Guy Berger

Gotta disagree. I don't have anything approaching a "complete" Joe Henderson collection, but out of ten CDs of him as a leader, this one is easily the weakest. Guy

More out of print Jackie Mac, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson would be very welcome. Guy

Not familiar with the band, but this website reviews their albums. Guy

The Chancler group was recorded on almost every date of their European tour -- hardly underrecorded! It's too bad those dates don't have Jack on them, though; the group was better when he was on drums. Guy

Miles had been playing around with static harmony since the early '50s. He experimented with it frequently when Garland was in the band. But that's tangential to the question of whether Miles hired Evans because of the "modal thing". Is there any record whatsoever of Miles intensifying his experimentation with modes while Evans was in the working band? You would think that if Miles really did hire Evans for his comfort in modal context, we would find some recordings from 1958 (live or studio) that reflect this interest. But as far as I know, we don't. Instead, we have a statement years after the fact, in a book which has all sorts of factual issues surrounding it. It's riddled with factual inaccuracies. I'd be interested -- are there any statements from Evans or Miles in 1958 that address the modal question? ...in March 1959, about a year after he first hired Evans, and several months after Evans left the band. Guy

Do you mean to say that contrary to everything I've ever read about Kind of Blue, its not (aside from "Freddie Freeloader" which Wynton Kelly plays on anyway) the breakthrough modal album? Dan, As John L mentions, Kind of Blue was recorded several months after Evans's departure from the band. During Evans's tenure in Davis's working group, the group had a similar live repertoire to that when Garland was in the group. The "jazz track" studio session with Evans didn't include any modal pieces. It's definitely plausible that Miles hired Evans because he had a different approach to the piano than Garland. But there's absolutely no recorded evidence that he did so because "Evans was into the modal thing." Guy

I think it's worth taking anything Miles said with a grain of salt -- particularly stuff he said 4 decades after the fact. I think Miles' explanation is pretty straightforward and there's no reason whatsoever to injest grains of salt with it, four decades after the fact or not. Modal playing was the new thing, it wasn't Red's bag anyway, he found what he wanted ... Except that AFAIK, Miles didn't record a single modal tune during Evans's actual tenure in the band. Guy

I think it's worth taking anything Miles said with a grain of salt -- particularly stuff he said 4 decades after the fact. Guy

Jim, I hope everything turns out alright. Keep us posted. Best wishes, Guy

In fact, "Flamenco Sketches" and "Spanish Key" have similar frameworks -- each soloist rotates through a series of scales during their improvisation. Guy

Praise the lord, the Warriors finally won a game. They play the Bobcats one more time this season so they'll finish at least 2-80. Guy

AND stuff was closed off too. Not such a simple "forward" progression. It took Miles about a decade to "rediscover" the blues. What about the Kelly/Chambers/Cobb band? Guy

I CAME TO THIS SITE LOOKING FOR NUDE PICTURES OF YOKO ONO WHERE ARE THEY???!??!? Just kidding. Guy

I think this is more or less right. You listen to the studio recordings Miles made with Bill just 2 months after Milestones, and a whole new space opens up in the music that wasn't there when Red was in the band. I'm not sure whether this was just a serendipitous discovery or whether Miles knew (at least subconsciously) what he was looking for in a pianist, but it's really hard to imagine Kind of Blue with Red at the keys. Guy

I must have missed this thread the first time. But Jazzgrl3 -- your dad has provided many of us with hours of beautiful music. Thanks for contributing to this thread. I went through my five Kenny CDs (obviously I also have his work with Blakey, Silver, Andrew H and Joe H) this week. I'm still iffy on the Bohemia set, but Whistle Stop -- yowza. A really great album! Kenny's tunes here are phenomenal and it has some of the best playing I've ever heard from Hank. I think I sort of missed this album since I picked it up around the same time as Una Mas but it didn't have quite the same star power. Anyway, nice to rediscover great albums. Guy

Not today, but my recent purchases have been: Andrew Hill, Eternal Spirit Gateway Trio, Gateway 2 Jan Garbarek, Triptykon Duke Ellington, Early Ellington (Thanks to Lon for recommending this... I'm glad I picked it up) Ludwig van Beethoven, Great Pianists of the 20th Century: Alfred Brendel II (includes Hammerklavier & Op. 111 sonatas, Diabelli Variations) Stan Getz, Complete Roost Recordings Charles Lloyd, Dream Weaver (replacing my low quality MP3s) McCoy Tyner, Tender Moments

Since we're sharing personal exam horror stories, the 1st year comprehensive exams here at the Yale econ PhD program were horrendous. For the final month of studying I was studying 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Only breaks were for eating and sleeping. Guy

I actually think it's remarkable how little "shit" he recorded between 1954 and 1975. Guy

Congrats Paul. Guy

Insofar as getting Bitches Brew, it's not a bad idea to think of it as a louder, bigger, messier version of In a Silent Way. There's a lot more to it than that, but I think both albums are coming from the same place. Put the two back to back, and when you listen to BB, think "what am I hearing that I also heard on IaSW? What makes it sound different?" Pay attention to the more conventionally jazzy elements of the album (most obvious on disc 2) -- the brilliant solos by Miles (especially on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down"), Wayne Shorter and John McLaughlin. For the first year or so of owning Bitches Brew, it made absolutely no sense to me. A lot of it sounded like random gibberish. But once I started seeing the trees for the forest, the music blew my mind. The album makes so much sense to me these days that it's hard to believe I didn't understand it once. As far as Sketches -- it isn't my favorite album, but "Solea" is a work of fricking genius. His playing over that snaking groove (with ever changing orchestrations) just blows my mind every time I hear it. (And oddly, I think this piece anticipates some of the stuff on BB. I'm surprised nobody has ever commented on the Gil Evans influence that crept into the later album.) Guy

I'm interested in picking up a collection of Schubert's late piano sonatas. The priorities (judging by what I've read) are the last three: 958, 959, 960. But I'm also interested in the earlier "late sonatas" (784 onward), the Moments Musicaux (sp?), the Impromptus and the Wanderer Fantasy. The best bet at this point seems to be Brendel's Philips Duo containing 958-960 , but I'm open to any other suggestions. Guy

A while back we discussed Beethoven's piano sonatas and someone told me to check out the Diabelli Variations. I picked up Brendel's 1976 live performance on Philips... wow. It's similar in some ways to the final sonatas (particularly in the heavy use of counterpoint) but different in others. My favorite variations thus far (besides the final ones) are #4, #8, #14, #16, #17, #19, #24, #26 and #27. And the last few variations... wow. The Chopin-foreshadowing #31, the crazy fugue in #32, and the enigmatic #33. Verdict: :tup

"Seven" is another jazzy Soft Machine album. If you end up liking National Health, I'd also recommend Hatfield and the North, which has a similar appeal. I like the 1st, self-titled Hatfield album better than the second one (Rotters' Club). How can you go wrong with an album that has song titles like "Gigantic Crabs in Earth Takover Bid". As far as National Health, I prefer the second album Of Queues and Cures. That one tune about the computer ("Squarer for Maud") is totally awesome. Guy

I might need to listen to these albums again, but that really wasn't my impression. #3 and #4 sound like cutting-edge stuff, #5 sounds much more conservative. Guy

This music sounds SO ALIVE on the Never No Lament reissue (Bluebird). The surface noise is the worst on the first few tracks ("Jack the Bear" in particular), gets much better quickly. Anybody who can't handle the noise is a pansy. Guy