felser

Those albums have not aged well for me - and I liked them (and him) back in the day. Always have found "Enigmatic Ocean", with strong guitar by Allen Holdsworth and Darryl Stuermer, to be the best of the bunch, I find myself now going to his older stuff if I am going to listen to him. I think I'll pass on these. I am somewhat more interested in the similar Al Di Meola set, esp. from some of the secondary sellers: http://www.amazon.com/Original-Album-Classics-Al-Meola/dp/B003ZBX83M/ref=pd_sim_m_2 Not sure I will actually bite though as I have no extra shelf space at all! Yeah, the first couple of DiMeola solo albums were good, but to my ears, he really fell off a cliff afterwards. Realistically, I'm going to go to RTF and Mahavishnu when I want to hear this sort of thing. And maybe Focus III with Akkerman at his peak. And truth be told, I'm much more likely to pull out Sugarcane Harris if I want electric violin in this vein.

Those albums have not aged well for me - and I liked them (and him) back in the day. Always have found "Enigmatic Ocean", with strong guitar by Allen Holdsworth and Darryl Stuermer, to be the best of the bunch, I find myself now going to his older stuff if I am going to listen to him.

Also count me as a fan of those titles.

That is a beautiful set. In their prime (the first five albums), the greatest ever, and plenty of interest until the last two albums. Jump on this!

So I open this link ,and in the first two rows (12 CD's) they show CD's by Boney James, Molly Ringwald, Madeleine Peyroux, Jane Monheit, Harry Connick Jr., two different titles by The Rippingtons, and "Smooth Jazz Hits: For Lovers". Makes me not anxious to scroll through the other 10,718 titles...

First I want to thank you for the BFT and say it was my favorite BFT listening experience ever – I think our tastes match up really well, and I look forward to finding out a lot of the answers. Comments will be selective, as I’ve learned that I just make a fool of myself if I do too much guessing, and just saying “I thought that was pretty cool” 15 times isn’t interesting reading. 2 – Loved this one, can’t wait to find out what it is and if I own it already. 4- I recognized the song from the first Three Dog Night album. A little research showed that it was written by Larry Williams, and that Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson recorded it together in the 70’s. So that version must be what this is. I really enjoyed it. 11 – Sounds very much like a lot of what Freddie Hubbard was doing on Columbia in the 70’s. 13 – I think my ears are pretty big, but this does not work for me. 20 – I think this has to be Big John Patton with Harold Alexander on tenor from one of those 1968 recordings. Don’t have ability right now to get to the CD’s and ID the tune. 21 – Interesting player. He sounds slightly “sharp” to me, as Dolphy, Von Freeman and a few others do to me also. I liked this. Think it must be 60’s vintage from the bass/drums sound, which I also really enjoyed. Other favorites included 1,10,12,24

My bad, I got it confused with "Secrets". I really shouldn't post after 10PM. "Seeking" is a winner. "Secrets" isn't bad either, really. The FD stuff is top notch.

Agreed. I really like the FD records, the later stuff not so much.

Good news. That was the first full album I ever heard by him (thank you Norristown Library!) and I've always had a fondness for it.

Pls send me links for both streaming and DL. If the streaming works for me, I"ll use that, so that the DL doesn't put easylife in my browser search default yet again.

It wasn't too long ago. It was still $2.98 on my Amazon order placed April 9th. I think the new rates are too high. It's going to affect my buying patterns there. Still $2.99 at half.com, so I've started also looking there, though generally find amazon to be the better deal, even with the extra shipping cost. But it is definitely slowing me down some on purchases of single titles, especially low-end ones.

Th!, just ordered the Mahavishnu, Getz, RTF and second Weather Report boxes, came in under $100 including shipping. Already have the Shaw.

1 - I like the trumpet a lot, but not the guitar player. 6 - Yes! Gotta probably be Charles Earland with that propulsion. Love the trumpet on this one also (think of it being Virgil Jones with Earland on the Prestige stuff). 8 - My kinda thing, could (and often do) spend the entire day listening to something like this. 11 - Works for me for whatever reason. I listen to ESP-Disk and vintage related stuff, though not so much to latter day derivatives. Time and place, ya know? 14 - Ouch! Overall, one varied BFT, thanks!

PM sent on Kenny Barron Trio - Green Chimneys (Criss Cross) $7 Kenny Barron Quartet - Invitation (Criss Cross) $7 John Hicks - Nightwind. An Erroll Garner Songbook (High Note) $5 Junko Onishi - Baroque (Verve) $4

Be sure to grab the "Louis Hayes - The Real Thing" CD, a 1977 Muse recording by the Shaw/Hayes group with Rene McLean, Ronnie Mathews, Stafford James, and Slide Hampton. A gem, and not included on the Mosaic, though it easily would have fit.

We're all crazy here, but musically and soundwise, the Columbia totally obsoletes the Mosaic. Packaging and sentimental value are a different matter. BTW, is everyone hip to the 1977 Muse/32jazz album Louis Hayes - The Real Thing? That's a Woody Shaw album in all but name (he and Hayes co-led that group, with Rene McLean, Ronnie Mathews, and Stafford James, the same core group as the Berliner Jazztage concert and even has Slide Hampton guesting), and a gem. Could have easily been fit onto the Mosaic, but wasn't. A shame.

I just picked this up to complete an order from jazzmessengers.com (they're the real dirty bastids, with the free shipping on 60eu orders), and am blown away by it. Expected to like it, but not like this. As enjoyable to me as any trio set I have ever heard, and I never even thought of myself as a huge Cables guy. His writing on this is outstanding. Highly recommended.

But I don't see their Muse recordings as highlights of either of their careers. Something like a Steeplechase Walton would be mighty to behold. I generally have preferred Barron as a sideman, though "Sunset to Dawn" on Muse is pretty great, but "Peruvian Blue" is nothing special, and "Lucifer" is pretty awful.

Charles Earland, though it will never happen. Carlos Garnett would make a nice Select if they still were doing those. The aforementioned Jordan/Walton, though the Jordan sets were frustratingly inconsistent, in some cases because of overreach - Muse albums often sounded underrehearsed when they wer trying to accomplish something big. OTOH, Muse put out a lot of stuff in the 70's and early 80's that maybe never would have seen the light of day otherwise.

Yes, was gonna comment on the same. The pre-Columbia stuff is invigorating, but I find the post-Columbia Muse stuff to be pretty "by-the-numbers" and the most disappointing of Shaw's career. Not that it's bad, but it's not compelling. I own it all, but never pull it out to listen to any more (the only Shaw that is true of for me). The Elektra-Musician dates do a lot more for me, as does the posthumous live stuff on High Note. I also agree with Rooster Ties on how magnificent the Berliner Jazztage material is, my favorite of his.

That's a GREAT album. No, it is not typical of the BNLA series.

It was one thing in the early days when the sets were until then unavailable on CD Blue Notes, such as the Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, etc. It's another thing when the sets are things I would not have considered essential to my listening joy. They can still pump up the excitement in me when the material is right, like with the Mingus set, but most of what they come out with these days isn't anything I was dreaming of.

DL, thanks! And I like your guidelines. I have wooden ears, but lots of opinions!

What does Sonny Fortune sound like on that one?

PM sent on Howard McGhee - Dusty Blue (Betlehem) remastered 1999 reissue, a few scratches & nicks, mostly outside the playing area $5 William Parker & The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra - Raincoat in the River (Eremite) digipak $6