mikeweil

Last night we went to the local town theater to see Jan Garbarek. With him were Rainer Brüninghaus, Yuri Daniel and Trilok Gurtu. My wife wanted to see him once in her lifetime, Since Gurtu was one of my first teachers forty years ago it was easy to make me buy some tickets. It was good, excellently rehearsed and played, but not very jazzy. Sometimes it reminded me of early Weather Report (as did Oregon, to my disappointement, when I saw them ten years ago). It didn't really touch or convince me, Gurtu was the only one who took some chances and try to interact spontaneously. It was best when he and Garbarek duetted, which ranged from free style à la Coltrane/Ali to Indian world music; the many unacompanied solo features were technically more than musically styled. Brüninghaus seems to be the un-funkiest pianist on the planet, he plays those fusion type patterns but does not really groove, nor does he swing. I had the thought of locking him in for a week with half a dozen Jimmy Rowles albums, who uses a tenth of the notes Brüninghaus plays, but swings twenty times as much ... It was all correct, but didn't really groove, only in a European, intellectual sense. The compositions were all structured like collages - are these guys all listening to film music? They knew where they wanted to go, but all the different elements of the music didn't really feel connected to me. Screaming saxophone passages, without preparing the emotions belonging to them, just technically styled. It was almost like they avoided to swing. I wonder who will take Gurtu's torch when the time comes - the only Indian drummer to really fuse in funky off beats into Indian rhythm. I don't know of anyone else doing it this way. He encouraged me to trust my own ideas, whatever I heard in my head, I will always be grateful for that. Maybe that's where I got the idea of fusing whatever rhythmical inspiration I hear, no matter where it comes from, just like he does.

Before that one, Grusin recorded two trio LPs with Milt Hinton and Don Lamond for Epic ... The second seems to be with strings and was reissued on Blue Moon, who say it was Osie Johnson playing drums - Lord does not mention the strings and has the wrong drummer (Lamond):

If I scroll further down on the page linked I find this item, which spurs my interest as Thad Jones plays on it - anybody heard it? The Koch reissue of Poindexter's album, btw, did not include the alternate of Lanyop. So that's an improvement. The new CD still misses the great rendition of Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer recorded for the Jingle Bell Jazz LP. Lord lists an unissued alternate of Cattin' Latin they could have checked if it's worth inclusion.

Disc 14 etc., the 1944-1946 sessions.

I love Mitchell's sweet playing of the old song "Sweet And Lovely", and the grooving tunes from the Heads Up! LP, especially Jimmy Heath's "Togetherness". I'm glad I made up my mind to get a copy back then when it went Last Chance, like it much better than I expexted.

Was listening to disc 9 from the Duke Ellington Centennial box this afternoon:

Have you tried Masaaki Suzuki's recordings, or Ton Koopman's? They both tend to standard solutions, which is why I prefer individual recordings closer to the original performance conditions, but after reading through what you listed, I think they could appeal to you.

Look at the website from which the pic comes: http://www.oddopolis.com/ More here, but just the covers: http://www.oddopolis.com/portfolio_page/the-savory-jazz-collection/

I must admit he never was among my favourites (he was one for my best friend who passed last year, who had all of his Impulse recordings), but I always respected his contributions. The first albums where I really liked his playing were the two Hip Bop Essence All Stars' Afrocubano Chant CDs - he fits in perfectly with is muscular style and sawblade tone. R.I.P., Gato.

Here's a Super Audio CD with Bach organ music that I really want but can't find; the label went out of business shortly after it was released. NorthWest Classics NWC 101309 - Super Audio CD Stereo Hybrid Bach: Organ Fantasias - Leo van Doeselaar (organ)

If they include the one track from the Poindexter cut for the Columbia Xmas anthology of they time, as well as the alternate of Lanyop, I'll go for Pony Express, but only then. The Coles was on Koch with bonus tracks; the Rouse on a Columbia Jazz Masterpieces CD with another half album added ('Unsung Hero'). I wonder if these additional tracks will be included. I'm not holding my breath.

There are a few on my list that can be found but sellers ask for way too much, like Lloyd McNeill's Asha CD reissue.

If it's just the music you want, it was reissued, with alternate takes added, on Black Lion under Kenny Dorham's name. The vinyl will be pretty hard to find, that's for sure.

Several discs from the batch crisp posted are from the Epic and Columbia catalogue; still nothing that's not been on CD before.

I also regret selling some mono pressings, most of all The Modern Jazz Quartet's The Comedy - but that was before I got a mono cartridge for the spare headshell of my Thorens turntable which makes mono pressings sound terrific - the bass drum on that LP had more punch, the whole LP more dynamics than the nonetheless excellent digital remastering on the Mosaic box. The Grado cartridge reduces surface noise to a minimum.

After listening to Rickie Lee Jones' Pop Pop CD this morning I would have liked to put on Sheila Jordan's Blue Note album, but: I sold it, many years ago. Her voice never thrilled me, but the music is good, for sure. Any similar cases in point may be posted here - I rarely regret sales, but I'm afraid I must re-buy this one.

You're still around, Rocky? Nice to read you! How ya doin'? That's what annoys me about today's reissue business - the engineers' hissophobia. I, too, suffer from a bit of high frequency hearing loss, but I cannot imagine the cymbal sound suffering as much as it does, especially on many cheapo reissues.

Just my thoughts - maybe I will get me a copy.

I can't think of a better introduction to the history of this music called jazz. I wish this was standard listening especially for some self-crowned jazz experts over here who don't know sh..

Can't find anything like this in the Lord disco.

Found this in the Lord disco, but no trace of the UA album: Walter Spriggs With Jesse Stone's Orchestra : Walter Spriggs (vcl) acc by King Curtis (ts) John McFarland (p) Kenny Burrell (g) Doles Dickens (b) Joe Marshall (d) New York, November 18, 1957 57C-324 You're movin' me Atco 6112 57C-325 Rock 'em back -