Ron S

Ron, My concern with your buying the Select is that it won't be good enough for you and that you'll want all the alternative takes, especially his sessions with Yanni No need to worry, Brad. I already have the Revenant "Yanni Exposed" box, which includes his sessions with Kenny (including all alternates), plus 2 CD's of exclusive interviews about his tumultuous years with Linda Evans. I'm so glad they delayed putting out the Ayler box in favor of getting this one out first.

Just saw the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Saturday night at the Smithsonian in D.C. They played at a program where Skitch Henderson (age 87) received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal. Long before Skitch led the Tonight Show Band for Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson, he worked with the Dorsey Band for a while (when Frank Sinatra was the vocalist), and ended up being Sinatra's music director when he went out on his own. The Dorsey Orchestra was great, as was Skitch, who was "interviewed" on stage before the band came out and was as sharp as a tack.

And AfricaBrass just traded me this one in exchange for any future ownership interest I may obtain in a prospective Art Pepper Discovery Sessions Select: [Missed your chance, Brad--on both counts]

Thanks to Alan Lankin's Jazzmatazz site , I just learned about this concert at the Sedgwick Cultural Center in Philly, and immediately purchased tickets. Any other board members planning to be at this (and for $15, how can you afford not to be)?

You forgot to mention the Jim Nabors set. Especially the 3 discs of alternate takes of "Gawwwwwlee!" and "Shazam!" It brought tears to my eyes and it brought up my lunch. SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE! I low-keyed (new word) my response to those covers in the other thread, but I get hysterical every time I look at them. Think there's a "Complete Lawrence Welk RCA Sessions" in the offing?

You forgot to mention the Jim Nabors set. Especially the 3 discs of alternate takes of "Gawwwwwlee!" and "Shazam!"

Option F--send ME the gift card.

Why don't you just SEND me both and then I'll compare.

Somebody has WAAAAAAAY too much free time.

Who doesn't?

Kevin, just curious, because I've noticed other posts where you refer to communications with Michael Cuscuna: how do you know him? Others on this Board may already know, but I'm relatively knew around here. I don't mean to pry but, as I said, I'm curious.

Just to make sure we really beat the crap out of this poor dead horse I'd like to make sure we're all talking about the same CD's. The later Savoy "Discovery Sessions" CD, which I think is the one Lon calls the Atlantic/Savoy CD (BTW, why?), is this one. And the so-called Savoy Denon CD's are this one and this one. Notice the negative comments on AMG about "Surf Ride" and the positive comments about the sound on "Discovery Sessions." Damn, this is confusing.

Then we're even, Lon (sort of)--I spent years 20 to 23 in Austin. B-)

Are we all agreed that the 2 older CD issues ("Surf Rides" and "Two Altos") have better sound than the later "Discovery Sessions"? If so, I may end up with that bitchin' "Surf Rides" cover after all.

You mean "jazzbo" is the same as "Lon" on the AAJ Board? I should have known they're couldn't possibly be more than one serious jazz freak in Austin.

Hmmmm . . . yet another plausible explanation of the origin of the term "Bebop".

Speaking of Linkletter, how old is HE? Answered my own question (ain't Google great?). Apparently, he's 92 and still getting $15,000 per speaking engagement. Art Linkletter's Web Party

Speaking of Linkletter, how old is HE?

. . . and even if it is possible, it can be a royal pain. But Brad, I know alternates can be great to have, especially with people like Bird, but I was more curious about these particular alternate takes. E.g., it's possible Pepper's solos vary little from take to take on this particular CD, making listening to 3 or 4 in a row a bit tiresome. Any feelings on that?

That's a lot of alternate takes. Do you think they're worth having?

Well, I've now given a first listen to all 8 discs in this set, and these are my first quick impressions: The standout for me was Disc 7, which is devoted to 3 Herb Ellis-led sessions from 1962. These are uniformly terrific, and include great soloing by Herb, Frank Assunto and Roy Eldgridge on trumpet, Buddy Tate on tenor, and Ray Bryant on piano. I also really enjoyed the Kenny Burrell-led sessions on Disc 6, followed by (in no particular order) the Ben Webster/Harry "Sweets" Edison session on Disc 8, the Buck Clayton/Marlowe Morris session on Disc 3, and the Illinois Jacquet, Coleman Hawkins/Clark Terry, Marlowe Morris (as sole leader) and Buck Clayton (as sole leader) sessions. One interesting artifact in this set is a pair of sessions from 1955 led by Buck Clayton and featuring vocals by Jimmy Rushing and Ada Moore. These are a series of 15 short vocal tracks that amount to a kind of humorous boy-wants-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl mini-operetta. The only sessions that didn't really grab me on first listen were those led by Ruby Braff, which sort of struck me as being of the Al Hirt/Pete Fountain genre. Unfortunately, they take up the entirety of discs 1 and 2. In fairness, I wasn't paying close attention while listening to them, and they may make a better impression the next time I listen (and if I pay closer attention). Sorry I don't have more (or ANY) detail, but this is all I have time to post right now. On the whole, I'd recommend this set for anyone who enjoys this kind of jazz from this period. There's nothing earth-shaking here, but it's all uniformly well-played and enjoyable music. I'd be interested to hear what others think.

Out of the mouths of babes . . . .

It looks like the "Discovery Sessions" CD has all the tracks on "Surf Ride" plus alternates it doesn't have, plus 2 of the 6 tracks ("Deep Purple" and "What's New") from "Two Altos." So, it looks like the way to go is to get "Discovery Sessions" and "Two Altos," although, unfortunately, that means giving up this cover:

So you're going to make me search for Pepper titles on Savoy. Here are a few details of Pepper's Discovery recordings that were issued on Savoy. Thanks! This title isn't even listed on Savoy's web site (which is why I asked jazzbo about titles).

So you're going to make me search for Pepper titles on Savoy. I have both Bird and Diz on Savoy.