Big Al

Ditto here. If you can find Something Personal, snag it. It's almost as beautiful as Easterly Winds.

McCoy Tyner FLY WITH THE WIND on CTI..... er, Milestone.

I was just over at the Concord site. I didn't realize how much music McCoy recorded for Milestone; am glad to see it appears that it's all in print. Ah well, I didn't need that money anyway.....

I may have to reconsider that one; I forgot that was the quartet album with Hutch. They always make a nice team.

Thanks!

Apologies for resurrecting a four-year-old thread. I'll warn you now: this one's gonna be long. Hell, it took me four years to write it; whattya expect? I will go on record right now to say that there exists no more of a perfect album than Getz/Gilberto. There are a lot of albums I can put on and listen to over and over at work; this is that rare album that I actually listen to over and over at work. The opener, "The Girl from Ipanema," is about as perfect a recording as exists. The gentle humming and strumming of Joao Gilberto. His is such a voice that one can sing along with it, despite not knowing the words. I don't know the words, but I still love to sing along. Tommy Williams plays such a deceptively simple bass line, simple whole notes throughout. But the genius is that those notes are NOT simple. His playing is the literal heartbeat of the song. Then Astrud comes in. Outside of this album, I'm not much of a fan of hers. Not even on subsequent albums she did with Getz or solo. But here, on this song, she nails it. Innocently flat, angelically without range, PERFECT for this song. She magnificently transforms the perspective of the song from that of the longing and yearning young man to that of the plain-looking hidden-beauty of the envious young lady watching this "tall, tan, young and lovely" walk by attracting all the men. No mean feat! Then Stan Getz comes in and plays an understated majestic solo. One of the cool things about this section is how Milton Banana switches to the ride cymbal for Stan's solo. Gives it a more driving beat before Jobim comes in for his solo. That last strike of the ride cymbal before switching back to the hi-hat is like a smooth landing after diving off a cliff, the adrenaline rush of falling accompanied by Stan's solo, and the cool of the water accompanied by Jobim's lilting piano playing. It truly does not get any better than this, and few people have come close; the only version of this song that is in the same stratosphear is the version done with Sinatra. Other than that, no one else has come close to matching the magic that is this particular version. Nobody. Including Jobim himself. Thankfully, they didn't just leave it at that. Even a song like "Doralice," which sounds like it could be a simple throwaway, is imbued with a sense of togetherness that could only sound like it was being played by a close-knit group. I love Joao's story of "Para Machucar Meu Coracao." It evokes a sadness that was already evident in the song. Knowing the story makes the playing sound even more melancholy without being overdone. To use a word I've used a lot here, this song is perfect. "Desafinado" and "Corcovado" are definitive, the standard by which all future versions are measured, including ones by Jobim himself. Speaking of Jobim (to borrow an album title by pianist Eddie Higgins, creating a nice segueway), not nearly enough is ever said about Jobim's sparse and lovely piano playing. He uses maybe one note, two-note chords if he's feeling generous, to make his point. His solos are masterpieces of understatement, and yet they say so much more than a thousand note-jammed solos of some of the same pianists of the day (and today, for that matter). "So Danco Samba" is made even more lovely by that deceptively simple (there's that term again) piano chord Jobim plays twice before Joao starts singing. This is also Stan's hottest solo on the whole album. Jim R said it earlier that Joao's strumming may sound easy, but it ain't. Few people can emulate or imitate it properly. A lot like someone trying to sing like Sinatra. Sure, I can sing along with him while I'm driving, and I like to think I'm a good enough singer that I can hit the same notes Sinatra's hitting. But hit them the same WAY Sinatra hits 'em? I don't think so! Someone else (might've been Jim R, I'm too lazy to look) compared Joao's voice to Sinatra's, and I agree wholeheartedly. Sure, he may not be as technically gifted as Sinatra, but the gifts he had he used exceptionally. He makes you feel the song; he makes you understand the song even if you don't understand the words. "O Grande Amor" sounds like a close cousin to the earlier "Para Machucar Meu Coracao," melancholy, evocative, longing, haunting, and a whole bunch of other overused cliched descriptives. Including perfect! This is not my favorite version of "Vivo Sonhando," (that goes to the version on Jobim's masterpiece Terra Brasilis) but it is definitive. I love the way Getz's high note ends the record; it's like the aural exclamation point to the perfect melding of American and Brazilian in a way that set the standard for all future bossa nova albums. Some albums came close (Jobim's own Desafinado came close, but on a different level altogether), and even though a lot of what came after ranged from beautiful and pleasant to "Oh Lord, who let one rip in here?" most of it was good enough to enjoy. I know I have!

'fraid not. But then, I've been giving props to Fly Like the Wind, which, when you think about it, sounds like it wants to be a CTI album. Yeah, don't mean to be so dismissive of Tyner's Blue Note years, but nothing of his on that label ever grabbed me. Not Real McCoy, not Expansions, nothing. As for Sahara, the public library has a copy. Every now and then, I'll give it another chance, and every time it doesn't grab me and I find nothing to latch onto. But if I ever find it (or any of the others, regardless of spaciness) on vinyl, I'll snap it up in a heartbeat!

Sure you weren't standing on your head at the time?

Rather than ressurect a four-year-old thread, I figured I would just start a new thread. I more or less stumbled upon McCoy's Milestone recordings when I picked up a couple of his LPs at a library book sale, Fly with the Wind and Trident. I liked these a lot more than I thought I would, because they sound nice without losing any adventurous edge. Also picked up Sama Layuca in a recent trade, and I think I like that one best of all! Smokin' hot & all that! Now before anyone tells me to rush out and get it, don't bother recommending Sahara to me. I know that one is a lot of people's favorite; I could never get into it, especially the side-long title track. Too meandering to me. I haven't seen anyone mention the recent release of Horizons in the Keepnews Series; is it not that good? Seems like other titles would've been better candidates for re-release, but then I know next to nothing about McCoy's Milestone albums. I do know that I prefer this era of Tyner's solo career over his Blue Note and Impulse albums. He just seemed to find his own voice in this decade.

Even the Rockies are admitting as much.

Good heavens, 13-1 Sox after 5! So much for an exciting Series.

No kidding!!!

????????

We should write a book: The Book of Duderonomy. (I didn't make that up; I swiped it from the comic strip Zits)

Oops....

A click on "View New Posts" brings up a list of the following threads: Dumbledore is gay The Baseball Thread 2007 CD-Rs sold as CDs question for our multilinguist friends: Playlist, WBLV / WBLU FM, 10-18-07, 10p.m.-3a.m. Porter Wagoner in serious condition Lake Lanier has 3 months of water storage left-Main water supply What vinyl are you spinning right now?? Mosaic sale, ending October 14 Name Three People... Keith Jarrett on a Rant Happy Birthday, Chris A!! What music did you buy today? Only two jazz-related threads (one if you don't count the Playlist thread, zero if you think that another Jarrett rant has nothing to do with jazz). Bear in mind, I've locked myself out of the Politics zone, so this list doesn't even include those threads; who knows how many of those are active right now? So, what's happening? Did we finally run out of things to talk about? I'm not too worried.. we haven't turned into Jazz Corner or AAJ yet. Maybe I need to start another "jazz album I hate" thread.

Sounds like she was asked a question, and answered it matter-of-factly. Of course, it might be different if she had called a press conference just to make that announcement. I heard that story too but am cynical enough to think it could have been a "plant". I thought the same thing. I've read all seven books. The whole "Dumbledore-is-gay" is completely plausible to me. But I don't recall, as Rowling states, any part of book seven that mentioned where Dumbledore "fell in love with Grindewald."

Where?

utterly disgusted? boy, you've got issues. I just find the whole thing intellectually dishonest. There were SO many unanswered questions to the whole series, so many things that were forced to be left to the imagination. To isolate this one character and his sexuality is not only dishonest, it's cowardly: if it was that germane to the story, why wasn't it left in the book? We already know the answer to that one: public outcry would've been furious! (Then again, there's no such thing as bad publicity, so maybe it woudn't have hurt sales) However, that's no excuse to leave it out of the book. Hey J.K., while we're at it, I'd like to know the sexual orientation of the following characters: Sirius Black (he was awfully close to James Potter, and there's no record of him having any kind of heterosexual relationship with anyone) Professor McGonigall (sp?) (she was the saddest about Professor Trelawney's leaving, and her fiercest defender) Crabbe & Goyle (they were always together) Neville Longbottom (sure he asked Ginny to the Ball, but look at his last name) Percy Weasley (repressed his sexual desires by throwing himself into his work) Of course I'm being ridiculous, and that's the point. See how silly this all is? I agree with this statement: I just don't see why this also couldn't be left to the imagination like everything else was. [edited because jazzshrink responded to his thread subtitle]

I absolutely 100% agree. Agree with Alex as well, but after reading this story, my first question was "What was the point of THAT?"

Wow, wow, and wow! Could a game get any crazier? After Drew dropped that fly ball, shades of 1986 came flashing back. If not for that Coke bottle, Youkilis's homer would still be flying! I've never seen a baseball leave so quickly! Anything flying that fast oughta have a fucking stewardess on it! Kenny Lofton's gotta be shakin' his head right now: called out on a blown call by the ump; held up at third on an easy score. How do you get all THAT outta your system? Ah well, congrats Dan! Enjoy this one for as long as it lasts, and I hope it results in another WS ring for your team!

Was anyone else worried when they brought in Gagne to protect a 10-run lead? Besides Indians fans, who were probably jumping for joy. Anyway, I was worried. Game 7 oughta be interesting.

The Schaap Quiet-a-Thon: have donors donate money to keep the music playing and Schaap quiet (i.e. no between-song rambles, etc). Each hour costs a minimum $100. To meet the budget of 280-grand, Schaap would have to keep it zipped for 2800 hours or roughly 117 days. Is that too much to ask?

Only if you can break it up into 1000 carefully cut pieces.

I never knew she was married to Bob Thiele. RIP. It's nice to read the comments about how warm and kind she was.