Just to add to thanks to @Dan Gould for all the logistics and herding of cats
Now to listen,
@Big Al nice one to start with, drips a soulful vibe that I can get right behind, liking the pianist's attack and the arrangement. ***
@Dan Gould this is way outside my usual listening and I have always struggled with big bands (unless they're screeching free improv ones) but that sax solo has real bite to it, salty and fresh. I'll be interested to know who the player is. Overstays its welcome a bit **1/2
@danasgoodstuff intriguing from the start, I like the build up and then there's more than one piano so taht's confusing but it's definitely holding my attention. Part of me says I'd like to hear this tune played just by the initail pianist who's the one doing the interesting stuff here, shed the others. Intriguing, that final few notes sound very familiar ** but *** for that one pianist
@Dub Modal I hear West Coast, somewhere I've been travelling to musically increasingly recently but don't know enough about. I hear music like this as rigorous and almost experimental on its own terms - bizarrely, and only in my ears I'm sure, I can hear Braxton being influenced by this. I like the space that's created within the arrangement and that ending is great ***1/2
@Eric now this is where I'm comfortable. I feel I should be able to ID the sax player but I can't at the moment. I'm guessing a late 80s into 90s possibly Black Saint but it could be a more contemporary recording influenced by then. Sax player is driving me mad. I really like this and will hope I own it...***1/2
@mjazzg someone needs a new pair of ears...🙄
@randyhersom this is great, at first I thought it was going to be just too smooth but oh no it's not. Is it Roland Kirk? Drummer's got something to say too ***1/2
@Rooster_Ties makes me think of Zawinul, Maupin and someone like Terumasa Hino but they never played together that I know of so maybe Kikuchi and Hino. There's a lot of music out there like this and for the me the initial impact is often more than it's staying power, it all gets a bit overcooked. I admire it more than be moved by it. If it's not Japanese, which I'm less sure of now, then it was surely released on Milestones **1/2
@sidewinder nice, of couse I'm thinking British but no-one's coming instantly to mind. I like the pianist, and the bassist is right in there too. I'm going for a UK band whose members are mostly still around and on the circuit, like Sulzman for instance ***
@webbcity I want to say that this sounds a bit generic but that's possibly too dismissive it just seems that the trumpet apart there's not much to make it stand out for me **1/2
Thanks everyone, that was fun