Guy Berger

Wow.. that's rough, Allen. Glad to hear you seem to be on the mend despite a tough year, and sending lots of positive vibes. Guy

It’s worse than that - jazz that can’t think of anything as embarrassing as getting people too excited

I need to pick this up. Listened to it on Spotify and it was really good. If we want to talk about adverse and pernicious effects of the post 197x Young Lion movement, it was on “straight ahead jazz” which became way more polished and boring.

I've only heard a few of these - I'd rank The Spoiler ahead of Joy Ride and Rough & Tumble, but they're all worth hearing. Stanley was a great fit for this format because of his huge style.

Folks - is anyone in touch with Soulstation?

Some of my favorite Tapscott. highly recommended!!!!!!

The Blythe is a classic, one of the best jazz albums of the last 50 years. I like the other two a lot too. The version of “Lonely Woman” on the O&ND is amazing - a case of the ECM sound used for good not evil

Jack DeJohnette’s SPECIAL EDITION is outstanding. Arthur Blythe AND David Murray. Wow.

The San Francisco Bay Area's experience over the past 2 months suggests that Vermont and Maine should be somewhat worried about the winter... 70% vaccination rate *of the entire population* (incl people who are not eligible; much higher than the national average) is insufficient on its own to prevent a large wave unless complemented with a big slug of infection-induced immunity. And like San Francisco, Vermont and Maine weathered the pandemic really well up to this point, i.e. most of the people who are unvaccinated don't have immunity from prior infection. That said, the SFBA's summer wave had much lower hospitalizations and deaths than its winter wave despite probably being larger in terms of total cases. And unlike the winter when there were a lot of restrictions, we had zero restrictions (aside from the indoor mask mandate) this time around. So there's a silver lining - vaccines have made COVID far, far less deadly (as expected).

It’s interesting to contrast the austerity and cold fury of THE DARK TREE with the much more exuberant sound of the large ensembles.

To take this further... I think there are really two questions intermingled here. One is the "heritage" piece which is important, and those old show tunes are an important part of that and always will be. Jazz as heritage - African American specifically, and American more generally - is important and worth commemorating! If jazz as a heritage is important to you then you have to engage with the GAS. But there's a second aspect, that of people engaging with jazz as music that they listen to or perform. And there, the GAS absolutely not a "core curriculum". It's just one way people engage with the music, and much less so than in the past.

This one is really great. I’m glad I picked it up. Maybe it’s just a phase but I find myself gravitating to his larger ensemble recordings.

I agree the 1967 recordings are great. BUT they have a very curated vibe and it’s a little unfair to compare them to 1965. The releases of that year’s material are like a giant archival kitchen sink! The classic, the not classic but still great, the good but not great (nothing really bad - this is Trane after all)… Sun Ship is one of my 3-4 favorite Trane albums. The Half Note recordings, the live A Love Supreme from France, First Meditations, Living Space, Transition, Meditations….

It’s remarkable how much better Coltrane’s estate is at producing great archival recordings, relative to Miles Davis’s. Maybe it’s just luck, but I assume mostly it’s due to having Ravi in charge. The Davis archival releases have mostly been Columbia recordings, widely circulating bootlegs and session reels. I’m glad to have them, but they were obtainable before. I think the A Love Supreme from France is much more than nice!

Not sure if I responded in this thread previously, but I enjoy the music of the saxophonists mentioned in this thread. Wouldn’t call myself a passionate fan of any of them but they’re fun to listen to.