Rooster_Ties

Can't imagine this one hasn't already been posted, but here 'tis -- possibly again!

Glad you have the version with the two bonus tracks! - which really makes for a nicely expanded album w/ ~13 min of new material (none of which is 'just alternates' either) -- which also expands the about of Charles Tolliver in the known (recorded) universe too. That expanded "Virgo Vibes" release is really a nice document of a few things: The only(?) known intersection of Joe Henderson and Charles Tolliver (that I'm aware of, anyway). And a nifty smaller-combo version of Gerald Wilson's "In The Limelight" (which Ayer's had played on Wilson's own Pacific Jazz album "On Stage" recorded in 1965). WELL worth seeking out... https://www.discogs.com/Roy-Ayers-Virgo-Vibes/release/901369 NICE version of Tolliver's "The Ringer" too (with Joe Henderson) -- though not with Jack Wilson, but some cat named 'Ronnie Clark'. (Oops, I see "In The Limelight" is also one of the 3 tracks with 'Ronnie Clark' too, not Wilson.)

Maybe this is naive of me to say, but I think Pedal Steels seem half(?) more intuitive than harps. Of course I don't even play regular guitar, so maybe if I knew even a tiny bit more than I do, I might well not think that. Could also be that when I've seen Pedal Steel players play, it just seems more fluid and not as intimidating. Like I could almost imagine myself playing Pedal Steel, but sure as hell NOT harp.

Just ordered my copy last night from The Bastards, and really looking forward to it. Had Iron Man on yesterday morning as I got ready for work, and it brings back some fond memories of my earliest jazz listening. I think that very CD I played yesterday is one of the first 20 CD's I ever owned. I remember finding it (used) in Columbia, Missouri where the college choir I was in was in some sort of competition, iirc. I can't remember 100%, but I don't think I yet owned Out to Lunch yet even. I *do* remember recognizing the name Alan Douglas immediately (in the store, before I even paid for it), as I was a HUGE Hendrix nut my last 2 years in high school. Anyway, it's a about time this material got reissued in some sort of quality way. I never got around to picking up Conversations all these years, though I've heard it a couple dozen times online. So I've got that material to get into too. (I have had Ofher Aspects, though, a good 15+ years.)

There's a playlist of the entire release on YouTube too. Listened to most of it that way just this afternoon!

Seems to be some video footage of the same group / maybe the same concert?

Not sure if this promo-video has been posted here yet, fwiw...

Just dialing up the "Jim Crow" take from Other Aspects on Youtube while I'm at work, and damn if that isn't a counter-tenor. Heck, the liners to Other Aspects just might even mention that -- but for all these years, I always assumed it was a Mezzo or something or another (maybe a 1st alto, or whatever). But I never dreamed it was a male-alto (essentially).

Really?!??

FWIW, looking through the personnel for every album Wilson was ever on (before his BN debut), Bobby Hutcherson is the only musician (that I see) who ever specifically had leader-dates for Blue Note. There were a tiny handful of others who were sideman on various BN dates (Carmell Jones and Charles Tolliver were the only two I think I saw), but Hutcherson was the only one with more significant recording experience for BN.

I hadn't anticipated anything even remotely related to Other Aspects would be included on this newly expanded Iron man/Conversations set (aka Musical Prophet). It's not for everyone, and I don't listen to it all the time -- but Other Aspects is a really fascinating album. So does the version of "A Personal Statement" (which I'm only gathering from your post, jeffcrom, is an alternate version of "Jim Crow" from Musical Prophet)... ...does the version of "A Personal Statement" also include the opera singer? - who iirc, is a soprano? I can't remember if her name is known (the Wikipedia article for Other Aspects seems to think she's unnamed/unknown). If she is included in this new version of "Jim Crow" (aka "A Personal Statement) -- do the Musical Prophet liners identify her??

Probably not my first uncomprehendible idea like this. Bear in mind, I'm not steeped in Trane, so I'm admittedly I'm talking outside of an actual ear-informed area of knowledge (meaning I know my Trane history, better than I really know his music. I've heard a bunch of Trane from all eras here and there over the years. But it's all been scattershot, and NOT repeated intensive listening either. I've got all the Prestige material -- all three of those leader/collaborator/sideman organized sets. I *LOVE* the fluidity of Trane's sheets-of-sound type playing on so much of the Prestige material. But the material itself isn't as weighty; most of it not seeming or intending to be "bigger" statements. To my ears, on the Prestige material Trane's tone is lighter, and less "in your face"; less "insistent". The Atlantic stuff is mostly a bit weightier, certainly in Trane's tone -- more 'aching' at times -- like he's always reaching for things. I don't know how to describe it. It's also more rhythmically complex too (iirc), the Atlantic stuff -- his soloing specifically. Whereas the sheet-of-sound is more fluid. To be clear, I'm NOT trying to get into one being 'better' or 'worse'. "More fluid" is just a way of saying what I hear, not that it's "better". But I think(?) it would be interesting to hear that greater fluidity mixed-up with the type of material that Trane was playing with the his Atlantic quartet. I know (or suppose) that not all of his "sheets-of-sound" sound is abandoned during the Atlantic years -- but to my ears, the tone and weight in his playing is definitely different. I'm really talking way outside of my area of expertise here, I'll fully admit. Total respect for everything Trane did, but I never got bitten hard by the Trane bug (I'm afraid).

What's the orchestral date? I have to admit, I don't have a plethora of Dex in my collection. I may have to investigate the one with Benny Bailey too -- little by little I keep getting more Bailey in my collection, here and there, which always makes me open to getting more with him.

Trane's sheets-of-sound stuff from his Prestige days, really pushes a LOT of nice buttons in my brain. The performances aren't a epic in terms of scope, and arrangement -- but Trane's playing specifically is really wonderful. TOTAL sacrilege to say this, I realize, but I've occasionally wondered what a few of Trane's later Atlantic albums might have sounded like, with that earlier approach. Not pining for that, mind you, but just wondering what that would have sounded like with the more static harmonic contexts, and the McCoy/Reggie/Elvin trio backing him.

Has Steeplechase ever done any(?) compilations that draw from among multiple albums? -- for any artist? (If they have, I'm certainly unaware of it.) My sense is that darn near EVERY Steeplechase CD I think(?) I've ever seen, have all been single sessions all recorded on the same day (or maybe a couple days in a row). IIRC.

I also have a Braxton set that I really need to reinvestigate. It may be one I could part with, but I make no promises! I do know that I haven't listened to it nearly enough. Check back with me in a few months about it (feel free to bug me about it). If I do decide to let it go, it'd be under the same plan I detailed above for the Andrew Hill -- 100% of the proceeds going directly to the Board -- directly to Jim, via a donation towards keeping this place afloat (and I'd pay the postage to send it). And in the case of the Braxton, the book would be included (no autograph issues there).

PM just returned! Let me think about an asking price, and get back to you. I've long run out of shelf-space in our 1BR apartment, and I've been meaning to thin the herd (thin "the heard") for some time, and it's been a while since I donated.

I have to confess I'm entirely unaware of these Legrand box sets. Can you or someone provide links to them from somewhere like discogs? - or some other quick-to-peruse way to wrap my head around what albums and/or time-frame they each include? (Thanks in advance!)

I've got all the individual discs, so I don't need my complete Hill BN '63-66 box any more (one of the first 3 Mosaic sets I ever bought, back around 1995, iirc). But there's a wrinkle. I had Andrew autograph my Mosaic booklet (the one time I heard Andrew up in Iowa City, in 2003). I could probably be persuaded to part with the whole set (and box), but I'd prefer to keep the booklet. If interested, I wouldn't ask a crazy premium for the set -- in fact, I would be glad actually "sell" the set for the *100% benefit* of the Organissimo board (in other words, you wouldn't pay me -- you'd *pay Jim directly, i.e. make a confirm-able board donation* for whatever price we can agree on. Then I'll pay the postage to send it to you out of my own pocket. Not sure what price to ask, though I promise it'll be fair (but not bargain-basement, since I'm trying to encourage a donation to the cost of running this board, and since I'm not looking for one penny out of the transaction myself).

Not saying he is, but the guy on the left looks a like like a Heath brother, doesn't he? Or maybe a Heath cousin?

I plan to sell some CD's here this year, incl. a handful of Mosaic sets, with ALL the proceeds going to the board. I'll pay the shipping out of my own pocket, and you just pay Jim's PayPal address directly for my asking price - so every penny goes to the board.

Ha!! Fortunately I'm not affected by the shutdown at all -- nor my wife (she works for a Federal agency, but they're fully funded for the whole fiscal year). Yeah, I think MOST of us here could write some Dusty Groove burbs, if we tried.

Love the new cover, BTW. Very mod!

Apparently newly found material... Monorails and Satellites were two volumes of solo piano works recorded by Sun Ra in 1966. Volume 1 was issued on his Saturn label in 1968, volume 2 the following year. They were the first commercial LPs of the artist's solo keyboard excursions. Vol. 1 featured seven idiosyncratic Sun Ra originals and one standard delivered in Sunny's singular manner. Vol. 2 consists entirely of original compositions. A tape of a third, unreleased volume was discovered posthumously by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive. Released here for the first time, it consists of five originals and four standards, and was recorded in stereo. Despite Sun Ra's obsession with the future, Monorails and Satellites is something of a nostalgia trip. As a youth in Birmingham, Alabama, the man who became Sun Ra—Herman Poole Blount—spent hours at the Forbes Piano Company, amusing himself (as well as staff and customers) at the showroom keyboards. He practiced standards, emulated his piano heroes, played the latest pop songs, and improvised. The idyllic reveries which the teen experienced in those formative years were no doubt recaptured during the Monorails sessions. The playing here speaks less of a style, and more of a collection of statements. Some of the tunes, with their odd juxtapositions of mood, could be mistaken for silent film scores. Perhaps they were audio notebooks, a way to generate ideas which could be developed with the band ("I think orchestra"). Regardless of any secondary (and admittedly speculative) intent, they serve as compelling standalone works. The fingering reflects Sun Ra's encyclopedic knowledge of piano history as his passages veer from stride to swing, from barrelhouse to post-bop, from march to Cecil Taylor-esque free flights, with a bit of soothing "candelabra" swank thrown in. Sunny's attack is mercurial, his themes unpredictable. His hands can be primitive or playful, then abruptly turn sensitive and elegant. As with the whole of Sun Ra's recorded legacy, you get everything but consistency and predictability. The listener also experiences something rare in the Sun Ra recorded omniverse: intimacy. His albums, generally populated by the rotating Arkestral cast, are raucous affairs. With the Monorails sessions, we eavesdrop on private moments: the artist, alone with his piano. These are brief audio snapshots of what was surely a substantial part of Sun Ra's life, infinitesimal surviving scraps of 100,000 hours similarly spent, most lost to posterity. The 2-CD and 3-LP packages of this set include an essay by three-time Down Beat Artist of the Year VIJAY IYER, along with a historical chronicle by jazz authority BEN YOUNG. – I.C.

I've been meaning to pick up that Evidence CD for years (almost a couple decades actually, hasn't it been?) -- but I never got around to it. And it always bugged me that there was a Vol. 2 that went unissued on CD, which I really HATE when stuff gets issues incompletely like that (I know, it was two separate albums, but they were two of a kind, and I presume recorded at the same sessions, or around the same time). And man, that piano-trio record is phenomenal. EVERYTHING you'd expect from a Sun Ra piano trio album -- every bit as quirky as you might expect, with a good dash of weirdness, but not too much!! Highest recommendation (for that trio record), and I'm sure these 3 volumes of solo-piano sessions will also prove very interesting as well.