trpt2345

For those who might be interested, there is a nice annotated discography here: http://www.binkie.net/wrdisc/

The Return to Forever stuff is in print, you can skip past the vocals. Isn't he also on Corea's Friends? He's on a lot of Elvin, is the Mosaic set still in print? My favorite with Elvin is Genesis, no idea if that's still around. I have all the CTI stuff from long ago, he was the consummate sideman. Maybe even a better flutist than tenor player, and he was a great tenor player.

Woody has been always one of my favorite trumpet players,I saw him many times and couldn't believe what I was hearing much of the time. I also learned early on to be wary of him: one night at the old Jazz Showcase on Rush Street I was sitting front and center. After an incredible set, I was thinking of talking to him. A young guy went up to him, gushing about how much he enjoyed the music and how Woody was his favorite trumpet player. Woody just looked at him for a second and said "Is that all the f*&k you got to say to me?" The kid was crushed, and I thought, well, perhaps this evening is not an occasion to initiate conversation with Mr. Shaw. By coincidence, Stafford James has moved back to Chicago, and I have been hanging with him a bit. (I can see the building he lives in out my window.) I've heard a lot of Woody stories from him, but he said they always got along and he considers Woody to have had the best musical mind of anyone he ever worked with, jazz or classical.

The last fifteen years or so of his life Tommy was at the pinnacle of jazz piano. The trio with Peter Washington and Lewis Nash was perfect, so swinging. All the recordings mentioned are fabulous; if all you know of his work is Saxophone Colossus or Giant Steps there's SO much more.

Tony Williams Select. I've been working on transcribing some of Tony's tunes, Warriors, Life of the Party, My Michelle. Good stuff and too often overlooked.

The Mercury Rahsaan Roland Kirk box, one of my favorite ever.

I have put all my CDs (maybe 1500 plus another 1100 bootlegs) in paper sleeves with windows. It reduced storage space by about 2/3. I use mini sort of file folder tabs to mark off the divide between letters, I file by alphabetical order/last name. It's not that difficult to find anything. My 800 LPs are in oak bookcases with adjustable shelves. Chicago MM

They're also looking into a Keith Jarrett Select of the trio/quartet Atlantic/Vortex recordings. Let the flames begin!!! Including Restoration Ruin? Trpt2345

Joe of course was one of those special players, an original, a sound like no other. Mode for Joe was my first,and since I've grabbed everything I could get my hands on. He had a hard time keeping a steady band together but managaed toplay and record with many greats: Dave Holland and Al Foster, Charlie Haden, George Mraz, Bill Stewart. I liked him in bass-drum trios. A good writer too, I do Afro-Centric and No Me Esqueca with my kiddies. Trpt2345

I saw WR a bunch of times from 1972 through 1983. I disagree that they declined in their later years, but you can't really go by the studio recordings. When Jaco joined and they got Erskine on board they really hit a peak, very different from the Vitous/Gravatt band,but just as intense. Wayne was going through a lot of personal shit in the late 70's-early 80's (read Mercer's bioor Glasser's bio of Zawinul) and didn't participate that much in the studio, but onstage he could be devastating. There are tons of boots floating around in the blogosphere and youtube if you're interested. The two CD set of unreleased live shows has a ton of great playing on it. It was Jason Marsalis actually who persuded me to re-examine the late WR stuff,Night Passage, Sportin' Life, the second eponymous, etc. Domino Theory.They're all good. Bands never last forever, Weather Report lasted longer than most (15 years) and hit some incredible peaks along the way. Trpt2345

He does from time to time write for The Atlantic Monthly, although I haven't seen anything by him there lately. Four or five years ago I had two letters to the Atlantic Monthly published in reply to an article he wrote about Wayne Shorter. It was shockingly poorly researched and full of inaccuracies, which could have been avoided by even the most cursory research. Needless to say I don't really care for his writing or his critical faculties when it comes to jazz. MM