Late

Well, I don't have Sennheisers, but I do have a pair of AKGs! Good point about the stereo separation. I'll check again. My copy of Expression on compact disc is a German edition from 1987 (254 646-2), which sounds flat-transferred. Pretty quiet, but when you turn it up it sounds decent. I listened to the whole program just two days ago. While I can probably ultimately live without "To Be," that album is much better than I've given it credit for over the years. "Offering" is one of my all-time favorite Coltrane tracks. Thankfully, it's on the Stellar Regions SHM-CD! Sounds great there. The title track ("Expression") is also excellent.

I took your advice and listened to the sound samples. The Japanese edition contains the correct version of "Big Nick," but I couldn't tell from the samples if RVG did the remaster for the Japanese edition (or if the remaster is based off RVG's). I've been listening a lot recently to Coltrane, Living Space, and Transition, and wishing I was alert to the 2011 SHM-CDs back in the day. But, as with most Japanese issues, patience is required — they'll likely be reissued (again) in the next couple of years (maybe Coltrane's 90th?), and hopefully contain either new or the 2011 remasters. "Untitled 90314" and "Untitled 90320" are both so damn good. I've had Living Space now for 17 (!) years, and I'm finally paying very close attention to the soloing and ensemble. I wonder how these tracks would be regarded had they been titled and issued when Coltrane was alive. And I wonder what Ravi still has in the vaults ...

Does anyone here own UCCI 9200/1 — the two-disc SHM-CD version of Coltrane? I'm wondering if it contains the same RVG mastering as the U.S. edition.

Phipps: Not Jackie, but a good album nonetheless. Nice to hear Barrow stretch out. (He's the phantom participant on Blues & The Abstract Truth.)

I'm not feeling the checked tie + checked shirt, but Trane knew things others did not ... But back to Jackie. Today I listened to: in its entirety. This is actually a much better album than conventional wisdom regards it as — i.e. historically not insignificant, but also passable in the grand scheme. But listen to the solos. None of them are throw-aways. This was a working band at the time, and it seems one that was hoping for a break. Everybody's slightly careful, but to good effect. Webster Young puts forth his best tone and is thinking Miles (perhaps via Fats) all the way. Jackie seems like he's trying to avoid all the Parkerisms that Mingus hated, and Ray Draper is more delicate than he is on the Prestige sessions. Gil Coggins sounds positively Monkian, and check Larry Ritchie — what happened to that guy? There are lots of references to contemporaneous music of the time — quotes of Sonnymoon, Miles licks, and Philly Joe Jones-isms. This band was tight, and they were gigging in Newark. I wonder what they sounded like live. If this album were on Blue Note, it wouldn't be as under-remarked as it is.

Checking (again) to see if anyone here has purchased this particular title. $30 is no bargain, but perhaps it's worth the extra paper route $?

Booyah.

And for fans of the Casals recording (I'm one), this edition is the one you want. Brilliantly remastered from 78's.

And check out Rochat's Cassado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WAc1EDl3a0 Never mind all the edits and lighting (and hair). Listen. Cassado himself would grin.

Fans of Ophélie Gaillard's edition of the Suites should check out Pieter Wispelwey's third recording (2012) of the complete Suites. I have to say, I think it's very, very good; so far, I like it better than Gaillard's. Idiosyncratic at times, yes, but musical above all. Sound samples at Amazon. If Gaillard is "virile," this edition of the Wispelwey is carnal. Something like that.

Full album on now. Good to hear more Wetmore. I also dig Vinnie Burke. The stuff he did with Eddie Costa — very tasty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxEWa922jgc

Fans here? The Sarah influence is strong, but her artistry is solid enough that she doesn't come off strictly as an imitator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwfu4lZjD3k

Very much agree. I love that record, particularly the bonus track "Tibbit." And the opening track, "W.K. Blues" (penned by Mr. W.K. himself), was my get-up-in-the-morning track for over a year. That said, what else I've heard from Strozier, which isn't everything, has never quite lived up to the same level of excitement (for me). His participation on McCoy Tyner's Today and Tomorrow, as one example, seems oddly inhibited. On that debut record, however, Strozier is in full voice and very much uninhibited. Doesn't hurt that Booker Little's on the record too. I wish Alfred Lion had found a way (or a desire) to get Strozier onto his label. I passed on the Mosaic because I already had all the music. Maybe that wasn't the best idea. (All this belongs on a Vee-Jay thread. Then we could also talk about The Beatles' first U.S. album!)

Sometimes it sounds (to me) like Rollins is improvising harmonies, or harmonic counterpoint, to a melody that nobody else can hear. In other words, he's playing "under" an improvised melody that he's hearing but not necessarily playing. Does that make any sense?

And now ... I can't tell if this is a terrible record or a hidden gem. But I am spinning it.

The schmaltz level is so high that it's somehow, blackhole-wise, a good record.

Been spinning this one (and Black Saint) all morning. The track "Priestess," for some reason, feels like a memorial track today.

Important point — and the same can be said, probably not coincidentally, of a number of creative icons. Equally important to the music he made, is his power of perseverance — to keep going in the face of that one repeated word: No.

I love the track order. It's one of the few best-of comps, for nostalgic reasons I suppose, that I consider an album to itself.

Interesting that this Vee-Jay title is in the batch. My Japanese P-Vine copy sounds like cr@p. Will probably take a gamble on this new edition.