HutchFan

Ha!

Perilously close to an old-guy rant. Look out there, Jim. There's always been records that make folks' rigs skip or have problems... especially when you get up there in rarified "audiophile" air. Next up: Jay McShann, Buddy Tate - Crazy Legs & Friday Strut (Sackville, 1977) Buddy Tate, people! Buddy Tate !!!

Now this: Ross Tompkins and Good Friends (Concord, 1978) The most notable "friend" on this LP is Al Cohn, whose playing is ridiculously good. He makes such an assured and powerful sound -- but it's also effortless, practically Rollins-esque. IMO, this LP is right on par with Cohn's late-70s Xanadu gems like Play It Now and Heavy Love.

James Williams - Magical Trio 2 (EmArcy, 1988) with Ray Brown & Elvin Jones GREAT news!

NP: Irakere - Misa Negra (Messidor, 1987)

Flora Purim - Stories to Tell (Milestone/OJC, 1974) and Paquito D'Rivera - Manhattan Burn (Columbia, 1987)

Seconded!

Rab, Here are a few of my Konitz faves that don't appear on your list:

Airto Moreira - Struck by Lightning (Venture, 1989)

Never seen that Threadgill ad before! It's kinda hilarious. But good for him for making some cash off his cache.

Yes indeed.

Also, it seems like, beginning in the 80s, jazz came to be very much associated with "upscale" stuff -- more than it had been in the past. A sort of cultural signifier for "classy shit." And watches would be one example of that. Associate your watch with jazz and ergo you have a classy, sophisticated watch. All marketing nonsense, of course.

LOL

My guess would be latter. Yeah, I remember how digital watches kept getting bigger and BIGGER. Eventually, lots of them had calculators with full numerical keypads built in. Man, they were so ugly. ... MUCH worse than the one Paquito's wearing. Now spinning:

R.I.P.

Excellent! Sure thing!

Yowza !!!

Oh you're right. I'd forgotten about that! I don't disagree that there was some wretched cover (non)design during the 1980s. ...But there was some excellent cover art too, IMO. See two cases in point below, both issued on the Gramavision label: and And, more importantly, the music on these albums is every bit as good as the cover images -- if not better.

One of Tito's best from the 1980s, IMO.