JSngry

Oh, but NOT complete! There were alternate takes recorded but not included. Cuscuna exercised his editorial prerogative on that, and it kinda pissed me off back then, tbh. I sent him a snail mail, which he answered, and he made his case, which made enough sense. But still -"Complete Recordings" either means complete recordings or it doesn't. These aren't false starts/breakdowns etc, these are full takes. I for one would very much like to hear what a "bad" take of this material by this band at this time sounded like, it would be very enlightening, I should think. Train Wreck Syndrome on early display, perhaps? He got kinda angsty about overlooking some Chet Baker(?) cut, but saw fit to make the call about unissued Cecil Taylor, and I was like, dude, priorities! I car much less about it now than I did then, but back then, yeah, I cared about it!

Thanks, I will keep a casual eye open for those.

Oh, I have other favorites, mostly "the usual suspects" from the first decade or so of the label. the "ECM sound" is one that was refreshing at the onset, but also one that evolved/devolved for my taste. And yeah, that's Eicher. But they continue to release records (and kudos to Eicher for, at least apparently, for putting a bunch of the buttloads of money he's made on Jarret/Metheny/Etc back into the label to keep making records), and some of them I've liked. Looking back a little further, I ver much like the Bley/Parker/Phillips record quite a bit as well. ANOTHER one not produced by Eicher! OTOH, there's a good portion of that music that would not appeal to me no matter what kind of sound the record had. It's the music itself that does not engage, not the sound of the record. Which is not to say that some of the music I do like on the label would not engage me on a different(I'll not say better) level if the records sounded differently. But they don't, so hey. Point just being, it's a deep catalog spanning 50 or so years. It's as wrong as it is easy to think of it all as one monolithic EicherSound.

The question was about the label, not the producer.

Those covers...I have no idea what's up with that...does Eicher have vision problems, going blind, or something. They do seem evolving into darkness in a really...literal fashion,

That's an EPIC record!

They're on ECM, that by definition makes them "ECM albums". And they're all within the last 5 or so years. I get how they (ECM) seem to have slipped into a "lull" for a good while, but I seem to have been buying more of their new releases over the last few years than I have in a loooooong time - and those Charles Lloyd records with Billy Higgins are great! There are a lot of records on ECM. Including this one, which I find interesting, at the very least.

I would not at all be surprised if spent years working as a single/solo playing lounge gigs where she was expected - by everybody except herself - to be just a pretty girl playing piano and singing bar songs, shut up, look good, and play those bar songs. That's what you're here for, that's all you're good for. You know how this business is, especially then, and especially for women. Gangsters, drunks, pervs, and misogynists, sometimes all in one, sometimes all over the place, but almost always there somewhere, in the way and impossible to get rid of. The Verve record might have been the best she ever got in terms of musical gratification and perhaps seemingly endless frustration ensued. What comes from that, who knows...all sorts of things are possible. Hopefully she found her own truth and beauty, if not in music, then elsewhere. It's there once/if you can find a place where "they" aren't. If she's alive, I hope she realizes that she made a totally kickass record and that there's at least one person who will love her forever for doing that. Probably more than one, no doubt.

Now let's see how long it takes before some counterfeit merchandise starts hitting the market somewhere?

What all kinds of writing did Billy Ver Planck do through the years? I'm hearing his charts on two Houston Person albums and kinda liking what I'm hearing..treating "pop songs" like songs, not just pop, pretty musical, actually. Did he do a lot of stuff for Prestige, or what exactly, how did the guy make his living in music?

You have to either have players that fit your system or else a system that fit your players. Otherwise you're operating under the delusion that all you have to do is wite a wonderful score and then any band anywhere at anytime of any level with any skill set will be able to execute it brilliantly, and we all know that's pretty much a 100% fantasybullshit notion.

Is Kelly Harmon coming along for the ride?

The thread was intended to consider the musicality of humor, but ok!

Was i quoted for any particular reason? Just wondering. I like the subject, the concept of the series...a lot of good talent out there, some better than others, of course, but although I totally get (and have too-often been subjected to) the whole "chick singer" thing, it's an unfair (and yes, sexist, at times misogynistic) stigma placed on an entire genre. so to the extent that a series like this gets people to relisten/reconsider, hey. Good thing. OTOH, some people just don't like singers, period. Them, I neither understand nor fully trust. Ultimately, voices are all we got.

painful, mostly, however, I do like "Smart Girls", because....nobody else in the world could have done that.

Oh my, but they're all good!

"Life" is an illusion, so as long as your check don't bounce, you can play with whatever chords you want.

JESUS JACY, DON'T SWING SO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad you recognize that the diminished chord died a natural death from it's own self-predicted irrelevance. But you can still pay for my kids, no problem there. You money is always good here!

Hey, if I killed the diminished chord, you can pay for my children, I - and a grateful universe - will take all your money with neither compunction nor hesitation.

I don't at all like the label, but this is a good series for what it does. Tehre are some gems in there, although I doubt that any of them are other than booted copies from Japanese and other legit sources. Still, this series did have the GREAT Jacy Parker record, and anybody that does that... Tommy's a great guy to deal with, so yes, I will recommend these - to buy from him and only him! Confirming the recs for the Honi Gordon, but for THAT one get the OJC if you can find it. But yeah, Honi Gordon! That Barbara Long thing was on Savoy and is very nice, even if she does seem to have been in another room than the band, or in the same room at a different time. She could hang. The Peggy King record is good. Gloria Smyth, yeah! An All-Star lineup! A BIG rec for the Pat Thomas! Strand made good records, and this one was no exception. Same for the Shelley Moore. VERY good singer. Ramsey Lewis, Isaac Holt, Eldee Young, Eddie Harris, Plas Johnson and John Collins and she can hang. Do not sleep on this record!!!! I like the Easy Williams too.. That Larry Hovis is the same Larry Hovis from Hogan's Heroes. I don't know this record, but heard him on that Bill Gannon Trio on Carlton and found him to be a really good singer. Who knew? Beverley Kelley, this record is with the Pat Moran trio and has Scott LaFaro walking the shit of some walking, and Ms. Kelly seems to be the type of singer that is happy to have that underneath her. JAcy Parker was another one, only Jacy Parker played her own piano. But those are singers to pay attention to, because they ain't afraid to get down in it, which after all, is where it's at. Like I said, great series. Sketchy sources, but a great series. And by all means check out Jacy Parker. She got PUNCH! I hope that whatever happened to her (and it still seems to be a mystery) that it was at least as good for her as it was for me, hopefully better. Don Cinderella walking!

Personally, diminished chords are the most uninteresting of chords, imo. Very 19th century. BLECH!