Justin V

I just picked up We Remember Cannon last week, a live date with almost the same band (Art Resnick is the pianist). That had to have been a great show.

At 87, Dizzy Gillespie's drummer Joe Harris is still in Pittsburgh. He came up and played a short solo during a Roy Haynes concert I attended in late 2012. Talk about a night of living history. Happy Birthday, Jimmy Cobb! I've never had the opportunity to see him perform, but I hope that I get the chance. I'll have to spin some Wynton Kelly Trio later.

Horace Parlan is 83 today. I don't have any of his leader dates, but I always enjoy his sideman appearances. I was thinking about him earlier today after finding Lou Donaldson's Sunny Side Up yesterday in a shop. Here's wishing him a happy and healthy birthday.

The Complete Master Jazz Piano Series, Disc 3, with Jay McShann, Teddy Wilson and Cliff Smalls.

Disc 3

I had the good fortune of seeing Roy Campbell with Spiritual Unity in Cleveland a few years ago from the front row. I got to talk to the great Henry Grimes and Margaret afterward, but now I wish that I had taken the time to thank Roy Campbell, who was impressive that night. He's on the Variable Density Sound Orchestra recording that was funded on Kickstarter a while back; it's incredibly sad that both he and John Tchicai have passed since making that exceptional album. Thank you for the music, Mr. Campbell.

This set doesn't seem to get mentioned too often, maybe because it has been OOP for so long. In fact, I had no knowledge of its existence prior to seeing it on ebay. I bought it with my Christmas money for $120, which I think is a fair price. I don't have much by any of the musicians involved, and the tracks by pianists I'd never even heard of piqued my interest even further.

Toots Thielemans with the Shirley Horn Trio - For My Lady

I'm sorry to hear this. 43 is far too young. I wasn't that familiar with his playing, but I like what I've heard. I remember reading an interview he did and respecting his pull-no-punches honesty. RIP.

Seeing that it was on last chance and would only get further out of my price range once it goes OOP, I snatched up a copy, sans box and booklet, for only $62.99 on Amazon. I'm hoping that An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet has been cleaned up a bit. The CD reissue that I own has awful sound, and I'm a sucker for the Gillespie band with Lalo Schifrin. Between the Schifrin, Mobley and Barron tracks, I'm pretty excited to hear this.

It's been a great year for live music, so I guess I'll go with my top 20: Dave Holland/Kenny Barron Duo - Detroit Steve Kuhn Trio (w/ Buster Williams and Joey Baron) - New York Lee Konitz Quartet (w/ Vadim Neselovskyi, Jeff Denson and Ronen Itzik) - Shepherdstown, WV Peter Brotzmann/Joe McPhee Duo and Quartet (w/ Kent Kessler and Hamid Drake) - Chicago Wayne Shorter Quartet (w/ Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade) - Buffalo Gary Burton Quartet (w/ Julian Lage, Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez) - Pittsburgh Chris Potter Quartet (w/ David Virelles, Larry Grenadier and Eric Harland) - Painesville, OH Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth (w/ Jaleel Shaw, Martin Bejerano and John Sullivan) - Detroit Mack Avenue Superband (w/ Sean Jones, Kirk Whalum, Gary Burton, Warren Wolf, Aaron Diehl, Evan Perri, Rodney Whitaker and Carl Allen) - Detroit Sheila Jordan/Cameron Brown Duo - Detroit Bill Frisell's Beautiful Dreamers (w/ Eyvind Kang, Rudy Royston and Joe Lovano guesting) - Cleveland ICP Orchestra (minus Misha Mengelberg) - Buffalo Lou Donaldson Quartet (w/ Akiko Tsuruga, Fukushi Tainaka and Eric Johnson) - Pittsburgh Joshua Redman Quartet (w/ Aaron Goldberg, Reuben Rogers and Gregory Hutchinson) - Pittsburgh Jack DeJohnette Quartet (w/ Tim Ries, George Colligan, Lionel Loueke and Jerome Harris) - Pittsburgh Ahmad Jamal Quartet (w/ Reginald Veal, Herlin Riley and Manolo Badrena) - Pittsburgh Lee Konitz/Dan Tepfer Duo - Lewisburg, PA Mundell Lowe/Mike Magnelli Duo and Quartet (w/ Peter Dominguez and N. Glenn Davis) - Cleveland Moutin Reunion Quartet (w/ Rick Margitza and Jean-Michel Pilc) - Cleveland Quest (w/ Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure and Billy Hart) - Detroit

I'm not as familiar with his music as I'd like to be, but he had such a beautiful, full-bodied and distinctive sound on his instruments. Thank you for the music, Dr. Lateef.

I recently picked up the original CD reissue. Although I knew that I wanted to pick up the reissue with the complete sessions, I also wanted to own the legitimate release. After hearing the edited version, I can't fathom why Richard Bock felt the need to edit Carl Perkins' solos or add drums. I'm also confused why the legit reissue didn't simply dub the complete versions from a surviving LP. Blue Note has dubbed from LP before, i.e., on Lou Donaldson's Lush Life. Considering the historical importance of it being Hall's first leader date and the presence of Carl Perkins, as well as its artistic importance, it's a shame that they didn't see fit to reissue the complete, unedited session.

I wanted to alert anyone who doesn't already have it, but there are two copies of Ike Quebec's Easy Living for under $15 on Amazon. How do I know that that is a bargain? I paid $30.99 for the cheapest available copy last month.

Some ECMs: Gary Burton - Picture This and Easy As Pie: I have Easy As Pie, which was my first jazz-cassette purchase (made this year!). Both albums document Burton's quartet with saxophonist Jim Odgren, Steve Swallow and drummer Mike Hyman. Steve Kuhn - Last Year's Waltz, with Sheila Jordan, Harvie S and Bob Moses. It would've made sense to reissue this live album on Life's Backwards Glances, which reissued some of Kuhn's '70s material, including Playground, a studio recording of the same group. As Kuhn says in the liner notes that he'd like to record a duo with Jordan, it'd be great to do so and release it as a two-fer. Agree Me just wants to new issues of great bands with great musicians Top of the list would be Mat Maneri's Quintet with Oscar Noriega, Craig Taborn or Kris Davis, Ed Schuller and the great Randy Peterson. Remains the most exciting and invigorating live ensemble I've seen over the past 3 years. Then put up some money and do it. That's how I started my label. I think Chuck's on to something here. You seem to be friendly with the musicians and have a healthy respect for their music. All of the money you shell out to see them perform could probably be put toward releasing something.

It depends on how you feel about Sir Charles Thompson.

I didn't realize that he's been so prolific lately, as I only knew about the two-disc set, It Came from Baltimore. In addition to InsideOut, he also released The View from Here in October. Fortunately, all three are available on iTunes, although I'd like to track down the physical discs. Earlier this year, I picked up one of his self-released albums, Collagic Dreams, which is excellent. It's too bad that he doesn't have a Bandcamp page to distribute his albums, especially his earlier, hard-to-find ones. At any rate, he's a distinctive and compelling pianist and composer, and Baltimore is lucky to have him

Until looking at this list, I didn't realize that pianist Larry Karush passed away in August at 67. I'm not sure whether anyone mentioned Dwike Mitchell's passing. RIP to both, and to all others mentioned and not mentioned. What a bad year.

With all of the losses jazz has suffered this year, it's good to know that one of the happiest sounds in jazz is still with us. Here's wishing him a happy birthday.

Coincidentally, I bought my first Jazzology release, Wild Bill Davison's Live at the Memphis Jazz Festival, last week. RIP.

The legendary pianist is 75 today. Here's wishing a happy and healthy birthday to a master musician. I finally had a chance to catch him in concert this past summer, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again in April.

I also just sent a payment. I can't resist a bargain.

I heartily recommend It's About Time!, a trio EP(!) from 2008, with guitarist Cary DeNigris and bassist Paul Ramsey. i was listening to some of his recordings with Dolphy the other day and thinking about what a unique sound that group had. He was such a crisp, swinging and melodic drummer and helped in the development of a lot of musicians over his long career. Thank you for the music, Mr. Hamilton.

I am very sad to hear this. I can't say enough about Hall's playing. From his work as a sideman on classics like The Bridge and Grand Encounter to his own classic albums like Concierto and Magic Meeting, he was such a tasteful, consistent and influential guitarist. Unfortunately, I never got to see him in person. Thank you for the music, Mr. Hall.

I only own one of his albums, Comme D'Habitude, a Sinatra tribute co-led with Bobby Wellins, but I was struck by how modern and unpredictable Tracey sounded. RIP.