Lon Armstrong

My name is actually Lonson Earl Armstrong; I was named after my great-uncle Lonson Earl Armstrong who died in 1920 after serving in the first world war. I guess my biggest claim to fame recently is a nice interview I conducted with Michael Cuscuna about Alfred Lion, one of the two founders of Blue Note Records, in which Michael revealed some information not otherwise recorded. The interview can still be found on the www.allaboutjazz.com website. The interview was also quoted twice in Richard Cook's recent book about Blue Note Records!

Agreed! And I love his and everyone's work on "Kelly the Great". . .

Yeah, how hard is it to type in "September 18, 1965" on the back of a cd case for Cornbread? I think my favorite Lee Morgan is the VeeJay period. . . .

I saw a stupid tv show last night (Wife Swap) in which two adults of one family had switched to drinking coffee through straws because they religiously bleached their teeth and their theory was that their teeth stayed much brighter this way between bleachings because the coffee went past their teeth. . . . Could it really work!? Yes, it's definitely Monday. I'm in the middle of a huge Excel spreadsheet with expenditures. . . and with some Lester Young at the Savoy going to help (or hinder as the case may be).

My Sunday morning started with some Hampton Hawes too, on the new three cd set called "Bopland" (nominally under Dexter Gordon's name) that reissues for the umpteenth time the material that has been out on Bop! and then Savoy Records ("Jazz Concert West Coast" in three volumes). I moved from there into a string of Barney Wilen cds. .. .

My favorite trumpeter is Ray Nance. No it isn't, it's Punch Miller. No wait---it's Fats Navarro! Okay, I confess, it's Eddie Gale. I mean Wild Bill Davison.

My absolute favorite SACD so far is "Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy." This recording is a sentimental favorite of mine; I bought the vinyl back in 1972 and I've had two cd versions. The SACD just sounds so wonderful, really brings out the room and the fact that this was a pretty spontaneous affair. . . . The more I listen to this the more I just feel this is one of the real desert island discs for me.

Also Coltrane's contributions to the four cd set "Miles Davis in Stockholm" on Dragon (and also DIW). Coltrane is just bursting out of the seams of the Davis Quintet and playing some remarkable soloes that really move me!

You're welcome. I have been posting there over a year as "jazzbo" and it is my major internet home!

There isn't anywhere that I know a hard and fast guidebook. The closest thing to a way to assess the value is to search how they fare on ebay the last ninety days or so. That isn't too helpful sometimes as the prices fetched can fluctuate from sale to sale for the same item over a few months! One rule of thumb seems to be that of whether the material in the sets is available elsewhere on cd, the set is not as valuable as if it is not. The Clifford Brown material is all easy to find, and the Tina Brooks has been in and out (and one item is going back into) print for some years now. They will likely not command as high a price as others. Here is a jazz board where Mosaics are often discussed, bought and sold, and valued: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/ There is even a separate forum there for "Mosaics and other Box Sets"!

My list would have to include "Crescent". . . for some reason one of my favorites, hits me on an emotional level and is VERY beautiful. And also Africa Brass. . . the expanded edition. . . just fun to listen to the Dolphy orchestrations, quite movingly played.

The first disc of the two cd "Sacha Distel: Jazz Guitarist" set from Jazz in Paris (Universal)

I've inherited an early nineties B&O system that has a different (not linearly tracking tone arm) turntable . I haven't used it too much, but I have found it to be quite a nice turntable. . . best I've ever owned (though I've never owned any GREAT turntables).

Just an update: I've had the Dec 685 for several months now and can report that this modified Sony plays every cdr that I have thrown at it. . . very well. Excellent transport in this changer, and absolutely lovely tubed output stage!

I've been using a Dec 685 for a few months Pete (as you probably know) and it is sounding better every day! Glad I bought it; my Dynaco cd player was a hard unit to replace but this one has bumped it from my system.

I'm pretty certain that so far only Svetlana and Sovtek make this type of tube. I've tried both, several pairs of both including a cryo'd Sovtek pair, and find that the Svetlanas have a nicer midrange, softer bass, the Sovteks a stronger bass, but a rougher high end, that was in my Decware Select, my Decware Monoblocks and my Dynaco cd player (no longer using the Select or the Dynaco). I ended up preferring a number of 6922s to the 6N1Ps, principally Siemens which I am using in the Monoblocks now (and for about two years in the Select before I bought the Monoblocks and sold the Select). Just my two cents! I'm really enjoying my new all Decware system!

PS: There is a new cd in the Martin Scorcese "Blues" series that is also excellent!

Great cd. . . I wish that this had been remastered though when it was released a second time by the family; they just used the ten year old digital mastering, and the newest family cds sound a bit better. . . . Still, this is a great cd and the earlier cd version has KILLER NOTES as well. I just counted this weekend: I have over 150 Hendrix cds and cdrs. I guess I'm a fanatic!

Color me reactionary too; I was at a Sunday morning showing of AVP and there were several very small children there. Not sure that it really was scarring or even scaring them in any way, but it just seemed odd to me. . . . MY parents would NEVER have taken me to see that movie even when I was 17! but then that's my parents!

I would echo that about the Nakamiches: I inherited a Nak CDP2 recently, and early machine that sounds really good, built like a tank (seems to use Pioneer transport and other electronics) and has a very dynamic sound. Course it sits on a shelf because in my main system I'm using the Decware DEC 685 modified Sony SACD/DVD player, and I'm using my HHB professional burner as a cd player in my living room system.

I've had this player (the Sony SACD/DVD from Decware) and it took about five weeks to really shine but now it's sounding wonderful. I think the way oversized power supplies that Decware uses on their products leads to a long breakin, but the wait is worth it. . . . I really haven't been playing a lot of SACDs because I have been enjoying my CDs so much!

Several corrections to this old thread: one: there are several mentions of the dvd player throughout the forum, but it was made from a now discontinued Pioneer model and I don't think that many are now offered for sale; the Decware SACD/DVD player that is a modified Sony is selling well. (I have one and I LOVE IT!) two: this Decware DVD was a PIONEER not a MARANTZ player with a modified tube output (a little different from the Ah Tjoeb; the output stage is fed directly from the DAC).

Good point: Charles Mingus should be mentioned! Also: three new cd reissues of Duke Ellington material from Columbia last week, one a fantastic trio album (Piano in the Foreground) and two fantastic big band albums (Blues in Orbit and Piano in the Background). Both the big band albums deserve recommendation here. Also they are well expanded for cd reissue and feature wonder DSD remastering.

It's funny I was going to post and identify those guys, but I found the thread too late; I was a little shaky on Watkins because I haven't really seen that angle of the face before too well, but I was pretty sure it was him. But I knew it was Donald Byrd. . . by the way that he holds his trumpet! And I just finished listening to three cdrs of Hank Mobley at the Cafe Montmartre in 1968 and he was instantly recognizable anyway.

Duke Pearson, man I miss that guy, had he been with us longer I know we would have had some amazing albums to hear! I really like his work. I think he managed the fusion of jazz and Brazilian music in a way that was ahead of many of his contemporaries. And his "Merry Ole Soul" is my favorite Xmas album! I don't even LIKE Xmas albums, but I like his!