HutchFan

Jim, Sadly, what you're saying makes a lot of sense. The machinations of business, buying & selling, are at the root of our gripes about the narrowness and lack of imagination on these sorts of lists. I hear you. Loud and clear. ... But I do think -- I've GOT to think -- there's some possibility for some "movement" in popular conceptions. Heck, I remember discovering the Dusty Groove website back in the day. Their idea of what constituted good or interesting jazz was very different than more mainstream thinking. They really dug lots of music that was WAY off the radar of most sites -- soul jazz, underground jazz, etc. Of course, DG is not in business to change people's thinking. They want to move product. But the mere existence of a site like that indicated that there was a market for it. People wanted it -- or DG wouldn't still be in operation. I had the same reaction when I first stumbled across the Kozmigroove site. It's not a commercial site -- but it represents the same sort of thing: a re-contextualization of music that had happened in the past, a re-evaluation or -- maybe more accurately -- a re-valuation. I had similar reactions when I discovered sites dedicated to Muse and MPS back in the days of file sharing, downloading. I kept discovering stuff I'd never even heard of -- much less heard -- and I'd say to myself, "DAMN, this is GOOD." People were stirring the pot, questioning narratives about what was supposed to be important, worthwhile, valuable. Bringing it back around to your original point: I don't have ANY commercial aspirations with my little blog project. None. I get enough of that at my day job! But I guess I see my blog project as being as being similar to those non-commercial sites, offering a wider angle view on the world of jazz. So much of this music is so valuable to me -- in completely non-monetary terms -- that I feel like I'm obligated to share it however I can because people are missing out! When you read a great novel or see a wonderful movie or hear a hilarious comic, you wanna tell people about it: "Hey, look at this! It's fantastic! It will enrich your LIFE." That's what I'm doing. And that's why I can't help but think "Good grief!" when I see the same names AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN when people who love jazz talk about jazz in the 1970s. It bugs me. It's lazy. And people are missing out on GOOD and IMPORTANT music that can eff them up in the best possible way.

Disc 1

Lots of Dizzy today. and and Disc 1

Harold Vick - The Caribbean Suite (RCA) IMO, this record would've been much more interesting if Vick had been given more solo space and the music loosened up. It's arranged to the hilt, so the jazz quotient is relatively low. ... Seems like RCA was aiming for an MOR audience rather than the jazz crowd. Oh well. It is what it is. Not terrible. Not great.

Does a rocket capsule qualify as a "personal transport"? Charlie Palmieri appears to be the only one riding it.

Ellington at Newport (Complete) Discs 1 & 2 It's a gas to hear how things actually went down -- unedited -- on that historic day. Hooray for Duke and hooray for the "Hero of Newport," Paul Gonsalves !!!

Dizzy Gillespie - Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac (Impulse, 1967)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!!

A double-dose of Charles Mingus: Let My Children Hear Music (Columbia/Sony) and Changes One (Atlantic)

duaneiac, be sure to share your impressions of those Staples Singers records. I've only got their Greatest Hits compilation. But that big set looks awful tempting!

Yeah, I hear you. You gotta be consistent one way or the other. Either release date or recording date. With my blog, I chose to go with recording date. Because my intention is for the blog to be retrospective in nature, looking back on things from the perspective of the present. In other words, I'm taking full advantage of the benefit of hindsight. My blog is NOT an account of how things were to listeners and musicians who were experiencing 70s jazz at the time. If that were my intention, I would have chosen release date instead. (Plus I would need to take into account factors like the availability of records, the popularity of records, how "relevant" or "important" certain records were perceived to be, etc., etc. ... That's precisely the sort of history that I'm free to ignore on my blog -- if I want to.) That make sense? EDIT The stuff that I wrote above made me think some more about those Jazztimes lists. Perhaps my beef with them is that they're more focused on what was perceived as important or popular back then, rather than using the opportunity to re-contextualize what was happening from the viewpoint of the present. An analogy: Think about a film like "Vertigo." When it was released, it was a flop. Nobody -- neither viewers nor critics -- seemed to get it. But, with the passage of time, it came to be recognized as a masterpiece. Time should give us all a clearer -- and at a minimum a different -- perspective. Likewise, those Jazztimes lists should NOT be exactly the same as if they had been compiled in 1980! More than forty years have passed! What was important and relevant then might not be what's important and relevant now. Today, most critics think of "Vertigo" as a classic. There's been a profound shift in the way people think about the movie, both its value and its importance. On the other hand, the jazz critics' perceptions regarding 70s jazz seem to be immobile; they're no different now than they were back in the day. ... That bums me out.

Love everything about this. The composition, the way they've transformed it into something very different from Coltrane's version of the tune. The arrangement, how all of the musical elements seem to come together in an "interlocking" groove. And, of course, the wonderful contributions from each of the musicians. Each individual is WAY UP there, flying HIGH -- but they're also playing together "as one." Just tremendous.

Cedar Walton - Eastern Rebellion (Timeless, 1976) The first -- and best? -- of Walton's Eastern Rebellion series.

Disc 3 - Originally released as Green Shading into Blue in 1978. Excellent!

Yep.

After asking about this record yesterday, I'm now giving it a listen via YouTube: Sounds good!

Very nice ride, Dmitry! Long live manual transmissions! That's tough that your roof got smashed so soon after you bought it. Hopefully, the repair shop did a good job fixing it up.

I don't get it either. If I had to guess, I think it might have something to do with the fact that those RCA Harry Belafonte recordings are highly prized in some audiophile circles. I'm wondering if that's what drove up the price. Maybe they're rarities. It also looks like the ebay dealer caters to audiophiles. They're called "High-End Audio Auctions." Just speculation on my part though.

I'm with you, Rooster. It feels like a bit of a cheat. That's why I chose Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970: It's About that Time as my Miles selection for my blog. OTOH, if I were to make an argument why Bitches Brew SHOULD be on 70s jazz lists: The record was massively influential on SO MUCH music made during the decade (and after). ... So I guess I can see both sides.

More fodder for discussion. Yesterday, Jazztimes published their "10 Best Jazz Albums of the 1970s," as selected by CRITICS. (The earlier polls that we were discussing were based on readers' votes.) Here are the critics' ten picks: Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame Chick Corea - Return to Forever Herbie Hancock - Headhunters Dave Holland - Conference of the Birds Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life Weather Report - Heavy Weather Sheesh, there are hardly any differences between the two lists! Adding Holland's Conference of the Birds is a nice touch. Good to see Anthony Braxton & Sam Rivers represented, even if it's just as sidemen. On the other hand, I dig Wayne's Native Dancer. Sure, it's a nice record and the Brazilian fusion thing is cool -- but is it really a more impressive record than Odyssey of Iska ?!?! ... Not in my book. Er, blog rather.

Thanks very much, Al. I'm glad that you're discovering some new-to-you music! The project has been a lot of fun.

Thank you, sir!

John, what do you think of that disc? I've never heard it. It certainly looks interesting. That's the same trio backing Tate that backed Paul Desmond on Live (and the recent Mosaic set), right? EDIT: I just checked Discogs, and I see that Bickert and Don Thompson played on Desmond's Live and this Tate date. But Terry Clarke is the drummer for Tate and Jerry Fuller plays on Desmond's record. ... So two-thirds the same.