B. Clugston

Thank you! Picked up Herbie Hancock's Flood and Bernard Vitet's La Guepe for a birthday treat. '

Dollar Brand, African Space Program (Enja). Great music, though this is one album that sounds much better on CD. I've listened to a few copies of this over the years and all have sounded not so great.

"Legal trouble may be brewing for a Northern California brewery that sells “Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale,” with a label showing jazz pioneer Thelonious Monk in his trademark cap and sunglasses in front of a halo of piano keys...." https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Monk-s-son-wins-right-to-sue-over-Brother-12553201.php

RIP. Fabulous musician and a wonderful champion of Herbie Nichols. Great pic Allen. I was just reading this piece by Frances Davis about Roswell Rudd's Catskill days and it ended with this postscript: "The New York Art Quartet reunion never happened, and Rudd eventually lost his job at the Granit. The good news is that he’s been working with the tenor saxophonist Allen Low (sic)."

Interesting! Glad the replacement worked out so well. Susanne Lautenbacher, Biber -- Sonatas for Violin (Vox). Nice 1960s recording of the Mystery Sonatas, mastered by RVG.

Ha! My cousin and I used to watch Die Hard on Christmas Day.

Jimmy Lyons/Sunny Murray, Jump Up/What to do About (Hat Hut). RIP Sunny Murray. The only guy not listed on the cover--John Lindberg--is really impressive on this one.

Awesome! They really are great releases.

My favourite new release of 2017 is Roscoe Mitchell's Bells for the South Side (ECM). My favourite reissue is Sonny Clark's The 1960 Time Sessions (Tompkins Square), with Sun Ra's The Magic City (Cosmic Myth) not far behind. Favourite new-to-me LPs I came across this year are Jaki Byard's On the Spot (Prestige) and the Masaru Imada Quarter's Now! (Three Blind Mice).

Art Ensemble of Chicago, Live at Mandel Hall (Delmark) Buddy DeFranco, Odalisque (Norgran), one side features the divine quartet with Sonny Clark.

Sonny Clark Trio, The 1960 Time Sessions (Tompkins Square)

Curtis Amy/Dupree Bolton, Katanga! (Heavenly Sweetness reissue). Great album! I wish Dupree Bolton had spent more time in a recording studio. Budapest Chamber Ensemble, Alban Berg - Kammerkonzert/Ligeti - Kammerkonzert (Hungaroton) Andrew Hill, Divine Revelation (Inner City, originally on Steeplechase). A nice one with Jimmy Vass. Not the equal of his Blue Notes, but it's very good and worth a mention on the Obscure Albums thread.

I'm curious what you folks think about Andrew Hill's '70s and '80s albums. Any recommendations? I've really been enjoying Divine Revelation with Jimmy Vass and I quite like Hommage. I've also got Spirit and From California with Love, but was wondering what you all thought about the rest?

Capers is indeed a great one. I have the pizza box reissue--I'll have to give it a spin later.

Steve Lacy, Saxophone Special (Emanem).

Yosuke Yamashita Trio, Clay (Enja). Nice one with Takeo Moriyama on drums and Akira Sakata on clarinet and alto sax.

After 23 seasons! He was good for a very long time. B.C. traded him to Toronto when he was 39. He beat them in the Grey Cup the next year.

Calgary 50.

+1 Another good vibes record no one talks about is Terry Gibbs, El Nutto (Limelight), with Alice McLeod.

Another +1 for Ran Blake! I haven't been keeping up with Slava Ganelin's more recent work, but I quite liked Birds Of Passage with vocalist Esti Kenan Ofri and Ganelin Trio Priority - Live in Germany. Saw the latter band in concert once--amazing concert.

Steve Lantner had a couple of nice discs on Hat Hut: Given and What You Can Throw. Our own Alexander Hawkins has been amassing some great releases as a leader.

One of my favourites is disc 1 of the Onzy Matthews Mosaic Select. Can't believe that session (from 1963) wasn't released at the time.

Here's a great article by Lewis Porter on the inspiration(s) behind John Coltrane's "Impressions." Porter touches upon this in his book John Coltrane: His Life and Music (great book by the way, my only criticism is that it's about 1,500 pages too short ), but this article is much more detailed: Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: The Inspiration(s) Behind John Coltrane's "Impressions"

Budapest Chamber Ensemble, Alban Berg's Kammerkonzert (Hungaroton). Great version from 1977 from top notch players. The Ligeti piece on side 2 compares nicely to the original. Edward Vesala, Heavy Life (Leo). Vesala's U.S. album, with an all-American band, aside from Stanko plus Iro Haarla on one track. It's fun to hear Vesala's music cross the Atlantic. Nice showcases fro Reggie Workman and Chico Feeman. Steve Lacy, The Forest and the Zoo (Base). Homefromtheforest's old copy!

RIP. There aren't too many examples of rock and rollers who were so consistently good for so long as Tom Petty. So many great songs. Got to see him with the Heartbreakers plus a non-proselytizing Bob Dylan back in 1986.