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Post by jazzhead on Jun 16, 2017 15:39:16 GMT
Hey Jazz fans! The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith Is available to rent or buy. I posted on here back last year regarding The Jazz Loft. Here's the synopsis: "WNYC's Sara Fishko (Fishko Files) recreates the vibrant culture of New York's mid-century jazz era for the modern day viewer: in the 1950s, dozens of jazz musicians - Thelonius Monk, Hal Overton, Ronnie Free, and many more - jam night after night in a run down New York loft, unaware that all is being captured in sound and pictures by acclaimed LIFE Magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith." www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Loft-According-Eugene-Smith/dp/B01M01XK1K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497627082&sr=8-1&keywords=The+jazz+loftJust about to watch it myself.
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Post by gst on Jun 16, 2017 16:08:59 GMT
Thanks Jazzhead. I went ahead and ordered it. An early fathers day gift for myself. Now if I can only get time to watch it
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Post by jazzhead on Jun 16, 2017 22:44:22 GMT
No problem gst. It really is a great film. I could sit and look at his photographs and listen to his recordings for hours. I really hope I get to do that too.
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Post by gst on Jun 27, 2017 15:26:13 GMT
Finished the doc the other day. I really enjoyed it as I love photography as well. In fact given unlimited funds and a choice between photography and records I'd probably choose photography and just listen to Spotify.
Loved the part about Zoot outplaying/lasting all of the other musicians that showed up when he was in town.
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Post by gst on Jul 3, 2017 19:04:45 GMT
I just re-watch the portion about Monk and Hall Overton working together before the Town Hall concert. It's almost like being there. I can only imagine the amount of time it took to initially catalog(ue) all of his photos/recordings. Amazing.
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Post by gregorythefish on Jul 4, 2017 14:10:41 GMT
gst: read robin kelley's monk bio! that was one of my favorite sections!
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Post by gst on Jul 4, 2017 17:17:47 GMT
GTF I've got it sitting next to my listening chair. Now I just need the time to get through it!
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Post by nicknick on Nov 1, 2017 19:37:37 GMT
I just re-watch the portion about Monk and Hall Overton working together before the Town Hall concert. It's almost like being there. I can only imagine the amount of time it took to initially catalog(ue) all of his photos/recordings. Amazing. gst, have you seen this book? Sam Stephenson - The Jazz Loft Project. Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue 1957-1965 (Duke University, 2010). In the meanwhile Sam Stephenson released a new book: Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View (2017). I ordered it yesterday.
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Post by alunsevern on Nov 2, 2017 8:57:39 GMT
The Jazz Loft project is one of the great jazz-and-photography books, but after reading a very lukewarm review of the new Sam Stephenson book HERE I have decided to be cautious and am still considering whether too buy it or not. We look forward to your review of it, nick.
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Post by nicknick on Nov 2, 2017 9:34:04 GMT
Alun, actually I was waiting for a separate book about Sonny Clark promised by Sam Stephenson a few years ago. However, it looks like Stephenson eventually decided to include the Clark-related material into Part IV of the "Gene Smith's Sink". Moreover, Part VI of the book contains the chapter "Overton and Thelonious Monk" (you can check the whole table of contents on Amazon). So my decision to order this new book was mostly based on my huge interest in Clark and Monk.
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Post by alunsevern on Nov 2, 2017 10:38:33 GMT
nick, Did you buy Les Liaisons Dangereuses? And if so, what are your views? I can't remember whether we have covered this elsewhere...
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Post by nicknick on Nov 2, 2017 10:51:26 GMT
I have both versions of the soundtrack: the "old" one by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Barney Wilen and the "new" one by Thelonious Monk Quartet with Barney Wilen. I like the new one very much for "unorthodox" sound of Monk's standards (Monk didn't propose any new compositions to the soundtrack). However, I would prefer more concise version of the recording ( www.discogs.com/Thelonious-Monk-Les-Liaisons-Dangereuses-1960/release/11050631) because listening to about 15 minutes of "Making of Light Blue" is too much.
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Post by Martin on Nov 2, 2017 11:07:55 GMT
Alun, I bought the limited edition 2 x LP vinyl box set version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Record Store Day earlier this year. For all sorts of boring life-gets-in-way reasons I haven't yet listened to the music but, if the sumptuous packaging is anything to go by, I anticipate a terrific treat for the ears.
This box set is one of several items that keep whispering into my ear the idea of a series of "future jazz collectibles" postings for my blog. The as-yet unformed idea is based around records we have the opportunity buy new when they are released that have the potential to become the sought after collectors items of the future. This Monk set already seems to meet many of the criteria that might make it a "future jazz collectible" - limited edition, first pressing, great packaging (including a 50-page A4 booklet), previously unreleased material recorded by a highly respected set of musicians etc...
A quick Popsike search already suggests that it's appreciating in value with one copy going for almost £400 and and many more for over £100. Of course, that's not the primary reason to acquire this set. I'm sure we members of this forum as far more motivated by the music itself and the beautiful job Sam Records made of the whole package.
I've got several other candidates in mind for "future jazz collectibles" including the Bill Evans LPs released by Resonance Records over the last couple of years, Bobby Hutcherson's final double LP for Blue Note, the Bill Evans Complete Village Vanguard box set, the Sony/Legacy Miles Davis Bootleg series. I'm also tempted to nominate Mosaic box sets given that I bought several of these new when they came out. Anybody got any other LPs they've bought new in recent years that you think have the potential to become "future jazz collectibles"?
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Post by alunsevern on Nov 2, 2017 12:05:13 GMT
nick, Thanks. If I buy the Monk set then it would be only the single LP version. I'm no great fan of extra alternative takes and all that kind of thing and find I rarely listen to them. Martin, Thanks. I thought someone had the limited box set but couldn't remember who. Future jazz collectables is a nice idea. In twenty years' time i think all kinds of strange things could fall into that category. If you think about the way that even later pressings of some jazz titles have escalated in value, and keep in mind that even 1970s and 1980s records are now forty to almost fifty years old (!!), you can begin to see that all kinds of once common records will be hard to find in, say, 2035-2040. Many of us here won't care, of course Also factor in the huge volume of new titles we have seen in all music categories over recent years in small limited pressings. At least some of these will be extremely rare. It's hard to predict, of course, but I rather doubt -- all this said -- whether we'll see anything assume the stratospheric prices of 1950s/60s jazz originals. But I think we'll see an awful lot of things edge into the £50.00-£100.00 price bracket, as we have seen with some pretty mundane rock and pop originals.
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Post by nicknick on Nov 2, 2017 12:22:26 GMT
As for me, I never considered collecting of records or books as an investment. It is intended only for personal enjoyment (in the widest sense of the word) during my lifetime. I'm 57 now and I surely don't care how much my LPs or books will cost in, say, 20 or 30 years. There is a nice principle "here and now" and I'm just trying to adhere to it:-)
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