Hot on the heels of my music buying tip, a dilemma.

I've been playing a lot of standards lately, mostly Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. I'm not terribly familiar with either of them, my exposure being pretty much limited to TV commercials, classic movies, doctor's offices and elevators. (I mean seriously, you're in the mood for Sophisticated Lady or Take the "A" Train, where would you go to hear it played?) Anyway, as I said yesterday, I've been working on accumulating the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings core collection. The only core collection selection in the latest edition for Ella Fitzgerald is the Cole Porter songbook. What a treat that would be, I think. I get to listen to a famous jazz singer, singing some of the greatest jazz hits of the pre-bop era, learning a bunch of new (to me) songs and being able to get some insight into phrasing and rhythm at the same time. So, I'm all signed on and ready to rush out and buy that multi-CD set, when I find that Ella has also sung a bunch of other people's songbooks and they have all been collected into a massive (and expensive) 16-CD set. This set can be had for anywhere between $120 and $200, but even at the low end, that's a pretty significant chunk of change. So, as one of my acquaintances from Tokyo would say, you have to choose between two kinds of (possible) regret: You buy just the Cole Porter songbook, find out it really is great, and regret that you didn't buy the massive 16-CD set, or you buy the massive 16-CD set and regret it later because it's just not as good as you thought it might be and you're stuck with 10, or 12, or God forbid 16 CD's you're not going to listen to that often. Well, my friend back in Tokyo said the regret of not doing is always worse than the regret of doing, so I'm probably going to end up buying the massive 16-CD set, probably, pretty soon. Check back here. I'll let you know what I decide, when I decide it, plus any regrets that result. You can always e-mail me your ideas and opinions too, which are most welcome.

And I have my weekly piano lesson tonight. Maybe I'll have a revelation to tell you about tomorrow.