Rooster_Ties

Ok, sorta mulling this over. You all won’t believe this, but I’ve barely ever owned even a fraction of this set before.

Have had SBS! for 15+ years. But I just learned (this morning) that Clifford Jordan is on two of Lee’s Vee-Jay leader-dates from 1960. (And here all this time I thought all the stuff with Lee on Vee-Jay was with Wayne Shorter.) I’m at my dad’s all this week, and haven’t had the chance to even sample them. But what do people think of those two VJ Lee dates with CJ??

I only fairy recently picked up Lee’s Take Twelve with Clifford Jordan for the first time — it’s from Jan 1962 (just slightly after OP’s time-window) — after having owned all of Lee’s Blue Note output for 20+ years (but very little of his non-BN work). Have to say Take Twelve is a darn nice album. I got it primarily because I’ve been on a little bit of a Clifford Jordan binge — and it did not disappoint in any way.

One track is on streaming services (I noticed it on Pandora yesterday)… I sure wish it’d been another sax player than Sonny Red.

Trying to remember your chronology, Chuck (and geography). You were still in college then, right? (Or was this in high school?) — definitely pre-Chicago, though. But did you have to road-trip to go hear Diz? — or were you a student at Grinnell? (I forget where in Iowa you grew up too, for that matter.) I had a better handle on all that a decade+ ago when we traded Iowa info, when I was trying to figure out how close you might’ve been to where my wife’s folks (separately) grew up in Stanhope (her dad) — and Jesup and later Hampton (her mom). Idle curiosity is all, as always. Thx!

Helicopter crash in South Africa blamed on 'unsecured' penguin https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/04/11/safrica-helicopter-crash-penguin-cardboard-box/9611744402560/

Agree, but it’s also the only live version of Joe’s song “Power to the People” that’s yet been released (bootleg, or otherwise) — and a side-long version, at that. But I agree, the material is of a dubious nature (I’ve got the Everest LP). That said, I’d gladly pay $10 or $12 for it on a legit CD (warts and all).

I have a lot of genuine respect for Joe Lovano’s playing — I really do — but over the years, my interest in him has faltered a great deal. Let’s just say that eventually, I’ve traded off most of the CD’s I have by him (8-10 leader-dates, at least). And many he was just a sideman on too (well over a dozen, maybe not quite 20 even). I don’t want to pile on to the severe negativity of the thread-starter’s OP — and I disagree with the idea that his playing is ‘boring’. All that said, I’m really not a fan of Lovano’s tone and basic ‘sound’ — which I usually liken to sounding (metaphorically) like he’s ‘chewing’ on his mouthpiece. I mostly don’t have any problem with what he’s playing, so much as I do with his sound. But there’s easily a dozen other arguably great sax players whose sound I’m just not interested in — just like Lovano — and I figure that’s MY fault/problem, not his.

A surprisingly delightful album. I’ve had it for 15-20 years, and I’ve mistakenly contemplated trading it off a couple of times too (when I hadn’t heard it in a long time). But every time I actually sat down and listened again, I was reminded what a really rich and fun concept it is, and expertly performed. On paper — essentially a clarinet-choir jazz album — it looks dubious. But it’s a real corker, and winner in my book.

BIG UPDATE: Kinda sudden, but after 30+ years with the same agency, my wife will be retired in just a few days — with her full retirement benefits intact. She worked for a Federal agency that’s suddenly undergoing major (existential) upheaval, and that’s probably all I need to say without provoking political conversation here, and I appreciate our politics-free rules. SO, now we’re looking to get out of Dodge within 6-10 months (maybe 12 months tops) — and we’re all but certain we ARE gonna head for Pittsburgh!! But we gotta buy a car first (as I mentioned up-thread, we haven’t owned a car in 15 years, and the last car we bought was in 2006) — probably a Prius (we loved our ‘06 Prius, and always love when we end up being able to rent them too). We’re planning to spend a whole week in Pittsburgh in early May (too many other irons in the fire in April, in part because I need to visit my Dad in St. Louis (maybe twice) for some out-patient surgery he has — he’ll be 98 in a few months!) This move, and our semi-retirement is a good 3-5 years before we’d really planned — my wife will be just 58 later this year, and I’ll only be 56 later this month). But neither of us plan to go back to working full time (knock-on-wood), although we’ll both be looking for some good or at least decent part-time jobs (good for us — I’m sure the pay won’t be great, but enough to pay a few bills). And we’re gonna look for another shoebox of an apartment (like we’ve had here in DC) — but very fortunately we still get along famously! I’ll gonna continue working here (for now), about 3-4 days a week — and only ramp that down whenever we get a lot closer to actually moving. It’s only about 30 hrs/week, but it gives me the flexibility to go deal with my dad in St. Louis mostly whenever I need to (about 7x per year). In all honestly, we’re both pretty excited about these changes, sudden as they are. Pittsburgh, here we come!!

Me too, definitely — but it’ll depend on the price-point of the CD’s. And there’s no way I’m paying as much as the recent McCoy/JoeHen discovery, for just 38 minutes of Tina that’s new (but mostly alternates). I love Tina, but there are limits.

UPDATE: We now expect to be moved to Pittsburgh within a year (at most). I won’t transgress board norms, except to say current events here in DC are necessitating this sudden accelerated timeline. We still haven’t been to visit but once! (a dozen years ago, and that was just 4-5 days) — but we should have all the time in the world to go scope things out next month, the way things are looking. If we re-sign our pending lease, our deadline to get out of DC will be a little more than a year from now. We’re all but sure Pittsburgh will be a good choose for us — baring any unforeseen bumps in the road. New adventures await.

Have the bonus cuts (song titles) been mentioned anywhere yet? It would be a shame if they were download-only (and not on CD). I’d repurchase for that much extra music, if truly previously unreleased — or I’d sure be tempted!!

I was just kidding!! I almost even posted Bagses’ (or Bagses’s) instead!!

Bags’s Groove.

Used copy just spotted at Dusty. Not sure what they were selling new copies for, but this one is $12.99, fwiw. https://www.dustygroove.com/item/205402/Andrew-Hill:Beautiful-Day-Revisited

Especially for a band that lip syncs. Not even worth 10% of that, if you ask me, for that reason alone.

Ted Gioia’s West Coast Jazz, Modern Jazz in California 1945-1960 (U of C Press, 1992). Just stumbled a decent used copy over the weekend down in Richmond. Only a dozen pages in, and quite enjoying it! Definitely an area of jazz I’m a bit deficient in, beyond the scads of stuff I’ve absorbed reading posts around here for the last 20+ years.

Toe-tapping, to say the least!!

Yes, thanks!! — I would have never see this otherwise. This appears to be the original source, and there’s a bit more than just the quotes posted on the Hoffman forum. https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/steve-swallow-pete-la-roca/

Pennsylvania? Weren’t they in like Austria, iirc?

Reminds me, I’ve always wondered what all the sources were for the recordings used in the Eastwood film — and I’ve been curious to try and contrast the versions there with their re-recorded rhythm sections and such… with the originals (if any of those originals had ever been issued, or at least surfaced).

Full liners to the 2LP issue are visible here… https://www.discogs.com/release/10360001-Various-Cool-Europa-European-Progressive-Jazz-In-Germany-1959-63 Discogs notes say: Track A1 previously released on Francy Boland Ensemble; track C1 previously released on Bongo Jazzand C3 on Jazz Da Camera. All other music previously unreleased.

First Google hit, fwiw… https://sonoramarecords.bandcamp.com/album/cool-europa-european-progressive-jazz-in-germany-1959-63