jazzbo

Yes, Gene Shaw. . . . I love that band with Knepper, Hadi and Shaw in the front line! I'm surprised, though I probably shouldn't be, to see so many votes for Ervin. Wouldn't be in my top five!

An "other" I would have considered voting for would be Bobby Jones. . . . I like so much what little I have heard by this guy. Gonna have to seek out the Muse and Cobblestone (same thing?). . .

Even if Dolphy had not been omitted, I would have voted for Shafi Hadi/Curtis Potter. I just really dig his playing with Mingus, and that whole band he was a part of.

In your shoes, shopping wise, I would look up the various Borders outlet stores in the area and check them out. . . when I've been able to visit them I've found all sorts of great cheap jazz cds. . . it has been several years though since I was last within the stores.

I listen to a wide spectrum of material. . . . I would say that I do gravitate lately to piano recordings from the whole tradition. . . . I'm just a huge fan of the piano, and find myself wistfully wishing I had one myself!

Chai! You're right Late, that's a whole nother story. . . I really like it though not as sweetened as seems traditional. . . . My favorite is at an Indian restaurant here (excellent place!) called The Clay Pit.

Say, I think it's relevant to mention coffe-making methods as well, because like with tea, the method defines the taste in many ways. (Totally agree about pouring boiling water through tea!) I use a single cup (at first a method I borrowed from my grandmother because I'm the only coffee drinker in the house as she was, but then from preferrance for the taste) drip filter method such as these, generaly using Melita brown filters (#2). And I use Brita filtered water. And half and half. Hmmm. . . may have to make a cup!

Really, I dislike Xmas music immensely. Way too much of it heard as a kid. .. being a PK has some hazards. That said, I'll echo the admiration of "Crescent City Christmas Card," and the Duke Pearson which is amazingly hip. And I really like Marcus Roberts' "Prayer for Peace."

Paul, I've been listening to this one lately too. I hated the early cd version of this, and the late nineties was a much better release; somewhere I have an lp copy that I listened to several times in the seventies and just didn't enjoy. Though I can't say that I like all of Ellis' arrangements, or that I like all of the singing, overall I think this is a very moving album . . . I would say that For Heaven's Sake, I Get Along Well Without You, and I Was a Fool to Want You are my favorite performances. What strikes me about this album lately is how much of Armstrong I hear in her here. I hear Armstrong in her singing throughout her career, but here with her voice in such a diminished capacity (and with her gin drinking capacity nearly reached as well?) I really notice the Armstrong influence and style and SOUND more prominently. Not at all a bad thing, but something I was surprised to hear as I did. BUT in between the last time that I heard Lady In Satin and the most recent hearings I've heard more and more contemporaneous Satch, which may be a reason . . . . As far as the arrangements, I wish they had Galbraith's "Freddie Green four to the bar" playing up front more often in the sessions. But this is an album that I am very glad that I finally enjoy. It languished neglected in my collection in several versions for a long time.

I like this one, better than most of Music is a Healing Force of the Universe really. I liked this direction he was moving in . . . it seemed a natural extension of his work, a logical move from Love Cry. I hope that this gets reissued in the US soon. . . I have a great Japanese k2 copy, but I'd like to see this in the stores, available. I haven't yet ever heard The Last Album, and want to. Ayler was a fascinating man and musician to me; I would love to see learn more about his life and work.

I agree that Mike is a nice fellow indeed, and Nils et al. . . and I really like many sections of the All About Jazz site a lot. . . . But the bulletin board is just. . . boring. I keep trying to get interested, but. . . "Monk vs. Mingus Round Nine". . . "Jaco was the Goddamnedest Greatest". . . .I can't get into it. I just looked over there and didn't see the threads that seem to be controversial and wasn't interested in looking after a few minutes!

Yes coffee, when it's good it's fantastic, when it's mediocre or bad fahgedabahdit. I remember real Ethiopian coffee fondly, though I couldn't drink it that way now, salty as it was. I'll pick up a bag of Ethiopian beans and really enjoy it from time to time however. For the last few years, this is my daily joy, roasted here in Austin from beans from organic Mexican farmers: It's fantastic coffee!

By the way the Sun Ra that they released alongside it is really a great release as well.

This Dodds disc is quite interesting; very nice Dodds section, very interesting remainder of the disc. Have to revisit this several more times soon. I NEED LISTENING TIME!

Le Cercle Rouge has been reissued by Universal France in their soundtrack series. . . .

Thanks for weighing in Brownie; I was out of town for a few days. Yes, this seems to have been a working band. They play slick fusiony funk, and Sonny and Linda twist over top. . . intersting session!

I have the Muse, a Cobblestone reissue, very clean and quiet vinyl, very interesting session with a HUGE band. . . . It's just called "Hermeto" as far as I can tell. What's interesting is it starts out WHACK and gradually becomes more traditionally bossa novaesque as it winds to a conclusion, which is an interesting reversal of how I normally find lps of this time, moving from a traditional beginning to a whacky ending! Dusty Groove has this one. I'm a big Pascoal fan. . . I'm going to have to find more of his releases. Lately I'm grooving to an Aleuda cd called Oferenda that he music-directed and generally was all over. . .

I have to agree. . . get it at the best price you can. . . it's a great investment that will bring years of enjoyment.

A lot of great stuff hasn't made it to cd. . . in my opinion at least. I am glad to see Pee Wee mentioned here. I almost always find his presence an indicator of a great session. I'll toss out the three lps that Joe Newman did midfifties for RCA. . .which were all reissued on a two cd set by RCA France and USA. . . Excellent stuff in all ways from personnel to performance to recording quality.

Vaya con dios amigo!

Main listening system: Dynaco CD 2 cd player (with tubed preamped output, two 6922 tubes and volume control) Decware Select amp (2 watts per channel babycakes!) soon to be replaced with two Decware EL34 Monoblock amps (an incredible 5 watts per channel!) PS Audio Power Plant P300 Decware Radial RL-2 speakers Also a Harmon Kardon casette deck, Philips and Alera Technologies cd burners, Decware "Revision A" amp, Proton 50 watt power amp, Toshiba dvd player, Samsung dvd/vhs player in living room system No turntable at the moment

Hmmm. . . I know they have tapes indeed, but I haven't heard of any with Bird. BUT they did mention having about twenty hours of tape of the band with Paul Jeffrey, which is really good news---this was a great band that is little heard from (makes sense they would have tapes; Tootie was the drummer).

I've begun listening to this cd and think it's great. Thanks for posting the review.

There is an excellent cd version of the Pres box, 16 cds from Japan. Most all of the material has appeared seperately on cds here and there.

Tony, that is just a error in the text; he also offers (put it out first) a Pioneer dvd player (link to Pioneer DVD) with the same modified tube output stage, and he has pasted in an incorrect line or two on that page that leads to information about the Pioneer. One poster on the forum has had both Pioneer and Sony SACD/universal players and reported that the Sony had better SACD sound. I don't know if that was a factor for Steve's choosing the Sony player, but I'm seriously considering getting this next year sometime! I have seen how important the final amplification stage of a player is, and I don't want one that just has a tiny output stage. Steve's tubed stages are fantastic, so this should be a great bang for buck player.