king ubu

Wow! If for any reason you feel like passing on the Hodges (assuming it's the first one?) and Quebec/Hardee, let me know and I'll give you my address within a second or two!

Yes, Tompkins is on one short tune that he also wrote - sort of chamber jazz - I found it a bit strange to find that in the middle of all the great power jazz on the EJ Mosaic... but still I couldn't pass that LP up (for about 4£)... will report back!

Found a good-looking copy of Ornette Coleman's "Crisis" today, also picked up another interesting LP: "Compositions of Fred Tompkins with Elvin Jones, Joe Farrell, Pepper Adams, Richard Williams, Jimmy Owens, Danny Repole, Richard Davis" (Festival 9001, stereo). Both of these for around 18 euro (two thirds for Ornette, one third for the Tompkins LP). Will be a while until I can listen to them, but I'm looking forward to that a lot!

I just sent a mail: If I get an answer, I'll post it here!

I hear that Shadow was Papa Jo's favorite too. After himself, of course. He's got some glorious moments on disc 3 of the Sony Basie 4CD set, that's for sure!

I don't have the time to check the discographies right now, but my guess is that four discs should about have enough space to hold the complete sessions from those years - remember that Basie was with Decca until early (I think) 1938, so only after that he was regularly doing big band sessions for Columbia... on the other hand, it's stated above that "every solo effort" will be contained... it would be too bad if they'd omit those big band titles where Pres doesn't solo, but from that quote that seems to be the case rather than not... on the other hand, Pres often soloed, and often he also embellished the ensemble parts, so to me it would be a stupid decision to omit the titles without Pres solos. Anyway, I guess we'll know once they'll put up a discography. As for overlap with the Sony box, yes, I guess the Mosaic set will contain all the small group dates with Prez (disc 1, #1-10) and of course the big band studio sides (disc 2, #9 - disc 3, #2). So it's not *that* much, and disc 4 is still essential! Including the Hardman date isn't so great, that one's already on various discs (I have it three times, I think), and the Goodman date - it's glorious! - is of course on the Charlie Christian box done by Sony some years ago. So after all, it will be a so-so box, even more so if it omits the big band sides without solos by Lester Young!

I really like this cd. His voice is sincere and affecting in my opinion. ... The most interesting release of Chet Baker Sings is called The Best of Chet Baker Sings on Blue Note (Pacific Jazz). The liner notes put the whole 'Sings' collection in proper perspective. In the liner notes, mention is made of reprocessing and two 'test records' of Chet singing. One version was unearthed on the Mosaic set of Baker and Freeman. That test pressing is #1 of "Best of Chet Baker Sings" (The Thrill Is Gone) and #23 of the West Coast Classics "Chet Baker Quartet featuring Russ Freeman" ("I Fall in Love Too Easily"), the later being the tune unearthed on the Mosaic.

I'm afraid you're right, Lon - I also just got an email from another friend advising me to rather not skip this, but... I'll see...

Great news! Though the Columbia material post Prez would also be welcome here, hell a complete Columbia Basie set would have been best! But instead I'll gladly take this! (Nothing against Jo Jones of course, but Shadow Wilson was terrific with Basie, too!)

I just decided to skip that one... or rather not buy it now, if it's still around by end of January I might re-consider, but I printed out the discography yesterday and from looking at it, I thought I could happily live on without getting this one... maybe a wrong decision, but then, hey, I got to eat, too!

just started disc 6 now!

Oh oh oh... I thought the Hodges may be next to run out... I guess this one's another that times out, rather than sells out? As I'm getting more and more into earlier jazz (that means for me, anything pre-bop), I might end up buying this... I've enjoyed the Mildred Bailey very much, the Berigan was good, too... the Bix/Tram/Tea I will definitely get when it goes OOP, but with the Lang/Venuti I was never really sure...

I think those Vitous/Haynes tracks were on the expanded CD editions of "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs", no? So it would be "Early Circle", parts of "Circling In", plus possibly "Song of Singing"... I don't have the playing times of the music, but I guess the Circle material would fit onto two CDs, and with "Song of Singing" it might end up being three? Anyway, I did write them a mail suggesting this yesterday, will report if I get an answer! I got a reply from Michael a couple of days ago - he thinks it "is a good idea and with Song of Singing, it could be a full Select." (quoted from the mail he sent). Now there's hope! I'd love to get this music in fine sound an all packed and annotated nicely! (He also mentioned that rights on the CBS/Sony "Gathering" LP are unclear - hence it would rather be an EMI/BN set with "Song of Singin", if it happened...) That is great news! Hope it happens. Indeed. So this would be Song of Singing, Circulus, Circling In, Gathering, and Live In German Concert? Wow. No, it would not include the CBS albums, as far as I understood. That would be too much to fit onto three CDs, too, I think.

Duke Ellington - Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Centennial box) - the early years now

just sent in an order for some Chronological Classics Ellington - mainly to fill the gaps and get some of the thirties Columbia material: 1932-1933 1933 Volume 3: 1933-1938 (this goes from 1933-1935 to 1938 Vol. 1, 6 single Chronological discs) all from abeillemusic for about 40 euro - I hope they'll really deliver, never used that site before... the prize on the box is hard to beat! (less than 23 euro for me, with VAT deducted - I found an otherwise nice swiss site having it for around 55-60 euro... which is still a lot cheaper than it would cost in any store if they had to order it for me...) will have to get more later - the 1938-1940 discs are mostly not available at the moment, though... only Classics 747, 1938-39 and 1939 Vol. 2 seem to be available, but not 1938 Vol. 2, 1939, 1939-40. THen I'll need the later ones, from 1947-1952, roughly, to fill in the gaps around "Masterpieces", "Great Times" and "Uptown"... from then on I think I'm pretty complete for around 10 years... (missing "Indigos", "A Drum Is a Woman" and probably a few others... and I have none of the DETS and Transcriptions yet from the 40s... only one cheapo on Naxos with very nice 1946 material for Capitol Transcription and a few live cuts... too much Duke out there, but it's all so good!

I made my girlfriend give me "One Down, One Up" - finally got it now! She also got me the Nica "three wishes" book - pretty cool one! (A friend of hers mentioned it to her... I dind't know about that one!) Myself, I gave my sister a burn of a Ruth Brown show, and my girlfriend the Stones' 3CD "Singles Collection - The London Years", while my mother got Rava/Bollani's ECM album "The Third Man" and my old man got the "Essential" 2CD Elvis Presley compilation... he he.

I think those Vitous/Haynes tracks were on the expanded CD editions of "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs", no? So it would be "Early Circle", parts of "Circling In", plus possibly "Song of Singing"... I don't have the playing times of the music, but I guess the Circle material would fit onto two CDs, and with "Song of Singing" it might end up being three? Anyway, I did write them a mail suggesting this yesterday, will report if I get an answer! I got a reply from Michael a couple of days ago - he thinks it "is a good idea and with Song of Singing, it could be a full Select." (quoted from the mail he sent). Now there's hope! I'd love to get this music in fine sound an all packed and annotated nicely! (He also mentioned that rights on the CBS/Sony "Gathering" LP are unclear - hence it would rather be an EMI/BN set with "Song of Singin", if it happened...)

Yes! I went on just now with the earliest chapter, Masters of Jazz Vol. 1 - to be continued by "The OKeh Ellington" (2CD) and "Early Ellington" (3CD) sets, and then with the respective discs from the Centennial box!

yesterday finished the Storyville Duke Box and went on with the corresponding mid-forties studio discs from the RCA Centennial box (discs 14-17) - great, great music!

The Duke Box (Storyville) disc 4 right now, almost through (before: disc 1)

Are there any alternatives, offering the same huge amount of used and new items and similarly good conditions? (and of course international shipping - at good prizes...)

Oh no!!! Remember, I started a thread about having trouble accessing their site some time ago... they were simply the best! Cheap shipping, very fast delivery (often less than a week for orders to Switzerland - pretty incredible!), and great prizes, and their notification service was great, too!

Absolutely! And the Rahsaan stuff too! I would have loved to have met him, so I could thank him. Rest In Peace. Yes, Woody Shaw and Rahsaan were the finest chapter of the 32jazz reissues to me! The beautiful 3CD set by Rahsaan with live material (and the solo album) - excellent! Also those mighty fine Sonny Stitt albums, "Tune Up/Constellation" (as "Endgame Brilliance"), "12" etc. - great music! And the Eddie Harris 2CD set (with four albums, incl. the full sessions with Cedar Walton, Ron Carter and Billy Higgins and more) - another winner! His notes always put a smile on my face, always!

Some quite remind me of the early Blue Note covers (10 inch, Modern) - fantastic stuff!

This is very sad news! Much too early! I've been a fan of his reissue labels (born too late to grow up with Atlantic vinyl) and have discovered a lot of great music thanks to Dorn's efforts!