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I think it took me some time to get used to Dizzy Reece´s trumpet sound, it sound´s a bit "squeezed" . But he got really a hell of a band for that record. I think "Star Bright" and "Sounding Off" are my favourite records he made.

I think I remember having heard about Sadao Watanabe, but I am not sure in which context. Didn´t he play a very bird like altosaxophone on some Galaxy records with some US musicians. I don´t know what has happened to Galaxy, there was a whole bunch of recordings made in Japan. But I think, Watanabe made some fusion albums also, for money. And I think some Europeans knew him especially for that fusion stuff....... I saw Terumaso Hino live with Dave Liebman, can you imagine that ? About the question about pre 1975 japanese jazz.... hard to say, wasn´t the early 70´s a quite rough period for jazz with many guys having difficulties to get jobs and a lot of joints closed? But I think I remember there was a japanese guy dont remember his name, a quite long and not pronouncable name, who had a big band called "New Herd" and who recorded some tracks with US Stars in the early 70´s. He can be heard on an ill fated Mingus in Japan album from around 1971, and on a Monk album also from that period which was quite unhappy for both Monk and Mingus.....

wow, never saw Mobly bespectacled. Maybe on some pics with sunglasses.

I don´t really understand all that discussion about Quincy Troupe´s book, since this is an old thing, I think it was published around 1989, right ? I would have liked to read that new book, but sorry to say I think I´m too conservative for Kindle. To read a book means to me to read paper format, not to press buttons. I tried Kindle, when Peter Pullman´s "book" about Bud Powell came out. I even bought that Kindle Equipment and someone told me how to handle it, but I fear I have forgotten how it has to be done, and have misplaced the Kindle Book somewhere. And the guy who was my "computer expert" died to early, so I´m alone and lost with stuff like that........ I hope, that new book will be published some time on paper format.

Great !

100% agreement ! I´d say I had the same impressions: And I think they were exactly how Miles played his live shows in those years 1983-1985: The 1983 "Star People" reflected what I saw "live" in spring 1983: Still a band playing instruments, Al Foster on drums, Mike Stern AND John Scofield so you had both elements, the more rock-sounding Mike Stern and the more cool and laid-back Scofield, and a lot of playing. There was no keyboard player, only Miles filled in on keyboard here and there, as he did in 1974-75. The 1984 "Decoy" .....well maybe it´s my own fault, maybe after liking Star People so much I expected more, or better said, something else. I think, and that´s how I felt when I saw Miles again in 1984, that 1984 was a year of "transition". Miles, who had started his comeback with a really playing stage band in 1981 and kept that kind of stuff until 1983, was looking for a change but still did not no in which direction to go. Finally in 1985 he had decided to go "pop" and commercially strong. The electronic keyboards got a bigger role, the drums became more mecanic and could have been replaced by machines, the stuff became more music you can hear on headphones, not necessarly famous for jazz solos. I saw Miles twice in 1985. In July he played exactly what´s on "You Are Under Arrest" and in November which was quite a tired, weak thing, I think there was more from "Rubberband" in it, I remember then he had Marylin Mazur on percussion....

One of my all time favourites.

Oh yes, this explains much. I noticed that as soon as 1967 (see Sam River´s "Dimensions and Extension") he sounds much more subdued and a bit "rusty". And right, I think I have read that he did very much educational work. I remember the first Donald Byrd record I had was "Long Green", the Savoy record with Frank Foster, Hank Jones, Kenny Clark and Paul Chambers.

zischfrisch

But what really had happened to Donald Byrd that he sounded so weak on that recordings? Even Miles after 6 years off trumpet, when he sounds very shaky on that tape when he was sittin in with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band, sounded better than Donald Byrd on that Sonny Rollins album. And Donald Byrd was not that old, I think he was about the same age like Sonny. I have a lot of Donald Byrd records from the 50´s and 60´s and he was one of the fastest trumpet players around.

One of the most fascinating recordings. But was it really recorded by Blue Note ? Somehow I can´t believe this would have been recorded in the RVG Studio. I never associated Mingus and Duke with BN. Max was on some recordings , but not as many as other drummers....... This one

I haven´t listend to it for years, but if I remember right, I thought that "Amandla" had a bit more playing of real musicians, than just machines. "Mr. Pastorius" sounded much more like a tune played by musicians, and I think on one track they had flown in an acoustic pianist too (was it Joe Sample ?). Maybe in reality there was also a lot of machines and synthies and drum computers, but it didn´t sound so artificial as was the case with "Tutu".

Yes this is the cover of the LP I purchased in the late 70´s .

When I first purchased the "Town Hall Concert" it was a BN LP with a painted cover of the concert. But I never understood why it was under the BN Label since Mingus never was a BN artist, he only once played bass on a 1954 J.J. Johnson date. Later I picked up the CD with the "Complete Concert" with a very strange cover photo of Mingus with a shaved head. I like mostly the slower numbers, there is something based on the chords of "I can´t get started" and a beautiful thing which I think is called "Love X" or '"Duke´s Choice". Some of it is weird, I think the "Epitaph" has some passsages that reminded me of "Pyticantropus Erectus" ..... On the original LP the last tune "In a Mellow Tone" I think was titled "Finale".....

Oh yes ! This is the Sonny Rollins how he sounded when I heard him first in the late 70´s. Sonny at his top. I heard him with Al Foster, but here it´s Tony Williams, just incredible the great drummers Sonny always had ! This is a great album, the only weaker point is torwards the end when Donald Byrd sit´s in. I mean I was lookin forward to hear Donald Byrd on that sides since he was always a favourite of mine, but here it seems that he was in no playing condition at all and I never heard a weaker trumpet voice, I mean even Ornette sounded better on trumpet......

I´m quite surprised there are not more answers. This is about MILES DAVIS, not about some Mr. Unknown, and really interesting. I never thought Miles would say so much about Buddy Rich......

I heard him in the 80´s . I think he was from the avantgarde-jazz scene from Graz. "The Karlheinz Miklin-Trio'".

I don´t know the artist, but is "Theme of no repeat" the Tadd Dameron compositon wrote for his 1953 Prestige session (The Atlantic City Band)....?

I remember Miles played some tunes from that period during the live shows. "Maze" I think he played on many occasions. I had bought all the Warner Brothers albums when they came out, and went to all the shows when Miles was in town. But 30 years later I must admit it wasn´t something made for me to last forever. I have records that I bought when I was a teenager and still listen to them, and bought frequently new records, but if I spinned the Warner Brothers Albums more than 5 - 10 times after purchasing then, I might be very surprised. Maybe I listened a bit more to "Siesta" for a period since I liked the spanish feeling, Tutu let´s say the theme song has it strong quality, but much of the rest the the album just bored me. I spinned "Dingo" maybe 2 times, and "Doop bop" 1 time.....

I saw Al Cohn only once, and that was in July 1985 with Woody Herman, who then performed with a smaller "All Star Group" . I think it was Woody with Al Cohn, Buddy Tate, Varren Vaché, John Bunch was on piano, the drummer I think was Jake Hanna, and there was a young bass player as a replacement for the scheduled George Duvivier..

My first thought also was Fats Navarro´s composition, based on "Out of Nowhere". A very nice line and I think it comes near to what Fats Navarro said that he just would like to create a perfect melody, his own.....

Same here ! This record was a favourite of mine, when I just began to start to listen to 60´s avantgarde. I think I purchased it just after having purchased my first Ornette album. Great that avantgarde group with Rashied Ali and Pharoah Sanders.

It took me some time to dig Buddy Rich. I was always listening to drummers like Max Roach, Roy Haynes, of course Tony Williams and so on, but after many years I started to hear what Buddy Rich does. I remember when I first heard the record "Bird ´n Diz" where Norman Granz put Bird and Diz and Monk together with Buddy Rich I thought it´s a musical wrong choice, but now if I listen to it, it makes sense to me. And wasn´t it Fats Navarro, who on a live performance shouted out Buddy Rich´s name when Rich starts his drum solo?

Oh really ? Of course I have this record, but didn´t know it was recorded live. Same with Crisis, you don´t hear the audience, that´s why I first had thought it´s studio records. I have both of them on LP, I don´t even know if they ever were reissued on CD.

He sure is. I remember his incredible solo on the Latin part of "Cumbia" how they did it in the quintet version on tour. I think the role of Jack Walrath became more and more important toward the end of the band. He also did great contributions to arrange for Mingus´ last album but I think somebody else got the credits. He knew Mingus´ music from top to bottom and I think when Mingus couldn´t play anymore Walrath helped him to make that album "Me Myself an Eye" , I think he wrote parts of "Three Words of Drums", I once read that Mingus gave Walrath a tape with a Moorish sounding scale and just told him "Pick out some of my notes and make a melody out of it...."