mikeweil

I have quite a few Mapleshade CDs, and that's exactly how it sounds to me. Compare to Larry Willis' touch on the same piano. Pierre Sprey may sound über-realistic, similar to some MPS piano recordings from the 1970's, but that's only because we're used to the common standardized sounds from most engineers. Most people I play a Mapleshade CD for do no like that sound, especially when they're attuned to ECM procedures. Sweetening everywhere, and when it sounds like you're standing right beneath the piano, they're scared ... Re: the channelling thing: "Monk" and "Monk through Walter Davis' hands" are two very different things ... I love that story, and it sounds credible to me. We discussed this here before. Walter Davis can be an enjoyable pianist. I kept his one Blue Note leader date for this reason, and have one on Steeplechase, Scorpio Rising, that never fails to make me smile. Maybe so - if you read through Sprey's liner notes, he has a "personal" story of this type on every other session. But I am convinced that we perceive the piano sound he gets the way we do only because we're used to the softened sound on almost every other CD.

The Dave Pike Set was considered one of the hippest bands over here during the time of their existence, and was the starting point for guitarist Volker Kriegel's career. I found their pop-tinged approach a little corny, typically German, as far as the groove was considered, but they were the very first jazz group here to play Zappa tunes. The cover design tells the story. Psychedelic pop was stealing the "progressive" image from jazz. Remember this was the time of free improvising experimental rock bands, too, Embryo and the like - the Dave Pike Set was the jazz branch of that. Sometimes a little too close to cocktail music. I, too think, that Dave Pike was a bepopper at heart, and that his LPs on Columbia and Riverside of the early 1960's are the best, along with the one CD with Cedar Walton on Criss Cross. But was also great in a Latin jazz context, his own LPs in that genre and the work with Herbie Mann tells this part of the story. I prefer rhythmic vibes players, and he was one of them.

The postage to Germany when pre-ordering ist $ 18 - I'll rather wait until amazon.de sellers offer this. It already has a product page, but no availabilty date. Listened to all of the streaming samples on the Sunnyside website - nice music. The big band an tentet tracks do it the most, for me.

I always loved them as a kind of more hard bop tinged alternative to the MJQ. They definitely worked out a lot of nice arrangements. In my ears, areal working band, with our without Wes.

I knew his name, but only got to listen to him on the two albums with Melvin Rhyyne - great player. R.I.P.

Good heavens ...very tempting, indeed ....

I hope he will come to Germany someday, I would like to hear him live. He has his own style free of the ubiquitous Bill-Evans-Chick-Corea-Keith Jarrett lineage, which I am tired off, and writes unique tunes. That solo piano LP on Strata East is one I pull out the most often.

Kind of reminds me of the series that Dreyfus put out some years ago, which was not the success they thought it would be and was terminated. Of course they are not giving reference to the original issues to avoid legal issues or whatever - right now I have the impression there are several times as many reissues of this type than from the companies that own the masters, which is sad. Just looked at the Cal Tjader compilation they made: a strange mixture of tracks from several 1950's Fantasy LPs, even two with Stan Getz without Latin rhythm, and some from his Skye LPs from around 1970 which have been bootlegged half a dozen times (and are not yet public domain in Europe!). Not necessarily experts at work - I will avoid these.

Sad news ... and strange for me personally, as my best friend who owned a complete Zappa collection and always kept me up to date on her latest activities, passed away this July, so it really is an end of an era for me. R.I.P.

The Latin Jazz CD he made for Cubop was really good, Peligroso - he will be missed! R.I.P.

Nagel Heyer is a European label, and over here it is legit.

I always wanted to listen to Film Noir - I will get me a copy before Christmas. I agree that some may have missed Fischer's boat - it is a unique, genial album, but I expressed that opinion before. Just like Gil Evans' early albums, which everybody agrees on.

Time to get the Jamal set, if some funds I am awaiting arrive before the deadline.

Perhaps there should be a sperate thread for the discussion of real time recording vs. editing etc. - and yes, I was a bit grumpy. On Sunday afternoon we buried the ashes of my best friend and listening and drumming buddy of the last thirty years. We listened to and discussed a lot of this music, and his passing leaves a giant gap in my life. I thought about writing about it here, still do (and just did), but couldn't find the right words ... but the burial ceremony his family and best friends had was very nice, his resting place under an old oak tree in his favourite woods from childhood is perfect, just as the circumstances of his passing were not - this all occupied my mind quite a bit. I just wanted to express my personal preferences. And I, too, value the CD as a medium to give us the unabridged performances. Ah, the human struggle for perfectionism - the older I get, the less I value perfection vs. authenticity. ... and his attitudes from that artistic perspective influenced his production work, for good of for bad. He made a series of studio jams into a groundbreaking LP release, e.g. Bitches Brew, which is an art form in itself. In retrospect, I value the raw sound of the unedited Cellar Door recordings higher than that.

Well, I see your - and the producer's - point, but I think music is a real time process and a recording should reflect that - this real time process is what distinguishes music from the basic attitudes of painting and sculpture, to mention just two other art froms. I am aware that the possibilities of tape editing and manipulation opened up a whole 'nother world for music recording, but I feel uneasy with it. I have my own - and some positive - experiences with editing and overdubbing, but in the end I think it misses the point. Just my opinion, of course.

Just all the material released on the previously issued double CDs: Monk In Tokyo Newport 63 & 65 Big Band & Quartet in Concert Live at the It Club Live at the Jazz Workshop Now where is the 1965 Brandeis Concert, one track of which was on the long oblivious Misterioso LP? Where is the live track from Mexico with Bubeck? Will we ever see a proper reissue of these? Probably not. That's why I don't like these boxes. I have all of this music, and so much of the Ellingtons that I am not willing to buy this box just for two albums missing in my collection. No way.

My copy arrived two days ago, it was my first listen to ths music, as I never got around to buy the originally released album - I always hoped for a completed version. I am a bit in awe, I knew Garner only from his Dial and Savoy sides and the Misty session for Mercury and had no idea what kind of powerful player he could be. My hat is off. I think Ahmad Jamal must be added to the list to those inspired by Garner, not stylistically, bit as far as drama and treatment of standard tunes is concerned. Would I feel cheated if it was a faked live recording? I dunno, I feel more cheated by the laboriously edited Miles Davis albums that Teo Macero spliced together, or the edits, even of a Lateef saxophone run, on Mingus' Pre-Bird. To me, these edits introduce a perfectionist attitude that works against the spontaneity I associate with jazz - if you want that, work like a classical composer. But faked live ... I know some producers avoided live recordings for reasons of sound imperfections, but who cares if it is inspired? Any type of editing or re-working takes away from the performance spirit. I'd rather hear some tape hiss but have a sterile sounding digitized remix. Just my two cents.

I like this one better than the quintet versions on Blue Note - just Clark and his own tunes is intriguing.

I never was disappointed by any album with Rowles that I bought, and there are still so many more I will not run out of new discoveries until I die. To these ears, one of the greatest jazz pianists in history. That Columbia Ellington Strayhorn LP was reissued on CD in French CBS' I Love Jazz series.

My copy is still in the mail ...

Just click on the tiny US flag on the upper right of the first page https://www.bear-family.com/

Thanks all - no need to get the Poll Winners CD!

Maybe they had problems with discs sliding from the hubs during shipping. I'd rather break a dent or two to get them safely from the hub, or use some lubricant, than receive a damaged disc tossed around loosely in the case. I wouldn't call that a manufacturing flaw.

There was some discussion here about the one or two alternate takes from the Grand Encounter sessions issued on a Vogue disc, but I can't find it - anyone here to help me? There is a Poll Winners reissue that includes only one alternate - 2 degrees etc. - were the two version of Love Or Leave Me identical?

It's probably a bootleg copied from the CD reissues on Original Jazz Classics and Palladium, respectively. Conga player Juan Amalbert who plays on the first session founded the Latin Jazz Quintet, the band name was hijacked by Felipe Diaz who was the bongo player on the Quintet's first session with Shirley Scott. The band was a solid Cuban jazz unit, Dolphy does his usual thing on top.