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208.4.17.83
I tend to come across stuff on this label fairly frequently and cheaply and was wondering if anyone else likes the label and has any suggestions of titles to look for.I just grabbed a trio of titles on the label this weekend: Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson - Ella and Oscar, Harry Edison - Edison's Lights, and Count Basie and Oscar Peterson - Timekeepers.
As usual with what I've sampled from this label, all solid performances and good sound.
So...anybody else a fan of the Pablo label wanna let me know what their deal was?
Follow Ups:
I have the Pablo and also the Music Heritige pressing which was done by Decca in the UK. Interestingly, the standard US pressing is quieter.This is also available on Fantasy SACD. In any version,it's a keeper.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Seems to have a little controversy, but considering I've been running into them for a couple bucks each, I think I'll just keep grabbing what I come across. And, I'll particularly keep an eye open for the ones suggested.
I have a few Pablo titles & they're great. My favorites are the Oscar Peterson Trio's "Nigerian Marketplace", which is stunning, and the Dizzy Gillespie Trio live at Montreaux.You can still get great jazz with awesome sonics for very little cash outlay on that label. Dunno how long that'll last, tho.
.. you can still buy them sealed for reasonable dollars (actually, cheap, come to think of it). And a killer album is Nigerian Marketplace. I realy like Pablo for the music, packaging and sound quality. And you can pick sufficient of them up, cheaply ($5-10) in nm/mmint/sealed condition so no need to compromise.Pablo can never be compared to Blue Note or Prestige - they simply did not have the artists, the period nor the catalogue depth, but I pick these up whenever I can.
Oscar Peterson "The Giants" (Peterson, Pass, Brown) Pablo 1514
Oscar Peterson Peterson and Pass A Sale Pleyel Pablo 1920
Sara Vaughan I Love Brazil Pablo 2312-101
Clark Terry Memories of Duke Pablo PN 4011
Sara Vaughan The Pablo Years Pablo 2650-11
Oscar Peterson Montreux '77 Pablo 2308 213
Misc. artists at Montreux 1977 The Art Of The Jam Session (8lp) Pablo 2620 106
Oscar Peterson Porgy & Bess Pablo 2310-779
Oscar Peterson Live A The North Sea Jazz Festival Pablo 2620-115
Johnny Hodges At The Sportpalast Berlin Pablo 2620-102
Oscar Peterson Nigerian Marketplace Pablo D2308231
Zoot Sims And The Gershwin Borthers Pablo 1566
Milt Jackson The Big Three Pablo 2310-757
Freddie Hubbard Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival Pablo 2620-113
Joe Pass Portaits of Duke Ellington Pablo 2310 716
Harry 'Sweets' Edison The Best of... Pablo 2405-403
Milt Jackson, Brown etc Quandrant Toasts Duke Ellington Pablo 2195
Don't forget "This One's for Blanton" by Duke Ellington and Ray Brown - easily one of the best all-time Pablos in an all-around outstanding catalog.
I love this label - I buy them whenever I can.
Jeff
I collect Pablo and, as I've written elsewhere on this forum, I now put all my Pablo records together in their own area.
...one of my favorite records. I always grab the Pablo's if they're cheap and in good condition.
Again on the latin jazz tip. And to prove it wasn't label only for old jazz ladies & gentlemen past their prime. Monty was a young man and IN his prime at that time (and still is, without doubt).Had to mention this label because it's a very nice album with lots of percussion and steel pan and because I doubt no one would have mentioned it. Check it out.
...
as a sideman:Milt Jackson: Memories Of Thelonious Sphere Monk
Milt Jackson & Monty Alexander Trio: Soul FusionExcellent stuff. Monty is no Thelonious but does his interpreations of Monk's tunes in his own way just as well.
.
...Is on Pablo and worth looking out for IMHO. It is Outstanding!
--
Al G
nt
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." -HST
I'm lucky enough to have 11 or 12 of the releases from the '77 Montreux Pablo concerts. I very much enjoy practically all of the performances, and they are very well recorded too. Keepers!
and The Count was most certainly not "past his prime" on this one - or several others on Pablo. With artists like Basie, Peterson, Pass, Ella, etc., how could any jazz lover go wrong?
The label was started and overseen by Norman Granz. He recorded many of the artists he had championed in the fifties and sixties, but who had fallen out of (commercial/critical) favor with the advent of free jazz and fusion. There's some tremendous small-group Basie on the label (a little irony is the fact that Granz had resuscitated the Count's career once before, continuing to record his superb big band through the 50s after most had given up the format for dead); a wealth of stuff by Oscar Peterson; stellar sets by Ray Bryant, Joe Pass, Sweets Edison, Milt Jackson, and others. A lot of the recordings, in the tradition of Granz' productions for Norgran, Clef, and Verve, were loose jam sessions with rotating leaders, so some of the performances meander, but overall it's quality stuff, well-recorded.Just because the alleged tastemakers in the press and industry had moved along to the next big thing doesn't automatically negate the later efforts of established masters. For my ears, just about any one of the Oscar Peterson or Ray Brown releases on this label outshines the bulk of the tepid fusion efforts that took up so much air- and shelf-space in the wake of Miles/Chick/Herbie's groundbreaking, earthshaking efforts.
"Past Their Prime" might be a little strong and while the material is consistently good, it is hard to put this stuff up against each "great's" best work. Be that as it may, there is certainly some wonderful stuff mentioned by others in this thread. I'd say that the Duke stuff is quite fun, if you are into later period Duke, and I value that material quite a bit. Ditto Ella's stuff, especially with Pass.I have to nitpick re: the "fallen out of favor". I can assure you that while yes, fusion did outsell Pablo, Pablo did much better than "Free Jazz" (whatever that is) by a wide margin. While the critics, ahem, may have championed more cutting-edge material, there is no way you can compare a private pressing of a Jerome Cooper solo drum performance with a Ray Bryant session (or insert Joseph Jarman or Billy Bang or . . .). In any event, one thing we can agree on for sure is that the "commercial jazz" of the era simply sucks. If I ever see another Bob James record, I'll . . .
> > In any event, one thing we can agree on for sure is that > > the "commercial jazz" of the era simply sucksI don't really have any problem with the 70's jazz, maybe except some Columbia Freddie Hubbards etc.
Bob James, late 70's Lonnie Liston Smith is lightweight stuff I have to admit, but always full of interesting ideas and it's real music, and it's not like pure muzak that the 80's brought forward.
Or maybe I don't really understand what is jazz. I only know what I like.
I agree with what you've written. I also think the early Pablo recordings, when Norman Granz was firmly in control after he left Verve, are sonically the best. Some if not all of those early recordings are on red vinyl, as I recall. At the end, the recording quality seems to have dropped off a bit. But the artists were always top quality.
a bad choice of cliche, but I'll take her stuff from the 60's with Duke (live at the Cote D Azur, and the Nelson Riddle/Gershwin song book from 59'.Some Pablo recordings like "Duke Ellington In the Uncommon Market" was released in 1986 but recorded in the 60's (some previously released on Verve), this is a pretty good sounding LP and the performance is great ("Star Crossed Lovers" with a great Hodges solo). Just my opinion.
your "tastemakers", abandoned Ellington much earlier than the 70's, as you'll recall his "comeback" is generally regarded as Newport 56'.
HJ
like a few of the records mentioned in the thread below. The playing was basically never less than inspired, much like hearing his roster of artists live and in person. And I repeat, nowhere else will you hear Sarah Vaughn and Dorival Caymmi sing one together, or Basie play trio (!) with Ray Brown and Louis Bellson. I second your bosh if I may...
P
Also try to find a great Dizzy combo with Arturo Sandoval, called To A Finland Station. If you dig latin jazz at all.
And certainly another exception to the Pablo/over-the-hill "rule"!
And the Joe Pass record with the Brazillian cats, Tudo Bem, or something like that.And Sarah's I Love Brazil, and also her Copacabana, both full of great Brazillian compositions and the best of the best Brazillian musicians. She even sings a duet with Dorival Caymmi- I mean, does it get any better? Pablo was a great label, full of surprises at times.
Thanks,
P
It's probably true they are never going to be worth a lot
of money but many of the Pablo are nice lp's. It's a nice
part of the hobby that you can still pick up ECM, Concords,
Pablo's, Inner City, etc. for next to nothing.
definitely agree about ECM, I have found some incredible records on the cheap. Charlie Haden's "Ballad of the Fallen", and Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell "El Corazon" (Sonics on this one are amazing) come immediately to mind, not to mention the numerous Lester Bowie and Art Ensemble LP's available, also usually at a bargin.I have fewer Inner City LP's, but they are often a bargin also.
HJ
nt
I picked up Oscar Peterson "The personnel touch" on Pablo based on someone's recommendation that any Pablo recordings were good. I was very pleased with the performance and sound of the recording and started actually looking for more Pablo recordings.I found Count Basie "Mostly Blues & Some Others" Pablo label and I have to say the performances on this LP are excellent and sound great. I'm a newbie to Jazz but I'm not going to pass up anything on the Pablo label that I think might be fun to listen to.
Don't discount this label, there are many excellent recordings with great sonics. Some of the best, in fact.. viz. Ella with Joe Pass "Take Love Easy". True it's not a home for "experimental" music, but many great recordings of mainstreamers like Joe Pass, Milt Jackson, Tommy Flannigan, Ray Brown et. al. It's more like "vintner's reserve" than "nouveau beaujolais"
Joe Pass, Virtuoso, Vols 1, 2 and 3
Joe Pass, A Portrait of Duke Ellington, w Ray Brown
Sarah Vaughn, Crazy and Mixed Up,
Sarah Vaughn, How Long Has This been Going On
Milt Jackson, O. Peterson, R. Brown, G Tate, Ain't But a Few of Us Left
Milt Jackson, Soul Fusion
Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, Take Love Easy
Ella, Live a Nice...These and several other Pablo lps are documents of artists not "past their prime", but in many cases in their third or even fourth prime. As such they go hand in hand, naturally, with their earlier recordings. Often great sound and good prices. Well worth it as some, like Ray Brown,Tommy Flanagan, Jackson, Sarah, Pass, and others were on some of these records playing and singing better thamn ever, IMHO.
.
The above list neglected to mention his Pablo efforts- among his best- as I am unfortunately far away from home and my record collection, and going off the top of my head..Enjoy,
P
Couldn't agree more. Especially his Montreux '77 solo.
Count Basie's Farmers Market BBQ and The Gifted Ones, which teams Basie and Gillespie and Ray Brown, and I cant remember the drummer (sorry). Sonics are good, performance is good to great, enjoyable to say the least...quite happy with the only 2 I have been able to pick up so far...
I have a recording "Ella Live" which I think (I'm not at home) is on Pablo. It's a very poor recording.
That would make it a glaring exception to the rule for this label, which generally exhibited high quality sound.
I have read good things about the label here, but was under the general impression (informed by jazz record fanatics) that the recordings are primarily from artists near the end of their careers, and therefore past their prime.They are readily available, and cheap at Amoeba and the like, I called my guru and he said to basically skip them and spend a bit more for earlier recordings. This is no secret. I am thinking primarily of the dates with Ella and Sarah.
Of course I saw Joe Williams well into his 70's and he was still fantastic, as good as he was in his 50's. And the same goes for Ornette, who I thought was better in 2004 than he was in 1986. I could probably cite more, including Tommy Flannagan near 80.
So, I guess you should search the archives or inquire about individual LP's, there are bound to be some gems in there.
I have a box of Sarah called "the Pablo Years", I don't think I've ever listened to it. So it'll go on tonight, and we'll see.
In general, you are correct about the fact that many of the artists were in their latter years by the time they recorded for Pablo, but withhold your judgment until you listen to that Sarah Vaughn boxed set. Those are some of the best recordings she ever made. I think the boxed set was created from leftovers from each of the 5 or 6 separately issued albums contained therein, because the samples from my boxed set (purchased NOS from a local store only about 10 years ago) are sonically slightly inferior to the individual issues, which I also own, but very enjoyable nevertheless. Also, the Oscar Peterson ouevre on Pablo is topnotch. Ella seems to have lost her magical smootheness by the time she was recording for Pablo in the early 70s.
I was a Johnny come lately to jass, but lived in KC in the 70's and got a treasure from the Oscar Peterson and Basie small group venues and also like my Basie Big Band and others. Great great recordings of true simple acoustic jass, and lovely stuff from Ray Brown and Freddie Green and the other swingers like Joe Pass.try not to believe gurus, you ought to know better with a moniker like that.
well he was the guy who turned me onto Coltrane nearly 25 years ago, helped me build my Jazz collection as a teen, and has every Impulse and Blue Note record ever made. So I guess I respect his opinion, still do, but am not afraid to go venture into uncharted territory. I still think he is probably right about his assessment of Pablo, but like I said there are some diamonds in the duff.
HJ
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