“Roma”, Enrico Rava with Joe Lovano, recorded live in Rome in 2018. An ECM recording with excellent sound. Two great musicians making great music. Via Tidal.
1969 reissue compilation of recordings from three 1933 sessions. I don't know what label(s) these were on originally. It's all fine except a couple of ballad vocals by Benny, who's embarrassing as a crooner, but great on alto, trumpet & clarinet. There's even a pioneering flute solo by Wayman Carver on one track. Around 1970 I had two LPs with this label, compilations by Mose Allison & the MJQ. I only had a handful of jazz records & I played those a lot. I have no idea how they got away from me.
I played Natives and Aliens a couple of times in a row yesterday. Terrific performance and recording/mastering on Leo Records.
Bovema issued a series of albums like that. It's an excellent survey of Herman's Capitol recordings, which are all included in the Woody Herman Capitol Mosaic, of course:
Marlor Productions Ellington '86 - A Stereo Excursion with Duke Ellington 1953 - 1973" - Engineer (re-mix) : Jack Towers
I don't think I'd ever heard of Chad Fowler before this year. I don't recall ever before coming across him in the world of music, or the the world of technology (I see we have four connections in common on LinkedIn, all from the internet tech/venture capital world). Nor had I heard of his Mahakala Record label. He almost seems like a person I would have made up. But there's he's been at the center of some of my favorite recordings this year -- his duo album with Matthew Shipp, Old Stories, is one of my favorites of the year, free but also drawing from a deep well of, well, the "true jazz language." A long, wonderful journey. The Chad Anderson (does everyone have to be named Chad in jazz now?) album released on Mahakala, Mellifluous Excursions Vol. 1 - Where You Been, was really intriguing (it also featured this years free jazz it girl, Zoh Amba, who also released her most fully realized album as a leader, Bhakti, on Fowler's label this year). And Fowler's own leader recording that was recently released, Alien Skin, has been getting a lot of play around my house this week. Definitely being introduced musically to Chad Fowler is one my strongest musical impressions of 2022.
The wife bought me Ibrahim Maalouf’s “Wind” on vinyl for my birthday…listening to it now and wow…just lovely. Wish I’d run across this sooner! Ibrahim Maalouf - Wind Excellent SQ as well…
Molly and I are starting the day with Bill Evans and Tony Scott w Jimmy Garrison Pete Laroca At Last Recorded live at the Showplace NYC 1959
THE DUKE AT FARGO 1940 | DUKE ELLINGTON (STORYVILLE) 2CD SPECIAL 60th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Alto Saxophone – Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick / Bass – Jimmy Blanton Baritone Saxophone – Harry Carney / Clarinet – Barney Bigard Cornet – Rex Stewart / Drums – Sonny Greer / Guitar – Fred Guy Lead Vocals – Herb Jeffries, Ivie Anderson / Piano – Duke Ellington Tenor Saxophone – Ben Webster / Trumpet – Ray Nance, Wallace Jones Trombone – Juan Tizol, Lawrence Brown, Tricky Sam Nanton Recorded live at the Crystal Ballroom, Fargo, North Dakota, November 7, 1940. Packaged in tri-fold digipak with 16 page booklet. What a performance! Issued by arrangement with Lena Ellington & The Duke Ellington Masters.
Recently I've expanded my repertoire of forums (SHF, QQ, Organissimo), and jazz bloggers like LJC to include vloggers on YouTube like: https://www.youtube.com/@jazzvinylcollector https://www.youtube.com/@JazzBums Perhaps I had overlooked YouTube (beyond Michael Fremer, and a few other commentators) but my sense is there's an uptick in the quality of jazz collector/listener commentary on this platform. What YouTubers are folks finding helpful? NP: Wes Montgomery - So Much Guitar (Riverside mono 1961 OG) (sigh). Beautiful. What an uplifting start to Tuesday. First listen, though surely I've had a copy in some other edition. Montgomery's Riverside recordings are a fave (Full House etc). Cover says stereo, label says mono. Bass – Ron Carter Congas – Ray Barretto Drums – Lex Humphries Guitar – Wes Montgomery Piano – Hank Jones This week I'm planning a visit to the Vanguard to hear Christian McBride's Inside Straight (straight ahead) quintet. Christian McBride - Bass Steve Wilson - Alto Saxophone Warren Wolf - Vibraphone Peter Martin - Piano Carl Allen - Drums Perhaps bassoonist Joy Guidry's show on Thursday. Joy Guidry — The Jazz Gallery Would folks recommend this one? Other clubs are all xmas shows this week (Birdland, Smoke, BlueNote) which I'm less interested in.
A couple recent plays that I picked up over the weekend. The Cannonnball is an outstanding live recording with some great song intros. Riverside mono. The CD has Art Pepper, Joe Farrell and friends from 1982, highlight is a version of Mode for Joe
NP: Eric Kloss - First Class Kloss! (Prestige OG 1967) First listen, and it is a groovy straight ahead set from a 'first class' quintet. Alto sax, Tenor sax – Eric Kloss Bass – Leroy Vinnegar Drums – Alan Dawson Piano – Cedar Walton Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Jimmy Owens
How's the sound on this version? Any improvements from earlier versions? I'd happily buy it yet again if so...
I think there's a little bit of improvement from the earlier US cd version. Not necessarily worth re-buying, though I did. I gave the earlier version to my brother years ago.
The Stash/VJC version, or the earlier Storyville (I'm not sure if Storyville 'counts' as a U.S. label, though I would count it as such, given their long distribution history here)? I have both of those.
The Stash. This is the eaerliest Storyville (not US label) version I heard and seen; there's another in the "Ellington" Storyville box.
Miles Davis "Seven Steps to Heaven" Sony SBM mastered lp facsimile cd. It's interesting how well these 20 bit remastered cds that I bought years and years ago of Miles Davis albums I love have held up sonically. When I revisit them I notice how great they sound. . . and then I disappear into the familiar, almost "cherished" music. Seven Steps To Heaven SRCS9109 Edit to add: the link here has an error that needs corrected: the track "Seven Steps to Heaven" though a Feldman tune was recorded in NYC with Hancock and Williams, not during the second Hollywood session as noted on the page.
