david weiss

That Tolliver show was in 2007. I was on that gig! I don't remember everyone who was there but Kiane Ziwadi was probably not there and Alvin Queen definitely wasn't. I don't think Alvin ever played with this version of the big band. Gene Jackson probably played drums.

I've had a listen to the set again, my 3 CD bootleg set at least. Again, I don't know what the Resonance set sounds like or what they might have done with the sound. As far as I can hear from this set, there seems to be two radio/TV shows (one of each I think) that do have what sounds like reverb added in the studio, The Stockholm (radio show I believe) has a little reverb added but it's not so bad to me. The levels are certainly acceptable. The other Stockholm show seems to be the TV show? That one also has added reverb and while a little more prevalent, it's still within what I think are acceptable levels of reverb. This is a matter of taste certainly but to me, it's not so bad. The one concert that seems to suffer from excessive concert hall reverb is the Zurich show but this just sounds like it is all the concert hall with nothing added. All the other shows, reverb wise at least, all seem to be OK to me. I really don't hear that any of the live recordings having any post production reverb added unless it was added on this new set. The most egregious example to me is still the radio show from the Sonny Rollins in Holland set. That is really excessive to me and it was done in the studio. I've actually heard another show from that archive that we were considering for release but again, the reverb was overwhelming the music. Listening to all this again, it sounds like there is a lot to work with on some of these shows to improve the sound or make it more consistent from show to show. Some of this will depend on how much of the original source material they were able to acquire and how much they probably just transferred from the already available CDs. I wonder how much more information about the recordings is in the booklet. Still, it's great music and I'm happy it's out here in a more legitimate medium. I guess it depends what you think of Orrin Keepnews.

Yup. That would have been ideal. Of course I loved the album when I first got it but what really opened my ears to how incredible this all was was when I bought the Japanese Volume 2 and Volume 3 albums on sale at Tower Records when I was in college. The first side of Volume 3 with All the Things You Are, Woodyn' You and Four was life changing for me and put these recordings in a whole new light. The RVG in the end, now that I have absorbed everything individually for years, is more fun for me now since it is in order and has all the announcements.

I remember this as well. I don't remember which one and while there was a time when the 3 CDs were on repeat for quite some time, it's been a while..... As much as I'd like to pile on, I'm not sure I can agree with this. If the Dragon release was legitimate, then he shouldn't be able to do this. It also could be someone at the label trying to do this. Part of the problem with trying to take credit for everything is you get credit for everything, the good with the bad. And has alienated everyone who has nipped the mistakes in the bud previously..... I doubt I'll ever hear the Resonance version of this, I'm happy with the bootleg 3 CD I've had for a while, so I guess I'll never know if you are right or not. Again, I have a lot of faith in Bernie Grundman and doubt has would do this or do it poorly. Sometimes, he does have to follow the orders of the "producer" but I still think he would voice objections and it wouldn't happen in the end. Sometimes Resonance does things in house (the digital mixing and mastering at least) and they have been known to take a liberty or two....

There were definitely shots during the rehearsals but I think the bulk of them were taken at the recording studio. There is plenty of time when the musicians are warming up and noodling between takes to get plenty of shots. I'm sure they were not taking pictures during takes. The shutter would make too much noise and Rudy would have thrown you out on your ass. A few years ago, after Ruth Lion passed, apparently a dumpster diver (or perhaps it was an Estate sale though I think we ruled this out for some reason) came across some of her possessions. Blue Note was still sending her product so it was recent CDs and things like that but also some contact sheets (and maybe the negatives as well) of some Francis Wolff photos. I remember for sure that there were photos from the aborted Horace Silver Tentet session among a few other things. I alerted Cuscuna and was on the phone with him while he tried to bid on the stuff in the closing minutes but the bids were climbing at a pace he couldn't believe and he was outbid in the end. He contacted the seller to see if he could get the contact info of the winner or at least pass on a note asking to get in touch with him but nothing came out it.

The Dragon LP is part of the 3 CD bootleg set I have and I assume it's on this new boxed set as well. Thanks for this info. I imagine they have made improvements and I have not put it to the test yet. We'll see I guess.... Well, no matter how good a program might be, it won't be effective in the hands of a dumbshit engineer or producer for that matter. You also have to consider that a lot of these new programs were not designed to address acoustic Jazz. If they have made improvements to the reverb removal programs, I would imagine the results would vary depending on the type of reverb (natural or manufactured) and the nature of the recording. I imagine if it is a studio recording (where reverb is added and printed) and multi track, one could go to individual tracks and remove or lessen the offending reverb. I imagine it would be harder if it is a live recording in a hall with a lot of natural reverb and just a direct mono or stereo recording. I would have to try it and see what the results are before I could make any judgements but it would be a good tool if it can be used effectively. I definitely would have given it a shot on that Sonny Rollins in Holland radio broadcast. That said, there are some producers who probably would like the reverb or would not think it was enough of an issue to address it. The Jazz industry is usually very slow to embrace change or new technology, always waiting for someone else to try it first. They were very slow to dip their toe back in at the start of this vinyl resurgence and there was a lot of you first attitude until it was crystal clear this was a thing again. It took a few years though.....

This is a favorite of mine and always has been. I've had all the previous single releases of this material and have the 3 CD complete set bootleg of this material now. In fact, I ordered the 3 CD set off Amazon and sent it to Zev when he was looking for more Rollins to release that Sonny might approve of and I suggested this stuff so Sonny could, at the very least, be properly compensated for the release of this material. In the end, I was not involved in this release at all but early on, I was told that they found a few of the original sources of some of the recordings in various radio archives but not all of them. If Bernie Grundman was involved in the mastering, I have no doubt this material is now sounding about as good as it can possibly sound. I've done a few projects with Bernie and enjoyed working with him immensely and thought his work to be pretty impeccable.

Sounds like you are listening to the Sonny Rollins in Holland release. The live in studio radio broadcast from that set does suffer from heavy reverb that to me, make it very hard to listen to. with all the advances in recording technology, the one thing that still has not been invented yet (as far as I know), is the ability to remove reverb, real or manufactured, from a recording. I've had heard all these recordings that are on this new release before and none of the struck me as having too much reverb but I have not heard the Resonance release.

I agree with Chuck. Perhaps the promo/advance copies were CDRs. If you were in touch with Ben or his representative, perhaps this needed to be made clear before you list it in this way on disgos.

If you include the BN-LA series from the '70s, you can add Eddie Henderson

Thanks for this one. I played with Ray De La Paz for a few years with his own band and with Louie Ramirez and I was not familiar with this one. It's killing. This has been a fun thread to read. When I first moved back to New York, I cut my teeth on the thriving New York salsa scene in the early '90s and got to play with some of the best bands in New York, many of whom I see represented here. Here is one from Ray De La Paz from the time period when I played in the band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBgBOwwzRN0 If someone can teach me how to post link from you tube so you can play them here, I'd appreciate it. Thanks

None that I know about.

I've seen a couple of lists of recordings from the Keystone Korner. There was no Grant Green on those lists. I can ask when I play there in a couple of weeks.

I actually don't know specifically. Jazz Workshop had/has a staff and I'm sure Sue left specific instructions about the continuation of the Mingus Estate. The Mingus Big Band is still working as well so I assume it's still pretty much business as usual with a staff that knows what they are doing.

Well, they say it is a release in conjunction with the Mingus Estate so they do have a clearance. I think in these cases, it is the money grab first (the overpriced vinyl release pays for and justifies the release) and then in future, especially if the vinyl sells out, there will be a digital release.....

It's Galper. He was in the band for about a year at this point.

Soundscan is the organization that tracks sales used by Billboard and all chart makers as far as I know.

I spoke to Perla yesterday and asked him about a few of these things..... He said the Weather Report with Cobham was a rehearsal. I also asked him about the Jeremy Steig with Jan Hammer, Tommy Bolin and Billy Cobham (the personnel from Cobham's Spectrum album, a favorite of mine so this was a curiosity to me). He said a Bolin fan released this on some sort of Tommy Bolin compilation a few years back.

Aw. So sad. I met him when I was first starting at a workshop at the Creative Music Studio. He was soon entrenched in the downtown scene when that meant rock-n-roll gigs. For him, it was a band called The Waitresses if I remember correctly. Lost touch with him when I went to music school some 30 years ago but would see his name from time to time. I just remember him being a really nice guy and talented of course....

Always interesting to see this sort of feedback. I can answer the following from what was mentioned above..... No one in the band heard the introduction of the band so we had no idea a name was omitted in the introductions. I assume he was also the one who mentioned our travel day. I didn't hear it though and did not mention it myself on stage but yes, it was a long travel day. We did leave Szeged, Hungary at 7:00 am (so yes, I guess we were up at 6:00) and drove around 3 hours to Belgrade, Serbia to fly to London. Getting through customs and such meant we had to go straight to the venue from the airport and right to sound check. We had a full sound check. We never hear how things sound in the house but we could hear each other well on stage. We had some food bought to us so we could quickly eat and do our best to pull clothes out of our luggage and change for the concert. I don't think anyone was angry but perhaps we had our game faces on. I guess we take this stuff seriously and try to do our best. If Billy Hart was too loud in a concert hall, this to me is more of a balance issue. Billy definitely plays with a wide range of dynamics but he is accompanying the soloists and bringing the energy usually required for doing this. If you can't hear the horns in a big venue, then they needed to be bought up. Billy's drums were mic'ed but once the sound engineers heard the group, those mics should not have been on. They were definitely not needed. I do remember an audience member calling out something like who is the drummer or give the drummer some and a little, when I announced Biily's name before his drum feature, I did deliberately turn in the direction of the person who had shouted out earlier when I announced Billy's name. This is how things are usually announced and over 16 years, no one has taken issue with this so there is nothing to read into this. I thought it was a nice night. If anyone was tired, they didn't show it at all as is the norm with these guys. I thought the audience was wonderful and very receptive. To me, this is a special band playing music in a way that is rarely heard these days and I, at the very least, cherish the experience.

Back when I did some work with Jordi Pujol (around 20 years ago or so now), he played me some of these Philly Joe Jones tapes but if I remember correctly, he did not have the tape with Reece and Gilmore yet but had the other two and it was not enough material to fill a CD. I guess when word got about this other tape, perhaps Pujol tracked it down so he had this full release.

"Nobody has heard before" is quite a stretch. It is in the Avakian collection at the Lincoln Center Library and before that, besides being amongst Avakian's tapes, I believe it is also in the vaults at Sony studios after being in RCA studios for years. Now you can know go to the Library and sample anything from the Avakian collection yourself. There is quite a bit of great finds there and not just by Sonny Rollins.

It's one archive, the W. Eugene Smith archive. I've searched their data base and they have all the shows. I initially discovered the show (I had never heard about it before)), while going through the tapes of a musician's estate. Unfortunately, at this point, I can't discuss the identity of the musician.

I have only heard the audio of a couple of the shows while going through an archive I, unfortunately, can not discuss. However, I discovered that the W. Eugene Smith (the Jazz Loft guy) made audio recordings of these shows off his TV. I'm going through the list of tapes in his archive now as we speak looking for listings for the shows and have found the 5th show, which is the Al Cohn and Zoot Sims Quintet. I know the Sonny Rollins is in this archive as well.... I'm not sure if you can listen or what their protocols are but I'm going to look into it.

Anyone familiar with this show from 1963 or so? Five episodes total apparently. One hour TV show with live music and lengthy discussions describing what's happening for the lay person. I have heard episodes with Thelonious Monk (with Charlie Rouse), Sonny Rollins (with Paul Bley and Billy Higgins) and Horace Silver (with Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook). I've heard pieces of a 4th episode with Art Farmer. I don't know who the 5th artist was. These are great. Great playing, interesting conversations.