Guy Berger

Most of Pharoah's stuff with Trane definitely isn't "inside/outside". I'd say that Trane's stuff from '66 onward probably wouldn't qualify -- I'm thinking of his playing from '58 to mid-'65. Guy

Most of my favorite saxophonists fit into this category... Trane, Wayne, Jackie Mac, Eric Dolphy, Sam Rivers, Joe H, Charles Lloyd. Guy

Recorded October 24 & 25, 1966 personnel: Miles Davis (tpt), Wayne Shorter (ts), Herbie Hancock (p), Ron Carter (b), Tony Williams (d)

It was a weird stumble. I was really into 70s Genesis my freshman year of college and (due to the Phil Collins connection) picked up a CD by the British fusion band Brand X. It was pretty cool. I mentioned to a jazz nut that I was into fusion and he played Bitches Brew for me. My response was "what the hell is that". It took me a while. Nevertheless the brew slowly developed in my brain -- I picked up various prog-fusion hybrids. Early in junior year I picked up Miles Smiles (the review on AMG intrigued the heck out of me) and it blew my mind even though I barely understood any of it. Other albums that were key for me in getting into jazz were The Inner Mounting Flame, In a Silent Way, A Love Supreme, Out to Lunch. That spring I also had a major epiphany about Bitches Brew. There you go. Guy

Jarrett was quite a little monster back in the day. One of my favorite "Jarrett with Lloyd" bits is his solo on "Autumn Leaves" (from Dream Weaver). Guy

Nope. Some of the stuff he's saying isn't anti-Semitic. But along with that, he repeats one of the major anti-Semitic claims ("the Jews are trying to take over the world") and follows it up by speculating that the most notorious anti-Semitic tract in history (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion) might actually not be a forgery. I disagree with Chomsky and Finkelstein on many issues, but I'm not aware of either one making any such statements. He's an Anti-Semite. Guy

I hope not -- he's an anti-Semite and apparently a nut in general (he claimed that the recent tsunami was human-caused). Guy Could you let me know the reference or context of the comments he made? I would be very interested in this. Che. For the tsunami comments, look through the Miles-L archives. Someone went to one of his shows in the past month and heard him say something along the lines of "since a tsunami this bad hasn't happened in 25 generations, it must have been caused by humans". As far as anti-Semitism, in the man's own words:

I hope not -- he's an anti-Semite and apparently a nut in general (he claimed that the recent tsunami was human-caused). Guy

Album cover for Jumping the Creek

The only stuff I don't have is the Cosmos stuff that wasn't issued with Asante and the unreleased stuff. I hope the session with Wayne, Vitous and Mouzon sees the light of day! Guy

Ditto on the former, but my Jarrett pick would be NUDE ANTS, where the live setting brings out the energy (dare I way warmth?) in Jan's playing that is often more or less just implied on the studio stuff. His solo on "New Dance" is surprisingly robust and gutsy! Guy

Usually their reissues are unavailable elsewhere on CD, so you can't avoid 'em. Guy

Interesting that Holland left ECM -- he was one of the most veteran artists on the roster. Guy

Best stuff, after about a week of listening: "Osmosis Part III", title track, "Dance", "Harmony" (Lovano is really outstanding on this one), "The Bag Man", "One in Three". The second half of the album is really where it all comes together. Guy

Triptykon (w/Arild Andersen and Edward Vesala) is really good. I'm not a huge fan of the guy, though -- he's a little too anemic for me. Guy

Besides Afro-Bossa, are any of these essential? Guy

It's hard for me to tell exactly what happened, but it seems to boil down to a clash of egos. You can dig through the Miles-L archives and try to figure out what happened. Guy

Am I the only one who hears a slight similarity in Wayne and Sam's sounds around this time? That dry, abstract melodicism. If that makes any sense. Guy

I like it, a lot. It's not in-your-face, but I like the combination of great tunes and laid-back playing. Very tasteful. At the same time I can understand why it would rub people the wrong way -- it fades into the background at times. Also if you don't like Americana-stuff... Also, check out our own Nate Dorward's review on amazon... it's a good one though I think Nate's a little cooler on the album than I am. One more thing: I'm apparently the only person who likes Robin Holcomb's singing on this album -- it provides variety. Guy

Question -- if you order the box on yourmusic, does it count as seven months' worth of orders? Guy

Do it dude. It'd be cool if Late did Ear of the Behearer as well. Guy

If you're willing to be a little patient (a week or two depending on where you live), DeepDiscountCD.com will ship them to you for $9.97 apiece. No shipping charges. In a few months alldirect.com will have them for $7.99 apiece, no shipping for orders>$99.

It Should Have A Long Time Ago, but I finally got this in the mail. Great stuff! Will post more reactions later. More reactions later: Very nice. It's odd how they programmed the slower stuff at the beginning and the feistier stuff near the end. Lovano's playing is really beautiful; it's always weird to me when people call him the weakest link in this trio. Guy

The '65-'68 material is a bit toward the challenging end of "straight-ahead, small group" jazz, so keep that in mind. The Prestige and Miles/Trane boxes might appeal more to her tastes, as would the Blackhawk box. The Plugged Nickel box also has outstanding music but I'd get it only if she likes the '65-'68 box. Guy

It would be pretty cool to get a copy of Basra in Basra. I hear the RVG series is a bit hit in the Gulf. Though I'm worried that some of the more fundy Shia types would get a little angry about the photo of Tyra Banks. Guy