Late

Gary, you can check hat's site for other Eskelin cd's, as well as (general) release dates. Eskelin is developing quite a repertoire on that label, and I think he's one of the most forward looking tenor players recording today. That said, I still haven't personally gotten my ears around Andrea Parkins' playing, and this often inhibits my pleasure of Eskelin's albums. Here are two recommendations without Parkins as a result: • Figure of Speech (Soul Note) This album demonstrates how solid Eskelin's chops really are. It's earlier on in his career ('91, I believe), and I think this provides an opportunity to notice Eskelin's (at least seeming) attraction to Sonny Rollins — both this master's playing, and his common preference for a trio setting. Eskelin uses tuba instead of bass here (as well as percussion instead of drums), and the results are often very interactive, what with Joe Daley going between "walking" and soloing at ease. The opener — "#107" — sounds to me an extension of what Rollins was doing around 1963, and, well, I'm a sucker for that. • Vanishing Point (hatOLOGY) Nine years down the road, and totally different. Tenor with viola, cello, bass, and vibes. Almost all improvised. Beautiful, and beautifully recorded. I haven't heard an album quite like this one — as soon as any one instrumentalist here creates anything close to a melody, that melody is shattered, or at least disintegrated, as if there's a conscious objective to remove any traditional method of head-solo-head performance. Whether this was actually conscious or not, I guess I don't care. This an album to get lost in. Eerie and unusual.

There's been constructive input on this album already, so I'll keep it short. My reaction to this one, as much as I've wanted to get into it, is always the same. When the sounds come out of the speakers, my countenance resembles:

• T-Bone Walker: T-Bone Blues • John Lee Hooker: That's My Story • Lightnin' Hopkins: Blues In My Bottle ... and the wife played: • The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night • Madonna: Ray of Light

Though it will set you back a fair chunk of dough, the Jones Mosaic offers an exceptional view of this artist. It contains the two albums that Greg mentions (which are fine indeed), and also has every note of the wonderful Live at the Lighthouse material. A couple of general caveats, however: • It helps to like saxophonists when it comes to this set. If you already like Dave Liebman and Steve Grossman, well, this set is almost tailor-made for you. They have a ball (both competitively and interactively) on the Lighthouse material. In fact, urban myth (and this particular one I tend not to believe at all, but want to anyway) has it that Grossman was so nervous playing with Jones and dueling with Liebman that he barfed during intermission in Liebman's open saxophone case. • Some of the later material from this box is (how to put this) "over-produced," and it helps to repeat the mantra: of it's time, of it's time. Still, I think this set contains far more authentic material than fluff. If you really want some hardcore Jones, seek out his live LP's on Honeydew entitled Skyscrapers. Both Volume 1 and 2 are trio configurations with George Coleman and Wilbur Little, and offer enormously long drum solos. You'll either think you've died and gone to drum kit heaven, or you'll want to throttle any small animals within arm's reach.

M— Graham, Nice choice of avatars!

This is a fine album, and I'd give another 's up to it. I just noticed it on Dusty "Corkers 'R Us!" Groove, too.

Red, I haven't read the Giddins piece on Slightly Latin, and probably won't go looking for it, to be honest. Giddins usually seems pretty ecumenical in his reviews, but if he panned this one (even in the slightest), well then, to him I say — begone scoundrel! The longer I listen to music, the more impatience I have with reviews and liner notes. In the end, it's so much superfluous, and sometimes irrelevant, information. Jaded? Maybe, but I'd take albums without liner notes any day. I hear this Kirk album as a brain-inflating blend of some disparate, while somehow still connected, references (or connections). They would be, in no particular order: • Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice. Though Hill's album was recorded after Kirk's, it just might be possible, given that Hill was part of Kirk's band at one time, that Hill heard (and liked) what Kirk did with voices on this album, and used this as a sort of touchstone when his own album with voices was recorded. The vocal choir on Slightly Latin is unobtrusive, while still having a good ol' time. • Great spins on Bacharach and The Beatles. Listen to Kirk get his funk on in the opening vocal lines of "Walk on By." Walk it! • Charles Mingus's "Passions of A Man" track, which Kirk was on. Kirk's own "Ebrauqs" (Squarbe backwards?) seems to me strongly reminiscent of this Mingus composition. OK, I've gotten way off the thread topic. But I had to keep on about this album. If Michael Fitzgerald reads this, well, I think he's probably a greater authority on Kirk than I am ... And you know (if the time comes) what I'm picking for AOTW! The album, too, can be had cheap! Dusty Groove Lyric Poet Society was offering this a while ago for $5.99.

Speaking of Kirk on baritone saxophone ... the album to get is Slightly Latin. Whoo. This might be my favorite Kirk album, even though I wouldn't call it necessarily "representative" of his scope as a musician. Kirk also takes a funky solo on kazoo on this one. And, one must question one's soul (e.g. Do I have soul?) if the tunes RAOUF or NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH don't get you up and shaking the seat of your pants (even just a little).

Deja vu! Brad, I've been thinking about All Quiet on the Western Front off and on for the last couple of days. It's been 20 (!) years since I read that book, and I need to revisit it. Unfortunately, some of my reminiscings about this book involve John Boy from the Waltons, as he was in the made-for-television movie based on this novel(la). Ghost, I'll have to look for that book by Singer. Oxford University Press is (purportedly) compiling an anthology on the literature of jazz, and I wonder if your friend has been contacted. What with winning the Yale Younger Poets award, I'd assume he has (or should be). The anthology has been in the works for some time now, and I think it might currently be on hold indefinitely. The way it was described to me was that it could be used as a textbook, say, for college literature courses. Should be interesting when it eventually sees publication light. What Melville do you all like? (Outside of Moby Dick, that is.) I'll profess to having read not-enough (read: very little) of his work, but am hungry for more. I always feel, though, that in order to fully engage myself with his writing that I need to be stranded somewhere, without contact with the world at large. Additionally ... any fans of Williams' Paterson?

John Corbett's UMS Series reissued this one, and it flew under my radar. Has anyone here heard this one? The line-up looks good.

Ah, the ferocious poetic license and non sequitir work of that fine tribe of bards, the inspired writing staff at Dusty Groove ... • A description of Caliman's Celebration — " ... Caliman's tunes and playing have a lightly magical feel to them -- a sadness behind the sun, done at a complicated level that we appreciate more and more over the years." • And a description of Projecting — "Soaring spiritual magic from Hadley Caliman ... hitting those angular reed notes he laid out so well on so many Fantasy sessions during the 70s, and which shine even more brightly under his own light of leadership!" What sayest thou, sweet cringe meter? Begone that sadness behind the sun! Let soar your spiritual magic, your own lusty light of leadership!

Tangential (but semi-related) reference: I had a chance, in '89, to attend a seminar on improvisation and jazz drumming led by Charli Persip. He actually seemed a little shy at first, but warmed up during the two hours, and was very open to any and all questions. The weird thing (at least to me at the time) was that his kit, and the way he set it up, looked quite like a "rock" set-up: the cymbals relatively high up and nearly vertical, and the bass drum and toms larger than a typical "jazz" kit. All of this didn't make a whit of difference, though, because as soon as he hit the ride cymbal, it was luscious, in-the-idiom, jazz. (It just looked like something Tommy Lee might play.) Just wanted to add that tidbit of reminiscence.

Anyone heard the Costanzo? That one (at least initially) seems most interesting to me. I don't know if he plays bongos on this one, but that guy can make bongos sing!

Another trumpet player that seems to fit into the group being discussed (Ferrara, Sherman, Eardley, et al.) is yet another Don: Don Fagerquist. Granted, Fagerquist is usually recognized as a "West Coast" trumpet player, but his melodic sense fits the boppish to cool sensibility. His own VSOP session is superb, and his work with Dave Pell is just as remarkable. One of the purest tones around, with meticulous articulation to boot. Come to think of it, Dick Collins seems to fit this mold too. His RCA sessions (particularly Horn of Plenty) are beautiful. And the bands that are on them ... pity that those discs aren't in wider circulation.

Did Underground debut "Boo Boo's Birthday," or did that track appear somewhere else first? It's always been one of my favorite Monk compositions.

Also dig these: And these:

Congrats, Temple! I hope that work finds you, and you it, in the near near future. Music teachers are an indispensable part of a child's education.

This one and the Mulligan/Hodges reissue (and, can't forget, the Giuffre reissue) are giving me high hopes for Verve. Will these be in the mini-LP format, or digipack?

I was wondering if anyone here has this album, and what they think of it. It looks good on paper. Here's the AMG review.

Here's to a speedy recovery, Ghost! A helmet convert indeed! Vital stuff. (I was in a scooter accident about 16 years ago; I was wearing a helmet, but if I hadn't been, I wouldn't now have a right ear. Skidded for about 10-15 feet down the street on my side, the asphalt whirring under me about an inch away from my cheek.)

Roundsound — Gerry Mulligan is one saxophonist of note that was working without a piano several years (around five, I think) before Sonny Rollins, albeit usually in a quartet format. I think Cranshaw actually plays the electric bass because of injuries sustained in a car accident some time ago that limited his left hand/arm movement — at least I recall reading this on a bulletin board (can't remember which one) about a year ago.

Love this tune. And I'm secretly glad that Ray Copeland missed the gig! (Julius Watkins is the biscotti to Rollins' espresso. OK, bad analogy.)

The Japanese version of Trios (Freeman/Twardzik) sounds amazing. A lot of love went into its remastering, including a surgical restoration of the intro from "A Crutch for the Crab," which I'm pretty sure is not included on the long out-of-print domestic version. The intro (for the Japanese version) was dubbed from an LP, and then seamlessly sewn on to the rest of track (remastered from tape). This one (in mini-LP) is still around, and well worth some important $. And ... you get 13 bonus tracks of Freeman material! Yes, I still want to know about Bob Zieff too! Those compositions have a magnetic quality to them. They stick in your brain synapses, and fire all day long. Another plug for Chaloff's The Fable of Mabel as well. It's one of the few instances where I really appreciate hearing alternates stacked up on top of each other. The LP on Storyville gives a sketch of "Mabel" in its liner notes that the Mosaic doesn't offer: "In this legend, Mabel is depicted as a woman who loves men, music, and her silver saxophone that played counterpoint (her own invention which proved impractical). The work is divided into three movements: (1) New Orleans, (2) Classical?, and (3) Not Too Sad an Ending. The soulful baritone solo by Serge Chaloff traces Mabel's humble beginning working railroad cars in New Orleans to her emergence as a practicing crusader for the cause of jazz. During her Paris days on the Jazz Houseboat, her struggle for self-expression is symbolized by an unusual saxophone duet by Charlie Mariano and Vardi Haritounian. Mabel always said that she wanted to go out blowing. She did." ("Mabel" looks somewhat like Audrey Hepburn, in black dance gear, out of Funny Face. On the cover, multiple images of her dance over a baritone saxophone.)

Potato, isn't that Hank snuck in there in the background of your avatar? That session stands out to me as representative of Hank's generosity. Not only does it feature the Blue Note debuts of three artists (Porter, Hardman, Clark), but Hank also lets Porter take some writing honors. (So why didn't Alfred give Porter at least a single-album contract after this set? It makes perfect sense to me!) John, I have Far Away Lands on cassette too! I do find this one quite a lot of fun. This thread has seemed to bring out the eloquence in the board. Nice reading! (Especially nice after reading something like: "Lorraine Hansberry wrote Raisins in Sun. It is a complex play. There are levels of complexity that you don't see the deeper meaning of until you look at them.")

Now all he has to do is explain that avatar.