Eric

Early listens for me that got me hooked on jazz (25 years ago): Wes Montgomery - So Much Guitar Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack McCoy Tyner - Sahara Miroslav Vitous - Mountain in the Clouds (not an obvious choice, but a nice bridge from my rock-oriented tastes, plus it is a nice record) I also had "101 Best Jazz Albums" by Len Lyons perpetually checked out from the local library. It was a great resource. A few other early ones: Art Pepper - Meets the Rhythm Section Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage Freddie Hubbard - Hubtones Sonny Rollins - Work Time Coltrane - My Favorite Things Art Ensemble of Chicago - Nice Guys and AEC with Fontella Bass David Murray - Murray's Steps Woody Shaw - Little Red's Fantasy Horace Silver - Doin' the Thing My advice - don't get bogged down in sub-genres or styles. Do not assume that you won't like something because it is "difficult" or "not good for the uninitiated". Take chances - you can alway trade it back! I loved everything (and still do) on the list without really knowing that some of it was "soul jazz", "hard bop" "west coast" or "avant garde". I was also fortunate enough to get to know the jazz studies professor at college, who I talked into creating a one credit hour course (I was one shy of gradulation) that involved mapping all the guys that came through the bands of Miles Davis and Art Blakey. Spend a lot of money on "books" to get that one done. Have fun!!!

From his website (I was guessing I would not find any of these at Best Buy): The first quarter of 2007 will see the release of a George Duke MPS albums Box set. So far, except for my website, it will only be available in Europe. Individual albums and songs will be available as a digital download from iTunes and other legitimate digital download services. The box set will include: Faces In Reflection, Feel, The Aura Will Prevail, I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry, Liberated Fantasies.

Where best to find examples of this work?? Thanks

There are a couple good used places in Raleigh not too far from NC State. One is Reader's Corner and the other is (yes) Nice Price books. They are both on Hillsborough.

An alternate version of the cover - from the CD perhaps?

There are a few Mainstream records on iTunes. There is a Land and the Farmer mentioned above. Maybe a Charles McPherson too.

Yes Bertrand, I remember going to Tower in the Village in the mid-90s on business trips and dropping one or two hundred each time (hauling away many TOCJs). Same for the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago and Jazz Record Center in NY. And Amoeba & Rasputin in Berkeley. Fortunatley these large independents are still with us (I think). Ironically (and wonderfully), they seem to be the winners in all of this, plus the used record stores (although they too are becoming scarce). On the flip side, between Amazon, Gemm & ebay, there is almost nothing I cannot find in a matter of minutes (if you want to pay the price). But I completely agree that the experience is nowhere near the "off line" version. PS - I cannot remember the last time I visited a KC record store - maybe early in the summer. Aside from a great used store in nearby Lawrence, there is nothing here of interest (in a 1.5 million metro area with a decent jazz background).

I agree, although frankly it has been a number of years since even Tower provided that experience.

Buck was a very visible and active member of the KC community. It sounds cliched, but he will truly be missed. And yes, he got royally dicked on the HOF voting

I love this record ...

Nope, I received the same CD today - plus they Fed Ex'd it overnight, which was an upgrade.

This can now be downloaded at iTunes ...

I am less enthusiastic about this one ... I much prefer Backlash and High Blues Pressure, but of course, YMMV ...

Try doing a label search at CD Universe. They list almost 350 titles (note that a number of them are blues CDs). I am pleasantly surprised that they seem to have staying power.

Steve Coleman??? (although I don't own of his CDs)

Anybody"?? I'm guessing that more than half of us here on this very board own at least one leader-dates by the person in question, and several of us probably own 5 or even 10 of his leader-dates. Gotta be Kenny Garrett!!! No, NOT Kenny Garrett -- but that's a GOOD guess!! Heck, I might have even guessed that myself!! Also, I just checked, and the guy I'm thinking of wasn't on the "Blue Turtles" tour, but rather he was on the "Nothing Like The Sun Tour" in 1987. I've never heard any tapes, but would like to sometime. Back to Google ...

Anybody"?? I'm guessing that more than half of us here on this very board own at least one leader-dates by the person in question, and several of us probably own 5 or even 10 of his leader-dates. Gotta be Kenny Garrett!!! What do I win? Hope it is not a Sting CD

I am in tears (again). Very, very funny

Yeah, I have this on lp and think it is somewhat lame compared to the ones Blue Note issued on CD. Grooves are just a little too simple/repetitive. Flame away

Tom - I think the acoustic version of WMGGW is included in the video clip I linked to above.

Tom - have you heard the one "Soul Gestures" lp with Elvin Jones and Joe Henderson? I have always liked that one - not necessarily because of those two - I just think it is a good record.

Check out the preview of the show itself here: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSole...intro/intro.htm I have to admit, it looks pretty cool.

Interesting. I have no interest in hearing the Beatles f'd up. Having said that, I have always thought of George Martin as the 5th Beatle (for example - I don't think McCartney needed Lennon in the 70s - he needed Martin). Anyway, I would be interested to hear this.

I listened to some samples today on iTunes and they did sound good. I will be picking this up too.

What a piece of shit