Milestones

I think I'm not alone in regarding this as a really tough blindfold test.

It's been a long time since he's put out a record. I would like to see that happen. A mellow sounding McCoy Tyner is still worth hearing.

Some interesting covers on Jim Hall records, especially when he was with Telarc. Why not Matisse paintings? When music or musicians were presented, they were abstract. And how about the spooky eyeball gazing over geometric shapes on Farrell's Moon Germs?

I have since acquired Joe Farrell's Moon Germs. Farrell is a highly under-valued saxophonist, and I mainly know him from work with Corea and Elvin. It looks like he did some pretty impressive work on CTI, and you certainly can't fault the guys in his bands--in this this case, Hancock, Clarke, and DeJohnette. Bottom line, superb playing and composing by Joe.

I always found it interesting that Billy Cobham showed up on a lot of CTI sessions, not that I've heard a lot. I always wanted to view him as one of the great drummers, but did not hear much of his work outside of Mahavishnu.

I guess there several related labels. I believe Kudu is where Grover Washington appeared. I'd think he would get some votes.

Regarding Plan 9, it has a certain entertainment factor; and I have seen many movies that were worse. As to jazz, maybe we need a thread on guilty pleasures--stuff we're a little ashamed to admit that we enjoy. A thread I started on CTI Records is perhaps sort of in this vein.

If you name any instrument, you either don't like Classical music at all or your interest is exceptionally slight.

Maybe this has been done before, but I'm curious to see what people regard as the best works on the CTI label, which clearly has a notorious reputation for many of us on the forums. But I did just read how Felser is a rather big fan. There is very little from CTI in my collection, but there are some records I would call classics, or at least near-classics. Red Clay--Freddie Hubbard Blue Moses--Randy Weston Beyond the Blue Horizon--George Benson

Felser, are these are all records you truly enjoy? The Jackie McLean is pretty bad, and nearly always identified as such. And I had just been listening to lots of good/great McLean--and I don't care what anyone says, he is great. As they say, everyone makes a bad choice from time to time.

Randy Weston has an astonishing mind and memory.

A "compilation" album is still an album in my book. That's how I first heard Louis, Duke, Bird, Lester, etc.

Subjective for sure, and I'm personally more about the great jazz artists. The greatest ones often record one fine album after another. The list indicates that most selections come from 1955-1970. That makes sense to my ears. So many of the all-time great (as innovators, players, band leaders, etc.) were at their peaks in these years. To be sure, you need to know the earlier figures like Louis, Lester, Hawk, Duke, etc. Has there been great jazz music since 1970? Sure, a great deal. But among the absolutely greatest? That's a hard argument to make. There are central figures in jazz music that people will generally agree upon. You can't diminish Monk, Miles, Duke, Trane--no more than you can diminish Bach, Mozart, and Schubert in Classical.

The Tyner album is a pretty impressive effort.

That's some tough stuff. On #2 it sounds like Turrentine on tenor, but I'm not saying that with a high level of confidence. I would agree that #10 sounds like Ellington; I hear Hodges in there, or someone doing quite an imitation. I've heard tons of Duke, but I've never heard this. #12 could be Coleman Hawkins or Ben Webster, but probably not. Too much of a rhythm and blues approach. I'm thinking people will be guessing wildly on your selections.

I'm interested. I have no idea how to set it up, so I will need all the guidance I can get.

I'm not sure whether this is the right place for the discussion, but I'm wondering if anyone has been checking out YouTube music. It's a streaming service a lot like Spotify. It's really set up exactly like Spotify, and the library seems huge--probably on the scale of Spotify. It has the "premium" aspect as well, but so far I have no interest in that. So far I've not heard a single commercial, but then again I usually stop after 3 tracks. It seems to me that the audio quality is superior to that of Spotify.

Maybe they should cut the mics on Cher and Reba and let Wayne play.

That would be something! But come to think of it, some of those unions on the Sunday Night show (with David Sanborn) weren't all that far off from that.

It's interesting to see that Wayne Shorter is going in this year. I hear that even Wayne was shocked. As far as I can tell, his old boss, Miles Davis, was never an honoree. So who are the jazz artists? There's Dizzy, Sonny, Herbie, Ella, Count. Who else? Not sure how the election process works, and not sure how many on this forum attach any importance to the Kennedy Center.

Indians took down the Yankees today and thus split the series. I'll take that. On to All-Star festivities...does anyone really understand the Home Run Derby? The rules seem to change every year. And how are the participants selected? This year, it looks like 7 out of 8 are from the NL. What is up with that?

Well, Desmond is obviously impossible. I'm quite happy with the choices of Frisell and Lovano.

I'm happy to see Paul Simon featuring these big jazz names for his record. It's something that should happen more often. Back in the day, you would see this from Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell (I'm not thinking so much of guys like David Sanborn as session musicians). Things may be changing, and that's for the best.

And no "My Favorite Things"? The world would be a lesser place.

How could these recordings have been lost for so many decades?