Mike Broadman

Art Tatum is the man. One of the few pianists who can play both blindingly amazing stuff but with lots of heart.

I only have a compilation of his but want to get my hands on the the box sets.

My awesome music collection

John Watson

Haven't heard the name The Spanic Boys for a few years.

Did they ever break out?

Ahh, the jazz club!

Are the Ken Burns disks good introductions? I was kind of put off by the egocentricity of "Ken Burns", but I've just picked up the Parker and the Monk disks from the set, and am anxious to get Ellington and Monk next.

One of the things I like about a series is that I can depend on all disks at least playing at a compatible volume level.

Mike Broadman

The problem with comp discs is that once you start collecting more from that artist, the comp disc becomes useless. Also, for artists like Miles, Duke, 'Trane- I just can't imagine one CD possibly representing their music. But the good thing about the Burns CDs is they compile music from different labels and if you have to get just one CD of an artist, and you can find it cheap, it's as good as any.

My awesome music collection

John Watson

You're right about the comp disks being unsatisfactory if you get into the source albums - when that happens the comp goes into the stack for the noisy car, where the heat and the bumping may take its toll.

Rick Deschaine

Mike,

Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing? -Sam Goldwyn.

Rick Deschaine

Mike,

Well I highly recommend emusic (if they get they're site working properly again). I got all of the Art Tatum Masterpieces for about 60$ by buying booster packs from emusic to augment my monthly prepaid downloads. If you just used the monthly downloads it would be even less.

They also have tons of jazz available and I mean tons. Some of the downloads are only 128k, but most seem to be of around 400-500k quality. Sounds pretty good, but don't expect SACD quality. A great way to get exposed to some lesser known jazz.

Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing? -Sam Goldwyn.