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Before OJCs go away


Chuck Nessa

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cool, crazy, weird, interesting, great, very good stuff off the top of my head that WILL go--

gil melle

duane tatro

those early shelly manne "free" sides

steve lacy "evidence"

parts of the red garland catalog

most of the jaki (& we waited quite a while for it come out to begin with; get "Sunshine of Your Soul" first)

bye-bye Gigi, adios Elmo

i'd be surprised if ALL the riverside johnny griffin & blue mitchell sides make it

ditto hampton hawes, raise the fuck up off me concord

those curtis counce sides are classics...

the leroy vinnegars

shit, that whole Hawk series...

this is a real drag bc these things have just ALWAYS been there...

so long Specialty Gospel discs too? maybe that stuff sells more than i know.

art farmer, clifford jordan, teddy edwards, mal waldron...

try $2000, $200 barely scratches the surface.

there's hep stuff in the Bluesville catalog too--

inpecunious clem

athens, ga

Exactly. Some people think Melle's Prestige (? right label?) sides are better than what he did for Blue Note... the Tatro is an overlooked classic... and Manne's albums like THE THREE AND THE TWO and SHELLY MANNE & HIS MEN V. 2 are definitely worth the price of admission for anybody who's interested in the more experimental side of West Coast. Curtis Counce, too, esp. if you like Carl Perkins---lots of Carl and Harold Land on those sides.

Probably already mentioned somewhere, but don't overlook Joe Gordon's LOOKIN' GOOD.

Man, I already have quite a lot of this stuff, but there's so much that I haven't heard or picked up yet. It's become all too easy to take the OJC catalog for granted.

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Guest akanalog

barry harris "magnificent" is great. trio with leroy williams and ron carter.

cedar walton "cedar!"-mixed groups. billy higgins, leroy vinnegar, kenny dorham, et al. nice compositions and bouncy playing.

lasha/simmons "the cry"-better than their other one, in my opinion. very accesible and groovy basslines for the most part. never heard of mark proctor or gene stone before or since.

lee kontiz "peacemeal"-interesting. i don't like konitz (that dry intellectual thing, IMO) but this session is interesting. gomez and dejohnette and i don't know much about marshal brown, but i like him here.

mccoy tyner "the greeting"-i like this better than the other live OJC dates though most don't seem to feel this way. good compositions and high, but not too high, energy.

woody shaw "song of songs"-again, overlooked due to the weaker, to me, "blackstone legacy". but this is a good album. interesting compositions and a touch of freaked out e. piano.

barney kessel "feeling free"-not a kessel fan, but this has elvin and hutcherson. which is enough for me. and kessel sounds good in this company.

dave brubeck "jazz at oberlin"-good stuff. exciting when you consider it is from like 1953.

what was the point of this thread?

and i don't love it, but an overlooked later OJC-

chico freeman "destiny's dance"-i don't like the 80's production values, but this has wynton in a rougher mood and hutcherson. good compositions-nice version of "same shame"

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barry harris "magnificent" is great. trio with leroy williams and ron carter.

cedar walton "cedar!"-mixed groups. billy higgins, leroy vinnegar, kenny dorham, et al. nice compositions and bouncy playing.

You just reminded me that my copy of AT THE JAZZ WORKSHOP is still on order ( :ph34r: ) and that BULLSEYE is another title worthy of recommendation.

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Well my take on the impending sale was, hold off on buying any OJCs. My reasoning was: Fantasy never did much to improve their OJC reissues. Sometimes alternate takes true, but almost nothing in terms of remastering (until the recent, limited, K2 reissues), new liner notes, photos, etc. So I figured that a new purchaser, wanting to maximize return on its new investment, might start a bluenote-like reissue program with additional photos, tracks, new linernotes, etc. to boost sales. I think all would agree that the bluenote approach, while not perfect, puts Fantasy to shame. Of course, after reading Chuck's postings on the subject, I could see it going that way too. Perhaps Chuck's view is the more likely . . .

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I'm not taking any chances.

But... this coming from a guy who has almost all of the Blue Note Collector Choice titles. I never figured I'd see them eventually replaced by superior sounding RVG's. :angry::blink:

I've always been pretty happy with the sound of OJC's so I'll live with it if there is an upgrade.

It looks like I'll be having an OJC Christmas. :g

Edited by AfricaBrass
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Gil Evans +10

This is available on a hybrid SACD that for the first time seems to have used stereo tapes located only recently - there was a discussion on this in the thread about the Fantasy SACDs, too.

In other words, skip the OJC for the SACD.

Edited by mikeweil
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Well my take on the impending sale was, hold off on buying any OJCs. My reasoning was: Fantasy never did much to improve their OJC reissues. Sometimes alternate takes true, but almost nothing in terms of remastering (until the recent, limited, K2 reissues), new liner notes, photos, etc. So I figured that a new purchaser, wanting to maximize return on its new investment, might start a bluenote-like reissue program with additional photos, tracks, new linernotes, etc. to boost sales. I think all would agree that the bluenote approach, while not perfect, puts Fantasy to shame.

OTOH they reissued a much higher percentage of their catalogue and kept it in print! And they were a little earlier than Blue Note. On an average, Blue Notes are of higher quality in editing and sound, but some Fantasy CDs sound very good. At least the newer remasters do not sound as boosted in the high and low end like recent RVGs.

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If I had to pick only one or two Hawk titles, which ones would fit into both the "very essential" and "likely to vanish" categories?

My first pick would be Hawk Eyes, followed by Soul.

My picks as well, though I would through in a rec. too for the meeting with Lockjaw Davis (NIGHT HAWK) and the date with Vic Dickenson and Joe Thomas.

hawkins225.gif

hawkins420.gif

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This thread has made me realize I take OJCs for granted. So I bought seven last night:

Harold Land--The Fox and In New York

Pepper Adams--Encounter!

The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon

Nat Adderley--Work Song

the Bobby Timmons Trio in Person

Coleman Hawkins--Nighthawk

I fear the floodgates have barely been opened...

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If I had to pick only one or two Hawk titles, which ones would fit into both the "very essential" and "likely to vanish" categories?

My first pick would be Hawk Eyes, followed by Soul.

My picks as well, though I would through in a rec. too for the meeting with Lockjaw Davis (NIGHT HAWK) and the date with Vic Dickenson and Joe Thomas.

hawkins225.gif

hawkins420.gif

Then there is that highly charged 'Very Saxy' session with Arnett Cobb, Eddie Davis and Buddy Tate where all four seem to get at each other throats. In a very friendly and swinging way :o

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Then there is that highly charged 'Very Saxy' session with Arnett Cobb, Eddie Davis and Buddy Tate where all four seem to get at each other throats. In a very friendly and swinging way :o

That's a great one! One of the best tenor "battles" ever recorded, IMHO.

The Cobbs are nice, too.

I'm afraid much of this catalogue will be missed only after it's gone and scoring high prices on ebay!

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Here are two more not to be missed:

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Randy Weston Trio with Cecil Payne: With These Hands

This one contains the original version of "Little Niles," and it's still my favorite. Even if you have the Mosaic Select, this one is a worthwhile addition. Great sound, too.

f57233zh2ls.jpg

Elmo Hope Trio & Sextet: Homecoming!

The trio tracks in particular, with Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones, show just how much Hope was a musical peer of Monk, Powell, and Nichols. Harmonically rich and surprising, Hope's writing has its own individual flare. Again, great sound.

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Great idea for a thread :tup

So what about all that label sale affair? Any indicators confirming the rumours? Any news?

My antennae are picking up movement on that front. A massive Fantasy catalogue restock has just (well, actually one or two weeks ago) hit my favorite jazz shop with loads and loads of titles I hadn't seen in years and many more I'd never seen before, like all that soulful late 60s sides (Houston Person et al) or many early 7000s Prestiges (Two Trumpets ...). Trouble is they're all ZYX. But anyway, many of them are hard enough to find in this incarnation.

So I think I'll go down tomorrow to get me some, even though I wanted to wait a week or two before revisiting the store and even though I have lots of other items higher up in my wants list. But I guess I won't get another chance to grab many of them.

I only have a couple of questions: is Fantasy really on the brink of extinction? And how are US OJCs compared to ZYXs. From what I have seen I'd say they're mostly earlier remasters. But how is sound? And is there some evidence of aonther label buying up that catalogue?

The idea of someone starting a proper reissue program with it is really appealing. But it might as well go the other way round: bought up and locked away in the archives.

Oh my, more spending

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