felser

PM sent on David Murray - Black Saint/Soul Note Box Set - $32 (in like new condition)

Indeed. Prince talked about putting them out on CD with extra material in the year or so before he passed. Sadly, never happened. I know someone who is trying to get the Birdseye LPs reissued properly but we'll see if it happens. I owned them back in the day (thanks Jerry Gordon and Third Street Jazz), and they are great. Hope they see CD issue in my lifetime.

Out of left field recommendation, but serious - Tom Waits 'Nighhawks at the Diner'. Very early (1975) live-with-audience-in-the-studio album, the only Tom Waits I've bothered to keep. It's the most memorable Christlieb I've heard (he's on constant display through the entire album), and quite a cast. Here is a portion of the AMG review: " Waits is a colorful tour guide of midnight L.A., raving over a swinging rhythm section of Jim Hughart (bass) and Bill Goodwin (drums), with Pete Christlieb wailing away on tenor sax between paragraphs and Mike Melvoin trading off with Waits on piano runs."

That Handy twofer is horrid stuff. Like that Jackie McLean RCA monstrosity, etc. Think like female backup singers, etc. Sub Blackbyrds level, has no more to do with the essence of "classic" Handy than "Street Lady", etc. had to do with the essence of "classic" Donald Byrd.

Well worth it if you like Handy's work with Mingus (I do). Not at all like the Columbia's but very very good turn of the 50's-60's decade inside/outside dates. And Don Friedman is a huge plus on anything. And there's not nearly enough Richard Williams from that era. And Lex Humphries was one underrated drummer. One that I definitely plan on picking up.

Pm sent on Tal Farlow - The Return of Tal Farlow/1969 (Prestige/OJC/Fantasy) $4

There are too many "Walk on The Wild Side" punch lines in there to even count.

Weil got it right in this case: "There are moments, particularly during the closing unison passages, when it feels like one is getting beaten over the head with a blunt instrument. It becomes unbearable.". And it's not that I don't have ears for later Trane. Really like 'Meditations' and 'Interstellar Space' and some others. There was a period at the end of the classic group where Tyner and Jones seemed absolutely out of sorts. The two albums that has always seemed evident to me on are 'Live in Seattle' and 'Om', and they were recorded on consecutive days (9/30 and 10/1 1965). 'Meditations', from 11/23/65, seems much more together, but 'First Meditations' had been recorded on 9/2, so maybe they already knew to a degree what they were going to do on that. For better or worse, the changes in Coltrane's music from the spring of 1965 to the end of the year, only about a six month period, is almost unfathomable. Not an original thought, I realize. Just ruminating on it.

My thoughts/feelings exactly.

Is that the order of original release? It looks like that's the M.O. Infinity is another one I can live without ever hearing again. On the other hand, Transition is absolute killer. Means as much to me as any of his albums.

Stand has that one long cut of filler, but otherwise plays like a greatest hits album even though it wasn't. Several classics.

I second that emotion. Om sounds like a nightmare.

"Essential" is the place to start. If you like what you hear there, go to the box set collection of the seven LP's. You'll need to keep "Essential" anyways for the single-only releases. "Greatest Hits" was a gem for it's time, but "Essential" renders it totally extraneous.

PM sent on Steve Lacy - Snips. Live at Environ (Jazz Magnet) 2 discs, w/obi, cardboard gatefold $5

PM sent - Or tried to send one, your mailbox is full !

Great disc, and a bargain at twice the price. That recommendation works for me. PM sent on the following: Baikida Carroll - Marionettes on a High Wire (Omnitone) $5 Yusef Lateef - The Complete Yusef Lateef (Collectables Jazz Classics) $5 Jameel Moondoc - Revolt of the Negro Lawn Jockeys (Eremite) $10 William Parker - Sunrise in the Tone World (Aum Fidelity) $7 William Parker - Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace (Eremite) $5 William Parker - Raincoat in the River (Eremite) $5

Individual timings actually add up to 80:12, so probably just misses being able to fit on one CD. allmusic link

Meh, don't know if I will bother getting any of these. While I'm not particularly excited about these specific titles, I'm glad to see that they are reaching beyond "the usual suspects" for the titles they reissue. Would like to see JHS's 'Higher Ground' and Hubbard's 'Keep Your Soul Together' make it out.

PM sent on MJQ box.

The Buddy Terry Mainstrean albums are pretty wonderful. I'm surprised. Admittedly I've only heard one (Lean On Him) but that one was pretty dispensable. 'Lean on Him' is a bad misfire, but the other two are incredible. 'Pure Dynamite', as pointed out by Free For All and Jim, and 'Awareness' are early 70's gems. Here's the allmusic.com description to 'Awareness" (sounds like a Dustygroove blurb) "Awareness teams Buddy Terry with an all-star cast including trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, pianist Stanley Cowell and percussionist Mtume to forge a far-reaching, audaciously free spiritual jazz suite far removed from the signature Mainstream label aesthetic. Terry moves from soprano to tenor to flute and back again, exemplifying the soul-searching restlessness of his music--at the same time, the individual players fuse seamlessly, channeling the righteous fury of Terry's vision to create a coherent, deeply righteous whole."

The Buddy Terry Mainstrean albums are pretty wonderful.

You can get some hard to find Billy Harper albums at $2.97 each on Amazon (a bargain because they're figuring $.99 per track, and each album only has three tracks).

Wasn't this already done on the 2-CD Impressions from years back? Yep. The hope would be that they would present the tracks both ways, the "real" versions for music's sake, the overdubbed versions for historical reference.

This is a desert island disc for me, gorgeous stuff from 1969, my favorite flute music ever, and worth the price of admission for Eric Gravatt's drumming alone (though there is so much more). I've had this on LP for 40 years, and it's never lost it's magic. Listened to the CD this morning, and it sounds great, full liner notes, etc. Asha on Amazon site

All signs of Bill on KBCS showlist, facebook postings, allaboutjazz postings seem to have ceased around April 20 from waht I can see. I can't find more, and also miss Bill and his good spirits. I've sent him an email, will let you know if I hear from him. Hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.