jazz1

Is the audio as good as Vol 1 (The Japanese concert) Thanks jazz1

Here is a link to a nice Ella webstite >http://web.tiscali.it/ellafitzgerald/ Like it or not Ella was a fantastic singer, beautiful voice, perfect pitch, sure she made some duds but for that matter every jazzman did too. Concentrating on her best she was one of the best.

Really sad, I discovered Carla's music with a cd "At Vartan jazz" she was talented, but most of all honest, no pretence singer, one can hear how much she loved what she was doing. Sad, sad,sad.

Duke Ellington "The private tapes" a wonderful 10 cds set which includes some great Wally Heider recordings.

Checking the CD Universe site they are also announcing a JVC release which to me looks the same as Vol 1 advertised on CD BABY I wonder if it is?? The price is nearly double.

Not from the serie "Jazz in Paris" but a must have cd. Some great playing by a superb band John Lewis piano Sacha Distel guitar Kenny Clarke drums Barney Wilen sax (superb) Pierre Michelot bass Connir Kay drums Reminds me of "Grand encounter" and not only the music is great but the mono-recording on the Japanese reissue is superb, makes you wonder why we need stereo!

I was given 2 cds from this Japanese piano player. Both of them with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian. They call themselves "Thetered moon" What do you think of him?? I can't find much info. He is not even mentioned in the Penguin guide. jazz1

I just received some cds including music by Jan Johansson, to say that I am bold over is an understatement, the cd that I have is called Folkvisor on the Heptagon label. Originally it must have been 2 lps, one based on Swedish and the other on Russian folkmusic. (early 60's) The Swedish part is just piano and bass and the Russian section adds drums. I would like to find out more about Jan. I believed that he recorded with Stan Getz?? This is definitely a musician that deserve wider recognition. He died in 1967 in a car crash. And the icing on the cake is that the recording is beautiful.

Interesting. Is this stuff being released by the multinational companies or independent labels like Gallo? MG Not too sure as I don't buy much of it. I'll check it out and let you know. jazz1

Smooth jazz is big, and all the stuff you mention.

I suppose Louis Moholo is back now! He's pretty darn creative

From the NY times article: "They say that in Cape Town, there are 20 guitar players per square kilometer and saxophonists behind every bush," said Iain Harris, a music producer and journalist" My reply to that is: I wished it was so, the Cape Town jazz scene is pretty poor, I know of 1/2 doz guitar players that are pretty good, the best of them them is James Scholdfied who last year did a recording for Steeplechase. (check it out) This guy has an incredible technique. As far as sax players, again I can think of only 1/2 doz good players. There is a few good pianists, bass players are in great demand as there is only few of them worth anything. Drummers?? not bad, maybe 10 of them, the best being Kevin Gibson. There is plenty "African jazz" but after a while, it becomes boring as the use of 2 or 3 chords makes it monotonous. You guys in NY are spoilt, the jazz tour mentioned in the NY Times would be good for tourists trying to catch the local vibe, but for great jazz you will have to look somewhere else.

6 cd's set in mint condition.

I imagine that he had too much to drink or something to that effect

Irene Schweizer and Louis Moholo toured South Africa about 2 years ago. Unfortunately Louis was bombed out and the concert was actually embarrasing, especially for Irene. Luckily Irene played a few solo pieces and that saved the evening. The next day Irene gave a workshop at Cape Town university and that was really inspiring, we all wondered what happened to Louis that day??

So there is my top 5 or 6 for 2006 (I’ve added a DVD) After I made my choices, I realized that most of the cds in questions are concept albums, and I really think that in today’s world of jazz singing it is what makes the difference between a good cd and a great cd. 1) Ian Shaw “Drawn to all things (The songs of Joni Mitchell) Not only Ian singing and the band are superb but it also makes one realize that Joni wrote many exceptional songs that deserve to be part of GAS. 2) Karryn Allison “Footprints” Karryn Allison has taken some of the great jazz standards and put lyrics to it. It is her best album by far, her singing has improved tremendously, again the band is first class and having Nancy King featured is the cherry on top. The only negative is Jon Hendricks off key singing. 3) Fay Claassens sings “Two portraits of Chet Baker” Two cd’s the first one dedicated to Chet ‘s work with the Gerry Mulligan piano less quartet, Fay scats Chet’s parts. On the second cd Fay sings a number of pieces of Chet’s vocal repertoire. Fay to my mind is the most talented of the new crop of young singers. 3) Patricia Barber “Mythologies” Sponsored by the Guggenheim foundation, 11 original songs where Patricia confirms her artistry as a musician, singer, songwriter and arranger. Her musicians are surely the best unit working with a singer today. 4) Patricia Barber “A fortnight in France” (DVD) This DVD will give you a greater insight into Patricia Barber work and persona, Not only the music is superb but also the filming is artistically as convincing as the music. 6) Nancy King / Fred Hersh “Live at the Jazz Standard” Off the cuff recording by 2 masters, can get a little tedious but the artistry is undeniable.

How would you describe swing? Can you describe it, or can you only feel it. Just curious

Surely time as come to reflect on which cd's you bought in 2006 gave you most pleasure. On my side I love the Fred Hersh+Nancy King "Live at the Jazz Standard" T Stanko "Lontano" The Moutin Reunion Quartet "Something like now" Paul Motian "Garden of Eden" Patricia Barber "Mythologies" Best reissues would also be interesting.

I went through this dilemna about 6 months ago, after lot's of investigating I've decided not to combine video and audio. Music is my main interest thus I've upgraded my audio system by purchasing a Pathos cd player which is most probably the best purchase on the audio side I ever made, it does not even play SACD but wow my cd's do sound incredible now. very analogue sounding. On the DVD side I bought a 50" Panasonic HD plasma, and a Panasonic DVD player/recorder, this is coupled to a mid price stereo only audio system, and again I am more than happy both the Pana plasma and recorder are great, and the recorder is just so convenient. The audio and video systems are in different rooms which again is a blessing. I think that I got the best of both world.

Check out Marcin Wasileswki's Trio on ECM too. He's the pianist with Stanko's quartet and the rest of the trio appear here. Bjork fans will love the rendition of Hyperballad.

So how about it? What are some of the best sounding discs in your collection? My best sounding jazz cd's (out of about 2000) are: For jazz vocal, the new remastered issue of Dinah Shore "Dinah sings, Previn plays" Recorded in 1959 to me it is the best recording of a female voice and the music is wonderful. For piano trio Antoine Herve "Summertime" on the French label " Nocturne" The Japanese label Venus remastered Bill Charlap "I'ts wonderful" maybe a little too resonant but still spectacular. AS mentioned lot's of ECM cds are excellent, it is consistently good and the new Tomaz Stanko "Lontano" is no exception. On the more commercial stuff Verve and Blue Note are doing some good work. DK and PB. My disapointment of the year is the remastering 24 bits of June Christy "The Intimate June Christy" The cheap 1995 2 fer cd is streets ahead.and still one of my favorite sounding cd, very natural. How do they manage to mess it up is a mystery to me. jazz1

Did you check the 2 clips with Bill Evans and Monica Zetterlund?? Amazingly beautiful!