Late

Bam. This album should be owned by all Shepp fans.

Finally got around to giving this album some focused attention. Well, I looped just the first two tracks on repeat. Wow. I'd forgotten that Walter Davis, Jr. is on this album — 1968! Such good playing from everyone, well-recorded, and Shepp is intense. If you have this album, give it a spin! If not, now's your chance to pick it up (in January). The Japanese edition won't have the two bonus tracks, but they'll be on Kwanza. Now I need to listen to tracks 3-6. Dave Burrell takes over on piano for "New Africa" and "Bakai." This reminds me that I have some live recordings of Shepp's band when both Grachan Moncur AND Roswell Rudd were in the group. Have to find them. Too bad that unit didn't (to my knowledge) make it into the studio.

A fine album. I love Sonny Stitt's solo on the title track. And dig that typeface!

Seconded. And you have to dig the cover!

I can't get enough of Coltrane's solo on "Creation" these days. I've been playing it over and over. There's a lot to take in. During McCoy's solo, when he really lays into the block chords, Elvin plays a syncopated figure I've never heard from him elsewhere. It feels like 3 against 4, but suspended into a kind of 7/8 feel? (This would make sense given the opening melody.) It doesn't last long before Elvin settles back into his 4/4 rolling thunder. The whole band is incredibly focused on this track. For all its supposed freedom, this is disciplined music. I love Coltrane's "cell" figures in his solo. Reminiscent of Sun Ship.

I've been listening to this track on the way to work. (Better than caffeine!) Coltrane's solo and the 1963 Newport solo on "Impressions" with Roy Haynes are, for me, some of the very best Coltrane on record. The Half Note recordings are the kind of stuff where you wish (I wish) for a time machine — insist that Rudy record it professionally, pay him extra, pay the band extra, attend the entire gig, serve sweet potato pie and butterscotch Lifesavers at intermission, and ultimately usher into the future a series of well-recorded live Impulse! albums. Coltrane was absolutely on fire for The Half Note gig. I haven't heard that many bootlegs from 1963-1967. Aside from the 1965 Paris shows, what others should I be looking for? There really should be an official Coltrane Bootleg Series. It would sell.

I echo this sentiment. Depending on context, a Sanders Impulse! record creates a great vibe.

D'oh! I have The Way Ahead. I was wanting those two bonus tracks ... and already have them! (Clearly I need to spin that CD again.) $ saved!

Reissued again. Along with: • Fire Music • On This Night • Live In San Francisco • Mama Too Tight • The Way Ahead • Kwanza • Things Have Got To Change • Three For Shepp (Marion Brown)

20 new reissues. The SHM-CD titles I've heard from this series sound really good. I missed Kwanza the first time around, so it'll be nice to pick this one up. [Note: I'm conflating the UHQCD and SHM-CD series. Oh well!]

Pharoah Sanders Impulse! titles, on compact disc, are available again — on January 20, 2021. This will be only the second time that Live At The East has been available on compact disc. Tauhid and Karma aren't in this batch, but the rest are. Too bad Alice Coltrane titles weren't added. Still! [Oh, it looks like Love In Us All, also isn't in the list.]

Operetta for Barbara Donald

Rumasuma contains some of the best Barbara Donald on record. Simmons seems inhibited by the piano, but Donald just burns — every solo she has. You can really hear the Booker Little influence.

A legit reissue (Enterplanetary Koncepts) of this:

This 2003 Japanese compilation is excellent, especially when you just want to play a single disc of Red's: 1. C Jam Blues (Groovy) 2. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (Red Garland’s Piano) 3. But Not For Me (Red Garland’s Piano) 4. St. James Infirmary (When There Are Grey Skies) 5. My Blue Heaven (When There Are Grey Skies) 6. Soon (Can’t See For Lookin’) 7. Summertime (All Kinds of Weather) 8. Rain (All Kinds of Weather) 9. A Foggy Day (A Garland of Red) 10. What Is This Thing Called Love? (A Garland of Red) 11. This Can’t Be Love (It’s A Blue World) 12. And The Angels Sing (Red Garland Trio/Moodsville) 13. Billy Boy (Revisited!)

Good album for 2020. Red is tight.

That comp looks great.

Saw Golia live in 1997 at LACMA. He played almost the entire gig on Eb contra-alto clarinet. Unfortunately, I can't remember the rest of the band. A piano-less quartet if I recall correctly.

The Ayler appears to be a two-disc reissue of: I never got around to picking up the Stockholm/Berlin set, so it's nice that it'll be available once again. I also have Yasmina, but not Blasé, so the Shepp too is a welcome reissue. I hope that Werner keeps digging through the hat archive as well as other labels. If ezz-thetics essentially becomes a reissue label, I'm for it.

Any thoughts, twelve years later, as to what compact disc edition of Pithecanthropus Erectus sounds best? ("Best" being a relative term, of course.) I have a Japanese K2 20-bit edition, and Mingus's bass is artificially boosted. Anyone here happen to have heard the (ridiculous term ahead) MQA-UHQCD edition? The music, it goes without saying, is irreproachable.

Maybe Cecil united all his Units at one point and we just didn't know about it.

"United"?

You're gonna love it. It's always seemed a little more heartfelt to me than his Prestige dates. The young Bobby Few on piano adds a slight twist.

I don't find the album horrible, but I do think it's curious that perhaps the most interesting track ("My Heart Stood Still") was left off the album. My guess is that Creed Taylor didn't like Gary Peacock's solo (which seems to be giving the middle finger to the proceedings). I like Olga Albizu's paintings: