Milestones

I love Bob Dylan, but 36 discs of live music from one year???

Are there likely to be several of these?

That is a cool photo!

More stuff here than I had expected!

By small I generally mean a string quartet. It's a more feasible thing, since most jazz artists don't have a lot of money to lay out. But I sometimes feel overwhelmed by a string orchestra, or that it leads to an "easy listening" quality. Plus a string quartet is more likely to have the flexibility to improvise. Here are some that come to mind: Max Roach Double Quartet (many sessions) Rhyme & Reason--Ted Nash Paradise--Tom Harrell Andrew Hill--some tracks from Mosaic box Symbols of Light--Greg Osby I'm sure there are more.

Randy Weston: African Rhythms

Definitely some cool stuff from Bill Stewart on several of these records. He is certainly one of the top guys on drums, and has been for more than two decades now. Of course, there have been other fine drummers--DeJohnette on Time on My Hands, Al Foster on Oh! Grace Under Pressure has also been mentioned in this golden period of Sco's in the early 90's. Who was drummer on that one? Joey Baron?

This has to be considered a very notable partnership. I find the first album, Time on My Hands, to still be the best. Two others followed pretty quickly, then later there was Oh!, which is unusual for the entire band contributing compositions. I have been pleased by the recent Past Present, especially the opening track: "Slinky." Scofield and Lovano also appear together on albums by Peter Erskine and Marc Johnson. It's some of my favorite Scofield, and it's pretty remarkable how much he has written for this quartet.

Not to mention that we have here yet another magical meeting between Hutcherson and McCoy Tyner.

That scared the hell out of me!

I'm sampling tracks from Solo & Quartet; it sounds like a fine record.

R.I.P., Mister Hutcherson. Lots of great music from this man. Without his contributions, the Blue Note 1960s period would be so different. He provided much brilliant work as a leader and sideman. Of course, there is much to value in the decades after that. I like the recent Enjoy the View and Acoustic Masters II--among many others.

Not familiar with this artist.

I'm curious to know what people like in this area. I have recently been checking out the two big band by records by Christine Jensen. There is some really nice stuff--interesting arrangements, strong soloing (especially by sister Ingrid Jensen). Otherwise...well, Gerald Wilson is now deceased and Carla Bley does't seem to do big band records anymore. I have not been able to catch the fever on Maria Schneider. Maybe I should keep trying.

The Jessica Williams record is good stuff. I have that one.

I love the Newton record as well. I even saw a group similar to the one from the record performing Duke's music at the Tri-C JazzFest. That must have been 15 years ago or more. I would like to see Newton still doing something in the jazz field. He seems to be more into modern classical and education.

So much good stuff. Just a couple that are very special to me are the Ellington is Forever sets by Burrell and the MJQ album. There are quite a few I've never heard of or run across. The sheer number is staggering.

I would think Ellington has been covered more than Monk, if only because there are a lot more compositions to choose from. Even though Monk's career spanned barely more than two decades, it's surprising he wrote only about 70 pieces. I'd like to find that Blythe album. I remember buying it on used vinyl about a decade after it came out. It seems hard to come by.

Monk played by a true big band. I have not heard this one. I will be checking out Griffin and Lockjaw.

These are my favorites: Trio Music (disc 2)--Chick Corea Portraits of Monk--Randy Weston Reflections--Steve Lacy The Monk Project--Jimmy Owens Monk in Motian--Paul Motian Trio

I'm always way more impressed by Sonny Rollins than Ernie Henry on Briilant Corners. It's interesting that Monk had such great musical relationships with Rollins and Coltrane. The bio reveals that Trane sat in with Monk more than once in the 1960s--the last time just 6 months before Coltrane's death.

Monk?

Yes, it's outstanding.

I have to say I really like the Prestige stuff a lot. It's a shame this period ended so badly, with Monk feeling so disrespected. And this directly led to the fact that there were so few studio recordings of Monk and Coltrane, when there certainly could have been more.

I think I would go in this order: Brilliant Corners Monk's Music Monk at Town Hall Monk and Coltrane (studio session, though not really a full session w. Trane)