Guy Berger

I dug your review! Guy

Thought I'd start a thread on these guys. I have their first four albums, thought that the s/t debut and Standards were somewhat boring while Millions Now Living Will Never Die is pretty good (really dig "Djed", the rest isn't as good). TNT is one of my favorite albums -- nothing heavy, but it has a nice chill atmosphere that I like to put on to relax. Are these guys good enough live for me to seek out live recordings? How was their 5th studio album? Also feel free to discuss other bands on the Thrill Jockey label (though maybe the Chicago Underground thing should have its own thread since it is actually jazz). I thought Gastr del Sol's Camoufleur and the one Sea & Cake album I heard were pretty boring. Isotope 217's Utonian Automatic is pretty good though not on the level of TNT. Guy

Check out one of his shorts, "The Cure". (It's on vol 1 of the Mutuals DVD set.) Hysterical. Guy

I've been slowly working chronologically through all his films. (Many of the Keystones were painful to watch!) The Circus is going to arrive from Netflix today, and then it's onto City Lights & Modern Times).

I finally started watching Da Ali G Show and the Sopranos on DVD. Can't wait until Netflix sends the 2nd Sopranos DVD, I'm getting sucked in already! Guy

Think how bad it is for those of us living in New England! I was actually hoping to hear the games on KNBR online but for some reason it blacks out the games. On the plus side I was very psyched to see the W's beat the Bucks last night -- the first decent team we've beaten, and Baron isn't nearly at 100% yet. Hopefully we will do just as well against the Bulls tonight. As far as the Pistons beating the Kings -- impressive. Their first few victories were against mediocrities and while this isn't the mighty Sac of yesteryear, it's still an emphatic road victory over a strong team. Guy ps Flip must be loving his new job!

I've made several panic orders in the last few days. Pared down my queue quite a bit. ← And just made a panic order of Mother Ship to boot since it told me there will not be any copies available by the time the next queue slot ships. Guy

All this talk of backordering made me panic and order The Great Concert of Charles Mingus, which I was going to hold off on until early December. Guy

Porcy -- the number of foreign movies that make it to major movie theaters is pretty small. But a lot of cities have smaller movie theaters that show all those artsy movies that give me a headache and don't have enough explosions. Guy

Only the somewhat annoying fact that they won't let you use multi-CD sets as part of your "subscription". Guy

Maybe he's trying to feed Latrell Sprewell's kids. Guy

Okur's been phenomenal. And once Carlos Boozer comes back, look out. I've never been a Jazz fan, but I'm psyched for Jerry Sloan. Guy

I totally forgot a grrrrrrrrrreat album that wasn't mentioned on this thread: pianist Jon Jang's Two Flowers on a Stem, w/David Murray, James Newton (who's brilliant on this), Santi Debriano and Billy Hart. And a musician playing a traditional Chinese instrument, but I can't remember his/her name. Guy

My brother and his girlfriend are visiting me on these days and I will take them down to see some live jazz in NYC. My options are below -- are there any interesting venues or events that I'm missing? We'll probably go see Fathead at Smoke, or maybe the Lovano-Muhammad duets at Sweet Rhythm. I would love to go see Cecil Taylor but maybe that's not the best choice for visitors. Iridium CECIL TAYLOR ORCHESTRA HUMANE (Ubunto)BIG BAND! Marshall Allen, Taylor Ho Bynum, Stephen Haynes, Amir El Saffar, Jeff Hoyer, Steve Swell, Bill Lowe, Bobby Zankel, Sabir Mateen, Elliot Levin, Will Connell, J.D. Parran, Dominic Duval, Jackson Krall Village Vanguard Cedar Walton trio w/Roy Hargrove Blue Note Josh Redman Elastic Band Birdland Tierney Sutton Jazz Gallery ??? Jazz Standard ??? Smoke DAVID FATHEAD NEWMAN (sax) · JOE FARNSWORTH (drums) · MIKE LE DONNE (B3 organ) · PETER BERNSTEIN (guitar) [on Friday] / Neal Smith Qt. feat. Brian Lynch [Thursday] Sweet Rhythm Joe Lovano & Idris Muhammad duets [Thursday], ??? [Friday] It doesn't look like Tonic or The Knitting Factory have anything interesting on those days.

Wow, I can't believe I forgot to comment on my own AOTW! Anyway, I'm not incredibly familiar with this album -- I picked it up in an "OJC panic binge" last fall and first listened to it less than a month ago. But, it is remarkably good, with no real weak spots. Lots of interesting playing, a tremendous amount of variety. And I think that while these kinds of albums are a dime, a dozen today, back in 1967 this was a very unusual concept. My favorite duet -- and this might just be a superficial observation from someone who's listened to the album less than a dozen times -- is Lee on tenor and Elvin on drums. Interesting because Lee was obviously listening to Trane's performances in a similar format, but totally different in terms of the tenor playing. As Jim writes above, the Nance duet is the most surprising. He definitely puts in the kind of performance you wouldn't expect. I'll listen to this some more and add comments as they come. Guy

Don't know about that yet. The best team is obviously in the west, and once you get past the top 5-6 teams in the east there's a sharp drop-off in quality that doesn't exist out west. But, I think the top 3 teams in the east would be quite competitive in a 7 game series against any west team. Guy

All of a sudden with TJ Ford back, plus Magliore and Bogut as genuine eastern conference big men, this is looking like quite a good team. If they're lucky, Cleveland snags the #5 spot and they don't have to face Indiana or Detroit until the conference finals.' Guy

The Warriors didn't play very well today (can they hit a single free throw?) but won nonetheless. And any day the Knicks lose is extra cause for celebration! Guy

Anyone familiar with the British neoprog group IQ? Quite derivative of Genesis (moreso than Marillion, who developed a more original style quickly), they capture the Wind & Wuthering sound quite well. I don't like their 80s albums that much, but I was listening to Ever (from the mid 90s) and it's a damn good album! Guy

I followed it via gamecast. Very pleased with Pietrus's game. Murphy would have had a great game if it wasn't for the foul trouble, and Zarko made some nice contributions. The Baron injury is a bad omen but hopefully short-term. One funny thing about the game is that Biedrins had 1 foul before he'd played a minute. When he hit the minute mark he got his 2nd foul. I'm going to the Warriors-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden this Sunday. Nosebleeds baby! Guy

Request: please don't post in this thread until the current AOTW is finished -- I just want to give people a heads up so they can pick this up in time for November 6. Recorded on September 25, 1967 1. Struttin' with Some Barbecue 2. You Don't Know What Love Is 3. Variations on Alone Together 4. Checkerboard 5. Erb 6. Tickle Toe 7. Duplexity 8. Alphanumeric Personnel: Lee Konitz (as 1, 2, 3iii, 3v, 4, 5, 8; varitone 3i, 8; ts 3ii, 3iv, 6, 7; bs 1) Marshall Brown (euphonium & valve trombone 1, 8) Joe Henderson (ts 2, 8) Elvin Jones (dr 3ii, 3v, 8) Karl Berger (vib 3iii, 3v, 8) Eddie Gomez (b 3iv, 3v, 8) Dick Katz (p 4, 8) Jim Hall (g 5, 8) Richie Kamuca (ts 6, 8) Ray Nance (violin 7)

I was impressed by Webber's line last night -- just the other day I was trashing him as a has-been. Still think Sac was smart to pull the trigger on that trade. Guy

I had my first sampling of Lacy a few weeks ago with Reflections: Plays the Music of Thelonious Monk. This is a greaaaaaaaat album! Elvin isn't quite "there" yet, but Mal Waldron is absolutely on fire. I also have Evidence (picked both up at an OJC binge last year) and will finally check it out in a few days -- if it's half as good I'm in for a treat. Guy

WTF happened to the Kings last night? I've pretty much bought into the hype that this could be a good team (50 wins, bounced in 1st round) but losing to the Hornets by 26 pts isn't a good omen. Not that I care that much. (And the who the hell is J R Smith?) Impressive comeback by the Bucks! Guy