Guy Berger

I love the breadth of suggestions on this thread!

I've been listening to quite a bit of SM over the past few weeks and here's my current read. First, the original run of albums, at least the early ones, is really great. Albums 2-4 in particular are wonderful to listen to. Second, the archival releases I have (Noisette, Virtually) show that as a live unit, they weren't in the same tier as the top American jazz-rock contemporaries that were mining similar terrain (esp Weather Report and the Miles Davis bands). That's not surprising because the caliber of improvisers/visionaries was so exceptional in the elite American units, i.e. Soft Machine does pretty well if you bracket it with the next tier of Americans. Also worth adding that they definitely brought something new and innovative to the table. There are flavors in the SM gumbo that you don't get when you listen to WR or the MD bands.

Definitely not my favorite pianist and I don’t love everything he did (nor am I interested in exploring his catalogue in depth), but he was on a lot of classic records and provided a lot of value added to my ears. Would rather listen to 5 min of OP than 5 min of Bill Evans. I think the comparison of OP to AT is off, maybe Freddie Hubbard is a better analogue? I think Ethan Iverson’s post on him is pretty useful in terms of explaining why OP has raised such hackles over the years: https://ethaniverson.com/rhythm-and-blues/oscar-peterson-and-miles-davis/

Zawinul is the clear #1 I’d probably put George Duke #2. Víctor Feldman #3. (Though if studio appearances count, I’d put Wynton Kelly above Feldman)

IMHO this is a phenomenal album and arguably would have qualified as a classic in any BN era

Yes It may have to do with Cannonball’s playing gaining depth as the 60s went on, but imho this isn’t one of their best albums. If I ranked Cannonball pianists/keyboardists Timmons would be in the bottom half of the list.

It’s a different concert than the ones in the bootleg series and imho a notch above them (though they are all great). Isn’t the item on amazon and Spotify just an unauthorized bootleg? (With wildly incorrect track names....) Why not just download the widely-available recording? BTW I don’t think Felser meant to imply that Tony Williams plays on this recording but... the drummer is Jack DeJohnette

No... the 25 minute length of “Sanctuary” is due to the fact that the track names and timings are wildly incorrect relative to the actual music It’s extremely well documented! There are hours upon hours of concert recordings, albeit not by Columbia

Agree w/Larry. I’d listen to all the Prestige stuff (+ Blue Train) before this, but if you’re hungry for more after that you won’t be disappointed. Love this characterization

He’s on the July 1970 bonus tracks to the CD edition

I love Gary Bartz’s playing with the 1970-71 Miles bands. And he sounds great on the McCoy albums I’ve heard him on, Expansions/Extensions/Asante/Sama Layuca

No topping BACK AT THE CHICKEN SHACK and MIDNIGHT SPECIAL as far as I am concerned, but imho Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell lift it over the top. i find smith’s organ trio albums to be somewhat boring and monochromatic though that is clearly a personal blind spot

This is a really unpersuasive argument 🤷‍♂️

100% agreed

RIP, JohnS.

So horrible. my heart breaks for that dad.

A classic. Among the best jazz of the last 40 years! 🎉🎉🎉

I remember that, it was amusing

Working my way through the Murray Black Saint boxes... “Morning Song” is a really great session! Highly recommended.

1973-74 seems like a good cutoff, btw. Lots of great recordings from afterward, but the "uniformity" that folks often associate with the label start showing up around then and the "freewheelingness" of those early recordings began to fade.

Jarrett seemed fairly upbeat about this music around the time of the Cellar Box release. (In the liner notes? I don't remember.) He would obviously take potshots at it because he can't help himself, but maybe leavened with positive comments. IMHO, one of the best KJ albums on which Dewey Redman is not present

Agreed w/Jim and others that Lloyd’s playing during the 1960s can be ranked as 1962-65>1966>1967>>>>>>1968

Is this from the original recording (soundboard or otherwise), or just a rip of something shared on the site which must not be named?

Have only listened to the 1st Cd so far but the music is really, really good.

One thing I vaguely remember Lewis Porter's book emphasizing is that Coltrane's grandfather was in a mainstream Protestant church (AME), *not* a pentecostal one. Does anyone have the book handy to confirm? Assuming that's correct, it's interesting to think about how Coltrane would have absorbed this influence.