felser

Talk about your low bars.... 🙂

Have always found his discussions to be too whacked out, though I do love much of his music, especially the Columbia albums from the debut through Borboletta.

Mainstream had a number of extra cuts from various sessions that they stuck on two compilation albums back in the 70's - 'Jazz' and 'Booty'. Those albums were easy to find in cutout and used bins for years in the 70's/80's. That Land/Hutcherson extra cut appeared on 'Jazz'. I have the Japanese 'Peace Maker' CD, no idea when or where I got it, but glad to have it.

Especially when the music sounds so good.

Check out especially "Blind Willie McTell", also "Highlands" and "Murder Most Foul".

Agreed, especially "Blind Willie McTell", which is one of his greatest ever. I read that he left that off because he thought it would overwhelm the rest of the album.

I like how those albums sound, especially 'Desire' with Scarlet Rivera, and "Tangled Up In Blue" is undeniable, but subsequent revelations have made "Hurricane" a troubling listen (though it sounds great musically) and "Joey" always was ridiculous in its naivety about the "nice" mobster murderer. The middle period album that I think remains underrated is 'Infidels'.

I agree that he stopped being "great" immediately after that. Has there ever been as abrupt fall from grace as going from that landmark to 'Nashville Skyline' and 'Self Portrait'? And I suspect it was largely by design (setting the stage for Neil Young going from 'Harvest' to 'Time Fades Away' to stave off superstardom). Dylan's had plenty of ideas since then, right up to the present, but not often transformative and often not even good. And again, the same can be said of Neil Young. And both, while maddening inconsistent in quality, nonetheless remain consistently interesting. And every time you want to count those guys out, they come up with something like 'Rockin' in the Free World' or 'Murder Most Foul' which were staggering in their quality, impact, and relevance when each came out.

I have the Verve set on Acrobat. The Verve's feel more like her era of relevance to me. Wouldn't mind the Fontana set, but not at what it would cost.

They are often great for box sets like this, though shipping can be delayed.

They were going for a Jones-Lewis thing on that and Muses for Richard Davis. I remember buying both out of a cutout bin in the mid-70's, and being disappointed. They sound better to me now with adjusted expectations. As far as Hubbard's CTI albums, I like them all, especially First Light (the title cut is beautiful), and even like some of his Columbia work (HIgh Energy and the Japanese-only live 2LP set Gleam work in total for me, and I like some cuts on the other albums).

Total about 81 minutes, which is doable these days. I'd buy it just for this cut alone.

#3 desperately needs a CD issue.

I A-B'd the original Dexters and the Select one time and didn't hear any appreciable difference. The sources on that material is pretty poor, maybe not that much which can be done for it

Glad to do my usual December, though I can be flexible and fill in any month.

Sounds interesting for sure, but at $100 too rich for my blood, considering how much other late Pepper I own, including the Village Vanguard and Galaxy boxes.

What did he say?

Strangely, this album was my introduction to Rollins in the early 70's. I do like Garrison/Elvin on it, agree that Sonny seems to meander a lot, but also agree that I like the meandering, though I wondered at the time what the big deal about Rollins was. I found that out when I soon after experienced his masterpieces like 'Saxophone Colossus' and 'Newk's Time'.

Just finished Matt Haig 'The Midnight Library', getting ready to start Richard Powers 'The Time of Our Singing' (anyone hear read it? Greil Marcus raves about it, and his description drew me in). Still re-reading Judith Herman 'Trauma and Recovery' in chunks.

Not familiar with him!

Paul Jeffrey, Ricky Ford, and Chapin in the sax section! Had no idea.

Didn't look like a typical Lionel Hampton band member!

He was really good, like one of the best of his era good, tragically passed away at 40 in 1998. I have the 'Alive' box set, so these became duplicates for me. Youtube is your friend. Paging @clifford_thornton and @JSngry, who I bet can add some commentary about Chapin which is more eloquent than anything I can come up with

Yes Sir, always try to do right by her - she's a treasure!