Larry Kart

Nosing around on Amazon I see compact bookshelf systems (CD player, tuner, speakers) from the likes of Sony and Phillips in the $200 range. If those or something similar are sturdy and sound better than my crappy Bose unit, I would not be averse to going that route (the plug in and play aspect has appeal) but would be willing to pay more for a compact bookshelf system of better quality.

My basement floor-standing speakers are B&W 850s. Love them.

I have a perfectly fine system of individual components in the basement, but my wife (and me too) would like a decent sounding compact system for the living room/dining room area (all one room really) to replace the crappy Bose unit we have by default. Any thoughts/recommendations? It's a subject I've never explored before. I assume it would involve a CD player/amp combo of some sort, plus separate speakers.

Lot of CDs at a library sale for $1 each: Dinah Washington's "Dinah Jams" Mark Turner's "In this World" Scott Hamilton's "Back in New York" (surprisingly -- to me that is -- good, from 2005.) Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay" (have had the LP for years but there's an added track on the CD) Mel Torme/Marty Paich Dektette "Reunion" Mel Torme with the Meltones "Back in Town" (solos from Art Pepper) Jim Hall "Dialogues" Ella Fitzgerald "The Intimate Ella" w. Paul Smith Village Vanguard Live Sessions 1,2 & 3 (Sonny Lester stuff, w/ Dizzy, P. Adams, Jones-Lewis band, Ray Nance, etc.) Sonny Stitt w/ Oscar Peterson Trio Rachmaninov Concerti 2&3 -- Horacio Gutierrez/ Lorin Maazel Satie piano music -- Mari Tsuda "Anthony Adverse" film score -- Korngold Schoenberg "Pelleas und Melisande", Strauss "Tod und Verklarung" -- Bohm., Vienna Phil. Beethoven 9 -- Furtwangler, Vienna Phil. 1953 Brahms 2, Beethoven, Leonore III, Grosse Fuge -- Furtwangler Vienna Phil. Mozart Prague, Mahler 4, Bruno Walter, Vienna Phil. Schubert 9; Franz Schmidt, Variations on a Hussar's Song, Knappertsbusch, Vienna Phil. The Vienna Phil stuff, all live, looks very interesting. Listened to the Walter Mahler 4, which is superb.

Just read a very grim and bizarre Donald Westlake science fiction novel from the 1950s or so, "Anarchaos."

Composer/bandleader Anita Brown is topnotch. FWIW she's Ted Brown's daughter.

if it were just the rhythm section...

As for Hefti's writing on the aforementioned Epic album, maybe a better description than dated would be "generic of and for its time ... undistinctive -- in that respect unlike the writing on the later atomic Basie album from a few years later, which IMO has held up quite well over is it more than 60 years now? One could imagine that Hefti thought of the Epic charts as just another job, while the Atomic album had him on his toes.

I meant, to be more precise, that compared to other Woods solos from around the same time (and this was in general a good time for him IMO), they sound like rather formulaic "hot" solos at times.

I recall a mid-'50s Hefti LP on Epic, might have been "Hefti, Hot 'n' Hearty," that included a number of excellent solos from Phil Woods. On second thought, a visit to You Tube tells me that album and Woods' contributions to it have dated quite a bit.

Scheherazade -- Temirkanov (New York Philharmonic, RCA)

Think you made the right decisions there.

Somewhere on the Internet there is or was a nice double interview with Nistico and Hayes.

Dutilleux, Sym. No. 1 -- Sergio Baudo

"But there would not be all the Bix-derived music for him to work with, so how would he invent himself when he hadn't existed yet?" You're receiving messages from outer space now, Jim?

I reviewed that one for Downbeat, gave it it 41/2 stars, should have been five.

1990 A&M (with Bill Charlap, Dean Johnson, Richie De Rosa)

Not that I’m an expert when it comes to sorting out Mulligan’s many recordings, but I’ve often felt that he got better as a player as time went on, more lyrical in particular, more fluid rhythmically, less bouncy. In any case I just ran across a 1993 concert he gave with Billy Taylor, “Live at MCG” (MCG Jazz), and after hesitating a bit — I’m not a a big fan of Taylor — I took the plunge. And indeed Gerry is in lovely form throughout. Well recorded too. Chip Jackson on bass, Carl Allen on drums.

Yes, indeed.

What a find! Mozart Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1, Dezso Ranki (1980, Hungaraton, 3 lps) Sublime performances of these works from the then young Ranki. There doesn't seem to be a Vol. 2 from Ranki. Looks like the ball was picked up by the late Zoltan Kocsis, who certainly wasn't chopped liver. I'll try to investigate. (Amazon says that the Kocsis set is "currently unavailable.") Here's Ranki in the slow movement of K. 280:

Nor do I hear him that way.

Roussel, Symphony No. 2, Martinon -- Very dense, somewhat enigmatic work, hard to imagine what a French audience made of it in the '20s (in fact they didn't like it). Elliot Carter's String Quartet No. 1, Pacifica Quartet -- surprisingly not that hard to follow this time, fine sounding recording, clear, vivid

Without necessarily intending to do so, I wrote a detailed angry letter to the Moss Music Group about how those Vanguard reissues had been screwed up, which got guy who screwed them up (the late Sam Charters) fired. I found this out from a friend of mine who was a friend of Sam's. As you might expect, Sam was furious.

Smetana -- Polkas and Czech Dances, Jan Novatny (Supraphon, 2 LPs)

Antonin Kubalek, Brahms Piano Music Vol.1 (Dorian) -- Could this be as good as I think it is so far? Sonata No. 3 was superb. Just ordered Vol. 2.