imeanyou

The list is no better or worse than a bunch of stuff you would find on Rate Your Music, though the people over there almost always preface their choices with a sentence containing the word 'favourite'. There are days (not too many) when I might put Sonny as my personal favourite (mostly because he has the humour that was always wanting in Coltrane's playing), but a list without Rahsaan, Booker Ervin, Tina, Art Pepper, Konitz, Barney Wilen, Billy Harper, Gonsalves, Erik Kloss, John Surman, Turrentine, Tubby Hayes??? Charlie Rouse has a 'big tone'? Be for fuckin' real! The twofer idea is an insult to musician and listener alike.

Yeah, Miles and Coltrane didn't do shit after they cleaned up.

Same here, I've always had a soft spot for prog and Krautrock. Can's music has been a total revelation to me this year. Of late I've been acquiring stuff by Gentle Giant, Curved Air, VDGG, Camel, Caravan, Greenslade, Samurai/Web and Gong. Loved the McDonald & Giles album, a real discovery, up there with some of King Crimson's best work.

Irecently got hold of the Griffith Park concerts, good stuff indeed. I've had the Sasajima 'Humpty Dumpty' for a while but haven't given it a listen since I got it. I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Joe's playing on the Johnny Coles Blue Note, it's not as if it's that obscure a record. I also love Joe's soloing on 'Soul Surge' on Freddie Hubbard's 'Blue Spirits'.

I've enjoyed Blake for many years, starting off with the wonderful 'Short Life of Barbara Monk'. That opener, his take on 'I've Got You Under My Skin', is just thrilling, starts off with a Monkian feel before bursting into calypso for a few bars then going a little 'outside'. Should be a train wreck but it holds together marvellously. I'd label Blake meditative and eclectic, he's fond of dissecting the works of Strayhorn, Sarah Vaughan as well as artists peripheral to the jazz mainstream. I'd also recommend 'Painted Rhythms' and 'Something To Live For'. I recently got hold of a collaboration with Enrico Rava: 'Duo En Noir', a very worthwhile live recording. Blake isn't an everyday listen for me but maybe I should remedy that.

He produced and directed ' I Just Wasn't Made for These Times', a documentary that contributed a great deal to brian Wilson's re-entry into the public gaze after his 'difficult period'. The music accompanying the film is generally excellent. http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/B00000JLV7

'Our Man In Paris' really turned my head around. One of the first straight jazz albums I borrowed from the local library. He just sounded so in control and so full of a love of life and sexy!.His playing on 'Don't Worry About Me' from the 'Blows Hot and Cool' album sends shivers down my spine. Great stage prescence too. Happy Birthday LTD!

Interesting, I suppose The Vanguard was still a bigger deal than Keith at that time. Did he finish his set? Were you reprimanded?

Keith Jarrett at The Vanguard, that's a gig I'd pay to see.

Was listening to 'Live At The Lighthouse' tonight, the first disc anyways. He had a great band for that gig. I'll be spinning it for the rest of the week.

Ortega was one of my musical discoveries last year. So far I've only heard the stuff that was released by hatOLOGY. I'd love to hear more by him.

Great song, great arrangement. RIP.

I don't think a week has gone by in the last 23 years when I haven't listened to something by Monk or Miles. I don't have a preference for any chronological period for either artist, they just never get old or stale. Coltrane, Mingus, Henderson, Shorter, Bill Evans ( though I'm falling out of love with him a little there is no possibility of a divorce), Rollins (a litlle less frequently of late), Paul Bley, Charles Lloyd, Jackie Mac, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill (his East/West stuff as well as the BN output), Hutcherson, Elvin Jones, Kenny Wheeler, Ornette Coleman, and absolutely anything by Martial Solal. I dip into my Horace Silver and Art Blakey collection quite frequently. I have just about 90% of the Blue Note catalogue available in cd format (one of the great advantages of having spent 13 years in Tokyo). I became a big fan of Eric Alexander a couple of years ago although that fever has abated somewhat. This last 12 months I've been eating up Barney Wilen's stuff. Greg Osby and Jason Moran get a fair bit of play too. Sometimes I can spend a week listening to Bird or Duke and wonder why I need listen to anyone else. Edit: Finally got my hands on Alex Von Schlippenbach's 'Monk's Casino', so it's going to be a fun New Year.

Eric Vloiemans, a Dutch trumpet player. I heard a CD of a live set from Yoshi's in Oakland, titled 'Fugimundi'. He's not a 'new fogey' in the Marsalis or Payton mould but has chops and plays mostly his own stuff. i picked up 5 of his CD's for next to nothing at Ochanomizu Disk Union here in Tokyo. Will be doing some serious listening over the weekend. Anyone else have an opinion on him?

Very sad news. He was part of what was probably the best national team never to win the World Cup. I was amazed when he came over to play for Garforth Town in the north of England seven years ago. I lived in that town for a number of years before moving to Japan. Would have loved to have met him; a kind of Gil Scott Heron in football boots.

P.E. Hewtt Jazz Ensemble. I picked this up at the main Disk Union jazz store in Tokyo for a ridiculous price brand new. Know nothing about him but so far not bad for a 16 year old. He's no Tony Williams though.

Considering the level of animus you display concerning Paul Motian's apparent discriminatory hiring policies, did it ever cross your mind to contact him directly and make him aware of your concerns? Or censure him for the travesty of his Monk and Bill Evans tributes?

Just found out today. It's really blown a hole in my week. Thanks for all the music, Paul. RIP.

I've had both Konitz/Mehldau for a long time but have listened to them sparingly. Mehldau seems to see the first session as an opportunity to prove points and show he has the chops to mix it with one of the big boys. His refusal to listen to or follow Konitz's lines really starts to grate after a while and I recall feeling at the time that Lee just stops playing in places because he's so exasperated by Mehldau's grandstanding. Things do seem to improve on ASOB. If i want to hear Lee with a piano I just need to put on the wonderful 'Star Eyes' with Martial Solal from a live concert in Hamburg in 1983. Comparing Mehldau with Solal is (literally) comparing boys to men. The gulf in musicality is staggering. Lee sounds a bit lacklustre on these efforts and even haden seems to get tired of 'wunderkind' Mehldau at times. BTW I'm no Brad hater, I love his trio stuff and have it all.

Sad news indeed. 'Gyroscope' was my first Beck purchase and it knocked me out. Beck had great touch and taste. Never saw him live, sadly enough. Easily as good as Stan Tracey although their styles differ markedly. Will actively seek out the trio recording with Humair. 'November Song' is a French quartet session that should be heard.

It's Adams rather than Byrd who makes me sit up and take notice on this date. He lends 'oomph' whereas Byrd can sound anonymous in places. 'Pepper' seems to be an apt moniker, it could almost be his nickname. I can't really see 'Jeannine' as a classic, it starts brightly enough but goes on a bit too long and Duke Pearson's solo meanders and just seems to fill up space. Byrd's ballad playing is pretty tidy though, 'A Portrait Of Jennie' (basically 'I'm A Fool To Want You') is quite affecting. It's not a 'must have' recording but it stands up well to repeat playing (to use a hackneyed phrase). I have the two Prestige dates '10 to 4' and 'Encounter' by Adams and they are both pretty entertaining dates. Zoot Sims helps out on 'Encounter' and tends to steal the show (he was a class above Adams after all), but Elvin Jones seems to think he's playing behind Coltrane and tends to drown out the horns.

I've always thought that Dexter Blows Hot and Cool was a somewhat undervalued record in Dex's discography. Nothing out of the ordinary, but very, very swinging in that laid back Dex way. Some fine Carl Perkins on that set too. The Bethlehem date is also nice. Dexter was the first tenor player I really listened to. I can remember the first few times I listened to 'Our Man In Paris', pure unalloyed bliss. After the obvious BN stuff I picked up 'Daddy' and 'Blows Hot and Cool'. The latter is very easygoing and accessible. The ballad 'Don't Worry About Me' gets a heartwrenching performance and Perkins is a very sympathetic accompanist. I'm having that played when I check out. Classic Dex on the cover too. The 3cd live set 'Nights At The Keystone' is a 'must have'.

I live on the doorstep of the water treatment plant in Kanamachi Eastern Tokyo. I read Rupert Wingfield -Hayes's dispatch to the BBC (your link above). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What possible useful purpose does a report like that serve? To call the water situation 'Japan's ground zero' is completely irresponsible. The fact is that Japan sets limits for radioactive iodine 131 that are 10 times lower than those set by the IAEA: 300Bq/kg in Japan and 3000Bq/Kg for the IAEA. Putting 'no immediate danger to adults' at the end of a report after using emotive language like 'ground zero' is pure bad journalism. This is the same chinless wonder who harped on about the prevalence of face masks in Tokyo. Well that's because it's 'kafunsho' (hayfever) season. Something like 20% of Tokyoites are susceptible to the cedar pollen from that blows into the city at this time of year. This prat is apparently married to a Japanese woman. You'd think he'd dig a little deeper and know a bit about the place before typing out articles so cliche ridden they could have come straight from a Fodors travel guide. I've lived here for 12 years and as worrying as things are I really feel ill-served by what passes for journalism from some elements of the foreign media. As I write water has been declared safe for everyone in the Tokyo area. Net result? Panic buying of water in the city for 2 whole days and yet another media generated diversion from the pressing issue of those thousands left to freeze and starve up in the tsunami area. Seriously, life in Tokyo is Easy Street by comparison. Rant over. Time for a cup of tea...

'The Pilgrim and the Stars' is a stunner. Abercrombie fits in well with the Milesian concepts that pre-occupied Rava at that point in his career. Rava doesn't seem to make many duds, and ECM have always served trumpeters well, think Stanko and Wheeler.

I picked up a used copy of this 1972 recording on the Italian Black Saint label. This date shows what a mature sound he had right from the begining. He has a pretty handy guitarist in Bruce Johnson, has a bit of a Wes Montgomery thing going on.