First Post

First post. I've been doing some interesting reading online lately, the following is from http://armennalbandian.com/

In 2005, a small label named Uptown Records released this very recording dating back to June 22, 1945 with Bird, Dizzy, Max, Don Byas, Curley Russell and Al Haig to very little fanfare. There is about 40 minutes of never heard music on the CD. Is it great? Of course it is. The question arises as to why this release didn’t get the hype of the others. The other three releases were released on large labels: Miles on Columbia, Monk on Blue Note/Capitol, and Trane on Impulse/Universal. This may explain the exposure but I think that something else has been occurring as of late to Jazz history.

This post created some activity as noted in Armen's blog, (you should check it out) and mostly in agreement. I think what Armen was noting was the fact that musicians were not into this recording as much as they should be. The Monk album is 52 on the the amazon sales rank, and the Parker album is 569. The 569 rank is an excellent figure however for a jazz cd. All of this reminds me of a time when I was in high school, and I asked a trumpet player about Miles, and he said "Miles Davis sucks dude". I remember all the kids said Louis Armstrong sucked, couldn't hit notes etc. They dug Maynard, Arturo, the high note dudes.

I agree with Armen about the hype, at Borders around Christmastime, they were really plugging the Monk cd. I think Monk happens to have a mistique about him, I'm suprised at how many people know who he is. Out of all the people I've been around who don't know anything about jazz, they have known who Monk is, rather then Miles for example.