Milestones

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.

You made a lot of wonderful choices--Mal, Hank Jones, Zoot, Bobby Hutcherson

I would say he is THE BEST musician to come from Wynton's orbit.

Any fans of Wycliffe Gordon? He is one of the few standout trombonists out there. I saw him live once and he put on a great show. I have several of his records, and there are some really good ones: DIg This!, The Search. You can hear outstanding work by Gordon (usually in his very vocalized style) and his sidemen. You can hear him in other projects too, such as Ted Nash's Sidewalk Meeting and The Herbie Nichols project. Yet it seems that he has not recorded in about a decade. How can this be? It really seems that trombonists don't receive enough respect.

Sounds good.

I would prefer a group like this: Herbie Hancock Terence Blanchard Kenny Garrett Christian McBride Peter Erskine But clearly Herbie can play whatever he wants with whomever he wants. I do wish he would put out a record.

True enough, but Miles of course had his electric band (Scofield on guitar), and Herbie was in VSOP mode.

Pretty tempting. I last saw Herbie at Blossom (Kool Jazz Festival) back in 1984. It was a fine show, even with the young Marsalis brothers in the band. He also had two guys named Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Not to mention that Miles was the first act on that very long and thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Did not watch much of the All-Star Game, which is normally the case these days. Not a bad game, though, with the American League fighting and coming back as they did. Too bad it was ruined by the silliness of the "swing off." A home run derby to decide a game--really? Kyle Schwarber as MVP--really? This was not an award for playing baseball. It was for "lob me the ball and I'll hit it a mile."

Can anyone point out some of Edison's solos on Basie's Decca records?

A talented player to be sure, with the ability to play fast and set off fireworks.

Any fans of Harry "Sweets" Edison? He seems to be something of a forgotten player. I guess people usually recall him as being in Basie's orchestra during their early peak. But he had a long and diverse career with his sweet but decidedly jazzy style. He backed singers a lot, including Sinatra and Nat King Cole on After Midnight (that's Sweets on the immortal "Route 66"). He put out quite a bit of small group work on Verve and later on Pablo. With Verve you can hear him on several of Lester Young's last recordings, as well as with the great Ben Webster. On Pablo we hear him with Basie, Oscar Peterson, Zoot Sims, and others. Check out Sweets and Clark Terry together on Basie's Get Together. We don't think of him as producing great albums (generally true of the swing guys), but there is a wealth of material that is never less than outstanding from Sweets Edison. Just check out his opening on "Hanging Out" (Basie Jam), that wonderful late-night blues vibe.

On # 3 I will speculate James Moody or Frank Wess. I am thinking of who would be playing flute in the 50s and just guessing.

Number 12 appears to be Old and New Dreams playing "Guinea." Or is it a different, yet similar, group? Good tune and performance, but a lo-fi recording.

No one said Sonny Rollins on #2? It's early Sonny--maybe 1954. The piece is "Silk 'n Satin." You spin this and say, "This is why I love jazz."

Cool. I did listen to some samples of Good Hope with Chris Potter and Zakir Hussain and that sounds like a fine record.

I certainly wouldn't mind hearing a record by that group. Most musicians (and not just in jazz) keep playing/touring/recording until they drop.

Is anyone longing for Dave Holland to return to more compelling music? The man is a legend, one of the great bassist leaders along with Mingus and Haden (and ahead of Ron Carter, who has been putting out sedate records for quite a long time). Holland peaked on ECM with one of the great runs (ever!) on that label. Most notable were the two quintets—the first with three horns, bass, and drums; the second with sax, trombone, vibes, bass, drums. Holland really established himself as bandleader, bassist, and composer; and he gave exposure to young and veteran players (Kenny Wheeler, Steve Coleman, Robin Eubanks, Steve Nelson, Chris Potter, Kevin Eubanks, Julian Priester Billy Kilson and many more). To my mind he created some of the best jazz of the last two decades of the 20th century and a bit into the 21st. He also had nice records on the Dare2 label in sextet and octet format. But his later projects have not really engaged me. He has worked in a lot of duos and trios, and nothing is really sticking with me. I was hoping Another Land with Kevin Eubanks would be a good one, but I found it to be pretty disappointing. Well, he is up and years and owes us nothing. But this was a guy I followed closely for a long time, and that just isn’t the case anymore. I welcome comments of any sort on Dave Holland and his usually superb music.

It doesn't even sound like the same tune on some versions.

A major loss in American music, to be sure. He created music that will outlive the man.