Guy Berger

If you want something similar to the Half Note recordings, I'd recommend Live in Seattle before Live in Japan due to the rhythm section and general level fo intensity. (Obviously the live version of A Love Supreme would be even more similar, but I assume you already own that.) If you do get Live in Japan, you might want to get the extended dance mix that J Larsen just mentioned... (I agree with Mr. Larsen about Interstellar Space!) Guy

Somebody will have to check, but I think the OUOD solo (which runs for 26-28 minutes, depending on whether you include the brief melody statements at the beginning and the end) is longer than any of the solos on Live in Japan, even if you include the duets with Pharoah as part of Trane's solo. It might even be longer than any other Coltrane solo on record, though I am not sure about that. Guy

yup

Out of the 5 "extended" standard performances on the set this is actually my least favorite! The low point of the box for me is "Desert Sun". Waaaaaaaay too long for something that repetitive. Guy

I agree up to a point -- despite the cliche of referring to Trane's late playing as "energy music" or "spiritual" (with potential connotations of irrationality or arationality), the guy was an extremely methodical, cerebral, structural soloist. So if you come in during the middle, or leave before the end, it might not make as much sense. (Not unlike a movie.) Guy

That's my experience as well. However, Trane is one of the few guys able to make paying close attention worthwhile. I agree with Lon that it's too bad David Wild didn't write the liner notes. His liner notes on other Trane albums are consistently illuminating. I don't know David that well, but I interacted with him a few times on the Miles list and he seems like a really nice guy. Guy

Completely agree. Spinning Sunship right now. Somehow it seems different after listening to "one up one down." ← I think in '65 Trane was trying to catch up his studio recordings with the stuff he'd been playing live. At least, that's one way of seeing it. The gap between the Half Note stuff and what he was playing in Europe in the fall of '63 is smaller than the gap between Crescent and Transition. I'm listening to "Song of Praise" -- this is one of the best things on the Half Note tapes. Guy

link

Hope those who fasted on Yom Kippur survived, and may we all be written in the Book of Life for a good year. Next year in Jerusalem. - Guy

This will be a nice excuse to give El Fuge a spin. I once heard the four-hands-piano version of it and found it far less engaging than the real deal. (OTOH, I enjoyed a similar arrangement of The Rite of Spring tremendously.) Guy

I think Ron's questions are all good ones. I don't do much trading, but I have downloaded a bunch of stuff from the website-that-must-not-be-named that I haven't listened to. I'm guessing that I will listen to it someday, since it's by artists that I like a lot (Keith Jarrett, Miles, Coltrane, Paul Motian, Weather Report, etc), but it's easy to lapse into mindless accumulation. Guy

C'mon, someone jump in and vouch for my integrity! Guy

Several different things fit under "values and its worldview". The first is things like western culture, which people in other countries are DEMANDING -- no imposing going on whastoever. The people that complain about "imposition" are usually those trying to DICTATE to their fellow citizens what choices they can or cannot make. Second is demanding representative government and better human rights from countries with poor records. Maybe this needs to be done with more subtlety, consistency, etc (and without threat of military action), but this is fundamentally the right approach. In almost all cases this is what "the people" want. Third are things like armed interventions in Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq -- sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Fourth are things like supporting dictators in other countries -- sometimes avoidable, sometimes unavoidable. When unavoidable, we need to do our best to push those guys hard on improving human rights. Not sure which category the EU & Turkey falls into. The EU isn't imposing anything, it's the Turkish government. Turkey is a democracy and if they don't agree with the government's policies, Turks can throw it out in the next election. -------- Actually -- in relation to the sales window in question -- westernization of the Arab world's elite classes has been around for decades, so I'm not surprised to find such a photo (particularly from a cosmopolitan place like Dubai). Guy

I think this is a pretty silly statement. The whole point of IP is to put up obstacles to cheaper alternatives. But IP protection varies from country to country. In countries that don't offer much IP protection, patents aren't an obstacle. Guy

I thought this was pretty amazing. This chimp is obviously intelligent enough to participate in the politics forum. That's one smart monkey. Guy

This pretty much sums up my thoughts, but more succinctly! Guy

This is a great album. Guy

But it's also true that the ability to collect profits is what drives investment in innovation. I don't think it's clear that this is true. It may be in large part a myth that's popular and heavily promoted because it serves to justify the collection of those profits and the mechanisms that make them possible. It sounds like it could be plausible on the surface, but I've seen little in the way of facts and evidence. It's usually offered rhetorically, as if true by assertion. If you have any particular facts on this I'd be happy to look at them. In pharmaceuticals (and intellectual property in general), lack of IP protection means that the product gets priced at marginal cost immediately, ie no economic profits. With most markets that isn't a problem; but in a market like pharmaceuticals, where up-front investment is required before the product goes to market, that's a huge disincentive because a firm that invests upfront in R&D only to sell at marginal cost will make a loss. Hence, some sort of intellectual property protection is necessary. Of course it does. Without IP, any competitor can sell at marginal cost, driving the flow of profits to zero. With IP, owners of IP rights can use monopoly power to earn economic profit. But if Coltrane hadn't been able to earn money from his music, there would have been a lot less of it. Guy

That's what I have. FWIW, does this Verve release (and the tapes in Ravi's closet) also come from the FM broadcasts? Guy

But it's also true that the ability to collect profits is what drives investment in innovation. (Though AIDS in Africa is somewhat tangential to this point -- most ARVs are either donated, or sold at near production costs.) Guy

Wow... looks like I will have to pick this up! Guy

I'm guessing that one will be coming out pretty soon as an RVG since it is available internationally, but have no insider knowledge. Andrew Hill's Smoke Stack should be getting a domestic issue soon as well. Guy

Yes, but that gets back to my analogy. If I go grab stuff from my neighbor's house, my neighbor doesn't have the stuff anymore. It's not the same thing. ← What if I go and (peacefully) grab stuff from my neighbor's house which I know with absolute certainty he won't need for the next X hours, and which I'll return when I'm done, and which he's told me explicitly he doesn't want me to use? FWIW, the conception of physical property rights that we are using as a benchmark isn't universal across time or geography. Guy Guy

Yes, and it was the ripping off of ideas by the lazy and unscrupulous is why intellectual property was thunk up. Also, the growing importance of intellectual property, along with rapidly falling costs of disseminating ideas, have made intellectual property rights increasingly necessary in our society over the past X years. Guy

But why do you feel these things are meaningfully similar? If you take the musician's car he doesn't have the car anymore. He can't use it and he can't give others permission to use it. If you tape the concert he can still play the concert, and others can still listen to the concert. Wouldn't a more apt analogy be taking a picture of his car, rather than taking the car itself? Josh -- that is a poor analogy as well. (Though I agree with you on the fundamental difference between intellectual and physical property.) When someone "creates" intellectual property, surely they have the right to control the fruits of their labor? And if that right includes the right to sell those fruits, surely we need some concept of intellectual property protection? Yeah, but presumably I can't go and (peacefully) grab stuff from my neighbor's house without permission in my "pursuit of happiness". Guy