Guy Berger

Another non-musician here. Monk reminds me a lot of Ornette Coleman -- both major jazz composers with very personal/identifiable compositions that require more than "playing what's on paper" for a satisfying performance. Guy

Thanks to Frank, akanalog & WD45 for their recs. I'm actually planning to pick up Witchi-Tai-To and the early Garbarek ECMs at some point; and I'm a big fan of Charles Lloyd's Canto & All My Relations. (I thought The Call was too sleepy, though -- not very familiar with Notes from Big Sur or Fish Out of Water.) I excluded those two saxophonists because I was interested in Stenson's other sideman work. I'll have to get a Stanko CD one of these days! Guy

I'm not a no-limit guy, but you probably have the best hand here. The only hands that beat you are AA and 2x, both are unlikely. If the guy who puts you all-in didn't play very aggressively pre-flop, you can effectively rule out AA. Furthermore, anybody with a decent pocket pair (say, 99 and higher) might think they have the best hand and play aggressively. So definitely go all-in. Guy

Any recommendations for CDs that include Stenson but not Charles Lloyd or Jan Garbarek? Out of his recent albums on ECM (Serenity, War Orphans, Reflections) which is the best to start with? Guy ps I initially wrote "don't include Stenson but not..." Maybe I should draw a Venn Diagram next time.

I finally saw The Great Escape last night -- wow, what an amazing movie!!! Guy

I disagree-- unless you make large BMG orders, yourmusic is generaly cheaper. Guy

At least some of the tracks on Live Evil were victims of splicing. I can't remember the names but the disc 1, track 1 is a combination of "Directions" and "Honky Tonk". Disc 1, track 2 begins with a take of "Directions" that has the melody spliced out at each instance. Guy

RVG wasn't the best at recording, either. Guy

People who buy these CDs and experience difficulties with them should send an angry email to Sony's reissue program -- they don't want to alienate their market for obscure reissues. Guy

You weren't the dude from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that I was talking to after the Lloyd set, were you? Guy

You forgot to mention that Concord will be reissuing these as part of their RVG series. On a more serious note, this is one of the best (to me) batch of reissues BN has done in a long time. I'm psyched, though I will probably wait to see if any crop up on yourmusic before paying with real money. Guy

Fuck Concord! There, I feel much better. Guy

Ditto on the former, but my Jarrett pick would be NUDE ANTS, where the live setting brings out the energy (dare I way warmth?) in Jan's playing that is often more or less just implied on the studio stuff. His solo on "New Dance" is surprisingly robust and gutsy! Guy ← Replying to my own post here. I'd had most of the KJ Euroqtt. live albums as illicit MP3s for a while, but recently picked up the albums. I hadn't heard the title track to Personal Mountains before, but Garbarek WAILS on this tune. Guy

I remember reading an article about how you could get a "workaround" for your ipod if you emailed Sony. Anybody knows if this applies to the CSDs (consumer-screwing discs) in question? Guy

I think this case it might be a mitzvah to pirate the music on these CDs. Of course, I'm not a rabbi. Guy

Uggh, stupid packaging -- almost enough that I want to avoid this thing. It seems a little heavy on outtakes for me, but for for $7x5.99 a bargain nonetheless. Guy

I think so. I haven't checked my copies of Dance With Death and Of Love and Peace too closely, but they seem normal, except for the big "$5.99" printed on the CD itself. Just kidding. Guy

Congrats, Alexander!

That's my main consideration -- 8 CDs implies at least a dozen albums, so I'm guessing the box is a better value. Thanks Lon. Guy

Question: how much of this stuff is available separately, and on how many discs? 2nd question: how much of the "essential" stuff is available separately, and on how many discs? Just trying to figure out whether getting the box is the best route in this case. Guy

Bumping this thread for more reviews -- I'm thinking of adding it to my yourmusic queue after seeing him perform a great solo concert at Newport. Guy

A brief review of Saturday: Got there a little late and missed Carla Bley's set, unfortunately. Caught the tail end of the Saxophone Summit w/Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Phil Markowitz, Cecil McBee, and Billy Hart. This show didn't do much for me, despite being a fan of the concept (post-bop saxophonists taking on Trane's '65 & onward music) and several of the musicians. A little too focused on the individuals. My perspective might be skewed by the fact that it was hot and I could barely see the stage. I saw a bit of the Mark Whitfield trio. Very good -- I might have to pick up one of his albums at some point! The drummer was excellent, though I don't remember his name. Reuben Rogers on bass. At this point I decided to see McCoy's quintet w/Ravi Coltrane and Terrell Stafford instead of Kurt Rosenwinkel's group, which might have been a mistake. While McCoy with horns is a lot more exciting than McCoy in a trio (which, at least the one time I saw him, was a little dull), something was missing. Ravi was very good. The highlights of the set were a great version of "Mana Layuca" as well as a Trane tune that I didn't recognize (and sounded like it came straight of a mid-60s "progressive" BN session). I didn't like McCoy's bassist. As far as McCoy's health, he looked kind of frail. The highlight of the day (for me) was Brad Mehldau's solo set. I'm not a big Mehldau fan -- I really liked his work with Charles Lloyd, but am ambivalent about the one trio album I have (vol. 4). Still, he was terrific. He did a Nick Drake tune from Pink Moon whose title I can't remember, "Mother Nature's Son" (I think), "Countdown", "How Long Has This Been Going On" and some other tunes. Really great -- I might have to pick his recent solo album. Then I decided to skip out on the Ponty/Fleck/Clarke trio and get good seats for the Charles Lloyd group. That meant that I caught most of the Wynton Marsalis quintet performance, which was kind of boring. The Lloyd group performance was mixed. The rhythm section (Geri Allen, Reuben Rogers & Eric Harland) was great. Charles started out really strong (a great sax-drums) duet but seemed to lose energy and focus near the end of the set. I was a little disappointed given that the set started out so strongly. Guy

Alright folks, it looks like it will be a brutally hot Saturday in Newport tomorrow. If anyone sees a dude in flip-flops, blue shorts, white t-shirt and baseball cap with a "Y" on it that's me. Guy

Hmmm.... I watched SNL a lot when I was in Jr. High and that was the period when Miller left and Nealon replaced him. I'm a big Nealon fan (one of the best "2nd tier" SNL comedians) and dug his Weekend Update. No diss against Miller intended, except that now he is a lame and unfunny right-wing hack. Norm McDonald was terrible. (The guy is just not funny.) And I don't think Jimmy Fallon is very good either though obviously better than McDonald. Guy

You know, I watched the Hartman and it actually wasn't that great. (And I'm a huge fan of the guy's work.) Maybe they made poor skit selection (for example the Bush-Clinton-Perot debate from '92 wasn't in there) but a lot of the stuff just wasn't funny. Maybe he did his best stuff in other peoples' skits? Though "Anal Retentive Chef", Bill Clinton at McDonald's, Ronald Reagan masterminding Iran Contra and "Anal Retentive Chef" are all classics. On the other hand, Mike Myers's is terrific so far. (I've seen about 60% of it.) Aside from classic Shprockets ("Dieter's Dream", "Germany's Weirdest Home Videos"), Coffee Talk (w/Madonna, Roseanne Barr & Barbra Streisand), and Wayne's World sketches, the following had me rolling: Weekend Update, "Point/Counterpoint on Cop-Killing Lyrics" w/Mick Jagger as law-and-order conservative Keith Richards & Mike Myers as 1st amendment advocate Mick Jagger ("Mick, you ignorant slut!")* a skit with Nicole Kidman and Myers as 5 year old kids, with Myers as a hypoglycemic & hyperactive ("a hyper hypo") kid *Any opinions on Kevin Nealon vs. Dennis Miller doing the Weekend Update?