Hello again from ejazzlines!
Beginning with this newsletter we're going to try to present our emailings in a more blog-like, news-focused fashion. The intro paragraphs will be more event-oriented,
and hopefully more interesting. The new items will of course still be here for those who like to keep up-to-date, but they will be in the below paragraphs, 'below the fold'
as they say in a certain 20th century industry. We sincerely appreciate the very many of you who read our offerings, and we would truly appreciate any feedback on what we are doing,
the changes, and where we can continue to attempt to improve.
We just returned from the Music Library Conference in sunny Chicago (OK, it was cold and windy, but it WAS sunny most of the time!) A great time was had by all.
We must say, music librarians know how to take care of business, but they also sure know how to have fun. The downtown Marriott was full of music and good food and drink,
and as always, it was great to see many of our best friends. We thank the very many others who we look forward to seeing every year as well. We also were able to visit Ron at The Jazz Record Mart,
and we indeed have never seen a store with a selection of jazz CDs and DVDs like theirs - it is worth a special trip from just about anywhere.
And walking around Wrigley Field and channeling the Blues Brothers was fun too. We did manage, while considering Kentucky as "on the way" from NY to Chicago,
to incorporate another of our great loves, Bourbon, into our travels. We visited the homes of much of our salaries, the Jim Beam and Buffalo Trace distilleries,
two of the only nine existing places at which authentic Kentucky Bourbon is made. We then made a pilgrimage to Indiana, to visit our dear friends at Jamey Aebersold Jazz.
We had a fantastic visit with Matt and Gigi and the gang, and saw the place where the legend was born and still thrives.
We thank our friends there for their hospitality, and for allowing us a memorable first-hand look into their incredibly interesting world.
As the MLA Conference is in San Diego in 2010, we are already counting the days! We will soon be attending the National Association for Music Education's
Eastern Division Conference in Providence, RI, March 12-14, and we would love to meet any of you who may be attending. Please look for our booth!
ejazzlines will always be jazz-focused, but some of you may have noticed that we continue to expand the variety of our offerings.
We will always hone in laser-like on all new jazz items, but we also are adding more and more blues, funk, soul, R&B, and even rock products.
Our goal is to offer jazz musicians on any level a place to find new items to improve their abilities and repertoire, and we also want beginners
to be able to find exciting ways to enter the incredibly rewarding area of music-making, regardless of what their favorite style may be. Not to mention the fact
that many jazz musicians and students are looking towards all genres for inspiration - can you say "Bad Plus"?
As always, we welcome comments and suggestions on our direction, so please let us know what you think.
And please don't be shocked when you see Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen and Slash gracing our site!
Jazz has lost some wonderful people lately, and ejazzlines would like to take a minute to recognize a few giants who have recently left us for the great gig in the sky.
Freddie Hubbard passed almost two months ago, and rarely does a day go by when his searing trumpet is not permeating the ejazzlines offices.
Freddie was a wonderful leader and composer, and as a sideman he brought so very much to the CDs of many luminaries. Fathead Newman was another
legend who gave so much to the worlds of jazz and R&B, which he navigated so brilliantly. Of course many know him from his work with Brother Ray,
but even in 2008, his Diamondhead CD showed that he still had everything working for him in the jazz realm.
And Valentine's Day saw the passing of Louie Bellson, once called the world's greatest drummer by Duke Ellington.
Louie played with the Duke, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Armstrong, Tony Bennett,
and countless others - in other words, with just about every giant of the genre. The passing of these gentlemen reminds one of how fortunate
we are to have jazz as America's greatest native art form, and how lucky we are to have people like this among us.
We look forward to again seeing one of our heroes, Curtis Fuller, this summer here in Saratoga where he comes to teach and perform every year
at the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and meeting him and hearing him tell us about Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan was one of our greatest thrills.
We encourage everyone to seek out jazz's elder statesmen like Mr. Fuller, who are walking repositories of the amazing history of the
music we all love.
For those of you who like to keep up with new jazz releases, below are some items that you may wish to know about.
New DVDs:
February's DVDs have been augmented by many great new releases. We are happy to be among the first to offer the new Wayne Shorter Live at Montreux 1996 DVD.
This DVD focuses on the title show, but also has the incredible treats of bonus tracks from two earlier shows, both featuring Herbie Hancock, and one with Ron Carter and Tony Williams. An instant classic item, to say the least.
Hal Leonard has just released Kenny Werner - Living Effortless Mastery.
This DVD follows in the tracks laid down by Kenny's Effortless Mastery book and DVD, and has footage from Kenny presenting clinics and
master classes, as well as live performances. Truly one of the great teachers and thinkers (as well as players!) in jazz, this new item should be enjoyed by students, teachers,
and musicians at all levels of knowledge and expertise. There is a new DVD featuring live performances from the late, great Freddie Hubbard,
and we also have Al Foster's first live DVD as a leader,
as well as a brand new DVD from Fourplay.
New instructional DVDs range from blues great Robben Ford
to Clarence Gatemouth Brown
to Eddie Van Halen to
Brian May
- diversity, thy name is ejazzlines! We continue to honor our growing commitment to Latin Jazz, with two new
Astor Piazzolla DVDs,
and two more from Flamenco legend Juan Martin.
Finally, we also have both new Quincy Jones DVDs
and the re-issue of Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus from earlier this month in stock as well.
New Books:
February's latest are another fine crop, led by the brand new Duke Ellington Anthology,
featuring a wide selection of the works of one of the 20th century's great composers.
Alfred has just published another Diana Krall book, a folio from her From This Moment On CD.
The good folks at Jamey Aebersold have made us aware of several more great Salsa books from Carlos Campos, including books on Afro Cuban Montunos for both guitar and piano, and Merengue Piano Styles.
Musician's Yoga is a very interesting-looking new book, which focuses on 'off the field'
issues which can help musicians focus and maximize their ability. We also have new books from
Andrew Gordon, five different editions of 100 Ultimate Jazz Riffs, for a variety of instruments.
February is rounded out by several more, including Essential Jazz Guitar,
Jazz Guitar Soloing Concepts,
Singable Standards for Women,
and many new instructional books and play-alongs ranging from John Lee Hooker to
Johnny Winter to
Lennon/McCartney and lots more.
We also have three of 2009's best in stock, the
Real Easy Ear Training Book, the
Jazz Singer's Guidebook, and the new
Jim Hall book.
New Big Band Arrangements:
We have 3 Jazz Lines charts to mention this time around including the release of the classic tune Minnie the Moocher! Originally made
famous by bandleader Cab Calloway in the 1930s, this song became an instantly-recognizable classic when it was performed by the Blues Brothers with Cab during a live performance sequence in the movie. This is an adaptation that combines elements of the Blues Brothers chart (including Alan 'Mr. Fabulous' Rubin's trumpet licks)
with some features of Cab's earlier recordings. The call and response part has been written in and cued in all the parts so that the band can either play or shout the answers. While we're talking about classic arrangements, we also just released Gil Evans' arrangement of
Moon Dreams from Miles Davis' seminal recording Birth of the Cool. As is the case with most of our catalog of arrangements,
this has been engraved from the manuscript - this is not a transcription. This is a brilliant arrangement full of color and orchestral nuance. The layer and depth of sound that Gil was able to achieve with just 8 instruments (there's no piano in this arrangement) is quite astounding.
The harmonies and the rhythms are very sophisticated and impressionistic. This piece features a brief baritone sax solo (as played by Gerry Mulligan) that has been written out in full, though chords have been indicated for an ad-lib solo. And, finally, we have released the third title in our Duke Pearson series,
Make It Good. This was recorded in 1968 on the 'Now Hear This' record for Blue Note and is an up-tempo swing chart that will certainly bring out the best of your players. Featured is a tenor solo followed by a baritone sax solo.
New Release Summary:
In our aforementioned laser-focused efforts to unearth the items we hope you will like, as of this newsletter we have added a total of
53 new CDs for the month of February 2009 and
153 for the month of January 2009;
53 new DVDs for February 2009
and 21 for January 2009;
77 new music books for February 2009
and 45 for January 2009;
9 new big band and combo arrangements for the month of February 2009
and 65 for the month of January 2009.
In our DVD section, we now carry a constantly growing and diversifying selection of over 1,725 jazz DVDs! We have all of the live performance DVDs, the documentaries, the method DVDs, the personal master classes - we proudly offer a selection of jazz and jazz-related DVDs that is second to none.
If you haven't visited our Imports and Rarities CD section lately, please check it out. We are now stocking more and more obscure, rare, and hard-to-find titles from Japan, including many titles that you may not be able to find elsewhere.
Please keep in mind that many of our new releases are available in limited quantities. We do our best to predict demand and fill orders as quickly as possible, but we do run out of new releases. Even if we run out of stock, almost everything featured in this newsletter should be available to ship within 5-7 days; some imports may take 2-3 weeks.
We are Rob and Doug at ejazzlines and we thank everyone once again for your continued generosity and support - we truly appreciate it!
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