Ron S

Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Ballesoni . . . . . . AKA Louie Bellson.

I went to see B,S, & T in 1975 at the legendary (notorious?) Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ. There was hardly anyone in the place (a large room similar to those in the big Vegas hotels). David Clayton Thomas sang ONE SONG, and then left the stage. The band then made the excuse that he had a sore throat and couldn't continue to sing, and they then performed maybe 3 or 4 more songs without him before ending the show. The few of us in the audience felt supremely jipped, and had the feeling that David and the band were just disgusted at the poor turnout. So, even by 1975, they were already on the skids.

My understanding is that they are the same cd's (not enhanced) originally issued in the early '90's, just packaged together for the first time (and in a nice, slim digipack box, by the way). These are early '90's Telarc digital recordings, and live up to Telarc's reputation for great digital engineering and sound. Damn! I was so looking forward to spending $30 on something I already have .. and I do so love boxed sets! Don't give up yet! Apparently there are some extra tracks included in the box set (I don't have the original CD's, so I'd have to compare online). You can see Telarc's page on this set here, which includes a complete listing and samples of all tracks, and excerpts from a bunch of press reviews.

My understanding is that they are the same cd's (not enhanced) originally issued in the early '90's, just packaged together for the first time (and in a nice, slim digipack box, by the way). These are early '90's Telarc digital recordings, and live up to Telarc's reputation for great digital engineering and sound.

Hey, no need to send yours out & about....just give him the day off and I'll send my new driver Ann out to your place w/the goods. Maybe you'll invite her in for a spot of tea. I don't think the lovely Miss C drinks tea--too wimpy for her. How you can find this woman physically attractive is beyond me. Well, I guess we all have our own tastes... I was being facetious--although, that IS a pretty hot picture of her (hotter than she really looks). I think the main problem with Ann is that her personality gets in the way.

Actually--no joke (believe it or not)--he used to live not far from where I am now in Philly. Members of the Arkestra still live in the same house, apparently. B-) German town. Yep, except it's one word (Germantown), one of Philly's most historic neighborhoods (a famous battle of the American Revolution was fought there). Other jazz legends also have lived there, like Coltrane.

Check out this biography. It says he was born Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914. But maybe the probe currently sitting on Saturn's moon Titan will found evidence to the contrary.

Actually--no joke (believe it or not)--he used to live not far from where I am now in Philly. Members of the Arkestra still live in the same house, apparently. B-)

Does this look like a tea-drinker? Or this?? Or THIS???

Hey, no need to send yours out & about....just give him the day off and I'll send my new driver Ann out to your place w/the goods. Maybe you'll invite her in for a spot of tea. I don't think the lovely Miss C drinks tea--too wimpy for her.

Then what would be the distinction between a 6-, or even 4-, CD Select and a regular Mosaic box? The purported "completeness" of the contents? Or just the size of the box? And does SIZE really matter???

FABULOUS. Also includes Bobby Durham, Peterson's drummer in the late '60's. The music is great, the sound is great, and it's great to have these guys back together after 30 years. They're all in terrific form, and it's a great set of live club straight-ahead jazz. (Did I mention that it's GREAT?)

So, you think history is scary and ridiculous???

I don't have these sets, so I'm flying blind here, but is it possible that for the particular tracks under discussion Mosaic did not have access to the original mono studio masters? It could be that they had to use a subsequent generation tape that had been EQ-adjusted. I discovered an "issue" on one of the CD's of the "Complete Pablo Art Tatum Group Masterpieces," where one of the channels of a mono recording dropped to lower volume for a few seconds and then returned. I called Fantasy, and an engineer there listened to the track and confirmed that at some point in the mastering process someone had screwed around with the EQ in an attempt to "enhance" the sound, leading to this single-channel dropout in what should be a mono recording. I've noticed on many remastered mono recordings the sense of spatial placement you discussed, and I assume that EQ adjustments in each channel are responsible for this. At times, I've had to put on the old Sennheisers to confirm that the recording was indeed mono (those 10 karat golden ears of mine). FWIW.

I'm no audio expert, and if my ears are golden they're probably about 10 karat, but: is it possible that the EQ was played with in each channel during remastering from a mono source to create so-called "simulated stereo"?

What constitutes "real" jazz? The "jazzy" kind. But only if it's all jazzed up.

You should hear them on this: B-)

A BoSox fan in NYC??? No wonder you're victimized.

Try this (Blue Note is part of this Group) and ask for Blue Note customer relations: EMI Capitol Records Group 810 7th Avenue Floor 8 New York, NY 10019 212-581-9231 I called them once about an RVG that I thought might be defective (I don't remember if it was that phone number, but that's what I just found online), and I was transferred to someone who works with the RVG series. He sent me a new copy, along with some additional comp titles from the series (I guess for my trouble in having to call).

The others are sideman recordings from other Musicraft records. I count 20 Guild/Musicraft Gillespie sides - wwere there alternate takes? IF you're counting the 20 Guild/Musicraft sides on the Musicraft CD, and IF I've correctly identified the track listing for that CD (that's probably 2 "IF'S" too many), the 2 additional sides in the Savoy Odyssey box are (1) "Interlude (A Night in Tunisia)," from a January 1945 Guild session as sideman with the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra, and (2) "A Hand Fulla Gimme," from the May 15, 1946 Musicraft session as leader of the Dizzy Gillespie Sextet.

The RCA and the Savoy CDs togther are missing a few sessions by Diz under his name from the 1940s: The session where he recorded the first version of "Salt Peanuts", plus "Good Bait", "I Can't Get Started", and "Bebop"; the session with the first version of "Groovin' High" (the same session where he recorded "Blues 'n' Boogie"--but Keepnews kept "Groovin' High" off the Savoy disc because it was "sonically inferior"; a sesson from LA where he and Bags et al did "Dynamo", "Diggin' for Diz", "Round Midnight", "When I Get to Old to Dream", and "Confirmation" (a great session, but Bags sounds like he's playing milk bottles); and a four tune session with strings. This is from memory, so I am sure I screwed something up somewhere. Now, wasn't that easy?

The others are sideman recordings from other Musicraft records. Actually, only one of them is listed as being from a sideman session (Boyd Raeburn Orchestra). The other 21 are all listed as from Gillespie-leader sessions. (Right about now we need that cool beating-a-dead-horse emoticon from the AAJ Board.) Alan, I live in Philly (I get your Philly Jazz newsletter--thanks for that), and I've NEVER seen nor heard of Dead Horse Summit. Obviously, your continual Lance-Armstrong-Wannabe cavorting up and down it has "beat" it down to sea level.

Yeah, that's us. you may join us for real at http://www.nuttyeuropeanescortfanaticsobse...shopusers.co.uk Funny--that link won't work for me. I guess it only works if you're NOT IN THE REAL WORLD. (Where IS Aric now, anyway???)

Make that the Nutty-European-Escort-Fanatics-Obsessed-with-Diana-Photoshop-Users Bulletin Board.