colinmce

I've never had any strong feelings about him one way or another myself, mostly because he usually works in the trio idiom, which is not really my bag a lot of the time. A Little Copenhagen Night Music on Arista-Freedom with Henry Franklin & Michael Carvin is pretty good (and obviously very cheap).

I still can't get past Monder, though I agree Tony is playing well. Have you heard the Rogue Art with Angelica Sanchez & Tom Rainey yet?

Miles In Europe is near the top of the heap of Miles albums for me period. The Blackhawk recordings are also among my overall favorites from his entire body of work. Oddly enough I never got on in a major way with Four And More/My Funny Valentine. Splitting hairs just a little, but I never found these recordings as compelling as others from the same period. MFV especially is quite a slog, and I loathe the title track. The complete edition helps the case, but I still don't reach for it often.

Coming out shortly on Tao Forms. You can pre-order here & at Aum https://taoforms.bandcamp.com/album/mbefore

It does look like they're doing their little re-do on Slugs. I need to pull my ZYX CDs of that off the shelf and give them a listen. If I recall the sound is OK but I would welcome an improvement. I never heard the official ESP release but there is a Lone Hill one out there with utterly atrocious sound.

I never got the sense they had a lot to work with for this series to begin with, now I know they're really just out of material. Only my opinion of course!

Definitely going for the CDs here, looking forward to it. Maybe this opens up the possibility of an official CD release of the Cecil Taylor concert?

I listened to this just yesterday. Fantastic comp.

I listened to My Shining Hour for the first time in quite awhile the other day and it was sounding very much like Evans to me. I remember liking it, but I found it a bit of a bore this time around, very much of its time in a not-necessarily-positive way. I wonder how Charlie Haden felt about this group, he doesn't do much there, mostly just goes through the motions. I think the studio albums hold up quite a bit better.

I'd be down for that, but I also like listening to the boots. They sound like Charlie Parker airshots, which always feels apt.

Nice catch! What the hell was going on over at Savoy in the 80s?

There were two sessions recorded for Footloose, 15 tunes were recorded in all. Floater is mostly tracks from Footloose with a few of the unreleased ones in the mix. Syndrome is the rest of Footloose and the rest of the recorded tunes. Floater Syndrome compiles all of Footloose plus 7 of the unreleased tunes, minus two alternates. The Japanese Complete Footloose CD, as well as a Gambit disc called Complete Savoy Sessions 1962-63, has all 15 songs. Phew! Since Floater Syndrome is by far easier to come by than the official JP disc or the OOP Gambit CD, I would say this is definitely your best bet to have nearly all of this material.

At $55 for the two SACDs, I think I'm good with my OJCs. Am I the only one who thinks Tomorrow Is The Question is by far the drabbest Coleman LP? I've never felt like the music comes together; Heath, Mitchell, and Manne do an admirable job but it doesn't work for me.

I also recently came across this recording from Newport 1965. You need a subscription to listen in full, but the clips are fantastic https://www.wolfgangs.com/music/paul-bley-trio/audio/20020001-50866.html?tid=4844095 That's a great comp. A cheap & friendly way to sample the extremely rare Marzette Watts & Cleve Pozar material too. Music from Turning Point and Floater Syndrome were also released in part on the Savoy LPs Turns and Floater in the 80s. Turns includes an alternate take of "Ida Lupino" that is not available anywhere else. To that end, the Artista-Freedom 2xLP has an otherwise unreleased alternate take of "Closer", and there is furthermore a very rare Japanese CD called The Complete Footloose that includes alternate takes of "King Korn" and "Around Again"

aha though, a wrinkle! this is ‘Touching’ and the Polydor ‘Blood’, not the Fontana one. that is a much tougher nut to crack, availability-wise

Both very excellent. If you're a fan of this music I don't think you'd want to be without them. The retailer millionsofrecords.com has both for 5.99 and 4.99 respectively.

I've been on a huge Bley kick lately, especially his 60s work, and I have also spent the last couple weeks getting headaches over the details of his discography from this time. There are so many overlapping issues, overlapping titles, various pressings, various release dates ... it's all almost impossible to wrap your mind around. Here's a quick little list I put together to help keep some of this organized.

I believe this was his final performance, in 2019. Very fitting, and a lovely record: https://dropadisc.bandcamp.com/album/front-to-front-sold-out

PM Sent: Shepp ,Archie/Philly Joe Jones – Archie Shepp & Philly Joe Jones cutout $7 Cowell, Stanley – Illusion Suite some wear on cover $9

RIP. Lots of love out there for Sounds of Liberation, Drum Dance, and Infinity, and people are getting hip to the 70s Steeplechases, but he made a number of very fine recordings for CIMP later in life in the company of compatriots like Byard Lancaster and Odean Pope that I hope will one day get some equal attention. It seems these days that the whole of an artist's life isn't appreciated as much as it should be.

Very good record, as his Swimming, also on OmniTone.

Very interesting, I never knew that. Wonder how it is that Cuscuna published those credits on the Blue Note releases of these recordings.

I am also shocked about Dizzy Reece and Bill Holman too. Great to hear. Related question: who has the earliest recording credit among these artists? Not thinking too hard, but I'm wondering if it might be Roy Haynes who can be heard on some Lester Young Aladdin sides from February 1947. Terry Gibbs made his debut on some Alan Eager Savoy sides in 1947. Sonny also has credits in the 40s of course, on Bud Powell's iconic 1949 Blue Note sessions. It simply boggles the mind.

I would also throw into the mix the so called "first generation" American free improvisors: Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, Polly Bradfield, Anne Lebaron, Tom Cora et al on the east coast/US South; Eugene Chadbourne, Randy Hutton, Henry Kaiser, Duck Baker et al on the west coast, Milo Fine, George Cartwright, David Moss, Michael Lytle in the midwest, etc ... lots of overlap there.

If pressed I could come up with one or two "Summertime"s that were interesting, but I have never heard a decent version of MFV, it's just a dreadful boring song.