Guy Berger

I admit I don't hear it, but perhaps you can give an example. (Assuming we aren't just talking about the gospel-oriented pieces.) For example, does his solo on "The Windup" (Belonging) have a 4-square approach? Guy

WTF? Apparently now Tranemonk's emotional reaction is off-limits? Guy

This reminds me of something a friend of mine from Boston once told me. He had a college professor (an African-American who grew up in the South but now lived and taught in Boston) who, in comparing "racism" between the North and the South, said something to the effect that Southerners hate the race but love the people while Northerners hate the people but love the race. I've heard these comments and always found them pretty unconvincing. The southerners were lynching and oppressing a lot of the people that they supposedly "loved". Personally, I'd rather be hated with at least some of my civil rights acknowledged (yes, I know that the non-south regions of the country were no fairy tale) than be "loved" with no civil rights whatsoever. But perhaps this is a discussion for a completely different thread. Guy

Not sure if I'd call "Europa" great -- it sounds canned to me, a slick and soulless sequel to "Samba Pa Ti". Perhaps forgettable but there are some nice things on there -- "Gitano", "Take Me With You", "Maria Caracoles". More consistent is probably right, but honestly even the best music on it would be below average on those other two albums. All IMHO, of course! Guy

I have a CD by Groove Collective (don't remember the title) where one of the musicians quotes the famous melody from the beginning of the piece. Guy

Out of morbid curiosity, I downloaded some late 70s/early 80s Santana albums. Inner Secrets is pretty bad, though not unlistenable. Definitely worse than Amigos or Festival, which I'd characterize as "good" and "decent" respectively. "Open Invitation" is hilariously bad -- I think I've heard it on the radio before, but I would've never guessed it was Santana. I really recommend listening to this track! Marathon is just awful. Easily of the worst albums I've ever heard. Really bad 80s arena rock. I'll post comments on Zebop and Oneness once I unzip the files. Guy

I have a nagging feeling that envelopes will scratch CDs (moving in and out) at a pace that standard jewel cases and spindle-digipaks will not. I have not tested this idea so I don't know if it is actually true. My dislike for digipaks has to do with the fact that once the packaging inevitably deteriorates, it can't be replaced with the artwork intact. Guy

I have to say I am somewhat sympathetic to Tranemonk's gripes. I don't think an omission of the track, coupled with a thorough explanation, would have been a "whitewash". That said, presumably we trust the maturity/intelligence of listeners enough not to censor their listening. Guy

Ideal box set packaging: Complete Herbie Nichols Blue Note Recordings and Complete Stan Getz Roost Recordings. Nice slimline jewelcases. Compact. Runners-up: Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel (a big plus for using jewel cases, but should've used slimline), Mosaic Selects, Keith Jarrett Impulse boxes I dislike envelopes and digipaks. Guy

Racism is also a part of history, unfortunately. Guy

You'd think that at some point, laughing at the Knicks' self-inflicted misery would get old. But it hasn't happened yet. Guy

Interesting to compare the reputations and "roles" of Guaraldi and Ramsey Lewis. Guy

Just wanted to add -- if Barak/White Lightning claims that Harper said that, then Harper said that. Guy

Well, I'm cheating since one of these guys is playing alto, but I really enjoy John Handy and Booker Ervin on Mingus's "No Private Income Blues". Also, though technically not "battles", John Coltrane's recordings with Pharoah Sanders should probably be mentioned. Guy

My favorite all-time Onion article:

Maybe those guys had a bit of a problem with the Sibelius connection to the Germans? Wouldn't surprise me if that was part of it... but with Adorno, I think that's only a small part of the explanation. The guy had very strong opinions on what good music was. Guy

True enough, but do you think within their current political system, a Chinese Upton Sinclair will get a book published there??? I'm not an expert on China, but I do read news articles about it, and there is quite a bit of criticism of the national and local governments by Chinese media and NGOs. Protests on environmental issues are not unusual. Out of curiosity, what's your proposed plan of action? Guy

You haven't heard Infinite Search? Get thee to the record store, young man! I never picked up the original Universal Syncopations due to the reviews on this thread, and the upcoming sequel holds even less appeal. Guy

Charlotte resigned Gerald Wallace for a 6 year, $57M contract. I don't watch Charlotte (yet) -- does Wallace play defense? If so, they got a better player than Orlando for half the price! Guy

do you have a cd recommendation for the above works? I'm satisfied with Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performance of all seven symphonies, plus the violin concerto and a few of the tone poems (incl "Tapiola"). It's on a pair of medium-price 2 CD sets released by Philips. I've only heard this one so there may be better ones out there. Guy

I love Sibelius's music -- not so much the early stuff, but Symphonies 4-7 and "Tapiola". Beautiful, timeless music. It's interesting to read the strong negative reaction to this guy's music from guys like Adorno and Thomson; perhaps that was inevitable, but it seems quite silly in retrospect. Guy

Whatever. MG made a statement that was in fact not true, and I pointed that out. Guy

Johnny's comment raises an interesting question. We often hear that heart/persona/intangibles/whatever are important in sports in a way not captured by "stats". Baseball is more susceptible to statistical analysis than most other sports; therefore you could potentially test the proposition that heart/persona/intangibles/whatever actually matter to winning games. The hard part would be measuring "heart" in a way that doesn't actually sneak "stats" through the back door. Guy