HutchFan

Good one!

I think it's also about the decreasing popularity of any music without words -- whether it's jazz or easy-listening or classical or whatever. How interesting. I didn't realize that Solomon was that popular/ubiquitous in the UK. ... I think his Beethoven recordings are AMAZING. Right up there with more famous musicians like Kempff, Gilels, Gulda, Brendel, et al. Seriously! @Daniel A - Victor Borge came to mind for me too. A comedy act based on (largely) non-verbal music? Impossible to imagine now. The context is no longer there.

Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo - Só Não Toca Quem Não Quer (Only If You Don't Want It, You Can't Do It) (Capitol/Intuition, 1988)

Very interesting! Makes me wonder what a reissuer like Mosaic could do with Ra's Saturn legacy, simply by re-sequencing the music in chronological order. Not just one year, but over several. ... Of course, the original releases are Ra's original vision. (I assume that he was the one making the programming decisions for each album.) In that sense, they're "canonical." But it sounds like arranging the music chronologically would make for a very interesting alternative viewpoint -- just like other Mosaic sets have done.

When I saw the title of this thread, I immediately thought of the Dave McKenna/Wilber Little LP with the "lettuce cover." Lo and behold, I opened the Guardian article, and there it was. That's gotta be the worst I've ever seen.

and

What a cool project. Aside from hearing tons of incredible music, what have been your big take-aways from listening to Ra's music from this time in chrono order? All five star records, IMO. Primo stuff. And that 1947-52 Ellington box is desert-island music!

Fair enough.

Now on my turntable: Prokofiev: Music from the ballet "The Stone Flower" / Rozhdestvensky, Bolshoi Theater Orchestra (Angel/Melodiya) Is there a finer advocate/interpreter of Prokofiev's symphonic music than Rozhdestvensky? I can't think of one.

Another doozy from MPS: The Dynamic Hampton Hawes; originally released as Hamp's Piano My vinyl is a 1978 Dutch reissue, Vol. 2 in the "MPS Jazz Time" series

You won't regret it!

Yeah, that's terrific. One of Clifford Jordan's very best. That's on my 'to-get' list. l love Brooks' The Free Slave, so I have high expectations for this one.

Next up: Joe Henderson - Mirror Mirror (MPS) 180-gram "Reforest the Legend" Series reissue; glorious music and SQ

With less than two months remaining in 2021, I thought it would be enjoyable to begin a favorite discoveries of the year thread. If you were sitting in a bar with a group of jazz-loving friends, what artists & albums would you tell them about that you discovered this year? I would suggest that we NOT limit ourselves to new releases. The recording date doesn't matter, as long as you discovered the music in the last 12 months or so. ******************* Much of the new stuff that I discovered this year is from the 1980s. But I'm going to exclude those records, since I'll be sharing those on my 1980s blog project beginning in January. Eighties stuff aside, here are ten new-to-me favorites that I discovered in 2021: The Awakening - Hear, Sense and Feel (Black Jazz/Real Gone, 1972) Doug Carn - Spirit of the New Land (Black Jazz/Real Gone, 1972) Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group - Earth (Whaling City, 2020) Hampton Hawes - Hamp's Piano aka The Dynamic Hampton Hawes (MPS, 1969) James Moody - Great Day (Argo/Cadet, 1963) Bill O'Connell - Black Sand (Random Chance, 2001) Eddie Palmieri & Cal Tjader - Bamboleate aka Palmieri & T'Jader (Tico, 1967) Tito Puente - Puente in Percussion (Tico/Fania, 1956) Shabaka & the Ancestors - We Are Sent Here by History (Impulse, 2020) Jorge Sylvester - Musicollage (Postcards, 1996) So which new-to-you albums have left the most lasting impression on YOU in 2021? Feel free to post one, three, five, ten, twenty, or however many you'd like.

Now spinning: Eddie Palmieri & Cal Tjader - Palmieri & T'Jader (Tico) 1970s reissue of the LP originally released as Bamboleate in 1967

Charles Munch Conducts Romantic Masterworks (RCA Red Seal/Sony) Disc 6 - Schubert: Symphonies No. 8 "Unfinished" and No. 9 "The Great"

Just finished reading your interview, Ken. Great work. I had no idea that Wind is from Germany!

Now on my 'table: Claudio Arrau spielt/plays/joue Schumann (Philips) LP sides 9 & 10: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 and Nachtstücke, Op. 23

Milton Nascimento - Milton (A&M, 1976) with Wayne, Herbie, Raul D'Souza, and Hugo Fattoruso (from Airto's Fingers band and Opa) Even tho' this may not be "Jazz" (strictly speaking), I would definitely include Milton in my 70s survey if I ever revised it. It took me a long while to come around to Nascimento's unconventional voice. But now I'm all in.

Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube da Esquina (Odeon, 1972)

That looks interesting. I just discovered Roditi's Nagel Heyer recordings with Ignatzek and Rasinfosse earlier this year. NP: Cannonball in Japan (Capitol, 1966)