Milestones

Escoffery is pretty good. I've heard him on some Tom Harrell records, and I believe he's been valued in big band settings--Mingus, Ron Carter.

Yes, Jack was great for his amazing skills and his unique style--that's why he is up there with Max, Tony, Elvin, Art, and those true greats. There are some fine drummers our there, like Joey Baron and Bill Stewart. But I think they are a level or two down from Jack.

Another one I have is Coltrane and Art Taylor. It should be remembered that Taylor was the drummer of choice on Trane's Prestige dates. It's hard to compete with the legendary pairing of Coltrane and Elvin, but there is a lot of fine stuff on these early records.

Plenty of good pairings...my thanks to everyone. I'm thinking more along the lines of players who were not in actual working groups for considerable (or decent) amount of time. Thus I would not choose Ron Carter and Tony Williams since they served so long with Miles (and you could count VSOP as well). Or Haden and Blackwell, since they were key players in the Ornette quartet and in Old and New Dreams. But then again it might be cool to spotlight Carter/Williams outside of Miles /VSOP, or Holland and DeJohnette outside of Gateway

Special Edition and Album Album, in particular, are excellent records.

Mingus/Richmond...one of those that is a given!

I endlessly make playlists on my computer, and of course there are many featuring the great drummers in our history. I have also created some playlists that showcase how a particular drummer connects with another player, which could be a sax player, pianist, guitarist. In some cases, I don't need to document it separately--there is simply such a large amount of Coltrane with Elvin and Miles with Tony Williams. Spotlights so far: John Abercrombie with Jack DeJohnette Sonny Rollins with Max Roach Monk with Art Blakey Chick Corea with Roy Haynes I should do some more.

Now playing "After the Rain" with just Jack (on piano) and Bill Frisell. It's great to hear some of those piano performances, especially on this beautiful tune. Jack is really front and center, with Frisell providing very soft and subtle background.

I thought he would live forever. Jack was on so many great records with so many great artists. I liked a lot of his leader work, especially in the 70s and 80s. A giant and legend. R.I.P.

I have heard some Garzone and really enjoyed his playing. He is someone who should be much better known. Damn, that's Jarrett and Haden on "Prayer." Lovely tune and a highlight from Jarrett's early career, when he played with Haden a lot (usually in trio and quartet).

For sheer musical pleasure, this is a superb BFT. Good/great tracks all the way through. You don't often hear Mingus on one of these. And I need to get that Elvin Jones record. Isn't that Max on #7? I didn't see a confirmation, but it absolutely has to be him. Love Max Roach. So track #8 is the big mystery of far. Can't say I've heard much (if any) electric bass in tenor/bass/drums trio. If the tenor player is obscure, he/she deserves greater recognition. Oddly, except for Art Pepper, you don't hear many jazz musicians playing "Over the Rainbow." This is a lovely reading by Paul Gonsalves and Earl Hines. Track 12 is certainly Charlie Haden from one of the many duet records with a pianist. Not sure which this would be. Maybe Tokyo Adagio with Gonzalo. Charlie has a lot of tracks where you can hear a pin drop. This is one of them. I love virtually all of Haden's work, and no exception here. Just a marvelous BFT. . .thanks!

I like Pat Metheny a lot, but have yet to come around much on Brad Mehldau. I saw Metheny a couple of years back with a "Side-Eye" trio, and it was definitely one of the finest concerts I have ever seen. Metheny and Brecker had a great musical partnership.

Coming back to the original strange statement about Brecker not playing real jazz, those who know and love real jazz just need to listen him on those records on Impulse and Verve. And then, too, maybe someone should ask why Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, etc. were out there playing "not real" jazz with schlocky pop-jazz player Michael Brecker.

"Brecker's solo stuff isn't even really jazz." Really? I mean, really?

10. Vocalese....I'm afraid that usually is not appealing to me. 11. My guess would be swing players on a record from the 50's. Maybe Sweets Edison and Ben Webster? 12. Pretty relaxed. The tenor is soulful, but I would like to hear more creativity from the rhythm section. No guess.

Really enjoying your BFT--great choices on the first six. I will listen to the rest soon. 1. "The Wedding" by Abdullah Ibrahim. Love, love, love this tune. 2. Nice Blue Note (or BN vein) tune, but can't make any guesses. 3. Great tune, similar in style to #3--but more interesting and exciting. Maybe Hubbard on trumpet? 4. Very enchanting version of "Cheek to Cheek"--a duet. I feel I should know they players; they sound like masters. 5.Another good one. It has a Charles Lloyd feel, but I don't think it's him. Nor can I ID the guitarist. 6. That sure sounds like Anat Cohen. I've heard a few of her albums (I have also seen her in concert), but can't ID the track. Later: .

This certainly went into a different direction. I would think most of are hearing Trane on piano for the first time. Given the audience noise, they must have assumed he was no Tyner--and that is true.

I have never heard a live version by the Classic Quartet performing this great piece. It may be may be my favorite Coltrane piece ever, and that's saying something. As most of you know, on the studio version Roy Haynes was the drummer--and his performance IMO is perfect. I am wondering how Elvin would have handled it, or did handle it. Elvin does play drums on the album After the Rain by John McLaughlin, including the title piece as the final number. One can say it is vintage Elvin, but it does seem a bit heavy for this particular piece. Anyway, I'm just a bit curious.

I was not even aware there were twofers featuring Charlie Byrd and Herbie Mann.

Yeah, truth to tell, I was not big a fan of the OJC series. The original notes were often very basic.

I believe I had five or six "twofers" by Miles Davis. I was first exposed to "The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever" (Bird, Dizzy, Bud, Mingus, Max) through a Milestone twofer. The liner notes were generally excellent. Having first-rate liner notes was a key part of my early jazz education. I too had The 101 Best Jazz Albums--a vital resource.

At Discogs, I see a date of 1972 for Tallest Trees by Miles. I guess they had a long run; I think I bought this a full decade later.

I can't copy anymore my texts into the forum now! I had a message about it being too large, even though it was just a bit over 200 words. Anyway, I was writing about the jazz "twofer days" in the early 80s, which for me meant finding these 2-LP sets by Miles, Sonny, Monk, Wes, etc. They featured music originally on Prestige and Riverside. It was a lot of good jazz and got my collection going strongly right away. Blue Note and Impulse did it too, but I mostly I bought Riverside/Prestige. I have warm recollections of those days, the excitement of finding those records. I guess my original entry can be found in the attachment. Jazz Twofer.docx

I have listened to the jazzier side of Eddie, and I did see him once in concert (Tri-C JazzFest)--very positive reactions to both. A talented and fun man...RIP.