Milestones

A one-time super-band I liked a lot was the one led by McCoy Tyner on 44th Street Suite. Here we have Tyner, Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Ron Carter, and Aaron Scott. Of course, Scott was Tyner's regular drummer and McCoy and Ron Carter were hardly strangers. Also, Blythe and Murray connected on several occasions. But it's a pretty distinctive quintet, and man do they kick it on "Bessie's Blues"--and there is some exciting, fairly free playing on Side 2.

The "super-band" is pretty common, is it not? Just about all of Miles' groups were super-bands, and what else would you call Coltrane's "classic quartet"? Many labels would get together 4-6 great players and cut a record. Thinking of the prime Blue Note days, most records (other than those by Blakey and Silver) were not by working bands.

Oh my! Thankfully, by the time I got into jazz pretty much all 8-tracks were in the bargain bins selling for 99 cents.

I am pretty interested in this one. I saw Miles live for the first and only time in 1984, and I think this set mostly deals with time period--and there is quite a bit of live stuff. I very much enjoyed the Miles concert. Here he was playing with quality musicians, most of them fairly young at the time: Bill Evans (sax), Scofield, Al Foster. The amount of unreleased Miles being released since his death has been staggering, but it's hard to not bite on it with an artist of his stature.

This sort of thing has been happening in rock music for many decades. They will probably also try to look like Miles, Bird, etc (it's about appearance too).

Miles did what Miles wanted to do, and that's perfectly fine.

Miles is my favorite artist, and On the Corner is probably my least favorite of his records. Not just least favorite, but a work that fails to provide any pleasure to me. Just saying....

It is only fitting to have this centennial celebration. I'm interested. I intend to play a lot of Mingus and Mingus Big Band in the time left of 2022.

I confess that I have no idea.

I would like to get some recommendations here. It seems that in the big band era the guitar almost never had a solo spotlight. Even Charlie Christian appeared mostly with Goodman small groups. I guess Gil Evans eventually used guitar a lot, though I've never been drawn much to his later work. I know CTI and other labels featured a large band behind Kenny Burrell. I'd rather listen to Kenny with Gerald Wilson (for Kenny's 75th birthday). Dave Stryker has done two big band projects, 25 years apart. I don't think the format will be something I greatly enjoy, but more a change of pace (taste).

I like the video. Bruce looks ancient, but he still sounds good.

I will definitely check it out.

Regarding #8, it's always wonderful to hear Sonny Rollins from this period. Earl Coleman is OK; the track is pleasant enough.

I have been checking out Bob Mintzer lately. I had a thread going on The Hudson Project, which I greatly enjoyed. This is my first listen of one of his big band albums, and it's a nice effort all the way around.

Evans was clearly important, but I imagine there are other reasons. It's standard for artists to perform old (and even relatively new) tunes with partially and sometimes totally different bands. Look at all the versions of "So What" by the Second Great Quintet (or the quintet with George Coleman).

I have been listening to Kind of Blue and reading up on it as well. It is properly one of the most discussed albums of all time. I'm thinking about the many releases of Miles in concert, especially from the early 60's, and it seems to me that Miles never gave live performances of three of the tracks: "Freddie Freeloader," "Blue in Green," and "Flamenco Sketches." It's a bit odd, given that "Blue in Green" has been covered by many artists and "Flamenco" is, to my ears, among Miles' greatest tracks ever. I have not looked too hard to see if it's really true that these three tracks were not in the live repertoire; I'm going by the extensive amount of Miles Davis in my collection. But if not, it seems to say something about how unique Kind of Blue was/is.

Sad news. I Imagine she must have been well up there in years. It seems fitting she would die in Charles Mingus' centennial year.

I really enjoy the combination of Tyner and Hutcherson. There was one with only the two players--the relatively obscure Manhattan Moods. I think there were just two in the quartet format: Time for Tyner and (much later) Land of Giants. Hutch appeared a few times in larger Tyner groups.

I always point to "If You Only Knew" as evidence that Oscar could and did play beautifully. Not a hint of the vulgarity so many are harping on. There are several versions; I think the best is on the Pablo album, Live.

We will now discuss jazz performances on Sesame Street.

The average listener would certainly prefer Bill Evans over Oscar Peterson when it comes to "Waltz for Debby." But what about Oscar's duo record with Ella from 1975?

I have enjoyed what I've heard of Booker Little, and I'm inclined to think he would have turned into a major figure had he not died at the ridiculously young age of 23. I have heard him quite a bit with Max Roach and of course the Five Spot concert with Dolphy, which means he was part of some serious jazz history. Still, I don't really think of individual performances. I'm looking for folks to list or talk about some remarkable and/or expressive Booker Little solos. Thanks.

If you have not heard pieces where Peterson plays with delicacy and subtlety, then you have not heard a lot of Peterson. Those pieces are out there, and it's not like they are 1% of his output.

His practice and warming up sound similar to Coltrane!

He's eclectic for sure, and for me that's a huge part of the appeal. On the other hand, Pat doesn't sound quite as fresh these days. It's not like Side-Eye is such an innovation, and he seems more reliant on playing older music. Nothing wrong with that. Almost all musicians are largely doing that by the time they reach his age (or long before). Metheny is eminently listenable, and one of my misfortunes is that I have never attended one of his concerts. So the next album will feature all new material?