Some more recent purchases:
Nina Simone -- The Best of the Colpix Years
Nina is great as she always is. The sound quality is hit and miss. The song selection is ok, but this being a compilation, the songs and the sound quality is disjointed.
She sings 'Fine and Mellow', I always thought that song belonged to Billie. After hearing Nina, it still belongs to Billie. The critics seem to feel that she did her best work at Colpix. If the title of this CD is correct, I disagree. I like the Philips output much better.
Branford Marsalis Quartet -- Four MFs Playin' Tunes
Who Dat?? Who Dat, say Jazz is dead?? It is alive and well, and this CD is proof. I am not familiar with his quartet, but they are great. Esp the piano player (Joey Calderazzo). But all are great. I think this is where the be/hard bop guys were heading. It's fresh, new, and progressive, with it's orgins/roots firmly planted in the past. This is the new Jazz! Don't need no Koreans or Arabs or any of the rest. I think Branford might be better than his brother.
Joe Henderson -- Our Thing
with/Joe Henderson, Tenor sax / Kenny Dorham, trumpet / Andrew Hill, piano / Eddie Khan, bass / Pete LaRoca, drums
Good Blue Note outing. Professionals at work. The liner notes of the LP, and the Remaster, this is a RVG CD, are something to behold. I had to check to see if they had been written by The Frogman! I wonder how many Jazz fans think of, and 'hear' the music the way Messrs. leonard Feather and Bob Blumenthal perceive it?
Dizzy Gillespie -- Dizzy's Big 4
with / Dizzy / Joe Pass / Ray Brown / Mickey Roker.
Typical OJC sound quality, which is very good. Dizzy continues to amaze me how he can play in the upper register with such ease and purity of tone. He is without peer doing that. 'Be Bop' is my favorite. They take it at light speed!! Birks Works is also very good. Another Norman Granz production. I am currently reading the Hershorn book about Granz.
Cheers
