relyles

I do not have much to add. I enjoyed both of his Blue Note releases. They are different and therefore satisfy different moods. I must second the mention of X Field with Osby. That is the recording that turned me on to Jones and it is very good, highlight by a very good version of a Jackie McLean tune - me thinks "Little Melonae"

Purplesaures Rex - although I don't hink they make it anymore. Now I just mix grape and lemonade.

Concept is excellent.

I saw a special preview last night on the big Odyssey screen. Same old Terminator. Lots of mass destruction, limited dialogue and some new special effects. Entertaining, but nothing extraordinary. T2 was better.

I am not sure whether the poll is where does Hill rank compared to other pianists solely, or where he ranks among artists in general. With that said I can conservatively say that Hill is one of my top five favrotie jazz artists of all time - and it would be only five artists. It is not just his piano playing (which I do enjoy), but a combination of his musicianship, composing and band leading. Simply, IMO Hill is one of the most significant jazz artists to emerge in the past 50 years. I enjoy all of his music from the recordings on Blue Note up to his recent Palmetto releases and everything in between. By the way, if you have not heard it, his Soul Note album Shades must be considered one of the best albums of the eighties and it is also the album that introduced me to Hill. I purchased the LP when I was first starting my investigation of jazz based on a five star review it received from Down Beat. It is worth every star it received and it remains one of my favorite recordings - not just favorite among Andrew Hill recordings - ever. I have also been fortunate to hear Hill perform live on a number of occassions with various personnel and have never left not feeling like I have witnessed anything less than a near historic event. In addition I have also acquired a number of unreleased concert performances featuring Hill and have found them all to be consistently fascinating. If it is not clear yet I will state it clearly. I am an Andrew Hill fanatic. All comments by me should be considered with that fact in mind. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to go on record with my appreciation of this wonderful musician.

Sounds like maybe I should give this one another spin. I also have some of the other Blue Series releases by Shipp and completely concur that each succeeding disc buildings upon the discs before. In fact, when Equilibrium was released I think I read and interview somewhere in which Shipp essentially said it was a culmination of the three or four Blue Series recordings before it.

Very active yahoo group focused on trading of unreleased live jazz performances. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/all_jazz/

I think I am in the minority on this point, but when I first heard this disc earlier in the year the use of electronics/dj did not work for me. This disc without Flam would have been great because Shipp, Jamal, et al play great. The electronics/dj were just a distraction for me and added nothing to the wonderful music they sometimes overshadowed. The musicians involved have made much better music IMO.

I am a fan of Byron's music, but after a recent investigation of many clarinet players I do understand some people's complaint that Byron plays on the high end of the clarinet too much. It would be nice to hear him play more often on the lower range of the stick, which does tend to get a warmer sound.

Very good interview. I am a big Shaw fan and never tire of his playing. For those of you with an interest, I have found board member Michael Fitzgerald's critical discography to be very helpful. Shaw Critical Discography

In addition to the titles already mentioned, the two Ralph Peterson Fo'tet recordings with Byron, Presents the Fo'Tet andOrnettology are both very good. In addition to great playing by Byron, the discs also feature the criminally underrecorded Bryan Carrott on vibes. Byron also has some good spots on a couple of Uri Caine JMT releases, Sphere Music and Toys

Another Warne Marsh recording that I did not see mentioned: Ne Plus Ultra. I am also a big fan of Tenor Gladness with Lew Tabackin. I have a bunch of unreleased Warne live performances. If you look at the discography in An Unsung Cat it lists most, if not all, of the existing unreleased live stuff. I have come by copies of about 15 different performances, mostly from the early 80s and a few from the mid seventies.

I agree that But Not Farewell has more of the edge and sense of adventure that listeners expect from Hill than Eternal Spirit, but I very much enjoy both recordings. Maybe I am reluctant to discount Eternal Spirit's value because I was fortunate enough to catch that group live at the Knitting factory around the time it was recorded or released (can't remember which). Memorable experience!

Shades was my introduction to Hill when the album was first released. Excellent album that started the obsession that has continued to this day! Equally enjoyable as anything in his Blue Note output.

Thanks to a friend I heard this recording when it was released last year. It was easily one of my favorite releases in 2002. The compositions are excellent and the playing by all is very good. Highly reccommended. Seeing this thread for the first time today reminded me that I need to purchase a copy for myself!

A name to watch in the future - Soweto Kinch. Kinch is making a name for himself on the British jazz scene. Kinch's rise to media attention has similarities with Joshua Redman's over a decade ago. Winner of the 2002 Montreux International Saxophone competition (where judges included Lee Konitz, Jean Toussaint and David Sanborn) and a BBC Rising Star award, Kinch is also a graduate of prestigious Oxford. Kinch recently released his debut recording, Conversations with the Unseen. In a cover article in the April issue of Jazzwise Kinch indicates that he is exploring connections between jazz and hip hop as forms of improvisation. The recording features Kinch on a couple of rap vocals, but the date is primarily a showcase for Kinch's alto saxophone in a quartet joined by Femi Temowo (g), Michael Olatuja (bass) and Troy Miller (d). I am not going to call Kinch the next innovator on the alto, but he is a very talented player and seems to be trying to find his own voice. He plays with passion and inventiveness throughout. Several of the compositions feature shifting rhythms, but overall it is a fairly straightahead recording with hints of adventure. Worth a listen.