John L

I agree 100% on the contributions of Farrell to this one. I am not yet familiar with "Dance With Death" (Somebody want to burn me a copy? ), but here Farrell sounds like he might have been listening to Joe Henderson's work on Black Fire, and listening well! Lenny White keeps it solid at all times. He doesn't make the mistake that some drummers do in trying to "follow" Hill's rhythmic accents into a change of tempo. Hill plays off the rhythm here in the best of his tradition. Some of the ensemble sections may not be tight enough to satisfy some listeners, but that is of little concern to me. This is my favorite Blue Note release or reissue in a LONG TIME. It sure makes me wonder what the other Andrew Hill in the vaults sounds like. Let us hear it, Michael!

I picked this one up after work and put it on my DiskMan. Man, I didn't even want to get home. This is the shit, people. There is some brilliant music here, absolutely brilliant! How this one didn't get reissued until now makes no sense at all. That groove in Plantation Bag is not ever going to leave my short term memory. The title track is sublime. So is Noon Tide. I say that we work to get Andrew back together with Lenny White. It WORKS.

Thanks for that information, Soul Stream. I had always wondered what happened to Fred Jackson, and whether or not he was still alive. Of course, "somebody told Braith" is not quite the same as an obituary. Who knows. Maybe he will still surface?

Speaking of the eighth wonder of the world, do NOT ignore: The latter disk actually includes a live version of "There it is." But it might be the updated version of "Since You've Been Gone" with Bobby Byrd that does it to death on that album. The former disk is already done completely to death during the first 12:00 of disk 1. The rest is the hardest funk overkill this side of the Payback itself.

This is a fantastic recording. It is the same as the "At the Crossroads with Sonny Criss" session that was originally released on Savoy.

Yes indeed. I agree that the Tommy McClennan was a crown jewel of that series. I play it quite often. But I would still reserve the supreme crown for the Robert Lee McCoy (Robert Nighthhawk). Before that disk, all reissues of that material were in absolutely terrible sound, with some tracks barely audible. That disk was like a dream come true for Robert Nighthawk lovers. For Blind Willie McTell fans, also be advised that JSP just released McTell's complete known recordings from 1927-1940 on 4 disks at a very low budget price (about $21).

When I was in high school and we made the rounds to the parties on Friday and Saturday night, the first thing we would look for were the Brown records. No Brown? We were gone. It didn't matter how many fine single ladies were there. Before long, we got smart and never came to a party Brownless. We started to Brown bag it. Fellas ah...(boom-boom-boom)...a brand new funk ah...(boom-boom-boom)...a brand new funk....ah

You could even die back then as long you were dead on the double bump.

You're getting the 9:14 version of "Get Up Off of That Thing" here. So what else could you possibly need?????? Maybe the devasting 12:00 remake of Sex Machine: When I ride, I want to glide, I need to ease my glide, I need cushions in my ride, I need cushions in my ride Now THERE is some deep existentialist shit.

Bird's quartets with Hank Jones or Al Haig and Max Roach were recorded in 1952 and 1953. If that doesn't satisfy the definition of "hard bop," then why?

Can we assign your essay in Philosophy 280B (Existentialism)?

I wonder if Dorn is aware that RTE France already released this (previously unreleased) part of the Olympia concert on CD a few years ago.

Nice post, Jim. I am sure that "There it is" has never received a more detailed examination. Your text reads the way that Greil Marcus would probably write if he were able to write in a coherent and understandable manner. I will never listen to "There it is" the same way again. Despite all of the recognition, I still contend that James Brown is underrated and underappreciated. He changed American music in the 20th century as much as anyone. Even his band members underestimated his role in the mix. When his illustrious bands quit him in the 60s and 70s, Brown responded by putting together a group of relative unknowns who, within a couple years time, were playing the best funk on the planet. There was only one common denominator and that was James. Good God!

If I was off, then sorry. I just remembered that the discussion on that thread at one time moved into an assessment of the place of "tightness of horns" in jazz. TOP was held up as the example of tightness, and you were using the example of Dr. Jeckle as "insufficient tightness," (if I recall correctly).

I like Parker and Drake very much together. They have found a means of bringing together swing, funk, and Afro-Cuban rhythms in a manner that sounds both completely contemporary and compelling. As for their place in jazz history, time will tell. But I am going to keep grabbing their releases and attending their concerts.

As we have learned, Sonny Criss was terminally ill and apparently in pain at the time that he took his life.

Good record!

"Band of the people" is right. I grew up in Berkeley and TOP was a integral part of our street community. You could go down to Flint's BQ on a given night and see the TOP front line sitting at one of the tables working out some charts with ribs and cornbread. (Sadly, I believe that Flint's shut down very recently.) It is hard for me to think objectively about their music. It was so much a part of my youth. Every song brings back the anguish of young love. Conan should check in here. I remember a thread that he participated in at the old Jazz Central Station BBS some years ago where it was noted that the horn section of TOP was much tighter than Miles, Coltrane, and Adderley in the classic sextet.

I have heard some things by Rob Swift that sound interesting. This is something that I would definitely need to hear before laying down a big head 20. I will only agree to "money for shit" in this case if I am getting "THE shit."

Will they reproduce a color version of that beautiful cover photo on "Oh, Baby?"

that Mulligan set is very tempting. Too bad they couldn't have made that one a budget-priced package as well.

I didn't realize that there exists a video. I will have to track that down.

I agree with virtually all of the above comments. As good as Criss played in the 40s and 50s, I think that he really hit his stride in the 60s and 70s. I like all of the Prestige records very much. I think that Criss already had everything together for "Crossroads" session that he did for Savoy in 1959. Certainly, get Crisscraft. I like "Out of Nowhere" even more. Blues Pour Filtrer is fantastic. And DO NOT neglect the live recording with the George Arvantis trio that was just re-released a few months ago. This is top drawer Criss stretching out for some dazzling extended solos.

Well, there's a fair amount of JATP stuff on the old box, but I think some new things got unearthed afterwards. The Jam Session is definitely on there - BETTER be, you can't have Bird on Verve w/o "Funky Blues"! The MAIN omission, now that I get the thing out and look at it, is the session w/Machito, and that's just wrong. Don't know how THAT happened. John, I got your PM, btw. Thanks! I dug out my lps too to take a gander - I just didn't remember that stuff being on there! Turns out I had the 6 lp set "THE VERVE YEARS". Three twofers. It's an American Verve set with a 1976 copyright on it. The three two-fers were what I had too. I didn't remember that a complete LP set came out.

I really enjoy Mal Waldron's "the Git Go" and "The Seagulls of Kristiansund," which were recording at the Village Vanguard in September, 1986 with Woody Shaw, Charlie Rouse, Reggie Workman, and Ed Blackwell. Waldron and Blackwell burn together like extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic. There is nothing else like it! In the liner notes to "Seagulls," Waldron comments "we did three sets a night and three tunes per set throughout the week - I guess we recorded enough music for six albums. Does anybody know anything about the status of those tapes?