Guy Berger

WRONG!! Phil Jackson's playing career went through New York and they won championships in the duration. He has strong ties to the Knicks. (to answer your question, I don't know who started it) He would be a bigger fool to go BACK to the Lakers after they turned him down on an extension and resign. AND....... there is another factor..... and it is not Jeannie Buss......hope he does not subject himself to all the crud because of his affection for her; there are better coaching situations available to him. If he comes back to LA, wins a title, they will just can him again period. B-) ← Thank god for the search function... Jackson back as Lakers coach

This post is kind of long, but I'd like knowledgeable people -- particularly those who saw this group in concert -- to bear with me and offer their opinions. In Todd Coolman's liner notes to the 65-68 box, he repeats the conventional wisdom about this quintet: though they recorded lots of originals in the studio, their live repertoire was dominated by standards and older material. (I've attached the relevant passages below.) But I think that this "conventional wisdom" is flawed. The group did most of its studio recordings from May 1967 onward. During its first two years of existence (August 1964 - August 1966) the group only entered the studio once (to record ESP). Hence it isn't surprising that during this period, Davis's "book" consisted primarily of older material. The only official recordings of this lineup are both from this period (all live recordings from August 1966 onward are unofficial). Is this the sum of the evidence for "standards over originals"? In October 1966 the group entered the studio to record Miles Smiles; the Berkeley gig is the last recording in Losin's database (aside from the somewhat anomalous Dec '68 recording) where older material makes up more than half of the recording. The Newport '67 gig includes only one older tune ("Round Midnight"); on the Europe '67 tour, the more recent material (Agitation, Footprints, Masqualero, Riot, Gingerbread Boy) generally makes up 50-60% of the setlists. As far as the standards, they start to disappear from recordings after the Plugged Nickel engagement. No more "Oleo", "All of You", "If I Were a Bell" after that gig. No more "Autumn Leaves" or "My Funny Valentine" on record after May '66. No more "All Blues" after July '66. No more "Stella by Starlight" after April '67. In fact, the only pop standards that show up after the spring of '67 are "On Green Dolphin Street" and "I Fall in Love too Easily". Add to that "Round Midnight", "Walkin'", and a few older originals like "Milestones", "So What" and "No Blues". That's it. I'm not saying that Miles never played "Autumn Leaves" or "Stella" again (obviously most gigs weren't documented), but inferring from their rarity in recordings that he was playing them a lot more infrequently. There's no doubt that most (or many) of the pieces recorded in the studio never made it out to live performance. But the other half of the equation -- that Davis stuck to standards at the expense of recently recorded material -- just isn't true IMHO. He'd always pick a few songs from a recent album for live performance -- he did it with Kind of Blue, Someday My Prince Will Come, and Seven Steps to Heaven -- and he continued to do it in the 60s. Once the pace of recording accelerated, first in the fall of '66 and again in the spring of '67, the older material began to disappear. I realize the recorded evidence is heavily slanted toward one-off gigs; in clubs the group may have been playing different setlists, perhaps leaning more heavily on standards. So my question to those who saw Miles in the late 60s -- what was he playing, particularly after May '67? Losin's sessionography '67 setlists '69 setlists The Coolman excerpt:

I've only heard one of the CDs -- december 16 -- and it sounds great. I can't wait for this to come out. guy

Haven't these been circulating for a while? Or were the earlier copies "rough drafts"? Guy

I think some of the Ginobili praise is going a bit over the top. The guy is playing fantastic, no doubt about it, maybe even meriting a finals MVP award, but I just read an article that called him a "superstar". Gimme a break! Guy

I'm don't think either one of those guys belongs in the all-star game, considering who's ahead of them in the queue. Guy

1985 Lakers over Celtics in 6, Kareem was Finals MVP

It's been like that for longer -- at least since the Jordan days, I think. Guy

With Shaq and Wade healthy, possibly. But not the gimpy team we saw in games 6 & 7. Guy

What about the section of his "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" solo as the horns are riffing behind him? Guy

I don't think it was a waste -- the Pistons haven't really given the guy a chance to play. Guy

Hard to do otherwise against the best defensive team in the league... Guy

And with that Bowen 3-pointer, this game is over. Guy

If Detroit gives up more than 34 pts in the second half, game over. Guy

If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, there's a minor orc character by that name in the last two books of LotR. Guy

Songs Pink Floyd won't play at this reunion: Atom Heart Mother Suite The Grand Vizier's Garden Party Parts I-IV Dogs of War Amused to Death Seamus Twist and shout On Green Dolphin Street

Crazy. Are they going to play a full concert, or just a 30 minute set of "Wish You Were Here", "Money", "Another Brick in the Wall", and "Comfortably Numb"?

On the eve of game 2, the online betting markets say: NBA.DET@SAS.SAS (Spurs win tonight's game) 70.0-71.5 FINAL.4GAMES.PISTONS xxxxxxxx FINAL.5GAMES.PISTONS 4.6-4.9 FINAL.6GAMES.PISTONS 7.7-8.0 FINAL.7GAMES.PISTONS 9.4-10.5 FINAL.4GAMES.SPURS 12.4-12.5 FINAL.5GAMES.SPURS 17.7-18.3 FINAL.6GAMES.SPURS 28.0-28.7 FINAL.7GAMES.SPURS 20.4-22.4 2005 NBA Championship Winner NBA.SPURS 77.3-78.7 NBA.PISTONS 21.6-23.0 Basically since game 1, Detroit's chances of winning have fallen from just under 30% to just over 22%. The median prediction is now San Antonio in 6.

I'm digging Far Cry and thinking, maybe blasphemously, that I like this a little better than the vols 1 & 2 from the Five Spot. Am I totally offbase here? Maybe it's just a bias for Jaki over Mal, I don't know. To some degree Out to Lunch has spoiled Eric's other recordings as a leader for me. Not that there isn't lots of great music on those. Guy

wow... I've been listening to the May 1971 Fillmore West gig that was just seeded on DAD -- it's one of THE BEST gigs I've heard by this band (I'll admit I've only heard 10 or so, though). Up there with the Cellar Door 12/1970 stuff, the groove is tighter and funkier though. And totally confirms my prejudice on the Ndugu/Jack question. Guy

I thought this article, "Fire Music", was pretty interesting. I'll have to check out the venue they talk about some time:

Dear Diary, Game 1 Stunk ... ... ... ... ... ...

You know, if more musicians made noise as good as Ornette and Dolphy's, the world would be a much better place. Guy

I like Volume 2 ("Benedictine Chant in a Jazz Club") a little better. Guy

Oh, I didn't mean to dis IE -- it's my favorite 'Joe as a leader on BN', a real classic. (I agree about "El Barrio" being awesome!) And I didn't mean to dis Joe's earlier music on BN either. It's just that one when I listen to his playing on "Passion Dance", or "Zoltan", or "Freedom Jazz Dance" (from Infinite Search) -- well, he was just getting started on Inner Urge. Guy