I used my last three Borders 30% off coupons yesterday on three jazz CDs:

Ray Barretto: "Standards Ri-Conditioned" on the Zoho label. This was the great conguero's swan-song, recorded literally weeks before his untimely passing. It also features the last recording for pianist Hilton Ruiz, who died under very mysterious circumstances in New Orleans this year.

Jerry Bergonzi: "Live Gonz II" on Double-Time Records. This is a follow up disc to his "Live Gonz," recorded live at the Duc des Lombards jazz club in Paris. It is a quartet date.

Phil Woods: "American Songbook" on Proper. This one came out this year and features Phil's working band of Bill Charlap on piano, Bill Goodwin on drums, Steve Gilmore on bass and the *great* Brian Lynch on trumpet.

Got a few the other day.

Cyrus Chestnut - Genuine Chestnut (2006)
Despite his obvious piano skills, Chestnut have turned out a set I'd describe as "lazy sunday afternoon jazz" It's not bad but compared to the albums he did in the early/mid 90s it is kinda boring.

Uri Caine & Bedrock - Shelflife (2006)
Like the first of Caine's Bedrock projects, this is not for the faint-hearted. This really is a mixing of jazz/drum n bass/free form/funk and hip-hop - but it works for me. Nothing sounds quite like this, but obviously Caine's work is an aqquired taste.

Roy Hargrove - Nothing Serious (2006)
Good to have Hargrove back in an all acoustic setting after his 2 RH Factor sets. This album features Slide Hampton on a few cuts, rather surprising I might add. It doen't come close to albums like "Public Eye" or "The Vibe" but it's worth checking out regardless.

I keep finding these 30% off coupons and picked up last night tenor saxophist Branford Marsalis' new quartet disc, "Braggtown," on his eponymously titled label, Marsalis Music.

Branford, while not as famous as his younger trumpet playing brother, is as accomplished as Wynton is. He is building an impressive body of work on Marsalis Music much as Wynton is on his new label, Blue Note. Both had long relationships with Columbia Records, the Tiffany label of jazz record labels that inexplicably imploded its jazz department.

Marsalis has a working band and is backed by his regular rhythm section of his long-time cohort Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, Eric Revis on bass & Joey Calderazzo on piano.

Marsalis is touring in support of the new disc and has a gig in NYC at the Jazz Standard club starting Thursday and this post reminds me that I must make my reservation.

Anything featuring Joey Calderazzo is sure to get my attention! The guy have some truly insane playing skills!

Yeah, I'm a Calderazzo fan as well. I'll see him in the flesh tomorrow night when I catch Branford Marsalis' gig at the Jazz Standard club.

I remember back in '97 tenor player Michael Brecker put together a super group that gigged at Birdland. It included Jack DeJohnnette on drums, Dave Holland on bass, Pat Methaney on guitar and Brecker on tenor sax. The only "unknown" in the group was Calderazzo and I thought he blew everyone away that night.

Meanwhile, I went to my favorite used CD store yesterday and walked out with 5 discs.

The best find was Fathead Newman's "Heads Up" on the Atlantic label. Not only is this CD long out of print, but the Atlantic label imploded its jazz department. Recorded at the inchoate stage of the CD era in 1987, I had never heard of this recording. Fathead is playing in an acoustic setting. He put together a first-rate band that includes now ex-pat pianist Kirk Lightsey; drummer Eddie Gladden; bassist David Williams; and Steve Nelson rounds out the band on vibes.

I also found a copy of tenor player Donny McCaslin's "Soar." McCaslin is not one of my favorites, but I bought this one because he had the good sense to use the great Brazilian singer Luciano Souza on more than a few cuts. This one is on the Sunnyside label.

I also found a sealed copy of a copy of a CD from "The Patriarch" aka Ellis Marsalis. This one is called "Ruminations in New York" and Ellis plays solo. It is on Elm Records, a label I've never heard of. Recorded in '03 and released in '04.

Roger Kellaway: "Heroes." I'm not crazy about the piano-bass-guitar configuration that Kellaway uses on this disc, but I decided to buy it because I like the standards on the disc, including Benny Golson's "Killer Joe" and Duke Ellington's "Cottontail."

My final purchase was tenor player Dave Glasser's "Above the Clouds" on the Arbors label. Glasser is best known (to me anyway) for being a long-standing member in trumpeter Clark Terry's quintet. Arbors is a label that is mostly associated with traditional jazz, so recordings on this label are few and far between in my collection. But Glasser uses a couple of hard boppers, Carl Allen on drums and the ex-Messenger Dennis Irwin on bass as well as pianist Larry Hamm, new to me.

One of the nice things about the used CD store I patronize is they allow you to put items on hold for two days. I put five CDs on hold and it turns out 4 of them I didn't own.

I'm a fan of guitarist Dave Stryker. He's recorded prolifically for the Danish Steeplechase label and I found a quintet CD he recorded for Steeplechase called "The Greeting."

He assembled a crackerjack line-up, assembling a Bruce Barth-Scott Colley-Tony Reedus rhythm section. Rounding out the band is Daniel Sadownick.

I don't know why I didn't buy Milt Jackson's "It Don't Mean A Thing If You Can't Tap Your Foot to It" on Pablo years ago considering the line-up. In addition to Bags, the band includes Ray Brown, Cedar Walton & Mickey Roker. You know these guys are going to kick some serious ass on this one.

A nice find was a duo disc that features pianist Bill Mays -- one of my favorites -- and bassist Ray Drummond, one of the two or three best working bassists today. This one is on the DMP label, which I don't think is active anymore.

My final purchase was another disc that may also be out of print, Curtis Fuller's "Boss of the Soul-Stream Trombone." Originally issued on LP on the Warwick label, it was released on CD by the grey market Fresh Sound label. I'm not a huge fan of the trombone, but Fuller put together a kick ass band that included a young Freddie Hubbard, then at the top of this game, Yusef Lateef, the great bop pianist Walter Bishop and two musicians I am not familiar with, Buddy Catlett & Stu Martin.

I picked up a disc called "New York Time" on the Chesky label last night at Borders using a 30% off coupon. This is a co-op band that consists of two ex-Messengers, the incomparable pianist Cedar Walton and tenor player Javon Jackson, the legendary Jimmy Cobb and wunderkind bassist Christian McBride.

I actually learned of this CD's existance when I stopped in Tower to see if there was a "going out of business" sale and everything was 10% off. Well, no wonder Tower fell on hard times. I can purchase the CD less expensively at Borders than I can at a store going out of business.

Just ordered 11 of the "Live at Maybeck" series form Vintage on line. The list includes Cedar Walton and Jessica Williams.

Still looking for the Jaki Byard. Every time I find one it has a price tag that is out of site! The lowest I have seen is $62.50 + shipping!


BTW
What happened to the Tower closing thread?

quote:

when I stopped in Tower to see if there was a "going out of business" sale and everything was 10%

If Tower is really going out of business I could really use some sites that are good on-line music sources. My closeset brick and motar store is 105 miles away over an 11,000 foot pass. Its not an easy trip in the winter when I need new music the most.

I am surprised you could find so many Maybeck titles. I was under the impression that those went out of print. I assume Vintage is a used site.

The Tower thread was moved to one of the threads in the rock 'n roll area.

I can't be much help regarding on-line retailers. I live in New York City and we still have a number of brick 'n morter stores with good selections of jazz CDs. I mostly order on-line for Japanese imports or occasionally an out of print titles.

quote:

I am surprised you could find so many Maybeck titles. I was under the impression that those went out of print. I assume Vintage is a used site.

You are correct. The Maybeck series is out of print, but can be found used on-line. Part of my morning ritual is to search for Maybeck disks(among others) at reasonable prices. On the same morning, I often see the same disk priced from $5.00 to $100! Ebay and Amizon seem to be the home of the high priced disk.

quote:

I live in New York City and we still have a number of brick 'n morter stores with good selections of jazz CDs.

We live in different worlds. My town has a population of 500 and is located high up in the Rocky Mountains - 8500 feet. I traded live Jazz and shopping for wilderness and skiing. There is some live music in Winter Park which is about 30 miles away, but night mountain driving after a night in a club is a bit on the risky side. We do have the occational "Jazz" concert in Grand Lake, but its rare and often not worth listening to.

The Internet must be a Godsend for you. The way jazz retailers are closing -- Tower is going belly up and HMV, which had a half dozen stores in Manhattan at one point, closed all its stores -- I may have to opt for the Internet as well.

Once Tower closes its doors the only two music stores with good jazz sections will be J&R Music World and Virgin, which has two stores in Manhattan. Borders, a bookstore, also has a good, if not great, jazz section and they have many stores in Manhattan. In fact, I buy most of my CDs there, using 30% off coupons I pull off the web.

How do you get the 30% off coupons. I am heading to Colrado Springs next week (my wife is going to a real estate convention) and I will have time to get to Borders and any used music stores I can find. Borders sends me stuff in the mail, but it usually expires before I get to Denver or is for a hardback book or DVD that I don't want.

Just do a Google Search and type the words: Borders Coupons.

Last weekend I picked up The Microscopic Septet's Seven Men in Neckties: History of the Micros, Vol.1, one of two compilations Cuneiform records just issued on this band. This cd features their Take the Z Train and Let's Flip! albums from the early 1980s as well as an assortment of outtakes and unreleased tracks from those records. I'm not sure when I first heard the Septet, though their releases have been on a want-list of mine for many years. This is big band music, progressive, and extremely uplifting and fun. The second compilation, Surrealistic Swing, encompasses the band's 3rd and 4th (final?) albums, so I'll be hunting for it next. The Septet broke up in the early '90s but have reunited for a small tour to promote these reissues. Here's hoping they play live somewhere near me.

I hit my favorite used CD store and here is my booty:

From my "want to buy list"

Stefan Harris: Tarantella (Blue Note)

Eliane Elias: Around the City (RCA/Bluebird)

Roseanna Vitro: Live at Kennedy Center (Challenge)

Stuff Not on My List, but I Bought Anyway:

Neil Miner: The Evening Sound (Smalls)

Peter Zimmer: Common Man (Tippin' Records)

Willie Jones III: Vol. III (WJ3)

Mingus Dynasty: Chair in the Sky (Collectables/Electra)

I made another visit to my favorite used CD store, Academy Records, and picked up three more discs.

I bought "Sweet Love," a date where the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald duets with guitarist Joe Pass. Both were stalwarts of Norman Granz' Pablo label and the disc was on that label.

Granz also recorded pianist Art "The Left Hand of God" Tatum frequently in the 1950s. Granz may have sold the Verve label, but one thing he kept with him was the masters of the Tatum sides. I bought Vol. 3 of Tatum's solo efforts on Pablo.

My final purchase was a new George Cables' trio disc on the Italian Kind of Blue label. Called "A Tribute to Dexter" the disc is a tribute to legendary tenor saxist Dexter Gordon. Cables was Gordon's pianist during his late career renaissance and he used on the trio disc two musicians who also were associated with Gordon, bassist Rufus Reid & drummer Victor Lewis.

Went a little nuts last week on-line and the discs started arriving last Saturday. Four more "Maybecks", Shelly Manne's "My Fair Lady", Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth" and the ten disc Erroll Garner Profile set. We expecting another big snow storm over the next couple of days so I set.

quote:

Once Tower closes its doors the only two music stores with good jazz sections will be J&R Music World and Virgin, which has two stores in Manhattan. Borders, a bookstore, also has a good, if not great, jazz section and they have many stores in Manhattan.

I have been monitoring the "in stock" inventory of www.towerrecords.com. Jazz->Instock over the last few weeks and it is not always decreasing. High value was 14,400 on 10/16, low value was 13,987 on 10/23, and current value is 14,158 on 10/25. I also built a sample bag of 7 "in-stock" Jazz CDs and have been tracking its total price. All are still in stock and the total price has actually gone up by $2.00!
I have seen no mention of the web site going off-line and their prices do not reflect a going out of business sale.

I was in Tower Monday night and the sale is still only 20% off, not as good as the 30% off coupons from the very much still in business Borders down the street. Tower's inventory, though, is clearly thinning.

I did read a piece in the "Times" yesterday and the paper's classical music critic was lamenting the loss of the classical music department at Tower's Lincoln Center store. In the article the author mentioned that the stores are expected to remain open until the end of the year and there is still stock in warehouses that have yet to be moved into the stores, though you would never know that by judging what is left on the shelves in the jazz department.

And Tower has had a sign in its window looking for help, 24 to 40 hours a week they promise. I would be wary about taking a job at a firm going belly up. I would demand cash only at the end of my shift. Who knows if you would get paid?

I picked up John Hicks' last recording "Sweet Love of Mine" which is just out on the HighNote label. I used a 30% off Borders coupon. Hicks was a terrific, hard-swinging pianist who passed in May.

Hicks put together a quintet for the session that includes his wife Elise Woods on flute, Javon Jackson, the ex-Messenger on tenor sax, his long-timer compadre Curtis Lundy on bass, Victor Jones on drums and Ray Mantilla on percussion.

I gave the CD a spin this a.m. and liked what I heard.