ArtSalt

Very fine article, shame Don Pullen was missed from the later period!

Correct, there's a young demographic exploring aspects of the mid-20th century and finding it ideal: great design, architecture, the boom period of America - after the Korean war, before Vietnam and the explosion of crime in the 60s - the button-downs of Ivy style and great jazz in abundance, the emergence of the corporate man with his social contract, cool when it still meant a quality of character rather than a pair of sneakers and the last but one decade of great art before conceptual art and investors spoilt it all . Of course, that's cherry picking, as we all know bad things were happening in places Little Rock and elsewhere, but the 50s from my perspective seems more vital and modern than now on several fronts. So yes, that box set has a chance of getting through to someone looking for something more real and satisfying than the now.

An interesting over view and good price too. Commences with my favourite Chet Baker album of the 1950s and ends with the definitive west coast album: Lighthouse at Laguna. Hopefully, this will get through to some young cats and turn them on to the west coast sound.

I've had similar experience with ftfym65, rare discs that seem to be out of print, actually prove to be not available. I go to them only when I can't source through CD Japan, at one time I thought that might be two of the same.

Ropeadope was good when Sexmob were on the label. Liked Hunter's early stuff and TJ Kirk CD is great, but his later stuff after the Marley album, in fact on that CD, I lost interest and haven't been back since.

I've had the Blakey St Germain booked marked on CD Japan and been waiting for an excuse, against a background of limited pocket money, to press the button......

Led Zep the biggest rock band with kudos that no one you know is a fan.

Something akin to an updated The Beiderbecke Trilogy by Alan Plater wouldn't go amiss: some lost reels of Chet Baker when he was in Italy, with the mafia involved and a Hollywood biobic as the back-drop to all the intrigue and shenanigans. I think that would work.

He's always struck me as an intriguing character, relocating to Lagos in Nigeria in the early 70s, seems quite mad now, doesn't it? The other rock 'n roll drummer of interest is Charlie Watts who has a day job with The Stones for three months of the year, then he's digging jazz for the rest of it. Not bad.

That will be the live recordings made by Bob Andrews in 1952 at the Surf Club in Hollywood and releaed on the Xanadu label in 1976 and 1980. The albums under Art Pepper are The Early Show (Xanadu 108) and The Late Show (Xanadu 117). There's also one as Shorty Rogers & Art Pepper Popo (Xanadu 148) which was recorded in October 1951 at The Lighthouse.

It sounds an interesting play, the right themes and dynamics are explored. I would love to see it! I thought Teachout's Pops was splendid and yet, the Ellington biography, as we have discussed here already, left me disillusioned, not with Ellington which seemed to be the plan in parts of the book, but with Teachout himself. Anyway, you can't please everyone, all the time.

Sadly, I am still waiting for my next pocket money installment around the 25th, can't wait!

Well, the only problem I can see in the title is that genius was missed out. Love Laurie and her commitment to keeping the legacy of Pepper alive and Straight Life remains the most honest book I have ever read about jazz genius ravaged by junk. It is a masterpiece of spontaneous bebop prosody that Kerouac could only dream of.

I noticed the reissues on both SHM-CD and Blu-Spec 2 seemed to have run out of steam the last couple of months, I hope they rev up again with the releases on the 25th June.

I occasionally go to a couple of jazz club nights and jamming sessions in the Hague and Delft and the demographic is mixed with a fair amount of youngish students. I also see a lot of interest back in the UK with a lot of the younger mods starting to explore their 1950s roots more and starting to read the likes of Colin MacInnes, getting into Ivy style and inevitably, modern jazz. And they like it, and they want more! From my own perpsective, I am 43 next month, my parents were baby-boomers into 60s and 70s pop, soul and rock. There wasn't a jazz album in the house, it simply wasn't in my father's musical vocabulary. But there was that jazz infused album by The Style Council Cafe Bleu which opened my musical ears and led me to Blue Note and modern jazz which I have been exploring and enjoying ever since. So I am not pessimistic that jazz hasn't the ability to capture and retain a new audience. But as for live audiences, well, a lot of people with young families, busy careers, etc, are unlikely to have pass to attend as many gigs as they would want to. That leaves the young, free and single, and the semi or retired baby-boomers.

I don't touch Amazon these days, I get all my needs from the outer reaches of ebay!

That has tremendously effervescent version of Alabama Bound by Santo Pecora on there as well. Worth the entry fee for that alone IMCO.

I agree with all the positive comments on these live albums, it starts exactly as they mean to go along, with that superlative laid back version of Summertime and sustains the intensity throughout. The OJC CD version is also evidence that first generaton CDs could deliver excellence in sound.

JSngry, perchance you're the reincarnation of D.T. Suzuki, or perhaps another zen master proding and teasing us to a higher level of jazz awareness and experience?

On the strength of the above and other comments, I'm going to give the Impulse Ballads another go. As I am good boy I have the latest SHM Platinum CD and it still seems to me, to be his weakest album and the stereo separation is annoying too.

That sums it up pretty well. If you look at the the two projects he's been involved in; JALC and the Ken Burns doc, it's not that much of a stretch... I agree there was some interesting omissions in the Ken Burns documentary, which he himself has stated were not down to Crouch, but Burns own editorial decisions. Brubeck has been accused of not swinging at all and he made it into the documentary, but he was of course in context of the period covered, was much more important than Evans. I actually like Crouch's larger than life personality and strong, even reactionary opinions, as we need these types to stimulate debate and conversation. One thing you can say about Crouch, love him or loathe him, he cannot be ignored. And I find this extremely refreshing in a media over saturated with shallow newspeak, propaganda and sound bites. I have no problem ignoring him You've ignored him enough to answer my post.

That sums it up pretty well. If you look at the the two projects he's been involved in; JALC and the Ken Burns doc, it's not that much of a stretch... I agree there was some interesting omissions in the Ken Burns documentary, which he himself has stated were not down to Crouch, but Burns own editorial decisions. Brubeck has been accused of not swinging at all and he made it into the documentary, but he was of course in context of the period covered, was much more important than Evans. I actually like Crouch's larger than life personality and strong, even reactionary opinions, as we need these types to stimulate debate and conversation. One thing you can say about Crouch, love him or loathe him, he cannot be ignored. And I find this extremely refreshing in a media over saturated with shallow newspeak, propaganda and sound bites.

Interesting videos, especially the bit where it is stated they sometimes use sections from CD sources when the master tape sound has deterioated.

I think Blue Note has also reissued this album on CD, similar to the reissues of some of Art Pepper's Aladdin recordings. The session was in LA August and early September 1954 with arrangements by Jack Montrose, it's worth picking up, of course.

The consensus here seems to be Crouch uses lack of swing and empathy with the blues as euphemisms to hide his rascism against white jazz cats?