Rooster_Ties

Just stumbled on the "Tristano Robots" videos above on YouTube earlier today (not through this thread) -- way, way too funny!!

I had 90% of the Shaw Muse material on those godawful 32Jazz reissues, and I pre-ordered the Shaw Mosaic within 48 hours of being able to do so -- the very FIRST Mosaic I ever pre-ordered like that. Still, I think it's an absolute crime that an album like Shaw's Berliner Jazztage was never released here in the US on an individual CD (under its own title) - and therefore barely known by CD-buying listeners over the last 30-35 years. Also doesn't help that an album title like "Concert Ensemble at Berliner Jazztage" (or is it just "Berliner Jazztage"?) - doesn't exactly roll off the tongue either. In any case, that such a brilliant album is relegated to semi-obscurity is really an awful shame.

And many that did come out on CD can effectively only be found in those dreaded ‘32jazz’ releases - long after earlier more legit-looking earlier CD issues (if they were ever released pre-32jazz at all. It’s a crime that Woody Shaw’s Muse catalog suffered that way, and most of those titles became nearly impossible to readily find. Didn’t help that you had to decode which Woody Shaw titles corresponded to which retitled 33jazz 2-fers. Really a shame.

Surely something by Joe Henderson, but what? Album-wise, I'd argue for Power To The People (Milestone, 1969) as THE quintessential post-Trane (after July 17, 1967) Henderson leader-date. Or if we have to limit ourselves to individual tracks, then either "Black Narcissus" (arguably a standard?) -- and either "Power To The People" or maybe "Afro-Centric" -- all 3 from that same album. As essential as anything Joe recorded for Blue Note, imho. Just a touch of fusion, or at least electricity -- those are precisely the 3 tracks that Herbie plays electric piano on (he's on acoustic piano on the other 4 tracks). And Ron carter is on electric bass on "Power To The People" and "Afro-Centric" too - just those two tracks only.

Remind me — once Miles got on Columbia (and not pre-Columbia), is “Thisness” (circa June-July 1967) the only example of Miles backed by a piano trio specially in a studio situation, i.e. sans any other horns? I realize it’s just from a rehearsal (iirc), and from a mono reference tape at that. But that’s the only “other-horn”-less situation I can think of with Miles. (Live, of course there’s that Newport set from 1969, where Wayne was stuck in traffic - which I really love, btw.)

The infamous and searing 'Electric Guitar' version of "Kalahari" that I mentioned a couple posts above, is now on YouTube (wasn't before). Here 'tis! Does this ever smoke!!

Brand new copy at Dusty at the moment, for only $7.99. BTW, their verbiage (which is probably worth preserving here), reads thusly... A trippy little combo with a distinct post-Coltrane feel – stretching out here wonderfully, on a hip little session on a homegrown label! The group hail from the unlikely spot of Las Vegas – but they've got a deeply spiritual sound that rivals the best work on the coasts in the early 70s – a very searching, righteous sort of groove – crafted beautifully from the tenor sax lines of Rick Davis, and the sweet Fender Rhodes of Ron Feuer! The album's filled with long, exploratory tracks – tunes that are free, but never too much so – and the mixture of electric keys and tenor works nicely throughout – giving the album a really unique and unified feel that sets it apart from other small jazz sets of its type. All tunes are originals by the group – and titles include "Vibrations", "Starship", "Spirit Free", and "Isis Unveiled". CD features 3 bonus tracks too – "Horizon", "Starship (alt)", and "Dear Latin Friend". BTW, my take remains that 4 or 5 of the 8 tracks total (and the lengthiest ones) are really, really outstanding -- the 4 that I posted YouTube clips of upthread especially.

They should sign Billy Harper.

Lovely! Can’t wait to dig into this later, soon. Been about 10 years since I last read John Szwed’s book on Ra, and I can’t remember how detailed his coverage of Sonny’s ear(th)liest exploits were. Or rather, I’m sure Szwed did a deep dive (Szwed’s book on Miles uncovered more “new info” than I’d yet ever read in any/all of the other Miles books I’d read up to that point) — but I’m wondering if he came up with most of the same stuff as here in this article. BTW, I see there’s a new paperback edition of Szwed’s book that just came out this year, with a new preface. Has anyone read the new preface by any chance?

I have one I bought used back around 2001 (off eBay). But it’s just the CD’s, jewel boxes, inserts - but NO big box or booklet. Then I did pick up a slightly water-damaged booklet from a board member a few years later (but again no box). If you can’t come up with one in as nice a condition as you’re looking for, let me know, and I’d be glad to figure out a fair price. In fact, I’d be glad to have you pay Jim (a Big O board contribution) as my donation (your direct donation) towards the feeding and upkeep of this forum (and I’ll pay the entire cost of shipping out of my own pocket). Not precisely what you’re looking for, but it’d be all the music, and all the proceeds would be going NOT to me, but to the board. No hurry, feel free to keep your eyes out for more of what you’re looking for, my set isn’t going anywhere soon.

By my count, Harper is on two (2) other Mark Masters albums too - separate tributes to Porgy & Bess, and Steely Dan. That’d then be a total of four (4) Mark Masters dates with Billy... ...unless there’s a 5th one I’m not aware of. (The only one I’m missing of the four, is the Steely Dan tribute project.)

Amen! Keyed In with the same trio (sans Joe) from a year before is damn good too. I’d love to have both on CD (but I do at least have both on LP).

You can listen to individual tracks - the entire album if I'm seeing right - here... https://barneymcalljazz.bandcamp.com/album/widening-circles Seems to be sold out (on CD) from this source, but I'm sure liking what all I'm hearing from the first few tracks I listened to most of.

Not a typical Ellington tune, but I’ve always loved the impressionistic “Reflections in D” from his 1953 piano trio date. And to the best of my knowledge, Ellington never recorded it again (isn’t that right??). Bill Evans remade it in 1978, and the tune suits him very well indeed. And a live version by Evans in ‘78.

That, and quite a number of her key albums have never been on CD either.

Pandora is my radio now (other than copious amounts of NPR). My big thing now is to find epic non-jazz songs (or especially non-jazz) instrumentals — especially that cross over multiple stylistic boundaries, and/or that AREN’T really representative of most the rest of particular artist’s output. Then I’ll create a station with just that one song as the seed, and see what the hell Pandora can do with that - especially further sticking it on “discovery” mode, or “deep cuts”. Think Neil Young’s “Sample and Hold” with its futuristic vocoder vocals, or Curtis Mayfield’s harder-hitting “(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go”. Basically it’s fun to try and get Pandora to serve up the weirdest and most obscure stuff I can get it to want to play based on its formulas (since they don’t let you get under the hood and actually check which of the 128 different boxes they have as “song attributes” - or however many it is). I started paying their $5/month fee about 6 months ago, for ad-free service. But maybe a little more importantly, you can repeat-play tunes, not only a song that just got done playing, but one earlier in your stream, from like 20-30 minutes ago. Tons of interesting Afropop and other crossover musics from the African continent, especially from the late 60’s and 70’s - but just as importantly, some modern stuff from the last 10-20 years, heavily influenced by that earlier hybrid-African/Western stuff. Pandora’s new “discovery” and “deep cuts” modes have really been a game-changer for me. I always liked Pandora, but the same stuff would come up over, and over, and over again on the stations listened to the most. For instance, a Gang Of Four station I set up ~3 years ago had gotten as stale (for me) as a classic rock FM station. But now Pandora is serving me up TONS of ‘new’ music (new to me) all the time. Sliced bread has met its match!!

I can’t remember the Ruppli BN discography (which I own) listing any extra material, but I’d pay good money for some decent Mothership outtakes - especially 25 minutes worth, like we finally got with Unity. I get why Unity is THE ubiquitous Larry Young leader-date, but it was Mothership that was maybe THE single most eye-opening Blue Note session I’d ever heard up until that point (when I finally scored a used Larry Young Mosaic around 2002 or so - maybe a year before the Big O board came into existence). Before Mothership (and this was before I’d heard any of the back half of John Patton’s BN output), I pretty much thought all organ dates sounded like Jimmy Smith records (give or take, but nothing any more radical than Jimmy Smith). Yeah, Unity was kinda different, but back then (barely 10 years out of college), I was still so engrossed in Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, that I though most of Unity’s “difference” was because of them. Mothership was like half a dozen shots of vodka, that first few times I heard it. WTF is this??? And that’s Lee Morgan?? - W! T! F! Plus all those other later non-Unity (post-Unity) BN Young albums - those were crazy too. But Mothership especially, completely changed my entire viewpoint of what writing for a b3 context could be. Easily one of my 10 favorite Blue Note sessions ever. My favorite way of describing Mothership is that it’s like a cross between the feeling and overall effect of Complete Communion and Unity. Extraordinarily special, and unique. I know the language of Complete Communion and Mothership isn’t that similar, but they both hit me very much the same way. And now that I’m thinking of it, so does the Legendary Hasaan trio date with Max Roach. Different language, but it hits me the same way too.

I assume the discogs entry for the new Mode For Joe alternate is accurate (but I can try and check mine to be sure) - which says 9:29. https://www.discogs.com/Joe-Henderson-Mode-For-Joe/release/11227057 And it’s a dandy too!! A lot of it feels through-composed, and it’s nice to be able to compare the takes, and just see how different they are. The overall effect is very similar, but the takes are quite different, which was a joy to experience the first time I heard the new one.

Not counting any of the deaths of people who had Covid and some other underlying condition is a way of “keeping the numbers down”. It’s also a way to blame the people (the dead) for having died not because of Covid, but because of those other underlying conditions. The “real” overt impact of the epidemic are Excess Mortality Rates. And the great majority of those who died well above established statistical norms over the last 5 or even 10 years - are most typically a direct result of Covid, though yes - often in combination with other underlying factors. Some smaller percentage of those numbers may be heart attacks or strokes where patients didn’t seek/get help in time, or may have been denied needed help because hospitals were full, lack of ICU facilities (for non-Covid conditions). But from everything I’m hearing/reading, the great majority of deaths will have been Covid related (directly). Excess Mortality Rates are pretty undeniable, in terms of the overall impact of Covid - even if in any one individual case it may not be possible to determine one or more (multiple) causes of death (if Covid testing isn’t done, and there’s no autopsy). Just because you can’t suss out specific causes in individual cases, that doesn’t mean that a huge spike in “excess death” is somehow magically unrelated to Covid. For instance, when there’s a massive heat wave, and (literally) hundreds of people die - and it’s PRIMARILY people with other underlying conditions, that doesn’t mean that those underlying conditions were solely to blame (and not the heat). Another term for Excess Mortality is “Mortality Displacement” - see link below, which cites pandemics (and epidemics) as a common cause. None of this should be controversial, unless of course you have an administration that “wants to keep the numbers down”. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_displacement

Both these albums seemed like distant (ok, maybe very distant) cousins of parts of Escalator Over the Hill. The Water CD issues were the first I’d heard of either album, save for maybe one track on weird compilation a few years earlier maybe.

Occasionally I’ll search for “Mosaic” specify under jazz, and sort by lowest opening bid, and it’s amazing what occasionally shows up. Usually not “buy it now” so you have to just keep an eye out for how an auction is progressing, and/or set up an automatic auction snipe, and then forget about it.

A handful on discogs, though shipping costs may make the price a little less palatable. https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/3694194?ev=rb

I also understand a copy of the (in)famous unreleased Tyrone Washington BN session was spirited out by Belden as well - something I kept under my hat for years (while Bob was still with us), lest I get him in any trouble. The person I got it from had gotten it directly from Bob, and I still think the session is really fantastic.

Some. She doesn’t care for saxophone at all, but she likes a few of my favorite trumpeters as far as it goes: Charles Tolliver and the whole Music Inc thing is pretty cool with her. Woody Shaw too, mostly. She does quite like a lot of piano jazz, Brad Mehldau, and she especially likes a few particular of the more “bang-y” piano players who are a bit out, but not too out. For instance, she really likes the Legendary Hasaan trio album with Max Roach, and the recent Hasaan tribute album. And just this afternoon I was playing Mal Waldon’s “Free At Last” - and she asked me “who’s that?” when one of the more upbeat tunes came up, and she was asking me about who he was, when he was from, etc. - a good sign of interest. Dave Brubeck is usually good too, and Paul Desmond’s tone doesn’t bother her (much). She’s also responded positively to Helen Sung, Stanley Cowell, Mulgew Miller, and John Hicks. And I’ve dragged her to dozens of concerts over the years, some she’s liked better (Bobby Hutcherson) than others (Jackie McLean).