Matthew

Chuck: Don't know what the problem is but I couldn't email to the above address out of yahoo. PM sent for the catalog.

I'm thinking about the Bill Evans Complete Fantasy Recordings box. The one thing holding me back is the idea of going the Japan route for better sound quality. I have all the Riverside recordings in high-def format (sacd,k-2, xrcd) and I would like to do that with Evans' Riverside stuff. OTOH, I do like the sound quality of the Coltrane Prestige box, and that came out about the same time as the Evans Fantasy box. There's also the possibility of another Concord sale, and maybe I could pick up this set cheap, though there are some good prices now on Amazon for the set. So, I'm just pondering right now.

Bill Evans: The Secret Sessions.

Bill Evans: Turn Out The Stars. Disk one. I know a lot of ebay prices are bad but this set is being sold off Amazon.com, and the price is $299.00.

Bee Gees 1st is a great album. It sure is; we listened to it twice last night. I was familiar with "New York Mining Disaster" and knew "To Love Somebody" through Nina Simone's version, but the rest was new to me. A lot of blatant Revolver-era Beatles influence, but it's good such influence. And another for Oliver Nelson's AFRO-AMERICAN SKETCHES (75th anniversary of his birthday is coming up, btw.) How Please Read Me didn't become a no. 1 hit, I'll never know.

Bee Gees 1st is a great album.

Bill Evans: ---- Last Waltz: The Final Recordings Live. ---- Consecration.

Got Scrubs season five today, and actually, the episodes are better than season four. For some reason, I can watch the Scrubs DVDs for hours on end. I'm thinking of getting the USA version of The Office for my vacation; just looking at the highlights on YouTube, it seems interesting and funny. Anyone here like it?

Same here! I'm planning on listening to a few this weekend and hopefully backing up a bunch and burning them this weekend. Yeah, my count includes a ridiculous amount still on the hard drive. The fact that the folder is titled "Dime - August 2006" might give you an inkling. Guys, don't remind me. I've been downloading a ton of Porcupine Tree concerts....

You were thinking what I'm thinking. Just looking at the titles for this lp, there's a lot to like, though the Ogerman addition is one I don't like that much. I was thinking: how bad could it be? even If Evans just played the melodies that would be nice. Maybe I should be thankful I haven't heard it yet.

Actual music confuses many fans. Technical discussion of music, yes. In this instance, I would prefer a clear sense of the life of Powell, and a good sense of what his life was really like, then some of the fairy-tales that have accumulated around Powell's life can be corrected. It's rare that a writer can handle both music and biography, though Pullman could do both, and do a great job; however, a book like that could be well over 1,000 pages. Also, sad to say, I do not have the background to understand a lot of technical analysis regarding music. I can't bluff my way through that lacuna in my education.

Mr. Kart: That is good news to hear. Pullman will do a great job on this, and I like the fact there will not be a lot of musical analysis or mind reading of Powell. Just getting the facts in order, and dispelling the myths surrounding Powel, will be a great service to the memory of Powell. PS: My hope is that the publisher is very understanding and doesn't demand a bulldozer be taken to the text.

Gee, not even in Japan? It does have some interesting titles on it, and I would be interested in hearing Hollywood, just to hear what Evans-Ogerman came up with. I demand this gets released.

That's a trick offer, there is no such thing as a good translation of Being and Time, even Germans don't understand the German much less a translation.

No, but I bought Eye In The Sky last week in the HDAD format, and I liked it.

Sorry to bore people with my Bill Evans question here, but I have searched through various discographies and I can't seem to find out if this has ever been out on cd. Does anyone know? Evans didn't think too much of it, but I'm becoming a completest about Evans. Bill Evans Plays The Theme From The V.I.P.'s And Other Great Songs (MGM E 4184) Bill Evans (p) Claus Ogerman (arr, cond) unidentified large orchestra, strings and choir NYC, May 6, 1963 63VK420 Theme From "The V.I.P.'s" 63VK443 On Broadway unidentified brass, woodwinds, rhythm and strings replaces unidentified large orchestra, strings and choir NYC, summer 1963 Theme From Mr. Novak The Caretakers' Theme More Walk On The Wild Side Hollywood On Green Dolphin Street The Days Of Wine And Roses The Man With The Golden Arm Laura Tracklist: Side One Theme From "Mr. Novak" The Caretakers Theme More Walk On The Wild Side The Days of Wine and Roses Theme From "The V.I.P.s" Side Two Hollywood (Evans-Ogerman composed) Sweet September On Green Dolphin Street The Man With The Golden Arm Laura On Broadway

More and more, I'm agreeing with John's opinion. There is something special about the Evans/Gomez/Morell trio that brings out great playing in Evans. Evans/Johnson/LaBarbera trio never seemed to hook up together all that well, in fact, there were a lot of numbers where Evans had Johnson/LaBerbera just sit out. I've come to the conclusion that Evans' best playing occurred during his Verve years -- that Verve box contains astoundingly beautiful music. Edit: spelling and to take out some "in facts"

I've been really struck at how good Eddie Gomez is with Bill Evans, just seems such a nice simpatico feeling between the two. Gomez, when he does his solos is very tasteful, and well thought out. A good example is his solo on Embraceable You off At The Montreux Jazz Festival, really outstanding in musical ideas and execution.

I had some time to kill last night so I went looking for any kind of update on Pullman's book on Bud Powell, and the only current reference I found was from Budpowell.com, which mearly states: A full biography by Peter Pullman, Wail: The Life of Bud Powell, is forthcoming. And this question in the Harvard Magazine: Peter Pullman asks if anyone can identify original sources—perhaps “from various bad poems that composer-pianist Earl ‘Bud’ Powell had to memorize in primary school”—for Powell’s lyric “The Great Awakening.” What may be its earliest version, found among the papers of fellow musician Mary Lou Williams, runs: “I was sitting in the Garden one late afternoon/And out of the sky a feather fell!/And not a moment to[sic] soon./I didn’t stop to regard from what source it came/I only know it lifted me from out of the depths of shame./You see, I never really lived/All I’ve done was exist/For all the joy I’ve ever known, was from a knife, a gun, or fist./I came up the hard way, that is, the boys, a drink, and a broad/But from this moment hence,/I’m drawing my sword./ And I’m going to cut the weed of temptation, before it entangles me./And live the way God intended/This short but sweet life to be./Oh, but there’s one thing I’ve not cleared up, and that’s the missing link/From whence the feather came has started me to think./And as I looked up at God’s creation/A school of pigeons flew by./It was then I knew where it came from/God had used a spy.” *sigh* I can keep waiting.

Disk thirteen this morning. Disk fourteen. I really like the Evans/Gomez/DeJohnette cuts, outstanding. Disk fifteen. More Evans/Gomez/DeJohnette and solo Evans.

Please, pretty please, post your thoughts on this when you're done. I just finished Murry Kempton's: Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties, and the Wald book sounds like a natural follow up. Will do, Matthew. I'm going to start it here in just a little while...Wald's previous book EXILES FROM A FUTURE TIME is very good; it and TRINITY are part of a trilogy he is writing about 1930s authors. The classic early/pioneering work on this topic, Daniel Aaron's WRITERS ON THE LEFT, is still worth reading as well. (Wald's trilogy-in-progress is basically an attempt to write an updated & more-expansive version of the Aaron book.) Thanks, I might have to check out Wald for my own vacation in July.

Disk thirteen this morning. Disk fourteen. I really like the Evans/Gomez/DeJohnette cuts, outstanding.

I never knew that, I might have to check in now that's the case. BTW, I never use the View New Posts function, much more fun to go forum-by-forum. Edit: Just one more thought: A good discussion on various classical music topics can be done. A good example can been seen by what rock fans here do, we have topics on Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, Modern Rock, Led Zeppelin, My Bloody Valentine, etc. So it can be done.

GofM: Please, pretty please, post your thoughts on this when you're done. I just finished Murry Kempton's: Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties, and the Wald book sounds like a natural follow up.

Imagine, JD Drew sitting out because he's "injured" -- who would've thought?