DrJ

I have a nice 2 LP set entitled EXORCISING GHOSTS, from 1984 (UK import, Virgin Records). Material from 1979-83, the "moody years." Here's what All Music Guide says: "It's not a true career overview, and given that the band only released two albums during its stint on Virgin, a collection that includes at least half of each of those efforts is ultimately a strange exercise in superfluity. That all said, though, if one needs to have a useful enough starting point for what made Japan so great, Exorcising Ghosts is a reasonable way to start. The emphasis is entirely on the moody, melancholic but energetic phase of Japan's career — there's nothing earlier than a couple of cuts from Quiet Life, and any hint of the band's trash glam rock start is carefully and quietly ignored. Tasteful is the word here instead, and, to be sure, the album cover and design, a beautifully striking effort from regular Sylvian artistic partner Russell Mills, is one of the best ever done. Sylvian himself oversaw the compilation, which leads to an important note: if there's a version of the album to get, appropriately enough it's the Japanese one. As the collection was apparently meant to be geared towards the band's namesake country first and foremost, that version includes a slew of extra tracks that create not only a better picture of the band's work, but provides more rarities of interest to fans. Besides such wonderful album cuts as "Swing" and "Sons of Pioneers," other Japanese-only songs include the single version of "Taking Islands in Africa," which features co-writer Ryuchi Sakomoto actually performing on the track, and which has otherwise not yet appeared on an album. Still, the stripped down U.K. edition does have a couple of less familiar takes: the 12" version of "The Art of Parties" and a take on "Talking Drum" which has different opening drums. — Ned Raggett" Incidentally, the UK version I have DOES have all those extras, so I don't know exactly what Raggett is talking about. Maybe this was some initial-run special in the UK, I don't know. Anyway, I would highly recommend this - honestly I think this would be about all the Japan you'd need. They're wonderfully evocative and inventive, but after a while it all sort of starts to sound the same, and you long for something a little more edgy and in your face.

No, I actually think we disagree more than we agree - not to quibble, but fundamentally, I believe what this guy is trying to do will lead to far more harm than good - helping to entrench racial divides and in particular playing into a false "black/white" racial dichotomy that not only is misleading (since racial "purity" is mostly a thing of the past) but also ignores a huge segment of the population in the U.S. that doesn't self identify with EITHER of these categories. Black/Asian relations, for example, are often highly contentious (witness the violence against Korean business owners in the LA riots post Rodney King), yet this black/white polarization approach completely ignores that history (and others, such as Black/Hispanic conflict) and says, basically, "the race problem in the U.S. is black/white." By contrast, you seem to believe the opposite, that he's doing more good than harm. Don't know who's "right" or "wrong" but that is a pretty fundamental and major difference of opinion, so I don't think it's accurate to say we agree more than we disagree. Again, though, that's cool with me that we disagree, but it has to be acknowledged for what it is, a root diffference. The issue undergoing debate here was not the importance of race relations - which we both appear to agree is an important one - but whether what boils down basically to a publicity stunt is going to do sh*t in helping to deal with it on a meaningful level. The alternative (charity donation) you propose would bother me just as much as his proposed plan - it's unnecessary and cheapens the whole issue and dialogue as far as I'm concerned. And again, why is this guy focusing exclusively on white people? What about people of Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, etc descent? And how do we define these categories anyway on a social, every day basis (relating to Swinging Swede's excellent point)? Do they matter? Are we going to start counting the number of light-skinned blacks in the pews, and in which category? It's all just silly in the extreme. In my view, he should simply make an effort to reach out to ALL the people in his community - regardless of self-identified race - with invitations and events that cut across racial and other divides. So far more harm than good for me in this effort - can't be any clearer than that, and point made I'll move on! B)

Nope, but it's a good one - my favorite of Dorham's two leader dates for Time.

Thanks for the further comments, folks. Thing is, I've really enjoyed Evans' playing on just about everything I've heard him on (including a lot of sideman dates less herlded than with Miles - Michel Legrand's LEGRAND JAZZ, George Russell's NEW YORK, NEW YORK, etc). But despite having over 1600 jazz CDs I've lagged WAY behind in picking up his leader sessions. I have just 4 - WALTZ FOR DEBBY, SUNDAY AT THE VANGUARD, EVERYBODY DIGS, and THE TOKYO CONCERT (plus UNDERCURRENT, a shared leader date). Not an intentional slight, but I do find that in the past I've had other priority buys and Evans gets nosed out. I'm now ready to turn my full attention to his work. Despite the Riverside box probably being consensus "more essential" music, I'm concerned about the age of the remastering (and Fantasy now issuing his work in 20 bit newer remasterings seems another way to get the music). Have heard raves about the sound quality on the Verve box. Also, the variety in the Verve box really appeals to me - so many different settings, and stuff that is hard or impossible to get elsewhere. So that's my reasoning for going there first, although I will gradually be gathering the Riversides and post-Verve recordings (I absolutely love the TOKYO CONCERT from 1974; despite its being from a period less heralded in Evans' output, it's actually my favorite of the leader dates I own so far - there's a zest and pure joy I find sometimes missing from the "great trio" work).

Hell yeah! I bought a copy of this reissue at Jim Sangrey's recommendation, and it is truly one of the best jazz ballad vocal recordings I've yet to hear. To quote Mr. Scott himself on the title track, it's "WONNN-DER-FUL!"

Well, I hear what you're saying, and there is truth to it for sure. But fundamentally, I think we will probably have to continue to disagree regarding the balance of harm/good entailed by this type of offer. That's cool, though, there is certainly room for diversity of opinion just as there is room for people of all ethnicities/backgrounds! B)

Thanks Ed and Daniel A, for some reason I couldn't get there from Ed's URL but the one Daniel A posted got me there.

Swinging Swede has hit on the $10,000 question as far as I'm concerned. This type of thinking exhibited by this undoubtedly well-intentioned preacher, beyond the concerns I mentioned above, plays into stereotyping rather than breaking down barriers and calling into question how much one's self-identified external color enters into social, religious, and other choices and behaviors. Place of birth and being raised, early social experiences, parenting, education, socioeconomics, and many other factors play into life choices and behaviors far more than self-identified race does (yes, it's a factor, but not nearly as large a factor as tabloids and the popular press would have people believe). Lon's experiences illustrate that nicely. It's just that in the U.S. everyone has bought into the party line about color being seemingly the MAJOR determinant of seemingly everything. This issue of self-identified race as a very weak variable in determining a variety of outcomes and behaviors comes up in some well-intentioned but ultimately misguided medical "research" too lately, that purports to disclose differences in drug responses between "black" and "white" patients without defining that beyond self-identification (which may be useful from a social science standpoint for sure but don't say a whole hell of a lot about varying response to drug metabolism based on genetics!). The differences in "black" and "white" are so small (and sometimes nonexistant) that when they do exist, they are most likely representative of statistical chance. A slippery slope built on pseudo-science, one which could end up with ridiculous conclusions such as "black people shouldn't take drug X, which has been shown to reduce mortality from disease Y, because it won't work" when in fact that is not the case for many people who self-identify as black. The "conclusions" of this research merely serves to institutionalize racism in medicine...as does a well-meaning preacher saying "gee, we need more white people from our community in this church." How about simply, we need more PEOPLE from our community in this church?

Ed, when I try that link I'm getting a "page cannot be displayed" message - do you have any other URL? Thanks in advance.

While I may disagree with Greg on many points, I also don't see the point in trying to "debunk" SACD and DVD-A. Greg says he hears a difference on his system, so I have to take that as fact. If others don't, well, that's OK too. Personally I agree that for most titles, SACD and DVD-A releases sound superior on my middleweight system, verified for me by my personal blindfold comparisons on the same player. The difference for me lies manly in the increased dynamic range - resonant, realistic bass and shimmering highs that CD, even 24 bit/96kHz remasterings, just can't touch. Also a more realistic soundstage and separation among instruments. That's all the proof I need that the emperor has clothes. One can enjoy both old and new formats for what they offer - greater volume of releases in the standard CD format, including obscurities, and high-end remastering of more popular favorites (at least for now) one can "upgrade" to (or buy for first time in cases where I've held off on certain titles). Whether SACD or DVD-A or some other new format will "replace" CD is kind of a moot point by my reckoning - first off, there seems to be a market for this higher end format to sustain a stream of releases, and all that I think remains to be seen is what the market share will balance out to be. Even if these formats "overtake" CD, which I doubt, so what - I can live with having 1600+ standard CDs even if they are not all in the "best possible sound" because I find I enjoy hearing as many titles as possible rather than saving up $ to listen to just a few SACDs or DVD-As. I won't feel compelled to "upgrade" them all, that's for darn sure. Others will disagree. But this pointless debate about formats is just odd. Room for both.

I'll agree with these comments. I have the Classics CD with the Excelsior stuff Mike mentions, and it is quite off the beaten path for 1945-6. Not everything is compelling, but you can hear a real original beginning to mature.

Thanks for the info on the Ocium release. I'm funny about stuff like this, I'll probably wait (altho maybe for years or in vain) for Verve, Discovery, and/or others to get around to reissuing this stuff properly. European copyright laws regardless, it just bugs me that this stuff can be reissued and his family/estate get nothing. I don't want to contribute to that kind of practice. I know Auld from sideman slots and own the vinyl of his album for Emarcy IN THE LAND OF HI FI, which is good dance music if not the greatest in terms of Auld as a soloist. I'm hoping to hear a lot more of his work over time, great player. An Auld Mosaic would be MOST welcome.

No way I could do this - I would probably just grab whatever was closest to the tip of my tongue that day.

Happy Birthday Lon! It's been a real pleasure conversing with and learning from you since "way back" in the days of the old BN BB. Hope we can do so for many more years! Spin your favorite sides and get in some relaxation time, you deserve it!

Happy Birthday Pops! The greatest.

Pickin' up some steam again - keep the ideas comin', I'm taking 'em in and will firm things up at end of week. Thanks!

Thanks Scott! I knew I could count on you to help me spend more money!

Very eloquently put!

Thanks for the mini-review, Vibes! I'd love to hear others' thoughts, too...the wallet is creaking open...

Mal Waldron - SEAGULLS OF KRISTIANSUND (Soul Note) w/Woody Shaw, Charlie Rouse, Ed Blackwell, Reggie Workman Woody Shaw - NIGHT MUSIC (Elektra) Quincy Jones - MUSIC OF QUINCY JONES FEATURING BENNY BAILEY et al (Argo) Big John Patton - THAT CERTAIN FEELING (BN)

While there was the whole neo-bop thing Soul Stream mentions in the 80's, I have to say that to call the decade "the lame one" is to succumb to the same type of stereotyping that long plagued jazz in the 70's. Perhaps the number of interesting performers was a bit lower, but there was still some amazing stuff - Woody Shaw continued to crank out stellar music, Pullen/Adams (the much requested stuff on BN included) reigned, Lovano and Harrell came to prominence, Phil Woods had some of his best touring groups, Bobby Watson was on fire, etc, etc. It's not that I can't agree to disagree with someone on the merits of particular recordings, but I just hate to see whole decades dismissed casually.

Well Brad, my point was that it doesn't appear that anyone so far knows for sure if all the material in this box IS in the public domain - since I can't seem to find anything, after posting here and scouring the Web, that details exactly what recordings are included. If it's ALL PD stuff, then of course it would be fine by me, but if there are other recordings in there, I think it stinks and would avoid it like the plague. Until we know for sure, it's all idle speculation. I'm not into buying stuff that I view as "gray market," such as much (most?) of the Definitive/Fresh Sound output. I don't care what European law says, it rubs me the wrong way to think that the artists are not getting any kind of compensation for having their work reissued on the cheap by some outfit in Spain or Germany or Timbuktu. Call me crazy.

This is great news, truly great music!

Scott: don't want to derail your thread right at the start, but would you be willing to pause and give me your opinion about the music in the box? I have basically none of it, although I've heard some. I would imagine it's pretty wonderful overall, but kinda costly. Help me pry my wallet open by giving me some tantalizing comments, if you feel like it!

Guess I'm just cynical, but offering money cheapens the deal for me. Smacks of a publicity ploy (and on that end, it's working). As far as improving racial relations within a community, it's simply not going to be effective. The people who go are going to be people who are already "converts" or close to it - people who are already committed to eliminating the racial divide. As AfricaBrass appropriately points out, those people don't NEED money. A simple invitation would have done. By contrast, the folks that really need to be reached aren't going to go, whether you give them $5 or $500. You can't "change" people until they are ready to change themselves.