Late

(Does Scott Wenzel know who Bill Barron is?)

Agreed. For 1961, they somehow feel a little ahead of their time (despite Coltrane, Giuffre, etc.).

Much agreed. I only have the nachosphere's cleaned up version of Stalks, but would pounce on a CD issue. Also much agreed. As for Aëbi, I've been a fan for a while, but will admit I wasn't at first. Quite a few years ago, Lacy wrote in to DownBeat in response to some critic's ... criticism of her singing. I can't remember what Lacy said precisely, but the gist of it was that if you were going to understand his (Lacy's) music, well, Aëbi was a central part of it. Meaning, actually central. Just as much as Lotte Lenya was central to Kurt Weill. After I made that connection, it was like—pop!—the singing fell into place. I no longer resist her presence on Lacy's records; in fact, I actually look for it. I still will concede she's an acquired taste, but it is a Lacy taste, if you will.

Elvin Jones or Tony Williams Paul LaFaro or Eddie Gomez

There's a thread somewhere on this board about Blues Images. I'd say—if you're just getting into this branch of music ... START WITH BLUES IMAGES. Yazoo is great, but Blues Images is alive right now and could use support. Oops. Back to Bussard. Also great.

This album doesn't get mentioned enough. It really is quite burning in spots—most notably the opener "La Campimania" and the title track "The Golden Eight"—aided in no small part by the deft drumming of Kenny Clarke. The recording quality is also excellent—perhaps that had something to do with Alfred Lion purchasing it. Or maybe Lion and Clarke had an exchange of some sort—one can only speculate. In addition to Karl Drevo being on fire on this recording, listen to Dusko Gojkovic! Great trumpet playing (and great intonation). An interesting discographical note: The Golden Eight was recorded May 18-19, 1961. A handful of months later, on November 14, 1961, Kenny Clarke and Dusko Gojkovic assembled almost the identical band and made a session that ended up being part of an album titled Belgrade Blues. (The LP has two different bands, one largely American, the other European; the "American" session was recorded in 1966. I think they may have originally been separate 10" inch records?) Both The Golden Eight and Belgrade Blues have "La Campimania" on them. The Blue Note version is faster; the RTB version (unreleased until 1967) features Gojkovic more heavily. Both are great. This thread is in the Discography forum, which is good, but it could easily be in the Recommendations forum as well. A sleeper of an album—very warmly recommended. Amazing sound, and excellent arranging skills—the octet sounds like a big band at times.

Collect the 1971-1973 years into a coherent Bootleg edition. Or even just 1972-73.

Click here to see Joe Chambers in 1969 (as part of the Bobby Hutcherson-Harold Land group). At 28:42 into the video, Joe solos.

I can't think of a jazz harpist who swings harder than Dorothy Ashby. To play swinging eighth notes on the harp can't be easy, and Ashby makes it sound effortless. Coltrane doesn't really swing on harp (and that doesn't seem to be her objective), and other harpists, contemporary to Ashby, seem fairly stilted (90 degree angles) in comparison. I haven't heard that Atlantic record posted above, and need to. I will spin Afro-Harping tonight.

That is a tasty track. Thank you for sharing! I'd never even heard of the Greyforrest label. Al Grey is under-represented in my collection. What a player. After listening to the YouTube video mhatta posted, the next video was this. With Shirley on piano! And a SCRUNCHY Jimmy Forrest solo!

Always the first explanation for listening to Cecil Taylor.

Did Forrest only record five albums as a leader for Prestige/New Jazz? Discogs says yes. What's your favorite? I have to go with Forrest Fire followed by Most Much! The Delmarks (yes, not Prestige) are good too. Were they originally intended for Delmark?

The headphones appear to be like two telephones. What the?

And McCoy and Coltrane up on the wall.

I have the same feeling on this one. The compositions are great, but for some reason (at least for me) a certain spark is missing. I hate to say this, but I often find Gary Bartz underwhelming. I'd like to hear the whole album, perhaps minus the vocal track, with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson in the front line. Hmm, don't know why the above showed up in italics. I guess I was emphasizing something.

Love Forrest's cover of "When Your Lover Has Gone."

For some reason, I've always used this set for my "first disc played" A/B comparisons. Room sound does indeed sound different from player to player.

Yamaha Music Bar, 1967 • Tokyo

Listening to this right now, and enjoying it a lot more than I have in the past.

"Stairs"

There was a 2012 Japanese reissue that sounds pretty good:

This one?

You can listen to the whole album here. Anyone here have the vinyl? James Newton sounds great.

Got this one out today. The Japanese version I have has six bonus tracks—all alternate takes with a bit of studio chatter. Man, Hartman's speaking voice is a lot different than his singing voice! The difference is kind of surprising. I didn't know that, in 2001, this album was reissued on compact disc: Anyone here have it? I've never heard it.

The outer sleeves. The Nagaoka variety I used to buy came in the dark purple packaging. I actually do have the inner sleeves that T.D. pointed to however. They're quite nice. I did go the eBay route in the end, but with a different seller. We'll see how they work.