felser

It's also been odd how slow a lot of the Adderley stuff on Capitol has been to get to CD. You would think he'd be a relatively big seller. I don't know if you're referring to Cannonball in the Land of Hi-Fi, but that's an EmArcy (now Universal) album, not a Capitol one. Well aware of that, which is why I said ALSO been odd about the Capitols.

It's also been odd how slow a lot of the Adderley stuff on Capitol has been to get to CD. You would think he'd be a relatively big seller.

My bad. 'Now' was where I first heard "Hello To The Wind", and I had always just thought of it, "Slow Change", and "Now" as being McDaniels songs without even checking. 'Now' is another album I've been thinking of for AOTW - it's a unique experience with the Hutcherson/Land group, the McDaniels lyrics and vocals, and the great writing on "Hello To The Wind" and "Slow Change".

'Live At The Berliner Jazztage' is certainly my favorite Woody Shaw recording, and a work I appreciate as much as any work in all of music. The group that for that performance was billed as the Woody Shaw Concert Ensemble. The Shaw/Hayes working quintet (Woody Shaw, Rene McLean, Ronnie Mathews, Stafford James, Louis Hayes - to me, this was the group that best realized Shaw's music) was joined by two heavyweights - Slide Hampton and Frank Foster. But what resulted was not the expected all-star blowing session, but rather Hampton and Foster were carefully integrated into a series of beautifully arranged compositions. The set starts off with a monumental 17 minute version of 'Hello To The Wind', the great Eugene McDaniels song. This cut, as does the entire set, combines the fire and the dignity of jazz at a level rarely encountered. Scott Yanow writes in AMG that "The obscure originals are given lengthy treatment (Joe Chambers's "Hello to the Wind" is nearly 17 minutes long) and yet there are no slow moments. The solos are uniformly creative and often quite explorative." Shaw is quoted in the original liner notes as saying that the group was "quite proud of each other that night". Excellent performances of Larry Young's "Obsequious" and Mathews' "Jean Marie" are followed by the amazing set closer, Rene McLean's incendiary "In The Land of the Blacks(Bilad As Sudan)". The ensemble and the soloists are blazing. The occasion was momentous, and what makes this session so transcendent has not faded at all in the intervening 30 years. This session is available on the 32Jazz Shaw release 'Two More Pieces of the Puzzle', and you bypass it at your own risk.

PM sent on the following: Don Bagley Quintet -- Jazz on the Rocks (Blue Moon) Conte Candoli/Lee Morgan -- Double or Nothin' (Fresh Sound) Sonny Criss/Tommy Turk/The Six -- An Evening of Jazz (Verve/Japan, POCJ-2600) Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio -- Big Cliff (Delmark) Frank Foster -- Soul Outing! (Prestige) Phil Nimmons -- The Canadian Scene/Nimmons 'N' Nine Baden Powell -- Tristeza on Guitar (MPS/Japan) Clark Terry Combo & Sextet -- Free and Oozy (Blue Moon) Ben Webster et al Mary Lou Williams -- I made you Paris

I have always found the Impulse's to each have their moments, and each have their dross. 'Black Unity' was the most consistent for me. While I'm as horrified in general as the next guy at the idea of jazz "best of" collections, it may actually make sense for Sanders. There's a good one on him called 'You-ve Got To Have Freedom' which collects a lot of the highlights and leaves behind a lot of stuff best left behind. My favorite Sanders is actually 'Africa', which came out on Timeless in the late 80's. A great rhythm section (Hicks/Lundy/Muhammad) and career highlights in the versions of his "You've Got To Have Freedom" and Hicks' beautiful "After The Morning". I also like 'Crescent With Love' quite a bit. Both of these are consistently strong, unlike his other work. Another Sanders highlight is the album he did with Art Davis on Soul Note, 'Life'. Lousy recording quality, but amazing music. It is also a quarter with Hicks (loved his playing in general) and Muhammad.

But I love the Buckinghams (really).! "Kind of a Drag", "Susan", "Foreign Policy", some great stuff! Amazing production by Guerco before he moved onto Chicago Transit Authority. Major artists, no, no staying power once Guerco moved on. Tina Brooks also wasn't a "major" artist either for the same reasons. Were the Buckinghams thoroughly enjoyable for me on the same level as a lot of the music we enshrine here, absolutely!

Wasn't MCA yet at that point, I don't think. I think they were on Kapp, which got eaten up in the MCA buyout of the Decca labels. Michel kindly sent me a CD-R of the original album. I have to say that I'll be shelving it in my Rock section rather than my Jazz section. But I'll also be shelving it in my active play shelves. It's really delightful. Best equivalent is Brian Auger and Trinity/Oblivion Express, I would say. Organ player doesn't have Auger's chops, but it's all very tasteful and enjoyable. A cross between Santana and Booker T. and the MG's, as mentioned earlier, isn't a bad description. But think Gregg Rollie on organ and Steve Cropper on guitar, rather than Booker T. Jones and Carlos Santana. Grooving organ/guitar instrumentals of some well-chosen hits of the day and some good jazz tunes. A really nice, fun listen. Not a vocal in sight. Thankfully, no "sweeteners" added (no strings, horns, synths, or background singers), so it has a good, solid, organic feel, like the Booker T, and the MG's did.

Freddie Hubbard on 'Red Clay' and some of the other CTI's (the sell out came on Columbia). Stanley Turrentine on 'Sugar' (the sell out came on Fantasy). Felser -- what makes you think that either of these guys went "electric in arguably substantive ways that partially transformed their musical vision" on these albums? Sugar and Red Clay are basically "jazz with a few electric instruments", not so different from what was done before. Maybe we just disagree on the meaning of "substantive" or "transformed". Guy Fair enough comments on the CTI stuff, though I think the rhythms also changed compared to what they did on Blue Note and Atlantic previously, but they weren't massive departures. Altohough it should probably be remembered that 70's Miles was an evolution starting all the way back at 'Nefertiti' and 'Miles in the Sky' rather than a sudden shift. Adam's comments on 'Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy' is also correct, I just overlooked that one.

Lee Morgan on his last album. Chick Corea on 'Return to Forever' and 'Light as a Feather' and 'Where Have I Known You Before' (the sell-out came later, and he has intermittently bought back in when he feels like it). Freddie Hubbard on 'Red Clay' and some of the other CTI's (the sell out came on Columbia). Stanley Turrentine on 'Sugar' (the sell out came on Fantasy). Les McCann on 'Invitation to Openness' and 'Layers'.

I'm with you on the Byrds. The seemingly unlimited potential of Rock peaked at "Eight Miles High" and "I See You". THAT's a group who was so far ahead of their time, no one has caught up yet 40 years later, and no one even dares take up the quest. They were never the same group after Gene Clark left. There was magic in the McGuinn/Clark/Crosby trio.

Big time to me. I can't hear that music at all. I can do 70's Miles just fine, though I'll always prefer 50's and 60's Miles. 80's Miles was the sell-out to me, at least in the studio (Other board members have stated that his live concerts remained worthwhile). 70's Ornette obviously wasn't a sell-out, but strikes me (then and now) as totally bizarre. The critics rhapsodized about harmolodics or whatever he called it, and I tried and tried, but it never broke through in the least to me. It was a breakdown in the rhythm to me. His son on drums in the 60's was another breakdown to me. Give me LaFaro/Higgins, Haden/Blackwell, or Garrison/Jones anytime. But again, Ornette has the right to go where he wants, and I have the right to follow or not. But if I can't hear it, I can't hear it. I have the same problem with the M-base stuff.

'I Sing The Body Electric' is my favorite Weather Report album, followed by 'Sweetnighter'. I rank this right with 'I Sing The Body Electric' at least. This album was the first time I heard 'Dpctpr Honora Causa' and, believe it or not, 'Silent Way' (I got this album real early on from the Norristown Library, before I had even heard the Miles album), so it sits in a different historical spot for me, shaped me for this type of music. Maybe if I had come to it late, it would be a lesser experience for me.

Yes he does. So he does. I missed him on that 12/26/58 session on CD 6. Thanks Chuck, my bad! The Trane box is still the better deal.

Bad news. Hubbard doesn't play on the Trane set (it's Donald Byrd, though the errant phrases argument still holds), making the Hubbard factor zero which threatens to make the Trane box value spiral as # of blues approaches zero (I don't have a keystroke for the limit sign). 'Course it could be argued that the Steve Allen sides also approach zero in value (as does the entire fourth disc unless you're a musician) as you take the differential between 1 and, say 10 occurrences of hearing them, which somewhat evens things out. However, while Coltrane's presence is a constant, the value of his playing is much more significant on the later leader sides than on the earlier Miles sides, and the difference between Philly Joe and Taylor does not come close to making up for that. So, therefore, the equations have to be handled as an inherent inequality, JC Box> MD Box.

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Available for $12.00 here if this can be believed: http://www.bluebeatmusic.com/index.php?mai...5d8e4b1d882ede1

Where's Ruth? (sorry, an old Firesign Theatre punchline, and I couldn't resist).

This 1970 album seems to be Zawinul's reinvisioning of 'In A Silent Way', the classic Miles Davis session which his playing and writing had great influence on. You can hear the first Weather Report album coming in these cuts, but this is a more lasting experience. The sides of the album basically break down into two suites. Side one has a very long and stunning "Doctor Honoris Causa" and the most beautiful version of "In A Silent Way" (which Zawinul wrote - this version was his vision of the composition). The second side, equally evocative in it's musical pictures, consists of "His Last Journey", "Double Image", and "Arrival In New York". The music on this album, to quote AMG, has a "lasting, reflective ambience". Woody Shaw is the trumpeter, and he plays beautifully, as does the otherwise unknown (at least to me) Earl Turbinton on soprano sax. Herbie Hancock and Zawinul both play electric piano, and contribute very rich combinations, showing how much better this sound could be without gimmicky synths added to the equation. Miroslav Vitous and Walter Booker are the two bassists, complimenting each other, and Joe Chambers and two other drummers lay down the very spare beat that Tony Williams set up on 'In a Silent Way'. Joel Dorn deserves a lot of credit for the wonderful production of this album. He would miraculously pull similarly great music out of Les McCann a while later on 'Invitation to Openness'. The music on this CD is very personal to Zawinul. 'In a Silent Way' is a remembrance of his time as a shepard boy in Austria, 'His Last Journey' is a tone poem commemorating his grandfather's funeral, and 'Arrival in New York' is a musical impression of arriving in the USA as a boy. "Doctor Honoris Causa" is dedicated to Herbie Hancock for an honorary doctorate he received, and "Double Image" is about the differences between man's perceptions of himself and the reality of his being. Beautiful, stirring music. In a sense, the first, and best, Weather Report album, but that description doesn't do justice to the powerful impact of this music. This wonderful album, for some reason, doesn't seem to be that well know compared to the other work from this period by Miles and his illustrious sidemen, but should not be missed.

I'll buy one from you for my office. Really. The album is standard mid-60's BN hard bop, nothing more, nothing less. Not where you would start for Turrentine (that would be 'Thats Where Its At' and 'Sugar' in my book, then some of the older BN's), but nice to have, as are all standard mid-60's BN hard bop recordings. And I'm glad there are middle-aged white guys with beards pointing younger guys towards Blue Note stuff. We need more of them, not less. And I'm middle-aged and white and often have a beard, so it could have been me receiving the murder threats!

Insightful comments there. I've been a big Garnett guy for decades. My thoughts on different points made so far in this thread. The great Garnett cut is "Mother of the Future" on Norman Connors' 'Slewfoot' album. Much stronger than the version on Garnett's 'Black Love'. But it's the only good cut on the Connors album. Although there are superficial similarities, I don't really see the Connors and Garnett albums of the mid-70's to really be of the same bag. After 'Dance of Magic' and 'Dark of Light' (both well worthwhile), Connors made many commercial concessions in his albums, as did so many in that era. Garnett made a series of albums in the "spiritual" vein for Muse in the mid-70's which made no commercial concessions. "Funky" is not a good description for them however. "Spiritual" and "Soulful" are. The best of them were'Journey To Enlightenment' and 'Let This Melody Ring On', which perfect what he first experimented with on 'Black Love'. They are beautiful, unique experiences. 'Black Love' is not nearly as strong as those other two which immediately followed (plus there were a couple more which came out after that), but is the only one to show up on CD. 'Fire' is a total botch job of a collection, despite having a couple of brilliant cuts. It's only 40 minutes long , and 12+ of those is taken up by the rambling "Taurus Woman", a weak cut from 'Black Love'. For all the wonderful work 32jazz did on straight reissues of Muse dates, they sure botched the anthologies (the Jimmy Heath one is also a mess, 40-something minutes and missing his best work on the label). Garnett disappeared from the recording scene for 20 years, then amazingly reappeared on Muse in the late 90's to do the strongest recorded tenor playing of his career. 'Resurgence', 'Fuego En Mi Alma' , and 'Under Nubian Skies' are done in a more normal post-bop mode, no vocals, but contain good writing, a good young band, and stunning tenor playing by Garnett. I have not heard 'Moon Shadow', released on Savant in 2001, have been waiting for years to get it at a decent price or trade for it.

Just played it for the first time as well. It's real good, of course, feels most like the 'Live at Loosdrecht' set, which was reissued on CD as 'Grand Max'. The two sets share the same drummer, Alvin Queen, and several of the same compositions. To me, better than 'Live in Tokyo', but not up to the glorious standards of the sets with Jimmy Hopps: 'The Ringer','Live at Slugs' (both volumes), and 'Music Inc. and Big Band'. Hopps was such a great drummer for this group, and the rhythm is stiffer with Queen on drums. Also, the compositions here, while good, don't hit the stratospheric levels of 'On The Nile', 'Drought', 'Orientale', and 'Ruthies Heart' from those earlier sessions. Be sure to get this one, but get the ones with Jimmy Hopps first.

'74 Miles Away/Walk Tall' is still MIA, which is a crime. I'm another who really likes 'Dr. Honoris Causa' off of this. Won't replace the verion on the 'Joe Zawinul' album (I just got a flash for my next AOTW there), but nice to have.

PM sent on Peacock, Harris, Garland,and Horn.

PM sent on the Gram Parsons, no argument attached!