king ubu

Playing the "Alone (Again)" session for the first time. Wow! Some intensely swinging piano on the first tracks (incl. "In Your Own Sweet Way"), then there's that old favourite again, "What Kind of Fool Am I" (also done on the Milestone solo session). Very nice, so far, and some more proof if needed, that Bill could swing, even playing solo! Last night I finally delved some into the "Secret Sessions" box, playing the material from 1966 with drummer Arnie Wise and Eddie Gomez (Teddy Kotick on the very first session). Very good stuff, too! Definitely glad I got the set! (But OK's liners, including him stylizing himself to the second musical authority just after Helen Keane... man, that guy is so full of shit! I am thankful for all the great albums he produced and for the artists he supported with Riverside in longtime partnerships, like Wes, Cannonball, Monk, Bill Evans, but hey, if there hadn't been any great artists around, there'd be no OK... while he always makes it sound as if he's an equal partner in all the musicians' oeuvre... even beyond the period he actually supervised their recording sessions, in this case...)

Last night: Bill Evans - The Secret Sessions - the 1966 sessions (discs 1, 2 and a bit of 3) Now: Bill Evans - Complete Fantasy Recordings - "Alone (Again)" (disc 5/6)

on the other hand, being the bearer of such a weird name might be suspect... maybe they think it's a Jewish Ethiopian name, camouflaging my Muslim identity... I better get a shave now before I leave the apartment, one never knows what's waiting around the corner...

I don't exist in the US... I hope that will spare me from being sent to Gitmo because of likeliness with someone else's name...

still I find it very weird - orderd in March - my credit card expired at end of March - I kept the order open, knowing the discs were hard to find and I was patient - in July or August, I started writing them mails, earliest I still have in my sent folder is from Aug. 16 - I write to two addresses - I start this thread today - I write to that other address today, too - I send ten or twelve times the same mail again today to the two other addresses, sort of losing my temper just a tiny little bit - I get a reply today from one of the addresses I've been writing to at least for a month now, on and off pretty lame, huh? and why do they answer today, do they read organissimo?

seems like this thread was of use, then... I just got an answer from one of the addresses I already sent mails to a month ago (well, that's the oldest I still had in my sent folder, August 16, maybe I already sent some to that address before...) anyway, they will send me a refund, finally! thing was my card expired and they weren't able to refund, but they never contacted me either, neither to let me know they didn't have the two discs I ordered, nor to inquire about the new card expiration date... I'll change the header of this thread then... but still, that's been a loooong time, I still wouldn't recommend them a great deal... Anyway, big relief here!

skipping the date with Bennett on the second half of disc 4, it's the Montreux set now w/Gomez - nice stuff, for sure! Also the electric piano playing on the duo session on discs 3/4 is alright with me.

Calling from Europe is a bit pricey... Yes, otherwise I'd have called before writing any mails!

Good to see the site is up again! I still hope for that one disc to arrive... but hey, they could answer my mails, no?

Thanks, I just wrote another email... so there's still hope! may be the warning is unfair, but then their treatment of me and my order sucks badly... I never ordered from them before, so I have none but this one negative experience. I wonder if others have successfully ordered from them and haven't been successfully ripped off? I already ordered from them successfully, had no reason to complain. The items were in excellent condition and the shipping time was reasonable. I feel sorry for you and your bad luck! Lucky you! Too bad, but this was my first order from that site, and never will I order from there anymore!

Bill Evans - The Complete Fantasy Recordings so far discs 1, 2 and now approaching the end of disc 3

Depends on what you think of Evans on the Fender Rhodes, there's plenty of that. He often switches between the instruments within most of the tracks. Mostly good playing, perhaps sometimes a bit hurried. I never regret getting this, but I think there's greater Evans elsewhere. ... most of which I have... otherwise I wouldn't be asking about this one. Thanks for your reply, Daniel. I'll look for it but won't go places or pay a lot.

may be the warning is unfair, but then their treatment of me and my order sucks badly... I never ordered from them before, so I have none but this one negative experience. I wonder if others have successfully ordered from them and haven't been successfully ripped off?

continuing my Evans marathon... (I reported about listening to the second half of the Riverside and most of the Verve boxes in the "what box set are you listening to right now"-thread). Played "Piano Player", the Sony CD with an unreleased Evans/Gomez duo session from 1970 to start - pretty nice, I must say! So there I've got a question: "The Bill Evans Album" seems to be gone (on amazon marketplace from 20-100$...) How is that one? Worth searching? Now playing the Fantasy box, almost done with the Tokyo concert on disc 1 - a mighty fine, swinging set!

Trying right now but I can't even load the djangos.com (or djangomusic.com) site at this moment! I hope they haven't gone out of business or something!

More bad news... very expensive site, I only used to finally (I hoped...) get hold of the Wild Bill Davison twofer ("Pretty Wild/With Strings") that was omitted off the Condon Mob Mosaic. I added a Pee Wee Russell disc, plus international shipping made it 44 bucks (!!!). Money they took, nothing else I ever heard of after... and that was in March! Anyone has a good email address to contact them? I don't want to lose even more money trying to call to the US if all their contact info (http://jazzbymail.com/Contact.aspx) ain't good anymore... (the email there isn't obviously, as an alternative I have used jazzbymail@sbcGlobal.net with no reaction, either). I guess it would be time for a little Swiss invasion of the feghing US, soon! ************************ edit: see my post #10 of this thread for the happy ending!

I've not received an order that's now exactly a month old. I did get the order confirmation mail but no shipping mail. Two items were part of the order, in my profile on the site, one of these shows as shipped, the other has just disappeared. I tried writing to them (customerservice@djangomusic.com) but three or four days after I write, I finally get an error message. Anyone has a good email-address? I've been an extremely satisfied customer or Djangos for years now, and this just plain sucks!

Played disc 3 of the Jack Johnson Miles box last night, now into the Hermeto Pascoal tracks on disc 4... that bass-less jam and the two groovy numbers opening disc 4 were great... about the Pascoal stuff, I'm still not sure... first heard it on "Live Evil" which was probably among my first 10 Miles albums (has since been replaced with the cardboard 2CD set and then the Cellar Door box... still favourite stuff!), and the Pascoal tracks, while lyrical and nice, never really struck me that much...

That's a smart idea - alas I've never seen these great small plastic things, except in packages I got from you... will have to look around for something similar here (the usual paper sleeves would be too big to fit in). Thanks also Parkertown - it was more out of the need for consolation that I was looking for that thread anyway...

I searched for a quarter of an hour but couldn't find that thread - was that pre-organissimo days? It still seems that the search function isn't really working, though, so any help would be appreciated in locating that thread!

Yeah, I checked them all after finding out... no other damages, all discs don't move in as deeply into the cardboard cover as the damaged one - faulty production, I'd say.

I wasn't aware of that! And you or others also got replacements after a few years? I assume it was all in the US, though? Let's see what happens, if they bitch around (if they react to my mail at all), I mention this for sure!

It's worth a shot. yes, that's what I think - look, this is what I'd consider a high-end product, and if I sold it, I would replace it - I never treated the disc badly or like you shouldn't treat discs, never done anything wrong, and yet still it's gone bad... and this is not a production error that I should have noticed the day after buying, but it's a long-time damage thing... sucks if they'll be ignoring or denying my request, but I'm too pissed to really believe in getting a replacement from just writing a couple of emails... we'll see...

Ubu, You can probably buy the original album as a replacement for cheap. That might not be aesthetically satisfying but you will get all the original music (if I remember the tracklist of the box correctly). I sympathize -- I get really pissed off when a favorite disc becomes unplayable or even mildly scratched. Guy I thought of that, too... but it's a bit annoying a route to go, spending money on the same music again and having an incomplete box (not that I ever thought of selling it, but still...)

also played disc two, soon to play disc three - what a great box!