Guy Berger

I strongly agree w/JSngry's thesis that race in America and our attitude toward it has a lot to do with soul jazz getting overlooked in most jazz discourse. It was music closely connected to 1940s-1970s African American popular music that was either ignored, or looked-down-upon, by the people writing about and talking about jazz (now and then). Some artists like Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderley achieved crossover success within "straight ahead" jazz and have been treated more kindly, but these are relatively rare. (For that matter, think of the "white" artists drawing upon this style since 1990 - John Scofield, MMW, Soulive, etc... interesting story in itself.) I really liked the Gerald Early interview. I wonder how much of Baraka's reaction reflects Cannonball's genesis. He was from a relatively middle-class, Episcopalian background, right? Haven't read this book but seems indicative of how "mainstream" jazz historiography approaches the style - "soul jazz was something straight-ahead jazz musicians dabbled in"

Have listened to these 5 so far. I'd score them: Dresser, Nourishments 5/5 (great quartet, great compositions; love Denman Maroney's prepared piano) Dresser, Sedimental You 4/5 (I thought this one was a little lethargic relative to Cyber Coup) Dresser, Cyber Coup 5/5 (love the Arthur Blythe tribute that opens the album) Ehrlich, Frog Leg Logic 4/5 (nice but didn't grab me) Ehrlich, Trio Exaltation 5/5 (really great playing by Ehrlich and his trio)

In general I'm pretty supportive of strong public health restrictions but IMHO we had the opportunity to safely reopen in-person schools (especially for younger and at-risk kids) and screwed it up - either by doing it unsafely, or by not doing it at all.

I was a little underwhelmed by Eternal Spirit but really enjoy Shades.

In Israel the 2nd wave was definitely initiated by schools but... was that also the case in France? In Spain, from what I understand, there are just a lot of bars and restaurants open... i.e. they're getting a 2nd wave for the same reason that Florida/Georgia/Texas got hammered.

This wonderful album and a lot of other items from the Palmetto catalogue were just added to Spotify.

We also do exclusively delivery (and occasional pickup) rather than restaurants, but worth noting that eating outdoors is MUCH safer than eating indoors. And bars seem to be a lot riskier than restaurants.

Doh. Of course! Can't believe I forgot about that.

Jim, can you say more about the timing around this? It's interesting that neither SEARCH FOR THE NEW LAND nor TOM CAT included a "Sidewinder" knock-off, but then the next 3 albums (RUMPROLLER, GIGOLO, CORNBREAD) all did... and all 3 were recorded before the 1965 World Series. So clearly Morgan and Lion thought they had a winning formula on their hands before the Chrysler ad aired. I'm curious whether anyone has done "census" of these "boogaloo" type pieces and around when they started becoming a feature on straight-ahead jazz albums. Was "The Sidewinder" a cause or a symptom?

If Crouch had come of age as a public figure today instead of 40 years ago, we'd call him a troll or "shitposter". (I'm chuckling imagining him creating memes.) That's not all he was, but it's a pretty integral part of his career. The call Larry K described upthread reminds me of a teenager prank call.

Strong agreement, though I would add: 1) They're variable in quality. 2) I don't think any of them make it to the top tier of Miles recordings. Roughly comparable to the 1950-53 period IMHO. 3) Miles was arguably better live than in the studio during this period, and the officially released live albums aren't necessarily the best documents either.

I didn't realize Crouch outed Cecil Taylor. That was a real asshole thing to do and I imagine he never apologized.

QQ... has anyone tried ordering from Europe lately? how long does mail typically take to arrive? I ordered a bunch of CDs directly from a European label back in early August and they haven't arrived 6 weeks later. The label told me mail to the US is taking much longer than previously, and that I should expect it in about a month... I'm fine waiting longer, too. But am just curious at what point I should assume the package is totally lost.

Condolences to Crouch's loved ones. I liked Iverson's obituary. I guess the first thing I'd say re "speaking ill of the dead" is that Crouch was a provocateur and liked causing controversy... if there's an afterlife, he's probably a little disappointed everybody is being so nice to him right now. When I first started listening to jazz in the late 90s, I was listening to fusion made by mostly white guys - and so the Murray/Crouch/Marsalis ideology was really frustrating to me. I know that frustration existed in other corners of the jazz world - the avant-garde, European jazz, MBase, corners of US straightahead that the ideology downplayed in favor of Marsalis. My antipathy softened a lot over time. Maybe Crouch and Marsalis became less antagonistic over time, maybe they just became less relevant. I dunno. I also found I enjoyed some of Stanley's writing. Once you got past the confrontational style you found he could be pretty nuanced. The last thing I'll say is Stanley's bullshitting sometimes got the best of him. I'm thinking of this interview:

Really loving this magical music again, 16 years later.

I’ve been listening to Agharta and Pangaea for about 20 years, and they’ve only revealed their awesomeness to me gradually. I’ve been listening to them a lot this week. Great music, full of both energy and subtlety.

I’d definitely put “P Bouk” from CANNONBALL IN EUROPE on there.

Really bad air here in the SF Bay Area. ironically the day with the “orange sky” and darkness at noonthat generated all those headlines was the last time it was safe-ish to breath outdoor air.

Some of my favorite Peacock is on Tony Williams’s SPRING.

We’re lucky to have this guy’s music.

Can’t wait to hear this.

Out of Our Heads records has a live show of the Michael Formanek quartet w/Tim Berne, Craig Taborn, Gerald Cleaver titled PRE-APOCALYPTIC: Link (Bandcamp) This is the same band that recorded THE RUB AND SPARE CHANGE and SMALL PLACES for ECM.

This album features Marc Ducret on guitar, not Ryan Ferreira

Giving this set a lot of listening this week. Spectacular music, some of the best Miles ever made.

“Jazz hands” is the biggest post-Coltrane stone-cold classic. Kenny G in 2nd place.