mikeweil

Have 'em all, dig 'em to death. They rock! Hammer was a great drummer, too - brought together the best of Elvin, Tony Williams, and Don Alias. The Jeremy Steigs with Perla, Alias, and Hammer belong here, too - nice funky groove with jazzy looseness.

For me, Promises is a notch above Fingers, beacuse it is more relaxed, and a little more "Brazlian", but in a more modern, Airtonian way I have to admit I don't remember it that well ..... listened to it once at a friend's apartment almost thirty years ago .....

Now why did you sell that?

I bought this during the recent Zweitausendeins Fantasy blowout and like it a lot - chamber jazz, yes, but not Third stream, swinging, great solos from all involved, and great sound as usual from Contemporary. Recommended.

The above are the ones I have .... or have heard (Tusa) The Thigpen is a reissue of two LPs - a little Bitches-Brew-like, atmospheric, with Sabu Martinez turning in some nice conga drumming, Palle Mikkelborg at his most milesian. If you like typical early 70's jazz in the wake of electric Miles .... The Tusa is pretty much in the mood of the Dave Liebman band of the time that recorded Lookout Farm for ECM, nice companion. Black Angel sufferes from Hubbard not letting anyone shine besides him - Spaulding plays some excellent stuff but is too low in the mix. There is some nice experimentation with overdubbed backwards solos in Space Track. Some fusionistic experimental stuff besides mainstreamish stuff that sounds a trifle too polished. But Hubbard is technically excellent here. The Airto is one of his best, IMHO - a real working band working a tight groove, Hugo Fattoruso is great here. No flashy solos, but good ensemble work, nice vocals on some tracks. The opener is a batucada overdub by Airto alone, but after that it's the band all the way. Milton Nascimento guests on a moving rendition of one of his songs. Honestly one of my favourites, an underrated album.

Happy Birthday! Lemme see if I have some bonus to slip into the package ....

Alex Henderson's AMG entry mentions one "jazz pianist Gerald Wilson" Seems this hasn't seen a CD reissue.

Same here. Is this available on CD?

..... and let me throw in a few words for Gene Perla as well - one of the best bassists Elvin ever had, and a major force on the second half of the box set. Perla is very underrated, IMO.

One listen to Elvin Jones Is On The Mountain on PM Records with jan Hammer and Gene Perla should wipe away any doubts about Hammer's jazz chops - that album is a very important complement to the Elvin Mosaic - Liebman also mentions it in his liner notes. If that one was on Blue Note, y'all would have it.

My best wishes for our man in Brazil!!!

SA-CD.NET remains the best resource for that kind of question on the web - I go there almost every week.

Swell, here's mine: That's currently available on a twofer. And at the excellent Teutonic bargain shop for low price (at least it was last time I looked www.zweitausendeins.de - I think I paid 3 Euros for it.) That's where I got it, too - it didn't leave my CD player for several days!

Well, at that price, you can't complain ....

Fono Forum magazine used to do one every now and then, but the last I bought was from 1994 - there seems to be a lack of interest. There was one for period performance recordings too, edited by Alte Musik Aktuell, which since changed its name to Toccata, but I stopped reading it, as they were very subjective in their reviews. Since I developped my own preferences and criteria I simply read through the review sections and use indexes of these magazines when available: Fono Forum and Concerto. Klassik heute ceased to exist as a printed magazine, consequently their reviews are now an online archive, which I use the most often. Especially for historically informed performances their reviewers are pretty much on point.

Mel Lewis solos excellently on a track titled "Brushes" usually listed with Zoot Sims as the leader. It was recorded on a Annie Ross session for Pacific Jazz and is a bonus track on her "A Gasser" CD. Mel Lewis also solos and plays part of the theme on a track of the Thad Jones - Pepper Adams LP/CD on Milestone, "Mean What You Say"

Gumbo was Pony Poindexter's session! The Prestige LP and a British BGP CD reissue had him as the leader, as does the Prestige disco and his autobiography. Booker was a sideman on that date. The Prestige CD reissue listed Booker up front because besides Gumbo and a handful of unreleased Poindexter tracks, it included an unreleased Booker Ervin session with Larry Young - Booker was listed first because his name supposedly sells better.

Thanks - I'll order this along with some other Fantasy sale leftovers Zweitausendeins has unearthed.

If I could only remember where I got it ..... must have been some site like Cadence. If you can't obtain a copy, I would be willing to sell or trade mine. I bought it to complete my Rhyne collection and for the discography, but I'm not so thrilled by his piano playing. Far from his qualities as an organist, his touch isn't very subtle. PM me if interested.

The Chartbusters Mating Call PRCD-11002-2 $14.98 - $7.98 Sale Craig Handy, Donald Harrison, Randy Brecker, Dr. Lonnie Smith, David Fiuczynski, Idris Muhammad Recorded October 1 and 2, 1995. I can get this for € 2,99 - I suppose it's worth that price?

The Cora LPs are rarer than the Pausa (which I happen to have) - never saw them. If you ever do .....

Yes that's the one - one of only two Melvin Rhyne sessions I never heard. I once held a copy in my hands in a second hand shop in Munich, but the price was ridiculously high, and I couldn't afford it.

Yes, Webster and Rowles was a great match!

Flutist Lloyd McNeill wrote a ballet music for Washington in the 1970's. I'm sure they're plenty of 'em.

If one sips a cup of Italian espresso coffee along with a glass of apple juice with one third sparkling mineral water, one gets the same effect, well, physically - one gets the same dose of minerals and caffeine. And no synthetic chemical brew ...