xybert

Holy crap, i have the first CD version and blindingly obvious as it is i was never conscious of the band in one speaker/Monk in the other thing . Never listened on headphones and maybe it wasn't as obvious on my old set up... anyway, can't un-hear it now! Mental note made to pick up one of the mono releases.

CD lifespan varies depending on a number of factors... same goes for humans so it's not worth obsessing over for me. But yeah, all my CDs are ripped in a lossless format and backed up multiple times etc.

Sorry to go on about Suarez, but reading some of the coverage i was reminded of his match saving hand ball against Ghana in 2010. I remember being truly disgusted with that shit at the time. Should've just awarded the goal (can they do penalty goals like they do penalty tries in Rugby? probably not). Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest.

Hey man, album cover pic is not showing up for me and i'm genuinely curious to know what the album is if you get a chance! My latest purchases: I splurged on Sonny Rollins, ordering The Prestige Albums Universal Italy box set (bare bones but i really liked the Coltrane one), The Contemporary Leaders, Alfie and Horn Culture. With that i think i'll now have every album he recorded as a leader through to Horn Culture apart from The Big Brass.

Sounds like he's also now enjoying the albums, as far fetched as that seems considering the original adverse reaction. Akinmusire must have made one hell of an impression live! I've got no idea where anyone is on the mountain, baby.

I need to check out a Sunrooms album... Jason Adasiewicz has such a distinctive sound and he is so omnipresent as a sideman that i kind of get my fill of him elsewhere.

I had a listen to 'The Imagined Savior' on spotify last night. I definitely think he's got some flavour in his playing. Reminded me a bit of Jonathan Finlayson in places, both playing and composition wise, at least on the tracks that didn't feature strings and vocals with lyrics. Interesting that they've both spent time with Steve Coleman. Not an album that i'll buy (although the first couple of tracks did have me having a look on Amazon) but i'll keep an eye out for his future endeavours. Will be a bit of a 'case by case' guy for me i think.

FWIW, don't think that what I didn't care for in A.A.'s playing on that Binney album had anything to do my age or his. I like a lot of players who are younger and edgier than either of those guys (heard three of them on Thursday -- Josh Berman, Jason Roebke, and Frank Rosaly, then the next day listened to relatively young alto saxophonist Greg Ward tear things up on one of Roebke's two new albums). Again, it's A.A.'s relative blandness IMO that put me off. Thanks for this perspective. It often feels like guys like Akinmusire (or Christian Scott or Esperanza Spalding or Grace Kelly or whoever) get held up like "pfffffft this is what's happening right now hence contemporary jazz sucks and young people have no taste" when there are other more interesting options aplenty. There are only two kinds of blandness: the blandness i like, and the other kind. Tons of canonised blandness out there. Arguably it's in the ear of the behearer i suppose.

Oh well, it sucks when it happens but we all purchase an album that we don't dig every now and again.

Nice, great to see coverage of this epic album.

Didn't mind him as a sideman on the Chris Dingman (Harris Eisenstadt's Canada day, Steve Lehman Octet) album Waking Dreams (a mainstreamish album that deserves to be wider known). I feel like i might have heard and not minded him as a sideman elsewhere. Haven't checked out his leader dates aside from listening to some Amazon samples. I think the best way to approach guys like Akinmusire is to ignore the fuss surrounding them. Having said that, I probably won't get round to giving him a proper listen unless someone around here for example gives a strong recommendation, as i can't keep up with all the contemporary stuff that i want to as it is.

Engraved in the Wind is a fantastic album - Enjoy! Good to hear! Can't wait to get my hands on it.

New Nicole Mitchell is now available directly from RogueArt: http://web.roguart.com/shop/album/id/83?symfony=92b3498277ab9c3f86c82a62379855de Ordered that and last year's Engraved in the Wind.

I got the impression that they weren't planning on keeping the forums around much longer. Not sure if the current outage is related. From memory they've made it known in the past that they consider the forums to be a relatively insignificant part of the main site, which, hey, is fair enough i guess.

LOVE Extrapolation, like one of my most favourite albums ever love, like his playing on Infinite Search, some of the Miles stuff, but for some reason i've not gone much further with him. First Mahavishnu album was good but the second one left me flat and that's pretty much that. It's odd because i do dig fusion, i guess i should do some listening. For some reason i didn't really like his playing that much on the Five Peace Band record, although it wasn't that bad. Maybe he just doesn't have the poppy quality that i like in my fusion. He's a bit more earthy and jam bandy (at least that's my impression) whereas i like my fusion tight and polished with a hint of cheese. Never been a fan of the Shakti type stuff.

It does sound good. Hey man, i got caught up in the moment and mistakenly linked to an album from 2010 rather than the new album. Sorry! New album doesn't seem to be showing up on the site yet. Anyway, something to look forward to.

Whoa! Had no idea about this group or album... many thanks, off to track this down! They have 2 recordings I saw last night. One recently released and the other from about 3 years ago, I think Now that you mention it, it's quite probable that someone recommended me their earlier CD last year when i belatedly discovered Mitchell... anyway, this horse is ready for the water now. The first recording on RogueArt (Emerald Hills) is excellent. I started listening to the recent recording on the drive home Saturday night, but decided it was too close to the experience of hearing it live. It quickly paled in comparison. Yeah i've had that happen to me before. Also, i just realised i effed up in the New Releases thread (thought Emerald Hills was the new one). Better go fix that up!

Whoa! Had no idea about this group or album... many thanks, off to track this down! They have 2 recordings I saw last night. One recently released and the other from about 3 years ago, I think Now that you mention it, it's quite probable that someone recommended me their earlier CD last year when i belatedly discovered Mitchell... anyway, this horse is ready for the water now.

relyles mentioned this in the Vision Fest thread but i thought it would be worth noting here too. New Nicole Mitchell album on RogueArt. Nicole Mitchell: flute, alto flute, piccolo, vocals Craig Taborn: piano David Boykin: tenor saxophone Chad Taylor: drumset, percussion EDIT: removed link to the RogueArt website as it went to the previous album from this group, 2010's Emerald Hills. The new album doesn't appear to be showing up on the RogueArt Website yet.

Whoa! Had no idea about this group or album... many thanks, off to track this down!

The Sound Of Sonny Next Album On Impulse/There Will Never Be Another You twofer

Or presumably listeners listen to bad music while convincing themselves that it's good I don't know man. Like his music or dislike it (or utterly loathe it as the case may be) i highly doubt that his newer stuff has sold significantly more than his older stuff. For me it seems like he has organically progressed to where he is now slowly over the course of several albums. Anyway, if he really wanted to get over i'm sure there are easier/more obvious ways. I highly doubt there would be any A&R types seeing dollar signs while listening to his last few albums. Yes.

I'm not sure whether Ben Allison would call whatever he is doing these days jazz anymore but with the vast array of stuff out there i don't think you should let him singlehandedly kill jazz for you (or Snarky Puppy or whoever).

Yeah, similar for me i was born in New Zealand but family is originally from Croatia (or what was Yugoslavia at the time). From previous experience they're inconsistent, can either rise to the occaion and defeat teams way above them or self destruct and lose to weaker teams. But anyway, go Croatia!

I think Ben Allison is a good example of someone doing catchy/poppy/accessible stuff while still having some substance. It took me a while to get my head around him and in the end it opened my mind quite a bit. The Claudia Quintet is a bit more abstract and wilfully obscure at times but they are also accessible and catchy as hell a lot of the time. Some of the tracks on Threadgill's This Brings Us To Vol.1 are so insanely catchy. One of the greatest albums EVER in my opinion. Heaps of catchy Zorn... Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth Deluxe... Metheny of course...