i spent last weekend in new york, buying cd's and, sadly, not making it to the clark terry show. i used the former to soothe the pain of the latter.
at
academy:
duke ellington('s spacemen), "the cosmic scene": total craziness. duke cashing in on the space race craze, with clark terry cashing in on the slightly less well-known fluegelhorn craze. has some random blues songs for you slow freaks. at first listen, i think "jones" (and its alternate take), "perdido", and "take the 'a' train" would be good to dance to.
louis armstrong, "satchmo '54" (jazzUp/new sound planet, 1988): amazon and allmusic have never heard of this cd, which makes it that much cooler, of course. it's a bunch of radio transcripts armstrong did for a station in new york that seemed to have been aimed at colleges. this stuff is really only interesting to completists, i imagine. sound quality isn't fabulous, and the recordings aren't wonderfully superior to similar ones on other albums.
at norman's:
bill henderson, "his complete veejay recordings, volume 2": i didn't really buy this to dj from, actually, but you can dance to quite a bit of it.
louis armstrong, "the sullivan years": most tracks have some ed sullivan intro, and some have a bit of echo. not the greatest to dj from, probably, but it's louis, and i didn't have it, so it got bought.
at
jazz record center:
count basie, "satch and josh...again": i think this album got three mentions on the first page of this topic.
count basie, "the golden years, vol.2: 1938": rockin'. discussed elsewhere, i believe, and highly endorsed by matthew there.
count basie, "the golden years, vol.4: 1944/45": v-discs, this time. whatever. who cares. basie. we've all agreed to treat him like a god, i think, so just go buy it. right now. that's right. go.
louis armstrong, "paris jazz concert 1962": jesus could that man play. anyway, this is armstrong and his all-stars generic concert #417, complete with the same introductions and jokes. good sound, though, and i take back that bit about basie being a god. clearly louis is a god. basie is merely mortal. anyway: nice "saints", "bbq", "st. louis blues", and a good slower version of "now you has jazz".
louis armstrong, "historic barcelona concerts at the windsor palace 1955": nice sound, nice packaging (with a small copy of the programme from '55, with old ads, etc.), not complete. they rushed three concerts into one day, and i think you can hear it here and there (edmond hall on "sweet georgia brown" sounds like he's struggling a little with his reed). i'm unlikely to dj from this. i have good live versions of most things on "california concerts" and other albums already.
jimmy dorsey, "contrasts": it was on sale. i haven't really listened to it yet.
duke ellington, "blues in orbit": oops. i already have it. anyway.
erskine hawkins, "1938/1940": great stuff. only had a quick listen, but it all sounded danceable.
fletcher henderson, "the crown king of swing": i don't think i'll dj very much off this cd. mostly makes me want to one-step, not lindy.
john kirby and his sextet, "complete associated transcriptions": i got all three volumes. fun stuff! where's that thread on classical music in swing again?
and four volumes of the benny goodman yale music archives. i haven't listened to much of them yet.