Late

Do not hesitate to pick up this one: A great — albeit challenging — session, that will be sorely missed when it goes out-of-print. Sound samples here. Review here.

... and as long as we're dreaming, how about: These two together: And these two together: And these four together: I know that a number of tracks from some of these albums have already been released on other various reissues, but having them all together, and with the original cover art, might potentially draw in new listeners. I think Rudy would do a fine job remastering them, too.

The Wade Legge session on Blue Note: ... has been available for about five years on compact disc. It was reissued by BMG Japan, with its original French cover. In fact, Tower Records has it in stock here, but not for a great price.

And ...

Don Ellis' Essence.

Up for air, and because — even though I'm listening to Jerome Richardson right now — I just ordered Night of the Mark VII. I first heard the version of "John Coltrane" from this set 15 years ago on the radio as part of a Coltrane birthday tribute. Liked it, eventually forgot about it, and just now realized I needed to hear it again! (I have the versions from Glass Bead Games and The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe, but I've always thought this particular live version, as far as I remember it, was the strongest.)

That's an excellent choice, couw. The current edition of that album on compact disc sounds like c-r-a-p. I wouldn't have hurt feelings if Super Nova or Odyssey of Iska came out in the RVG series. Even though I don't mind the sound of the current editions, I know I'd fold and buy an RVG edition of these two. Good suggestion, Rooster — those Kenny Cox sides as RVG editions would be brilliant!

Lon, maybe — a la Passing Ships — Cuscuna heard an early mix of Tyrone Wrecked the Train. Perhaps it won't sound so bad if he revisits it with new ears. It does seem that he occasionally changes his mind. Let us all send out cosmic vibrations! Give ... Tyrone ... one ... more ... chance! Or maybe Cuscuna would simply respond to such a suggestion by doing this:

This one seems similar to the Denon session you're mentioning. Almost the same line-up, and some of the same tunes. Have you heard it?

This album has been mentioned and/or described many times before, but I'll chime in and say that I'm a fan. The one frustrating aspect of the recording for me: Washington is often off-mike, or at least not as close to the mike as Rudy usually recorded horn players at the time. Besides this (and it doesn't ruin the session), the music is certainly worth listening and re-listening to. And ... I have a sneaking suspicion that some day, perhaps not too far away, M. Cuscuna will have this one reissued as a Connoisseur — with one or two tracks added on from The Day the Train Wrecked and Everybody Wondered What it Sounded Like.

Thanks for clearing that up, James! $20, and autographed by Harper himself? Why not!

Ghost, I use that exact same kind of reward! If you're a "househusband," which I essentially am, you have to like, or really get used to, all of the chores. Plus side: music is on for the dishes, the cleaning of the bathroom, the laundry, the occasional washing of the windows, and even the vacuuming. What I dislike? Dust bunnies. The wife has long hair, and we have three medium-longhaired cats, so I'm often waging war against numerous dust-bunny colonies with either a broom or our dirt-devil. Maybe I should try a "swifter"? Is that what they're called?

Just listened to this again today, as well as to Vibes from the Tribe, which, for some reason, doesn't strike me as half as good as The Time is Now!. Marcus Belgrave can really rip it up when he wants too. Has his album on Tribe ever been reissued on compact disc?

Speaking of Leapin' and Lopin', is anyone just a little bit surprised that this one hasn't yet made it into the RVG line-up? This would seem like a no-brainer to me. Wonderful session, in the "classic" Blue Note mold, what else do we need?

Didn't that Monk record actually come with faux 3¢ stamps at the time of its original release? If so, that would be something to have one of those ...

That sewing machine sure made some fine clothes. Chuck, I think I hear where you're coming from now. (Happy you're happy — q.v. Betty Davis ) The concision and relative ambiguity of your post let me read that statement — "worthwhile, but not essential" — as somewhat of a flip comment. So I flipped. I've never really understood the parallel that writers frequently make between this quartet's music and "California" — as if Gerry were ostensibly trying to conjure images of the surf at Marina del Rey. To that I say: . Chet Baker played like a Coppertone maiden, kissed by the sun and forever carefree.

Ever wonder what Bitches Brew might have sounded like with Curtis Fuller (or Grachan Moncur) aboard? What In A Silent Way might have sounded like with Eric Dolphy aboard? Or both sessions with a heavier sense of swing (and one track featuring a "gut-bucket" blues)? This is an approximation of what Phil Ranelin's The Time is Now! is like. Ranelin is surely his own man on trombone — not really like Fuller or Moncur, but somewhere between these two planes. As far as the Dolphy reference, the alto player Haroum El Nil (only on one track) makes for an interesting collision of styles. The personel, usually a septet, looks like this: Phil Ranelin: trombone Wendell Harrison: tenor saxophone (a fine Coltrane/Ayler influenced player) Marcus Belgrave: flugelhorn Keith Vreeland: electric piano John Dana: bass Bili Turner: drums George Davidson: drums with guests: Haroum El Nil: alto saxophone Charles Moore: trumpet Reginald Fields: electric bass This album, reissued by Hefty Records, was originally on Tribe, and is a legitimate release (unlike other Tribe reissues), with new notes by Ranelin himself. Additionally, the remastering uses HDCD encoding, and sounds great. One to check out! I'm sure others here have heard this album. Impressions?

My first Ayler album, as I'm guessing it was for many, was Spiritual Unity. When I was waiting tables, I used to play a tape of that recording in my car on the way to, and on the way back, from work. Somehow it always helped me have the willpower to work in the food service, and then decompress from it after a long shift. I gave a ride home to one of the bussers one night, played the tape, and he said, "What the Hell is this?" I said, "Albert Ayler." He didn't say anything for a moment, concentrated his stare at the cassette deck, and then finally offered, "Dude, this rocks!" Other favorite Ayler albums of mine are Ghosts and Spirits.

Jim's and Joe's second paragraphs, respectively, nail it for me. Rouse, especially on Bossa Nova Bacchanal, does often fall into repeating some of his pet licks, and — though I hear him doing this less with Monk — this kind of limited vocabulary still somehow works within the context of Monk's quartet. I actually think Rouse plays best, meaning most imaginatively, when Monk drops out. Lucky Thompson! Now that would have been an interesting quartet to behold, say, 1960, 1961. I still love Rollins most as a Monk sideman, though this opinion doesn't diminish my enjoyment of hearing Rouse with Monk. Sometimes, however — and I don't even know why — I want to hear Rouse on baritone rather than tenor.

I don't think this music was ever intended to be life-changing. "Wholistic," though, I think is a good term for what Gerry achieved with the music of this group. Considering its proximity historically to Birth of the Cool, and also factoring in the hugely dominant influence of Charlie Parker's musical aesthetic at the time, I think this music is essential, and, at times, somewhat ground-breaking. It's far more melodic than bebop, and nevertheless maintains most of bebop's ethos. What's not ground-breaking to me is the omission of the piano, which a lot of writers seem to marvel at. It simply wasn't necessary. Having no piano allows you to better hear Bob Whitlock or Carson Smith (or Joe Mondragon), and to what extent they do, or do not, have an interplay with Baker or Mulligan. Baker never sounded as puckish as in this quartet, and Mulligan's playing with this group, I think, is still vastly under-examined. Listen to how he's nearly the complete polar opposite of Pepper Adams. Adams usually drives you into the wall with one dynamic marking (forte) for an entire solo, whereas Gerry, strangely like Cannonball Adderley after him, makes a dramatically wide use of dynamics throughout his solos. The tail-ends of pitches are often inflected with a vibrato not unlike Louis Armstrong's, and Mulligan also has the ability to smear some of his pitches (rather than attacking them head-on), again like Armstrong. Chuck, you astound me. I like your comments about WTF people are listening for in recordings like The All Seeing Eye (which I love), and now I wonder WTF you listen for in this group's original recordings.

Robert Dick is a classically trained "jazz" (meaning improvising) flautist, who plays the entire gamut of flutes, including the contrabass (which is actually held like a saxophone). A good recording of his is entiteld Aurealis, and this session certainly contains netherworldly sounds. It's a trio recording of flute, piano, and bass. Intense at times, and not always "jazzy," but authentic improvised music nonetheless. With ears open, this music will suck you right in. The contrabass is freaky! (Bass, alto, and standard flutes are also played; piccolo is too, but very sparingly.)

Most, but not all, of Hank Mobley's 60's work leaves me unmoved. When A Slice of the Top came out as a Connoisseur, I bought it, played it, and eventually sold it. I haven't purchased a Mobley reissue since. Sometimes I think: What if Joe Henderson had been given the same recording opportunities (meaning sheer number of sessions) at Blue Note that Hank had? Mobley's 50's work I have a much stronger affection for — Curtain Call seems a diamond in the rough.

This was my first Shorter album, purchased on compact disc about 17 years ago, except that the disc wasn't actually compact, and it was glossy and black, and had all these grooves struck into it. Sometimes what I'm most struck by about Shorter's playing is how relatively fast (from his first recordings) his approach moved away from Coltrane's. I know the two were acquaintances, if not friends, in the late 50's, and I believe they shared some practice time together. You'd never hear Coltrane, for example, play high(er) notes the way Shorter does on the ballads for Adam's Apple. Very few tenor players, in my listening experience, have that type of delicacy, while still being a "delicacy" that I hear being pretty far removed from, say, a Stan Getz. In Getz's case, one can often hear breath in his tone, whereas in Shorter's there's less of an airy quality, and more saxophone sound. That takes a lot of embouchre control, and just the right balance of air pressure against the reed. At any rate, I agree — those ballads are something to marvel at, and reveal a style of playing that is inimitably Wayne Shorter. Perversely perhaps (because it wasn't on the original session), my favorite track has always been "The Collector" (that is, after I purchased the actual compact disc). This track became, I believe, "Teo's Bag" when it was recorded with Miles, but there it lacks a lot of the intensity that this version has. I wish that Shorter had come back into the studio around this time to make an album (or complete an album) that continued the path that this track started. To my ears, this track is darker than the rest of Adam's Apple, and I think that's when Shorter gets most interesting — a la The All Seeing Eye, I suppose. If you have Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice, check out Carlos Garnett's soloing there. To me, some of his phrases on this record are unmistakably under the influence of Shorter. And it was only 1969! Whether or not Garnett was one of the first to be attracted to Shorter's style, there were many, many to follow.

How long do you guess it will be until the single disc (or double-disc) issue of this comes out? While I think I would like the box set, I've decided to go the album reissue route on this one. If it's a single disc, do you suppose any extras will be added, or just the original two tunes? Curious.