Gheorghe

Oh yes, I like to listen chronologically to "Sky", "Filles" and "Silent Way"....

I don´t really know very much about other renditions of the tune, I think Dexter did it on some Steeple Chase , and further I´m not even sure if I have the original Garner Album, I don´t have very much Garner.... But I think, from the 70´s on, when I started to play active, it was often called. It´s strange, there are ballads I can´t hear often enough like "Round Midnite" , but I got tired of Misty

Oh yes, Same here in Austria. it was to tune "Horace", that was spinned. And in our school we had a kid, who started to learn trombone. I made him a tape of the album and he loved that tune and always hummed it. And he had carved in his classroom-desk "J.J. Johnson is the best !" One week later, Kai Winding was in town. The kid was underage, but I was 18 and went to the show and told him about Kai, and about their long time association and how great Kai sounded on the show. And the next day, this kid had carved under the "J.J Johnson is the best" "Kai Winding too !" (he hadn´t heard before about Kai Winding, but my word.......

Same here, bought it shortly after it came out. During those days, when informations were difficult to get, we had that wonderful saturday night radio show "Jazz Shop" hosted by Herwig Wurzer. He was a unique guy and had that kind of "voice".....you know......like there was Symphony Sid´s voice in the night.....we had our Austrian Symphony Sid. And this unique DJ spinned one or two tunes from each new album with some hip talk commentaries, and we went to the record dealer and bought them or if they still didn´t arrive, we ordered them .

Your are right ! That was also my problem, that the tunes are a bit over-familiar. Thanks for helping me to find the right expression. And, about "4 Generations", I didn´t really understand how it was meant. 4 Generations might mean, Jimmy Cobb from the late 50´s style, and Mike Sterne from the 80´s style. But both Coleman and Ron are from the 60´s style. So , if I want 4 generations, I might place one from the 50´s, one from the 60´s , one from the 70´s and one from the 80´s. So I could say, Cobb, Carter, LIEBMAN (from the 70´s), and Stern from the 80´s. Or, Cobb, Coleman, and for the missing 70´s maybe Mike Henderson on bass, and Stern. And same about the birthdates: Cobb was born in the late 20´s, but both Coleman and Ron in the 30´s and Mike Stern in the 50´s. So there might have been also a player born in the 40´s (Liebman for example). As for Carter: I could have seen and heard him here in Vienna on september 19th, but that was our 25th wedding anniversary. And even if I would have gone with my wife (who also would have gone with me to Liebman-Beirach), due the covid she was afraid of too many people at one place. Liebman in march 20 was chancelled due to covic, Ron was not possible.... And yeah, Carter is also in great form on 4 generations, but he´s not easy to hear...

This was my first Wayne Shorter album when I was a teenager. It´s still a favourite of mine. A wonderful thing.

an alltime favourite of mine

A later encounter of Dex with Slide Hampton can be found on the monster 2 volumes of 2 LP thing "CBS Allstars at Montreux 1977" (or how it´s called). Most stuff is very long tunes with fusion heads and some straight ahead swinging, arranged by Bob James , but there are some small group performances like Dexter , Woody Shaw and Slide Hampton on "Fried Bananas" and "Moontrain" among others, and it´s some of the best Dexter with Woody and Slide that I ever heard. On "Bananas" Dexter plays some of the greatest solos I ever heard him play......

I got this two years ago for father´s day , from my wife. Really a nice album. Everybody is playing great here. I´ve read somewhere that George Coleman didn´t feel too comfortable with the lack of a piano and Mike Stern instead of it, but I liked Mike Stern from first listening when he was with Miles in 1981-early 1983. He could play heavy rock, really bluesy stuff and straight ahead jazz. And his special sound and aproach of chords. Unique. The material of the album could have been a bit more into the time after the 50´s . So, only the tune "81" is from the mid sixties, the rest is late fifties, but played really great. I like Mike Sterns into on Blue in Green. George Coleman is great as ever, and I would have liked to hear a bit more drum solos of Jimmy Cobb. He is great on a quite short drum solo torward the end. The only thing that somehow surprised me was the sound of Ron. I was a great fan of Ron´s bass, but haven´t heard so much of him after the early 80´s. Maybe I´m too used to the 70´s sound, but here it´s sometimes hard to HEAR the bass, at least for me. He plays great and has great solos, but it sounds underrecorded to me, and more like an older style acoustic bass. But in general something very very nice to listen to, not very demanding, but nice after a day of hard work.

Very very interesting to read. I think I was too young for the effective Charles Lloyd-hype of the 60´s. When I started to play, some older guys talked enthuastically about Charles Lloyd and I had not heard about him, since he was not so much mentioned in jazz books of that time. I think in one book or interview someone told about long lines at a club were he played and Coltrane played in another club of the same town and someone said to a Lloyd fan "why don´t you go to club so and so to hear the original?". And he was off the scene in the 70´s. One of the Lloyd fans gave me two albums from 1966/67 and I liked it, but it seems that after some hearing I didn´t get back to it so much as I would have in case of Trane , Rollins, Sanders , Wayne, Henderson, Rivers and so on..... Shortly after his great comeback I saw him live with the quartet with Michel Petrucciani. Sure it was great music, but there were others on the festival who moved me more, like let´s say Jackie McLean. I remember Lloyd was quite uncommunicative to the audience. He looked dead serious and I think even Miles smiled more often or waved his hand to the audience. But that´s non-musical observations that don´t count really......

I love that record. The two leaders are playing so beautiful, and there is that combination of old stuff like "Walkin´", "Worksong", "Lament" and some beautiful new stuff, like the most exiting "Jevin", dedicated to JJ.´s son Kevin who is on drums here. I know , that acoustic purists may not like the electric keyboards , but Billy Childs really can play them all and has a great virtuosity and imagination. It´s interesting that he plays electric piano on the straight ahead tunes, and some acoustic on the solos of more "funky" tunes. An interesting aspect is that it´s quite an unusual album for the "Pablo" label. Usually they had more straight ahead material or combinations of bop musicians like Diz with older guys like Roy and so on, like the old JATP, well.....Norman Granz.....

Misty is nice, but there are to many horn players on so called "Jam Sessions" who always call "Misty" if they want to play a ballad. "Misty" or "In a Sentimental Mood". Why ? Because they don´t know so many ballads. During the last few years most of my "gigs" were our group for the first set, and "jam session" for the 2nd set. That was the rule at the club. And most of the session-players called "Tenor Madness" , "Blue Bossa", "Misty" and so on. Good point about references to "I want to talk about you". The best "jam sessions" I ever played was when really great musicians came in and "cleaned" the stage, and you got a lot of challenge and inspirations. I´ll never forget a night some decades ago, when I guy around 30 whom I never saw came in, packed out his tenor and played and played and played....., and when it came about a ballad, he played one of the greatest versions of "Round Midnight" that I ever heard. I was so happy to play with him and everybody in the audience asked who he might be, and why they haven´t seen and most of all....heard him before. When the session was over, I asked around, who he is and they told me he just came from an East Europe country. Since I know the language, I talked to him. He later became very prominent in Europe and also played with a lot of US Stars. And he started to dig into the roots of old popular music from his home country to combine it with jazz, but I always will remember him as some of the best tenor saxophone I ever heard..... That´s always the few great moments on jam sessions, if somebody comes and "lifts up the stage".....

One of my favourite McCoy Tyner albums. Great Music. Wonderful early Brownie before the classic Brownie-Roach Quintet.

Such a great musician and a first class bebopper.

Well it´s possible I have played the instrument for too much time to be able to remember how I mastered to finger it. Some time ago I was asked by someone if I know a piano teacher or if I could teach her to play piano. I said no, because first of all from where should I know a teacher, I know people who play, and some of them teach at Jazz-Conservatory here in Vienna, but that´s not about the basics, if you go to a conservatory I think you are supposed to allready know the basics. And by the way, isn´t playing an instrument like riding the bicycle? Once you learned it, you never forget it completly, you may get "rusty", but that´s all. The last time I did ride the bicycle regularly was when I was a kid, until I had my driving license. 20 Years later someone invited me to make a trip on bicycle and sure I didn´t fall down, but boy, how my ass hurt after 2 hours on bicycle.... So my opinion is, you don´t forget it, but you´ll be a bit rusty after a long absence from the instrument. I also did bass fiddle when I was young. I´m sure I didn´t forget how to finger and how to pluck the strings, but sure I´d get blisters.....

Your are welcome ! Well, it´s a bit hard for me to think about intentional practice in context with technical exercises, because after 60years of playing (yeah, I was maybe 2 years old when I sat on my fathers lap and started to finger the piano, and not making ugly sounds like non musical kids do, but playing coerent melodies from the beginning) it´s that way that I don´t think about the instrument separatly, the instrument is me. So maybe I played scales at the very beginning, because my dad wanted me to get to know the notes, the keys and above all that I can name the note or the key if he plays it and I had to hide under the piano for not seeing what he´s fingerin on the piano. So my advices might be more about the music itself. Start with slower pieces, let´s say a ballad and when you know the tune and the chords, try to get inside the ballad, I mean reallly inside so you will have your very individual approach to it. Listen for example to Bud´s version of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams". The melody is very very simple, almost childish, so let´s say try to play only the melody, then the melody with chords, and later when you master that, try to make it dynamical, emotional, like it´s on record, but not copying it, but getting your own individual approach. And when you take a swinging tune, try to make it flow. No cuts or stops when you get to the next chorus or get from the second A-part to the bridge..... So my advice is: You want to make MUSIC. If you take much time doing technical exercises, it can get boring. Learn by doing. Many musical carees, if it´s a more sensible kid, completly devoted to the music, a severe teacher who keeps you playing technical exercises could destroy the musicianship. Especially if it´s creative and individual music like jazz and improvisation. So get inside the music, try to play a piece, learn the meaning of the piece and to transmit the meaning on the keyboard. You want to play some tunes for your wife, at a house party and maybe at some point together with other musicians, so what count´s is the music, and I have no doubts that you have musical ears, so you have all you need.

oh ! Right now I saw the same date on amazon.de We´ll see.

I might give it a try again. As much as I liked mostly "Unity" etc. I was a bit disappointed with "Love and Peace". But maybe I have to give it another chance.

I have really many from the 7000 series, and when I was a teenie there very many double albums I think it is 24000 series, but later anyway had them all on 7000 series. Never heard about 16000 series. But I must admit almost all I have is the typical Prestige Rooster of the 50s, Miles, Monk, MJQ, Trane, Rollins, Jackie McLean, Dameron, Brownie....

Thank you soooooo much for this thread ! And thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I would like to tell you mine also, which in some points is similar to yours: When I was young, I also practiced lot. The only difference is that I had played piano for my whole live. Even before I went to "Kindergarten" I could play with my little hands and short fingers tunes after hearing them and had perfect pitch. But playing written stuff bored me and I never was a good reader. When I was in the transition from kid to teenie I started to be fascinated with jazz and "practiced". But never technical exercises, never classical pieces, only aiming to be able at one point to sit in in a band and eventually become member of a band. So it was playing all the standards by ear, and fascinated with Bird,Diz,Bud and wanting to play in that manner, learning all the bop tunes by ear. During that time there was no Real Book, at least not here, and I had to write out the chord progressions to improvise on the tunes. Eventually, the great austrian pianist Fritz Pauer let me sit in when he had a gig with Allan Praskin and Karl Ratzer and from that point on I started to play very much in clubs, sometimes too much so I had to study a bit longer for my degree (not music). During my first short marriage with two kids I still played much, the marriage failed but not due to music. Not it´s the same like your situation: Demanding full-time job which requires also weekend work and night work, but I love it and will do further some stuff even after retireing in late 2024 at 65. And I´m married to lovely and beautiful Miss Serena, for 25 years, and before that we were already together 5 years. I cut out playing in public in 1992 and that remained for the next 20 years. But I always played the music at home, would play as if playing a live set, that means some medium, some up tempo super be bop, some latin and of course ballads, playing better and better as everybody said. I kept in touch especially with my former drummer who is a professional musician and who started to tell me to come back after visiting me at home and listening to what I can do. So I decided from 2012 until 2020 to play maybe 2, maybe 4 gigs each year, and now due to the pandemia , again at home for me and my wife. We both are not to kind of people who make really close friends like others have. I don´t need another guy to tell him private things, and my wife does not have a "best friend" or "girl´s evenings". People I´m in touch with are colleages from the same category, and some who share my passion for fishing, another thing I´ve done almost all my live long. In the future, as we hope at some point to have again the possibility to live withouth restrictions, I´ll be there again, doing this or that little gig. But we don´t have to practice. Besides me who also knows the music and how to play it, the others always have been professionals.....

Maybe after more explorations in Free Jazz and more world music explorations with a lot of exotic instruments and maybe some electric, Trane would have returned at some point to a series of traditional acoustic quartet setting, maybe regathering Elvin and McCoy and after Garrisons´ death Reggie Workman or so on bass. Very good paid reunions for special occasions, maybe some guest appearences with Miles, especially on events like the 1991 gathering of old colleages in Paris....., and maybe some last album of moving ballads, before retirement due to age and loss of breath like Sonny Rollins, with tons of honour degrees and so on. Considering that Trane stopped drugs in the second half of the 50´s and being completly dedicated to music, he really would have deserved to live long like Sonny, who was in the same situation......

Had ordered it in Juni, got a mail from Amazon that it will be delayed and probably shipped in october, since then I never heard anything.

I got this last Chrismas from my wife. Wonderful. The version of "Be bop" is fantastic.

Thank you for your impressions, actually a review. Which album was it. Yesterday I listened to the 1977 Tempest at the Coloseum and love it. That version of "Red Clay".....incredible. Well, maybe I should say it´s not exactly the kind of album for acoustic purists, searching the "pure sound", but on the other hand I´m a product of that time and though I didn´t come to jazz via rock or fusion, but vice versa, it was part of the time. And I was a musician, and my friends were musicians. That was the sound we wanted, and since many of my musician friends were drummers, Tony Williams was kind of our hero. I still listen very very much from what the drummer does, and that was the times, and what young so called "modern oriented" players did, as well as in so called "acoustic, though amplified" surroundings, as well as going electric all the way. Most of us did both. But I´m not speaking about the many amateur bands who played Dixie or something like that. They were kind of a close community and others who liked Trane, Tony, George Duke, or even Charlie Parker, were "outlaws". Once I was asked to sit in in a Dixie band and they called "Sweet Georgie Brown". Well , I tried my best to fit into it without giving up my own personality, let´s say the way Fats did "Georgia Brown" on the 1947 session with a mixed group of younger and older musicians, or Bird and Diz on Band for Bonds, but I also wanted to "honour" them oldtimers with some nice fast stride as I had heard it from Bud let´s say on "Idaho", but though some people from the audience and even the younger musicians who had to play permanent in that band, the leader, an older beer drinking banjo player and ex policeman hated it

Good Point ! That´s it: Not only his bop lines, also very much his harmonies. In that context, very much the later interpretations of Ballads. I´m not good in theory but this way how Bud resolves certain chord progressions, especially in ballads, it became part of me. I couldn´t write that chords, and don´t know what poly chords is, but even if I play other ballads, I have that harmony in mind, it comes from itself, I can´t help doin it. It´s in my mind and that´s how it comes out. During the last weeks, due to COVID Lockdown I can play piano only at home. And that´s how it came I played Hildegard Knef´s "Für mich solls Rote Rosen regnen" just for my wife, and I never had played it and had heard it only when we went to some evergreen dancing on a Danube ship, but it came out in a way like maybe Bud would have played it. She loved it and I think I´ll do it as a last encore only solo piano when gigs will be possible again....