DrJ

John L - I hadn't either until it was featured sometime about a year ago in the "Vinyl Freak" column in Downbeat and given a nice write-up, which prompted me to try and get a copy. Speaking of that, not to be nitpicky but technically I guess it actually didn't belong there since the Japanese CD I have a CD-R of would disqualify it from being featured in that column, no? I guess maybe they are talking about stuff never released on CD in the U.S., not anywhere in the world. Just checked and the Fresh Sound reissue looks it's available at both CDNow and Red Trumpet. Dusty Groove has it listed but "out of stock," but my experience with them is for new releases they usually get them back in stock pretty quickly.

SOUNDS FROM RIKERS ISLAND - 1963 (I have a copy of the older CD from Audio Fidelity) is another fine Elmo Hope excursion, with John Gilmore on tenor and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Hard to find until recently, but I believe Fresh Sound has just reissued it on CD. Strong music. Hope fans, I'd suggest snapping it up before it disappears again.

I have had the same problem as Lon with the vinyl route - Jamal was really pretty popular and so most of the vinyl out there that is available at reasonable price is played out. To pay top dollar for all his many Argos on pristine vinyl is not something I care to do, personally. Plus, as Lon points out, in addition to his music really benefitting from a good digital remastering (Malcom Addy, anyone?), there has to be some unissued stuff. So I too am bummed to learn that there are legal tie-ups preventing a boxed set a la Mosaic or Universal...I've been asking for one from Mosaic for years, so I guess this helps to explain why they haven't appeared to have been listening! Come on you lawyers, plaintiffs, and defendants...SETTLE! SETTLE! SETTLE!

Maybe it's just that there was so much great music out in that time, but I actually think McCann was WAY overly critical. Christ, we're talking about glory period ART PEPPER and the freshness of the young ROLAND KIRK here, Les...clean the wax out! Actually, I'm just kiddin', he's certainly more than entitled to his opinion, knows his stuff and expresses himself well. It's both funny and kind of true to talk about some of the more boppish stuff as sounding "nervous" as he puts it. Clearly he's more a fan of laid back, soulful jazz - not surprising given his own style! But Pepper and Kirk, hey, we're talkin' about 2 of my favorites there. All I can say is if I'm at home "rating" those records alongside anything by Les McCann (not much of his stuff really floats my boat), I know who's going to come out WAY ahead!

Ghost, it includes the complete recorded contents of a Red Garland Trio gig at The Prelude, a NYC club, from Oct 2, 1959, 3 CDs worth of material with only a couple of titles repeated. Specs Wright is on drums and Jimmy Rowser on bass. Much of the music had been released on several LPs and then on I believe 3 CDs in the past, but this set brings it all together in a nice remastering and with 4 previously unissued tracks - 3 are definitely up to snuff, while a 4th is a false start so not really a big deal to have it in my view. I decided to pull the trigger because it seems quetionable to me whether Fantasy will issue this in the U.S., although they might. That would be good because the liners are in Japanese except for basics (musicians, track titles, producer, etc). I got mine by doing an Amazon search and then going with one of the partner discount retailers they often have selling things for less (in this case an outfit called Imported that gave excellent service): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/store...8861106-3659343 It's a bit pricey, but personally I think worth it. Others might want to wait to see if U.S. Fantasy gets it out for less.

Rooster, I hear ya in one sense. But having just listened again to the often remarkable "Wildflowers" loft sessions - originally produced by Alan Douglas and Michael Cuscuna from recordings made at Sam Rivers' fabled Rivbea loft and last reissued in complete form on Knit Classics as a 3-CD set that I HIGHLY recommend, I think the main problem was that the people running the record labels were, by and large, not listening to all the great stuff going down. And by that I mean the big labels. Either they were not recording it at all, or in someone like Joe's case, they sort of tried to make him into something he wasn't (and Joe by all accounts played along pretty willingly for a while, for reasons that I'm sure were good to him, but I'm glad he left some of the experiments behind relatively quickly!). That Wildflowers set is filled with amazing, creative music that still has clear ties with jazz tradition, yet my guess is only a handful of people on the board, let alone the rest of the world, have ever heard it. It was recorded right in NYC in 1976 over the space of about A SINGLE WEEK! (I can't imagine how much great music went down at Rivbea loft over the few years it was a thriving entity!) - right in the heart of the Gerald Ford "era" - and it took some young turks going down there with relatively crude equipment and production values to capture a host of the finest of the era doing the cutting edge thing. The list of musicians represented in this set is truly remarkable (cut and pasted from AMG, so I hold no responsibility for hilarious errors and typos, but you'll get the gist): Ahmed Abdullah - Trumpet Barry Altschul - Drums Hamiet Bluiett - Clarinet, Sax (Baritone) Charles Brackeen - Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor) Anthony Braxton - Alto, Clarinet, Sax (Alto), Contrabass, Contrabass Saxophone Marion Brown - Sax (Alto) Dave Burrell - Piano Jerome Cooper - Percussion, Drums, Saw Andrew Cyrille - Drums Anthony Davis - Piano Julius Hemphill - Sax (Alto) Michael Gregory Jackson - Performer Oliver Lake - Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano) Byard Lancaster - Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor) George Lewis - Performer Jimmy Lyons - Sax (Alto) Ken McIntyre - Flute, Sax (Alto) Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre - Performer Roscoe Mitchell - Sax (Alto) Sunny Murray - Drums Sam Rivers - Performer Randy Weston - Piano Khan Jamal - Vibraphone Stafford James - Bass Charles Bobo Shaw - Drums Wadada Leo Smith - Performer Abdul Wadud - Cello Richard Evans - Performer Fred Hopkins - Bass Steve McCall - Percussion, Drums, Performer Olu Dara - Trumpet, Flugelhorn David Murray - Performer Lyle Atkinson - Bass Alex Blake - Bass Joony Booth - Performer Hayes Burnett - Bass, Drums Butch Campbell - Guitar Stanley Crouch - Drums Teddy Daniel - Trumpet Jack Gregg - Bass Jerry Griffin - Drums Richard Harper - Piano Jerome Hunter - Bass Paul Maddox - Drums Gil Markle - Producer Famoudou Don Moye - Conga, Drums Bern Nix - Guitar Billy Patterson - Performer Jumma Santos - Conga, Drums Rashied Sinan - Drums Sonelius Smith - Piano Henry Threadgill - Sax (Alto) Andy Vega - Percussion, Conga Azzedin Weston - Conga Harold White - Drums Chris C. White - Bass, Bass (Electric), Performer Benny Wilson - Bass Harold Smith & the Majestics - Drums Phillip Wilson - Percussion, Drums Arthur Bennett - Sax (Soprano) Karen Borca - Bassoon Leo Smith - Trumpet Andrei Strobert - Percussion, Multi Instruments Henry Letcher - Performer David Ivy Ware - Sax (Tenor) Sunny Murray & Untouchable Factor - Performer Flight to Sanity - Performer Mahujaa - Performer Leroy Seals - Bass (Electric), Performer Maono - Performer Don Moye - Percussion, Conga, Drums George Lewis - Trombone In a lotta ways this is the lost generation of jazz greats in terms of major label documentation of what they were doing. Many/most are still thriving of course, but the times had changed since the classic BN era. The pioneers no longer had the ears of the general public OR, probably more importantly, the major labels. Sorry to digress, but there actually IS a link to the discussion at hand here: I think Joe's fate in the mid 70's-mid 80's - relative "obscurity" followed by a "come back" - reflects very little on the quality of his art during that time (save maybe 1 or 2 failed experiments with electronics, I'll admit, but hey, you can't blame a guy for trying to eat!), but rather on the economic and social circumstances at play in that era. When I listen to the Milestone box, he was mostly at the top of his game, certainly as a tenor saxophonist. And so it was for so many others. Hell, I read some interviews even into the 90's where Joe was pretty pissed off at Verve for not recording his trio stuff the way that BN had done with STATE OF THE TENOR and the way the Red label from Italy did a bit later, contemporary with some of the Verve "concept" albums - fine as they are and as much as I enjoy them, it is a shame that someone of Henderson's stature was STILL being told basically "here's what we will record." Thus, the three million "tribute" and "concept" and "all-star" CDs on the market, and the general dearth of anything resembling working bands except on independents (a few major exceptions exist of course).

Various - COMPLETE WILDFLOWER NYC LOFT JAZZ RECORDINGS (Knit Classics) Red Garland - COMPLETE AT THE PRELUDE - Disc 3 Chick Webb - STRICTLY JIVE (Hep) Grant Green - COMPLETE QUARTETS WITH SONNY CLARK - the GOODEN'S CORNER stuff Ike Quebec - EASY LIVING (BN Collectors Choice) Johnny Hodges - COMPLETE VERVE SMALL GROUPS, 1956-61 - Disc 3 Outside of jazz: CACHAITO (World Circuit) - nice recommendation Lon! Love that Mingus influence! Pavement - SLANTED AND ENCHANTED: LUXE AND REDUXE (Matador) Aimee Mann - BACHELOR NO. 2 (SuperEgo)

I got the Garland PRELUDE box last week and have been enjoying it immensely. He was in top form for sure. Just listened to "Satin Doll" from the 3rd set this afternoon, lots of fodder for musical quote-mongers in there! Too bad that the piano sounds as though it could have used the attention of a TEAM of tuners, though. With music this good, and a remastering and packaging this nice, it really does mar the experience a bit to have such a crappy piano captured for all of eternity.

Just beginning to scratch the surface of this cheese! I have CONTRASTS (Verve Master Edition) which is excellent, and that's it. I'm eagerly awaiting the supposedly upcoming Mosaic COMPLETE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS to delve into his music for real (Brownie, take note!): Garner Mosaic - Do a Search for "Garner" In Your Browser Once at the link I also need to start gathering all his Emarcy dates -wasn't there a series of releases that came out in the early 90's that covered the lot?

Yeah, that Altschul record is a killer. I know you know this Jim, but for those who haven't become acquainted with this excellent, rather neglecte gem: Sam Rivers, Muhal Richard Abrams, Dave Holland, and George Lewis (the modern trombone and compositional genius, not the old New Orleans clarinet master - lest there be any confusion ) round out the group...now THAT was a line-up made in heaven!

Hey Tod, all the best to you, and glad to see you checking in. Get better fast!

Looking at the controversy objectively, it seems clear to me that JazzTimes has nothing to hide. I find nothing in their actions to indicate he has a legitimate beef. Did anyone not read Nat Hentoff's column in the latest issue? Now, I heartily disagree with old Nat (who I admire tremendously) regarding his take on Crouch's firing - I just think he flat out got it all wrong, focusing on the smokescreen Crouch created and probably not aware of the more mundane but critical issues, such as the inability to make a deadline - but the point is that JazzTimes published Hentoff's column, which included a pretty stinging indictment of JazzTimes over this whole issue! Now that doesn't seem like a magazine that's not up to a little diversity of opinion and self-criticism, does it? Neither does their printing of many "con" letters concerning the firing in the same issue, including one by jazz guitarist Russell Malone. The sad thing is that through his sensationalist and self-serving rhetoric, Crouch is if anything turning people away from reasonable, meaningful dialogue about an important issue. There IS a problem with racial inequities, in jazz journalism as in many other arenas in the U.S., that seems pretty clear to me. It needs to be confronted. It just so happens that the issue of Crouch's firing has zilch to do with that issue, and by trying to make the connection, Crouch not only discredits himself but will undoubtedly lead many who are turned off by his antics - maybe, for example, those who happen to be white males and are sick and tired of being referred to collectively as "the problem" - to discount or, worse yet, totally avoid the issue of racial disparities in society. Nice move, Stanley. Whatever Crouch may have been at one time, he comes off as a pompous, boring, and apparently desparate windbag in his recent writings. There are a lot of interesting parallels between his "evolution" and that of Amiri Baraka...people who started off with real promise and talent, channeling some righteous and on-target anger concerning very real inequities in this country, and then in effect de-volved in their professional pursuits (I don't care so much about their personal lives and can't comment on that anyway - so none of this is addressed at these men as people) into something that is sadly quite the opposite - all the outrage with none of the intelligence, and a complete inability to discriminate accurately among various issues to identify those that actually have anything to do with racial politics and those that do not. Vis a vis the recent "do you believe in a higher power?" thread: if there is such a higher power, and a "hell" as fundamentalists would have us believe, then in that hell, many of the CDs would be recordings of Baraka reading his more recent poetry, and all the tray cards would contain reprints of Crouch's later Wynton Marsalis album liner notes.

Hard to add much to those eloquent comments. I would say that for me this is a GREAT Ellington unit album for a few reasons - consistency, recording that captures the impact of the band, and most importantly a wonderful representation of both the beauty AND contained but still remarkable power of the band. In other words, it alternately carresses and swings the listener nearly to death! While I understand the comments about use of eastern elements maybe sounding a bit contrived at times, on the whole I think Ellington and Strayhorn admirably avoided that. It sounds like the Ellington organization, really.

32 Jazz reissued THE FREE SLAVE in 1998:

I'd suggest NOT passing up those Hep Wilsons if you find them. I have the lot, and they are outstanding. There is some overlap but it's great to have the other tunes, in GOOD sound - and that's where I find Hep outstrips a lot of the other labels putting out material from this era, including the French Classics series, which is really inexcusably uneven in the sound quality category in my opinion.

"OHH, OOHH, Mis-ter Kot-ter...my name...is Bah-ry AltschUWAL...snort...heh, heh, heh, heh..."

Hey, that's cool. Not everyone likes everything! I am curious though Out2Lunch -what do you think about the bass solo that opens the album CONGLIPTIOUS, "Tutankhamen"? I find it's very melodic and traditionally "musical" (not to mention phenomenal to my ears and beautifully, realistically recorded - a great "true" bass viol sound). Have you heard all the material and specifically this piece? Might serve as a nice way "in" if not...assuming you're even interested, you may not be (which is certainly OK!).

Oops, just remembered I inadvertently cheated a bit on 32 Jazz's behalf on that B-3 compilation - was actually a Label M deal (although kind of one in the same, no?).

That Al Cohn/Zoot Sims cover always reminded me of the backgrounds they used to put behind Jack Handy's DEEP THOUGHTS segment on Saturday Night Live (or a really cheesy Hallmark card, same difference!). There were a few that weren't TOO horrible: Captures the era of the recording well, no? Woody looks like he's cultivating a "good fella" pose in that one, but kind of nice overall. (Because ONE James Moody just isn't enough...) ALMOST a winner, then they had to go and muck it up by using every available font color in their desktop image editing program for no apparent reason... This one is nice, creative photo, and somehow captures the "confined" nature of Brooks' life (and I don't mean that as a crack, it's truly sad) And who could forget:

So much great music! I can't really pick favorites, they change over time, but the ones that are getting me going most recently are: Leader dates IN 'N' OUT OUR THING The live Milestone date with Woody Shaw SO NEAR, SO FAR The Verve big band session Sideman Renee Rosnes - FOR THE MOMENT (Blue Note) Joanne Brackeen - ANCIENT DYNASTY (Tappan Zee) Little Johnny C - JOHNNY COLES (Blue Note) Miroslav Vitous - INFINITE SEARCH (Embryo) Valery Ponomarev - PROFILE (Reservoir) Couple of things to comment on: first, Joe seems to have been, for lack of a better way of putting it, a "jazz feminist" in the best way, approaching collaborations with female musicians as true equals but in a refreshingly unshowy, "I'm making a statement" way (I regret that I never did get a chance to hear the all-female group he had behind him). Second, the guy just enlivened everything he played on. On the Rosnes date, the music is kicked up several notches in the intensity department on the tracks he's featured on (including a knock-out version of Woody Shaw's "The Organ Grinder.").

Man, I just listened to CONGLIPTIOUS again yesterday evening...I cannot WAIT for this box to arrive. Nothin' at all "frivolous" in that collection, although certainly well-placed use of humor is abundant.

Not sure what's going to be in the Mosaic Select, if it happens. Of the Three Sounds I have, I think the first couple BNs - INTRODUCING and especially BOTTOMS UP! - are the most consistently strong, but they are all strong (I have almost all the BNs).

THE REAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS - Jack M. Hollander. Nice, rational, evidence-based (when possible), and refreshingly un-hysterical look at the salient points and trouble spots in the often crazed debate about man's impact on Mother Earth. My wife and I have recently also worked through a whole slew of birth and baby preparedness books...quite an amazing industry, considering these things happen whether one reads about it or not, and have of course been happening in most parts of the world without books since the dawn of time! We've also been reading a lot of things to the baby (due any day) in the evenings - fun for dad to feel him first start moving at the sound of my voice and then fall asleep. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (Maurice Sendak of course!), MY DADDY AND ME (Jerry Spinelli), and the first 1/4 or so of the latest Harry Potter tome are the most recent. Ghost of Miles: I read THE QUIET AMERICAN last year, before the movie (which I still haven't seen) and agree it's pretty gripping.

Yep, the word "essential" comes to mind. Roswell Rudd! Roswell Rudd! Roswell Rudd!

Never one of my very favorite Mobley dates, but solid and enjoyable. I think what's been said already captures it - as far as the front line is concerned, nobody is having their best day. On the plus side, everyone sounds relaxed and cool, but on the down side, there is a critical element of tension or drive lacking somehow. Fuller seems largely wasted, too - what, no compositions? This was an era when he was churning out some GREAT ones for the Messengers. I think it would have been well to play up his writing and trombone a bit. Still, this FAR exceeds much in the pocket, mainstream modern jazz recorded by other mere mortals before or after. Several other things struck me on re-listen: 1. A remastering is DEFINITELY overdue. It would give an extra sparkle and certainly improve the sound of the ensembles. 2. This may be one of Billy Higgins' finest hours on Blue Note. He is just on fire. Listen to "The Morning After" especially. Cranshaw has less of an impression but again it may partially be a remastering thing. But Higgins, this has to be some of his best playing for Lion and he's captured well on the recording. 3. I had forgotten this date had a version of one of my favorite Mobley compositions, "Third Time Around." (I don't play CADDY as much as a lot of other Mobleys for the reasons outlined above). I don't like this interpretation quite as much as the one on STRAIGHT NO FILTER but it's still pretty swell. What a great, hip song! That "da duuuh dah, da duuuh duh" release back into the main melody just builds an incredible amount of tension and momentum. So overall, glad to see this one singled out for careful attention, I enjoyed pulling it out from "the archives."