felser

PM sent on the following: Paul Bley Trio – If We May Time to Smile - Steve Grossman w/ Elvin Jones, To Harrell, Cecil McBee Fred Hersch – Evanescence: a Tribute to Bill Evans Phil Ranelin – Inspiration Eastern Rebellion – Cedar Walton, George Coleman

PM sent on the following: Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath John Surman - Tales of the Algonquin (Vocalion) Charles Lloyd/Billy Higgins - Which Way is East (2 CD set) - a few very light marks not affecting play

No wonder it's rare - you own the entire supply in your basement! BTW, very nice CD, well worth the money if you like Cohn/Sims (I got it from Allen a while ago).

Ruth Naomi Floyd (my wife's old roomate) will be live in concert in Philadelphia on November 15. Her group that night will include the great flute player James Newton, well-known saxophonist Gary Thomas, Bryan Carrott ( the best vibes player out there to my ears - has never been properly caught on record), pianist James Weidman (her musical director), bassist Matthew Parrish, and drummer Mark Prince. The concert is at 7:30, details can be found here: http://www.ruthnaomifloyd.com/images/concert.pdf Earlier that same day will be a symposium on The Historical Roots of Jazz and It's Relation to the Christian Faith. Symposium speakers include Newton (who is also a visiting professor of ethnomusicology at University of Los Angeles), Weidman (also an adjunct professor at William Patterson University), Dr. Larry Ridley (the wonderful 60's-70's bassist who is currently Executive Director of the African-American Jazz Caucus and is Professor Emeritus from Rutgers University), and six other experts in the field. The Symposium is from 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM on the same date, and details can be found here: http://www.ruthnaomifloyd.com/images/symposium.pdf Tickets to the symposium are $15 in advance, to the Symposium, $20 in advance to the concert, both bargains. Felser and Mrs. Felser wouldn't miss this day! Any one else interested, drop me a line and we can meet up.

Different strokes here, but I prefer the Song Remains the Same (particularly the new version with extra material). edit - and "How the West was Won". 'How The West Was Won' is stunning. Amazing sound quality for that vintage of live material, plus strong performances. The remastered/expanded 'The Song Remains The Same' is a big improvement over the original in all regards, agreed.

The BBC sessions set is really interesting for the crowd reaction to "Stairway to Heaven". I forget if this was the live debut of the song, but it was before Led Zeppelin IV had been released, so was the first time for the audience hearing the song. At the end, there is a strange, stunned silence (who wasn't left breathless the first time they heard that song back in the day?), then followed by thunderous applause. Also, really good music overall on this set if you like the group. Much better than 'The Song Remains The Same'.

Nelson did some cuts with Jack Walrath on the Blue Note album 'Master of Suspense' in the 80's. They also had Dr. John recording on a Bennie Wallace album, 'Bordertown', so this has been going on with the "new" Blue Note for a few decades now. Amazing and disappointing how lacklustre the last 25 years of releases have been overall (I know there are some exceptions, my favorite would be James Newton) on that label since the 80's restart.

The Akiyoshi will find a nice home on the shelves in the Felser household. If Mosaic has access to the Freedom stuff issued on Arista, they could make nice Selects on Archie Shepp and Randy Weston with a little stretching, or maybe a set on the recording that Freedom did at the Montreux Festival in 1974 and 1975 (at least Weston featuring Billy Harper in '74 and Shepp in '75, I don't know who else). In fact there were a lot of really interesting Arista Freedom releases (and a lot of tedious ones also, but even those were outside the box and of historic value).

PM sent on: $9 Mal Waldron/Marion Brown Much More Oliver Lake Trio Expandable Language Freddie Roach Down to Earth (Spanish BN) $5 George Russell New York, NY James Blood Ulmer In the Name of Jan Garbarek Eventyr Mulgrew Miller Chapters 1 and 2 $2 Walter Norris (w/ Mraz) Hues of Blues free* Miles Davis Essence of Miles Stevie Wonder Music from Jungle Fever

Can I trade you some Barry Bonds rookie cards for those CDs, Dan? Rookie cards? No. Prison Softball Team card, absolutely. I'll give you two for one if you throw in a Clemens "Solitary Confinement" card. In Philly we want Adam Eaton arrested for (poorly) impersonating a major league pitcher. And for stealing $25,000,000 over a three year period.

I was listening to Andrew Cyrille's Metamusicians' Stomp CD this morniing, and was blown away by the work of the bassist, Nick DiGeronimo. Reminds me of Reggie Workman, great double stops in his playing and very lyrical. I'm not otherwise familiar with DiGeronimo, and can't really find anything on him on allmusic. Can anyone give me any thoughts or info on him? The music on the CD was recorded in 1978 in Milano (It's a Black Saint CD, with Cyrille, DiGeronimo, Ted Daniel and David S. Ware).

PM sent on the following Michael Cochrane, Minor Matrix (Steeplechase) $7 Michael Cochrane, Gesture of Faith (Steeplechase) $7 Charles Earland, Blowing the Blues Away (HighNote) $7 Charles Earland, Cookin With the Mighty Burner (HighNote) $7

Even if you grant that what the world needs is a sampler of Davis's Prestige recordings, Concord already has five others of those in their catalog ("Plays for Lovers", "Prestige Profiles", "Jazz Showcase", 'Best of", "Bluing"). They are sitting on so much stuff, and there is such imaginative stuff they could do with what they do have, that this just struck me as especially lame on many levels. How about a box of the Miles pre-quintet recordings, for instance. How about a box of the Coltrane sideman recordings, how about something imaginative like Fantasy was doing when Concord bought them out?

Ya couldn't make this stuff up. Coming soon, according to their website: http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/PRCD-30802/ and I quote: Muted Miles - Miles Davis This hand-picked collection puts a softly-focused blue spotlight on the intimate and unmistakable sound of the one and only Miles Davis playing his horn with a Harmon mute. In fact, this is the first-ever compilation to showcase his seminal harmon mute performances on Presige! Miles's artfully nuanced playing, presented with the sonic signature of his warmly-buzzing, muted trumpet tone is, to this day, often imitated but never duplicated. Featuring many of the all-time greatest names in jazz including John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Red Gardland, this incredible specially-priced collection is not to be missed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRACKLISTING 1. Just Squeeze Me 2. My Funny Valentine 3. Surrey With The Fringe On Top 4. 'Round Midnight 5. If I Were A Bell 6. Nature Boy 7. It Could Happen To You 8. You're My Everything 9. In Your Own Sweet Way

PM sent on Eric Alexander, New York Calling (Criss Cross) $6 Eric Alexander, Straight Up (Delmark) $6 Eric Alexander, Mode for Mabes (Delmark) $6 Eric Alexander, Live at the Keynote (Video Arts - Japanese disc) $8 Kenny Barron, Invitation (Criss Cross) $6 Kenny Barron Trio, Lemuria-Seascape (Criss Cross) $6 Don Braden, After Dark (Criss Cross) $7 Don Braden, Wish List (Criss Cross) $7

Maybe yes, maybe no, but that's my perogative. Why should I keep a CD if I don't like it?

...and I'll take it next, even if I don't intend to keep it either. Then who's next after me?? Maybe we should just chip in and have an Organissimo board lending library!

Email sent on the Dennis Wilson, which I would like to hear even if I don't keep it.

We're trying to make a linear progression of Benson's work in the 60's-70', starting at point A and ending at point B or C (depending on if you think point A is jazz or pop), but the reality isn't so simple, either in terms of genre or quality. The Prestige and the Columbia's are pleasant enough genre exercises, but not that big a deal. I think he'd be pretty forgotten by now if that was it. The Verve's to me were poorly planned and executed sell-out's, far inferior to the early Warner Brothers sides. The CTI's contained some work which was the highlight of his career. To me, 'Beyond The Blue Horizon' is the greatest jazz guitar album ever made. By anyone. 'White Rabbit' and some of the other titles are also pretty terrific. But the CTI stuff started poorly as an extension of the Verve stuff, and ended poorly with 'Good King Bad' and Taylor's disastrous decision to overdub the Carnegie Hall stuff. 'Breezin' was a breath of fresh air, and only has two vocal cuts, less than the Verve's did, I think. Even as late as 'Live in L.A', there was still plenty of enjoyable music and plenty of fine guitar solos, although they weren't as fine as on his primo CTI titles. After that, it went bad. But something as late as "The World is a Ghetto" on 'In Flight' brings me a lot more enjoyment than anything as early as the Columbia's, which have always sounded awfully generic to me (and I've never "gotten" Lonnie Smith). Benson being true to himself doesn't neatly categorize, and that's fine with me (or was through the end of the 70's. His recordings since have been pretty useless to my ears).

PM sent on Vandermark 5 - Alchemia (12 disc box set, like new condition) -- $75

It is indeed! I was listening to it a week or so ago. Fabuloso! And just fits onto a single CD. The only complaint I have with the album is the LP packaging, which is dire, as well as being horrid. I suspect I'd welcome a CD, simply to not have to fiddle with the packaging. MG I'll give a third on the Masekela, which was indeed a double album. Contains what I remember being the definitive version of Larry Willis's great "Inner Crisis". I've been waiting for this one to come to CD. Getz's 'Sweet Rain', as mentioned in other threads, is great. My favorite Getz album of all time, period.

When teamed w/Stepney, oh hell yeah. The shit's all over the map, from psychedelic doo-wop to borderline wack vocal jazz to deep grit South((ern) (Side)) Soul to Power Funk, but its always got them voices, and them voices is good. This is what them that only know their music as Popular & Soulful nowadays call "grown folks music" in the best possible way. Yeah, Marvin Junior could deliver the goods! They even made "Love is Blue" soulful and heartfelt and cutting edge!

When teamed w/Stepney, oh hell yeah. The shit's all over the map, from psychedelic doo-wop to borderline wack vocal jazz to deep grit South((ern) (Side)) Soul to Power Funk, but its always got them voices, and them voices is good. This is what them that only know their music as Popular & Soulful nowadays call "grown folks music" in the best possible way. This seems like the right place to put in a plug for the three early 70's Terry Callier Cadet albums with Stepney - "Occasional Rain", "What Color Is Love", and "I Just Can't Help Myself". "Dancing Girl" from "What Color Is Love" (or most any of the best of's) is as stunning a piece of music as you will come across, and defies non-hyphenated categorization, as does most of Callier's music (is "folk-jazz-soul" helpful?). "Ordinary Joe", from "Occasional Rain" is a great anthem. Just a little bit freer than I indeed! Stepney also did some really interesting work with the Rotary Connection (Minnie Riperton was a member) prior to his work with Callier and at roughly the same time as his work with the Dells, though it didn't hit the amazing highs of the Callier work, which at it's best is a landmark in music.

The albums that sparked this thread, 'Soul Call' and 'The Tender Gender' were recorded in '64 and '66 respectively, and have a different feel to them than his 50's work. That's what caught me by surprise when I heard them. I find Burrell's 50's and ealry 60's work to be solid and dependable (many of the sessions were very "by the book", though admittedly it's a great book), but not overly exciting. I find much of his work since the late 70's to be pretty boring, though some of it holds up very well. But for me, he hit a peak in the mid 60's and produced his most rewarding sessions as a leader, both conceptually and playing-wise. Much of it stretched into areas his earlier and later playing never dared to (at least to my ears).

"Tender Gender" along with one other album was released on CD as "Soulero", which I think is also OOP, but sometimes shows up on eBay. Actually, 'Soulero' is 'Tender Gender' with only half of another album, the bad (non title-suite) half of 'Ode to 52nd St.'. Running time is like 54 minutes. Another one of those strange, screwed-up MCA reissues of some classic jazz stuff that were inflicted on us in the early-mid 90's.