Guy Berger

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

Any luck with downloading this? My torrent won't start and I'm trying to figure out if the problem is on my end, or if there are just too many people trying to connect or something... Depends on what you definite as luck. I'm stuck behind a university firewall and downloading this at about 2kb/s, but it's working. Guy

For anyone who's interested in 1967 live stuff, somebody just seeded the April 1967 gig with Stinson subbing for Carter. It's noteworthy for being the group's only known live performance of Wayne's "Dolores", as well as the last known appearance of "Stella by Starlight". link I can't wait to hear this! Guy

Disagree... Love and Theft was a great album, if not quite at the same level as his best 60s/70s stuff. Though at this point his voice is totally, totally shot. For DizzySpells -- check out Blood on the Tracks. I think Bob's voice, and the music, is more accessible than it was in the 60s. It doesn't have the wild-eyed brilliance of Blonde on Blonde but is special nonetheless. Guy

No, but this Piston fan (who occasionally pulled for the Kings the past four years and knew that Weber was the actual misfit) am estatic to hear that news..... Weber's head is too big and he can't make the big play.... I was rooting for the Kings too until it became too painful -- I think the Webber trade was exactly what they needed. BTW, sorry to rain on the Laker fans' parades but 90% likely they are headed to the lottery. Guy

A long time ago I promised I'd seed a tree of the boots I have (mostly from 66-70), never got around to it. I'll try to get on it. Guilt trips are encouraged! Guy

Are any other Warriors fans psyched that (A) our suddenly-respectable team gave the 76ers a serious asswhooping in Philly and (B) Chris Webber got boo'ed frequently at the same game/ Guy

It's fucking cold. I think I destroyed my windshield wipers. Guy

Are they... ill-tempered? Guy

Unity was the second BN album I totally got into (and my 1st RVG) -- after Out to Lunch. Guy

It's brief, but check out Debussy's "Syrinx" for solo flute. Very haunting. There's also Debussy's mystical Sonata for Flute Viola & Harp. Guy