B. Clugston

When are you coming? There is a great jazz fest in June and Andrew Hill is playing in April. It's good you have the Cellar on your radar. In terms of record stores, Vancouver has gone from feast to famine. We used to have some of cheapest CDs in North America and tonnes of selection. Now most of the stores have shrunk or closed. Zulu Records on W. 4th is pretty good and Sikora's, located downtown, is great for classical music. I don't really check out the clubs. Vancouver has an annoying 'worst aspects of L.A.' north kind of vibe. It's getting better, but too many either cater to the pretty people or barf-stawned yoof. I prefer Victoria, which is just a ferry ride away.

The icy sound of a Nordic echo chamber but slightly muffled Though who can forget the great Edward Vesala and the Maupin one

Charnett Delfeayo

Quite nice, I think! Haven't played it often enough to really say, but upon first listen, it's a good one! This one really grew on me. The sequel is great as well.

I get the whole Bee Gees/ABBA/whoever are cool/no they aren’t/yes they are again cycle. The problem with late-’80s Miles is it sounded dated at the time. Same goes for most of the lame synth pop of the era. It was the modern equivalent of bad kazoo.

I'm only slightly familiar with this period of Miles's career, but "informed sources" tell me that the best stuff was live. Hence, if you are interested (and loaded) you should skip the studio recordings and go for the Montreux box. Guy The eight discs with Sco are pretty good (though the afternoon and evening sets are pretty much identical). It's also interesting hearing the band with Robben Ford on guitar. But the rest of the Montreux gigs (except the big band) are bogged down by cheese-strewn synths. Funny how the final few years of Miles' work sound the most dated.

Reading the lines (and between them), I get the impression Vince didn’t like the mentions in Paul Tingen’s Miles Beyond of him getting canned by his uncle. Holzman was a bandmate at the time and is a major source in the book, so Vince probably blames Holzman. Petty stuff. It’s a shame a dispute between two minor figures from late in Miles’ career held things up. And I think the Cellar Door material is fantastic.

I saw Fe-Mail in concert twice last year. Fantastic stuff in a live setting, even better than their recordings. Ratkje has great musical instincts.

From Paul Tingen's site miles-beyond.com: "The On The Corner boxed set appears on schedule for a release in the fall of this year."

They could get Kenny G to do overdubs on some of the Mosaic favourites a la his "It's a Wonderful World" fiasco. Early contenders would be The Four Freshmen, the Bix or the Andrew Hill.

Well, Wynton Marsalis obviously. And Chewy.

Black Fire .

I've often wondered about that. Played blindfolded, you would think it was the saxophonist's gig. But Lee has some great lengthy solos on Disc 1 of the Fresh Sound "Lighthouse" recorded shortly before the Blue Note Lighthouse.

I can't wait for this show to tank and see Cowell, Adbul and company selling steak knives on infomercials in order to keep in the spotlight.

There ain't no justice in them Andorran hills.

Lonehill is crass. Avoid the Aylers, anything that says “Complete” and, for truth in advertising purposes, the Dolphy/Lalo Schifrin billing that doesn’t even feature Lalo Schifrin. Caveat emptor. There’s a lot of great Fresh Sound. I’m not sure about the provenance of some of their stuff, but the reissues are done with a certain amount of care. I recommend the Lee Morgans, the Al Haig reissues, Lucky Thompson, etc. Fresh Sound’s Lou Blackburn has been superseded by Blue Note’s resuscitation.

If you are referring to the duo disc on Rastascan, it's a good one. There aren't a lot of Braxton duo discs with percussionists out there. Still, I could name you 50 other Braxton discs I'd snap up first. By the way, Robair is releasing a DVD-A of Braxton recordings with a similar line-up to the 4-CD box.

Because the Parker/Gillespie CD is a new issue and the Mingus was a painstakingly assembled labour of love that some git from the hills of Andorra turned around and pirated without having to do any legwork.

If I'm catering to knowledgeable jazz fans, selling incomplete needle drops wouldn't be a profitable choice in the long run.

Great point! Afro-Blue-->Spanish Lady-->In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (really). I was thinking more "Whipping Post," but "Elizabeth Reed" is another good example. Duane Allman was an admirer of Coltrane.

I think there's at least two with Chico's band and Martin Milner pretending to play guitar. One of them is fairly long scene. Chico may even have a small speaking part, if I recall correctly. Great film with some great lines: "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river."

While it’s not earth-shattering from a jazz perspective, it’s more important as a precursor of the hippie rock jams later in the decade. To me, “Spanish Key” sounds like a missing link between early-1960s Coltrane and the Allman Brothers Band. It’s an album that has much broader appeal than just jazz listeners. The quintet regrouped for a reunion set that was released in 1996.

These are cheap in the states. I had all of them at one point but had to make room, figuring it wouldn't be hard to buy them back. It isn't. If it's vinyl you want, I'll keep my eyes out. CHEAP?? Difficult to find! I suggest you buy (if you can) at least half a dozen CDs of Creative Orchestra Music, Five Pieces 1975, and Montreux/Berlin. Several of us here would buy them from you immediately. Sadly (and shockingly), Five Pieces isn't on CD. A batch of Creative Orchestra Musics and the 3/4s of Montreux/Berlin CD reissue showed up on eBay a couple of years ago at less than $20! I managed to snap up a Creative Orchestra Music, but the live date was gone in seconds.

The CD reissue of Montreux/Berlin omits one track. $15 is a very good price. The CD has been known to go for more than quadruple that. Creative Orchestra Music is the only other original Arista to wind up on CD. The albums frequently pop up on eBay, often at reasonable prices. Avoid rip-off asking prices; these LPs aren't that scarce. The Arista LPs have circulated as part of a tree in the past; it's about time they were given a proper release.

I remember Ron on CBC. He was great. They even used him at the 1988 Olympics. I hope he does return to the broadcast booth.