Guy Berger

Has anyone else done the Echoes/2001 sync? Much better than the Wizard of Oz thing, IMHO. :tup Guy I've done the Wizard of Oz/Darkside sync, but have never heard of the Echoes/2001 sync... Do you start the song at the beginning of the movie (as you do on Wizard of Oz)? No... you start it exactly when the last sequence ("Jupiter and Beyond") begins. It's very cool, because the tune and the sequence are exactly the same length and each has three different (and synchronized!) sections. Guy

Has anyone else done the Echoes/2001 sync? Much better than the Wizard of Oz thing, IMHO. :tup Guy

I like Atom Heart Mother as well. Not perfect but fun to listen to. "Fat Old Sun" is a cool song. Guy

It's funny... I meant to start a thread about this group last week. I've downloaded two shows that were seeded on EasyTree (and might be available elsewhere), 5 CDs total. My conclusion is that I need to get the officially released stuff ASAP. My preliminary verdict is: it's great music, and they're tackling it in an interesting way that doesn't exactly replicate the '72-'75 band. But at the same time, it's missing a certain Milesianness that makes albums like Agharta and Pangaea so otherworldly. Yo Miles! is about having fun with this music, but those albums aren't about "having fun". Guy

First, before I forget -- gotta second Mark's sentiment re: "Bike". Never dropped acid to it or anything, but it's such a great tune. The Wall was the first CD I ever got, when I was 15. (Actually, maybe I owned Rush's Moving Pictures first... I don't remember.) I listened to it non-stop. These days I can't really listen to it -- side 1 ("Mother", "Goodbye Blue Sky"!) and side 3 are really good but most of side 4 (after "Run Like Hell") is just awful and I don't like side 2 that much either. It was the perfect soundtrack to teenage angst. A couple of months later I picked up Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Momentary Lapse isn't such a bad CD, though I think the Division Bell (I saw the tour, and played the CD obsessively) is better. I slowly filled in the gaps -- Animals, Meddle, The Final Cut (which these days I'd rather listen to than the Wall). Umma Gumma was the first "weird" CD I got, back in high school. One of my friends called it "halloween music". In college I picked up the pre-Umma Gumma albums and Relics, which has some nice music on it. ("Biding My Time" is underrated!) "Saucerful of Secrets" is such a cool tune. I don't really listen to the band much -- in fact, I don't know if I've touched one of their CDs for a few years. But still, Dark Side and WYWH are incredible albums. "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" still blows my mind every time I hear it -- that incredible organ swell near the beginning, under Gilmour's guitar... definitely recommended "in a certain state of mind." Then that bell-like guitar riff, and the definitive Gilmour guitar solo (yeah, it beats "Comfortably Numb"). It's funny when you go back to the music you listened to as a teenage and you appreciate things you totally missed back then. I used to think that parts 8 & 9 of Shine On were totally boring. I was an idiot... that funk section is kinda cool (1975, after all) and Rick Wright does some beautiful synth things in the coda. Whew... just wrote a lot about Floyd. I have to say that despite digging the Final Cut, I can't stand Waters's post Floyd solo stuff. Guy

LittleLee -- we recently discussed the trio's most recent recording, I Have the Room Above Her, in the "new releases" forum. So you might want to search for that. Also do a search in the live music thread over the past few years; people have reviewed their concerts. I think you'll find many people on this board agree with you. Guy

Plus, they're heating up at just the right time. They could potentially beat any team except the Spurs in a 7 game series. A 2005 Bulls-Celtics series would be a parody of better times. Guy

Mike Shrieve was one of the most musically interesting members of the band... I think he was the guy who introduced Carlos to the music of Miles & Trane. Guy

It looks like private-sector space travel is finally starting to take off (excuse the pun), so the whole issue of NASA funding will probably be moot within a few decades. Guy

I think it's interesting that Jarrett was the last "major" keyboardist Miles used in the 70s. (There weren't that many in the 80s, either.) Cedric Lawson and Lonnie Liston Smith were in the band before Miles took over the organ, but both of them were pretty inconsequential in those bands (and for that matter, not especially consequential in jazz history relative to most of Miles's previous pianists/keyboardists). A lot of time it's explained by the fact that Miles's new conception after On the Corner didn't open a big role for virtuoso keyboard playing, but I wonder if after Herbie/Chick/Keith he simply ran out of gifted keyboardists to hire. Guy

GA, It's a great album. There are three lengthy jams: "Nubian Sundance", "Cucumber Slumber", and "Mysterious Traveller". (The last two, which appear on the album back to back, showcase the difference between Wayne and Joe as composers as well as any two WR tunes. They share some similarities, but MT is a little weird and spacy while CS is extremely funky with a ridiculously catchy riff.) Two of the tunes remind me a little of the older WR style -- "American Tango" and the enigmatic "Scarlet Woman". And then you have a great Wayne-Joe duet on "Blackthorn Rose". It sits right in the middle of WR's transition from "free-form avant-garde jazz w/electricity" to "funky group specializing in short, catchy tunes". As long as you like the "jamming" portions ofBlack Market, you will definitely enjoy MT. I have to say like its predecessor, Sweetnighter, a little better. As far as the live stuff, I'd skip on the recent live compilation and instead hop over to easytree.org in order to download the dozens of live WR shows that have been seeded there. Guy

I like it -- better than Borboletta, not as good as Caravanserai. There's an incredible John McLaughlin guest appearance on one of the tracks. Guy

Nope -- about 20% of Live Evil was recorded in the studio. Guy

David, Are you thinking of some other tune? Miles (almost certainly) never played "Little Church" live... Guy

Interestingly, "Gingerbread Boy" is a tune that Miles started playing live before recording it in the studio. The two live versions from 1966 -- from May (Portland) and July (Newport) are more similar to Heath's version. They have that same descending phrase at the end of the theme. When the band entered the studio in October Miles replaced that phrase with an ascending one, and all later versions of the tune performed by his quintet (through 1969) followed suit. Guy

John McLaughlin also turned down Miles in order to play with Tony Williams, and later on when he was forming Mahavishnu. As far as the original question, Jarrett also played an electric organ on "Nomads" from Expectations. My feeling is that in the early 70s he experimented with electric instruments, didn't like 'em, and made all sorts of elaborate metaphysical explanations for why he didn't like 'em. Guy

Borboletta is schizophrenic -- some really good stuff (esp w/Stanley Clarke and Airto), but also some mediocre commercial material. Guy

And "My Favorite Things" as well... Guy

Lotus isn't all that different from Moonflower. More instrumentals and just a couple of vocals from Leon Thomas. You'll should like it. Disagree. Lotus is much, much better and more interesting than Moonflower! I haven't listened to it for a while now, but there are spectacular versions of "Every Step of the Way" and "Incident at Neshabur" on it. And I think the medley on the 2nd half of disc 1 is excellent as well. Guy

Not that great... sad but true. Though there are one or two good tracks. Guy

The music is outstanding, by the way. At first pass not as avant-garde as the fall '67 tour dates, but excellent anyway. Mulva! Guy

The more of your CDs you send to me, the less you will have to take to England. I'll be glad to provide any moving assistance along those lines. Guy

Is this going to be archived online somewhere? Unfortunately I'm going to be on airplane and really want to hear those albums! Guy

2 questions: 1) What's the difference between Love In (which was recorded at the Fillmore) and Live at Fillmore? I have the former, not the latter. What tracks are on it? 2) How does the USSR album compare to Forest Flower and Love In? And a comment: get a copy of Soundtrack (which is available on Rhino as a 2on1 w/FF) -- there's an extremely grooving version of "Sombrero Sam" on there, as well as an excellent funky "Forest Flower". Guy

It's a cool set. Unlike a lot of other people, I think the stuff near the end of the box (from '63) is the best; it's cool to hear Dolphy on the 1st two discs, but the band got much, much tighter after he left. The '63 versions of "Impressions" (when Trane and Elvin started doing their unaccompanied battles) are incredible. Guy