felser

Sounds right to me.

Record companies used to be willing, at times, to nurture artists along. "The Joker", "Fly Like an Eagle", and "Book of Dreams" were Steve Miller's 8th, 9th, and 10th albums. Albums 6 and 7 ("Rock Love" and "Recall the Beginning") had sold nothing, but Capitol stayed with him. "Fleetwood Mac" and "Rumours" were Fleetwood Mac's 11th and 12th albums. They had not sold anything in England since their first couple of albums, and had never sold in the USA, but Warner Bros. stayed with them.

I wouldn't mind getting the Quebec/Hardee CD and the Jimmy Smith CD set if they were at good prices, but I don't want to go all crazy for them. In general, I have gone the opposite direction, selling off Mosaic boxes as I am able to replace them with other CD issues. Next up to sell is the Stanley Turrentine, and I'd move the Gerald Wilson and the Sonny Stitt for fair prices. I like the Select's better, but have even sold off a fair number of them.

They did some really strange artwork at CTI. Good music, though...

Understood, though I like some of his Atlantic work quite a bit, but the albums certainly were inconsistent. The Columbia albums were really good. The work with Chico Hamilton was my favorite Lloyd ( and my favorite Gabor Szabo).

Sorry to hear that, I remember "Olinga" being my favorite thing on there (though it's been 30+ years since I heard the album).

Direct-to-disc recording refers to sound recording methods that bypass the use of magnetic tape recording and record audio directly onto analog disc masters. So no opportunity for mixing...

Better and more substantial than you think it is. Much more fire than the studio albums from that period. It was all downhill from here for him.

I also really like those, as well as the ones with Charles Lloyd.

I had Third Street Jazz in Philly, so could find anything I wanted. And for a time, the downtown Philly Sam Goody had full inventory.

Howell was on guitar when recorded a couple of not-bad albums for Milestone in the early 70's. The latter has Bennie Maupin. Haven't heard them in 40 years, so don't remember that much about them. I did not realize he moved to bass later on.

Not like "Fleetwood Mac" or "Rumours" (nor should it have), but 4 million copies, #4 on the US album charts, #1 on the UK album charts. I had it, was immediately disappointed, expecting (or at least hoping for) another "Rumours" x 2. And I have not particularly warmed up to it in the 40 years since.

Yes, but that one didn't sell, and was musically pretty ponderous.

Sonically, cassettes WERE evil. Also. I can't think of a single non-disco pop album from 1979 that seems like an enduring classic, though I have not researched. Edit: Tom Petty Damn the Torpedoes. Joe Jackson Look Sharp. Neil Young Rust Never Sleeps are all good albums but not monster sellers. Pink Floyd The Wall and Fleetwood Mac Tusks were great disappointments to me then and now, though they sold. I'm not a fan of the Clash, though people love "London Calling". Donna Summer Bad Girls and Michael Jackson Off the Wall were the classics, and there were other excellent discoish albums.

Fact remains that most of the jazz being recorded by Columbia at that point wasn't particularly good, Dex's "Homecoming" and a few of the Woody Shaw, Arthur Blythe, and Max Roach titles being exceptions. When you want to listen to Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Heath, Bobby Hutcherson, Cedar Walton or Bennie Golson, do you go reaching for their Columbia's from this era? But Shaw's "Rosewood" won awards but still doesn't seem to have been a huge seller. Also interesting to note that the Marsalis franchise and all the young clones kicked in on Columbia a very few years later, where the roster circa 1979 got purged. The Marsalis albums actually sounded fresh and exciting at first. but deteriorated as they went on, and even the early ones have not aged well as the CD era brought so much classic music back into circulation.

You'll guarantee I rate the cut a "hate it" regardless of whoever's version! Hard to believe how old we are, too!

"Blue Monk". Retired, please...

+1, yet it's a classic period BN, so there it sits on my shelves...

Felser's list of Strata East albums most in need of initial CD issue (many others are in need of newer/better CD reissue): SES 1972-2 Jazz Contemporaries Reasons in Tonality SES 1972-4 Mtume Umoja Ensemble Alkebu-Lan: Land of the Blacks SES 7410 The Cosmic Twins The Waterbearers John Lewis, Ron Burton SES 7416 Keno Duke/Contemporaries Sense of Values SES 7425 Charles Davis Ingia! SES 7431 Harold Vick Don't Look Back SES 19752 The Brass Company Colors SES 19780 John Gordon Erotica Suite

Yes, mine is OK.

It was there for some titles: Billy Harper - Capra Black (though that was a very spiritual as opposed to political foundation), Gil Scott-Heron - Winter In America, Mtume - Alkebu-Lan, the two albums by Juju all come immediately to mind. It was not there for other titles such as the Charles Tolliver's, the Clifford Jordan's, Shirley Scott, Harold Vick etc. Again, in many cases, the vibe was more spiritual than political (Descendants of Mike and Phoebe is another example of that).

Agreed with props for the first few years of their existence. They did what were, to me, some pretty marginal releases toward the end of the 70's (though some good ones also). But some of the early releases are just magnificent, even beyond the Tolliver's and "Capra Black".