The Berkeley Item - #88

For “PICKS," a new feature debuting this week on the Fantasy web site, we have asked friends and colleagues in the business to provide a list of their ten favorite titles from the Fantasy catalog. http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/picks_main.html

Company chairman and film producer SAUL ZAENTZ couldn't stop at ten; his preferences range from the soundtrack for “Amadeus" (the film earned him a “Best Picture" Oscar) to recordings by artists he worked with in the '50s and '60s (Lenny Bruce, Dave Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi, Creedence Clearwater Revival) to big boxed sets by jazz giants (Miles, Rollins, Mingus, Monk, Tatum).

http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/picks_zaentz.html

Producer ORRIN KEEPNEWS stuck to ten, with difficulty, but restricted his favorites to albums he himself had produced (by Monk, Rollins, Cannonball, Bill Evans, et al.). While he conceded that “there actually are records" in the catalog that “I deeply appreciate without having had any direct connection with. . . no one who knows me at all could expect me to name any of those to my all-time top ten list."

http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/picks_keepnews.html

Half of RON AFFIF's selections, not surprisingly, are by fellow guitarists, among them Pat Martino/"El Hombre" ("One of my all-time jazz guitar records") and George Benson/"New Boss Guitar" ("It's his first record, but he already sounds like George; incredible"). But Ron also favored albums by Monk, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and Miles Davis, whose “Workin'" and “Relaxin'" “are the reasons why I play jazz."

http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/picks_affif.html

New “Picks" will be added on a biweekly basis.

Two Milestone albums--ERIC ALEXANDER's “The First Milestone" and “McGriff's House Party" by JIMMY McGRIFF--are well placed on this week's Gavin jazz chart, at #7 and #20 respectively, while JIMMY SCOTT's “Mood Indigo" shows up on the “Most Added" list.

http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/alexander9302.html
http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/mcgriff9300.html
http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/scott9305.html

Jimmy Scott will be photographed tomorrow (6/13) by ARTHUR ELGORT for a September New Yorker spread devoted to jazz artists, among them Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, Craig Handy, and drummer Eric Harland.

Scott is scheduled to travel to the West Coast next week for appearances at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall (6/22) and the Sweetwater in Mill Valley (6/23). He'll be honored by his native Cleveland next month with a Jimmy Scott Day (7/8), including a key to the city ceremony.