Stompin at the Savoy

Over the years I've taken to buying a lot of box sets. I have individual cds too but somehow I seem to have plunged for the big sets quite often. In the beginning I would just play the disks one by one and maybe look at the discography a bit. Later I decided to rip everything to hard drives and other storage and play everything on computers and other devices. I used to be an IT database and systems guy so I just treat my music the way I used to handle data and have backup scripts etc. This arrangement means I can break up the box sets into digital playlists. Whenever a set has lp size albums on it, I break them out into single album playlists. I usually add a number in the playlist name (and sometimes a set abbreviation) so that the playlists for the albums in each set sort and show up in chronological order. There is a significant amount of curating work in doing all this and some might ask wouldn't it be easier to just buy the individual albums? No answer for that. I guess I just like the completeness of having the sets. Mosaics and some others have good sound, I suppose... How do you approach listening to these box sets and what do you think of the whole box set thing?

I just finished this. I found the first third or so, which covered her life up until she left the Clouds of Joy, pretty interesting. As it continued the writing deteriorated and took on a repetitive quality. It went on and on about Mary's efforts to get the Catholic church to let her stage religious works in church. I don't find her religious works as interesting as her jazz work so I ended up rapidly skimming a lot of that. This is an interesting subject but the book is not terribly well written. I have another bio of Williams, Morning Glory, on order. https://archive.org/details/soulonsoullifemu0000kern/mode/2up

I have quite a backlog of new stuff and am just getting around to this one. Listened to the first disk yesterday. I like it more than I expected to. Pretty swinging stuff. Bob Zurke! Sound is good.

https://flashbak.com/cab-calloways-hepsters-dictionary-a-guide-to-the-language-of-jive-1938-378657/

USPS acknowledges receiving the package and gave a delivery date of monday. Looking forward to it. Meanwhile on with my Freddie Hubbard Mosaic and Chron Andy Kirk festivals!

Playing the 1996 Connoisseur after reading another thread about Jutta Hipp documentary.

Ooh I got a tracking number!

Thanks for mentioning Dan Burley's Jive. I managed to find a copy just now that wasn't too dear. Also thank you Steve for the link to the Calloway pdf. Fun!

That's kind of a strange release. I looked on Amazon and it had a pic of the contents, which despite the tacky packaging were pretty good mainstream jazz stuff from Blue Note, Roulette, Pacific Jazz. Apparently this Battleguard-Twilight label is some sort of Capitol subsidiary.

Maybe advise them it's available any time they want to pick it up!

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Website still says 'processing' on my order. Goody! I'm looking forward to this set. Basie! All kinds of goodies.

Thanks Steve, I will check that out! Another fun source is the glossary in Bernard Wolfe's bio of Mezz Mezzrow, Really the Blues. ( https://archive.org/details/reallyblues0000mezz/page/370/mode/2up )

https://archive.org/details/hepcats-jive-talk-dictionary-1945.-t.-w.-o.-charles-d-m-ia/mode/2up

Last night I listened to all the Bill Holman portions of this: Kenton Presents, Great Big Band, and some unissued stuff. Following that I listened to Terry Gibbs Dream Band, vol 1. Basically the same band as Great Big. Then Vol 2 today.

You should not be responsible or have to pay extra for an item they shipped by mistake. How to resolve it depends partially on the amount. Big amount I guess be a mensch and try to figure out some equitable way to send it back without you being out of pocket. Less than $50 or something - in my opinion they should just eat it.

Most contemporary releases are CDs or downloads, which by the nature of the packaging means you are unable to read the liner notes until you purchase the item (and in the case of downloads there are typically no liner notes). If their purpose is to sell albums I'm not sure how that's supposed to work. Oops, I guess by contemporary you meant liner notes on the original older albums. Even then I find it hard to agree. Liner notes are often interesting, imo.

Some of Sauter's work is swinging, such as the Goodman stuff. But it seems when he is given free rein he goes toward a kind of neo-classical orchestral style of writing which strays pretty far from the jazz tradition. I guess I'm an old fogey but I like a fair amount of toe tapping kind of thing in the music I listen to. I am going to give Sauter some more chances. My first impression is maybe not my cup of tea...

Interesting program. I've been curious and don't know much about about him.

Yeah, the individual cd situation with Bud Powell on Verve is not as nice as the set. The set has a very nice and quite extensive book, too with very clear sessionograpy and discography listings. Somebody has very helpfully posted photos of the book on musicbrainz: https://musicbrainz.org/release/c5a8b2e5-d004-4b81-92d3-fb22e6d767b2/cover-art . I have trouble reading the tiny print in most cd-sized booklets.

I tried out this question just now on Google: "Did Bud Powell ever play with Clifford Brown?" This is the AI summary that came back: I have no idea if Brownie ever played with Bud but this seems like a surprisingly reasonable and useful answer for an AI. Of course it's hard to be certain it's correct without some research. A quick look at Brownie's discography did not mention Bud.

Yes, I love that one too!