king ubu

might help to buy a boombox instead

http://www.gazettenet.com/home/9933070-95/yusef-lateef-grammy-winning-musician-composer-dies-at-93

Oh dammit no... no, no, no! This is too sad. I love Lateef's music, have done so since my early teens ... glad I saw him live, at least once. r.i.p. - eternal thanks for the great music

Yeah, seems they translated the digipack and "can" boxes into cardboard sleeves. The original edition has a hardcover book, no idea if the new one has, too ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heavyweight-Champion--Complete-Atlantic-Recordi/dp/B00E5R5TAA/

Enjoying this one an awful lot! Sound isn't great, on the second disc (the Hat album) it's pretty dull really, but show me anything like "Hymn of the Dragon Kings" ... as a whole, this box kinda makes me compare it to the Cleveland tapes in the big Ayler box ... sub-par sound, but some terrific stuff happening and us being allowed to be the fly on the wall of some noisy and funky spots. Playing disc four now, I notice the line-up given is probably not accuarte, at least for #1-2. There's only one horn player there, I think, McPhee, on tenor (on "Nation Time" and in the first solo on "Untitled") and on trumpet (second solo on "Untitled"). Tyrone Crabb, the bass player, announces the band at the close of "Untitled", and mentions but McPhee (sayting "trumpet" only), Mike Kull (organ) and Bruce Thompson (drums), in addition to himself. So the line-up given for disc four is the one for #3-6 only. For #1-2 it most likely is: Joe McPhee, tenor sax, trumpet Mike Kull, organ Tyrone Crabb, bass Bruce Thompson, drums Too bad such errors happen on such sets ... this is your typical failing major label quality control, it would seem, not a thing to happen with enthusiasts at work.

Okay ... that's about when I saw him, too - Circulasione Totale Orchestra with a wonderful Bobby Bradford guesting ... Paal Nilssen-Love the second drummer, if I'm not mistaken. Good concert! Going from memory, I'm not sure I've seen him any other time ... don't think so. Would love to catch him in a small combo ... in duo with Irene Schweizer for instance, or with Alexander Hawkins (the CD on Ogun is mighty good!)

Doesn't he play the US? Would sure be nice to catch some oral history like stuff from the few survivors ... but this book, and even more so the tapes, really open up a whole new vista on ZA jazz, I think! Very, very glad to have it all!

If harmonic interest is what you want, the first choice from that general group of players probably would be Lennie Niehaus. Hey, Andre Hodeir thought that, so it must be true. BTW, Niehaus (b. 1929) is still with us. As stated in post #23 above Btw, my first notion of Niehaus came via these: Took me quite a while to realize this guy was a real musician and not just some teacher or clinician ...

Damn, still don't have it ... how would it compare to "Sea Breeze" on Fledg'ling?

Got my copy of the book a few days ago - marvellous! Only flipped through so far, there's some stuff to read, too ... hopefully I'll fnd the time to do so in the next few days. There's also a double page in the January issue of The Wire - a most positive review of the book and the tapes already up at electricjive.

Same as the Mingus then, which also holds the same (or nearly same) booklet.

Thanks a lot! Found this on de la Fuente: http://www.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/entry/Leo+de+la+Fuente

One that's not been mentioned at all so far, and that I grew to like an awful lot: Black Pearls ... it's dark, it's brooding, it might sound meandering at spots ... but it's Trane on his journey and he's destined and in charge, I think: "Soultrane" and some others aren't "jams" at all to my ears (nor is the debut "Coltrane", which sounds very well thought out - and those thoughts were implemented well, too!) ... this one might be, but it's also - to me - something of a late 50s counterpart to, say "One Down, One Up" (or the oft-mentioned Paris concert w/Miles from 1960) - you get Coltrane in full action stretching it and taking it to the limints. There's nothing easy about "Black Pearls".

I think I disagree re: better than the Blue Note recordings. Somehow, to my ears, from all the official Bud of those years, the BN always comes up first! And I don't think this live recording is much of a contender, really. Sure it's different, and yeah, not enough Bud with horns (but then he didn't need no horns anyway) ... but still ... will give it a spin again soon though. Who knows, it might grow on me a bit.

Happy Birthday!

Great post, Mr. Sangrey! Frankly that Russell album was never really a favourite (give me Outer Space! And Five Spot! And Ezz-thetics and the other Riversides, of course!) but that one Coltrane solo ... indeed! That would be very, very weird! These Universal Italy sets do nothing but repackage OJCCDs to my best knowledge. Guess it's just a mistake on discog's end. The scan from amazon suggests so, too: Can't find any official tracklist though (checked www.universalmusic.it/jazz/ and www.jazzecho.de, the official website of Universal Germany, which lists some of these Italian boxes, but not the Coltrane set). That's a great price, 54,99 euros! I think you only get it for that price from JPC (which is a fine shop), Amazon doesn't even seem to list this 2012 reissue. It's indeed cardboard sleeves in a cap-box, but unlike many of those reissues, it holds a real booklet. Me, I'm rather tempted to go for the 12 albums box to have the stuff in LP sequence again, but that would be the third time buying most of the music and there's plenty of other stuff to check out, really

Ha ha, like i said, i definitely should have checked here first before making my purchase. I definitely won't fight you on this, as objectively the 16 disc set is probably going to suit most people better and at this stage i don't have either set to compare. The booklet will definitely be a plus for some, i prefer jewel cases to cardboard sleeves but cardboard sleeves definitely aren't a deal breaker for me. Other than that i can't comment on the sound (i'm actually quietly hoping that they are the same) and it's worth noting that the 12 disc set only covers the leader dates, one album per disc, as opposed to the complete 16 CD set that covers all the side man stuff too. I figured the 12 CD set would be seen as a less favourable option but i think it's good to have it documented in this thread for the sake of future searchers, even if they it's just as a warning not to get it! I have and dig the Miles prestige stuff with Coltrane, bringing up Blue Train reminded me of another reason why i previously never explored Coltrane's Prestige leader discs = Blue Train has never been a favourite of mine. My guess is they both use the old versions (assuming the ones on the OJCCDs and the old huge 16 CD box were one and the same). Not a problem in my ears, never thought any old Fantasy CD sounded bad, really! And having the album configuration is defintely a good thing, too ... but I very much like the three thematic sets, they're very nicely done, good notes, nice design and all ... and I do like to have the music in chronological order, too! So I am tempted to get the 12 disc set, too ... but then I did own those old OJCCDs for many years and mostly passed them on when I got the three box sets, so I kinda feel like I know the albums, too, having played many of them countless times! I started Coltrane with Miles (Workin') and "Blue Trane" and some of the Atlantic albums ("My Favourite Things", "Ole" - the Heavyweight box then was my first jazz box set when it was out brand new) ... and then went in both directions from there ... the album with Tadd Dameron, "The Cats", "Traneing In", "Soultrane" and "Settin' the Pace" were early acquisitions, probably had them before getting many of the Impulse albums (and there I opted for the 8CD set with the collected studio recordings of the classic quartet ... later on went for the Deluxe Editions, too, and got some more releases, too, wherever there was any bonus material to find). Anyway, to me the notion of Trane not being "there" may fit some of his solos on those long Miles dates for Prestige, but after that, it's all good ... and even with Miles, where he's struggling, it's fascinating to witness since you do get an idea of what he wants to do, where he wants to go (he's, uhm, just not "there" yet - at least not all the time, but often he is).

No clue about timing out either ... might just not be feasible to manufacture another 1000 or so if it sells too slowly (2000 in 6 years ... including all the enthusiast pre-and early orders ... do another 1000 when the license runs 10 years and sales have slowed down?)

Well I wouldn't know for sure, but with sets going on backorder and then being re-pressed again, I assume the fact that sets numbered in the 2000 range being sold at the end of the run means that there haven't been 5000 sets manufactured. Seems a fairly logical thought to me

Just in case - and to get back to mere profane facts - this one is a much better option than the 12 albums set depicted above: http://jpc.de/jpcng/mobile/detail/-/art/John-Coltrane-1926-1967-The-Prestige-Recordings/hnum/1988951 It comes with a thick booklet, whilst the albums box probably has none whatsoever (I have the three thematic sets and kept some OJCCDs I had before ... but I've seen the 16 CD set and it looks good). I'm a little bit amazed by some of the statements here ... how can you go into jazz for a while without hearing Coltrane at least on Miles' Prestige albums or "Blue Train"? And why should the later be an undisputed classic when it's from the midst of the period when Coltrane wasn't *there* yet?

Yes, yes, yes! Ricky, I don't think there was ever any box not closing? And some have booklets of 32 or 36 pages ... guess that should be enough to accomodate your notes?

Bill Holman, too and Chuck Flores Lennie Niehaus Paul Horn, if he counts ...

r.i.p.

Just a standard description, I assume ... I copy/pasted this straight from the e-mail I got.