Guy Berger

Have been listening to What Is To Be Done with Larry Ochs, Gerald Cleaver, and Mr Wilco this week. Clean Feed, 2019. Really good, ferocious without being offputting. I recommend!

I think Chambers has some pluses and considerable minuses. The pluses - it’s comprehensive as far ans official recordings go and he mines a lot of secondary sources. However, he has serious blind spots / cluelessness on Miles’s music starting in the mid 1960s that get worse and worse the later you go. His coverage of the electric era is mostly a waste (except to get a flavor of how that music went over many jazz listeners’ heads). There are also some discography errors that suggest he wasn’t a close listener. I also think it’s unfortunate that he didn’t do any primary research when nearly all the musicians who played with Miles were still alive. None of the other, better biographers had that luxury. I think Carr’s bio is better, as is Tingen’s. I haven’t read Szwed’s yet!

I am not a big fan. Like a lot of Davis’s biographers, Carr lets his opinions as a fan get the better of him.

I love this version. I think of it as more “freebop” than “fusion” - sort of a successor to the Miles Davis version, taken even further. And yes, McLaughlin is absolutely smoking on this. (Also: Joe Henderson!) I need to revisit the Don Ellis version (in 7/4 right?) and check out the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.

I have been listening to the original version of Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance” (from The In Sound) and am struck by how much its popularity in more avant-garde circles was already baked in to the original. Yes the beat is very “soul jazz”, but the melody is pretty angular and syncopated, not your stereotypical populist pitch. I think of the Davis version and its offspring as just taking what’s implied in the original and taking it to its obvious conclusion. Did anybody ever record a version that combines an avant-garde vibe with the soul jazz (or even funk/rock) rhythmic approach?

I saw him twice - once with Gateway, one w/the Jarrett standards trio.

Sweet Rain is a wonderful album. I especially love “Windows”.

Incredible drummer. Hard to imagine Miles’s music evolving from “Directions” to On the Corner without his presence, and his appearances on ECM as a sideman/leader were usually of extremely high quality. Strong agreement on Special Edition and Album Album being the best of that band’s work, though all 4 of the ECMs are worth hearing.

Re his bass playing - I really like the run he plays on “The Story In Your Eyes”. And while I don’t think his songwriting was nearly as good as Justin Hayward’s, “Ride My See Saw” is a banger

This sounds great. Top notch ensemble!

Imho the 1965 Plugged Nickel recordings, while wonderful, are inferior in musical quality to the 1967 live recordings from Newport and Europe. My guess is their reputation is largely based on the fact that for a long time they (and Miles in Berlin) were the only widely circulating live recordings of this quintet.

They should release the June 1969 Plugged Nickel recording with it as a bonus disc

I remember when this thread was created 15 years ago. My opinion about Brecker’s playing has improved over that time.

“Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord” is one of the most glorious things in Impulse’s discography. Also a major highlight in the careers of Cecil McBee (no mean feat!) and Lonnie Liston Smith

I love Pharoah’s ballad playing

a recording of the buyer whistling Ike's solo on "I've Got the World on a String" note for note

I love the 2 CD set. On many days I like it better than Quebec’s LPs.

I hope they add them to streaming services too.

Your website is an incredible resource (ironically mostly on what to avoid )

Finally listened to this for the first time. Whew. The title track in particular is SCORCHING.

RIP. I've been listening to a lot of his albums over the past year (was just enjoying "Un Dia Bonito" from The Sun of Latin Music yesterday). Just a really strong combo of adventurousness and quality control

I finally got around to hearing this album and it’s really great! Maybe not the BEST Waldron I’ve heard, but in the top 10

Listening to this and it’s really good. Reminds me of Joe Lovano at his most Dewey Redman esque. May pick it up…

Funny you mention this - just started to dig into the 3 CD set as well as Firehouse. Intense tenor sax trio music! Anybody who likes James Brandon Lewis, late Coltrane or Albert Ayler will enjoy this.

A lot of the received wisdom on post-1970 Miles is still really shallow, especially in mainstream jazz discourse