Daniel A

Rumor has it it's sold out.

Didn't Leonard Feather once even write in some liner notes (Giant Steps?) that Coltrane was a "student of Rollins" (figuratively speaking)?

More here: https://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/metaphysics/

Apparently, Sweden has always had another interpretation of the rule and has applied VAT also on low-value items (at least in principle). I guess that with new, better routines for screening all packages, nothing slips through.

Patrice Rushen 'Prelusion'. Very much of its time, and very enjoyable!

I purchased a 9 GBP CD from the UK on Discogs a week ago, just to see what would happen (it was available at a higher price from a couple of EU countries). Today I got an invoice from Swedish customs; EUR 2.50 VAT and 7.50 "handling" charge. If I thought that such a cheap item would slip through - not so.

(Dmitry has nothing to do with this post, but I can't get rid of the quote from the mobile) As far as I know, there were two regions that temporarily halted vaccinations of health care personnel using the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, but after a couple of days and a closer look at the reactions, they started up again. No new alarming reports so far.

What's that reel-to-reel on the floor; Akai? Do you use it?

Japanese single release of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. (I will just have to presume that Louis is there somewhere 🙂, but I just posted this because it's such a strange cover)

Just now I'm listening to the Kenny Burrell album "Guitar Forms". On the first track, 'Downstairs', Grady Tate is playing a kind of prototype shuffle back beat already in 1965. Note especially the fade out. No other drummer I've heard sounded like this in the mid-60s:

100 percent quality sessions! Is shipping to Sweden only half the price, BTW? 😄

Opposite ratio here, but I guess one way to look at it is that I still have discoveries ahead of me. Let's hope we all do! I don't think I have much to add to this thread, but let me conclude with a brief story from the solo concert I attended in 2018. The first half was what you would expect from a solo recital, but Corea's playing was of very high quality. I have heard greater moments on recordings, but it was really a good show. The second half was more adventurous. He invited a couple of members of the audience on stage to play "portraits" of their faces. It didn't come off as a gimmick, but more like he actually was inspired to do some great, free improvisation. One of the people was an American - unclear if he was an expatriate or a tourist - who I heard prior to the concert telling the people around him in a loud voice about all greats he had heard live. He had a specific requirement, "I want it to be in B flat". Corea seemed a little disturbed and said something to the effect that "that is not the way it works, we'll see what comes out". After what sounded like a bi-tonal improvisation he (Corea) said "well, it ended in B. That's *almost* B flat", He also asked if anyone wanted to play with him. Seated at the first row, I was quick to volunteer. Though I play jazz, I am no professional. However, he was open and generous as a playing partner, both inspiring me to play better and also building on that to create something more out of it. It all seemed very sincere, I had fun, he seemed to have fun - even the audience! You could tell that the audience was in good spirits when we all finally left after several encores.

I will stand by my opinion that Corea seemed like a happy musician in 1972 as well as in 2020, but it is not apparent to me when Jarrett was happy. While it is also true that I don't know when Kenny Dorham was a happy musician I still like a lot of his music. But in the case of Jarrett the strain, or whatever you want to call it, gets in the way for me. As a contrast, I feel enriched by listening to a lot of Corea's recordings from all parts of his carreer. (That said, I will probably never like the Elektric Band...)

Do you count the two first RTF albums from 1972 as "fusion"? Those are two of my favourite albums of any style. When it comes to comparsions between Jarrett and Corea, there is a difference in approach that cannot be overstated in my opinion; Jarrett always seemed to be in pain (the suffering artist?) whereas Corea seemingly found joy in any musical context. This is unjustly used to sometimes belittle the "value" of Corea's contributions to music. I can understand why nobody, except maybe scholars, would want to own 100+ albums, some of which are failed experiments or just goofy one way or another, but I find a lot more sameness to Jarrett's huge recorded output. Not to say that it is not sometimes brilliant, but overall less exciting to listen to (to me).

In Europe, it was probably the other way round - release date for ECM RTF LP according to the ECM website was July 1, 1972. Airto's CTI album had a release date of October 24, 1972.

King Pressing of 'Inventions and Dimensions' went for $178,50. This title is getting increasingly more expensive and I have waited too long. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HERBIE-HANCOCK-INVENTIONS-AND-DIMENTIONS-BLUE-NOTE-GXK-8137-Japan-OBI-VINYL-LP-/333879736933 Unfortunately, the recent reissue from Blue Note was marred by flutter/speed problems.

Plese do share.

You could argue that Joe Henderson also entered the scene before recording with Dorham at age 26, but of course Tony Williams' maturity at age 17 was astounding. I would argue that Corea showed his "later" self already in 1965, for instance on this recording with Herbie Mann. As noted elsewhere on this forum, also very exciting comping behind Dave Pike's solo. As for "Tones", the version with Blue Mitchell actually predates Corea's Vortex album slightly, and I think he plays even better on the tune there:

Last week (before the news of Corea's passing), I got these two on vinyl:

This rings so true with me and is what I'm thinking when I hear derogatory comments regarding Corea's "missteps" or "lack of direction" in relation to later albums. He was a brilliant player with a great, creative mind.

I have a live 1972 audio recording from Stockholm (though without Flora).

This one hurts for me, one of my heroes. Confirmed on his website as well. https://chickcorea.com/ I had the honor of playing four-handed piano with him on stage when he did a solo concert in Sweden in 2018. Will cherish that memory forever.

Do you remember the old stock plastic bags he often used as extra protection for CDs, meant for reel-to-reel tapes (I think they said "Music Tape" or something similar)?

In the case of the Japanese sleeves, they generally seem to be very well cared for and this issue is present on so many albums that I suspect non owner-related environmental factors, maybe even in combination with some paper quality aspect. Have any of you seen this on non-Japanese sleeves from Japan?