JSngry

Like I said, is there an English translation available?

Yes, as a matter of fact! Is there an English translation of that thing Claude posted available anywhere?

"Yes" now leads "Yes" by a margin of 4-1. You gotta wonder if there might not be a voting booth irregularity in the precinct that shows only one "Yes" vote since it's a traditionally "Yes" stronghold. This could be a story to watch...

If the question is if the distortion is on the original issue, the answer is yes. Don't think that this was "professionally" recorded, so some distortion was probably inevitable. I can live with it.

I see that "Yes" is leading "Yes" by a vote of 3-1. Too close to call right now...

You don't hear Irv Cottler in too many small group situations either.

Some good Pony here. in the front-line company of Lee Konitz, Leo Wright, & Phil Woods.

A totally lovely turn of phrase Larry. Mind if I use it sometimes when nobody's looking?

I'm pretty confident about #s 5 & 10. Don't know the tunes, but my origianl guess as to artists have only been strengthened by further listening. What's REALLY beginning to bug me now is #7. That altoist sounds too familiar for me not to know him. The more I listen, the more I think there's somebody Brazillian (or at leas South American) involved, perhaps the pianist, and possibly the drummer. Mr. Rowans, ye olde Brazil Nutte, any ideas?

Well, as long as it's not the Chordettes, I can live with it.

Well, if you're looking for Hard Bop Sonny, this ain't the one to get, that's for sure. But if you can handle some really masterful manipulations of tone, time, and nuance in a decidedly non-melodic fashion, then check it out and see what you think. The later 60s found Rollins in another one of his periods of personal and career dissatisfaction, and after this album, he went to India to study Yoga (but not before playing a mind-blowing gig in Denmark that was captured on a private recording and issued by Moon on 2 CDs). You can sense that restlessness pretty strongly on EBR. In fact, the Down Beat review of the time refered to it as a "disturbing" record (although the reviewer gave it 5 stars, if I remember correctly). I can agree, in a sense, with those who say that Sonny sounds "lost" here, but only on a personal level. The musicianship he displays here is astounding - the control of all the variances of his tone has seldom been better displayed, and his time and rhythm, arguably the most flexible and detailed in the history of jazz, is to the fore here in the service of him telling his story. So for me, "lost" is sort of the point here. If that's where he was, then that's the story he should tell, and tell it he does. But, like Homer's Ulysses, the adventures of a lost Sonny Rollins make for some pretty intense tales, masterly told. If they are not necessarily "pleasant" tales, then so be it. They are nevertheless real, and they are definitely gripping and suspenseful, at least for me. The closest thing to it in Rollins' "official" discography is the version of "Green Dolphin Street" from ON IMPULSE, where Sonny is there, but not there all at once, like a shadow. I've mentioned in the past how Rollins' interest in the metaphysical comes through in his 60s work (this is just my opinion however), and the whole "shadow" concept ties into the higher levels of Yoga and Zen - you aim to "become" by "ceasing to be". I can definitely hear this going on in "Green Dolphin Street" and all of EBR. Interestingly enough, I can also hear it on his Riverside recording of "Shadow Waltz", a performance TOTALLY unlike anything else Rollins was doing at the time (at least that's been documented on recording). The "shadow" thing seems to have had a deeply personal meaning for him, because there's a near-perfect example of it on EBR - "We Kiss In A Shadow", where Sonny damn near literally sounds like a shadow. There might be all types of personal and socio-political relevance and symbolism in these cuts (and others. like the RCA "Django" & "Travellin' Light") and they may or may not be conscious, or there may be none. All I know is what I hear and how it makes me feel in relation to what little I know. For most of his career, Rollins, like Bud Powell and Lester Young before him, has been faced with listeners who want (and sometimes expect and even demand) that he tell a certain story in a certain way. When he doesn't do it, these listeners often feel that what they're hearing is, if not necessarily inferior, then at least somehow lacking. And for them, it is. Fair enough. But sometimes, SOMETIMES, the story that is being told has a power of it's own if one is willing to adjust their perspective and more importantly, their expectations. EAST BROADWAY RUNDOWN, in my opinion, is a perfect example of such a story. It's puzzling at times, frustrating at times, scary at times, quite frequently brilliant, and always, ALWAYS, totally real. What it's NOT is "conventional" in any manner, save for Hubbard's role. It is what is is, and although I can completely understand the feeling of those who are either put off or puzzled by it, I can't agree even slightly. Hey, like I said earlier - I love it!

CASSETTES?

Lost in the middle of all this fuss is a question for which I've yet to recieve a satisfactory answer - Where's Mark?

I'm liking the titles of those originals...

That Frank Stallone stuff actually got some airplay on our local "E-Z Listening" station here (before it changed formats), and I must say that it left me , in a way that very little music does, with an overwhelmingly oppressive sense of "Why?".

Love it.

You should find it much to your liking then. The book is over half pre-bop, and like I said, the photos are cool.

Not sure what you mean, but I'm refering to the countless succession of Clonetranes, those players who keep thinking that if they just try a little harder to do it JUST LIKE TRANE DID, that they can get to where Trane was, and by missing the point entirely, they get further, not closer. The result is several generations of players who pretty much sound alike in tone and vocabulary. Generic Trane. Yuck. You hear them everywhere all the time. THAT'S what I was referring to.

They link directly from the Dragon site: http://www.dragonrecords.se/

For $5 no less! Carpe diem!

Wanna try Sweeden? http://www.swedishmusicshop.com/CDA/CDs.ns...4E?opendocument

The Dragon thing, In Stockholm (1959), is fairly common (or used to be at least) and comes highly recommended. Check it out!

I've got a late-60s edition that a relative gave me for Christmas back in '72 or so. The text is REALLY generic, but the pictures are cool. Not essential, but worth picking up for a good price. As long as you're browsing, keep an eye out for something called The Jazz Scene, an early-70s book by somebody Fox (Charles?), and most importantly, some STUNNING photos by Valerie Wilmer, including one of Johnny Griffin that will make you laugh, one of Don Byas that will make you cry, and enough color pix of Miles' "lost quintet" in full then-contemporary regalia to give you a flashback, regardless of how old you are.

HArd to believe that at the beginning of the decade, Tyner was a cult figure who was scuffling for gigs. Driving a cab and playing w/Ike & Tina Turner. Down Beat interviews were always full of players talking about how McCoy Tyner was a "secret" and stuff like that. Hard to believe, ain't it? But that's how it was. The man's career was in the proverbial lull. The first Milestone, SAHARA, was the big "breakout" album for him. All of a sudden, McCoy tyner had been "rediscovered", and Milestone built up a SERIOUS head of steam for him. Seems like he had an album out every 6 months (or so) all through the 70s. Honestly, at the time, they were coming so fast and furious that I began to get a bit jaded on them after a while. So did the critics - Stanley Crouch (yeah, I know...) derided Tyner as "the pentatonic Oscar Peterson" around '78 or so, and a lot of other reviews took on a kind of "oh, another McCoy record. It's good. So what? NEXT" vibe to them. But that was then, and now I just look back and think "Wow. What a run, what a substantive body of work". Some personal favorites after the initial run of truly earthshattering releases: ECHOES OF A FRIEND - solo tribute to Trane. Intense. THE GREETING - George Adams w/McCoy. 'Nuff said. TOGETHER - Hubbard, Laws, Maupin, Hutcherson, DeJohnette, an All-Star date that lives up to it's potential. Slick AND interesting. PASSION DANCE - live trio w/Ron Carter & Tony Williams. Happenin' stuff. Not crazy about INNER VOICES, FOCAL POINT (although you guys have made me think I should revisit it), & 13TH HOUSE. Not that they're bad, they're just not BAAADDD, at least not for me.

I don't know about the '59 locations, but "Sonnymoon For Two" is from Cafe Montmartre in '68, and was also issued by Moon on SONNY Rollins IN DENMARK 2. The '59 makes a perfect compliment to the Dragon disc and the AIX EN PROVINCE thing on Royal Jazz (a particular favorite of mine). It's Sonny after the CONTEMPORARY LEADERS album (his last "official" pre-hiatus album), literally just before he headed home to chill out and shed. It's fascinating stuff for me - you can often hear the germination of some of the things he's be working on and bringing to the fore in the '60s. Besides, trio Sonny is so often the best Sonny, at least in those days. The Denmark stuff, if you've not yet heard it,, is nothing short of phenominal. Again, Sonny had already recorded his last "official" album before a hiatus (in this instance, EAST BROADWAY RUNDOWN), and was ready to chill out for a while. THIS music catches him seeming to make peace with his bop/hardbop beginnings and his more exploratory '60s bent. He seems to be saying "whatever will be, will be", and just stretches out and PLAYS. 40+ minute versions of "Four" and "Three Little Words" higlight these discs, and when I tell you that those lenghty cuts are nearly all Rollins soloing or trading fours with Heath, I am not exagerrating, as I am not when I tell you that his imagination and inspiration are at their very highest peak. These are major, MAJOR documents, and should be snapped up on sight by anybody who so much as gets even a glimpse of them out of the corner of their eye.