Guy Berger

I just picked this up. My first impression was "this guy likes Stravinsky" (sorry if this is superficial or "wrong" -- my knowledge of 20th century classical music is primarily Debussy, the Stravinsky ballets & Bartok's work). But the more I hear it, the more I'm digging it. And the jazz links become more obvious with each listen. I'd be interested to read some discussion about this music's relation to both 20th century and jazz of the time. Also, the version of "Everything happens to Me" is quite freaky. Guy

An order just shipped from alldirect yesterday: Mingus: Mingus Dynasty, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, Let My Children Hear Music, Changes One Charles Lloyd: In Europe/Journey Within, In the Soviet Union Monk: Complete Live at the It Club Pat Metheny: Bright Size Life, Rejoicing Joe Lovano: Rush Hour

I was listening to this album. "The Song Is You" is intense, wow! One of the best recorded performances I've heard from this trio. The rest of the album is very good too. Guy

Maybe the cause of all these bad phenomena is merely proximity to Canada. Guy

Chim Chim Cheree 19:37 John Coltrane Half Note 3/19/65 Impressions 20:55 John Coltrane Half Note 3/19/65 One Up, One Down 28:13 John Coltrane Half Note 3/26/65 I Want to Talk About You 12:40 John Coltrane Half Note 3/26/65 announcement 1:07 John Coltrane Half Note 4/2/65 untitled original (AKA: Creation) 23:27 John Coltrane Half Note 4/2/65 I Want to Talk About You 15:42 John Coltrane Half Note 4/2/65 Afro Blue 6:21 John Coltrane Half Note 4/2/65 Jazz Song of Praise 20:55 John Coltrane Half Note 5/7/65 100 Jazz My Favorite Things 23:51 John Coltrane Half Note 5/7/65 Jazz

Just to clarify, the causal link claimed by the article may very well be true (though I doubt it), but the study in question really doesn't actually seem to say anything about such a link, despite claims to the contrary. Hence, "spurious". Guy

The article isn't exactly clear on the methodology for this study, but the results strike me as spurious. Correlation does not imply causation. Guy

My hunch is that the answer is "yes, they did play together; no, they did not record." After Trane joined Miles's quintet, he was replaced in Jimmy's group by Odean Pope. Anybody have Porter on hand to verify? Even if they did record, I think the recordings would be primarily of historical interest. Guy

The proprietary format is one of the many lame things about Apple.

Was tripod part of a trilogy??? ← What I meant to link to was

1) All of the stuff being released has never been issued officially, though it has widely circulated in bootleg form. 2) This release only includes about 1/2 of the circulating Half Note material. Guy

I felt dirty giving my money to Apple when I got my iPod. Guy

Gotta part ways here. I rank em late BNs, early Milestones, early BNs. The Milestones are excellent at their best, but like akanalog I get a little ear fatigue. Maybe it's the production. The late BNs seem to have a bit more space. Plus you have both Wayne and Gary in the front line on two of those. Guy

We have at least two or three threads discussing this release. I haven't heard the Monk & Trane release so I can't compare, but the Half Note (not Five Spot) material is worthy of all the superlatives it gets. Too bad Verve isn't releasing all the material. Guy

What about the aborted Miles box on Warner Brothers? I even remember being on a flight and listening to one of those promotional one hour programs they create for new releases. The box was killed. Guy

Same here -- I think of this band as what Miles's group would have sounded like if in 1955 he'd hired the 1980s version of King Crimson instead of Red, Paul and Philly Joe. Guy

Both Sanborn and Botti can play when motivated, though obviously "jazz giant" is over-the-top. Guy

All of the recordings from this quintet's spring 1960 tour are worth hearing. Some of Trane's greatest playing. There's one in particular on "Bye Bye Blackbird", from Paris, that stands out in my memory. Guy

On everything besides Iraq, Hitchens is fairly far to the left, though not as far as he used to be. I guess political moderation just doesn't agree with some people. Guy

It's a shame you aren't still with us, JC, but thanks for your amazing music. Guy

Last weekend I saw

All four of these are studio albums. Guy

whoops There's the other Vanguard album on JMT, which I haven't heard but is getting reissued by W&W in a few weeks. In addition there are quite a few unofficial recordings of this group (+ guests on occasion) from 1983 to 2003 floating around. Several of the later ones feature "Crepescule with Nellie". (And they've also done it a few times when I've seen the group at the Vanguard.) Sound of Love is DAMN GOOD (even relative to the other JMT/W&W I've heard, and those aren't too shabby), so I can't wait to hear the companion volume. How is the Tokyo disc? Guy

On MiM they don't solo on this tune, whereas various live versions I've heard feature solos by Lovano & Frisell. So yeah, it gets a big thumbs-up from me too! Guy

Koestler or Hitchens? I think to be the opposite of Hitchens politically you have to end up somewhere near Pat Buchanan. Guy