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Yeah, some of those early album covers (the Deodato Prelude was a favorite along with the Jackson) were awesome, but some were, shall we say, a bit twisted (looking at you, Stanley Turrentine's Sugar). But they were all attention-getters, for sure.

There are really a few eras of CTI. the A&M era, the standalone label when Sebesky was the main musical guy, the brief time when Bill James was, and the David Matthews era. My deep affinity is for the Sebesky era in the early 70's. Freddie Hubbard had a bunch of wonderful albums on the label such as "Red Clay", "Straight Life", "First Light", "Sky Dive", and "Keep Your Soul Together" Turrentine's "Sugar", Milt Jackson's "Sunflower", Jim Hall's "Concierto", "Beyond The Blue Horizon" "Body Talk", and "White Rabbit" by George Benson, Weston's "Blue Moses" are all pretty great, and there are lots of other good to excellent recordings. Hubert Laws early work, Airto's "Fingers" and "Free". Some of the Ron Carter records. And plenty more, as well as the Kudu label recordings with

"Moon Germs" is really good. To me, basically the equal of "Outback" and ahead of the first one (though there's no denying the greatness of "Follow Your Heart").

No, I don't truly "enjoy" any of them, but I stand in fascinated awe of them in a certain sense (like watching a car crash), so am more likely to listen to them than to a bland, well-played-by-the-numbers mainstream date from the past 35 years. Does anyone really "enjoy" Plan 9 From Outer Space? Or make any claims to it being anything other than awful? I even own the Coltrane and the Byrd (though the Byrd was just the cost of business to get the attached Grant Green/Larry Young album on the Verve CD).

If they don't like Jackie, what are the chances they even know who Rene is? That being said, they are very different musicians. Maybe a Woody Shaw fan somewhere fills the bill, as Shaw played with both of them.

There is good commercial and bad commercial jazz. My collection is chock full of really good CTI albums featuring brilliant Don Sebesky arrangements, 70's John Klemmer albums like 'Touch' and 'Barefoot Ballet', plenty of Joel Dorn Atlantics, etc. The McLean is horrid commercial, and a desecration to McLean. The cover alone is reason enough, but here's a sample:

I give a second on Parker, who has done some phenomenal work in recent years,

Really interesting comment. On the one hand, I get it and it's great insight and an appropriate reminder. On the other hand, a list like that is an aggregate of tastes and sensibilities, and mine are as valid as anyone else's. I had a friend (since deceased, died at a 29 from leukemia) who was a bass player. He "liked" jazz, but was a classical guy, at times subbing for the Philly orchestra. I played him Mingus's Atlantic-era "Haitian Fight Song" because to me, that is as expressive and wonderful as bass playing gets, and he found Mingus's work ugly and horrifying. So you never know. I get, in theory, what LaFaro was doing, but it's never really grabbed me (I have all those Evans recordings, of course, because I'm supposed to, but when I want to hear Evans, I generally pull out "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" with Sam Jones and Philly Joe Jones). I guess it's really a matter of musical choices rather than "right" or "wrong". I love the acrobatics of Stanley Clarke on the RTF albums, but that is certainly going to be offfensive to a purist view. Yet I much prefer Miroslav Vitous (and Alphonso Johnson, for that matter) to Jaco with Weather Report. Reggie Workman grabs me much more than Jimmy Garrison, but I don't question that Garrison was the right bassist for Trane, giving the music what it needed. My friend Ruth Naomi Floyd has had Ed Howard, Kevin Bruce Harris, Reggie Washington Charles Fambrough and Tyrone Brown (love his playing) play in her groups, but the bassist that works the best for her music is a relatively lesser-known guy named Matthew Parrish.

Billy Harper - Capra Black? Charles Tolliver - The Ringer? McCoy Tyner - Sahara?

When I first started buying the BN CD's, I cut out the pictures from some of the longboxes and hung them on the wall of my office cube. Still have them in a file folder - Art Blakey's "Ritual", Mobley's "No Room for Squares", Andrew HIll "Point of Departure", Lou Donaldson Quartet/Quintet/Sextet, Bobby Hutcherson "Dialogue", Grant Green "Grantstand". Herbie Hancock "Maiden Voyage" (heh heh), and Sonny Rollins, Vol, 2. Hope I didn't destroy valuable collectors items Almost - need to talk 'em up on the Hoffman site, where every version of every CD ever issued is a rare collectors item... I was in London for a few weeks in '91, where I went on a bit of a buying frenzy. At the stores there , they didn't even seal the new CD's, let alone put them in long boxes. They would keep the discs behind the counter, and you'd bring the jewel case up to the counter. Don't remember if that is how they did it at the big Tower Records on Piccadilly Circus, but that is definitely what the smaller stores in Ealing were doing.

What I really wanted was a vintage Applause label bad needledrop CD of it with fake cover, but that one didn't make the series.

Maiden Voyage, let's see, I had the original vinyl, the late 80's reissue vinyl, the McMaster CD, the Herbie BN box set, the RVG CD - yeah, I think I'm done buying it, too.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8006673/billboard-charts-adjust-streaming-weighting-2018

Really interesting read, thanks for posting!

"Asha" and "Washington Suite" are the two greatest McNeill albums, and thankfully both have had good CD reissues. "Treasure" and "Tori" are also both really good, but MIA as far as CD reissues. "Elegia" has some good stuff, but also some serious misfires with "classical vocals". But overall, McNeill is an underheralded renaissance genius who has also had some serious accomplishments in the worlds of painting (studied with Picasso IIRC), photography, and poetry. Also, remember that Kwanzaa postage stamp? That was his design.

I own or have owned 2, 5-10 , but didn't recognize some of those! The Lacy and Brackeen cuts are wonderful - I will hunt down those discs if not cost prohibitive. And that Bridgewater Bros. sure looks tasty. Thanks as always!

Found it, "Settegast Strut" from this. Will definitely need to check out those early Frank Lacy albums!

Probably noteworthy that once Trane got to Atlantic, pre-McCoy he did not use Garland. Used Flanagan, Walton, Wynton Kelly. Though I guess that could have been a contractual thing with Garland being exclusively signed to Prestige or something? I think there are several noteworthy Trane's, and he became the first one probably around the time of recording with Monk, and the whole sheets of sound thing (which I like quite a bit). And his writing really came into focus with the 'Giant Steps' album ( I LOVE "Syeeda's Song Flute").

Looking for the 5CD set "John Coltrane The Impulse Albums Vol. 4". Missed some low-priced ones on ebay. Hoping to come in with total price in the $40's. Any leads appreciated, thanks.