Guy Berger

I think you hit the nail on the head. It may be just 20/20 hindsight, but Miles always claimed that he knew Trane was special by '55. Guy

China, in fact, has a massive gender imbalance due to the one-child policy -- I read somewhere that there is a surplus of about 50 million males. This could lead to massive social unrest! Guy p.s. I wonder if it will get to the point where China starts importing brides from the rest of the world. Or exporting husbands, for that matter.

Furthermore, could anyone comment on the CD sound of the hybrids? I only have a CD player and was thinking of picking up Dolphy's Out There. I don't own it yet and am not sure whether I want to pay almost double the price. Guy

I was listening to the first album the Miles Quintet recorded for Prestige (the one from Nov '55, with "Stablemates") and some of Trane's playing sounds a little tentative. I think this persisted on some of the '56 Prestige recordings, but I don't hear it on the Columbia recordings from the same period. Guy

Good to hear you are alright, Alexander. Guy

Extensions came out in '98 and I haven't had any serious problems with the sound. Gary also played with Miles in the early 70s: Live Evil is pretty good, but he sounds better on the '71 European tour. Guy

Which sequence? I wish they'd done the Scouring of the Shire, and it would have been cool to have the dialogue between Saruman and Gandalf in the Orthanc. But other than that, it's impressive how close they managed to stay to the spirits of many scenes (especially Eowyn and the Nazgul, and the Grey Havens). Guy

I've always thought it was pretty boring, even the live stuff. The best parts are "Sightseeing", "Black Market", and (especially) "Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz". Guy

I saw him about a month ago. It was good but heavy. Guy

That was my feeling as well. I thought the ending was terrific, Jackson really did justice to Tolkien's vision. And the battle of Pelennor Fields.... let's just say Helm's Deep was a joke in comparison. Guy

Article here. Kaplan includes Passing Ships, Jaki's Last from Lennie's, Holland's Extend Play, the Bad Plus album, and others. Guy

If the sound *is* a major improvment in the Conn, then I will have to pick that up. I totally missed this AotW back when it happened, but what a marvelous album! Somebody on the Miles Davis list suggested that "Cyclic Episode" sounds a lot like the 2nd Quintet with Miles laying out -- Sam even sounds a little like Wayne here. Guy

I'm so psyched about this... I've got my 8:15 PM Wednesday night tickets. Guy

Davis filled in for Carter a couple of times. There's a live recording from '66 (Portland ME, I believe) that has him on board, though I don't remember much about it offhand. Guy

Here's are two from a while back, but I think they are OOP: Sonny Sharrock, Ask the Ages Joe Zawinul, Zawinul

John -- A couple of recordings in this tree are not in the Wild discography, including the Down Beat Jazz Festival performance w/Archie Shepp and the balance of the 9/30/65 Seattle concert w/Pharoah and Donald Garrett. Guy

I have been listening to recordings of the Coltrane Quartet from March '65 at the Half Note. This is some incredible music, crappy sound quality not withstanding. If you listen to only the officially recorded stuff, it seems like he underwent a very rapid change in style, from A Love Supreme in December to recordings like Transition and Vigil, onto the final quartet recordings on Sun Ship and First Meditations. What these live recordings show is that the Quartet was already performing at Sun Ship - level intensity months earlier. The 3/19 show has a boiling version of "Impressions", and the 3/26 "One Up, One Down" has one of the most incredible Trane-Elvin duets I've heard. Highly recommended!! Guy

I thought I'd start this thread so people can chip in when something goes out of print -- it's very frustrating to hold off on buying something and then discover that it's vanished. Maybe this way we will have a chance to snag it before that happens. Guy

Just to prepare everyone, here's a cool essay on this album from rec.music.bluenote. I think this essay encapsulates almost everything I love about the album.

Alan Lankin's website now lists a Spring '04 release of Charles Lloyd / Billy Higgins duets on ECM. Anybody have additional info on this? Update 1/6/04: Alan's website now includes the title "Which Way Is East?" Guy

Count me in the "Santana fans" group, though I actually prefer the 1st two albums over the third. As far as the fusiony stuff goes, Caravanserai and Lotus are awesome, Welcome a little behind, and the other stuff more average. Borboletta has some awesome music but also its share of crap. Later material becomes more hit and miss. Guy

I don't think there's any record of Miles playing Milestones before 1963. Perhaps this is the version with George Coleman, Herbie, Ron and Tony from that year? Guy

The Byrds' versions of "Tambourine Man" and "My Back Pages" are major masterpieces. But I also really enjoy their covers of "Chimes of Freedom", "Spanish Harlem Incident", and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere". Pack up your money, pull up your tent, McGuinn, you ain't going nowhere... The Band's first album also has a few incredible Dylan covers -- not sure if "Tears of Rage" counts since it was cowritten with Richard Manuel, but "I Shall Be Released" definitely does. Guy

In Ashley Kahn's book A Love Supreme, Carlos Santana says: "If I did do it [record another version of A Love Supreme], I would do it differently than the way John McLaughlin and myself did it when we just went for it. Now I dream big, man, I don't dream small. I would do it with a symphony, with real African drummers, Brazilian musicians, with Alice Coltrane, [indian sarod master] Ali Akbar Khan, Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie [Hancock], McCoy and everyone in tuxedos." (p. 204) Does that scare the crap out of anybody else? Guy

"This crustacean clearly could swim," said Siveter. And there was another striking feature, he added. "It is certainly the oldest penis in the world, that's for certain." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ience_fossil_dc