John L

I'm pretty sure that, despite the images, all the tenor saxophone work on the YouTube clip is by Flip Phillips (except for the brief bit of Charlie Ventura with Krupa). The first few notes of the break when they show Lester certainly sound like him. Those are trademark notes, and the tone of the saxophone is quite different than Flip Phillips. The first part of the response line also sounds like Pres, but doesn't resolve in a way that is characteristic of him. The last part does sound like it could even be Phillips. On the other hand, it doesn't sound so unlike Lester that it couldn't be him. I am inclined to think that it is him.

Yes, thanks a million, Marcel!

Yea, that rhythm for the bass riff is not so simple. Usually, you can just feel it. That one I have to count off.

In the 70s, I remember that Woolworth's would sometimes have crates of old 45s that they would sell for about 20 cents a pop. I bought tons of them.

Candi Staton: Percious Lord, Take My Hand.

My only complaint is that it didn't include Noonah as a bonus disc. Now who knows when we will ever see Noonah on CD.

Does anybody know how much Blue Ray stock Neil Young owns?

Yes, this sounds familiar. I do not generally enjoy listening to recorded music when I am feeling depressed. They say that music lifts some people out of depression. It doesn't work for me like that.

The point I am making is that a lot of people who are not deaf still choose not to listen to music. For them, music is not essential. On the other hand, I imagine that many deaf people can still hear music in their heads. Beethoven even wrote and conducted a very decent symphony and series of string quartets when he was deaf.

The fact that we congregate at a board like this is evidence that most of us place a very high value on music. But there are a lot of people for whom music is not essential at all. A lot of people never listen to music. Quite a number of people are tone deaf, and don't enjoy music. Many of those people nevertheless live fulfilling lives: create important work, indulge in kinky sex, drink good wine, drive slick cars in the fast lane, etc.

It seems to me that Miles' Walkin'-Blue n' Boogie session was indeed a key recording in the emergence of Hard Bop, along with the Jazz Messengers work of the same time. I didn't even realize that there was much controversy about this.

I think that Miles deserves a lot more credit than that. He did more than popularize. He created some definitive masterpieces in a number of emerging styles, and therefore contributed significantly to their emergence and development. If we don't want to call that "pioneered," fine. But it strikes me as a lot more than "popularized." Maybe Charles Lloyd popularized. But Miles Davis created.

Oh yeah I can't believe I forgot "Bags' Groove." Man, that was a swinging little album. My question is on the title track why didn't Miles want Monk to comp for him? Does anyone know? Miles discusses this in the Autobiography. There, he comments that he never liked the way that Monk comped behind soloists. Even aside from that general point, I could understand some soloists who might have trouble keeping concentration in front of the unexpected accents and harmonies in Monk's comping. That brings us back to the point about Rouse. There are times when I think that Rouse is deliberately providing a backdrop for Monk's comping in his solos. That is part of what I love about the Monk-Rouse combination. Rouse lets Monk be Monk.

Dave: Thanks for this thread, and I mean it sincerely. It is interesting and refreshing to hear a Miles Davis fan coming to grips with the discography in a very personal way without feeling intimidated about contradicting the established orthodoxy. Those are your personal impressions, and let them stand. I actually attempted to go through Miles' discography from the first quintet to first retirement not long ago. But I was then so taken by Coltrane's playing in Euope 1960 that I followed Coltrane after that from 1960-1962. It was a great journey, although I got kind of bogged down with too many My Favorite Things, and started listening to something else.

My Cherry is also a digipack. Quite a nice release!

I missed this the first time around. Nice! The MP3s for Knell and Ramblin' appear to be badly damaged, however. No?

RIP

When I was growing up, somebody gave me Uncle Shelby's (Silverstein) book of A,B,Zs. Now that was a riot! Talk about dangerous inspiration (for children)!

My memory may be failing me, but I don't remember much in the way of Mods after 1964. "Blow up" was what, 1966? 1967? MG Y'all in the UK were ahead of us in the States. We were still phasing out of Mod in 66-67.

Thanks, Harold.

I like Byard Lancaster, but wasn't too thrilled with this one on first listen. I will need to revisit it. A friend of mine recently hooked me up with a live recording of Byard Lancaster from Philadelphia 7/12/2002 that he snatched from Dime-a-Dozen. Now that one smokes!

Well, the Aladdin recordings were made at the same time. The Modern recordings were also recorded in the Gold Star studios toward the end of Lightnin's affiliation with that company. For my money, the absolute pinnacle of Lightnin' might two precious tracks that he recorded for an obscure label in the mid-1950s (I forget the same right now. It is three letters, something like TNT) : Leavin' Blues and Moanin' Blues. Document issued them on CD with some other mostly strong material on a compilation called "The Remaining Titles: Volume 1." Lightnin' plays unusually distorted guitar on these two tracks, and that seems to inspire him to new heights. These sides are absolutely drenched with blues feeling.

Unless you are already a very well-established artist, I would suggest putting the strongest material first on the CD, unless there is a real compelling reason to do otherwise.

Damn! What a beautiful piano player and fantastic creative musician. I never understood why he was not more celebrated outside of Chicago. RIP

I've just finished listening through the Box. Brilliant stuff. This is as good a portrait of the Dead at their peak as exists, and the sound quality is remarkable. The presence of Phil and Keith is really boosted relative to the SBs that I had of these concerts, in addition to other major sonic improvements. It struck me listening to this collection is that one reason I love this period of the Dead so much are the setlists. The song selection can hardly be beat. I also love the latter 70s, but the setlists began to deteriorate somewhat (IMO). Bringing back Good Lovin' with Bobby singing lead was NOT a good idea. The Terrapin Station material has not worn on me too well either. And losing Dark Star in the mix lightened up the center of gravity a bit too much.