Larry Kart

OK -- I need to listen again from this point on.

On my Evidence label version of this, on track 1 Reggie Workman is more prominent in the mix than than Billy Harper! Also the room in which the album was recorded seems fairly dead/claustrophobic. I've never lasted all the way through.

'On Miles's live "So What" video (1959), you can see Trane grabbing Frank Rehak's attention - a great moment.' I remember that.

Central performances for me. Try this on for size:

Vertigo is a most unfortunate condition; don't know about Embryo. Kokopelli can kill you.

Yesterday I was listening only to the released takes. There are a number of alternates on disc 2 of the set I have; I'll check them out.

Depends. For me, hearing late '57 Trane is these different contexts was very worthwhile. A glorious musical artifact? Probably not. But It's a unexpected window on jazz history in motion.

"Monk's Music" was recorded in June '57; the Blakey/Coltrane Bethlehem material was recorded in December '57. Also, Coltrane already had moved a good ways along from how he sounded six months before -- at times fairly full-fledged "sheets of sound" passages are present.

For the first time in a long while I just listened to this material (side one of "The Bethlehem Years" compilation) and found it fascinating both for late '57 Coltrane himself and for the opportunity to hear him with players he wasn't usually (in some cases never) heard with otherwise. The tracks with Blakey (big band and small group) -- what a delight to hear Coltrane with Blakey boldly interacting beneath him. (Sound quality is good.)Also, that studio big band, contrary to what I'd been led to believe, was quite together for the most part, and trumpeters Ray Copeland and Idrees Sulieman play very well. What chops Copeland had and quite an imagination to boot. And Walter Bishop Jr. is in fine form. The "Wiinners Circle" session -- aside from Donald Byrd and Philly Joe -- finds Coltrane among players whom I don't believe, with the exception of Al Cohn (and Al is on baritone!) hadn't been in the studio or on the stand with him before: Frank Rehak, Gene Quill, Eddie Costa, Freddie Greene (!!!), and Oscar Pettiford. One can only imagine how their ears were hanging out at what they were hearing from Trane. Indeed, in case one loses track of this factor, which perhaps is easy to do, all this Bethlehem material reminds one how differently Coltrane was playing in late '57 from ANYONE else. One regrets that the Coltrane/Blakey pairing would never be heard again on disc (unless I'm forgetting something); they had a good deal to say to each other. While the Coltrane/Blakey combination was not utterly unlike what Coltrane and Elvin would become, Blakey definitely had a flavor all his own, and it was a flavor to Trane's taste, it would seem.

In his excellent Baker book, Jeroen de Valk says of "Leaving": "The best Chet Baker record you've never heard.... Never issued on CD!"

See Sorry -- To me your question suggested that you were unaware of this thread, where the film was extensively discussed. Now I see you were referring not to the film but to a magazine article.

See

It's not a pressing matter for me because I have most of his albums, and besides he's probably below Mosaic's Plimsoll Line, but Mickey Tucker? I've never heard anything from Tucker that I didn't like, and there's a good deal of individuality and variety there too,

Yes, the price of Steeplechase CDs often makes me hesitate. Wish that weren't so, but it happens.

Ronnie Cuber, Rich Perry, and Andy Fusco aren't the least bit retro. The ways they play now are a logical extension of the ways they've always played, and they're darn good ways IMO. Stephen Riley does tip his cap to the past to some degree, but in an interesting personal manner, again IMO. The other leaders, except for the two bassists (McClure and Richmond), I don't know.