T.D.

Thanks. That is indeed interesting. Even though it's a pretty radical deconstruction of the tune. I'm going to listen to the whole album.

It might be good for the seller. 😁 I no longer have LPs or a turntable, and am completely out of touch with the ongoing vinyl boom. But it seems like buyers of the premium vinyl reissues prefer facsimiles of the original albums w/o bonus tracks. That's OK with me.

Isn't there a weird sonic artifact on that album? On one of the tunes (I forget which, haven't listened in a while), you can faintly hear a broadcast of a sports event. As if somebody (in the control room?) was listening to a ballgame on the radio and forgot to pay attention to the session. I'll have to pull that one off the shelf. Maybe the episode is on the CD's "bonus track", which would be more excusable.

I have more live Rahsaan '70s recordings than I need, but this one is primo. This is an excellent reissue.

I'd buy one of those "CD laser lens cleaner" discs. They only cost $10-15. If that doesn't help, then it's probably time to get a new one. Unless you want to take the top off and try to clean the lens yourself...worst case is you mess it up and have to replace it anyway. I saw some links estimating the effective life of a laser unit at 10,000 hours playing time. So if the player is more than 10 years old, there's a good chance the laser is dying.

If you google cd lens cleaner, you can find: Products (discs with brushes) that claim to clean the lens; Videos on how to clean the lens manually. I think the former work to some extent (on at least some players), have never tried the latter. I also think that laser units sometimes just die, which in the price range of players I use means "get a new one". I'm not sure about high-end models...maybe those lasers get replaced.

Enjoying this. Some people don't like Cowell's "later straight-ahead" albums as much as his earlier work. Sometimes they can be slightly anodyne (which is why I was apprehensive about this one on the Japanese Venus label*), but: (a) he never played in a very "out" style; (b) he still plays great on the later recordings. * Amusingly, discogs now censors the notoriously soft-porn Venus covers. You have to log in to view them. 🤣 With a funny West Side Story medley.

That's my favorite Hawes album. I have a fair number of his recordings. Green Leaves of Summer comes to mind as next favorite. I don't have The Seance. Will re-listen to a few titles soon to see if my assessments have changed.

🤮

My most frequently listened to Mosaic.

I couldn't find any info on the interwebs. His website lists no upcoming or past performances and I could not locate a Facebook page. Apparently he and Joshua Edelman led a Jazz Workshop session last July in Bilbao, and also gave a 2-piano concert. That's the only post-2019 thing I saw.

Great story, and Maimoun would be on my short list of "favorite Cowell tunes".

I bought this when it was released, wasn't impressed and forgot about it. During an ongoing Nimbus West / Tapscott binge, I pulled it off the shelf. Now I enjoy it and think it's pretty good.

2 preorders from DG en route:

Oh good grief! After whiffing on the album of #5, it now transpires that: #3 is one of my favorite pianists; I own the album; I make him a near-automatic suspect on almost any un-ID'd BFT piano track. #3 is this.

One hour, in my experience.

My top 2 by a long shot are the unadventurous choices of Welles and Kurosawa. 😁

Dang, I recognized Santana but not Abraxas, which is one of the albums I'm most familiar with. I saw Bill Ware play live in fall of 2024. I got the impression he's currently NY based. Didn't know about the Philly background.

Hadn't listened to any Nimbus West recordings in a long while...enjoying these:

#6 is this cut. I have a studio version of this on the Straight Ahead album. As Jim noted, it's a Wes tune.

Thanks for presenting the BFT. I enjoyed listening to it. Couldn't guess much (if anything), and it was a busy work month so I didn't have time to post much. I'm somewhat of a Francophile when it comes to classical music, but hadn't heard #4 and couldn't muster a guess, though the actual composer was one of the main suspects that came to mind. #3 definitely worth the price of admission, and there are several others I intend to follow up on. Have heard loads of "Barbara Song"s on record recently (the tune seems to be popular with Euro jazz musicians), but wasn't familiar with the recording of #2.