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That would be a terrible mistake. That set is incredible, trumpet playing as good as it gets and otherwise very difficult to find material. The Slugs recordings are a milestone in jazz to me.

PM sent. As I don't own a good comprehensive discography, this seems like a good opportunity.

Anxiously awaiting for Concord to schedule 'Prince Lasha/Sonny Simmons Plays for Lovers' as they wring every last drop out of the Prestige/Riverside/Contemporary catalog. No offense to GA Russell and others who enjoy this series, but it just gets frustrating to see the same material repackaged ad nauseum, where there are still some fine albums in those catalogs (Sonny Simmons - Rumasuma, Gary Bartz - Home, some McCoy Tyner sides, etc.) that still have not seen CD release 20 years on.

Caiman.com through Amazon.com has the Farlow for $50. Cheap US shipping, too ($2.49).

This is out now in Japan, but DustyGroove wants $24.98 + shipping for it, about a 35 minute CD. Where can I get a good price on this?

And one would wonder if they happened to play anything together at the Coltrane/Cherry recording session for Atlantic.

In fact, there will be some really interesting things before that. Elvis Sun recordings are now, the early RCA's start next year, as does Buddy Holly. There's a lot of great Chess records stuff now, there will start being a lot of Phil Spector in five years, etc. The Bear Family complete boxes will be fair game in Europe, etc.

Kenny recorded with his older brother Bill Barron for Savoy in '61, a couple of years ahead of his recordings with Dizzy.

I haven't heard the Yoshi's sets. In general, you won't go wrong with any of the Landmark dates (many reissued on 32jazz). Much of the Novus stuff sounded like a rehash to me. Of the Landmarks, one other that I really like is 'The Countdown', a quartet date with Joe Henderson. In addition to his work with Tony Williams in the late 80's, l liked his mid-80's work with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (many recordings, the most easy to acquire are 'New York Scene' and 'Live At Kimballs', both on Concord).

Me too, PM also sent. This will be my first time participating in a BFT.

What's the best place to get the Marion Brown set? I don't see it on Amazon at all. I just ordered the Sonny Simmons from Caiman through Amazon, will replace the two single CD's I have from that set. I only have 'Why Not' from Brown, not the quartet. I had it on vinyl in a previous lifetime when I was in college.

Agree with the assessment of the date. Seems to come down to if seeing Fathead on a Lee Morgan Blue Note strikes you as a great idea or a lost opportunity for some other player who was underrecorded in that period (Benny Maupin, Frank Mitchell, John Gilmore, Clifford Jordan, George Coleman, Gary Bartz) to have been on the date. Love Lee's playing, but Freddie Hubbard is the man for me in that era as far as trumpet playing. They were very different in their approaches, and I'm thankful for both. Hubbard always struck me as the one who extended Clifford Brown, and Morgan as the one who extended Dizzy (understandably).

Listened to a lot (hundreds of CD's) of recent-vintage jazz recorded by artists located in and around Seattle - these came in a collection that I bought off a contact from ebay. A surprisingly large number of "keepers", showing me that jazz is alive and well in at least parts of the USA. As always, listened to a lot of vintage Blue Note stuff. Non-jazz, listened a good bit to the late-60's/early 70's British group Spooky Tooth, especially 'Spooky 2' and 'Witness'. Unlike jazz, I find very little current rock which impresses me enough to add to my grossly overcrowded CD shelves.

This gem, recorded in January of 1972, was Tyner's first work released on Milestone following a series of distinguished albums on Blue Note. While the Blue Note albums featured renowned musicians such as Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Alice Coltrane, and Elvin Jones, the band on 'Sahara' was by comparison much more obscure. Drummer Alphonse Mouzon had played on the inaugural Weather Report album, but alto/soprano sax player Sonny Fortune had most recently been with Mongo Santamaria for a number of years, and had not been recorded in his stay with Elvin Jones. Bassist Calvin Hill had played with Joanne Brackeen in Boston, but Tyner was his first major gig. And yet, together, they recorded an album for the ages, truly a masterpiece of masterpieces in Tyner's catalog. 'Sahara' consists of four cuts on side one, and the extended title track on side two. "Ebony Queen" starts the album with a pronouncement that Tyner had taken his playing to a new level, with a rhythmic power and beauty unmatched then or now. Mouzon is superb in his playing here and throughout the album, lifting Tyner into flight. What a loss for the music when he chose to pursue the brass ring of fusion. Fortune more than holds his own in this context, laying down the most successful saxophone playing ever done on a Tyner recording. Azar Lawrence was able to cut through the torrent on 'Enlightenment' and 'Atlantis' without going under, but shortly thereafter, such strong players as George Adams and Gary Bartz were being steamrolled by the power of Tyner's playing. Fortune's playing on this album, which sounded so good at the time, has gained in significance over the years as no one other reed player has been able to approach his success playing with Tyner. "A Prayer For My Family" is a beautiful, spiritual solo piano piece. Tyner would successfully revisit this turf on his 'Echoes of a Friend', a fantastic solo piano album recorded later in '72. "Valley of Life" is an early example of world music, shades of the Orient with Tyner on koto instead of piano, and Fortune on flute. "Rebirth" is a modal burner, with Fortune's only alto sax appearance on this album and a strong solo by Tyner over inspired drumming by Mouzon. "Sahara", running over 23 minutes, is a remarkable work which is relentless in its power and majesty. The main theme from this cut will stay in your head for the rest of your life after you experience it. All of the musicians are given great space to stretch out, and in one fascinating sequence, Tyner lays out to allow Fortune to play with just bass and drum accompaniment. The bass and drum solos are beautifully integrated into the music, so they do not become boring at all (this from someone who often fast forwards through drum solos!). World Music influences are found throughout, with simple reed instrument and pecussion sounds entering from the players at intervals. Rarely has a 23 minute cut justified its length the way 'Sahara' does. It is an organic whole, and editing out any piece of it would damage the work. Overall, Tyner truly established himself as a visionary musician on this work. This was the turning point in his career where he would no longer be thought of just as Coltrane's pianist, but rather as the giant in his own right he had become.

true, but if you buy more than one item from the same half.com seller, shipping is a dollar less for each additional item. there is no such discount from sellers in the amazon.com marketplace. to that end, if you're thinking of buying one or more of drummond's arabesque recordings, you might check to see if the seller also has available some titles by charles mcpherson, art farmer, or charles sullivan on that label (see below). again, the asking price for sealed copies of these cds often is quite low. Agreed, some really nice stuff. You can sometimes find the Arabesque's in multiple CD lots on ebay, which really brings down the per disc shipping cost.

Half and the used network at Amazon each have $2.49 shipping charges. Ebay sellers usually exceed that in my experience. I have overall had much better experiences buying from the Amazon used network than from Half. In my experience, Amazon seems to be more "professionals" (lots of transactions), with better overall ethics.

I thought this was reissued on CD on Black Lion many years ago. Might you be thinking of Coon Bid'ness? Chuck, 'Reflections' is the one I was thinking of. I know I had the vinyl of 'Dogon A.D.' back in the day. Jerry Gordon at Third Street Jazz in Philly got all of those Arista/Freedom releases really cheaply, and sold them for like $2.99.

I thought this was reissued on CD on Black Lion many years ago.

Another great classic-era Blue Note album, one of many, no more, no less. 'Free Form' is my favorite Byrd, especially the second side with 'French Spice' and the title track. He recorded some great albums then (although I've always thought he was particularly weak at NAMING his tunes!). I agree, he was not the most technically dazzling trumpeter, but great feeling. If your friend is a trumpet player and you are really looking for something with amazing trumpet technique as well as excellent music, get a Freddie Hubbard CD from that era or a little later instead. Something like 'Ugetsu' by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers shows Hubbard to great advantage. His solo on the title track of that album turned me onto him for a lifetime. His work on "Aries" on 'The Body and the Soul' is also incredible.

I have CD available, Woody Herman - 'The Jazz Collector Edition'. This is a nice 10 cut CD of some of his 30's/40/s material on Laserlight. Should be good for filling a hole in somebody's collection if they don't have any of this material. Let me know if you want it.

You can get the same material for 20% of the cost by purchasing the Green/Clark 2CD set and Green's "Born to Be Blue".

Judging by the jazz names these guys are dropping, they had some pretty hip music collections. (How many people were listening to John McLaughlin before 1970?) I think that JMcL was a session musican before becoming known as a Jazz musican. Lots of people would have heard him on the radio and if you into Jazz in London in the late '60s, you would have known who he was. McLaughlin played in the Graham Bond Orgainzation in '63with Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and Dick Heckstall-Smith, and recorded 'Things We Like' with Jack Bruce. He also had worked with Alexis Korner,a nd recorded with John Surman prior to this time. So he was pretty well known in musical circles in England already, and certainly Fripp would have been well aware of him.

Colin, I'd love to have the Sun Ra Kohoutek CD. I'll PM you. thx, John.

That one's my favorite by her (which goes against conventional critical wisdom), but is from like 1961-2, and is quite a bit different than her mid-70's recordings. I also prefer mid-60's Marianne Faithfull to her 70's-80's recordings, and find Sarah Vaughan's late 40's singing irresistable where I can take or leave most of her 70's-80's recordings (the two small group sessions on Pablo being exceptions). to make two analogies which are probably more widely understood. Youthful purity of voice vs. hard-earned maturity.

I'm with you there. There have been some hideous CD's (the first 'Kind of Blue' issue and some other CBS and MCA titles come to mind), but the Blue Notes and OJC's have always sounded pretty good to me considering the age of the material. The Blue Note CD's I really long for are the later Bobby Hutcherson titles such as 'Rosewood', which haven't ever been released on CD in any form.