Watch the Closing Doors: A History of New York's Musical Melting Pot, Vol. 1—1945-59

This looks great! Anyone heard it yet?
Watch The Closing Doors: A History of New York’s Musical Melting Pot is a six volume, double CD series, by renowned journalist and author Kris Needs. This ambitious project is released throughout 2011 via Year Zero and it is aiming to capture the fast-vanishing magic of New York City while documenting major musical landmarks and developments, from post-war New York of the mid 1940s through to 2000s.

The first volume focuses on the 1940s and 50s, setting the scene for a further five sets, straddling the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s, each accompanied by a book containing the relevant musical and social history, artist biographies, illustrations and Needs’ own stories and recollections of the city that once never slept.

Kris explains ‘One of the aims of the series is to document and celebrate this lost city before it totally disappears, give it some unity and due respect, while striving to explain why the New York of the last half of the 20th century was the most exciting place on Earth. The buildings and individuals might be disappearing, but that indefinable spirit which affected so many has thankfully been captured for posterity on countless records, standing like snapshots of a bygone age, the tip of a mighty iceberg which will be gathered on these albums like an old photo album.’

matos interview with the compiler: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2011/06/kris_needs_watch_the_closing_doors_qa.php

CD 1
1. DUKE ELLINGTON - Take The 'A' Train **
2. COZY COLE – Bad **
3. FRANKIE LYMON & TEENAGERS - Why Do Fools Fall In Love **
4. MACHITO - Mucho Mambo
5. FAYE ADAMS - Shake A Hand **
6. LOUIS ARMSTRONG - Yellow Dog Blues **
7. ALMANAC SINGERS - Talking Union **
8. HARRY BELAFONTE – Matilda **
9. CAB CALLOWAY - Minnie The Moocher **
10. DANNY TAYLOR - Coffee Daddy Blues **
11. DIZZY GILLESPIE – Manteca **
12. NINA SIMONE - Little Girl Blue **
13. FIVE SATINS - In The Still Of The Nite **
14. BILLIE HOLIDAY - Autumn In New York **
15. MILES DAVIS – Summertime **
16. CHARLES MINGUS - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat **
17. JOHN CAGE - Indeterminacy Pt 2

CD 2
1. COZY COLE -Topsy Pt 2
2. HONEYCONES - Op
3. HORACE SILVER - Senor Blues [Newport Jazz fest]
4. JOSH WHITE - Southern Exposure **
5. NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS - How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live **
6. DAVE VAN RONK – Duncan & Brady **
7. SONNY TERRY - Custard Pie Blues **
8. DRIFTERS - Money Honey **
9. BIG JOE TURNER - Morning Noon And Night **
10. THE EMBERS - Paradise Hill **
11. PARAGONS – Twilight **
12. BIG MAYBELLE - One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show **
13. THELONIOUS MONK - Brilliant Corners
14. RAYMOND SCOTT – Ripples **
15. ALLEN GINSBERG - Howl

Ok this does look real interesting, but I can easily see folks who I know who are fascinated by Latin music at the Palladium in NYC grumbling that just including the 1 Machito song on a double cd is not enough. Where's something from a Puerto Rican immigrant? Trying to cover everything is pretty ambitious and I'm wondering whether this can pull it off.

yeah, i'm sure there'll be omissions, but i kind of like the ambitiousness of projects like these. seems like you really could do a gigantic allen lowe-style thing on this, too. but there's skill in cutting things down to a manageable, listenable length.

The two Dirty Water comps (always selected by Kris Needs) were quite good, and I'm looking forward to listen to this new series. This first installment seems like the perfect gift for my father!

Yeah this is fantastic. Every home should have one!

And I've met Marco's father and can confirm.

The tracklist looks pretty good, and yes a double cd can only cover so much but call me predictable, I still think it needs more than just the Machito track to cover the NY Latin sound of that period. Yes, there's the Diz cut that's influenced by Machito, et. al., but I want more.

Here's a blog excerpt from a course on NYC in the '40s that mentions Puerto Rican immigrants and others

http://chum338.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2011/02/02/new-sounds-in-nyc/

The mambo phenomenon began in the last years of the ’40s but really took off in the 50s, especially at New York’s Palladium night club–then located on West 53rd Street. (A later celebrated nighclub by the same name would open on East 14th St. in the 1980s.)

yeah the book kris needs mentions in the Q&A All Hopped Up covers the latin/jazz intersection pretty thoroughly -- that was actually the part i enjoyed the most, because it was what i knew the least about.

I don't understand the references to NY in the past tense. Does it sleep now? is it no longer the most exciting place on earth? etc

dude don't you read the news? this is what NYC is like now
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/apocalypse_movies/apocalypse_movies_14.jpg
RIP

Meant to read All Hopped Up but never got around to it. Is it worth it?

RIP NY

I had no use for you, but RIP anyway.

all hopped up is worth reading -- i wouldn't say it's the greatest book i ever read, but it's got some good stories/info. i think that its subtitle (Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77) is a little misleading -- it's not actually *that* sweeping, there's plenty left out.

That was exactly the approach/avoid of it: Wow, what a big scope, cool, the entire history of music in NYC! But wait, can he cover everything? Can he cover anything in any detail at all?

first there was jazz, then there was some rock n roll, then hip hop, then a bunch of bullshit

the end

A Brief History of Music in NYC, written and illustrated by Shakey Mo Collier, Class 1-3.

New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down