that time-- maybe it was just the material? . As I said, I'm probably all wet on this. I have read that he had a career renascence in his old age. I like Hines' playing enough on the LP I have to want to hear more. Thanks for all the good album suggestions. I'm looking forward to hearing more Budd. Still wondering if and how much influence Budd Johnson had on Ben Webster, or even vice versa? AMG notes that "Budd Johnson showed him [Webster] some basics on the saxophone..." Interesting...

I definitely will check that out. I love Ben Webster, so that should be a great matchup.

Congratulations on the new house. Important question: dose it have sufficient room for CDs, vinyl, and Mosaic sets?

I picked up an LP- "Linger Awhile," featuring Budd Johnson on tenor and soprano sax, pianist Earl Hines, bassist James P. Leary, and Panama Francis on drums. I really enjoyed Budd's playing. I had never heard him before. Are there any Budd fans (nah, not the beer)? Any recommendations? Comments on his playing. He reminded me of Ben Webster. I was also pleasantly surprised by Hines' piano playing. For some reason, maybe because I had only heard him at the end of his career, I didn't expect such hip playing. AMG cites a CD (apparently OOP) of the same title, which lists Budd, but also Ray Nance, who does not appear on the LP version. A good album. I wonder if Budd is worthy of the Mosaic treatment?

I used to buy from Atomic, but I had a bad experience too. I bought a Turrentine LP from them; turned out it didn't have the original inner sleeve. You had to be a Philadelphia lawyer to scrutinize their description and figure that out (I do read the descriptions carefully, but they committed the sin of, er, "omission," so to speak. I wrote them a polite letter of complaint, they got really pissy and put me on their "banned" list. Kind of weird really. Must be a pretty big list by now! Their arrogance was really obvious in their communications. No great loss not dealing with them. There are more pleasant and forthright dealers to whom to give my money.

It's better than investing in stocks! It allows me to contribute to the Mosaic thread on Organissimo! Each one of those big boxes says: "I Love Jazz" like nothing else !

A little time away from the holiday bustle: Yusef Lateef- "Jazz for the Thinkers"- Savoy LP- with Curtis Fuller Art Taylor- "A.T.'s Delight"- a King Japan pressing Charles Lloyd- "Nirvana" with Chico Hamilton

Hmm, almost 14,000 CDs listed. Almost 3% of his feedbacks are negative or neutral. (And $3.95 shipping for first CD!) The seller has almost 78, 460 feedbacks- that's a huge amount. With that volume of sales, it's not unusual to have some customer problems. Howver, if 3% of the feedback is negative or neutral, that amounts to 2,353 folks who weren't exactly thrilled by the transaction. Looked at that way, it's kind of scary. How do they accumulate so many items? They must have an army out there picking at every garage sale, flea market, etc within 100 miles. I don't know how many of their sales end up being over, let's say, $5.00 (a reasonable sale price level), but do they make money on CDs that sell for $.08? No wonder the shipping charge is relatively so high- that's their "sales insurance."

Treated myself to some Morgan-Mobley today: "Dippin" and "Caddy for Daddy." I have "Dippin" on a recent BN reissue; the sonics are surprising dull and almost muffled . Still, the music comes through, and besides M &M, I like hearing Mabes pound the piano and Higgins pound the drums I have "Caddy" on a New York, USA issue, and the sound is glorious- like right there in Rudy's studio. Those post-"Sidewinder" obligatory intro funk cuts are there on both LPs, as usual, and they sound good, if formulaic by this time, but there is also a lot of very creative writing and playing too. Mobley could write some good tunes.

I don't know if Cook deserves all the blame. I thought I read somewhere or other that he was not given access to Blue Note's records and archives. If that was the case, he probably did as much as he could with what was publicly available. But I agree that Cuscuna is the person who needs to write the definitive story of BN.

Thanks for your comments. Well, I took the plunge. I found a new set for $140 and bought it. Apparently I could have gotten one cheaper yet, but this seemed like a pretty decent price. I listened to a lot of the clips from the set and found myself, to my surprise, really digging them. I haven't been a huge fan of Miles later period, but this music really appealed to me. I agree with you Jazzbo on the musical merits. I'll wait and see how I feel after 20 cds worth! That would make for some long weekend- a straight-through listen of the entire set I noticed that some sources are no longer offering the set, or it is not in stock. I wonder if it is about to go OOP?

Who has this 20 cd box set, and what do you think of it?

I've been mulling over the possibility of getting the Miles Davis, "Complete Blackhawk" from Mosaic, a cool $108. I can get the CD box for under $35. So, is the Mosaic worth $70+ more? Even a vinyl-phile has to think twice. Still, if anyone has it, I'd like to know how good the set is sonically, especially the remix that was done.

It's kinda simple really: If it was recorded before, let's say, 1975, it should be listened to on vinyl. There are very few (and really I can't think of any offhand) rock albums from that era that do not sound better on vinyl than CD.

Two albums that helped me unwind today: "Stan Getz with Cal Tjader"- with Vince Guaraldi, Scott La Faro, Billy Higgins, and Eddie Duran on guitar. I've been getting into Tjader more. Any suggestions for other titles to try? Grant Green- "Sunday Mornin"- with Kenny Drew on piano. I like Green with piano- gives the album a clean, open sound. Green really SMOKES Miles' "So What" to close out the LP. Duran was pretty good on the Getz-Tjader LP, but then you hear Green, and you realize the guy's in another league altogether. 2 tasty LPs.

This weekend: Sonny Stitt- "I Remember Bird"- typically good Stitt, with Frank Rosolino on trombone and Dolo Coker on piano, some fine playing between them; Charles Lloyd- "Love In"- the Four Men with Beards vinyl version- some great stuff and some cheese there, but I enjoy it. George Shearing Quintet- "I Hear Music"- on an old MGM LP-- a real surprise to me-- some really tasty piano playing, and some excellent piano-vibes interaction. Also Chuck wayne on guitar. I've read that Bud Powell listened to Shearing and I think I can hear some influence there. There is one very boppish-Powell-like cut on the LP (I'm too lazy to run back upstairs to get the title). Jack Wilson- "Songs for My Daughter"-- again, some cheesy violin/strings accompaniment, but I really dig this album anyway. I like Wilson's piano playing, and the string background actually gets a great mood going, even if it is over the top at times. I also went back to my 60s roots over the weekend, listened to a lot of vinyl from Crosby, Still, Nash & Young- in several of their permutations, starting from some of the Croby-Nash collaborations and moving on out to all four. Also some Byrds LPs. Also "Workingman's Dead" by the Grateful Dead (of course). And some Stones, from their double LP "More Hot Rocks"- has some of my favorite "minor" (?) Stones goodies on it. Anyone else feeling the tug of the 60s on them? I'm theorizing that the Iraq war is giving me Vietnam War flashbacks, so I'm going back to the music of a previous war era. Oh yes, one more jazz LP I listened to Friday- Hank Jones- "Relaxin' at Camarillo"- all-star lineup- with Kenny Clarke on drums, Paul Chambers on bass, and, the reason I really picked this LP up-- Bobby Jaspar on flute. Hard to define Jaspar's sound. I've only heard it once, I like it, need to give it more listens to get a better sense of Jaspar's style on flute.

Anyone planning on going to any one of the many jazz festivals this summer? The one that appeals to me the most, for it lineup, and its location, is the Healdsburg, California jazz festival, in early June, in California wine country. Unfortunately, my schedule won't permit it. I've also been thinking of making my first foray to Newport. Anyone have recent experience with the Newport festival? It's odd about all these jazz festivals. Everone talks about the demise of jazz and dwindling album sales, but there seems to be more jazz festivals than one can easily keep track of.

My "honorary LPs" just arrived: Morgan/Shorter, set #1763, and Chambers/Kelly, set #1790. Has anyone received a 2000# set? Or are these sets going to expire under-2000? Oh yeah, I'm keeping the box, bubblewrap, receipt, etc. Could be worth something someday I'm glad I got them