Joe

Nesmith was also involved in giving us some pretty fine records by Bert Jansch, the Kaleidoscope and Charles Lloyd.

Music Minus One + 7... the math on this record is even more confusing than that MJT + 3 LP!

This record, which is kind of blowing my mind.

HBD to one of my favorite people!

Thanks for the music Mr. Robinson. His recent-ish set of duets with Burton Greene -- TWO VOICES IN THE DESERT -- is quite lovely.

I came to Morrison's music for ASTRAL WEEKS. It's still a favorite. I mean, "Madame George." It's transcendent. But I think I've stayed with his music the many years since because of VEEDON FLEECE. PS: somewhat in the same vein, in case you've never heard it... Terry Reid's RIVER...

Thanks for sharing this!

Re: EARTH DANCE. It appears to be a reissue of Ortega's Bethlehem sessions. No evidence as far as I can determine that it includes previously unreleased material. This record, from later in his career, is definitely worth hunting down: https://www.discogs.com/Anthony-Ortega-On-Evidence/release/4597840.

Knut Hamre, Å

Intrigued. Thanks for the heads-up!

FWIW, I like what I've heard of Wayne Escoffery -- mostly in Tom Harrell's group. The expected influences (Henderson, Shorter, Trane), but, like Mark Turner, he's not confined by them. Unlike Mark Turner, he tends to play with more muscle more consistently. I'm hesitant to mention Shelley Carrol, as he doesn't really qualify as younger these days... but mention him I just did.

Thanks for sharing this!

Interesting. Kinda Don Friedman-esque, mostly in harmonic approach.

Another excellent KD sideman appearance that often gets overlooked. Maybe his finest work with the Roach band. (BTW, that's George Coleman on this track, not Hank.)

It's not nitpicky when you're correct! Thanks for untangling that.

As the tune's title says, a dilemma!

While it's far from a great record, something about this June 1962 session -- first issued as LP #1 of the HIPGNOSIS set, then on its own in Japan, then as a bonus session tacked onto the domestic reissue of VERTIGO -- has always stuck with me. The vibe of it is rather 50s Jackie, but, of course, here he's still working out the consequences of his decisions to go more outside on LET FREEDOM RING (March 1962, but not released until almost a year later). The re's something comfortable about the music; I'll credit the presence of the Clark-Warren-Higgins rhythm section. But there's also a tension, too. IMO, some of that tension is a byproduct of KD's own tightrope walk between bop orthodoxy and the more expressionistic approach he started exploring as early as the 2 HORNS / 2 RHYTHM date with Ernie Henry. Maybe his chops were starting to go, as many have observed, but I'd like to think most of the hallmarks of his early 60s approach were the result of a deliberate choice on his part to further explore the possibilities of both his instrument -- a la Don Cherry -- and a more purely melodic and rhythmic approach to solo construction. Case in point: the variations he spins on the Warren-composed head throughout his solo here. In some ways, his entire solo is simply a recapitulation of that initial statement, with subtle alterations of timbre, inflection, cadence and register. I would never claim this as KD's "Impressions", but there's something about his working over of motifs here that recalls Trane and Rollins. And I love that moment at just after the 3-minute mark where the shape of the descending phrase he plays recalls -- for me anyway -- someone sadly shaking their head at the what can't or won't be resolved. Anyway, it's a solo I find fascinating from a "generative constraint" point of view.