poetrylover3

My Mosaics are nestled right next to the stereo which made it easy to grab the Count Basie/Lester Young and The Basie Live Roulette sets. Neither set would be easily replaceable. Going up in flames: The Complete Blue Note Thelonious Monk (vinyl) and The Count Basie Clef/Verve Studio recordings. The collection of Mosaic Box Sets is small, admittedly. I'd also try to scoop up my Mosaic Selects and...You get the picture, I'd probably get burned trying to decide what sets to move, period. My idea of a Desert Island set is about fifty box sets and single discs so I'm just hoping to avoid fire and shipwreck in this lifetime. Peace, Blue Trane.

Thanks for the clip, Jim. It's amazing what this musician can do!

I'm one chapter away from finishing Team of Rivals, a fascinating portrait of behind the scenes politics during the Lincoln Administration. On deck: Non-fiction: Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything Fiction: Phillip K Dick's Library of America volume Four Novels of the 1960s. I've never read him, IIRC. I'll also be teaching Night and Jane Eyre as well as English Romantic Poetry, so I'll have my hands full. Peace, Blue Trane

So your most recommended J J Johnson discs are...(I have no J J Johnson dates in my collection, obviously a glaring omission)

Thanks for the kind wishes. At 55 I get to be 11 5 year olds or 5 11 year olds. This has been a nice birthday, with the gifts and party yet to come. Peace, Blue Trane aka Jeff T

Someday I'm going to put together a Duke Ellington disc with favorite recordings from across the years featuring Johnny Hodges. Today's Top Ten for making me mellow. Duke Ellington Orchestra: "Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band" Billie Holiday: Master Takes and Singles Bill Evans: Live At The Village Vanguard Mozart: Gran Partita (Zubin Mehta conducting members of the Berlin Philharmonic) Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else John Coltrane and Johnny Hartmann Stan Getz: The Best of the Verve Years, Volume 1 Sonny Rollins: Next Album Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage Miles Davis: Kind of Blue I don't even need to operate a remote control or put the multi-disc changer on "shuffle" for these discs. For classical inspiration it's Beethoven's Late String Quartets; Mozart Piano Concertos (Mitsuko Uchida) and Sonatas(Uchida, again), The Brandenburg Concertos, Beethoven Symphony #6 ( Bruno Walter, Conductor), Brahms Symphony #2 (Wilhelm Furtwangler), Dvorak: Serenade; almost anything featuring Hilary Hahn or Martha Argerich or Jacqueline Du Pre. The only drawback to this list is that it can mellow me to sleep. Peace, Blue Trane

Phil Woods w/ Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, Alan Dawson on Musique Du Bois & Dexter Gordon on Our Man In Paris for best instrumental Sarah Vaughan At Mister Kelly's is my favorite vocal interpretation.

Thanks to a repeatable BMG code I went on a year-end buying spree of which these are the last. What can I say about Soulville, pretty fabulous blues playing and the ballads are The Beast at the top of his game. This is my new favorite BW release, second only to Atmosphere For Lovers and Thieves. Symphonica is a calculated risk, as my appetites are finicky when it comes to jazz with the symphony orchestra.

I've just opened it and so far the writing is superb. Based on a true story about the murder of an outlaw/entrepreneur by his neighbors in early 20th Century Florida the author creates a powerful sense of immediacy that I look for-and envy- in the finest writing. It appears to offer a bargain in the transaction between author and audience-I have the sense that I'll be more than compensated for any investment of time and attention on my part. This is my favorite anthology of 19th Century American poetry-especially as it has introduced me to poets who were previously either totally unknown to me or mere names. There are also poems by authors I thought I "knew" that are now a permanent point of reference such as Whittier's immensely powerful Civil War meditation "What The Birds Said". The Library of America editions of American poetry are unsurpassed in their scope and depth and it will take more than a lifetime of reading to enjoy all the benefits of these pages. Wishing everyone a blessed New Year. Peace, Blue Trane

I've been a member of and on for many years and I've been impressed with their service-in my experience,they deliver more quickly than anyone on the web and have been known to make the occasional repeatable code, special offer gaffe (see last year's discounted box set debacle-in the consumer's favor, of course). A goodly chunk of my collection, especially in the box set department, comes from BMG Music Service. The 12 for 1 offer caused me to quit and rejoin more than once, which can't have helped the bottom line! IMO, discontinuing the Music Points program is no great loss. What I'd like to see is a clearcut program of the more you buy the better your offers become. I think plenty of people would sign up at 5 or 6 for the price of one and then later on to buy one, get one or buy one get three offers. I don't know what's behind BMG's withdrawal from the new member market other than CD sales suck worldwide. I do know that I would buy fewer CDs if they went out of business entirely.

Keep Your Soul Together & Red Clay are my favorite CTI albums with Freddie as leader. First Light is also a worthy effort. Mr Hubbard's work on Sunflower is beautiful, IMO.

Keep Your Soul Together Sunflower All of his collaborations with Dexter Gordon and Herbie Hancock His work with The Jazz Messengers First Light Red Clay Hub Cap VSOP: The Quintet & Live Under The Sky Blues and The Abstract Truth True Blue On virtually every album he participated on there were, at the least, outstanding moments.

I got Tina Brooks-The Waiting Game; The Jazz Icons DVDs-Bill Evans and Dizzy Gillespie. My big catch was Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection featuring 7 of the comic master's flix including Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Lady Eve; Hail The Conquering Hero, The Great McGinty etc. With a 40% off Borders coupon it ran $36 plus sales tax, which I call one hell of a deal. I bought myself a slew of CDs from BMG-heavy on the Hank Mobley-Sextet, Hi Voltage, Dippin', Soul Station- and Stanley Turrentine-The Return of the Prodigal Son & Look Out!; Antal Dorati:Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker; Poco: Gold; Marvin Gaye:Gold; The Summer of Love; The Coleman Hawkins All Stars at Newport; Milt Jackson At The Museum of Modern Art; An Electrifying Evening With The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet-all for S & H only.

Excellent session. The players are top notch and the music never flags. I have indulged myself lately on the strength of a repeatable BMG code that offered 3 free CDs-S&H charges only. I've ordered Look Out!(Stanley Turrentine); Maynard Ferguson: Octet; An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet; Coleman Hawkins All Stars Live At Newport and I forget what else. This code also meant that I could order a real dog- I've Got A Woman and Some Blues by George Benson-and not feel so bad.

Rollin with Leo and the Horace Parlan are definitely on my list.

In St Louis we're scheduled for Dave Holland, Pat Martino, and the Blue Note 70th Anniversary tour-and that's just through February! I'm also hoping for more volumes of Sonny Rollins' Roadshow If BMG Jazz Club bites the dust- a great going out of business sale on box sets Then there's the Ahmad Jamal on Mosaic and the new discoveries that each new year brings. Peace, Jeff T. aka Blue Trane

I agree. Dumas at his best wrote incredibly exciting entertainments. BTW, if you haven't read Richard Pevear's translation of The Three Musketeers, you owe it to yourself to do so in short order. Peace, Blue Trane

I'm reading: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin and dipping into Joan Didion's We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order To Live and The Best American Mystery Stories 2008. The Lincoln is fascinating as I learn more about Lincoln and his political contemporaries than I ever did in school. Didion is a masterful stylist, second only to John McPhee for clarity, IMO. The Best American Mysteries provide a wide range of styles and introduce me to authors I've never read before. The Best American Series is a godsend for those folks like myself who have limited time to seek out new writers. Style matters to me and you simply can't get that from 99% of the book reviews out there. All the best for the Holidays and the coming New Year. Jeff T aka Blue Trane

There's nothing like the live experience when the musicians involved are "on". My limited time availability i.e. weekends only and limited finances means that I see a lot less live than I'd like to. Similarly, my local jazz station's programming is pretty much MOR and there are artists I have to gamble on, previously unheard, based on Downbeat and JazzTimes reviews along with the fan reaction on this forum and the others I participate in on the early hours of the AM. So, the majority of my collection is dead musicians and musicians I saw in the late 60s and 70s when I had more time and disposable income. Am I happy about this state of affairs? No. But unless someone can point me toward some innovative contemporary programming via the Internet, that's the way it will probably stay. Any suggestions for radio listening will be welcomed. Peace, Blue Trane

It was a great year for new music for me. I immersed myself in the Dave Holland Big Band and Toshiko Akiyoshi's Let Freedom Swing, and loved Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio releases:My Foolish Heart & SEtting Standards; Eliane Elias: Here Is Something For You; Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band-Season of Changes; Horace Silver Live At Newport 1958. I was also wild about Sonny Rollins Road Shows, Volume 1. Reissues of The Toshiko Akiyoshi Lew Tabackin Big Band and Woody Herman on Mosaic Select and Count Basie/Lester Young on Mosaic were outstanding. Ella Fitzgerald: Live At Mr Kelly's was a great time. Early in the year I took advantage of BMG's apparently inadvertent discounting of its box sets to acquire the Coltrane Quartets; Live At The Village Vanguard; Charlie Parker Master Takes on Verve; Billie Holiday on Verve; Frank Sinatra-The Capitol Singles, The Reprise Collection; Jimmy Smith-Retrospective; Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul. In live music, I got the opportunity to hear the Heath Brothers (what a thrill! Jimmy Heath is one of my all time favorite musicians); Santana; Return To Forever. In 2009 I plan to hear Pat Martino, Dave Holland, the Blue Note 70th Anniversary tour. THere were many artists and albums that were new to me including-Gene Ammons:Boss Tenor; Bill Evans: The last Waltz; Kenny Wheeler: Gnu High; Bill Charlap's Gershwin Tribute album;Paul Bley: Solo In Mondsee; Sonny Clark-Leapin and Lopin.. I listened to very little classical with the exception of the new Hilary Hahn release and a Martha Argerich-Live At Lugano set. In pop music I mainly acquired some classic Otis Redding and remastering of older material. While I had a few disappointments, overall this has to rate as one of my best collecting years. Best Wishes to all for a joyful Holiday Season and all the best in the coming year. Peace, Jeff Tedford aka Blue Trane

A belated Happy Birthday and best wishes for many more years of good health and creativity for the master musician, McCoy Tyner.

War and Peace. I haven't read this since the Ford Administration. I really like this translator, so this is my #1 reading over Christmas break. Not that I don't have plenty else to peruse including a hoped-for-gift of Hot, Flat, and Crowded from my wife and a two year-old unread copy of Team of Rivals. Peace, Blue Trane

Mosaic Big Box: Thelonious Monk Basie-Lester Young Basie-Roulette Live Mosaic Select: Dexter Gordon Woody Herman Akiyoshi-Tabackin Big Band

A nice hard bop date featuring Tommy Turrentine and Charlie Rouse as the horns with Ike Quebec playing "Deep In A Dream".Sonny is one of my favorite piano players from this era and so this makes a welcom eaddition to my collection.

I prefer releases with alternate takes and unissued tracks so I can hear the artist's evolving conception of a tune. I don't include breakdowns and false starts as being of interest.