Milestones

I don't think I've ever heard "Seraphic Light" or "Venus."

Coltrane is known for his incredible intensity, marathon solos, sheets of sound. But what of Trane in the opposite mode: the ballads player? As far as I’m concerned, he is one of the greatest who ever lived. The Atlantic and Impulse periods include the fine Ballads album, the Duke Ellington collaboration (most notably “In a Sentimental Mood”), and most importantly (IMO) his original ballads—if we are to consider tunes such as “Naima,” “Central Park West,” “Welcome,” After the Rain,” and “Wise One” as ballads. But he was already great in the Prestige era. What absolutely marvelous work on the likes of “Theme for Ernie,” “Violets for Your Furs,” “Don’t Take Your Love from Me,” “I See Your Face Before Me,” “Solutrane,” “I Want to Talk About You,” and many more. His was not the breathy tenor ballad style favored by most on the horn, but it was completely distinctive and displayed great sensitivity. It strikes me as odd that Trane often sat out on ballads in Miles’ groups. True, he is on “Round About Midnight,” but plays in anything but a ballad manner. It would have been intriguing indeed to hear Trane on “It Never Entered My Mind,” or for that matter Miles on “I See Your Face Before Me.”

If you're at all a fan of guitar, I recommend the 4-CD set Progressions: 100 years of Jazz Guitar. The first disc (26 tracks) goes up to Tiny Grimes, good stuff to hear since I've never been much up on jazz guitar prior to Charlie Christian. These are interesting and entertaining tracks. By the end of the 4th disc you'll be hearing Ribot, Stern, and Frisell.

OK, thanks

Can anyone tell me is "Status Seeking" is from the Five Spot records by Booker Little and Eric Dolphy? It absolutely is the same group, though in browsing around I don't see this tune listed as from those famous records. I discovered it on the Prestige sampler of Dolphy's work. The track runs 13:19, which sounds right for these performances. The first version appeared on Waldron's The Quest, with Dolphy but no Little.

I'm ready to keep this thread going. There is simply so much stuff he recorded for the label. I'm now into Side Steps, and there is certainly some fine stuff there. The best of the complete albums found here are Mating Call with Dameron and Soul Junction with Red Garland. Just lots of wonderful stuff. What's not to love when you hear the great Coltrane--in fine form throughout--with such artists as Mal Waldron, Hank Mobley, Garland, Dameron, Bryd, Philly Joe,etc.

I'm very much a fan of Lush Life, which came out in 1966 or 1967. "Lush Life" the song does not appear, but the album features a lot of ballad standards. It's a 9-piece band that sounds very lush. I think it's about as good as this kind of thing gets. I'm surprised that Donaldson didn't do a couple of more projects like this one.

Lou was/is not an innovater, of course, but it's notable that he was in the company of some greats. Yeah, the Monk sessions. I'm trying to remember on which tunes he was featured.

There must be some fans out there. The man doesn't seem to get much respect, but I'd say he's a decent disciple of Bird, and let's not forget he was in the Blakey group with Horace Silver and Brownie--in essence, the start of the Messengers. His funky side came out in the early 60s, and I enjoy those records where he's backed by Grant Green and Big John Patton.

Toss up between "Funky Mama" and "Holy Ghost" by Lou Donaldson backed by Grant Green and Big John Patton.

Certainly we see divided attitudes about Tokyo Live. I remember being intrigued by it when it came out, but never bought it. I've looked around and it does seem hard to find and expensive. All told, I'm more pleased by by the work Tony did just before these years--for example, several records as part of The Great Jazz Trio, the trio record with Tommy Flanagan, and the record Etudes with Art Farmer, Bill Evans (sax), Ron Carter, and no pianist.

What kind of feelings do we have about these records? I'm sure some find them too conservative, too much in a basic post-bop mode--maybe will some say that Tony hung out with Wynton too much and carried his practices into his own music. Yet this is Tony Williams we are talking about! The group members were good, he seemed to concentrate on his own compositions, and the drumming is always there. I'm not sure if there is a bona fide classic tune after "Sister Cheryl," which anyway is better presented in the versions by Wynton (one of his great moments IMO) and the trio of Flanagan-Carter-Williams. I do own Angel Street and Story of Neptune (slightly favor the latter), as well as the very last record: a trio, which I think was on Blue Note too. I know Mosaic packaged up most of the material, and I've listened to some samples. Great stuff? Probably not. Good stuff? Yes.

I voted for Blue Note in this very lopsided poll. Lots of great work on BN. Anyone mention New and Old Gospel with Ornette? It is also very worthwhile hearing Jackie on several Lee Morgan albums, such as Lee-Way and Tom Cat.

Tonight at a barbecue restaurant I heard a different version of "Squeeze Box by The Who. At least it sounded like Daltry doing the vocal, but this version has an actual squeezebox (prominently featured) and overall something of a cajun feel. It's a very cool rendition. Anyone know where it comes from?

I don't know, it seems to me that Tommy is kick-ass on the uptempo numbers on Sunset.

Interesting parallels to Hank Jones--both from Detroit, both very tasteful in their playing, both accompanying a who's who of jazz greats. Wonderful stuff. I'm glad both got to work extensively as leaders in the latter parts of their careers.

Certainly have to say Sunset and the Mocking Bird sounds marvelous, from the driving opening tracks to the beautiful treatment of the title track.

I'm just realizing what a great player he was. If we only had his famous work with Coltrane, Rollins, Montgomery, etc...that might be enough. Of course, he recorded with many more than that: Hawkins, Art Pepper, Grover Washington, Gerry Mulligan, and many more. I've read he recorded with Miles as well, though I don't recall that. But most importantly, I'm hearing how great he was on his later work--usually in trio settings. Here you really get to hear Tommy Flanagan and his amazing taste and style. I was really blown away by his trio version of "Sister Cheryl" with Ron Carter and Tony Williams (the composer). There are some really fine mainstream pianists out there who probably don't get enough credit. Others that come to mind are Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, Red Garland, Mulgrew Miller. But I don't think I have any problem regarding them all as legends.

Any thoughts on Bose speakers? I think it's Bose 2 series III that runs around $100. I've been using traditional Bose speakers for 15-20 years and have liked them. I'm hoping they make a good PC product.

That could be. The machine is old enough--probably bought it more than 20 years ago. However, it's still fine for playing regular CDs and apparently all my older burned CDs.

I've been having a strange problem lately where my newly burned CDs won't play on my old Sony CD player--my best sound system. They play fine in my car, and seem OK on portable players. I thought it might be an issue with burning as data CD rather than audio CD, or that I was recording at too high a speed. But it is definitely neither of these. It's happened only recently on about 5 CDs. The problem is occurring with both TDK and Memorex discs.

Yeah, I gave him a thumbs up for appearing on the Weston records; he's also on Spirits of Our Ancestors. Randy Weston knows percussionists.

I've been digging bit more into the Shirley Scott stuff and feeling I've been too dismissive. I think my next Mr. T. will be Hustlin' with Shirley Scott and Kenny Burrell. I enjoy the stuff with Jimmy Smith, both early and late. I'm also liking the gospel song posted here. Yeah, Turrentine is naturally suited to this kind of thing.

Anyone know anything about this half-assed thing being improved with Windows 8.1?

Thanks for all the glowing comments about Stanley Turrentine. It's cool to have this sense of discovery and/or rediscovery of a major jazz figure after 30+ years of listening. It would be great to have more records of Turrentine and Grant Green together.