Verve Vaults: OOP Albums

[Soul Stream]

I got the Anito O'Day and Sonny Stitt's "Mr Bojangles"...some (o.k. most) hate this kind of commercial schlock. But I'm a big fan of guys like Stitt and Ammons doing pop songs of the day with strings, funky guitar and drums and electric piano. So...yeah...I'm sold on the Verve itunes thing. Been an avid ipod guy for a while and it just keeps getting better and better.

[jazzbo]

tatifan, you DO get a beautiul front cover image with the download to iTunes. . . though you don't get any more notes etc. than you see before downloading.

I would rather pay less, but I have bought some of these because basically they were clones of Japanese cds that cost a lot more, and I felt they were a good deal in that sense. And I bought some Betty Carters because I hadn't been able to find cheaper used discs. . . .

[Soul Stream]

O.K. Sonny Stitt's "Mr. Bojangles" is totally badass....Sir Roland Hanna on wurlitzer piano and Richard Davis on Electric bass....check out Blue Monsoon and you'll be convinced.

...paging JSngry...you'll dig this...

[JSngry]

I'll get the LP used when I come across it. I like "full packaging for the money".

Wurlitzer, eh? HELL yeah!

[Chuck Nessa]

Wurlitzer, eh? HELL yeah!

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That's a lawnmower, right?

[bertrand]

Some of these are 'real player', nor 'iTunes'. What gives?

Bertrand.

[JSngry]

Wurlitzer, eh? HELL yeah!

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That's a lawnmower, right?

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Nah, it's a swamp cooler. Rhodes is central air, Wurlitzer is a swamp cooler.

[Brad]

Verve has a lot of good offerings right now: Herb Geller Plays (only available in Japan I believe), Mulligand and Desmond Blues in Time, Stitt's Only the Blues, Budd Johnson's French Cookin' and a bunch of others.

[ejp626]

Not a big iTunes person, but I think I'll look into it for Benny Golson's Free, Cannonball's En Route, and Archie Shepp's Things Have Got to Change. I don't believe any have been on CD (in the US), but I could certainly be wrong. Even the imports are very scarce, though Free is a little easier to come by (but still much less expensive on iTunes).

[couw]

Cannonball's En Route

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the Cannonball is part of the two disk EmArcy Small Group set released by Verve (in 1995)

[jazzbo]

Right. And "Free" is part of the Farmer-Golson Mosaic set, which has so many great sessions within it that it and the Jazz Crusaders box sets are among the best values available in jazz.

"Things Have Got to Change" I really like and wish it were available domestically. I have a K2 Impulse cd from Japan, and the iTunes version is a digital clone of that.

[ejp626]

Right. And "Free" is part of the Farmer-Golson Mosaic set, which has so many great sessions within it that it and the Jazz Crusaders box sets are among the best values available in jazz.

"Things Have Got to Change" I really like and wish it were available domestically.  I have a K2 Impulse cd from Japan, and the iTunes version is a digital clone of that.

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See I knew there was a reason I keep coming back. You just saved me $10, since I already have the Farmer-Golson Jazztet (booklet in storage sadly and I just didn't remember Free being on it). One of my favorite Mosaics definitely.

Things Have Got to Change does look like a good session with Shepp and Moncur. Probably if enough people download it, Verve will release it domestically (a real Catch-22).

[couw]

Things Have Got to Change does look like a good session with Shepp and Moncur.  Probably if enough people download it, Verve will release it domestically (a real Catch-22).

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playing it now, the first tune is one of those typical early 70s Shepp chanting ditties. Lots of steady rock beat with plenty of people shouting and singing the same phrase over and over again. Slow build-up of instrumental figures moving in and out of the mix. Pretty not so fantastic the longer it carries on, really. The two Massey tunes that complete the album are much more worth the while. Dr King is a short and pretty ballad, but the final tune then again breathes some of that amateurism on the stage that Shepp seemed to have been so fond of those days, maybe mistaking it for cuddly spontaneity; and, to be frank, also these tunes get stranded in endless repetitive chants and figures that attempt a climax but do not really succeed in reaching it. The long tunes are too long and carry too little meat. They offer some nice soundscapes though.

[jazzbo]

I guess I like it more. I like his political works. . . it is of its time and yet also seems timely almost any now. And I like the chanting and buildups and don't think they go on too long at all.

I wish they would put it out as a domestic cd as well. . . . The Impulses they put out now in the LP By Request series (or whatever it is) sure are nice . . . .

Edited October 30, 2005 by jazzbo

[ejp626]

I finally loaded up iTunes to take a look. What a rip! You hear so much about Jobs standing up to the music industry and insisting on maintaining his $0.99 a track policy (which is still far too high for what you are getting). But it turns out that is a lie. Already, for short albums (under 8 tracks, which is the vast majority of jazz re-issues) a number of tracks are unavailable and can only be bought for the entire album price of $9.99. So instead of being able to download the six tracks from Tex Book Tenors for about $6, you can download 5 and skip the last one or pay the entire album price for 6 tracks. It's even worse for this Shepp, since it is 3 tracks. Even if I thought it was fair to pay $2 for the extra long tracks, it should still be $5. A complete fucking rip-off. That's the last time I bother to look at the iTunes store. I'll stick with emusic, or ideally buying the CDs themselves.