Rooster_Ties

OK, I'm finally posting my thoughts about this topic... And, strangely enough - I just realized that most of the choices in my "top-16" list are dates that were unreleased for many years, until they finally came out in the 70's, 90's, or even later. The only ones that were released near the time when they were recorded were: the first half of "Lift Every Voice", "Complete Communion", "Judgement", "Basra", and "Fuschia Swing Song" - and (depending on how you look at it), "The Complete 'IS' Sessions" (which were released in an incredibly slipshod way over the years). What does that say about my tastes???? (...that nearly 2/3rds of these titles sat in the vaults for 10-35 years???) "Top 16 Conns" 1. Wayne Shorter - Etcetera 2. Hank Mobley - Third Season 3. Andrew Hill - Lift Every Voice 4. Chick Corea – The Complete 'IS' Sessions 5. Don Cherry – Complete Communion 6. Lee Morgan – The Procrastinator 7. Andrew Hill - Judgement 8. Jackie McLean – Jacknife 9. Bobby Hutcherson - Medina/Spiral 10. Grant Green - Solid 11. Lee Morgan - Infinity 12. Pete La Roca - Basra 13. Dizzy Reece – Comin’ On 14. Larry Young - Mother Ship 15. Andrew Hill - Tomorrow is Now!! 16. Sam Rivers - Fuschia Swing Song "Honorable Mention" Andrew Hill - Grass Roots Wayne Shorter – The All-Seeing Eye / Schizophrenia Jackie McLean – Destination Out! / ‘Bout Soul / Vertigo Bobby Hutcherson - Patterns / Stick-up! Grachan Moncur III – Some Other Stuff Larry Young – Into Somethin’ Hank Mobley - A Slice of the Top Tina Brooks – Minor Move / Back to the Tracks / The Waiting Game Grant Geen – Green Street / Sunday Mornin’ Booker Ervin – Structurally Sound / The In-between Donald Byrd – Byrd in Flight Johnny Coles – Little Johnny C Dizzy Reece – Blues in Trinity Horace Parlan – On the Spur of the Moment / Us Three PS: My favorite "Rare Groove" CD's are also previously unreleased sessions, that didn't ever come out until the 90's... John Patton - Boogaloo Donald Byrd - Donald-Kofi Also, the only Conn I have that I don't really care for all that much, is.... Don Wilkerson – The Complete Blue Note Sessions FYI, if I'm remembering what I've got right, then I've got 66/99 of the Conns (in some form or another, TOCJ, Mosiac, etc...)

Check out the sound samples from this guy's albums (his name is Michael Rabinowitz, see links down below for sound samples, AMG entry, and AMG reviews), and, both his albums have John Hicks!! Sounds pretty interesting to me - both on paper, as well as the sound samples. Anybody have either of his albums?? Thanks!!! -- Rooster T. ===== Source: www.ejazznews.com: Improvising Bassoon <-- LINK Improvising Bassoon Posted on: May 05, 2003 - 08:54 AM by editor Dear Friends: Recently, I taped my next one-hour show for the "Jazz From the Archives" series. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3). The bassoon is a fiendishly difficult woodwind instrument, and one could probably count the number of improvising bassoon players in jazz history, beginning with Garvin Bushell and Frank Trumbauer in the 1920s, on little more than the fingers of both hands. More often than not, these players have been saxophonists who "double" on the instrument. What sets Michael Rabinowitz (b. 1955) apart from the majority of jazz bassoonists is that he counts the bassoon as his primary instrument. Rabinowitz has been on the New York City jazz scene for more than twenty years, and he now has an international reputation as a unique, first-rate improviser. We'll sample from his recordings with the Charles Mingus Orchestra, the Bill Kirchner Nonet, and his own groups. The show will air this Sunday, May 11, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Daylight Time. NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO also broadcasts on the Internet at www.wbgo.org. Best, Bill Kirchner www.jazzsuite.com ===== and Main AMG bio of Michael Rabinowitz here: LINK AMG review of his first album (from 1995, with John Hicks), called: "Gabrielle's Balloon" <-- LINK Sound samples at bn.com: LINK AMG entry (no review) of his second album (from 1996, also with John Hicks), called: "Bassoon on Fire" <-- LINK Sound samples at bn.com: LINK ===== Any other jazz bassoonists I should know about??? The only one's I can think of are sax guys in Sun Ra's band, who doubled on bassoon. Too lazy to try and find their names right now, but I know I've got more than a couple Sun Ra albums/CD's that have bassoon, not just as a background instrument, but full-blown bassoon solos. Any more jazz bassoon soloists I should know about?? - especially any guys who recorded after 1950, or after 1960???

I voted for #5 too. You know, I've found over the years that many musicians are less steeped in the music than many fans. They're often too busy making music, to be as obsessive about listening.

Yeah, I hate the packaging format of the Herbie and Dexter sets too. I've never owned the Dexter set, but the Herbie set is a royal pain in the ass. Same thing with the Bob Marley and Police box sets too. Hopefully all of Herbie's output will be RVG-ed (with all the bonus tracks included), which would eliminate the need for the box set. And about the booklet - my Herbie box booklet was torn when I first got it, right out of the shrinkwrap. Piss-poor design, if you ask me. The "complete Miles Davis" boxes on Columbia are far better, although some of what's in 'em is impossible to read, cuz the type is either too small, or (even worse!!) they print yellow text on top of a yellow background. (In the "IASW" box). Who the fuck's idea what that!!!

OK, I own hardly any Coltrane on CD (nor on LP or that matter), but if I was thinking about take the plunge and getting this box set of his entire Atlantic output, is there a downside to getting this particular set?? I seem to remember reading that additional alternate takes are being released on the subsequent (and more recent) CD issues of these individual albums?? (Are there many alternate takes on the individual CD's that aren't on this box set??) Or, is this more of a problem with the "The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings" vs. the newest individual CD's of Trane's 'Impulse!' material?? ( I'm pretty sure I'm more interested in his Atlantic output (to start with), rather than the Implulse! material. ) Am I better off getting the 'Atlantic Years' Coltrane box, or the individual CD's??? ( FYI, SACD is of no concern to me, nor DVD-A - or whatever those new-fangled formats are. Well mastered/re-mastered standard CD's are good enough for me - though I do realize (and agree) that plenty of late 80's and even early 90's CD's are not nearly as good as some more recent 'standard CD' issues of the same material. ) ===== Also, while I'm at it, what's the "most decent" price I could expect to pay for a good 'used' copy of the Complete Trane Atlantic Years set on CD??? Anybody got one (or an extra one) that they're lookin' to get rid of??? (Or know where I can find a good one cheap??) $$$ is really tight for me now, but I think I just might be interested in diving into some serious Trane for the first time in my life. Thanks!!!

What else by Roach fit's the pre-"STRATA-EAST" mold?? I only have "Members Don't Get..." Whattami missing???

How much better is this: than this: ????? Looks like the track listing is identical, so there are no bonus tracks on the newest one?? So, then, is the sound quality light years better?? I can get a used one of the old CD issue (which appears to date from 1992), for only $9 (including shipping). Or, I can probably pay $15-$16 for the newest issue. What's the best way to go??

Idle Moments is really good, probably a close 2nd for me. But I had to go with "Solid", which is such an incredible date, with an incredible line-up. Love the combination of Joe Henderson and James Spaulding. Now, if I were only thinking about Green's playing, and not also the context - that would be a more difficult question. While I do really love Grant Green's playing, I come to most of his CD's a little late in the game. I have plenty of Green's CD's now, but as recently as 2-3 years ago, I didn't have all that many. Silly me - I wasn't all that interested in jazz guitar (in general), and I didn't focus much on Green, untill I realized all the incredible sidemen who were on all his albums. Then, I quickly came to realize what a great player Green was, reguardless of who he was playing with. Anyway, "Solid" is probably the one Grant Green disc I think of first and most of all, when it comes to Green.

My GOD, you damned FREAK!!! Don't ever post here again!!!!

Now I expect you to create at least two new polls every week. Go forth, and pollster!!! ( )

I'll second that!! (And no, I'm not a drummer by nature, but for this album - I would definitely feel the urge to make some noise along with it!!!)

You must have only entered one item in the "Poll Choices" area... Poll Question: What's your favorite color??? Poll Choices: Red<cr> Blue<cr> Green<cr> Black<cr> White<cr> My guess is that you only had one thing (one "choice") in your poll, hence the error you got. Try again!!!

Nobody here's gonna believe this, but I have only like half-a-dozen Coltrane albums, at most. I think I've only got... Blue Train (in the 'original' 1987 CD release) Giant Steps (which I only picked up within the last 6 or 8 months) Coltrane Plays the Blues (which I got 10-12 years ago, back in college) A John Coltrane Retrospective - The Impulse Years (3CD compilation, which I got 7 or 8 years ago) plus a couple bootlegs from 1962, on Magnetic That's it. That's all the Coltrane I own, with him as the leader. By way of comparison, I've got over 90% of all the albums/CD's that Joe Henderson is the leader on (and probably 75% of all his sideman work too), and 90% of all of Ornette's output, but barely 5% of Coltrane's output. I can't possibly justify this, but I guess I can try to explain it... Much as I respect Trane (which is a ton!), and appreciate his output, and totally recognise how important he is...... .....for whatever reason, I've just never connected very deeply with Trane's music. It's not at all that I think he's not as good as Joe, or Wayne, or a dozen other tenor players I have more recordings by, than I do Trane. It's just something about Trane's intensity, which is so draining to me. Many, many years ago, when I had only 200 or 300 CD's, I had a few Coltrane CD's - but I found I rarely listened to them all that much. They just took too much out of me. And so, over the years, I just never got any more. Slowly, and I mean very slowly, I feel like I'm starting to get the urge to get some more Coltrane. That's why I finally broke down and got "Giant Steps" last year (and I got the newest one, with all the bonus tracks). Now here's a really whack idea for you: I think that listening to all the Charles Tolliver I've been getting into for the past couple years, maybe has opened my ears up a bit to Coltrane's music. (I've heard others describe Tolliver as being the Coltrane of jazz trumpet, which I do think there is a grain of truth to.) I'll probably never be a big fan of Trane's later years, but I do think I might now like to explore some of his work around 1960, up through and as late as maybe 1964. Anything after '64, and I'm just overwhelmed by his sheets-of-sound. They're just too, too much for me. And yeah, this is coming from the same guy who has 50+ Sun Ra albums. I know, I know, I know - it doesn't add up!!! Anyway, I mentioned all this to say that I think I'll go buy Olé this week, and see what happens.

There's nothing to adding polls, they're just as easy as adding new threads, almost. Just look for the "NEW POLL" button, right next to the "NEW TOPIC" button, after you get into a particular forum area (like "Artists", or "Audio Talk"). Then, when you hit the "NEW POLL" button, there will be two extra fields you normally don't see when you add just a new topic. They are: "Poll Question" and "Poll Choices". (Plus the usual "Topic Title", "Topic Description", and the area for the first post content.) The "Poll Question" can be pretty long, it seems. Not sure how long, but longer than the main topic title and subtitle. Then the "Poll Choices" works just like the screen instructions say... Poll Choices Please put one answer per line. [ Maximum 10 answers ] So you just type each poll response into the window, separating each poll choice item with a carriage return. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE POLL QUESTION AND POLL CHOICES RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, since there is no way to go back and edit them after you create the poll. Also, you CAN have pretty long poll choices, meaning they can run on and on across multiple lines - as long as you don't type a carriage return anywhere inside a line. And, warning, you CANNOT have any of the bold, itallic, underline, font, size, or color changes within the poll choices. Raw text only. Conn500 - just head over to the "Organissimo - Forum Discussion" forum right now, and create some bogus poll ("What's your favorite color??"), just to test it out.

I'll let you all in on a little secret. Every time you edit a post, and hit the submit button to make a change - the "total posts" counter gets bumped up. I'm a compulsive editor, so although I have 500+ posts credited to me in the official totals, I probably only have 200 actual posts, maybe 300 tops. But yeah, I do really like this place. All the stuff I like, and minimal BS, so the signal-to-noise-ratio is very good. PS: And some of my big posts I'll edit 5 or 10 times - like the ones I usually do to start new threads, or polls (my favorite!!).

You can do it, Pee Wee, you can do it!!!

Keep it. I didn't care for it at first either, but it grew on me over the years. And actually, I think now I like "On The Corner" better than parts of a some other of Miles' studio efforts in the 70's (no, not "Jack Johnson", which I love , but parts of some of the others (studio efforts) - which all blur together for me a bit). If it's any help, I never cared for "Bitches Brew" all that much at first, nor did I take to "On The Corner" at first either. I love 'em both now, but FYI, I connected with "On The Corner" first, before "Bitches Brew". Try listening to it in the car on a long trip, or at least when you're on the highway.

Sun Song (Ra's first full length LP if I'm not mistaken - from 1956) is really a stunner, now that I think of it.

Anybody have (or heard) the Saturn LP "On Jupiter" from 1979??? The one with the totally kick-ass disco-funk tune on it?? - the tune's called "U.F.O." (Really!! - it really is very funky, and more than a little bit "disco"-like.) One word: out-fucking-rageous ( "Disco Kid" is on this album too. )

I've got a ton of Sun Ra too, though much of it (all the vinyl anyway) I stumbled on almost by accident, or at least from a fortunate circumstance. About 15 years ago I was working on a big project back in College, about Sun Ra. It was going to be my Senior Honors Project, towards my degree in music. (Didn't turn out to happen, for various reasons. I did get the degree, just didn't do the project.) But, at the time I was trying to track down as much Sun Ra as I could, on LP, CD, tapes, whatever. I posted some info about my project on-line (back on "BITNET", if anybody remembers those days), and a guy wrote to me saying he had like 25 different Sun Ra LP's, mostly in excellent condition, most of which had never been on CD. About 8 of them were original Saturn LP's, including one from back in the late 50's, and one of the hard-to-find "Horo" double-LP's from Italy, recorded in about 1978 ("Other Voices, Other Blues"), which is an incredible quartet date with Ra, a drummer, Gilmore, and Michael Ray. He wasn't a Ra collector, but had gotten them when he bought some guys entire estate-sale record holdings, in order to get some other (more 'inside') dates. He had kept all the Ra albums together, for several years, rather than sell them off one by one. He knew he had something special, especially the Saturn LP's, most of which were in plain white jackets, several with original (hand-drawn) artwork. He wanted to sell them to one person who would be interested in them all. As a result, I probably have about 25 Ra CD's, and those same 25 or so LP's. Oh, the guy sold me all the Ra LP's for $100 (total!!), which I think included shipping - this was back in about 1992. (Hell, the Horo double-LP is worth about $50 just by itself now, at least to the right person - and it was hard to find back then too.) Funny, it's hard for me to pick just a few Ra albums as being my favorites. Much like Frank Zappa, there are tunes all over Ra's catalog that I love, but few albums that I love every single cut on. I really like 'em all, but the "very best of the best" is spread out all over. I'll think it over, and post some more thoughts here later...

The first time I was ever at their web-site was last night (which gave me the idea for this thread!), and I didn't see the "history" link then, until someone pointed it out here in this thread. (And a big "thanks!!" is in order for that.) I had a Fantasy (paper) catalog years ago, but haven't seen one in probably 4-5 years. Back then, I remember there being lots and lots of people who I really didn't know that well, among a few others who I really did know well (Miles, Monk, Trane, Evans, Mingus, the biggies...) For better or worse, much of what I know of jazz in the 50's and 60's is from being almost immersed in the Blue Note catalog (getting every title I could and can find), along with most of Miles post-Prestige output, and a smattering of other titles on other labels - lot's of Ornette, for instance. It's not that I've consciously avoided other labels (and I certainly do have a lot of non-BN recordings if you look at everything I own recorded after 1970. But probably 50% of all my CD's of recordings from the 60's are Blue Notes, maybe closer to 60% perhaps. Time to play catch-up!!

This is a general Sun Ra thread, that I'm starting after listening to Ra's "Lanquidity" from 1978, just this morning. What a goovin', soulful, kinda 'out there' but not really that far 'out there' kinda album!!! I love Michael Ray's contribution (on trumpet), as he's always one of the highlights of any Sun Ra album he's on. Interestingly, Eddie Gale is on this one too - and I'm not sure who takes which solos, but I may have to listen more closely again (soon), and see if I can figure it out. Anybody know who the guitarist "Disco Kid" was??? (He's credited on two or three Ra albums, besides this one.) To me, "Lanquidity" has an almost "STRATA-EAST"-ish kind of vibe to it, which I mentioned in another thread. If you don't own very many Sun Ra albums/CD's, can you say which ones you do own??? I'm interested in knowing what Ra titles people have, since there are so many in his vast catalog, and quite a surprising number have been released on CD too. More generally speaking, the Sun Ra I love best is the 'middle ground', where he didn't go all out into the stratosphere. Sometimes I describe it like this: When they sound "like a high-school marching band on a collective acid trip!!!". (I love that description, and I've been using it for at least 10 years.) The "really out-there" Sun Ra output is interesting to me, sure, but not my favorite Sun Ra. I like Ra's really "inside" work too (or at least as "inside" as he ever got - for instance, is solo-piano work), but, it's the tunes and albums where he still had lots of real tunes (of his) that I love so much. The ones with firery soloing, but where things didn't get totally out of control, and when they didn't become all-out percussion love-fests. What are your favorite Sun Ra albums???

Which one of these labels (if any) had the most post-1960 "progressive" albums??? I'm really into Andrew Hill, Charles Tolliver, Larry Young, Sam Rivers (on BN), Woody Shaw, Sun Ra's more "inside" stuff, Ornette's Atlantic work, Tyrone Washington, you get the idea. But also Carmell Jones, Gerald Wilson, Blue Mitchel's BN work, Donald Byrd's pre-1971 BN work. And of course, Herbie, Wayne, Miles, all the usual suspects there - for more late 60's stuff. So, then, what's on these labels that I might like, that I've probably overlooked all these years???