HutchFan

Thanks for sharing those memories, Gheorghe. Wonderful! Last night and again now: Earl Hines - Four Jazz Giants (Solo Art, 2 CDs) This set compiles three tribute LPs that Hines recorded over the course of two days in 1971: - Hines Comes in Handy - Hines Does Hoagy - My Tribute to Louis I agree, Balladeer, MPS covers would make a cool book. So many of them are strangely interesting. And a few of them are just plain strange!

Spinning this again: Harry "Sweets" Edison & Earl "Fatha" Hines - Just You, Just Me (Black & Blue)

Fritz Pauer - Live at The Berlin "Jazz Galerie" (MPS, 1970) with Jimmy Woode & Billy Brooks

I had to stew on it for a while!

Sure. I buy that. Practically speaking, EKE as performed by Guy Lombardo holds zero interest. And I full well could hear Moran's performance and dislike it intensely. (Or not.) My argument was about the principle, not the particular.

Oh man, that's an AWESOME story. I am HOOKED!

Larry - I think understand what you're saying, and that's why I feel like a critique of Moran's playing because it's unidiomatic is completely understandable. But, even if that's the case, Moran isn't under any "obligation" (to use your word) to perform JRE's music idiomatically -- using historically accurate language -- if he doesn't want to. An analogy: People who study baroque music and the Historical Informed Practice (HIP) movement have transformed our understanding of the way Bach's and other's music actually sounded like during the baroque era. The work that HIP scholars and performers have done is valuable and important, a real addition to scholarship. However, if a performer chooses to perform in a non-HIP style, that's not wrong. For example, people in the HIP movement criticized Stokowski because "his" Bach was incredibly Romanticized & anachronistic. But, from where I'm sitting, Stokowski's interpretations are vital and interesting. They do NOT work as examples of HIP, but they do work as pieces of music that have been re-contextualized and re-interpreted in a different era. I haven't even heard the Moran recording that we're discussing. So I'm not making an argument about the particulars of his performance. I'm talking about the principle of it. I believe very strongly that Moran is under NO obligation to perform the music in a "historically informed" style. This also reminds me of our conversation from a few months (years?) ago about Milestone-era Sonny Rollins. Lots of folks think they know better than Sonny Rollins what he should have been playing in the 70s and beyond. That's baloney, IMO. Nobody knows better than Sonny Rollins what and how he should play. Full stop. We're free to like it or not like it -- and we are free to criticize it, based on whatever criteria we choose. But we are terribly misguided if we think we know better than Sonny what he should or should not do as an artist. That is his choice. Same with Jason Moran. O.K. Enough on this. I'll hop off my hobbyhorse now!

Yeah. Right on!

I'm with you, Ghost. I think both the pitch clock and shift rule are working very well. 👍 I follow the Braves, so I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far. Of course, baseball season is a marathon, and anything can happen -- but the Braves are loaded with talent. I think they'll be in the mix come September.

There's is nothing that says Moran (or anyone else) has to perform the music in the same manner that it was performed in the past. You might argue that a performance is unidiomatic -- but that's very different than saying it's wrong (relative to whose standard? The past's? Maybe that standard doesn't interest Moran) or ignorant (because he may have deliberately made choices that fly in the face of historical convention). I love Charles Ives' music. A Frenchman recorded his Second Sonata, a quintessentially American work. But the pianist's interpretation made Ives sound like Debussy or Ravel. Was it idiomatic? No. Was it wrong? No. Also, I would argue (as I have in the past) that comparing politics and art is a misleading and unhelpful analogy. Political outcomes can be measured; there are rules and laws related to government. Heaven knows politics is not objective -- but there are objective measures that can occur as the result of legislation and policy decisions. Art, on the other hand, does not work like that. What's the FIRST THING people say when they encounter art that subverts their expectations? They say, "That's not art!" And that's because the meaning, function, and definition of art is elusive. Finally, comparing someone's musical choices to MAGA or Trump is needlessly inflammatory & polarizing. So -- even when you have very interesting ideas to bring to the conversation -- you come across as a know-it-all who owns the the one-and-only "valid perspective." Any other point of view is just "ignorance." That is off-putting and disrespectful. That's why people react negatively. It's not (only) what you said; it's how you said it. Respectfully.

Such a magnificent album! Among his very best.

T.D., I think you might be surprised -- and pleased -- with their consistency. Of the seven albums, I'd rate five at either 4.5 or 5 stars. (The last two are the least compelling, imo.) That said, as always, YMMV.

Prompted by the Mingus Complete 70s Atlantic set announcement:

I LOVE this music. For newer and/or younger Mingus fans who haven't thoroughly explored his 70s output, this set will be a goldmine. OTOH, I won't be in the market for it -- because I already have these albums. With so many other things out there that aren't in my collection, a few alternate takes and fancy packaging (presumably) won't be enough for me to spring for it.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Enjoying this "chamber jazz": Roditi, Ignatzek, Rassinfosse - Beyond Question (Nagel Heyer, 2009)

+1

Now streaming: Sam Rivers - The Quest (Red, rec. 1976) with Dave Holland & Barry Altschul Terrific. Yeah! That whole album is AMAZING. The cut that really slayed me today was "Condiciones que Existen"! Sentido is probably my very favorite Eddie Palmieri -- along with Vamonos Pa'l Monte. Impossible to choose between those two.

Now: Earlier:

Now: Fourth World - Recorded Live at Ronnie Scott's Club (Ronnie Scott's Jazz House, 1992)

Now streaming: Rashied Ali / Frank Lowe - Duo Exchange (Survival, 1973)

Wow. I had no idea about that music, that set! Thanks for the heads-up. While downloads are less than ideal, it does look like Ogun offers (some of?) this stuff digitally.

I think this is Miller's only studio outing as a leader: Harry Miller's Isipingo - Family Affair OTOH, it seems like Miller worked with (nearly) everyone on the UK jazz scene. So, fortunately, his recordings as a sideman are plentiful.