DrJ

Way late entering this one...so will be brief. First, I do think Carlos was smoking something when he conceived this "plan" for the reinterpretation of LOVE SUPREME. No reflection on him personally, but that gig just sounds silly. Second - he quite OFTEN sounds silly - in fact most of the time I can't make head nor tail of what he's talking about. He was once a great musician, but now a pale former shadow; as a result the double-speak and flightiness is now grating rather than endearingly eccentric. Santana, sadly, for me stopped being even remotely interesting musically in the late 70's and has yet to regain any of his former momentum - and I've tried, lord knows, to appreciate his later stuff for a long time. Even his once fabulous tone - sorry clem, disagree heartily with you about that - is now thin and faux sounding, heavy on cheesy "FX" rather than created through crafty use of good quality, overdriven hardware. He peaked with SANTANA III, maintained high quality through mid 70's, and it's been quicksand time ever since. AFTER WRITING THE ABOVE: I went back and read more details of prior posts. Kind of cool and interesting how much the third Santana album has grown in regard over the years - I'll bet 20 years ago fewer people would have put it on parallel with the first 2 albums, but it's really aged extremely well (and also not suffered from quite as much overplay of key tracks). How's the new CARAVANSERAI reissue sound? I'm hoping to pick that one up soon...

Well pop music just don't get any better than on SKYLARKING, ENGLISH SETTLEMENT, and MUMMER, imho. I see these as a kind of trilogy, albeit with THE BIG EXPRESS - for me eaily the most disappointing "glory period" XTC album despite a few typical gems - crashing in to interrupt the sequence temporarily. As huge a fan as I am of the group, with the piercing view of hindsight, it seems clear to me that sometimes XTC fell off the tightrope they sometimes tried to walk between hard edged rock and annoying dentist drill yammering. Part of the problem is the 80's production job on many of their louder cuts - industrial strength reverb on the drums, for example, when a nice flat sound would have done so much more nicely and held up better with time. It's bad enough a mar on the face of a beauty like "Ball and Chain," but on the tunes where they tried to "get loud" and turned up the thin sounding distorted guitars, with Partridge in full bellow/whine mode, it's frankly kind of embarrassing and, at the very least, unlistenable. So anyway, despite being a huge fan of grungy, unpolished, and yes, loud rock and roll when it's done well (witness: LONDON CALLING, The Fall's THIS NATION'S SAVING GRACE, X's UNDER THE BIG BLACK SUN, glory period JAM, etc) by and large I find myself returning far more often to XTC's gentler, more pastoral music than their attempts at getting heavy. Big Al: I'm interested in the Caroline reissue of SKYLARKING and how it compares with the recent Virgin paper sleeve reissue. I have the latter and the sound quality absolutely shreds the old U.S. Geffen edition - no surprise there I guess. Plus it does have the original sequence with "Mermaid Smiled" etc - and they still put "Dear God" on as a bonus track at the end. Have you heard that edition?

I have just corrected an error in my prior post/rant about the truncated reissue of PICK A NUMBER...guess what folks, it was not Orrin Keepnews who can be faulted on that one, it was none other than Michael Cuscuna who produced that CD!!! Given his usual completeness, my guess is that maybe they couldn't find the tapes for the last 3 cuts and either weren't inclined to try and locate a good quality LP copy or couldn't find an acceptably clean one. I guess one other possibility is also that because these tracks were apparently recorded at a later session he somehow felt they didn't fit in with the rest of the stuff. Anyway, wanted to be fair to O.K. - although he was still the chump that messed up OUT OF THE PAST and has chopped up so many other recordings lately - and set the record straight. At least Michael appears to be rectifying the problem with this new Mosaic box!

Hey Jim - well what was wrong with MY post of basically this same info!? Just funnin' - you expanded it, and I'm glad to have found out what's on those last 3 tracks - and have a color pic of the cover! Garth - well, it looks like you've assembled a very promising Mosaic Select covering the Farmer/Golson UA+ Sessions. I don't want them to feel we're not grateful for the Jazztet set already on the horizon, but...somebody with an "in" with Cuscuna ought to e-mail this new idea pronto! BRASS SHOUT is btw an album that is undeservedly obscure...maybe not Farmer's very best but a strong one (and got to love that cover, so "of the era").

I've been out of circulation with the baby and a lot of work projects in the launching phase...it's all good, but it's all encompassing too. Anyway, somehow I had enough left over energy to post today. I still check in and lurk once in a while, too. Good to hear from you too, and likewise!

We must have posted at about the same time Garth! They basically just reissued the first 7 cuts...Keepnews must have something against octets, nonets, and tentets! About the content of the Mosaic - while I'd love to see the UA Farmer stuff you mention get issued by Mosaic, it wouldn't really fit the theme of the planned box which, as far as I can tell, just has labels represented that are currently held by Universal. What WOULD probably fit with Mosaic's modus would be a Mosaic Select of Farmer's UA stuff...if they could piece together enough material to make up 3 full CDs. Can it be done?

I can account for the musicians on the 7 tracks that were on the U.S. reissue I mentioned above. You probably know this, but to be sure - the premise of the album is that it begins with a lovely unaccompanied version of "You're My Thrill," and then with each of the successive tracks, additional instruments are added so that by the last track there is a septet. So thusly: Recorded Dec 13 & 14, 1960, Nola's Penthouse, NYC Produced by Jack Tracy Engineer: Tommy Nola 1. "You're My Thrill" Benny Golson - tenor sax 2. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" as on Track 1 plus add Tommy Williams - bass 3. "The Best Thing for You Is Me" as on Track 2 plus add Tootie Heath - drums 4. "Impromptune" as on Track 3 plus add Cedar Walton 5. "Little Karin" as on Track 4 plus add Freddie Hubbard - trumpet 6. "Swing It" as on Track 5 plus add Curtis Fuller - trombone 7. "I Fall in Love too Easily" as on Track 6 plus add Sahib Shihab - baritone sax I'm curious to see who rounds out what I'm assuming will be octet, nonet, and then tentet configurations for the last 3 numbers!

Thanks my friend! I actually didn't see that thread, but some type of psychic energy must have found me because I just felt like posting today. I've been checking in periodically but way to busy to spend much time, let alone post...having a 7 month old (will update the Avatar picture accordingly momentarily) and a bunch of new job stuff will do that! Fitting that Keepnews would win a Grammy...a useless award. Seriously, I have nothing personal towards him and he's obviously done some wonderful work in his lifetime but in later years he has become more than erratic.

While it's not truly horrible, I've never been enamored with the sound on the Conn of READY FOR FREDDIE, galling to me since it's my favorite of Hubbard's releases from the era. Boomy and muddy. I'm hoping the RVG will remedy that. I make no apologies for upgrading. Personally, it's not a problem for me - kind of brings back a bit of the "new discovery" of old favorite sessions when the sound is improved, even if only a little. When I'm not interested enough in the title, well then, I just don't upgrade. What's the big deal?

Man, I've held off picking up all the Jazztet stuff on CD for years dreaming that Mosaic would do them justice...I am psyched! And it's particularly cool they broadened the concept of the set a bit to include those excellent contemporaneous Farmer and Golson individual leader dates, given that only some of them have been issued on CD in the U.S. and then only in a rather Procrustean manner. Two of the Golsons (FREE and TAKE A NUMBER...) were reissued in that short-lived Chess reissue series with the color-coded artwork from a few years back...or at least sort of: Michael Cuscuna (surprisingly) lopped off 3 of the original 10 tracks of the TAKE A NUMBER...album - a particularly gratuitious hack job, since the CD length as issued was only 62 minutes and the rest would have fit!!! The Farmers appeared in the CD OUT OF THE PAST, which similarly saw Orrin Keepnews lopping off one track from each of the original albums while also resequencing the tracks. Since I have since picked up the Japanese imports of both full albums, I can tell you I have no idea why he left those cuts off - both are as strong as the rest of the stuff he did include. What a dork.

This is great news...thanks for sharing it! I'm becoming a Wadada Leo Smith nut ever since first exposure to his amazing sound on Braxton's 3 COMPOSITIONS OF NEW JAZZ...most recently have been enjoying the hell out of the much more recent GOLDEN QUARTET. These have been on my radar screen for the past few months. I just pre-ordered!

danasgoodstuff - well, right back at ya...the "I'm too cool to be fooled by the backlash against the hype" bit is pretty arch, really. No offense, but that type of attitude I find way more reactionary than having the temerity to point out Clapton's many limitations as a guitarist. With many years of hindsight, it's clear that while he hipped many to the real deal, the emperor in many ways had no clothes. I'm a big fan of pop music and have no problem admitting it, including acts that are "hyped." This has nothing to do with a backlash against hype..for example I'm a huge Jimmy Page fan and I'm sure that's very uncool these days among those "in the know" because Zeppelin was so popular. But his work holds up far better than Clapton's...sloppy at times, yes, but the man went for it in ways Clapton never dared to dream. It's honest, chance-taking, and unmistakeably Page. I try not to pay any attention to hype issues at all. It's just that I hear nothing unique or compelling in Clapton's guitar playing whatsoever. As a guitarist, I feel I know what I'm talking about...you can sit down and ape Clapton in minutes, including the (lack of) emotional content. He don't do it for me, and I think many others feel the same after hearing the real deal. His voice, as I mentioned, is appealingly inadequate to me - it's not a strong voice, but one that communicates in a way that his guitar just don't do. I can't believe anyone would mention him in the same breath as a great communicator like BB King! I hold to my original opinion - a good vocal stylist, and other than a few early successes and the wonderful riffing and rhythm playing on LAYLA, vastly over-valued in the guitar department. skeith - well, I agree about Beck's later years, but he cranked out some masterpieces in my view. Take an album like BLOW BY BLOW - chops to spare, and some pyrotechnics, but ultimate restraint (a tune like "Freeway Jam" just sounds fixing to burst into flame but he keeps reigning it in, building almost unbearable tension). He kind of lost that within a few years and never did regain it, but for a time, unbeatable. We will have to disagree about Page, one of my all-time favorites. I never hear Page playing just to play...he was into building textures and layers and his solos, although often sloppily executed, never failed to delight and surprise me in the Zeppelin years. He went for it, plain and simple, and wasn't afraid to make mistakes. Just as importantly, he was NEVER a slavish blues imitator...while Zeppelin did some deplorable things in terms of aceing out blues artists from getting their due songwriting credits, as a player, Page build on the blues without copping wholesale. At his best there was a quality to his playing where he sounds always like he's about to careen totally out of control but somehow manages to keep it together. Personally I feel he peaked as a blues inflected soloist in the middle of their tenure, perhaps no more splendidly on ZEPPELIN III with the amazing reconstructed blues of "Since I've Been Loving You" (captures the energy of the first couple albums without the bombast of overlong and overplayed tracks like "Dazed and Confused.") After that he did some amazing things with texture building (large portions of HOUSES OF THE HOLY and PHYSICAL GRAFFITTI) but I'm not sure he ever reached the same heights as a soloist.

AWESOME!

Clapton is overrated vastly as a guitarist, I agree with that completely. I've always felt his strongest suit was his voice, which is appealingly inadequate and fits just right with certain pop material...I actually tend to prefer his pop work for that reason, although Cream was fun at the beginning (FRESH CREAM is just that). But I simply don't understand the appeal his guitar playing has had for so many. Not bad on riffs and as a rhythm player, but his soloing is generally sterile and unimaginative. If you're going to talk about blues-influenced soloists of that era, give me Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Michael Bloomfield, and a long list of others WAY before you give me Clapton.

I would think Dexter Gordon typically sells at least as well as many of the artists who've gotten the Select treatment so far, and probably far better...this makes great sense. My only thought is that he is well-known and sells well enough that they may just decide to reissue these on the BN label rather than through Mosaic...either way, hope Malcom Addey is asked to do the remastering!

Vibes - getting back to the Sony MDRCD3000 headphones, so far I absolutely LOVE them. Very "true" sound (no overtly boomy, artificial bass OR tinny high end - full audio range is reproduced with great distinction among lows, mids and highs). They do an outstanding job of creating a sense of space, avoiding that "in your head" problem so many headphones have. I've been sitting here surfing the Web for jazz stuff and listening for over an hour and it's like I haven't even started to listen yet - NO ear fatigue, and I do tend to push listening volumes a little too high sometimes. Ears aren't sore either, extremely comfortable. These are amazing headphones, I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Congratulations! Love that parenthood...

Lots of good stuff! The "big one": Anita O'Day - COMPLETE CLEF/VERVE SESSIONS (Mosaic). What a GREAT boxed set this is...I had held off on buying any of her sessions from this era awaiting this box, and it has NOT disappointed. Superb music, O'Day has rocketed to the top of my list of vocalists...Malcom Addey did his usual amazing sonic work, too. Pricey, but recommended HIGHLY. Baby Dodds - TALKING AND DRUM SOLOS (Atavistic) Red Rodney - 1957 (Classic Records DAD edition) Wadada Leo Smith - GOLDEN QUARTET w/DeJohnette, Davis, Favors (Tzadik) Benny Carter - 3,4,5: THE VERVE SMALL GROUP SESSIONS (Verve) Hamilton-Clayton Jazz Orchestra - GROOVE SHOP (Capri)

I got a DMM of Leo Parker's ROLLIN' WITH LEO and it don't sound that bad to me.

I've picked up a few more of these lately. The original larger mini LP sleeve ones were overpriced at list IMHO, but this was on joining BMG and getting a bunch of free discs. Dizzy Gillespie - AFRO, and Basie - KING OF SWING. Both highly recommended and in good sound. Have been saving Alice Coltrane UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS for the right mood, which may be this evening so can't comment on that one yet. Of the Digipack types, Giuffre THE EASY WAY is superb and again in great sound.

Happy Birthday, Jim! I've been starting to enjoy your packed 2 CD blindfold test package...no WAY I am going to have time to weigh in on opinions/guesses anytime before the new year, sadly, as we are going out of town tomorrow for 2 weeks, but let me just say I've enjoyed the majority of disc 1 (as far as I've gotten so far) immensely and I'll be catching the rest of it on the road in the car. It perfectly illustrates why it's so great to have you around here for all of us to learn from, not to mention that you sure seem like a genuinely nice person. Here's to many more years of BB friendship, I hope.

Thanks for the compliment on our little one, AfricaBrass...and by the way, I LOVE that seasonal avatar of yours! I can just hear the music playing in my head ("I'm TOO MUCH, ba bom bom bum, ba bom bom bum...")

And more recently...

My wife and I, a couple years pre-baby!

Probably the Illinois Jacquet, which is still quite good in small doses but just not at the top of my list (despite my abiding love of Jacquet's ballad artistry). I was also disappointed by the Bud Shank set...it has its moments, but overall I don't return to it much. Also, I find the hype about this music somehow debunking the West Coast stereotypes to be, well, hype - this stuff sounds quintessentially West Coast to me, which is not a bad or good thing but I do feel has to be acknowledged. FWIW, I love the June Christy/Peggy Lee set!