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The Tyrone should be a 2-CD set with the train wreck as CD 2. It will be my first order of business when Don Was retires and I take over. Apparently they were also drunk for Speak No Evil. Why is that one not a trainwreck?

Gotta say, while I'm mildly interested in what made the cut (and am also guilty of being a collector of absurdly expensive free jazz records), I'm not sure what the purpose of a book like this is other than as a "flex." The title deems these as 100 "essential" recordings, but the majority are almost certainly going to be prohibitively expensive, collector-chased items and not anything practical for someone interested in the actual history of the music. I can see some argument for it being a NWW-list-type guide for future enthusiasts who don't care about acquiring OG copies of things, but at the end of the day this feels more like boast from the authors than anything truly in service of the music. (And if you actually are a collector and don't already own these records, prepare for it to stay that way...🤑)

Well what I mostly mean by that is he's pretty much just following what Cuscuna prepared for CD release in the 80s-2000s, including many of the unreleased sessions he got into the world and stuff he put out through Mosaic. Both instances also include music from other labels under the EMI ownership umbrella like the Amy and Marable titles above.

Agreed all counts.

I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like they are continuing the Revisited series (and frankly the last many, many entries have been total bullshit). And after getting a start with Cecil/Braxton/Lacy/Ran Blake with "First Visit" it also seems like they are also just going to be releasing new sessions under this banner. but I'd love to see any of those you listed come out!

I have a bassist friend who played there quite often when it was Augie's, circa 1989-90. He was part of a young group that included Brad Mehldau (playing a battered old Fender Rhodes! apparently it was the house piano at the time) and was led by Jesse Davis.

Before shipping, DG is cheaper than CvD.

I heard this session. The first time I worked for Blue Note was to co-produce the Lee Morgan Live at the Lighthouse 3 CD set. Michael and Bob Belden spent around 2 weeks at Capitol studios going through multiple tapes including the Gordon/Stitt session. The first track was salvageable and each subsequent track got worse and worse as they kept drinking and getting more and more drunk. I think they gave up after 3 or 4 tunes. I never heard anything like it. I guess one of the folks who does work up there might think it's good but since we are back in the LP era, where would they release it? I also noticed that the Tyrone Washington album is getting the Tone Poet treatment. I guess if it was the CD era, part of the Trainwreck session might see the light of day.....

I just learned that pianist Christoph Spendel has passed on November 7, 2025 at age 70. He was one of Germany's best, and had been teaching at the Frankfurt musoc University.

Since it's LPs, it's Lion's work, not Cuscuna's.

Agreed. The Trainwreck lives!😛

Agreed. It seems like if any label would release the complete 1965 Coltrane Half Note recordings, it would be Hat. (There is that bootleg soundboard recording out there, but still. Be nice to have "Creation" out there for a wider audience.) Some Hat wishes: • Jimmy Giuffre 3: Tübingen, 1961 • Steve Lacy — any unreleased Hat titles • Sonny Simmons: It Is Revealed • Ric Colbeck: The Sun Is Coming Up I think the Ayler is well is fairly dried up. But maybe not Don Ayler? What I don't get is why Hat is reissuing Blue Note and Prestige stuff when they could be so much more creative with their choices. The Atavistic Unheard Music Series was a model in this regard.

Charles Rivers Editors, like Hourly History, publishes eBooks which are short (like a pamphlet) histories of a wide range of subjects. These are brief overviews for people who know nothing about the subject.

This.

I think Chambers has some pluses and considerable minuses. The pluses - it’s comprehensive as far ans official recordings go and he mines a lot of secondary sources. However, he has serious blind spots / cluelessness on Miles’s music starting in the mid 1960s that get worse and worse the later you go. His coverage of the electric era is mostly a waste (except to get a flavor of how that music went over many jazz listeners’ heads). There are also some discography errors that suggest he wasn’t a close listener. I also think it’s unfortunate that he didn’t do any primary research when nearly all the musicians who played with Miles were still alive. None of the other, better biographers had that luxury. I think Carr’s bio is better, as is Tingen’s. I haven’t read Szwed’s yet!

Will Mothership get an all-new cover design? I’m guessing ‘yes’ — but we’ll see. I don’t buy brand new vinyl, and rarely buy much use vinyl at all either (haven’t for 20-25 years, I’m nearly all CD — except for maybe a couple dozen obscure 60’s or 70’s titles I found used quite cheaply). Still curious if Mothership gets a new cover design though.

Michael Cuscuna told me that Stitt & Gordon were obviously very drunk at that session and that this tune was the only one he found from that date that was releasable. Given that other "unreleasable" stuff has been released since Michael left, I'm sure there's a chance that more stuff like this will see the light of day.

John Hicks & Ray Drummond Two Of A Kind

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