Guy Berger

Dolphy's Prestige dates are much more closer to bebop than Out to Lunch. Some really great stuff on them (my fave is Far Cry) though IMHO little of it reaches the visionary genius of Out to Lunch. I think before you tackle that stuff you should look for his stuff with Coltrane and Mingus. With Coltrane start with the Village Vanguard Sessions; there are also a bunch of boots from the '61 European tour, and Ole. With Mingus, there's Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus, Mingus at Antibes, Mingusx5 (Dolphy only plays one solo here, but it's smokin'), and various recordings from the '64 tour (Town Hall Concert and the recent reissue on Verve are probably the most readily available). Guy

Have you heard the album Gateway? It's a trio with DeJohnette and John Abercrombie. Most of the compositions are by Holland. One of the best ECMs I've heard (out of a few dozen) -- it's awesome. The trio recorded three other albums but I don't think any of them are quite at the same level. Guy

From last week's issue of the Economist:

Will do. Unless anybody strenuously objects, I'm going to claim the week of Dec 19-25 for these two albums. Guy

She played (uncredited) on the first WR album. Guy

Alan Shorter plays his only solo on (the extremely creepy) "Mephistopheles", but he plays in all the other ensembles, right? Guy

I've been listening to some of Booker Little's playing recently and it sounds like a bridge between more conventional hard bop trumpet playing and Miles's mid-late 60s playing. Any thoughts on whether Miles was listening to Booker (and Don Cherry) in the 60s and this influenced his style? Or maybe Booker had been incorporating Miles's sound with more advanced ideas that Miles ended up adopting, and that's where the similarity comes from? Guy

I'll be glad to volunteer too sometime in the next few weeks, if it makes easier for someone my choice will be "This is our music" by Ornette Coleman. I don't want to be greedy since I did an AOTW earlier this year, but can someone (not necessarily me) nominate "Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants" for the week of Christmas Eve? It's the 50th anniversary of the Monk & Miles session and it would be cool to discuss it. Guy

By the way, I've heard this group, and they're nothing special. Guy

It was quick. I walked to a local high school, no line, I was able to vote 6 or 7 times in just 10 minutes. Seriously, though, it was quick. One of the few things I like about Connecticut (level voting) is that there aren't any ridiculous propositions on the ballot like in California. Six quick choices. I voted Democrat down the line except for the House seat. The incumbent is safe and she could use a little moderate-Republican competition. Guy

OOPS! Well spotted Mike.Well, I don't like Coltrane's stuff recorded after 1963 except 'Love Supreme' Not even the relatively conservative Crescent? Guy

OK, I listened to most of this album earlier this evening so my thoughts... There's some really lovely playing on this album, particularly by Mehldau and Lloyd. The three long tracks near the middle of the album are the meat of it. The Lloyd-Mehldau duet "The Monk and the Mermaid" is IMHO the best thing on the album, and one of the best things I’ve heard from Lloyd, period. (By the way, anybody have ideas about which guy is the monk and which is the mermaid? and are we talking about the clerical type, or the loneliest type?) I like the exchange around 2:30, Mehldau’s solo afterward, and Lloyd’s anguished playing around 7:30. "Song of Her" and "Lady Day" have some profound playing by both of them; Lloyd’s second solo on “Lady Day” is pretty special, I think. As far as the rest of the album, I like it a lot. The two Duke tunes are really nice. “Georgia” is wonderful, and Mehldau’s solo is great on it. Lloyd’s tone is a little thin on this album (and Hyperion with Higgins) in comparison to the earlier ECM albums. I’m not sure why. But there isn’t a lot of the powerful playing you can hear on Canto (which is my favorite CL) or All My Relations. Still, I'd think that after Canto this album comes a close 2nd. I don't think of this album as having anything to do with what people stereotype as "the ECM sound" -- lots of boomy reverb, evoking northern landscapes, etc. Some of Lloyd's other albums do sound more ECMish (Canto for instance), this one doesn't. It could have comfortably shown up on another label as sort of a "ballads" release.

Wow, that was interesting. Thanks! Guy

Obviously this a personal thing but I really wish Ascension had been a "concerto" for Trane rather than a blowing session. My favorite parts of each take are the ensembles and Trane's solos. But at this point in Trane's career I'd gladly trade all the other soloists for more of his playing. There's a reason I put on Meditations or the '65 quartet recordings much more frequently than Ascension. My other beef is tied to something that Mtume said about the '73-'75 Miles Davis band. He said something along the lines of "the band was like an extremely compressed balloon, with a lot of intensity at the beginning of a concert and turning it down as the concert progressed." I get the same feeling listening to the album. Coltrane's solo, and the two ensembles sound like a sleeping giant waking up, but as the balloon deflates I become less and less interested until I'm completely zoned out for the rhythm section's solos. My favorite soloist besides Trane is Pharoah. He's awesome here. Guy

I'm not sure what you mean by "not interesting". This band was an exciting unit with four world-class improvisers. They did the material differently every time. Guy

Great news! Jan Lohmann posted the following to the Miles list:

Great choice! Looking forward to discussing this. Guy

Assuming we are sticking only to official releases, some favorites: John Coltrane, 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings John Coltrane, A Love Supreme live Miles Davis, Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 Miles Davis, Live at the Fillmore: It's About That Time (March 7 1970) Weather Report, Live in Tokyo

I think the Fafblog obituary sums things up nicely: :rsmile:

The Magic City is a real mind**** of an album. I remember putting it (I'd already heard Atlantis and Space is the Place) on for the first time while driving to a student council meeting in college. Upon hearing that wheezy organ, I was hooked. But that collective improv section still cracks my head open like a walnut sometimes. In a good way, of course. The shorter pieces on the album are also excellent if not as mindblowing as the title suite. They're similar to what he was doing on both volumes of Heliocentric Worlds. Guy

By the way, anybody else like Mingus's tune of this name much better than the Bobby Timmons tune? That baritone riff just kills me. Guy

Keith Jarrett, "There Is a Road (God's River)"

The Miles Davis "jungle band" -- it's finally starting to dawn on me why people consider Agharta and Pangaea works of genius. I've always kind of liked them but never really scratched the surface. I'd left "Theme from Jack Johnson" (which is either "Ife" or "For Dave") in the car, and when I came back after a few hours it sounded completely otherworldly. Dark Magus is pretty cool too (I like Liebman better than Fortune), but the rhythm section hadn't completely coalesced yet. And rhythm is what these albums are about. I know I bash Thom Jurek a lot, but his AMG review of Pangaea has a perfect quote: "Davis seems to be pushing an agenda of 'What the hell is melody and harmony?' " I also like the amazon review which says, "This is what Godzilla really sounded like trashing Tokyo." :rsmile: Also, a Gateway live recording from '95 sent me back to the original Gateway album and John Abercrombie's Timeless. Two excellent albums. I have to go with Gateway simply due to Holland's presence as a player and composer, as well as the greater dose of freedom, but Timeless is stupendous. The title track has some of the best synthesizer playing I've heard in a jazz context. Beautiful. Guy

I really like Jarrett's Birth. Early stuff from the American quartet, unfocused and rambling but a lot of fun. Guy

"Isle of Java" is such a sweet tune. A perfect vehicle for Jackie's playing. Guy