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Hi Jack ! I never had heard vocal versions of it, but I must admit that this doesnt mean much in my case. My wife likes Nat Cole´s voice very much and has an album of him where he sings in Spanish, well that´s music SHE likes. Well about Chick Corea and about Fusion in general: The fusion bag could be also a generation thing: When I became interested in jazz, the actual style was fusion. Though I loved those 50´s, 60´s Miles, Trane, Mingus etc. , you got to be accquainted with the actual jazz style of my time. And don´t forget it was the time of Electric Miles, Bitches Brew and On the Corner was just out, Herbie Hancocks Headhunters and Chick Coreas RTF were touring. Some in my high school were Electric Miles and Headhunters fans, and some where RTF fans. I must say that the Chick Corea /RTF fans were more the quiet and more philosophical guys, we had those who wanted to "create an ideal world" and stated that RTF had "changed their lives". Though "ideal worlds" and "changing my live" never was my bag I had to admit that it is very good music. One thing I must say so that you can understand me better: Fusion never thrilled me the same way like let´s say Bird or Miles or Trane or Ornette and all of ´em , but it was THERE . Now aged 63 I can say I´m lucky I didn´t have to play fusion for more then a few years since it was harder to get back to acoustic, but you still learned something from it. And though I don´t think I would like to go back to that stuff, it was good years with international jazz festival gigs, studio recording and composing and I was proud when some compositon of mine got "radio play"....tell me one young guy who wouldn´t be proud of that..... About Chick Corea´s acoustic piano style: You say it, if it does not move you there is enough other artists that you like. I also have music styles that don´t move me. For example, most of the typical West Coast stuff of the 50´s just doesn´t reach me, so it´s more than natural that each musician or music lover has his own tastes. P.S. I had sent you a message a few days ago....

Oh I didn´t know that, and I had thought that Miles had stopped hard drugs much earlier and had stopped smoking also soon after his comeback. There were reports that he only drinks mineral water and eats fish and salads, or maybe this was just "promotion" to create a model citizen ? But anyway, what remains is his music, and I hope for others I wrote enough interesting stuff about it in my little review.....

I think it seldom happens that the son listens or plays the same kind of music like his dad did. My dad listened only to classical music, mostly them long operas of Wagner, while I discovered jazz on my own (but soon making older friends who would teach me) . And though both my sons play instruments (electric guitar, electric bass) they are into metal and that´s okay for me too, maybe more okay for me than it was in my case for my father, who would have wished that I learn classical music which just was not my kind of music. So each generation in my family had it´s own groove in music.

I got this from my wife as a birthday present. I never had heard about it and it´s a great live event, much better than the posthum issued "Miles Around The World" on Warner, which IMHO is just a sampler, since it´s different recordings, each from another venue, rather than a full concert. Besides the fact that a lot of former Davis Alumni are sharing the stage with him, I´d like to mention his own band too. I think that the last bands, starting with the 1989 band with Kei Akagi on keyboards, and this much thinner instrumentation, just a sextet is much more "jazz" and band playing than former formations with a lot of keyboard sounds and programming and sometimes quite boring tunes. Here we have a good keyboarder who plays good solos and not just pushing buttons. I think the better music , I mean more interesting for jazz listeners started with "Amandla". I would say I enjoyed the band he had early after his comeback on "We Want Miles" and this one. And Miles is playing much more trumpet and his legendary harmon mute sound is great as ever. I heard he died shortly after this, but there is no evidence of weakness on that event, which goes for 2 hours, with Miles playing much trumpet on all tunes. Maybe Kenny Garrett is not what I like most, I liked the saxophone player Bill Evans from "We Want Miles" much more. Garrett´s sound and his solos on simple one chord, two chord vamps sounds much more like a nameless studio musician playing over a recorded track, than real jazz. Okay, he has trememdous power, but something´s with his sound and approach than doesn´t really move me. Especially on the eternal "Human Nature".... it´s always the same game, with those shouts in the highest register towards the end of that A minor vamp, quite boring, and I don´t really know why Miles kept it so long in his repertory, the tune just don´t say anything to me. Much better musically is "Perfect Way", and the wonderful Blues in Bb. Something very interesting happens on the short Zawinul-Shorter duet of "In a Silent Way". Here it is played with very interesting chords, obviously as Zawinul had composed it, and I remember I had read someone that Miles kept the melody but cut out all them chords, to keep it only on E natural, very simple. "It´s About Time" also from "In a Silent Way" is fantastic, and to have Steve Grossman and Al Foster is wonderful and Miles plays so great ! The biggest surprise is the really old bop numbers with Jackie McLean. On the track list only "Dig" is mentioned, but actually they first play "Out of Blue" (that´s based on "Get Happy" ) and after that "Dig" , that´s Jackey McLeans bop line on "Sweet Georgia Brown". Those are really strong with Jackie Mac and Grossman and that fantastic rhythm section Chick Corea, Dave Holland , Al Foster, they really cook and the big surprise is that Miles who never looked back and was rumoured that he couldn´t have had the chops for the bop tunes even if he would have played them again, really plays short but beautiful solo trumpet on them. It´s really an enigma for me why he died so shortly after that, if he could play that strong just a few weeks before. He must have enjoyed that event very very much. "Water Melon Man" I think had never before been recorded by Miles, on "Footprints" again he is beautiful, with Wayne Shorter, and the last tune, the wonderful "Jean Pierre" from the 1981 concert bills is here again, with all the musicians all together , all the saxophonists, keyboardists, guitarists, bassists and drummers..... a dream event.

Really sad. I remember I always hoped he would come back, like Miles who came back after 5 years. And later Henry Grimes after decades.......

Well, "You Stepped Out of a Dream" is a very common standard I thought. And there are many famous records done by famous musicians who played it. "Sonny Rollins Vo. II" on Blue Note is only one example. By the way it is great with a dream team J.J. Johnson, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, Art Blakey. The renewed interest of the "Stepped Out" - based "Chick´s Tune" might have a certain context with jazz academy studies, since so many advanced jazz students and pro´s play it here and obviously in other countries too, as some you tube videos proove. Maybe it is as a study for the way Chick Corea plays certain lines . Anyway, a lot of Chick Corea´s way of playing and improvising is very interesting. On early Miles Davis records where he replaced Herbie Hancock, it sounds like he is a further developement of Hancock´s style, I mean Hancock´s basics, and a more advanced way to play chords and lines, takin the music further out, exploring more of it. In my youth Chick Corea just was "RTF" , but listening closer to his solo inputs there, you can learn much. Indifferent if I choose to play the original standard "You Stepped Out..." or the Chick Corea line, I may have two different ways of approaching the tune: One more "boppish" and one more "post bop/modal" ...

There would be much to do to release later Monk. First of all, I never found the Giants of Jazz from Switzerland, which would be interesting since I read that they play much more Monk tunes than on the London release. Then I have read that Monk played with a larger orchestra at Carnegie Hall about the same time. And besides the two Newport Festival gigs I think I read something about a concert with more than just one horn. As good as Monk sounded even in later years it is hard for me to understand why he stopped playing. I think it must be hard to just retire after decades of playing music, and 50odd years is not quite the age of retirement for a pianist. Especially when during the late 70s there was a new interest in acoustic jazz, there would have been huge success and money for someone like Monk. It´s significant that Dexter had so much success starting from the late 70´s.....

I have heard Ralph Burns only on that "Saturday Night Jazz Session" on the America Label, that group with Fats Navarro (the reason I bought it then in the 70´s ) , Allen Eager, Charlie Ventura, Buddy Rich and I think that first number "High on an Open Mike" started with Ralph Burns on piano. I remember it was a quite unusual style, mostly with very heavy block chords on that descending chords in the bridge (I think I remember the song is based on "If I had You" in the A section with a bridge of descending chords). That´s really a good group. That rhythm section, George Cables incredible solo on that long Art Pepper composition something with "Make a Wish" or so. I must admit I like the rhythm section more than the star himself, though sure he´s great.

I heard that pre 1944 there was a recording "ban" whatever that means. That must have been a desaster for the record industry and for the musicians. Maybe it had to do with that scheiss-krieg and now we can´t hear much of the real story of the transition from swing to bop. Well there is "Early Bird" with the Jay McShann Orchestra that gives us a glimpse of how music was then, but I heard that Diz and Bird and Oscar Pettiford were on the street as early as 1943,44 ....

I did it of course ! Some years ago. In the left ear 70% is missing, in the right ear 50%. But I don´t have any problems when playing live or listening to live music. I would have problems if there was instruments like piccolo or high notes of let´s say a vibe or a celeste, or very high notes from the piano. Headphones would be a solution for listening records, but I feel so isolated if I use headphones. No headphones, and I never do what others do while riding the bus or the subway, listening to music with hadphones. What I do is "cut out" what´s around me and "hear music in my head". Well, sometimes it is to the astonishment of peoples around me, since I seem to be "off" because I figure out musical things in my head, memorizing tunes, comping or soloin imaginationed solo lines and stuff. But there are enough modern recorded albums especially live albums where I hear my beloved cymbals very well. I´m just a drums addict and my favourite drummer here in Viena, sometimes if I´m off I just go and listen to him when he plays with other personnel and seat next to the drums to hear and feel it. But it´s interesting there are old studio recordings where you hear the drums right. Take "Tranes Blues" on one of those Prestige Albums Miles did, you really hear the wonderful cymbal sound of Philly J.J., and BN also did a good job with it. It seems that some recording engeneers think "jazz" and think drums, and others think non jazz and don´t understand the drums. That´s a big point. And I heard that even among jazz listeners there are some who don´t want to hear too much drums.....

Must spin that again. I think I bought it mostly because it´s one of the few ocasions where Trane recorded for BN. That long first tune, I think I remember it´s a AABA form with the A sections 12 bar blues, and an 8 bar bridge. Very strong Trane on it. And I think it also has a slow version of some standard, maybe "How Deep´s the Ocean" ? In general I think it didn´t sell as well as "Cool Struttin´" which maybe is even better, though it doesn´t have Trane on it, but Jackie McLean is also top for me like Trane...... Sonny Clark I think has a very hard touch with his right hand. He doesn´t play many runs, but is the ultimate hard bop pianist. It seems that his playing and his love for minor key tunes had influenced that somehow "strange and untypical" Bud Powell album "The Scene Changes". Same touch, similar ideas. But for that kind of style (minor key hardbop at medium tempo) I prefer Sonny Clark.

Too bad there is no recordings of the Earl Hines Band that had so much young talent in it. I think it was also Budd Johnson, and some who later became bop stars, including Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn also.....

Good schedule indeed !

Chick´s tune on that Blue Mitchell record. Would like to hear other versions of it also.

That´s it ! In my case mostly "Blues Train" and "Soul Station". I can´t say I´m an audiophile since my hearing is not so good any more and the most important thing for me is to hear the full drum set. On records I sometimes have difficulties to hear the cybals properly, it can be may ears which don´t get higher frequencies as good as it might have been, and very good it never was. That´s why I like the cymbals really loud (I think this was also the reason why Blakey played them really lound in later years). It also may be the fault of the recording engineers who sometimes drown the cymbals (maybe other listeners who are not drum addicts like I am). So if I hear Philly Joe Jones drum set as clear as possible, it will be okay for me. And "Soul-Station" for a fully captured tenor sound. And oh yeah, I think the piano is also very very fine recorded on this.

Thank´s again. That tune is so great and it´s a typical thing where it is NOT ENOUGH just to know it´s based on "You stepped out of a dream" since the theme is so strong, so hip. You just miss out the essence of it if you just get up on stage and say ok I know the chords. You really must get inside that melody to make good music with it.

I had mentioned the tune "Bean" and forgot to state that of course it´s based on the changes of "Stompin´at the Savoy", so it´s a fast line based on that changes, so this is also a nice fast swinging easy tune to blow hot stuff on it.

Somehow Mingus and Max are not always "Hand in Glove" like I had expected. And as much as I love Ellington´s compositions, I fear I like it more if it´s played by other pianists. I had similar problems when listening to the "Duke and Trane" thing. But music is something so great that I like to state that it could be my own fault if it didn´t get as much to me as it should be supposed.

Well I´ll do ! thank you ! But it must be a certain mood and a certain amount of time when I´m not listening to figure out, but just listening. One thing is sure, it swings. But my first choice if I felt like listening to Ella always was the "Ella and Basie".

Well, now as I had listened to all the 4 CDs and as you write about it, I had to have a short look at the cover though it´s so little print it´s almost impossible to read: It has 45 tracks , some are played twice als "live version" or "studio version". Though I know and play almost all the tunes they recorded (with the exception of "Bean" which I must do since it is what I like, a fast tune in Db, and "Hey Lock" which I´m sure I´ll play very soon, with two tenors or if not both available, at least with one of them) . Anyway, it´s easy stuff but ideal for club performances where the audience likes to hear hot stuff with groovy solos. About alternative tracks. I rarely listen to them, if they are at the end of a CD I normally stop the player before the alternate takes start. Maybe a red "Tuch" to read for collectors, but if you just want to run thru the tunes it´s that way.... About how many original albums the 4 CD set covers, on the right side of the back cover there is some miniature photos which seem to be original covers, I think it is even 8 albums, I didn´t know there was so many, considering the fact that their colaboration was for short time. I had only seen a "Griffin and Davis" double album in the early 70´s and I think I had thought that it is Griffin with Miles, and later I saw "Looking at Monk" maybe in this forum. Maybe the otheres where not available during the time I bought more records and CD had maybe 10 or 15 or more years yet to be invented.

A very interesting record, but I think that in this combination each of those three giants comes a bit too short.

I must have this . As much as I remember, it has Tommy Flanagan on piano, nice rhythm section and if I remember right they do "Mack the Knife" and Flanagan´s solo is particulary interesting as he plays each chorus in a different key, wonderful idea. And is there also a ballad, I think "Talk of the Town" . It must have been a very late album of Hawk as it seems his rhythm section is more active like he himself. He kinda had slowed down already.....

Well I didn´t know from which "market" it is. I purchased it mostly for listening to some two tenor stuff, since here in Viena you find two tenor units quite often since we have very very very good tenorsaxophonists and I love to play with them. I had several ocasions to work in such units and the tenorits often called tunes like "In Walked Bud", "Rhythm´a Ning", "Rifftide aka Hackensack" etc. And once when I was not playing I heard two tenorists do "Hey Lock". I didn´t know the tune and asked them what it is so they told me and I wanted to check the arrangement and play it myself. So this was my main reason. So I couldn´t say in my case that I would have looked for the separate albums or the original covers, it was just to get some collection to hear how they do it. And I have the "Onkel Po´s Carnegie Hall" also, but there is less tunes were they play together, but it´s hot stuff, no question. The things with Shirley Scott I don´t have. I´m not really into organ units. I also had the Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 or what it is, as soon as it came out in the 70´s. By the way: "I Remember April" and fast versions of "Lover Come Back to Me" is also really a gym for me. I love to play tunes like that......

Thank you Pim for your very thoughtful and interesting statements ! So you still a very very young guy. I noticed that you see it much more like and drug habit which sure is the case with most smokers. In that case it seems to be like the "horse" than run addict musicians like Bird, Fats, Chet and many others. I don´t have that panic feeling where my body "needs" a cigarrete, it´s like the need for a big cup of coffee in the morning and in the afternoon, like the appetite when a good dinner waits for me at home, like the first taste of my cold (non-alcoolic) beer when I´m thirsty, like to urge to make love, so I´m happy not to see the negative point of it. About companies making big money with my smoking "habit" I have a more laconic point of view, even if you might like it. I just say let ´em make money, they sell it legally, it´s not like drug trafic. I make a good living with a demanding and good paid job, so let ´em make their money, it´s their business.... About politicians making it harder for smokers, well if they think so , let ´ em do it, they get paid for it. On the other hand, they don´t make nothing with drugs. Kids can buy drugs in front of school and drugs are sold in subway stations, in parks, everywhere. And them kids drinkin vodca at parties until they have to be rushed to the hospital...... , if I see or read that, I think that restrictions for cigarettes is like "shooting little birds with cannons" in comparation to the inactivity in context with hard drugs and alcool. But they don´t dare to forbid alcool, and alcool causes much more victims. I wouldn´t say I´m such a sporty guy. I´m tall and thin, so I don´t have to get rid of too many pounds. I did jogging in the morning on weekend or on holyday, or before dinner when I was working. But then came the pandemie and I was afraid to go out or maybe catch a cold and then not know if it´s just a mild cold or covid. I started to do my jogging in my garden, but it´s all grass in my garden so it feels funny if you are running, and barefoot isn´t a solution due to bees and vesps. I found out that walking fast, taking two stairways at once, avoiding lifts and if it doesn´t rain, I prefer to walk the distance from my house to my office (2 km) rather than take the "tramvai".

I never could find the Concord CD, I´ve heard it might be interesting since it features more Monk compositions as usual. About Roy Eldridge and Clark Terry jumpin in for Diz I think there was a similar incident here in Viena. They had to play without Diz to the big disappointment of the Vienese audience, who was replaced by Cat Anderson and maybe Clark Terry. To bad I was 1 year too young to have seen it, my first goin´out to concerts was in 1973. Otherwise I could have said I have seen Monk. Since most of my friends were a bit elder (né 1955) they told me about the event which they saw. Too bad that the live recordings were not released officially I think a lot of people would have purchased it. About the London sessions, mostly the solo pieces it was kinda of a guide to me to play solo pieces. It´s just incredible , so good.