Rooster_Ties

I really need to check this out. Certainly enjoyed the film, if it was a little bit on the "Hollywood" side.

I only have a good smattering of Rush on CD -- all 3 vols of the Retrospective comps, plus 3 of their 80's studio albums, and one live album (late 80's). Really some amazing music, imho. I'm not as much of a fan of their 70's output (Geddy's voice is a bit more abrasive, but I think it mellowed considerably by the 80's, and beyond) -- but really almost any random Rush from 1980 or after is generally a pretty positive thing in my book. I'm a 'music' person, first and foremost, so generally lyrics are almost always very secondary in my book. But I would honestly count Rush's lyrics as being "above average", at least in terms of being interesting and something out of the ordinary. I wouldn't quite count them among my personal "top 20" rock/pop/alternative acts -- but I could easily see 'binging' on Rush someday (probably via Pandora), and the quality of the more recent half of their catalog could easily put them up in my top-20 (at some point). I'm the same way with Yes probably as well, a band of similar musicianship -- and frankly, I think Rush's lyrics are better than those of Yes. There's an energy to most of Rush's music that I find very positive. Most of it has a LOT of strong, forward momentum - largely due to Peart's really extraordinary musicianship. There's a LOT going on, but I don't think he chronically "overplays" most of the time (sometimes, maybe? - but it never seems so busy that I'm like "why?"). And in terms of rock bands that were TRIOS -- Rush would have to be top-5 in my book, beyond any shadow of a doubt, maybe top-3 (Hendrix and The Police being the other two obvious candidates -- I'm not a big Cream fan, I'm afraid). Interesting that as quiet and unassuming Peart was in real life (and interviews) -- in many ways I think Rush was the rare rock trio where both the bass-player and drummer outshined the guitarist? -- the only other arguable example perhaps being The Police (though I've always felt like they were very much a band of 3 very strong equals). I think I'll set up a Pandora Rush station (something I'm surprised I've never done), put it on "deeper cuts" mode, and let that serve me up a bunch of Rush I've probably never heard. I'll bet within 2 years, I'll have expanded my meager Rush CD collection 2 or 3 fold. Really quite a band. Cerebral, and not all about testosterone and machismo -- or certainly a DIFFERENT kind of testosterone. Wish I'd seen them live, but I never got around to it. RIP.

Just bumping an old thread, as I saw one of these Boykins tunes posted on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Jazz/comments/enxnsh/ronnie_boykins_the_will_come_is_now_1975/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Love Mal in the mid-to-late 60's and most of the 70's - solo, trio, larger groups, you name it!! And I "like" him before the mid-60's, but not obsessively (and only just so much). But much as I've tried (and despite my loving Woody Shaw probably 90% of the time), I've never really warmed to The Git-Go, or Seaguls (much as I've tried). Nor, One Entrance, Many Exits (despite my love of Joe Henderson as much as Woody Shaw). Which is REALLY odd, since I love Woody and Joe so damn much -- but then how it is that I don't connect too well with their appearances with Mal Waldon? (who I love so much circa 1966-78) -- is just confounding. Maybe I should try again (been at least 10 years since I've heard any of those, but I've tried several times with all three, including back in college in the early 90's). (I also can't get with Andrew Hill's Shades either, which is also from around that same timeframe -- but I overwise love Clifford Jordan (who's on that Hill date). Weirdest thing, but the reasons why (though elusive), feel very similar... is the only reason I mention the Hill date -- but I digress.) I kinda feel like Mal really starts speaking to me the strongest in 1969, and I can start to hear some of that on the one 1966 trio thing I have by him (the one with the all--Italian rhythm section) -- but then somewhere around 1980 he loses me (or I lose him).

LIFO vs FIFO?

I totally hear you. Since my wife and I moved to central Washington DC back in 2011, we haven't owned a car -- and only occasionally do Zip Car (which is a rent-by-the-hour sort of deal). So we only drive about 4-5 times a year, often for just 2-3 or maybe a 4-day weekend away. And 90% of the Zip Cars don't have CD players any more (sad-emoji). One of my favorite things was to pick out 32 or 36 CD's for a given trip (that's how many discs the CD cases I had held), and then my wife would pick out whatever she liked from that selection. I always included things I knew she liked, and things I thought she would like (but hadn't heard yet). Rock/alternative, jazz, and classical. But one think I discovered a long time ago, was that *cello* concerti were to be avoided at all cost (for car listening), because the volume of the most exposed solo cello parts would often be less than the overall recording (when the orchestra was playing more full), yet with the road noise in the car, that usually was at a frequency range that really made the cello a lot larder to hear. Likewise, cello sonatas too -- just anything with a lot going on down there (as the most prominent thing). When we go visit my Dad, he still has a CD-player in his car (a 2005 Olds), and we drive it to Kansas City (from St. Louis) every Christmas, and also about 3 hours north of St. Louis every Thanksgiving -- so I still get to pack a selection of CD's for those trips. And every once in a blue moon a Zip Car here in DC will have a CD player -- though 90% of the time, lately, I haven't realized that until we're just getting in the car to go on our trip, so I didn't think to pack CD's. Any more, we have to rely on Pandora in the car, for our Zip Car trips, which is OK and kinda fun, especially since Pandora has "deep cuts" and "discovery modes" now, which change up the listening a whole lot better than just standard Pandora used to.

IIRC, all those pics seemed to come from a webpage by the designer of all that glorious packaging. Maybe contact him or her directly, and ask for advice on purchasing a phyiscal copy? They may be able to put you in contact with their contacts within the band, if nothing else, and you could ask then directly?

I don't have much, but I really love his debut leader-date (an unconventional piano trio album), from 1964 -- called Dream Talk. https://www.discogs.com/Wolfgang-Dauner-Trio-Dream-Talk/master/232003 All originals, save for a mighty tasty version of "Bird Talk" by Ornette. Here are three tracks from the album... You can hear the entire album from this YouTube playlist, followed by a couple stand-out tracks embedded below... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nMFKPSTvSn0FOU6KoWzbN_aHN3rRlgWPk And here's the Ornette tune.

Seeing about 10 listed here (link below), the earliest being from 1986, then two from the 90's, and the rest from after 2000. https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/books/ But I would have expected a small handful of earlier books too, no? - hard to believe the very first book on Pops coming from the late 80's. Overall, I think I would have expected something more like maybe 15 total? - not just 10. I'm sure there are at least 10 books on Miles Davis (if not slightly more even), so perhaps there's more about Miles than Armstrong.

Trane, Miles, and Bird probably in that same (next) tier.

Armstrong and Ellington, would be my guess.

Saw this on the Hoffman forums, and it's so true! (from Bob Mould/Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster)

Well, look what I found... ...and my curiosity is officially sated (and this is probably about what I was expecting -- i.e. something sorta like "Rampage" above).

I can't wait to get impacted by the new track!! All kidding aside, I am genuinely semi-curious to hear the new "Hail To The Real Chief", with my expectations kept very firmly in check. And I'm reminded of this Miles curiosity, by Marcus Miller (circa 1993), which does have some real Miles included as well, ex post facto (though from exactly when, I don't know that I've ever heard/read). Does anybody know anything more about this track "Rampage"? - other than what's listed in this Discogs breakdown (see track #3)... https://www.discogs.com/Marcus-Miller-The-Sun-Dont-Lie/release/458114 Rampage

I had no idea either. Apparently a 3.5 year battle with cancer, not publicly known it seems.

Just seeing that Neil Peart, the drummer for Rush (and main lyricist), has died at 67. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806 Surely one of the 10 best "Rock" drummers of all time. I'm sorry to say I never saw Rush live in concert, but I've been a growing fan over the last 20 years. A masterful drummer, in his idiom, and from the one Rush documentary I saw late one night on cable several years ago, seemingly a quiet and thoughtful guy. RIP.

From the article, and rather shocking I think too... How did this culture of fear drift into the recording studio? The answer is twofold. While copyright laws used to protect only lyrics and melodies (a prime example is the Chiffons’ successful suit against George Harrison in 1976 for the strong compositional similarities between his “My Sweet Lord” and their “He’s So Fine”), the “Blurred Lines” case raised the stakes by suggesting that the far more abstract qualities of rhythm, tempo, and even the general feel of a song are also eligible for protection — and thus that a song can be sued for feeling like an earlier one. Sure enough, a jury in 2019 ruled that Katy Perry owed millions for ostensibly copying the beat of her hit “Dark Horse” from a little-known song by Christian rapper Flame, stunning both the music business and the legal community. “They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone,” Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera warned in the case’s closing arguments.

I'm just generally shocked at the number of "discs only" sets that appear on eBay. *AND* the number of "booklet only, no discs!" auctions too. How is it that SO damn many discs and booklets get separated like that?? I mean, I don't keep my discs in the original boxes, but all the boxes (and booklets) are together in an oversized milk crate, and my wife knows that the discs are all intermixed with my other CD's -- and they're the only ones in the black jewel boxes. It would take about 20 minutes tops to rematch them all up again. Maybe if strangers were packing up all my earthly possessions, maybe they might not have any idea, but still, you'd have to think that if you found that many empty boxes, that maybe what goes in them would be around somewhere close too. Not that I can't see it happening at all, but given the number of "discs only" and "booklet only" sales on eBay, it seems to be incredibly common, and bafflingly so.

You know, Jim, I pretty much said the same thing. And I consistently don't go to movies that go a few places that I just don't want to go. But the jazz fan in me said I probably ought to go, and so I did. I'd seen the trailer only (I'm sure I must have?), but not any actual clips. But I'm sure if I'd seen any sort of long/longer trailer, I would have had a tougher time deciding to go anyway (and yet, because of the jazz angle, I felt like I 'ought' to go). You probably made the better call. In retrospect, I think I'd rather I'd taken a pass on seeing it. No big deal either way, but the movie annoyed the shit of me for a good week after I'd seen it, and on balance, I might have rather not had to mess with it. I worked with a few Type A asshole types in some previous jobs, and I do NOT mix well with those people. Like "bad for my health" don't mix. And I try to avoid movies where I'm likely to have to spend the whole movie empathizing with somebody in the very kind of environment I despise being trapped in most (cuz I've been there, a tiny little bit (work-wise, early on), and I just can't function in that kinda shit). For the record, I never had it THAT bad. And my going on (and on?) about it here is more a reflection on my inability to deal with people like that, then any really abusive situations I was ever in. The last time I had to deal with real bullies was back when I was 13 or 14, at this one college-prep school with a shit-ton of entitled assholes (8th & 9th grade), and the experience -- even though I didn't have it as bad as some -- really left an impression on me, even all these years later.

Not looking to see what I probably said earlier in this very thread about the movie, but my wife and I saw it in a theater when I first came out, and while I most definitely appreciated the movie in terms of acting, and direction, and most of the cinema 'craft' aspects of the film -- quite frankly, I really *hated* the manipulative and overly competitive nature of practically everything as depicted in the movie. So much so, that I would go so far as to use a term I don't think I've ever used before: I felt "triggered" by the whole thing. Not because I've ever been abused like that, but my deepest fears include being belittled like that incessantly, and as a kid I was bullied and teased a lot. No where near as much as many others, but I hated it, and watching this movie brought back lots of bad and visceral feelings -- both as I was watching it, and off and off for a day or two after I'd long left the theater. I'm sure there are people who are manipulated into (trying to) perform better in all sorts of contexts (in real life). Most probably not as horrifically as depicted in this movie, but some as bad (or worse, I'm sure). In any case, the whole experience left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth, and I would never recommend this movie to anyone who had any interest in it because of the music (or it being a music story). Shame too, because the two lead actors were outstanding, and J.K. Simmons is someone I've really enjoyed in plenty of other contexts -- a lot, in fact.

The recent 2013 Japanese SHM-CD issue of Out to Lunch -- the one with the extra 14-minutes of bonus tracks (alts of "Hat and Beard" and "Something Sweet...") -- also sounds pretty phenomenal. And I say that as someone who's NOT much of an audiophile, but the sound-quality improvement over my RVG was like night and day better (something I rarely notice that much). https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Dolphy-Out-To-Lunch/release/8645147 I would assume this even more recent 2019 Japanese reissue would sound the same? (which also has the bonus tracks)... https://www.discogs.com/Eric-Dolphy-Out-To-Lunch-2/release/13735106 I haven't upgraded to very many of those 2013-era SHM-CD's out of Japan -- just a few that had new extra material (Unity being the other most significant one, in terms of bonus tracks, and Mode For Joe had one incredibly sweet bonus track that hadn't ever been released before, and the Shorter title I'm forgetting). But in every case, the sound-quality of those releases has been really stellar (again, something I rarely notice all that much).

I also picked up this Impulse 2-on-1 disc too (from Dusty Groove), which was also in yesterday's mail (but I haven't had the chance to spin it yet) -- looking forward!

BTW, yesterday we got half a snow-day here in DC, and as I was heading home on the subway I checked out your blog, and of all things -- my most recent order from Dusty Groove was waiting for me at the front desk our apartment building as I walked in the door, COMPLETELY with Ahmad Jamal's The Awakening!! -- which I had ordered back on Dec 28th, an album I'd been thinking about getting for a year or two. My wife had had half-a-day at work too, so I spun The Awakening for both of us when I got home, and it's really a nice, and often understated outing. I used to have whatever that ubiquitous live album of Jama's was from 1985 (the one with "Footprints"), but I let go of it 25 years ago when no piano trio album of any sort was gonna float my boat (back then). So this is my first foray back into anything by Jamal. Talk about perfect timing!! -- your blog-post 'album of the day', and it arrived on my doorstep less than an hour later.

Oh my gosh, the Zeitlin Select is really fantastic, and frankly - all the previously unreleased material is incredibly interesting, and (most of it) is a bit more 'out there' than what was released from each session. Zeitlin was involved in picking out what else to include in the set, and (iirc) there's nearly an entire album's worth of extra tunes (none of them just 'alternates'), most of them pretty energetic and almost percussive (thinking of the piano as a percussion instrument). Some of it borders on the kind of stuff Herbie was doing behind Wayne on The All Seeing Eye, for instance (not that Denny's approach and touch are that similar to Herbie's - but just in terms of general feel). I could easily assemble a whole new album primarily from the previously-unreleased material, and it'd be tempting to say it could be one of my top-20 piano trio albums of all time (just from the newly released stuff).