I actually won a couple of e-bay bids and yesterday in the mail from China of all places Lewis Nash's Stompin' at the Savoy arrived in my mailbox.

I bought it because it is on the Japanese M&I label, which is a label not distributed in the U.S. It is a weird configuration of instruments of drums (Nash), bass (Peter Washington) and vibes (Steve Nelson).

J&R Music World here in NYC is having a sale on Verve label titles and I picked up Oscar Peterson's "Plays Harold Arlen."

Well I've done it! Just got the last 2 of the 42 Live At Maybeck series. I have to admit that I down loaded these last two (17-Jaki Byard and 32-Sir Roland Hanna) from EMusic.com. BTW they have the complete series. Just use "Maybeck" as an album search. If you use the complete title you'll miss some since there are some differences in how the albums are listed.

Now I have to start on Tatum!

Latest two jazz cd purchases:

Music Is Real by What's Up, a Japanese quintet. A nice upbeat set, sounds like it could have been recorded back in '57-59 with other classic jazz albums. Worth hunting down.

Speaking of '57, my other jazz pickup is the v/a double disc,The Best Of Newport `57: 50th Anniversary Collection. Features numbers from Billie Holiday, Count Basie Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Cecil Taylor and Bobby Henderson, among many others. Just going through my first listen to this album and really enjoying it. Jack Teagarden & His Sextet's "Basin Street Blues" is playing now.