Guy Berger

This title looks very interesting, "who on it?" I've enjoyed Dewey's playing with both Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett also his other solo recordings. ← This Ed Blackwell discography says: Haven't heard it, but the combination of Red & Black is usually a good sign. Guy

Good news... AOL has now chopped up the performance so you don't have to sit through Robbie Williams to hear Pink Floyd. Finally saw the entire Floyd performance. I was surprised by the degree that Roger was willing to take a back seat to Dave, and also by how much Dave seemed to give him the cold shoulder. Also, wasn't it a little strange that they almost completely ignored Rick Wright? (Who looked a little coked-out. Is he on drugs again? Who dug him out from the cemetary?) Nick Mason gave the solid, near-metronomic performance we'd expect out of him. Nice to see those guys without all the excess musicians and singers that have crowded the stage on the last two Pink Floyd tours. I'd dig a reunion, bigtime. And dedicating WYWH to Syd was a nice touch. I watched one tune from the Who set -- "Won't Get Fooled Again" -- and it was lackluster by comparison. Still, a pretty good performance. Guy

Chris, have a safe trip. Guy

Been a long time since I could say that! ← Which part... "under certain conditions" or "draw the line"? Guy

Yup, it's ghastly. I can drink bud or coors under certain conditions (PB Block Party), but you gotta draw the line somewhere. Guy

That's a GOOD'un! ← I take it that the 1.5 rating from AMG (not BMG as I wrote originally) should be ignored? Is the live 1966 date with the same lineup as Mercy Mercy Mercy? What is the tracklist, if you know it? Guy

Thanks for the rec, Peter. I'm about to drink one of these:

And to get a perspective on an even weirder set of beliefs (politics forum link).

What would bother him more, the "cool" or the "electric" part? Somebody should suggest this to Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band, btw. Guy

I guess unlike a lot of other people I really dug the first Batman movie (saw it about 10 times when I was 11 or 12). Didn't like the other ones at all, 3 and 4 really sucked. But I agree -- just came back from the theaters and this was definitely the best one out of the 5. One of the best action movies I've seen in a long time and it was nice that after the Schumacher movies they brought the darkness back into Gotham. Guy

How was the Pink Floyd reunion? I wish I'd watched it! Guy

As long as we define "support" loosely -- sometimes what the soloist needs is a good kick in the ass. Guy

The Onion had a wickedly clever parody of scientology a while back. It's behind their subscriber firewall now, but I found a link.

My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I don't think Trane solos on this -- he just plays the melody. Guy

Listened to Art of Rhythm again last night... a really, really nice CD. Harrell's arrangements are interesting with a lot of variety across the disc. My favorites are the first tune -- a beautiful but not cloying arrangement for clarinet, flugelhorn (sp?), acoustic guitar and strings ("Petals Danse") and the trilogy of tunes featuring Dewey Redman ("Oasis", "Caribe", "Doo Bop" -- he's the reason I picked up the disc). "Oasis" reminds me a lot of "Pharoah's Dance" -- that chugging, polyrhythmic stew and dissonant piano playing. Besides Dewey and Tom, other noteworthy performances are by Greg Tardy, Danilo Perez, and Romero Lubambo. Guy

You'd probably need to add Ornette Coleman and Carla Bley to that list. Guy

Good call, Brownie. I really like Horace's comping, and piano playing in general. Also, not sure who mentioned Duke and Monk, but I like their comping as well. Guy

I think this pretty much nails it. That's why I was kind of surprised by the OP's initial premise -- which recent (say, past 15 years) Golson or Silver tunes have become standards? Guy

First off, the "doubling" of the Trane Impulse! catalogue is enormous -- depending on what you own, the albums Impressions and Ascension are totally superfluous, and Kulu Se Mama almost superfluous. (This is the one that has the "Dusk Dawn" alternate, right? Everything else is available either on Transition or Major Works.) Second, Living Space is worth picking up for two tracks: untitled track #4 and "Living Space". #4 is a mindblowing free tune that anticipates Sun Ship and First Meditations -- Trane plays a really unearthly, intense scream when he comes in for his closing solo, you gotta hear it. People that have heard this know what I'm talking about. "Living Space" is his last known studio recording with the soprano saxophone, and it's unusual because (A) it's not a waltz and (B) it contains saxophone overdubs which give the tune a really exotic, almost psychedelic vibe. There's an incredible saxophone cadenza at the end. I'm not a huge fan of "The Last Blues" or, for that matter, "Dusk Dawn". Guy

What about Bjork or Radiohead? Guy

I don't have much by the guy, just Art of Rhythm and the VV Quartets album. Both are very nice. I'll plug AoR simply because I'm guessing that it's not as well known as the Lovano album and is worth hearing. Guy

Agree about Herbie -- almost perfectly responsive to the soloists, and he got even better after Maiden Voyage. Chick Corea and McCoy aren't quite on that Olympian level, but they're stupendous. Guy

I bought Wayne's Moto Grosso Feio at the Hamden, CT Super Stop & Shop. Guy

Are these guys still writing standards? Guy

Holy shit.. ← That is some seriously fucked up shit. As Evis Costello said, "clown time is over..." What can we do to stop this? ← I guess the first thing to do is to investigate further -- I'm not sure how much I trust this website. I recently read an article in the WSJ about Coke's practices in India -- shady, but antiglobalization activists completely blew them out of proportion. Guy