felser

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!

The last few on Blue Note (silver 'n Percussion, etc.) were really bad. The Andy Bey era stuff from earlier was actually pretty good, just not prime Horace Silver good.

Then may be a chance for botique reissue labels to license material from them? Hello Collectables, Wounded Bird, Water, etc. Mosaic could have a field day. And as the material reaches 50 years old, the European labels can go wild. Waiting for that Archie Shepp Proper box! Verve themselves seem to go the download way, considering the number of titles made available in that form in recent years, and the fact that the young folks would rather download than buy a CD and this is less costly for the label, of course. Then they don't know their audience. Young people aren't the ones who are going to buy Anita O'Day or Archie Shepp.

Go to your usual online shop immediately and order the Earland CD 'Black Talk', the greatest organ combo album ever made. If that one wasn't at the very top of the recommendations you got from board members, throw those recommendations away and start over. And give 'Front Burner' another try - it's a good one.

Then may be a chance for botique reissue labels to license material from them? Hello Collectables, Wounded Bird, Water, etc. Mosaic could have a field day. And as the material reaches 50 years old, the European labels can go wild. Waiting for that Archie Shepp Proper box!

Someone needs to jump on that Coltrane box - it's great!

"I can't hear you on the monitor!"

Back in the mid-70's for a little while, I did a Sunday morning jazz show on Temple-Ambler's inhouse station WRFT. I played the heck out of the title track from this album and the title track from Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions'.

I was never really knocked out by the LP - seemed more mainstream than where Hubbard's head was at during that era, nothing like 'Black Angel' or 'Red Clay' at all. I like Hubbard a lot, but this wasn't high on my list of Hubbards. That being said, I haven't heard it in probably 25+ years, so don't know if it would strike me differently now.

Chuck, totally agree with this philosiphy and practice it. That's the great part of trading. You can learn about something totally new for the cost of mailing a CD to someone else on the board who also then gets to learn something new. Adam, my opinion on the Hubbard goes contrary to at least three postings here. I like the album quite a bit, especially the side with "Space Track", which is a great long modal piece, with amazing Reggie Workman bass work. Louis Hayes is the drummer - I know drummers are important to you. And I think the album cover is cheesy. But by all means, get the CD!

Sort of reminds me of the old National Lampoon gag, where for a limited time you could order a set of "every record ever made".

Agreed, I find this to be his most satisfying. I'm not that big a fan of his Blue Notes, find them a disappointment relative to the label and personnel, especially 'The Connection'. I don't really care for his writing on the Blue Notes, too "clever", not organic and not sympathetic to his hornmen. He's good, but, to me, far from Great. That label should be saved for the McCoy Tyner's and Bill Evans's, I think. And in that league, he ain't. One man's opinion.

The best-of's, including the 20th Century Masters release, will give you the title track and the basic idea. Worthwhile if a cross between early Santana and Booker T. and the MG's sounds good to you (it does to me).

PM sent on the Bloomfield.

PM sent on Mimms, Bass, and Kweskin. The Valenti is a real good 60's artifact (much better than his Quicksilver stuff, he ruined both them and himself) someone needs to grab it.

PM sent on following: - Milt Jackson, Lucky Thompson: The Jazz Skyline. Savoy. - New Orbits in Sound – Spud Murphy, GNP. (never heard of him, but good sidemen) - Lee Konitz At Storyville. “live” with Ronnie Ball, Percy Heath. Black Lion - Teddy Edwards Octet. w/Jimmy Woods, 1960. OJC. - Johnny Smith with Stan Getz. Moonlight in Vermont. -Cecil Taylor Unit: Spring of Two Blue J’s. Fonac.

Very interesting pick. Being from Belgium, you probably don't realize that the title track became a moderate-sized pop hit here in the USA, so El Chicano then became recognized as a rock/pop act (like Santana and Malo) rather than a jazz act ("fusion" didn't exist yet as a category, despite the crossover work of Ramsey Lewis and others). And, to be honest, the group's background pointed in that direction anyways. El Chicano then, of course, would try (but fail;) to replicate their pop chart success, losing what made them unique. But I agree with you on the merits of this album, which remains a very enjoyable listen 36 years later.

I agree. Webster was my favorite sax player of pre-bop lineage, and this is one of his greatest later works. Not to be missed if you like Webster. But not a WC album, rather a Ben Webster album. The Land is a run of the mill (not bad in any way, but doesn't stand out) East Coast bop album, with a strangely anonymous rhythm section. Fine for fans of the genre (like me), but not a starting point or necessity in any way. Land wasn't really a "West Coast" style player anyways, given his time with Roach/Brown.